Psychology Final

Venting and Forgiveness

"Venting" anger appears to offer relief only when directed at the specific person who has angered you and you are convinced the person will not retaliate. In any other case venting increases anger. Although "talking it out" with a friend may sometimes be helpful, it may also serve as a "rehearsal" of the anger. One of the most promising methods for reducing anger is forgiveness, engaged in as a conscious decision.

Humanism

The humanists believed that people face problems in a generally rational manner, and try to make good decisions that will benefit themselves and others. For a person to develop a healthy self-concept, the environment must fulfill four interrelated conditions: Accurate empathy, congruence, unconditional positive regard, and positive self-regard. 1. By accurate empathy, Rogers meant that those around a child during his or her formative years must truly listen and hear the child—withholding judgment and wishing only to communicate. 2. Congruence implies that those around the growing person are genuine—they are truly being themselves and are not presenting a self which reflects others' values and wishes rather than their own. 3. Unconditional positive regard and 4. positive self-regard are interdependent ideas. For a person to develop positive self-regard—feelings of self-esteem, self-worth, and being loved and accepted—he or she needs to be treated with unconditional positive regard by others.

Personality Assessment

The measurement of personality is known as personality assessment. Tests that measure some aspect of psychology are known as assessment instruments. There are two basic categories of personality assessment instruments: projective tests (allow a person to project their personality unconsciously onto ambiguous test items) and objective tests (constructed empirically and scored by a computer)

Organized, Integrated, and Relatively Enduring

The species-typical mental and behavioral characteristics, traits, characteristic adaptations and self-narratives that constitute are: Organized means that a person's personality forms a coherent picture that might be described in words. Integrated means that the various aspects of personality are related to—and work with—one another. Relatively enduring means that personality is fairly constant over extended periods of time.

Traits

Traits are relatively stable personality characteristics, attributes, and motivations that can be commonly captured in adjectives such as honest, cheerful, kind, short-tempered, conscientious, and so forth. Traits Describe—but Do Not Explain—Personality

social motivation

Two specific types of social needs that motivate us to turn toward one another: need to affiliate and need to belong Affiliation is the process of "flocking together" and does not necessarily imply that strong relationships will form Belonging there must be frequent, primarily positive interactions with at least a few other people. these interactions must take place in the context of stable, enduring relationships where there is concern for one another's welfare.

Miligram Experiment

an experiment devised in 1961 by Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University, to see how far ordinary people would go to obey a scientific authority figure -individuals would believe they were shocking others in the opposite room if they pressed a button and when told to do so by an authority figure they would do it

Eating Disorders

are any of a number of complex conditions involving unhealthful patterns of eating or not eating. The most frequently diagnosed of medically-recognized eating disorders are anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN). Causes are complex, but likely include: Genes Culture Sex and Age Psychology

Personality

consists of: -Unique variations on the set of evolved mental and behavioral characteristics which all human beings share to some degree as a result of our common evolutionary history -Traits -Characteristic adaptations (goals, plans, beliefs, social roles, etc.) -Self-narratives: how you describe yourself

Anger

could be defined as a feeling of antagonism toward something or someone. typically occurs as a reaction to an unpleasant event or idea. may exist as a character trait unrelated to any specific occurrence triggering events are exceptionally varied does not necessarily result in aggression, but often does. is the most dangerous of all emotions is defined in part as an emotion "linked associatively with an urge to injure some target"

incentive theory

demonstrated that human beings are frequently motivated by the idea of rewards or incentives, rather than internal drives or arousal needs. suggests that while drives and needs for optimal arousal may push us in certain behavioral directions, incentives pull us. says that as a result of learning over time, people come to associate certain experiences with pleasurable sensations and mental states.

Groupthink

describes situations where counterproductive or even disastrous and tragic group decisions are made as a result of group members not wanting to adversely affect group morale, make waves, or appear disloyal to the group leader breeds and is fed by overconfidence, and effective leaders recognize the dangers of such unrealistic group decision making Psychologist Irving Janis originally borrowed this term from the George Orwell novel 1984.

