Psych 101 - Ch. 12, 14-16

Type A

(competitive, hard-driven/hard-working, impatient, hostile, aggressive, confrontational, angry)—related to heart disease

Type D

(distressed, pessimistic)—of all types, most vulnerable to depression

Type C

(patient and detail- oriented, but emotionally repressed, introverted, and lack assertiveness; known to suppress own desires)—passiveness can often lead to stress and/or depression

Type B

(relaxed, easygoing) behavior patterns—can be achievers, but are also known to procrastinate

Types of psychophysiological disorders

--Cardiovascular disorders (e.g., hypertension, coronary heart disease) --Gastrointestinal disorders (e.g., irritable bowel syndrome) --Respiratory disorders (e.g., asthma, allergy) --Musculoskeletal disorders (e.g., low back pain, tension headaches—migraines) --Skin disorders (e.g., acne, eczema, psoriasis)

How many Americans suffer from a mental disorder in a given year?

--about 26.2 percent of American adults over age 18 suffer from a mental disorder --only about 5.8 percent suffer from a severe mental disorder --common to suffer from more than one disorder at a time

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

--alarm reaction/stage—initial exposure to stressor occurs; resources to combat stress are activated; resistance to stressors peak; "fight-or-flight" response is triggered; physiological reactions surface producing energy --resistance stage—resistance to stressors are leveled off with prolonged exposure to stressor—the initial shock of the stressor has worn off and the body has adapted to the stressor; the body remains "on alert" --exhaustion stage—resistance to stressors is used up—person is no longer able to adapt to stressor; physical wear takes toll on the body

How Do Attitudes Form?

-Direct contact with the person, situation, object, or idea. -Direct instruction from parents or others. -Interacting with other people who hold a certain attitude. -Watching the actions and reactions of others to ideas, people, objects, and situations.

Autonomic nervous system

-Sympathetic system - responds to stressful events by mobilizing the body ("fight or flight") -Parasympathetic system - restores the body to normal functioning after the stress has ceased.

Compliance

A change in behavior in response to a direct request

Conformity

A change in behavior that coincides more closely with a group standard

Obedience

A change in one's behavior at the command of an authority figure

Social norm

A group's expectation of what is appropriate and acceptable behavior for its members—how they are supposed to behave and think

Script

A person's knowledge about the sequence of events expected in a specific setting

That's not all technique

A sales technique in which the persuader makes an offer and then adds something extra to make the offer look better before the target person can make a decision

Stereotype

A set of characteristics that people believe is shared by all members of a particular social category—often is the start of prejudiced beliefs

Health Psychology

A subfield of psychology devoted to understanding the importance of psychological influences on health, illness, and how people respond when they become ill -emerged as a discipline in the 1970s

What are attitudes and their components?

A tendency to respond positively or negatively toward a certain person, object, idea, or situation. The three components of an attitude are the affective (emotional) component, the behavioral component, and the cognitive component.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

An expectation held by a person that alters his or her behavior in a way that tends to make it true

Door in the face technique

Asking a large commitment and being refused, and the asking for a smaller commitment

Foot in the door technique

Asking for a small commitment, and after gaining acceptance, asking for a bigger commitment

Self-Serving Bias

Attributions about self—overestimate situations, use self-enhancement, exaggerate positive beliefs, attribute success to own characteristics and failures to external factors E.g., She failed the exam because it was not well structured.

Fundamental Attribution Error

Attributions made of others--overestimate traits, underestimate situations E.g., She failed the exam because she's not very bright.

Aggression

Behavior intended to hurt or destroy another person. Biological influences on aggression may include genetics, the amygdala and limbic system, and testosterone and serotonin levels. Violent TV, movies, and videos are related to aggression.

Types of Strssors

Catastrophe, major life events, and hassles

Milgram study

Conducted by Yale University social psychology professor Stanley Milgram (1963). The volunteer participants (approximately 40 men) were led to believe that they were participating in a study to improve learning and memory. The participants were told that they were to teach other students (learners) correct answers to a series of test items. The participants were shown how to use a device that they were told delivered electric shocks of different intensities to the learners. The participants were told to shock the learners if they gave a wrong answer to a test item—that the shock would help them to learn. Results—about 65% of the participants were willing to give shocks up to the maximum voltage, even when the "learner" became unresponsive.

