Exam 3 Psych
Factors in personality development
* Reciprocal Determinism - cognitive processes (beliefs, expectations, and personality characteristics), behavior, and context (environment/situation) all interact. * Observational learning - learning by observing someone else's behavior and it's consequences. - Teaches us which behaviors are acceptable and rewarded in our culture. - Teaches us which behaviors are socially unacceptable. * Self-efficacy - level of confidence in our own abilities, developed through social experiences. - Affects how we approach challenges.
Anal Stage (1-3 years)
*Erogenous zone - anus. *Pleasure - from bowel and bladder movements. *Major conflict - toilet training. *Adult fixation - ANAL-RETENTIVE PERSONALITY (stingy, stubborn, need for order and neatness), ANAL-EXPULSIVE PERSONALITY (messy, careless, disorganized, prone to emotional outbursts).
Genital Stage (12+ years)
*Erogenous zone - genitals. Sexual reawakening - urges are redirected from parents to more socially acceptable partners.
Phallic Stage (3-6 years)
*Erogenous zone - genitals. *Major conflict - child feels a desire for the opposite-sex parent, and jealousy and hatred toward the same-sex parent. * Oedipus complex (boys) - desire for mother's attention, urge to replace father. Afraid of being punished by father for these feelings (castration anxiety). * Electra complex (girls) - desire for father's attention, urge to replace mother. Angry at mother for not providing them with a penis (penis envy). *Adult fixation - vanity, over-ambition.
Oral Stage (birth-1 year)
*Erogenous zone - mouth. *Pleasure - from eating and sucking. *Major conflict - being weaned from bottle or breast. *Adult fixation - smoking, overeating, nail biting.
Latency stage (6-12 years)
*Erogenous zone - none. Sexual feelings are dormant as children focus on school, friendships, hobbies and engage with peers of the same-sex.
social motives
*Need for achievement - drives accomplishment and performance. *Need for affiliation - encourages positive interactions with others. *Need for intimacy - causes us to seek deep, meaningful relationships.
Humanistic Approaches (focuses on how healthy people develop)
- ABRAHAM MASLOW - CARL ROGERS
Neofreudians
- ALFRED ADLER - ERIK ERIKSON - CARL JUNG - KAREN HORNEY
Neo-Freudians
- Agreed that childhood experiences matter. - Less emphasis on sex. - Focused on the social environment and effects of culture on personality.
Karen Horney
- Agreed with Jung that individuals have the potential for self-realization and believed the goal of psychoanalysis should be moving toward a healthy self. - Disagreed with the idea of penis envy - suggested that any jealousy is culturally based. - Differences in personality between men and women is culturally based. - Men have womb envy because they cannot give birth. Many of Horney's theories focused on unconscious anxiety. - Normal growth can be blocked by basic anxiety stemming from needs not being met.
Kitty Genovese (1964)
- Attacked and killed with a knife outside her apartment building. - Residents in the apartment building heard her scream for help numerous times but did nothing.
Ego(self)
- Attempts to balance the id with the superego. - Rational - Operates on the "REALITY PRINCIPLE" - helps the id satisfy desires in a realistic way. - The part of the personality seen by others.
gender differences in bullying
- Boys - tend to engage in direct, physical aggression. - Girls - tend to engage in indirect, social forms of aggression (e.g., spreading rumors, ignoring, or socially isolating others).
health risks of obesity
- Cardiovascular Disease - Stroke - Type 2 Diabetes - Liver Disease - Sleep Apnea - Colon Cancer - Breast Cancer - Infertility - Arthritis
To reduce cognitive dissonance, individuals can:
- Change their behavior - quitting smoking. - Change their belief through rationalization or denial - such as discounting the evidence that smoking is harmful. - Add a new cognition - "Smoking suppresses appetite so I don't become overweight, which is good for my health".
Aronson and Mills experiment (1959)
- College students volunteered to join a group that would regularly to discuss the psychology of sex. - 3 conditions - no initiation, easy initiation, difficult initiation. - Students in the difficult initiation condition liked the group more than students in other conditions due to the justification of effort.
Master's and Johnson's Research
- Conducted a study of physiological responses during sexual behavior. - Observed people engaging in sexual behaviors. - Measured physiological variables (e.g., blood pressure and respiration rate). - Measured sexual arousal (e.g. vaginal lubrication and penile tumescence).
Id
- Contains primitive urges (for hunger, thirst, and sex). - Impulsive, instinctual. - Operates on the "PLEASURE PRINCIPLE" - seeks immediate gratification.
effects on the victim
- Decreased mental health including anxiety and depression. - May underperform in school work.
Stanford Prison Experiment (1971 Phillip Zimbardo)
- Demonstrated the power of social roles, social norms, and scripts. - A mock prison was constructed and participants (male college students), were randomly assigned to play the role of prisoners or guards. - In a very short amount of time, the guards started to harass the prisoner in an increasingly sadistic manner. - Prisoners began to show signs of severe anxiety and hopelessness. - The two week study had to be ended after six days. Social norms required guards to be authoritarian and prisoners to be submissive. - Scripts influenced the way guards degraded the prisoners by making them do push-ups and removing privacy. - Parallels abuse used by guards in Abu Ghraib prison.
Support:
- Depressed individuals reported less depression after paralysis of their frowning muscles with Botox injections. Emotional stimulus >>> facial expression >>> physiological arousal >>> emotional experience.
Superego
- Develops through interactions with others, learning social rules for right and wrong. - Moral compass that tells us how we should behave based on rules.. - Strives for perfection. - Judges behavior - leads to feelings of pride or guilt.