Affect

describes the general quality of your feelings does not refer to any specific emotion or mood does not differentiate between moods and emotions in general is the raw material from which emotions and moods are created

The Bystander Effect

describes the tendency of people to be less likely to help strangers in need if there are other people present at the scene The presence of groups of bystanders in critical situations does reduce the likelihood of any single individual offering aid. Surprisingly, the more dangerous the circumstance and the more clear-cut the physical danger, the more likely—not less likely-- bystanders are to offer aid.

Goal setting

directs attention toward activity that will help accomplish the job and away from activity that is not relevant to the job. increases effort. increases persistence. has a profound impact on motivation and the performance of tasks. People are more willing to work harder and longer to attain specific and difficult—but possible—goals.

Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)

-is the tendency to attribute other people's behavior to their (internal) dispositions, while ignoring or underestimating the possibility that behavior may be influenced by situational (external) factors -Questions have been raised as to exactly how "fundamental" FAE is. We tend to attribute peoples' behavior due to internal disposition not situational -saying someone's lazy because they missed class not because there was a situation that made them late

Signs of deception

1. Body language of lies: physical expression will be limited and stiff, with few arm and hand movements. Hand and arm and leg movement are toward their own body the liar take up less space, a person who is lying to you will avoid making contact, hands touch the face throat and mouth 2. Emotional gestures and contradiction: timing and duration of emotional guesures are off of a normal pass, guestures/expressions don't match the verbal statement such as frowning when saying I love you, 3. Interactions and reactions: a guilty person gets defensive, uncomfortable facing questioner and may turn body away, 4. Verbal context and content: a liar will use your words to answer a question, a statement with a contraction is more likely to be truthful.

2 Categories of Motivation

1. intrinsic motivation compels us to engage in some behavior because it is rewarding for its own sake. brings a sense of personal accomplishment and satisfaction—regardless of any external, tangible reward 2. extrinsic motivation drives behavior because you are working toward some sort of external reward. most behavior probably occurs as a result of a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations.

Revised Maslow's Hierarchy

3 levels of analysis create the revised pyramid of needs: The evolutionary level level examines how the various needs evolved through natural selection to help solve specific survival- or reproduction-related problems faced recurrently by our ancestors. The developmental level views the pyramid of needs as they play out across the life cycle in a life history. The cognitive level of analysis explores which of the motivational systems is operating to motivate a behavior at any given time. immediate physiological needs (base of pyramid) self-protection Affiliation Status/Esteem Mate Acquisition Mate Retention Parenting (Top of pyramid) -we are all basically the same at the bottom of the pyramid but as we work our way up is where we vary in person to person

General Agression Model (GAM)

According to this model, aggression will (or will not) occur in any given situation as a result of a complex interaction among four factors: Personal characteristics e.g., a person's traits, sex, beliefs, and attitudes; Characteristics of the specific situation e.g., provocation, incentives to aggression, frustration of a goal; Emotions, thoughts, and biological arousal levels which result from the interaction of 1) and 2) above; and 4) Decision-making processes (how the person sizes up the situation and decides to act).

Achievement Motivation

Achievement measures a person's attainments and accomplishments primarily in relation to those of others Individuals differ strongly in their achievement motivation. Those high in achievement motivation have high levels of self-control, and are able to delay gratification. They tend to succeed in business enterprises, hold elected office, and be leaders in organizations (Woike & McAdams, 2001). those with high achievement needs also seem to know better than to bite off more than they can chew tend to set goals that are realistic rather than overly lofty, thus reducing the chances of failure.

