Psychology critical thinking chapters 9-11

What is egocentrism? Provide an original example.

Egocentrism is the inability to take the perspective of another person. This type of thinking is common in young children in the preoperational stage of cognitive development. An example might be that upon seeing his mother crying, a young child gives her his favorite stuffed animal to make her feel better.

What is emerging adulthood and what are some factors that have contributed to this new stage of development?

Emerging adulthood is a relatively new period of lifespan development from 18 years old to the mid-20s, characterized as a transitional time in which identity exploration focuses on work and love. According to Arnett, changing cultural expectations facilitate the delay to full adulthood. People are spending more time exploring their options, so they are delaying marriage and work as they change majors and jobs multiple times, putting them on a much later timetable than their parents.

Describe the difference between extroverts and introverts in terms of what is energizing to each.

Extroverts are energized by social engagement. Introverts are recharged by solitary time.

Why might it be important to consider cultural influences on personality?

Since culture influences one's personality, then Western ideas about personality may not be applicable to people of other cultures. In addition, Western-based measures of personality assessment may not be valid when used to collect data on people from other cultures.

How might the common expression "daddy's girl" be rooted in the idea of the Electra complex?

Since the idea behind the Electra complex is that the daughter competes with her same-sex parent for the attention of her opposite-sex parent, the term "daddy's girl" might suggest that the daughter has an overly close relationship with her father and a more distant—or even antagonistic—relationship with her mother.

Compare and contrast Skinner's perspective on personality development to Freud's.

Skinner disagreed with Freud's idea that childhood plays an important role in shaping our personality. He argued that personality develops over our entire life, rather than in the first few years of life as Freud suggested. Skinner said that our responses can change as we come across new situations; therefore, we can see more variability over time in personality.

How stable are the Big Five traits over one's lifespan?

The Big Five traits are relatively stable over our lifespan with a tendency for the traits to increase or decrease slightly. Researchers have found that conscientiousness increases through young adulthood into middle age, as we become better able to manage our personal relationships and careers. Agreeableness also increases with age, peaking between 50 to 70 years. However, neuroticism and extroversion tend to decline slightly with age.

Imagine you find a venomous snake crawling up your leg just after taking a drug that prevented sympathetic nervous system activation. What would the James-Lange theory predict about your experience?

The James-Lange theory would predict that I would not feel fear because I haven't had the physiological arousal necessary to induce that emotional state.

Describe some of the newborn reflexes. How might they promote survival?

The sucking reflex is the automatic, unlearned sucking motions that infants do with their mouths. It may help promote survival because this action helps the baby take in nourishment. The rooting reflex is the newborn's response to anything that touches her cheek. When you stroke a baby's cheek she will naturally turn her head that way and begin to suck. This may aid survival because it helps the newborn locate a source of food.

Compare the personality of someone who scores high on agreeableness to someone who scores low on agreeableness.

A person with a high score on agreeableness is typically pleasant, cooperative, trustworthy and good-natured. People who score low on agreeableness tend to be described as rude and uncooperative. They may be difficult with which to work.

Why would a clinician give someone a projective test?

A projective test could give the clinician clues about dreams, fears, and personal struggles of which the client may be unaware, since these tests are designed to reveal unconscious motivations and attitudes. They can also help clinicians diagnose psychological disorders.

What are some known teratogens, and what kind of damage can they do to the developing fetus?

Alcohol is a teratogen. Excessive drinking can cause mental retardation in children. The child can also have a small head and abnormal facial features, which are characteristic of fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Another teratogen is nicotine. Smoking while pregnant can lead to low-birth weight, premature birth, stillbirth, and SIDS.

How might a temperament mix between parent and child affect family life?

An easygoing parent may be irritated by a difficult child. If both parent and child have difficult temperaments, then conflicts in the parent-child relationship might result quite often.

There is no reliable scientific evidence that gay conversion therapy actually works. What kinds of evidence would you need to see in order to be convinced by someone arguing that she had successfully converted her sexual orientation?

Answers will vary, but it should be indicated that something more than self-reports of successful conversion would be necessary to support such a claim. Longitudinal, objective demonstrations of a real switch in both erotic attraction and the actual behavior in which the individual engaged would need to be presented in addition to assurances that this type of therapy was safe.

What is the difference between assimilation and accommodation? Provide examples of each.