In Humans:
- Disorders that involve abnormal hypothalamic function are often associated with hypogonadism (reduced function of the gonads) and reduced sexual function. - Hormones secreted by endocrine glands (testosterone) influence sexual motivation and behavior.
James-Lange theory of emotion
- Emotions arise from physiological arousal. See snake >>> heart and respiration rate increase (physiological arousal) >>> feeling of fear.
Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart: (Heritable Traits)
- Found that identical twins, whether raised together or apart, have very similar personalities. - Suggests the heritability (refers to the proportion of difference among people that is attributed to genetics) of some personality traits. - Traits with more than a 0.50 heritability ratio - leadership, obedience to authority, a sense of well-being, alienation, resistance to stress, and fearfulness.
CULTURAL UNDERSTANDINGS OF PERSONALITY
- GLOBAL & REGIONAL DIFFERENCES - INDIVIDUALIST & COLLECTIVIST CULTURES
Factors affecting body weight
- Gene-environment interactions. - Number of calories consumed versus number of calories burned in daily activity. - Metabolic rate
TRAIT THEORISTS (Believe that people have certain traits (characteristics or ways of behaving). For example, optimistic or pessimistic, sociable or shy.
- Gordon Allport - Raymond Cattell - Hans & Sybil Eysenck - Five Factor Model
basolateral complex of the amygdala
- Has dense connections with a different sensory areas of the brain. - Critical for classical conditioning and attaching emotional value to learning processes and memory.
central nucleus of the amygdala
- Involved in attention. - Has connections with the hypothalamus and various brain stem areas to regulate the autonomic nervous system and endocrine systems' activities.
Amygdala and Nucleus Accumbens
- Involved in motivation for sexual behavior, but do not affect the ability to engage in it. - Damage in rats results in a decreased motivation to engage in sexual behavior, while ability to do so is still intact.
bulimia nervosa
- Involves engaging in binge eating behavior, followed by attempts to compensate for the large amount of food consumed. - Compensation - includes vomiting, laxatives, excessive exercise. - Health consequences - can include kidney failure, heart failure, and tooth decay. - Psychological problems - depression, anxiety, increased risk for substance abuse.
The effect of initiation
- Justification of effort has a distinct effect on a person liking a group. - A difficult initiation into a group influences us to like the group more.
Carl Rogers
- Linked personality to self-concept (thoughts and feelings about ourselves). - Divided the self into the idea self and the real self. - Ideal self - the person you would like to be. - Real self - the person you actually are. - Believed we needed to find congruence between the ideal and real self - thoughts about ideal self and real self are similar. - High congruence >>> greater sense of self-worth and a health, productive life. - Incongruence >>> maladjustment.
Anarexia nervosa
- Maintenance of body weight below average through starvation and/or exercise. - Distorted body image - view themselves as fat even though they are not. - Health consequences - can include bone loss, heart failure, kidney failure, amenorrhea (cessation of menstrual period), reduced function of the gonads, in some cases death. - Psychological problems - anxiety disorders, mood disorders, substance abuse. Caucasian females, ages 15-19, from Western societies are the most at-risk population.
contributing factors
- Many blame the media for its messages of a thin ideal. - Genetics may also predispose people to these disorders. - Low self-esteem, other mental illnesses. - Life transitions, stress. - Experiences such as abuse and bullying. - Personality types (perfectionism). - Family issues.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI):
- One of the most widely used personality inventories. - Originally developed to assist in diagnosing psychological disorders. - Newest version (MMPI-2-RF) has 338 questions. - Scored on 10 scales - hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria, psychopathic deviance, masculinity vs femininity, paranoia, psychasthenia (obsessive/compulsive qualities), schizophrenia, hypomania, and social introversion.
Later Research Found:
- Only conflicting cognitions that threaten positive self-image cause dissonance. - Dissonance can also cause physiological arousal and activate brain regions involved in emotions and cognitive functioning.
Quizmaster study
- Participants were randomly assigned to play the role of either the questioner or participant. - Questioners developed difficult questions to which they knew the answers. - Participants answered questions correctly 4/10 times. - Participants tended to disregard the influence of the situation and wrongly concluded that a questioner's knowledge was greater than their own
The Milgram experiment showed the surprising degree to which people obey authority.
- Participants were told to shock "learners" (confederate) for giving a wrong answer to test items. - Participants believed they were giving the learners shocks, which increased all the way up to 450 volts. - Two out of three (65%) participants continued to administer shocks to an unresponsive learner.
Erik Erikson: Psychosocial Theory of Development
- Personality develops throughout the lifespan. - Emphasizes importance of social relationships at each stage. - Development of a healthy personality and sense of competence depend on successfully completing each of the 8 stages.
What makes someone heterosexual vs homosexual?
- Previously thought to be caused by different socialization and familial experiences but research shows that those experiences can be very similar in homosexuals and heterosexuals. - Genetic and biological mechanisms - research has found differences in brain structure and function between heterosexuals and homosexuals.
Projective Tests
- Projective testing relies on projection (defense mechanism) to assess unconscious processes. - Ambiguous cards are shown to individual who is asked to tell a story, interpret an image, or complete a sentence. - Individual will project feelings, impulses, and desires onto the cards.
instinct theory of motivation (William James)
- Proposed the instinct theory of motivation, asserting that behavior is driven by instincts (which aid survival). - Proposed instincts included a mother's protection of her baby, the urge to lick sugar, and hunting prey. - The theory received criticism for ignoring the role of learning in shaping human behavior.
What influences who we become friends with and form romantic relationships with?
- Proximity - the people with whom you have the most contact. - Similarity - people who are similar to us in background, attitudes, and lifestyle. - Homophily - the tendency for people to form social networks with others who are similar.