Stages of Psychosexual Development

All human beings, according to Freud, experience an inevitable progression through developmental periods in childhood, each of which represents a stage in psychological growth related to sexual life. If the stages are not navigated properly, neurosis may result in adulthood—crippling emotional illness and distortion of personality. The stages are: 1. Oral Stage: center of pleasure is the mouth -oral incorporative (dependent likes to eat, drink, and smoke, good listener but tends toward gullibility) -oral sadistic: sarcastic, cynical "biting with words" 2. Anal Stage -anal expulsive (generous, disregard for rules and order, may be sloppy and slovenly) -anal retentive (orderly, stingy, stubborn, preoccupied with rules) 3. Phallic (Oedipal) Stage: pleasure area is the genitals -failure to resolve Oedipus complex results in various neuroses -desire comes from a desire to have the love and affection of your parent (little boy acts like their fathers so that their mothers will love them) 4. Latency: reduced interest in pleasure or sex 5. Genital: a desire to have intimate relations with someone

Competence Motivation: Approach vs Avoidance

Approach we may seek out—or approach—possibilities to increase or demonstrate competence. Avoidance we also attempt to avoid negative possibilities associated with incompetence and failure. The distinction between motivations to seek positive experiences and motivations and to avoid negative ones is called the approach-avoidance distinction.

Culture

Cross-cultural research has shown that national character stereotypes are inaccurate. Although national character stereotypes are inaccurate, the Big Five traits have been shown to correlate with four of Hofstede's dimensions of culture. Studies among up to 50 cultures show that average traits cluster by culture and geographical area.

Dynamic Processes

Dynamics as Freud used the term implies the idea of constant motion, energy, and conflict between component parts of the mind. Various mental processes are pressed into service by the mind in its efforts to navigate and resolve the conflicts with which it is continuously faced. Some examples are: Dreams and Dream Work Freud believed that dreams are expressions of unconscious sexual or aggressive wishes and conflicts, expressed in symbolic form. Analysis of the latent (hidden) meanings of dreams is an important part of psychoanalysis as a therapy. Anna Freud's Ego Defense Mechanisms These mechanisms are used by the ego to keep threatening or anxiety-provoking material from reaching awareness. -Anna Freud said you have the Id and your superego are always going against each other and your ego tries to help balance it (ex: when faced with something horrible we want to deny it or we repress memories or we regress to a childlike state) -displacement: the idea of projecting your anger onto something safe like your family or punching something

Set Points and Overall Happiness

Each person's general level of subjective well-being and life satisfaction is strongly influenced by a genetic "set point" to which each of us tends to return after uncharacteristic levels of increased or decreased happiness. Set points are not set in stone. People are more likely to experience changes in happiness set point than in many other characteristics affected by genetics. Apart from genetics and life events beyond one's control, the factors which contribute the most to overall happiness, well-being, and life satisfaction are social in nature: friendships, love and parenting relationships, and contributions made to the welfare of others.

Reducing Prejudice with Intergroup Contact

Equal status. There should be equal status between the two groups in the setting in which contact occurs. Common goals. Contact should also occur under conditions characterized by common goals between groups. Intergroup cooperation. These common goals must be attained through intergroup cooperation. Formalized social support. Intergroup contact should occur under conditions supported by law or custom, or be otherwise socially formalized.

Eysenck's Two-Factor Model

Eysenck proposed that in actuality there were only two basic trait dimensions—known as superordinate traits—and all possible traits, such as those described by Allport and later by Catell, could be subsumed under these two overarching umbrella traits (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1963). The superordinate trait dimensions are extraversion-introversion and emotional instability-stability. Introversion-extraversion means the degree to which a person is reserved, quiet, and thoughtful, versus assertive, outgoing, and sociable. By emotional instability (often termed neuroticism), Eysenck is referring to the degree to which a person has enduring tendencies toward various types of negative emotional states (e.g., anxiety, moodiness). Emotional stability indicates a very low level of such tendencies.

basic emotions

Fear, anger, joy/happiness, disgust, interest/surprise, contempt, sadness

Freud and Psychoanalysis

Freud's theory of personality may be divided into three central components: a structural model of the mind, (Conscious, pre-concious, and unconscious) a theory of psychosexual development, and theories of dynamic processes.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

From base to pinnacle Immediate Physiological Needs Safety Love (affection, belonging) Esteem (respect) Self-Actualization

hunger vs apetite

Hunger is a largely homeostatic drive state turned on and off by various physiological changes in the body. It is intended to satisfy needs for immediate energy and/or overall nutrition. Hunger naturally leads to eating. Appetite is a desire to eat. although appetite may be―and often is―driven by hunger, it can also be influenced by a number of other events, such as the appear

Three types of self-serving bias

Overestimating your own contributions Overestimating your positive attributes relative to others—seeing yourself as "better than average." Attributing your successes and good deeds to your own efforts or characteristics, and your bad deeds and failures to circumstances, bad luck, or other people.

