Psy 230: Chapter 6

self-esteem

evaluating oneself as either "good" or "bad" as a result of comparing the self to other people

empathy

feeling the exact emotion that another person is experiencing

guilt

feeling upset about having caused harm to a person or about having violated one's internal standard of behavior

prosocial behavior

sharing, helping, and caring actions

initiative versus guilt

Erik Erikson's term for the preschool psychosocial task involving actively taking on life tasks

industry versus inferiority

Erik Erikson's term for the psychosocial task of middle childhood involving managing our emotions and realizing that real-world success involves hard work

shame

a feeling of being personally humiliated

reactive aggression

a hostile or destructive act carried out in response to being frustrated or hurt

relational aggression

a hostile or destructive act designed to cause harm to a person's relationships

proactive aggression

a hostile or destructive act initiated to achieve a goal

externalizing tendencies

a personality style that involves acting on one's immediate impulses and behaving disruptively and aggressively

internalizing tendencies

a personality style that involves intense fear, social inhibition, and often depression

sympathy

a state necessary for acting prosaically, involving feeling upset for a person who needs help

learned helplessness

a state that develops when a person feels incapable of affecting the outcome of events, and so gives up without trying

aggression

any hostile or destructive act

self-awareness

the ability to observe our abilities and actions from an outside frame of reference and to reflect on our inner state

emotion regulation

the capacity to manage one's emotional state

induction

the ideal discipline style for socializing prosocial behavior, involving getting a child who has behaved hurtfully to empathize with the pain he has caused the other person

hostile attributional bias

the tendency of highly aggressive children to see motives and actions as threatening when they are actually benign