Important components of relationships:
- Reciprocity - the give and take in relationships. We contribute to relationships, but expect to receive benefits in return. - Self-disclosure - the sharing of personal information. Leads to more intimate connections. (Many couples share a cultural background.)
IS THE FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERRORA UNIVERSAL PHENOMENON?
- Research suggests that people from an INDIVIDUALISTIC CULTURE have the greatest tendency to commit the fundamental attribution error. - People from COLLECTIVIST CULTURES, such as some Asian cultures, are more likely to emphasize relationships with others than to focus primarily on the individual. - Focusing on others provides a broader perspective including both situation and cultural influences. - Activities such as preparing a meal, hanging out, and playing a game engage people in a group.
Personality Assessment
- SELF-REPORT INVENTORIES - PROJECTIVE TESTS
Psychodynamic Perspectives (20th Century)
- Sigmund Freud - Neo-Freudians
What determines whether we are satisfied with and stay in a relationship?
- Social exchange theory - Acting like naïve economists, people may keep track of the costs and benefits of forming and maintaining a relationship. Typically, only those relationships in which the benefits outweigh the costs will be maintained.
Why do prejudice and discrimination exist?
- Social learning. - Conformity to social norms.
Marshmallow Study
- Study on self-regulation (aka will power) - ability to delay gratification. - Children were placed in a room with one marshmallow on the table - was told that they could either eat it now, or wait until the researcher returned and could then have two marshmallows. - Revealed that children differ in levels of self-control. - Children that had more self-control (waited for two marshmallows) in preschool were more successful in high school. - Children that had poorer self-control (took the one marshmallow) in preschool were more likely to have academic and behavioral problems.
Forces that promote reconciliation between groups:
- The expression of empathy. - Acknowledgement of past suffering on both sides. - The halt of destructive behaviors.
What factors make a person more likely to conform?
- The size of the majority - the greater the majority, the more likely an individual will conform. - The presence of another dissenter - causes conformity rates to drop to near zero. - The public or private nature of the responses - public responses cause more conformity than private. (Voting for government officials in the United States is private to reduce the pressure of conformity.)
personality testing is often used:
- To screen applicants for employment and job training. - In criminal cases and custody battles. - To assess psychological disorders.
The Behavioral Perspective (Skinner)
- We learn to behave in particular ways. - Personality is shaped by reinforcements and consequences in the environment. - Personality develops over our entire life. - Personality can vary as we experience new situations.
Findings
- Women are as interested and experienced in sex as men. - Both males and females masturbate, without negative health consequences. - Homosexual acts are fairly common.
Amygdala
- has been a primary target of research concerning the biological basis for emotions, especially fear and anxiety. - composed of various subnuclei including the basolateral complex and central nucleus.
TYPES OF PREJUDICE & DISCRIMINATION
- racism - ageism - homophobia - sexism
Environmental Factors
As well as factors such as genetics and energy intake/expenditure, socioeconomic status and the physical environment can contribute to obesity. - May not feel comfortable walking or biking in a neighborhood with high crime rates which limits physical activity. - May not be able to afford healthy food options.
3 components of attitude
1. Affective component - feelings. 2. Behavioral component - the effect of the attitude on behavior. 3. Cognitive component - belief and knowledge.
Freud posited that personality results from efforts to balance two competing forces.
1. Biological aggressive and pleasure-seeking drives. 2. Internal (socialized) control over these pleasure-seeking drives. Freud described this process as an interaction between three systems: Id, Superego, and Ego
Theories on the Motivation to Help
1. Empathy: - Empathy is the capacity to understand another person's perspective, to feel what he/she feels. - Emphatic people make emotional connections with others and feel compelled to help. 2. Altruism is a form of selfless helping (not motivated by benefits). - Feeling good after helping is a consequence, not a cause. 3. Helping is self-serving because our egos are involved, and we receive benefits.
Before Eating
1. Empty stomach >>> stomach contracts >>> hunger pangs and secretion of chemical messages that travel to the brain as a signal to initiation feeding behavior. 2. Low blood glucose levels >>> pancreas and liver generate chemical signals that induce hunger to initiate feeding behavior.
sexual response cycle
1. Excitement - arousal phase (erection, lubrication). 2. Plateau - Increased swelling and blood flow to labia minora, pre-ejaculatory fluid. 3. Orgasm - rhythmic contractions, ejaculation. 4. Resolution - return to unaroused state.
2 specific personality dimensions:
1. Extroversion/Introversion. - High in extroversion - sociable, outgoing. - High in introversion - high need to be alone, engage in solitary behaviors. 2. Neuroticism/Stability. - High in neuroticism - anxious, overactive sympathetic nervous system. - High in stability - more emotionally stable.
After Eating
1. Increase in blood glucose levels >>> pancreas and liver send signals to shut off hunger and eating. 2. Food passes through gastrointestinal tract >>> satiety signals are sent to the brain. 3. Fat cells release leptin.
One model of attribution proposes three dimensions.
1. Locus of control - internal vs external. 2. Stability -extent to which the circumstances are changeable. 3. Controllability - extent to which the circumstances can be controlled. - When our team wins we make attributions such as it's talented (internal), works hard (stable), and uses effective strategies (controllable). - When our team loses we might say the other team has more experienced players (external), the other team played at home (unstable), and the weather affected our teams performance (uncontrollable).
3 styles of coping used by children to relieve anxiety:
1. Moving toward people - affiliation and dependence. - As adults - likely to have an intense need for love and acceptance. 2. Moving against people - aggression and assertiveness. - As adults - likely to lash out and exploit others. 3. Moving away from people - detachment and isolation. - As adults - likely to avoid love/friendship and avoid interaction with others.
Adler identified three fundamental social tasks all individuals must experience.