Money and Happiness

Increased income results in increased happiness primarily if initial levels of income are quite low. In instances where income is not low, income is not strongly related to levels of emotional happiness. Citizens of nations with high GDPs are much more likely to express overall life satisfaction. Focusing one's life on making money can result in reduced happiness, particularly if one is comparing one's wealth with that of others or against an ideal standard.

hostile vs. instrumental aggression

Instrumental Aggression When aggression occurs to serve an ultimate purpose other than causing harm to a victim, it is termed instrumental aggression Instrumental aggression is usually planned rather than impulsive, although this may not always be the case. Instrumental aggression is also not necessarily accompanied by an emotion such as anger (although it may be). Example: hitman killing a person to gain money not to cause harm Hostile Aggression, When the ultimate purpose for aggression is harming the victim, it is termed hostile aggression. These actions tend to be in reaction to some sort of provocation, accompanied by emotion such as anger, and are often (but not always) impulsive (Anderson & Bushman, 2002). Example: man kills guy that his wife was cheating on him with Although the categories of hostile and instrumental aggression are useful in a general way, they are not always easy to distinguish in behavior. These categories do not take into account the fact that motivations for aggression are often mixed, containing both instrumental and hostile elements

The Self

Is each person's subjective awareness of, and ideas about, his or her own individual nature, characteristics, and very existence What sort of person am I? What do I believe? What are my strengths and weaknesses? How do I compare with others, or with myself in former times? is constantly making self-evaluations and must be able to defend against its own negative judgments

Objective Tests

Objective tests rely on statistical methods to score personality tests by computer, avoiding problems of subjectivity. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) was created using the criterion-key method. The Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R) was created using face validity.

energy balance

People have a general tendency to maintain an energy balance by taking in only as many calories (a measurement of energy units) as are expended overall in activity and the maintenance of bodily functions. Maintaining an energy balance leads to a tendency toward maintaining a fairly consistent body weight over time, known as baseline body weight (Keesey & Hirvonen, 1997). This has sometimes been referred to as weight set point, the implication being that one's "optimal" weight is relatively fixed.

Projective Tests

Projective tests emerged during the mid-twentieth century primarily from psychoanalysis and related theories. They are termed "projective" because the person taking the test is said to unconsciously "project" his or her personality or psychiatric disorder into test items that might seem quite ambiguous. Two of the most frequently used projective tests are the Rorshcach inkblot test and the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). The Rorschach has been sharply criticized for problems with reliability and validity. The TAT traditionally has had problems with those administering the test failing to adhere to standardized scoring methods.

Motivation Characteristics

Purpose: Motivations are psychological forces that initiate actions, direct them toward the desired goal, and encourage us to sustain the effort necessary to attain that goal, whatever it may be. Causes rooted in specific mental states, like extreme alertness due to the effects of an adrenaline rush. Intentionality: Intention can be tricky because, although it implies that a behavior has been consciously chosen, this is not necessarily the case.

Trait Stability

Rank-order trait stability is stability in the ordering of traits for each individual—an indication of which traits are high or low relative to the others in a single person from one time to the next. Mean-level trait stability refers to stability from one time to the next in the average level of each trait among a sample of people. Personality traits are surprisingly stable from childhood to adulthood, particularly if stability is measured through rank order of traits. However, trait change has also been noted, particularly if measured by mean-levels of individual traits. Characteristic adaptations are a person's goals, values, beliefs, social roles, and plans Self narratives are internal "narratives of the self" that evolve over time -both are subject to change

Happiness

can be defined as an emotion (intense and fleeting) Can be defined as a general level of subjective well-being and life satisfaction most people describe themselves as generally happy with their lives most people believe they themselves are happier than others are

mere exposure effect

Researchers have found that people come to appreciate almost anything the more times they are exposed to it, be it letters, shapes, syllables, melodies, faces—or people. According to the founder of mere exposure theory, Robert Zajonc, it is part of our evolved psychology to be cautious around unfamiliar objects and people, and to be more open to familiar stimuli and individuals (Zajonc, 1968). This idea is consistent with findings of cross-cultural research in human universals (Brown, 1991).

