Allison Psych Exam Annette Module 40-46+27 Terms

Outgroup

"Them"- those perceived as different or apart from our group

Ingroup

"Us"- people with whom we share a common identity

Free Association

(1) A method where the Freud would tell his patient to relax and say whatever comes to mind. (2) In psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and say whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing.

Terror- Management Theory

(1) A theory of death-related anxiety; explores people's emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death. (2) Experiments testing TMT Show that thinking about one's mortality-for example, by writing a short essay on dying and its associated emotions-provokes various terror-management defenses. (3) Proposes a basic psychological conflict that results from having a desire to live but realizing that death is inevitable. This conflict produces terror, and is believed to be unique to human. Ex. (1) death anxiety increases contempt for others and esteem for oneself (2) Also adhere more strongly to worldviews that answer questions about life's meaning.

Unconditional Positive Regard

(1) According to Rogers, an attitude of total acceptance toward another person. (2) An attitude of grace that values us even knowing our failings

Insight

(1) An abrupt, true-seeming and often satisfying solution. (2) A sudden realization of a problem's solution; contrasts with strategy- based solutions.

Attitude

(1) Feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events. (2) Attitudes are feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose our reaction to objects, people, and events. Example: If we believe someone is threatening us, we may feel fear and anger toward the person and act defensively.

Humanistic Theories

(1) Focus on the way "healthy people" strive for self- determination and self- realization. (2) Views personality with a focus on the potential for healthy personal growth.

Projective Test

(1) How psychodynamic clinicians attempt to asses personality. Ask test- takers to describe an ambiguous stimulus or tell a story about it, the description or story is supposed to be a projection of one's inner thoughts and feelings (2) A personality test, such as Rorschach inkblot test, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one's inner dynamics. Example: Rorschach inkblot test

Repression

(1) In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from the conscious anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories. (2) The basic mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing impulses, enables other defense mechanisms. It underlies all the other defense mechanisms. - It banishes anxiety-arousing wishes, and feelings from the conscious.

Personality Inventory

(1) Long questionnaires that assess several traits at once using questions that cover a wide range of feelings and behaviors. (2) A questionnaire (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to asses selected personality traits"

Sublimation

(1) Only healthy one. (2) Only positive constructive one. (3) What do you do if you feel like someone is pissing you off and want to strangle them, do something good instead...work out, try out for football team, do something creative with negative energy. (4) All stuffed negative and aggressive drives work out in positive ways.

Intuition

(1) Our fast, automatic, unreasoned feelings and thoughts. (2) An effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning

Algorithm

(1) Step-by-step procedures that guarantee a solution. (2) A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem (opposite of heuristics-which is speedier, but more error prone.)

Identification

(1) The child's superego gains strength and he or she begins to incorporate their parent's values. (2) The process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their parent's values into their developing superego. Example: "I want to be like Dad"

Psychoanalysis

(1) The combination of Freud's theory of personality and associated treatment techniques (2) Freud's theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions.

Learned Helplessness

(1) The hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events (2) When animals and people experience no control over repeated bad events, they often learn helplessness (3) Not just in animals. Passive resignation. When repeatedly faced with traumatic events over which they have no control, people come to feel helpless, hopeless, and depressed.

Reciprocal Determinism

(1) The interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment. (2) The social-cognitive perspective proposes that our personalities are shaped by the interaction of our personal traits (including our thoughts and feelings), our environment, and our behaviors Ex: 1) Different people choose different environments- you choose your environment and then it shapes you 2) Our personalities and how we interpret and react to events. Anxious people for example are attuned to potentially threatening events. Thus they perceive the world as threatening and react accordingly.

Ego

(1) The largely conscious "executive" part of the personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. The ego operates in the reality principle (satisfying the id's desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain) - Reality principle = seeks to gratify the id's impulses in realistic ways that will bring long term pleasure.

Framing

(1) The way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments (2) The way we present an issue, sways our decisions and judgments

Unconscious

(1) Thoughts, wishes, feelings and memories that exist and function beneath our awareness (2) According to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we unaware.