1. Occupational tasks - careers. 2. Societal tasks - friendship. 3. Love tasks - finding an intimate partner.
Two dimensions of temperament important to adult personality:
1. Reactivity - how we respond to new or challenging environmental stimuli. 2. Self-regulation - ability to control responses.
Explanations of differences:
1. Type of reinforcement. - Tangible rewards appear to decrease intrinsic motivation. - Intangible rewards appear to increase motivation. 2. Expectation of extrinsic reward - intrinsic motivation is more likely to decrease if extrinsic reward is expected.
Obesity BMI (Body Mass Index)
2/3 U.S. adults struggle with issues related to being overweight. *25 - 29.9 = overweight *Over 30 = obese *Over 40 = morbidly obese
Effects on Personality
Balanced id and superego >>> healthy personality. Imbalanced id and superego >>> NEUROSIS (tendency to experience negative emotions), anxiety disorders, or unhealthy behaviors.
Reciprocal Determinism
Bandura proposed the idea of reciprocal determinism: Our behavior, cognitive processes, and situational context all influence each other.
Galen
Believed both diseases and personality differences could be explained by imbalances in the humors and that each person exhibits one of the four temperaments. Prevalent view for over 1000 years and through the Middle Ages. 1. Choleric - passionate, ambitious, and bold. 2. Melancholic - reserved, anxious, and unhappy. 3. Sanguine - joyful, eager, and optimistic. 4. Phlegmatic - calm, reliable, and thoughtful.
Weight reduction
A combination of diet and exercise.
Persona
A mask that we consciously adopt. - Derived from conscious experiences and our collective unconscious. - A compromise between our true self and the self that society expects us to be (hiding parts of the self that do not align with societies expectations).
Empirical Findings
-Individuals with spinal cord injuries (incapable of receiving autonomic feedback) could still experience emotion but in some it was less intense. - Suppression of facial expression of emotion lowered the intensity of emotions experienced. - These findings suggest that physiological arousal is not necessary to experience emotion but increases the intensity.
One study investigated reasons male participants gave for why they liked their girlfriend.
Actor-observer bias is evident when subjects explain their own reasons for liking a girlfriend (e.g., her personality) versus their impressions of others' reasons for liking a girlfriend.
The Social-Cognitive Perspective (Bandura)
Agreed that personality develops through learning but disagreed with the behaviorist approach because thinking and reasoning are important parts of learning.
Immanuel Kant (18th Century)
Agreed with Galen that individuals could be categorized into one of the four temperaments. Developed a list of traits to describe the personality of each of the four temperaments.
Latane and Darley (1968)
Bystander Effect - phenomenon in which a witness/bystander does not volunteer to help a victim or person in distress. - Based on the social situation, not personality variables. - Diffusion of responsibility - tendency for no one in a group to help because the responsibility to help is spread throughout the group.
self-fulfilling prophecy
An expectation held by a person that alters his or her behavior in a way that tends to make it true. Stereotypes >>> expectations about stereotype >>> treat person according to our expectations >>> influences person to act according to stereotypic expectations >>> confirms our stereotypic beliefs.
Sigmund Freud
First comprehensive theory of personality explaining both normal and abnormal behaviors. Proposed that unconscious drives influenced by sex, aggression and childhood sexuality influence personality.
Carl Jung: Analytical Psychology
Focused on working to balance conscious and unconscious thought. Carl Jung acknowledged the concept of a personal unconscious but was also interested in exploring the collective unconscious.
Alfred Adler: Individual Psychology
Focuses on our drive to compensate for feelings of inferiority. - Inferiority complex - A person's feelings that they lack worth and don't measure up to the standards of others or of society. - Social motives thought to be the force behind thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. - Placed focus on social connections during childhood development. - Believed happiness can be found in working together for the betterment of all. - Viewed main goal of psychology to be "to recognize the equal rights and equality of others". - Saw conscious processes as more important. - Theorized that birth order shapes our personality.
Gordon Allport
Found 4,500 words in the English language to describe people and organized them into three categories. * Cardinal traits - dominates entire personality (rare). * Central traits - make up our personality. * Secondary traits - less obvious or consistent, present under certain circumstances (e.g., preferences, attitudes).
Freudian Slip
Freud suggested that slips of the tongue (saying a word you did not intend to say) are sexual/aggressive urges accidently slipping out of our unconscious.
stages of psychosexual development
Freud theorized that children pass through five psychosexual stages. In each stage, pleasure-seeking urges (id) are focused on a different erogenous zone (part of the body). Lack of proper nurturing and parenting during conflicts results in the person becoming stuck/fixated in that stage.
bariatric surgery
Gastric banding surgery creates a small pouch of stomach, reducing the size of the stomach that can be used for digestion.
Leon Festinger's Theory of Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive dissonance - psychological discomfort arising from holding two or more inconsistent attitudes, behaviors, or cognitions. - Believing cigarettes are bad for your health, but smoking cigarettes anyway, can cause cognitive dissonance.
Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968)
Disadvantaged students who had teachers that expected them to perform well had higher grades than disadvantaged students whose teachers expected them to do poorly.
Binge Eating Disorder (BED)
Eating disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of consuming large amounts of food during which the person feels a lack of control over eating.
Schacter-Singer Two-Factor Theory of Emotion
Emotions are composed of two factors: physiological and cognitive. - Physiological arousal is interpreted in context leading to the emotional experience. See snake >>> physiological arousal and cognitive assessment of situation labels arousal as fear >>> experience fear. - Believed physiological arousal is very similar across the different types of emotion, making cognitive assessment important. - Palms sweating, heart racing, increased respiration rate (could be scared or nervous).