Self Control and Self Regulation

Self-control involves resisting temptation or impulse; in a sense, it is laying aside a powerful, immediate desire, response, or goal in the service of more important, overriding long-term goals; it is a specific aspect of the more general concept self-regulation -The Marshmallow Test: you are a small child and someone gives you a marshmallow and they say you can eat it now or you can wait and I'll give you another one. Most children who held off on the gratification ended up doing better in school and life Self-regulation includes all of the ways that the self monitors and exerts control over its responses so as to accomplish goals and live up to personal standards

Two Cognitive Biases

Self-serving bias a tendency to make various sorts of judgment errors—always in your own favor. Positive Illusions false beliefs with beneficial consequences

Traits and Situations

Situations are often as important as traits in determining behavior, although traits still predict behavior with some accuracy if behaviors are aggregated (combined) rather looked at individually. Situation-behavior profiles, which take both traits and situations into account, are more predictive of behavior than either situations or traits taken alone.

Stress

Stress is usually defined as the psychological and physiological consequence of any event which challenges a person's ability to cope and which threatens well-being or interferes with important goals. Each specific stressful event is known as a stressor. The stress response is highly adaptive in the short term and serves important functions. The most common response to short-term stress—even severe stress—is resilience. Chronic, unremitting stress can be damaging to brain and body. -stress can increase susceptibility to colds, increase risk of coronary heart disease, and depression

The Big Five

The Big Five is currently the most widely accepted trait model of personality (Funder, 2001). The five factors are labeled: Openness to experience: -High scorers: imaginative, curious, intellectual, creative, dislike routine -Low scorers: practical, like routine, not oriented toward intellectual pursuits, down to earth Conscientiousness: -High scorers: careful, well-organized, responsible -Low scorers: careless, inefficient, irresponsible Extraversion: -High scorers: sociable, energetic, assertive, oriented towards others -Low scorers: passive, reserved, quiet, oriented toward self Agreeableness: -High Scorers: warm, kind, empathetic, trusting -Low scorers: hostile, suspicious, unkind, untrustworthy Neuroticism: -High scorers: easily upset, anxious, emotional, self-pitying, and worriers -Low scorers: even-tempered, comfortable with themselves, calm, emotionally stable

James-Lange Theory vs Cannon-Bard Theory

The James-Lange theory Emotional stimuli trigger a physiological reaction. Only when awareness of this reaction reaches the cerebral cortex is emotion experienced. The Cannon-Bard theory Once emotional stimuli are perceived, physiological responses and emotional experience occur simultaneously.

Cognitive Theories

The Schachter and Singer two-factor theory states that that physiological arousal follows directly after perception of an emotional stimulus, but the process of cognitive labeling of the arousal intervenes prior to the experience of emotion. The Lazarus cognitive-motivational-relational theory states no physiological arousal or emotional experience can occur unless cognitive appraisal and/or labeling has already occurred.