Defense Mechanism

(1) Unconscious process employed to avoid anxiety- arousing thoughts or feelings. (2) In psychoanalytic theory, the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.

Social- Cognitive Perspective

(1) Views behavior as influenced by the interaction between people's traits (including their thinking) and their social context. [Alfred Bandura] (2) It emphasizes the interaction of our traits with our situations. o What believe: 1) Believe we learn many of our behaviors either through conditioning or by observing and imitating others. 2) Emphasize the importance of mental processes. 3) Instead of focusing soley on how our environment controls us, focus on how we and our environment interact.

Fixation

(1) When, at some point during the Psychosexual Stages, a strong conflict locks the person's pleasure- seeking energies in that stage (2) According to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved. (3) Refers to when a person is "stuck" in one stage of psychosexual development. For example, if a person does not get through the oral stage of development properly, then Freud would say that the person is fixated in the oral stage and will continue to seek oral pleasures, and will not be able to progress to the next stage of development until the oral issues are resolved.

Prototype

- A mental image of best example of a category. - Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories (as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a robin) *People are more likely to agree a robin is a bird than a penguin.

Trait

A characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self- report inventories and peer reports. -People's characteristic behaviors and conscious motives

Collective Unconscious

A common reservoir of images, or archetypes derived from our species' universal experiences. Example mother as symbol of nurturance

Equity

A condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it. - Key to a gratifying and enduring relationship. (necessary for companionate love)

Stereotype

A generalized (sometimes accurate belief but often over generalized) belief about a group of people

Concept

A mental grouping of similar object, events, ideas, or people.

Conflict

A perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas.

Personality

A person's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling and acting.

Self- Serving Bias

A readiness to perceive oneself favorably

Id

A reservoir of unconscious psychic energy, that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives and operates on the pleasure principle. [(demanding) immediate gratification] *Unconscious energy

Role

A set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave. Ex: when you become a college student, marry or begin a new job-you strive to follow the social prescriptions. Soldiers feel like "playing war". Newlyweds may feel like "playing house." Before long, however, what began as acting in the theater of life becomes you. (Zimbardo Prison Exper)

Heuristic

A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments or solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error- prone than algorithms.

Social Trap

A situation in which the conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing their self- interest, become caught in mutually destructive behavior. Example: tragedy of the commons (form of social trap)

Factor Analysis

A statistical procedure used to identify clusters (factors) of test items that tap basic components of a trait (such as for intelligence, spatial ability, or verbal skill)

Mental Set

A tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.

Confirmation Bias

A tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions (preconceived ideas) and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.

Empirically Derived Test

A test developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups. Example: MMPI

Oedipus Complex

According to Freud, a boy's sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father. Fear castration from father *Named after the Greek legend of Oedipus who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother

Conformity

Adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard (Asch experiment)

Self-Concept

All of the thoughts and feelings in response to the question "Who am I?" - If our self-concept is positive we tend to act and perceive the world positively.

Cognition

All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. Ex: One activity is forming concepts.

Passionate Love

An aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a love relationship -Two Factor Theory of Emotion: Bridge example*

Social- Responsibility Norm

An expectation that people will help those dependent upon them. (Even if costs outweigh the benefits) Ex: small child falls onto tracks, jump down and save them

Reciprocity Norm

An expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them. - Through socialization we learn this. The expectation that we should return help, not harm, to those who have helped us. - Reciprocity Norm compels use to give (in favors, gifts or social invitations) about as much as we receive.

Prejudice

An unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members. Prejudice generally involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory action. - Often to a different cultural, gender, or ethnic group. - 3 part mixture. •Beliefs (stereotypes) •Emotions (hostility, fear) •Predisposition to action (to discriminate) - A negative attitude

Aggression

Any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy.

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

Assesses "abnormal" personality tendencies and is commonly used to identify emotional disorders. Now used for man other screening purposes.

Belief Perseverance

Clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited. (even in the face of contradictory evidence)

Social Script

Culturally modeled guide for how to act in various situations -When we find ourselves in new situations, uncertain how to behave, we rely on social scripts. Ex: watch films, and will reenact that and act it act in life, take on role. Violent film, boy might take on this script later when facing conflict. He might act "like a man" Violent video games.