Lazarus' Cognitive Mediational Theory
Emotions are determined by our appraisal of the stimulus. - Unlike the Schachter-Singer model, the appraisal occurs before the label. - Appraisal is immediate and unconscious.
Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank (RISB)
Individual is asked to complete 40 incomplete sentences as quickly as possible to reveal desires, fears, and struggles.
Individualist vs. Collectivist Cultures
Individualist cultures: - Value independence, competition, and personal achievement. - Mainly Western nations such as the U.S. England, and Australia. - People display more personally oriented personality traits. Collectivist Cultures: - Value social harmony, respectfulness, and group needs over individual needs. - Asia, Africa, and South America. - People display more socially oriented personality traits.
Intrinsic Motivation vs. Extrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic - Arises from INTERNAL factors - Behaviors are performed because they bring a sense of personal satisfaction. Extrinsic - Arises from EXTERNAL factors - Behaviors are performed in order to receive something from others
The Limbic System
Involved in mediating emotional response and memory. - Hypothalamus - involved in activation of the sympathetic nervous system (part of an emotional reaction). - Thalamus - sensory relay center, neurons project to both the amygdala and higher cortical regions for further processing. - Amygdala - plays a role in processing emotional information and sending it on to cortical structures. - Hippocampus - integrates emotional experience with cognition.
Walter Mischel: The Person-Situation Debate
Mischel's Findings: Behavior was inconsistent across different situations but more consistent within situations. Behavior is consistent in equivalent situations across time. This data did not support the theory that a person's personality traits are consistent across situations - triggered the person-situation debate among psychologists.
Emotion vs. Mood
Mood - Prolonged, less intense, affective state. - Does not occur in response to something we experience. - May not be consciously recognized or intentional. Emotion - A subjective state of being that we often use to describe our feelings. - Relatively intense and occurs in response to an experience, - Consciously experienced and intentional.
Raymond Cattell
Narrowed Allport's list to about 171 traits. Identified 16 dimensions of personality - instead of a present being present or absent, people are scored on a continuum.
Research suggests that when something we love to do, like icing cakes, becomes our job, our intrinsic and extrinsic motivations to do it may change. Once we are receiving an extrinsic motivation (like being paid) we may lose the motivation to do it just for enjoyment.
Other research suggests the opposite, that certain types of reinforcement, such as praise, can increase intrinsic motivation).
Mischel's approach to personality
People use cognitive processes to assess the situation in their own way and behave in accordance with that interpretation.
Biological Approaches
Perspective that differences in our personalities can be explained by inherited predispositions and physiological processes
ELABORATION LIKELIHOOD MODEL PETTY & CACIOPPO (1986)
Persuasion can take one of two paths, and the durability of the end result depends on the path. 1. Central Route - Logic driven. - Uses data and facts. - Direct route to persuasion focusing on the quality of information. - Works best when audience is analytical and willing to engage in processing of the information. 2. Peripheral Route - Indirect route. - Uses peripheral cues to associate positivity with the message. - Uses characteristics such as positive emotion or celebrity endorsement. - Results in less permanent attitude change.
Cannon-Bard theory of emotion
Physiological arousal and emotional experience occur simultaneously, yet independently. - Occur at the same time but are independent of each other. - See snake >>> physiological arousal AND feel fear.
racism
Prejudice and discrimination against an individual based on race. Dual Attitudes Model: - Explicit - conscious and controllable. - Implicit - Unconscious and uncontrollable. Most people no longer show extreme racial bias on measures of explicit attitudes but measures of implicit attitudes often provide evidence of mild to strong racial bias/prejudice. This can explain why modern forms of racism are hard to detect.
homophobia
Prejudice and discrimination of individuals based solely on their sexual orientation. - Often results in discrimination of individuals from social groups. - Widespread in U.S. society.
sexism
Prejudice and discrimination toward individuals based on their sex. - Common examples include gender role expectations and expectations for how a gender group should behave. - Can exist on a societal level - employment and education opportunities. - Women now have many jobs previously closed to them, though they still face challenges in male-dominated occupations.
ageism
Prejudice and discrimination toward individuals based solely on their age. - Typically against older adults.
Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (1943)
Proposed a theory of motivation that spans the spectrum of motives including biological, individual and social. [self-actualization, esteem, social, security, physiological] - One must satisfy lower-level needs before addressing the needs in higher levels. - A person without food, water and shelter is unlikely to be focused on relationships or what people think of them.
Franz Gall and Phrenology (1780)
Proposed that the distances between bumps on the skull reveal a person's personality traits, character, and mental abilities. Discredited for lack of empirical support. **Phrenology- The pseudoscience of measuring the areas of a person's skull 1. Gall developed a chart that depicted which areas of the skull corresponded to particular personality traits or characteristics (Hothersall, 1995). 2. An 1825 lithograph depicts Gall examining the skull of a young woman.
Alfred Kinsey's research
In response to the lack of empirically-based information on sex during the late 1940's, Dr. Alfred Kinsey initiated a large scale survey. - Behaviors thought to be rare were revealed to be much more common that previously thought. - Influential in shaping future research on human sexual behavior and motivation. established The Kinsey Institute for Research, Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University,
Five Factor Model
In the Five Factor Model, each person has five traits, known as the Big Five personality traits. - Each trait is scored on a continuum from high to low. - The first letter of each trait spells the mnemonic OCEAN. 1. Openness to experience 2. Conscientiousness 3. Extroversion. 4. Agreeableness. 5. Neuroticism.
Regional Differences
Researchers found three distinct regional personality clusters in the United States. People tend to be friendly and conventional in the Upper Midwest and Deep South; relaxed, emotionally stable, and creative in the West; and stressed, irritable, and depressed in the Northeast. One explanation for this is selective migration - people choose to move to places that are compatible with their personalities and needs.