Violent and Nonviolent Acts of Agression

Violence is an aggressive act whose goal is to inflect serious physical injury or even death (Anderson & Bushman, 2002). All violent acts constitute aggression, because they are by definition intended to cause harm. Aggression can be verbal in the form of taunts, insults, cruel criticism, ostracism, or gossip. If verbal behavior is intended to harm or denigrate a person, it can be said to constitute a form of aggression

Display Rules

are implicit standards and expectations that regulate the way emotion is displayed in a given culture. There are four ways in which display rules might vary: Intensifying: as at a funeral where one is expected to show a great deal of vivid grief De-intensifying: as after a tennis match when the victor is usually expected to tone down expressions of joy while the defeated opponent is present Masking: as when one pretends to feel a certain emotion while actually feeling a different (probably unacceptable) one. like when you receive a disappointing gift in front of the gift-giver Neutralizing: the complete hiding of emotions-- as while attempting to be convincing during a lie

Instincts

are innate, are automatic behavioral tendencies that will occur reliably in all (normally-developed) members of a species in response to some sort of cue from the environment. These cues are known as releasing stimuli because they "release" the instinctive behavior. Because instincts are now considered to be truly "fixed" sequences of behavior initiated by some releasing stimulus, the term fixed-action pattern was coined to replace use of the term instinct among most scientists

id, ego, superego

are metaphors for qualities possessed by the human mind, with unknown neural origins in the brain. -Id functions primarily at the level of the unconscious mind, and is driven by the pleasure principle: to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Id is expressed in dreams, in superstition, in uncontrolled aggressive or immoral behavior, and in satisfaction of basic drives such as sex, hunger, and thirst. it develops first in childhood Considered the primary process: mindless, irrational, lacking morality and unable to distinguish between fantasy and reality -Ego—partly conscious, partly unconscious—allows the person to survive, mediating between the demands of the real world and the blind strivings of the id. Just as id functions according to the pleasure principle, ego, the secondary process, functions according to the reality principle. Considered the secondary process, rational concerned with safety, organizes info and makes decisions, mediates between the id and superego -Superego represents the conscience and is the wellspring of human morality, according to Freudian theory. Superego watches the work of ego and passes judgment on it. It punishes the psyche with guilt or shame when it perceives that wrong has been done, and points the individual in the direction of ideal behavior. the well-spring of conscience and morality, passes judgement on actions guided by the ego and causes guilt when ego chooses wrongly

Social comparison Theory

are theories exploring the ways in which people make social comparisons, their reasons for doing so, and the consequences of comparison judgments are known collectively Psychologist Leon Festinger (1954), initially believed that people generally make comparisons with other people who are similar to themselves. The purpose of these comparisons, according to Festinger, is the self-evaluative motive—you use them to rationally evaluate your own abilities and clarify your opinions and beliefs.

Strengths

are those enduring qualities which result from consistently having made constructive life choices in specific areas. These are choices which lead to universally-valued virtues including wisdom and knowledge, courage, humanity, and justice. According to Seligman, there are 24 principal and universal (or nearly universal) strengths each associated with six specific virtues (Peterson & Seligman, 2004; Seligman, 2002; see Table 10.1). Each of us has a few strengths in particular—perhaps four or five—with which we particularly identify. These qualities define who we are in the best sense and are our signature strengths.

Behaviorism

believed that personality was acquired over time through experiences of classical and operant conditioning. Behaviors acquired through association between stimuli or experiences of reinforcement and punishment become both the definition and expression of each person's personality

Embodied Emotion Theories

generally the central assumption that Emotions are "captured" as body memories. Each time an emotion is experienced, the sights, sounds, physiological processes, and patterns of body movement that occur during experience of the emotion are encoded in clusters of neurons assigned to each of these various modalities (sight, sound, physiological responses, etc.). The facial feedback hypothesis has found that activating the muscles that form facial expressions associated with basic emotions can sometimes actually create the experience of emotion

actor-observer bias

gets its name from the idea that people hold a separate bias depending on whether they are the actor in a situation (biased toward situational explanations) or the observer (biased toward dispositional explanations, as in the FAE) occurs primarily when a person makes an attribution for his or her own behavior. in judging our own behavior we tend to be biased in favor of situational attributions because we are aware of the many ways that circumstances alter our behavior

Deindividuation

is a lessening of self-awareness or identity when in a group, leading to reduced concern with how your behavior will be evaluated by others is fed by people's tendency to feel more anonymous and less accountable for their behavior in groups can have disastrous consequences if it occurs in interaction with other social psychological factors such as being assigned a social role that puts you in a position of power over other individuals, such as the role of prison guard example the standard prison experiment

Positive assortment

is the tendency to seek mates who are similar to ourselves was originally known by social psychologists as the matching phenomenon, but recently psychologists increasingly are calling it by the name used by biologists Investigators have found not only that people tend to positively assort, but also that in general they are happier in such pairings, their relationships are more stable, there are fewer infidelities and divorces, and they even seem to raise more children to maturity than couples in "opposites attract" relationships.