Psychodynamic Theories

DEFF 1: View personality with a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences DEFF 2: (Fred) Childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality.

Projection

Disguising one's own threatening impulses by attributing them to others Example: "The thief thinks everyone else is a thief"

Availability Heuristic

Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common. - Can cause us to fear the wrong things. Watch news hear a lot about plane crashes so fear flying (when really not that great of risk, there are greater risks out there)

Narcissism

Excessive self- love and self- absorption Example: 1) People accept more responsibility for good deeds than for bad, and for success than for failures. 2) Most people see themselves as better than average.

GRIT

Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension- Reduction; a strategy designed to decrease international tensions. - One side first announces its recognition of mutual interests and its intent to reduce tensions. It then initiates one or more small, conciliatory acts. Opens door for reciprocity.

Normative Social Influence

Influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval

Informational Social Influence

Influence resulting from one's willingness to accept others' opinions about reality.

Mirror- Image Perception

Mutual views often held by conflicting people, as when each side sees itself as ethical and peaceful and views the other side as evil and aggressive. (2) When parties in conflict see positive traits within themselves but negative traits in the opposite group. - Feed vicious cycles of hostility.

Central Route Persuasion

Occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts. (It occurs mostly when people are naturally analytical or involved in the issue.) Ex: Environmentalists show us evidence or rising temps, melting glaciers, rising seas...because it is more thoughtful and less superficial, it is more durable and more likely to influence behavior.

Peripheral Route Persuasion

Occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker's attractiveness. Ex: A perfume ad may lure us with images of people in love

Rationalization

Offering self- justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening unconscious reasons for one's actions. "People making execuses that don't hold water for bad behavior." Example: (1) A habitual drinker says she drinks with her friends "just to be sociable". (2) If you shop lift a pack of gum from target, you could say they overcharge anyways or it's only 50 cents.

Self-esteem

Ones feeling of high or low self worth

Self

Organizer of our thoughts, feelings, and actions; center of personality.

Spotlight effect

Overestimating others' noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders (as if we presume a spotlight shines on us)

Rorschach Inkblot Test

People describe what they see in a series of inkblots. Seeks to identify peoples inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots. - The most widely used projective test. - Designed by Herman Rorschach.

Oral (0-18 months)

Pleasure centers on the mouth- sucking, biting, chewing

Anal (18-36 months)

Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination; coping with demands for control

Phallic (3-6 years)

Pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with incestuous sexual feelings

Denial

Refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities. Stuff unpleasant emotional material into unconscious (happening from present) Example: (1) A partner denies evidence of his loved one's affair. (2) After the death of a child parents might leave the kids room identical to the way it was before because they cant face the death. They might act as if nothing has happened only way to deal with pain.

Regression

Retreating to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated Example: A little boy reverts to the oral comfort of thumb sucking in the car on the way to his first day of school

Self- Disclosure

Revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others. - Hopes, dreams, worries, our proud and shameful moments.

Superordinate Goals

Shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation.

Displacement

Shifting sexual or aggressive impulses towards a more acceptable or less threatening person. (unconsciously do this). Displace emotion on someone else (anger). Example: (1) A little girl kicks the family dog after her mother sends her to her room. (2) When your angry at your boss, so what you do is kick the dog or yell at your mom.

Social Facilitation

Stronger responses on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others. - What you do well, you are likely to do even better in front of an audience, especially a friendly audience. - What you normally find difficult may seem all but impossible when you are being watched.

Reaction Formation

Switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites Example: Repressing angry feelings, a person displays exaggerated friendliness. Or abused wives (so upset should be upset and angry with abuse, instead feel more love towards husband.)

Big 5

Tests five dimensions: Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extraversion.

Self- Control

The ability to control impulses and delay short- term gratification for greater long- term rewards

Psychosexual Stages

The childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which, according to Freud, the id's pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones (pleasure-sensitive areas of the body)

Companionate Love

The deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined. - As love matures, a deep, affectionate attachment. What happens: The flood of passion-facilitating hormones (testosterone, dopamine, adrenaline) subsides and another hormone, oxytocin, supports feelings of trust, calmness, and bonding with the mate.