Assimilation is when we take in information that is comparable to what we already know. Accommodation is when we change our schemata based on new information. An example of assimilation is a child's schema of "dog" based on the family's golden retriever being expanded to include two newly adopted golden retrievers. An example of accommodation is that same child's schema of "dog" being adjusted to exclude other four-legged furry animals such as sheep and foxes.

Why should developmental milestones only be used as a general guideline for normal child development?

Children develop at different rates. For example, some children may walk and talk as early as 8 months old, while others may not do so until well after their first birthday. Each child's unique contexts will influence when he reaches these milestones.

Compare and contrast continuous and discontinuous development.

Continuous development sees our development as a cumulative process: Changes are gradual. On the other hand, discontinuous development sees our development as taking place in specific steps or stages: Changes are sudden.

Why was Carol Gilligan critical of Kohlberg's theory of moral development?

Gilligan criticized Kohlberg because his theory was based on the responses of upper class White men and boys, arguing that it was biased against women. While Kohlberg concluded that women must be deficient in their moral reasoning abilities, Gilligan disagreed, suggesting that female moral reasoning is not deficient, just different.

While much research has been conducted on how an individual develops a given sexual orientation, many people question the validity of this research citing that the participants used may not be representative. Why do you think this might be a legitimate concern?

Given the stigma associated with being non-heterosexual, participants who openly identify as homosexual or bisexual in research projects may not be entirely representative of the non-heterosexual population as a whole.

Discuss Horney's perspective on Freud's concept of penis envy.

Horney disagreed with the Freudian idea that women had penis envy and were jealous of a man's biological features. Horney discussed that the jealousy was more likely culturally based, due to the greater privileges that males often have, and that differences between men and women's personalities were cultural, not biologically based. Horney also suggested that men may have womb envy, because men cannot give birth.

What is the purpose of hospice care?

Hospice is a program of services that provide medical, social, and spiritual support for dying people and their families.

Describe the personality of someone who is fixated at the anal stage.

If parents are too harsh during potty training, a person could become fixated at this stage and would be called anal retentive. The anal-retentive personality is stingy, stubborn, has a compulsive need for order and neatness, and might be considered a perfectionist. On the other hand, some parents may be too soft when it comes to potty training. In this case, Freud said that children could also become fixated and display an anal-expulsive personality. As an adult, an anal-expulsive personality is messy, careless, disorganized, and prone to emotional outbursts.

Describe what happens in the embryonic stage of development. Describe what happens in the fetal stage of development.

In the embryonic stage, basic structures of the embryo start to develop into areas that will become the head, chest, and abdomen. The heart begins to beat and organs form and begin to function. The neural tube forms along the back of the embryo, developing into the spinal cord and brain. In the fetal stage, the brain and body continue to develop. Fingers and toes develop along with hearing, and internal organs form.

Compare the personalities of someone who has high self-efficacy to someone who has low self-efficacy.

People who have high self-efficacy believe that their efforts matter. They perceive their goals as being within reach; have a positive view of challenges, seeing them as tasks to be mastered; develop a deep interest in and strong commitment to the activities in which they are involved; and quickly recover from setbacks. Conversely, people with low self-efficacy believe their efforts have little or no effect, and that outcomes are beyond their control. They avoid challenging tasks because they doubt their abilities to be successful; tend to focus on failure and negative outcomes; and lose confidence in their abilities if they experience setbacks.

What is prenatal care and why is it important?

Prenatal care is medical care during pregnancy that monitors the health of both the mother and fetus. It's important to receive prenatal care because it can reduce complications to the mother and fetus during pregnancy.

Describe the five stages of grief and provide examples of how a person might react in each stage.

The first stage is denial. The person receives news that he is dying, and either does not take it seriously or tries to escape from the reality of the situation. He might say something like, "Cancer could never happen to me. I take good care of myself. This has to be a mistake." The next stage is anger. He realizes time is short, and he may not have a chance to accomplish what he wanted in life. "It's not fair. I promised my grandchildren that we would go to Disney World, and now I'll never have the chance to take them." The third stage is bargaining. In this stage, he tries to delay the inevitable by bargaining or pleading for extra time, usually with God, family members, or medical care providers. "God, just give me one more year so I can take that trip with my grandchildren. They're too young to understand what's happening and why I can't take them." The fourth stage is depression. He becomes sad about his impending death. "I can't believe this is how I'm going to die. I'm in so much pain. What's going to become of my family when I'm gone?" The final stage is acceptance. This stage is usually reached in the last few days or weeks before death. He recognizes that death is inevitable. "I need to get everything in order and say all of my good-byes to the people I love."

