Personality psych ch.12 the humanistic approach relevant research

College prevalence of loneliness

75% of college freshman contacted at a large university 2 weeks into the school year said they had experienced loneliness since school began, and more than 40% said their loneliness had bee either moderate or severe.

Disclosure Reciprocity

According to this rule, people involved in a get-acquainted conversation reveal information about themselves at roughly the same level of intimacy: I reveal personal information to you as long as you continue to match that level of intimacy with personal information about yourself.

Defining and measuring loneliness

Concerns our perception of how much social interaction we have and the quality of that interaction. Loneliness occurs when a person's network of social relationships is smaller or less satisfying than the person's desires.

Loneliness is hazardous to your health

Compared to those who have few social contacts, people with a large and diverse social network have a decreased risk of cancer recurrence, and heart disease. People with large social circles live longer.

Contingencies of self worth for college students.

Competencies=Abilities and performance in various areas, particularly academic performance for college students. competition=Outperforming other people in various competitive situations. Approval from Generalized others=Approval and acceptance from other people, based on what we believe they think of us. Family support=Receiving approval and affection from the people closest to us, particularly from family members. Appearance=How physically attractive we believe others find us. god's love=The belief that we are loved, valued, and unique in the eyes of god. Virtue=Adhering to personal ethical standards and judging ourselves as good and moral individuals.

Contingencies of self-worth

Each of us identifies domains that we consider important to us; that is, areas we use to determine our self-worth. For one person these areas might be: academic performance, acting in ethically sound ways, physical appearance and acceptance of family and friends. Second, we form evaluations of ourselves-our global self-esteem based on how we do in these selected areas.

Feelings of self-worth

Fluctuations of feelings when others praise us, or we feel shame about how we behaved. Not to be confused with self-esteem.

Loneliness

From time to time we have all felt the pain of loneliness. Each of us has suffered through a period when there was no one to talk to, when everyone else appeared to be with someone while we were alone, when all our relationships seemed superficial. Loneliness has become epidemic on college campuses. Some psychologists think loneliness represents existential anxiety and a need to find meaning in one's life.

Pathways between loneliness and health (5 pathways)

Health behaviors=Lonely people have poorer health habits. Stress Exposure=Lonely people experience more chronic stressors. Coping styles=Lonely people use less effective coping strategies when dealing with stress. Stress Physiology=Lonely people experience unhealthy changes in physiology. Recuperation=Lonely people are less able to rely on natural restorative processes that improve health.

Chronically lonely people

High scores on loneliness scales are related to higher levels of social anxiety and self-consciousness and lower levels of self-esteem and assertiveness. Lonely people are more likely to be introverted, anxious, and sensitive to rejection and more likely to suffer from depression. High loneliness scores are associated with pessimism and negative mood.

Why don't high self-esteem people become discouraged after failure?

High self-esteem people develop personal strategies for blunting the effects of negative feedback. Included in this arsenal is a tendency to respond to failure by focusing attention on their good qualities rather than on what they have done wrong. whereas negative feedback causes people low in self esteem to think about their faults and failures. This same feedback leads to high self-esteem people to think about their abilities and achievements. High self-esteem people don't dwell on their failures.

Chronically lonely people also tend to have poorly developed social skills.

Lack of social skills keep people trapped in a cycle of loneliness. The best way to learn the art of conversation is to talk with others. Yet people without social skills may have such a difficult time developing relationships that they have little opportunity to develop these skills. They never learn how to initiate an interaction or how to keep the conversation lively, so their difficulty making friends continues.

Interaction styles of conversations with lonely and non-lonely people.

Lonely participants showed relatively little interest in their partners. They asked fewer questions, often failed to comment on what the other person said, and made fewer references to the partner. Instead, the lonely partner was more likely to talk about themselves and introduce new topics unrelated to the partners interests. Another study found lonely people were more likely to give advice to strangers and less likely to acknowledge what the other person said.

Low expectations can be poisonous when trying to develop a friendship or romantic relationship. (negative expectations)

Lonely people doubt a new acquaintance will enjoy talking with them and suspect the person will find them boring or stupid by the end of the conversation. Lonely people often show little interest in getting to know other people and are quick to end the conversation and move on to something else. These negative expectations may also lead lonely people to interpret any small sign as rejection.

Efforts to help people overcome loneliness.

Many of these treatments are designed to improve social skills. Good social skills can lead to better interactions, which can lead to more socializing and better relationships. Some treatments help lonely people understand how they sometimes sabotage potential friendships with negative expectations and inaccurate interpretations of what others think of them.