Approach-Approach Conflict

Conflict occurring when a person must choose between two desirable goals

Avoidance-avoidance Conflict

Conflict occurring when a person must choose between two undesirable goals

Approach-avoidance Conflict

Conflict when a person must choose or not choose one goal that has a positive and negative aspects

The Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)

Consists of 43 life events that require varying degrees of personal readjustment. Includes examples of both eustress and distress. Mean value scores for each event are referred to as "life change units (LCUs)" and range from 11 to 100 where 11 represents the lowest perceived magnitude of life change each event entails and 100 represents the highest. Death of a spouse is ranked highest on the scale at 100 LCUs, and minor violations of the law is ranked lowest at 11 LCUs.

Lowball technique

Getting a commitment from a person the raising the cost of that commitment

Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Experiment

In 1968, in response to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jane Elliott, a third grade teacher in all-white, all-Christian, Riceville, Iowa, devised the controversial and startling, "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" exercise. Elliott involved her third grade students in an exercise in discrimination based on eye color. It was her attempt to help them to understand some of the reasons why Black people were taking to the streets and demanding equitable treatment with whites. Elliott convinced her students that blue-eyed people were superior to brown-eyed people. This resulted in the brown-eyed students being treated unjustly. She later reversed her claim and told the children that brown-eyed people were more superior; and just like that, the roles were reversed. Amazingly, every child in Elliott's exercise assumed the role they were given, with the children deemed to be superior behaving rudely and arrogantly, yet excelling academically, and the children deemed as being part of the minority declining socially and academically. Though Elliott received much backlash for her exercise, her work has become well-known all over the world.

Sternberg's three components of love

Intimacy, passion (infatuation), and commitment

Groupthink

Kind of thinking that occurs when people place more importance on maintaining group cohesiveness than on assessing the facts of the problem with which the group is concerned

Interpersonal attraction

Liking or having the desire for a relationship with another person

Diffusion of responsibility

Occurring when a person fails to take responsibility for actions or for inaction because of the presence of other people who are seen to share the responsibility

Social roles

Patterns of behavior that are expected of a person in a given setting or group Social roles are defined by culturally shared knowledge. That is, nearly everyone in a given culture knows what behavior is expected of a person in a given role

Psychophysiological Disorders

Physical disorders or diseases whose symptoms are brought about or worsened by stress and emotional factors

Factors that cause attraction

Physical or geographical nearness, People like people who are similar to themselves OR who are different or opposite from themselves (complementary), tendency of people to like other people who like them in return

4 Common sources of stress

Pressure, uncontrollability, frustration, conflict

Altruism

Prosocial behavior that is done with no expectation of reward and may involve the risk of harm to oneself

Bystander effect

Referring to the effect that the presence of other people has on the decision to help or not help, with help becoming less likely as the number of bystanders increases

Out-groups

Social groups with whom a person does not identify; "they"

In-groups

Social groups with whom a person identifies; "us"

Prosocial behavior

Socially desirable behavior that benefits others

Abnormality

Statistically rare Deviant from social norms Related to subjective discomfort Maladaptive

Scapegoating

Tendency to direct prejudice and discrimination at out-group members who have little social power or influence

Actor-Observer Bias

The phenomenon of attributing other people's behavior to internal factors (fundamental attribution error) while attributing our own behavior to situational forces (self-serving bias)

Persuasion

The process by which one person tries to change the belief, opinion, position, or course of action of another person through argument, pleading, or explanation

What is social psychology?

The scientific study of how a person's thoughts, feelings, and behavior are influenced by the real, imagined, or implied presence of others

Key elements in persuasion

The source of the message, the message itself, and the target audience.

Social loafing

The tendency for people to put less effort into a simple task when working with others on that task

Social facilitation

The tendency for the presence of other people to have a positive impact on the performance of an easy task

Discrimination

Unjustifiably treating people differently because of prejudice toward the social group to which they belong Can be related to race, sex, age, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, or other detectable difference. Has fueled violence throughout human history

Prejudice

Unjustified negative attitude held by a person about the members of a particular social group

Situationism

When the cause of behavior is attributed to external factors, such as delays, the action of others, or some other aspect of the situation

Dispositionism

When the cause of behavior is attributed to internal factors such as personality or character

Acute stress disorder (ASD)

a disorder resulting from exposure to a major, traumatic stressor symptoms include anxiety, dissociation, recurring nightmares, sleep disturbances, problems in concentration, and moments in which people seem to relive the event in dreams and flashbacks

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

a disorder with the symptoms associated with ASD where the symptoms last more than a month

Job burnout

a general sense of emotional exhaustion and pessimism in relation to one's job

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)

a mood disorder caused by the body's reaction to low levels of sunlight in the winter months.