STERNBERG'S TRIANGULAR THEORY OF LOVE
Seven types of love can be described from combinations of three components: 1. Intimacy - sharing of details and intimate thoughts and emotions. 2. Passion - physical attraction. 3. Commitment - standing by the person.
What is Social Psychology?
Social psychology deals with all kinds of interactions between people, spanning a wide range of how we connect: from moments of confrontation to moments of working together and helping others. Social psychologists believe that an individual's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by social situations.
Abraham Maslow
Studied people he considered healthy, creative, and productive (Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln). Found that they shared similar characteristics - open, creative, loving, spontaneous, compassionate, concerned for others, accepting of themselves.
Wilhelm Wundt (19th Century)
Suggested that personality could be described using two major axes: 1. Emotional/non-emotional - separated strong emotions (melancholic, choleric) from the weak emotions (phlegmatic, sanguine). 2. Changeable/unchangeable - divided the changeable temperaments (choleric, sanguine) from the unchangeable ones (melancholic, phlegmatic).
temperament
Temperament appears very early in life (suggesting a biological basis). Babies can be categorized into one of three temperaments - easy, difficult, or slow to warm up. Environmental factors and maturation can affect expression of personality.
confirmation bias
Tendency to seek out information that supports our stereotypes and ignore information that is inconsistent with our stereotypes.
Solomon Asch's experiment
These line segments illustrate the judgment task in Asch's conformity study. Which line on the right—a, b, or c—is the same length as line x on the left?
social loafing
The exertion of less effort by a person working together with a group. - Occurs when individual performance cannot be evaluated separately from the group. - Group performance declines on easy tasks. - However, when a task is difficult, people feel more motivated and believe that their group needs their input to do well on a challenging project.
Groupthink
The modification of the opinions of members of a group to align with what they believe is the group consensus. - Groups often take action that individuals would not perform outside the group setting because groups make more extreme decisions that individuals do. - Members are less likely to express diverse opinions which can lead to faulty decision making.
group polarization
The strengthening of an original group attitude after the discussion of views within a group. - Does your opinion change if you find someone attractive, but you friends do not agree?
Hippocrates (370 BCE)
Theorized that personality traits and human behaviors are based on four separate temperaments associated with four fluids ("humors") of the body. 1. Choleric - yellow bile from the liver. 2. Melancholic - black bile from the kidneys. 3. Sanguine - red blood from the heart. 4. Phlegmatic - white phlegm from the lungs.
Bandura
Theorized that self-efficacy plays a role in motivating behavior. - Argues that motivation derives from expectations held about the consequences of behaviors. - Beliefs about our abilities will determine what we do and goals we set for ourselves.
polygraph (lie detector test)
measures the physiological arousal of an individual responding to a series of questions.
Unconscious
mental activity that we are unaware of and are unable to access.
instrumental aggression
motivated by achieving a goal and does not necessarily involve intent to cause pain. - Typically displayed by women. - E.g., communication that impairs the social standing of another person.
hostile aggression
motivated by feelings of anger with intent to cause pain. - E.g., a bar fight.
Learning approaches to personality focus on?
observable, measurable phenomena.
prosocial behavior
voluntary behavior with the intent to help other people.
Culture is one of the most important environmental factors that influences personality.
Culture - beliefs, customs, art, and traditions of a particular society. Are personality traits the same across cultures or are there variations? - There are both universal and culture-specific aspects that account for variation in personalities. Examples: * Asian cultures - more collectivist, tend to be less extroverted. * Central and South American cultures - tend to score higher on openness to experience. * Europeans - tend to score higher on neuroticism.
Yerkes-Dodson Law
task performance is best when arousal levels are in a middle range, with difficult tasks best performed under lower levels of arousal and simple tasks best performed under higher levels of arousal.
internal locus of control
tend to believe that most of our outcomes are the direct result of our efforts. Perform better academically, achieve more in careers, more independent, healthier, less depressed.
external locus of control
tend to believe that our outcomes are outside of our control. Believe lives are controlled by other people, luck, or chance.
self-serving bias
tendency of an individual to take credit by making dispositional or internal attributions for positive outcomes but situational or external attributions for negative outcomes. - Protects self-esteem - allows people to feel good about their accomplishments.
fundamental attribution error
tendency to overemphasize internal factors as explanations/attributions for the behavior of other people and underestimate the power of the situation. People tend to fail to recognize when a person's behavior is due to situational variables.
scapegoating
the act of blaming an out-group when the in-group experiences frustration or is blocked from obtaining a goal.
metabolic rate
the amount of energy that is expended in a given period of time. - Various between individuals. - People with a high metabolic rate burn off calories more easily than those with lower rates of metabolism.
conformity
the change in a person's behavior to go along with the group, even if he does not agree with the group.
obedience
the change of an individual's behavior to comply with a demand by an authority figure.
body language
the expression of emotion in terms of body position or movement.
gender identity
one's sense of being male or female. - In most cases, our gender identities correspond to our biological sex but not always.
attitude
our evaluation of a person, an idea, or an object. - Can be positive or negative. - Influenced by external forces and internal factors that we control.
Archetypes
patterns that exist in our collective unconscious across cultures/societies. - Represented by universal themes in various cultures reflecting common experiences of people around the world. - Integration of unconscious archetypal aspects of the self seen as part of self-realization process.
informative social influence
people conform because they believe the group is competent and has the correct information, particularly when the task or situation is ambiguous.
normative social influence
people conform to the group norm to fit in, to feel good, and to be accepted by the group.
matching hypothesis
people tend to pick someone they view as their equal in physical attractiveness and social desirability.
altruism
people's desire to help others even if the costs outweigh the benefits of helping. - The events of 9/11 unleashed an enormous show of altruism and heroism on the parts of first responders and many ordinary people.
foot-in-the-door technique
persuader gets a person to agree to a small favor, only to later request a larger favor. - Our past behavior often directs our future behavior (desire to maintain consistency. With the foot-in-the-door technique, a small request such as: - wearing a campaign button can turn into a large request, such as - putting campaigns signs in your yard.