Emotion

is a psychological state consisting of five essential components: using fear as example in parenthesis) 1. neural systems dedicated to processing or producing emotion (neural pathways from the thalamus and cerebral cortex to the amygdala, insult, and other brain regions) 2. a subjective experience or feeling (a distinct, subjective feeling of alarm and the presence of danger) 3. physiological changes (an increase in activity of the sympathetic nervous system) 4. cognitive changes associated with the emotion (Fear-related changes in thinking) 5. behavioral responses which express the emotion (facial expressions of fear, shaky tone of voice, etc.)

Loneliness

is a universal experience—virtually all people experience it at some time is an overwhelmingly unpleasant feeling that results when there is some type of discrepancy between our perception of the interpersonal relationships we have, and the relationships we wish to have does not necessarily result from any particular situation does not mean being alone, which can be a very pleasant experience results from your perception and interpretation of the meaning of being alone or isolated from specific others.

Impression Manangement

is monitoring and attempting to control how we appear to other people consists of two processes: impression motivation and impression construction Impression motivation can be to obtain a desired goal, increase self-esteem, or alter our public identity. Impression construction can be effected by factors like self-concept, desired identity images, and undesired identity images.

perceived self-efficacy

is our core belief about your ability to produce change or accomplish a specific task through your own efforts influences your choice of goals influences how much effort you put into accomplishing your chosen goals. affects the length of time you are willing to persevere in the face of difficulties. affects the direction, intensity, and duration of motivated behavior.

Coping

is the complex and highly variable processes by which we ensure that the demands of potentially stressful situations do not overwhelm our psychological or material resources. Some effective methods are: Optimism Aerobic Exercise Meditation Social Support Religion and Spiritual Life Pet adoption

Fight or Flight

is the complex stress response first described by Walter Cannon and elaborated by Hans Selye in the general adaptation syndrome (GAS), consists of three phases: Alarm Resistance Exhaustion According to Shelley Taylor, the tendency to care for infants and affiliate with others is a response to stress that is at least as common among women as fight or flight. The hormone oxytocin may trigger the desire to extend care and seek social support.

Human Aggression

is the general term used when an individual or group carries out an act that is intended to harm another individual or group in some way. (1) For an act to constitute aggression, the aggressor must believe that the act is truly harmful, and (2) the target of the aggression must be motivated to avoid the behavior (Anderson & Bushman, 2002). To be considered aggression, the harm must be intentional, not accidental, and the victim must experience it as harmful, or at least potentially harmful. has strong evolutionary roots throughout the animal world and in human history. has clearly been the cause of some of the greatest tragedies in human existence, and also results in small daily miseries that may escape notice

Altruism

is the offering of assistance to others without the expectation of immediate reward has two types of causes: Proximate causes are immediate and direct. Proximate causes of animal behavior (including human behavior) include not only motivations, but also physiological, biochemical, and neural processes as well as learning. Ultimate causes explain why some type of behavior—altruism, for example—exists in the first place. Ultimate explanations show how the effects of some behavior would have benefited the survival and reproduction of human beings over evolutionary time and therefore evolved through natural selection

Attribution

is the process of explaining behavior—ours or someone else's—in terms of causes that refer to characteristics of the person (dispositional cause), the situation (situational cause), or an interaction between the two Some classes categorize a person's actions as either intentional or unintentional, according to whether the person chose to engage in the behavior or if the behavior was in some way unintended or not under the person's control