How might someone espousing an arousal theory of motivation explain visiting an amusement park?

The idea of optimal levels of arousal is similar to a drive theory of motivation. Presumably, we all seek to maintain some intermediate level of arousal. If we are underaroused, we are bored. If we are overaroused, we experience stress. The rides at an amusement park would provide higher arousal (however, we would hope that these rides don't actually pose significant threats to personal safety that would lead to a state of panic) to push us toward our own optimal level of arousal. Individuals at the park would choose different rides based on their specific arousal thresholds; for example, one person might find a simple water ride optimally arousing and an extreme roller coaster overarousing, while others would find the extreme roller coaster optimally arousing.

Describe the nature versus nurture controversy, and give an example of a trait and how it might be influenced by each?

The nature versus nurture controversy seeks to understand whether our personalities and traits are the product of our genetic makeup and biological factors, or whether they are shaped by our environment, which includes such things as our parents, peers, and culture. Today, psychologists agree that both nature and nurture interact to shape who we become, but the debate over the relative contributions of each continues. An example would be a child learning to walk: Nature influences when the physical ability occurs, but culture can influence when a child masters this skill, as in Aché culture.

What makes a personal quality part of someone's personality?

The particular quality or trait must be part of an enduring behavior pattern, so that it is a consistent or predictable quality.

Why can we not make causal claims regarding the relationship between the volume of the hippocampus and PTSD?

The research that exists is correlational in nature. It could be the case that reduced hippocampal volume predisposes people to develop PTSD or the decreased volume could result from PTSD. Causal claims can only be made when performing an experiment.

Using BMI as a sole metric can actually be misleading because people who have large amounts of lean muscle mass can actually be characterized as being overweight or obese based on their height and weight. Weight versus height is a somewhat crude measurement as it doesn't distinguish the amount of body weight that comes from lean versus fatty tissue.

These disorders are closely associated with sociocultural emphasis on a thin-ideal that is often portrayed in media. Given that non-Caucasians are under-represented in popular media in the West and that the thin-ideal is more heavily emphasized for women, this particular group is most vulnerable.

Why might a prospective employer screen applicants using personality assessments?

They can help an employer predict a candidate's reactions and attitudes to various situations they might encounter on the job, thus helping choose the right person for the job. This is particularly important in hiring for a high-risk job such as law enforcement. Personality tests can also reveal a potential employee's desirable qualities such as honesty, motivation, and conscientiousness.

The index that is often used to classify people as being underweight, normal weight, overweight, obese, or morbidly obese is called BMI. Given that BMI is calculated solely on weight and height, how could it be misleading?

Using BMI as a sole metric can actually be misleading because people who have large amounts of lean muscle mass can actually be characterized as being overweight or obese based on their height and weight. Weight versus height is a somewhat crude measurement as it doesn't distinguish the amount of body weight that comes from lean versus fatty tissue.

Schools often use concrete rewards to increase adaptive behaviors. How might this be a disadvantage for students intrinsically motivated to learn? What are educational implications of the potential for concrete rewards to diminish intrinsic motivation for a given task?

We would expect to see a shift from learning for the sake of learning to learning to earn some reward. This would undermine the foundation upon which traditional institutions of higher education are built. For a student motivated by extrinsic rewards, dependence on those may pose issues later in life (post-school) when there are not typically extrinsic rewards for learning.

Compare and contrast the four parenting styles and describe the kinds of childhood outcomes we can expect with each.

With the authoritative style, children are given reasonable demands and consistent limits, warmth and affection are expressed, the parent listens to the child's point of view, and the child initiates positive standards. Children raised by authoritative parents tend to have high self-esteem and social skills. Another parenting style is authoritarian: The parent places a high value on conformity and obedience. The parents are often strict, tightly monitor their children, and express little warmth. This style can create anxious, withdrawn, and unhappy kids. The third parenting style is permissive: Parents make few demands, rarely use punishment, and give their children free rein. Children raised by permissive parents tend to lack self-discipline, which contributes to poor grades and alcohol abuse. However, they have higher self-esteem, better social skills, and lower levels of depression. The fourth style is the uninvolved parent: They are indifferent, uninvolved, and sometimes called neglectful. The children raised in this parenting style are usually emotionally withdrawn, fearful, anxious, perform poorly in school, and are at an increased risk of substance abuse.