Asch effect
the influence of the group majority on an individual's judgement. In Asch's study there was one naive subject, the rest were confederates who purposely gave the wrong answer. 76% of participants conformed to group pressure at least once by also indicating the incorrect line.
actor-observer bias
phenomenon of explaining other people's behaviors are due to internal factors and our own behaviors are due to situational forces. - We often make the fundamental attribution error because we do not have enough information to make a situational explanation about the person's behavior. - However, when we explain our own behaviors, we have more information available and are more likely to make situational explanations.
components of emotion
physiological arousal, psychological appraisal, and subjective experiences. - Informed by experiences, backgrounds, and cultures.
Hypothalamus
plays an important role in motivated behavior, including sex. Lesions to the medial preoptic area of the hypothalamus completely disrupt a male rat's ability to engage in sexual behavior, but does not affect sexual motivation (he will still seek to gain access to sexually receptive females). - Suggests that the ability to engage in sexual behavior and the motivation to do so are mediated by different systems in the brain.
in-group bias
prejudice and discrimination because the out-group is perceived as different and is less preferred than our in-group. - We want to feel good and protect our in-groups.
persuasion
process of changing our attitudes toward something based on some kind of communication. - How do people convince others to change their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors? We encounter attempts at persuasion attempts everywhere. Persuasion is not limited to formal advertising; we are confronted with it throughout our everyday world.
What is personality?
the long-standing traits and patterns that propel individuals to consistently think, feel, and behave in specific ways. - Comes from the Latin word persona (a mask worn by an actor). - In ancient times, theatrical masks were used to represent/project a specific personality trait.
drive theory of motivation
proposed that the maintenance of homeostasis is important in directing behavior. - Deviations from homeostasis create physiological needs resulting in psychological drive states that direct behavior to meet the need and bring the system back to homeostasis. - Emphasizes the role that habits (pattern of behavior in which we regularly engage) play in behavioral responses >>> If a behavior successfully reduces a drive, we are more likely to engage in that behavior in future. - Hunger and subsequent eating are the result of complex physiological processes that maintain homeostasis.
cyberbullying
repeated behavior that is intended to cause psychological or emotional harm to another person. - More common in girls (usually in those that have been victims of cyberbullying themselves).
bullying
repeated negative treatment of another person over time. - The attempt to inflict harm, injury, or humiliation. - Can include physical or verbal attacks. - Can also be psychological.
leptin
satiety hormone
aggression
seeking to cause harm or pain to another person.
defense mechanisms
Unconscious protective behaviors that work to reduce anxiety. - Used by the ego to restore balance between the id and superego. - Freud believed them to be used by everyone but that overuse could be problematic.
A consequence of the tendency to provide dispositional explanations for behavior is?
Victim Blame
levels of consciousness according to Freud
We are only aware of a small amount (about one-tenth) of our mind's activities and most of it remains hidden from us in our unconscious. Unacceptable urges and desires are kept in our unconscious through repression. The information in our unconscious affects our behavior, although we are unaware of it.
Situationism
the view that our behavior and actions are determined by our immediate environment and surroundings. - Used by social psychologists.
Dispositionism
the view that our behavior is determined by internal factors (attribute of a person such as personality traits and temperament). - Favored in the U.S. - Used by personality psychologists. Modern social psychologists often consider both the situation and individual.
Motivation
the wants or needs that direct behavior toward a goal.
Frustration aggression theory
When humans are prevented from achieving an important goal, they become frustrated and aggressive.
somatotypes (William Sheldon)
William H. Sheldon believed body type could be linked to personality. He proposed three somatotypes: 1. Endomorphs - relaxed, comfortable, good-humored, even-tempered, sociable, and tolerant. 2. Mesomorphs - adventurous, assertive, competitive, and fearless. 3. Ectomorphs - Anxious, self-conscious, artistic, thoughtful, quiet, and private.
Universally Attractive Features
Women: - Physical - large eyes, high cheekbones, a narrow jaw line, a slender build, and a lower waist-to-hip ration. - Social traits - warmth, affection, and social skills. Men: - Physical - tall, having broad shoulders, and a narrow waist. - Social traits - achievement, leadership qualities, and job skills.
attribution
a belief about the cause of a result.
in-groups
a group that we identify with or see ourselves as belonging to.
out-groups
a group that we view as fundamentally different from us.
social norm
a group's expectation of what is appropriate and acceptable behavior for its members. - How are we supposed to behave and think? - What are we expected to talk about? - What are we expected to wear?
discrimination
a negative action toward an individual as a result of one's membership in a particular group. "I would never hire nor become friends with a person if I knew he or she were a Yankees fan."
prejudice
a negative attitude and feeling toward an individual based solely on one's membership in a particular social group. "I hate Yankees fans; they make me angry."
habit
a pattern of behavior in which we regularly engage.
social role
a pattern of behavior that is expected of a person in a given setting or group. - E.g. being a student. - We each have several social roles. - Defined by culturally shared knowledge. - Behavior related to social roles varies across situations.
refractory period
a period of time that follows an orgasm during which an individual is incapable of experiencing another orgasm.
confederate
a person who is aware of the experiment and works for the researcher. - used to manipulate social situations as part of the research design, and the true, naïve participants believe that confederates are, like them, uninformed participants in the experiment.
script
a person's knowledge about the sequence of events expected in a specific setting. - How do you act when you walk into an elevator, on the first day of school, in a restaurant? - Scripts vary between cultures. - Important sources of information to guide behavior in situations.
instinct
a species-specific pattern of behavior that is not learned.
stereotype
a specific belief or assumption about individuals based solely on their membership in a group. "Yankees fans are arrogant and obnoxious".