Spotlight Effect

is the self-centered tendency of people to believe that other people pay more attention to their negative or positive behaviors than is actually the case Others simply are not watching. Why? They are too busy worrying about their own spotlights to pay attention to ours. -we feel like everyone is looking at us especially when we do something negative -Barry Manalo effect: no one noticed bring embarrassing t-shirt but the person wearing it felt embarrassed and thought everyone was looking at them

Social Psychology

is the study of the influence of social situations on the individual—and the influence of the individual on social situations is the lens through which psychologists view the social individual by him- or herself, as well as in pairs, groups, crowds

Conformity

is the tendency of people to bring their behavior and/or attitudes in line with group norms and pressures has two types of motivation and influence: informational and normative. Informational motivations and influences are not based on the fear of looking foolish or wanting to be liked, but rather on a rational desire to seek realistic information about some situation from the group and adjust behavior accordingly. Normative motivations and influences reflect the desire to obtain approval from the group or avoid embarrassment—as in the case of participants in the Asch experiment who conformed to an obviously incorrect group opinion his experiment: only one person was in the experiment but the others were not and they were told to pick the shortest wrong answer and then. 34% gave the wrong answers and conformed to the group

Ingroup Bias

is the tendency to favor and extend loyalty to members one's own group (the ingroup) over others (the outgroup) exists universally in all societies yet studied, and has been shown in part to have a genetic basis also seems to appear spontaneously as soon as a group identity is created, even a relatively arbitrary group identity

Intimacy

is usually understood to describe interpersonal relationships, or moments within relationships, that are characterized by warmth, closeness, and mutual support and communication contains two key elements: self-disclosure and partner responsiveness. Self-disclosure is the sharing of revealing personal information, thoughts, and feelings to another person. The partner then responds in a way that demonstrates understanding, support, and caring, often by offering his or her own self-disclosures

cognitive dissonance

occurs when a person's behavior and attitudes are not in harmony can give rise to uncomfortable feelings For uncomfortable feelings to resolve, the attitude has to change, the behavior has to cease, or beliefs about the discrepancy between them have to change. ' we slowly change our attitude about things and end up liking something we didn't before called cognitive dissonance

Drive Theory

proposed that behavior is motivated primarily by the desire to reduce unpleasant conditions of arousal that result from basic physiological needs Desires to reduce unpleasant arousal states are known as drives is sometimes referred to as drive-reduction theory. is based on the notion that organisms seek to maintain a steady, consistent, and balanced physiological state. This steady, regulated state is known as homeostasis, which literally means "to stay the same." example you take off jacket when you get hot

Stereotyping

refers to a tendency to attribute clusters of traits to specific categories of individuals and objects is an intrinsic property of the human mind without which we might have difficulty functioning properly or even surviving. can backfire and cause serious problems to the individual and society when stereotypes are applied inappropriately to social groups and individuals from those groups.

social cognitive theory

social-cognitive theories focus on the way human cognitive mechanisms interact with social variables to create characteristic behavior patterns Social-cognitive personality theorists portray human beings as causal agents—beings who consciously seek and select their own environments, developing skills and competencies, and creating their own personalities rather than being ruled by them (Bandura, 1997; 2001). triadic reciprocal determinism claims that one cannot understand personality without understanding the way that the individual's environment, behavior, and personal factors (such as temperament, feelings, and thoughts) are constantly interacting and influencing—indeed, creating— one another.

Shared and Non-shared Environments

the unique experiences encountered by each developing child are known as the nonshared environment because these environmental factors are experienced only by the child in question and not by other children in the home. Environmental factors shared by all children living in a home—parent education, income, beliefs and attitudes, childrearing and discipline styles, and so forth—are termed the shared environment. Virtually all available behavior genetics research suggests that it is the child's unique experiences in the world, rather than the shared environment to which all children living in a home are exposed, that contributes virtually all of the environmental influence on adolescent and adult personality

Cardinal Traits

things that are so predominate in your life that you become known by that trait (ex the name Judas) usually associated with something bad

Three types of Positive illusions

uncritically positive views of the self, illusions of control, unrealistic optimism (when you make goals that are unrealistic and unattainable)