Job strain

a work situation that combines excessive job demands and workload with little discretion in decision making or job control—can lead to job burnout

Sociocultural perspective

abnormal behavior is the product of family, social, and cultural influences

Coping strategies

actions that people can take to master, tolerate, reduce, or minimize the effects of stressors

Phobia

an irrational, persistent fear of an object, situation, or social activity.

Free-floating anxiety

anxiety that is unrelated to any realistic, known source

Psychological disorders

any pattern of behavior that causes people significant distress, causes them to harm others, or harms their ability to function in daily life

Psychoanalytic theorists

assume that abnormal behavior stems from repressed conflicts and urges that are fighting to become conscious

ZIMBARDO'S STANFORD PRISON STUDY

conducted by social psychologist Philip Zimbardo and his colleagues at Stanford University, demonstrated the power of social roles, social norms, and scripts. In the summer of 1971, an advertisement was placed in a California newspaper asking for male volunteers to participate in a study about the psychological effects of prison life. Each student (24 in all) was paid $15 per day and was randomly assigned to play the role of either a prisoner or a guard in the study. A mock prison was constructed in the basement of the psychology building at Stanford. The experiment was scheduled to run for several weeks. To the surprise of the researchers, both the "prisoners" and "guards" completely immersed in their roles. After only six days, the experiment had to be ended due to the participants' deteriorating behavior.

Emotion-focused coping

coping strategies that change the impact of a stressor by changing the emotional reaction to the stressor E.g., You fear failing an exam, so you don't go to class.

Problem-focused coping

coping strategies that try to eliminate the source of a stress or reduce its impact through direct actions E.g., You can't pay your tuition, so you get a student loan.

Generalized anxiety disorder

disorder in which a person has feelings of dread and impending doom along with physical symptoms of stress, which lasts six months or more

Obsessive-compulsive disorder

disorder in which intruding, recurring thoughts or obsessions create anxiety that is relieved by performing a repetitive, ritualistic behavior (compulsion)

Panic disorder

disorder in which panic attacks occur frequently enough to cause the person difficulty in adjusting to daily life

Mood (affective) disorders

disorders in which mood is severely disturbed

Anxiety disorders

disorders in which the main symptom is excessive or unrealistic anxiety and fearfulness.

Stressors

events that are demanding or threatening

Agoraphobia

fear of being in a place or situation from which escape is difficult or impossible

Social phobia

fear of interacting with others or being in social situations that might lead to a negative evaluation (e.g., stage fright)

Specific phobia

fear of objects or specific situations or events

Manic

having the quality of excessive excitement, energy, and elation or irritability

Biopsychosocial model

incorporates biology, psychology, and culture into a single explanation of abnormal behavior

Secondary appraisal

involves estimating the resources available to the person for coping with the stressor as well as how effective those options may be

Primary appraisal

judgement about significance and threat of a given stimulus

Biological model

model of explaining behavior as caused by physiological changes in the chemical, structural, or genetic systems of the body

Cognitive theorists

see abnormal behavior as coming from irrational beliefs and illogical patterns of thought

Behaviorists

see abnormal behavior as learned

Cognitive dissonance

sense of discomfort or distress that occurs when a person's behavior does not correspond to that person's attitudes or positive self-perceptions

Major depressive disorder

severe depression that comes on suddenly and often has no external cause

Bipolar disorder

severe mood swings between major depressive episodes and manic episodes

Cognitive appraisal approach

states that how people think about a stressor determines, at least in part, how stressful that stressor will become

Panic attack

sudden onset of intense panic in which multiple physical symptoms of stress occur, often with feelings that one is dying

Eustress

the effect of positive events, or the optimal amount of stress that people need to promote health and well-being

Distress

the effect of unpleasant and undesirable stressors

What are attributions?

the process of explaining one's own behavior and the behavior of others; involves thoughts of why we behave the way we do

Social Support

the soothing impact of friends, family, and acquaintances

Psychopathology

the study of abnormal behavior

Psychoneuroimmunology

the study of the effects of psychological factors such as stress, emotions, thoughts, and behavior on the immune system and immune functioning

Stress

the term used to describe the describe the perception of and response to events that are appraised as threatening, overwhelming, or challenging.