Chaz Bono (Chasity Bono)
a transgender male, who is a well-known person who transitioned from female to male. In the 1970s, the world knew Chaz as Chastity Bono, the daughter of the famous entertaining duo Sonny and Cher. Later in life, Chaz transitioned to align his physical body with his gender identity.
Evolutionary Theory
aggression serves an evolutionary function. - Men are more likely to show aggression - likely serves to display dominance over other males. - To protect a mate. - To perpetuate the male's genes.
Self-efficacy
an individual's belief in her own capability to complete a task.
sexual orientation
an individual's emotional and erotic attractions to same-sexed individuals (homosexual), opposite-sexed individuals (heterosexual), or both (bisexual). - A relatively stable characteristic of a person (not a choice). - Between 3% and 10% of the adult population identifies as homosexual.
TEMAS Multicultural Thematic Apperception Test
another tool designed to be culturally relevant to minority groups, especially Hispanic youths. TEMAS—standing for "Tell Me a Story" but also a play on the Spanish word temas (themes)—uses images and storytelling cues that relate to minority culture (Constantino, 1982).
Hunger and Eating
are regulated by a complex interplay of hunger and satiety signals that are integrated in the brain.
arousal theory of motivation
assert that there is an optimal level of arousal that we all try to maintain. - Underaroused >>> Become bored, seek stimulation. - Overaroused >>> Engage in behaviors to reduce arousal. Research suggests that the optimal arousal level for performance is moderate arousal.
just-world hypothesis
belief that people get the outcomes they deserve. - Based on the belief that the world is a fair place and therefore good people experience positive outcomes, and bad people experience negative outcomes. - Allows people to feel that the world is predictable and we have some control over life outcomes. (People who hold just-world beliefs tend to blame the people in poverty for their circumstances, ignoring situational and cultural causes of poverty.)
Julian Rotter and locus of control
beliefs about the power we have over our lives. Proposed as a cognitive factor that affects learning and personality development.
companionate love
characteristic of close friendships and family relationships, consists of intimacy and commitment but no passion.
Contemporized-Themes Concerning Blacks Test (C-TCB)
contains 20 color images that show scenes of African-American lifestyles. When the C-TCB was compared with the TAT for African Americans, it was found that use of the C-TCB led to increased story length, higher degrees of positive feelings, and stronger identification with the C-TCB (Hoy, 1997; Hoy-Watkins & Jenkins-Moore, 2008).
collective unconscious
universal version of personal unconscious, holding mental patterns, or memory traces, which are common to all of us.
transgender hormone therapy
use of hormones to make one's body look more like the opposite-sex.
cultural display rule
culturally specific standards that govern the types and frequencies of displays of emotions that are acceptable. - Individuals from the U.S. express negative emotions like fear, anger and disgust both alone and in the presence of others. - Individuals from Japan only express these emotions while alone. Despite varying cultural display rules, recognition and production of facial expressions of certain emotions are universal.
romantic love
defined by having passion and intimacy, but no commitment. Finally, fatuous love is defined by having passion and commitment, but no intimacy, such as a long term sexual love affair.
gender dysphoria
diagnosis describing individuals who do not identify as the gender that most people would assume they are. - Must persist for at least six months. - Must result in significant distress or dysfunction to meet diagnosis criteria.
Regulation of Body Weight (SET-POINT THEORY)
each individual has an ideal body weight/set point, which is resistant to change. - Set point is genetically determined. - Efforts to move weight significantly from the set-point are resisted by compensatory changes in energy intake/expenditure. - Based on the observation that people's weight generally fluctuates within a narrow margin. - Fails to account for the influences of social and environmental factors.
Intrapersonal topics
emotions and attitudes, the self, and social cognition.
social cognitive theory
emphasizes both learning and cognition as sources of individual difference in personality.
facial feedback hypothesis
facial expressions are capable of influencing our emotions.
Satiation
feeling of fullness and satisfaction causing eating behavior to stop.
Hans and Sybil Eysenck
focused on temperament and believed that our personality traits are influenced by our genetic inheritance.
Interpersonal topics
helping behavior, aggression, prejudice and discrimination, attraction and close relationship, and group processes and intergroup relationships.
Kinsey scale
used to categorize an individuals sexual orientation.
Rorschach inkblot test
individual interprets a series of symmetrical inkblot cards, revealing unconscious feelings and struggles.
Thermatic Apperception Test (TAT)
individual tells a story about 8-12 ambiguous cards, giving insight into their social world, revealing hopes, fears, interests, and goals.
According to Sternberg, consummate love describes a healthy relationship containing?
intimacy, passion, and commitment.
overjustification effect
intrinsic motivation is diminished when extrinsic motivation is given.
Extroversion vs. Introversion
Jung's most important contributions to the field of personality psychology was the idea of extroversion and introversion to explain different attitudes towards life.
self-report inventories
Objective test to assess personality. Often use multiple-choice items or numbered scales (Likert scales).
social facilitation
Occurs when an individual performs better when an audience is watching than when the individual performs the behavior alone. - Usually occurs when people are performing a task for which they are skilled or an easy task. - However, when people are nervous or less skilled, an audience may hinder rather than help.
Yerkes and Dodson (1908)
The optimal arousal level depends on the complexity and difficulty of the task to be performed.