Self-esteem and reaction to failure

Not all people react the same to self-evaluations. How we respond to failure often depends on our level of self-esteem. When told they have done poorly, low self-esteem people typically don't try as hard on the next test. They perform more poorly and are more likely to give up early. In contrast, high self-esteem people work just as hard on the second test regardless of how they did on the initial test.

Why do we reciprocate disclosure intimacy?

One reason is that self disclosure leads to feelings of attraction and trust. When people disclose information about themselves to us, we are attracted to them, and feelings of trust follow. Studies find that we disclose to people we like and we like those who disclose to us.

More people are likely to accept feedback consistent with their self-concept.

People who are asked to imagine they had done poorly on a test actually did poorly on the test. Ones who imagined they past the test did. people with low self-esteem accept the fact that they fail more than most people. It is easier for them to believe negative feedback confirming their negative self image than information that violates their expectations. Negative feedback reminds low self-esteem people about the low evaluations they have of themselves, which then triggers even more negative thoughts.

Because disclosure often leads to liking...

People who understand the rule can use it to their advantage. For example, people who live in situations in which relationships some and go quickly, such as those who move frequently, tend to disclose a lot. Presumably these individuals recognize that self-disclosure is a powerful tactic for making new friends. Disclosure alone does not lead to intimacy and liking. Relationships also require a responsive partner. When partners respond to personal disclosure with signs of caring and by revealing their own feelings, intimacy develops.

Rogers and other humanistic theorists argued...

Putting feelings into words allows us to "see" our emotions and thereby deal with them more effectively. The writing experience leads to changes in the way participants thought about themselves.

The causes of loneliness

Researchers have identified two characteristics that Seem to contribute to chronic loneliness --Negative expectations and poorly developed social skills.

Self-Esteem vs. self concept

Self-concept is the cumulation of what you see as your personal characteristics-that is, the kind of person your believe yourself to be. Self-esteem refers to your evaluation of your self-concept. In essence, do you like this person?

People who tie their self-esteem to uncontrollable forces may be more prone to bouts of anxiety and depression.

Some contingencies leave us at the mercy of other people and unmanageable forces. We can't always control whether we will be accepted by others, retain good looks, or succeed in competition.

Disclosing Traumatic experiences

Students who disclosed traumatic experiences had a decrease in the visits to the health center. Although writing their problems created some mild, short-term discomfort, it appears that the act of disclosing improved the health of the college student.

How do lonely and non-lonely people use self-disclosure?

Studies show that lonely people reveal less about themselves than their partners. Lonely people are not aware of social rules about when and how much to disclose. They may disclose too much or fail to reveal enough about themselves when the other person expects it. Others may see them as either weird or aloof, and respond accordingly.

Unmet needs for people with a lot of acquaintances

The unmet need to interact with that special person in an intimate and honest way can create intense feelings of being alone.

Lonely people have more than their share of social difficulties.

They have a hard time trusting people and are often uncomfortable when others open up to them. Lonely people spend less time with friends, date less frequently, attend fewer parties, and have fewer close friends than non lonely people.

Lonely people enter a situation with what expectation?

This will, like other encounters before, will not go well. negative expectations.

Self-disclosure among friends and romantic partners.

We feel free to disclose to friends without requiring reciprocal disclosure. One researcher found the highest level of disclosure reciprocity among people who knew each other somewhat, but who were still in the process of developing their relationship. People willing to reveal more intimate details and emotions had more intimate social relationships. the more couples talk about whats important to them, the better the marriage.

Self-esteem and culture

Western societies=the recipe for high self-esteem is feeling good about who you are and what you do to distinguish yourself. eastern cultures=self satisfaction with perceived relationships with others.

Disclosing men and disclosing women.

Woman typically disclose more intimately and to more people than do men. This gender difference is expected by and perhaps reinforced by society.

Relationships we desire change as we pass through the life cycle.

Young adults often require a larger number of friends to fend off loneliness, whereas older adults prefer fewer but closer friends.

Global self-esteem

the overall evaluation we have about ourselves.

third force

developed to attend to the "human" element lost in number crunching approaches.

Expressing thoughts and feelings also provides...

disclosures insight into their feelings that they might not have recognized otherwise, and this insight makes it easier to take steps to move beyond the experience.

self-disclosure

when people reveal intimate information about themselves to another person. Many humanistic psychologists argue that self-disclosure is important for our personal growth and happiness. All deception results in more to worry about and an ever present fear that the real you will be exposed. It is only through self-disclosure that we can truly know ourselves. Putting feelings into words allows us to understand those feelings in a way that simply thinking about emotions cannot. If we are not aware of all aspects, then we cannot self actualize.