Group Polarization

The enhancement of a group's prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group. Example: terrorist groups (starts with grievance, grows with brothers and sisters in camps, get more and more extreme, more us vs. them), internet now helps this, religious groups=spirituality.

Personal Control:

The extent to which we perceive control over our environment

Deindividuation

The loss of self- awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity. "Whether in a mod, at a rock concert, at a ballgame, when we shed self awareness and self-restraint, we become more responsive to the group experience-good or bad."

Groupthink

The mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. Ex: Bay of pigs fiasco, no one spoke up to Kennedy.

Superego

The part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgement (the conscience) and for future aspirations. - The voice of our moral compass that forces the ego to consider not only the real but the ideal. Focuses on how we ought to behave. It strives for perfection, judging our actions, and producing positive feelings of pride or negative feelings of guilt. Example: someone with exceptionally strong Superego might be virtuous yet guilt ridden. Someone with a weak superego might be wantonly self-indulgent and remorseless.

External Locus of Control

The perception that chance or outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate.

Internal Locus of Control

The perception that you control your own fate

Mere Exposure Effect

The phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them - In some senses familiarity breeds fondness Examples: We are even somewhat more likely to marry someone whose first last name resembles our own. More times we someone, somethings, name, human faces, more fond we grow of it.

Frustration- Aggression Principle

The principle that frustration- the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal- creates anger, which can generate aggression. Examples: 1) Pitchers were most likely to batters when...*they had been frustrated by the previous batter hitting a home run, *a teammate had been hit by a pitch in the previous half-inning, *the current batter hit a home run the last time at bat. 2) Aversive stimuli-hot temperatures, physical pain, foul odors, crowding, can evoke hostility.

Self- Actualization:

The process of fulfilling our potential, what we strive to achieve. oPyramid of self actualization= Most basics needs food, water, → shelter, safety→ love +belongingness→ esteem→self-actualization - He thought we all had the potential to reach the top but it is hard, you cannot become self actualized until self actualized

Social Psychology

The scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another. Why the same person will act differently in different situations.

Positive Psychology

The study of thriving people and communities

Bystander Effect

The tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present. (Diffusion of responsibility when in groups)

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency for observers, when analyzing another's behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition - Overestimate the influence of personality and underestimate the influence of situation Example: When someone falls on ice, automatic tendency to assume that, that person is clumsy.

Social Loafing

The tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable. Effect of others' presence on performance on an individual task. When amongst others, exert less effort toward attaining a common goal then when doing it alone or held individually accountable. Why: 1) When in a group feel less accountable, worry less what others think 2) group members may view their individual contributions as dispensable (removable, can do without) 3) some may slack off, people take free ride while others who are more motivated work harder.

Just- World Phenomenon

The tendency for people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get "That good is rewarded and evil is punished"

Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon

The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.

Overconfidence

The tendency to be more confident than correct- to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments. - Overconfidence can lead to issues in stock market, stockbrokers and investment managers marker their ability and out perform stock marker averages, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. - Failing to appreciate our potential for error and believing we will have more money next year, we take out loans or buy on credit.

Ingroup Bias

The tendency to favor our own group

Other- Race Effect

The tendency to recall faces of one's own race more accurately than faces of other races.

Social Exchange Theory

The theory that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs. - Widely held view that self-interest underlies all human interactions, that our constant goal is to maximize rewards and minimize costs. Example: Whether or not to give blood. Weigh cost of doing so (time, discomfort, and anxiety) against the benefit (reduced guilt, social approval, and good feelings) If rewards exceed costs, you will help.

Scapegoat Theory

The theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame. Example: After 9/11 some outraged people lashed out at innocent Arab-Americans.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

The theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent. For example, when we become aware that our attitudes and our actions clash, we reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes.

Attribution Theory

The theory that we explain someone's behavior by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition.

Discrimination

Unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members. A negative behavior.

Altruism

Unselfish regard for the welfare of others