Psychology Unit 4 Terms

tend-and-befriend

under stress, people (especially women) often provide support to others (tend) and bond with and seek support from others (befriend)

what are the four types of blood cells active in destroying bacteria, viruses, and other invaders?

-B lymphocytes (white blood cells): release antibodies that fight *bacterial infections* -T lymphocytes (white blood cells): attack *cancer cells, viruses, and foreign substances* -macrophages ("big eaters"): identify, pursue, and ingest *harmful invaders and worn-out cells needing to be cleaned up* -natural killer cells (NK cells): pursue *diseased cells* (such as those infected by viruses and cancer) that need to be cleared out

which of the following factors do NOT predict self-reported happiness? which factors are better predictors? — age, personality traits, close relationships, gender, sleep and exercise, religious faith

-do NOT predict self-reported happiness = age, gender -better predictors = personality traits, close relationships, sleep and exercise, religious faith

psychodynamic personality theory

-key proponents: Adler, Horney, Jung -assumptions: the unconscious and conscious minds interact; childhood experiences and defense mechanisms are important -view of personality: the dynamic interplay of conscious and unconscious motives and conflicts shape our personality -personality assessment methods: projective tests, therapy sessions

trait personality theory

-key proponents: Allport, Eysenck, McCrae, Costa -assumptions: we have certain stable and enduring characteristics, influenced by genetic predispositions -view of personality: scientific study of traits has isolated important dimensions of personality, such as the Big Five traits (conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extraversion) -personality assessment methods: personality inventories

social-cognitive personality theory

-key proponents: Bandura -assumptions: our traits and the social context interact to produce our behaviors -view of personality: conditioning and observational learning interact with cognition to create behavior patterns -personality assessment methods: our behavior in one situation is best predicted by considering our past behavior in similar situations

psychoanalytic personality theory

-key proponents: Freud -assumptions: emotional disorders spring from unconscious dynamics, such as unresolved sexual and other childhood conflicts, and fixation at various developmental stages; defense mechanisms fend off anxiety -view of personality: personality consists of pleasure-seeking impulses (the id), a reality-oriented executive (the ego), and an internalized set of ideals (the superego) -personality assessment methods: free association, projective tests, dream analysis

humanistic personality theory

-key proponents: Rogers, Maslow -assumptions: rather than examining the struggle of sick people, it's better to focus on the ways healthy people strive for self-realization -view of personality: if our basic human needs are met, people will strive toward self-actualization; in a climate of unconditional positive regard, we can develop self-awareness and a more realistic and positive self-concept -personality assessment methods: questionnaires, therapy sessions

how do our attitudes and our actions affect each other?

-our attitudes often influence our actions as we behave in ways consistent with our beliefs -however, our attitudes also follow our actions; we come to believe in what we have done

what is social facilitation, and why is it more likely to occur with a well-learned task?

-this improved performance in the presence of others is most likely to occur with a well-learned task because the added arousal caused by an audience tends to strengthen the most likely response -this also predicts poorer performance on a difficult task in others' presence

when your immune system doesn't function properly, what are the two ways in which it can err?

1. responding too strongly 2. underreacting

what type of blood cell would be used to fight bacterial infections?

B lymphocytes

Type A

Friedman and Rosenman's term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people

Type B

Friedman and Rosenman's term for easygoing, relaxed people

general adaptation syndrome (GAS)

Hans Selye's concept of the body's adaptive response to stress in three phases—alarm, resistance, and exhaustion; proposed that the body's adaptive response to stress is so general that, like a single burglar alarm it sounds no matter what intrudes 1. alarm reaction: your sympathetic nervous system is suddenly activated, your heart rate zooms, blood is diverted to your skeletal muscles, you feel the faintness of shock → with your resources mobilized, you are now ready to fight back 2. resistance: your temperature, blood pressure, and respiration remain high; your adrenal glands pump hormones into your bloodstream; you are fully engaged, summoning all your resources to meet the challenge → as time passes, with no relief from stress, your body's resources begin to dwindle 3. exhaustion: you become more vulnerable to illness or even, in extreme events, collapse and death

psychology's most famous obedience experiments, in which most participants obeyed an authority figure's demands to inflict presumed painful, dangerous shocks on an innocent participant, were conducted by which social psychologist?

Stanley Milgram

what type of blood cell would be used to attack cancer cells, viruses, and foreign substances?

T lymphocytes

what's the difference between someone with a Type A and Type D personality?

Type A (A for anger) individuals direct their negative emotion toward dominating others, while Type D individuals experience distress (D for distress) rather than anger and suppress their negative emotion to avoid social disapproval

conformity

adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard

social-cognitive perspective

a perspective that views behavior as influenced by the interaction between people's traits (including their thinking) and their social context -proposed by Albert Bandura

hazing

a process, based on a tradition that is used by groups to discipline and to maintain hierarchy; regardless of consent, the rituals require individuals to engage in activities that are physically and psychologically stressful -these activities can be humiliating, demeaning, intimidating, and exhausting, all of which results in -physical and/or emotional discomfort hazing is about group dynamics and proving one's worthiness to become a member of the specific group -the blueprint of hazing states that the newcomer, or victim, is hazed → once accepted by the group, the victim becomes a bystander, and watches as others get hazed → eventually, the bystander achieves senior status and power and becomes a perpetrator

self-serving bias

a readiness to perceive oneself favorably -people accept more responsibility for good deeds than for bad, and for success than for failures -most people see themselves as better than average

role

a set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave

emotional preoccupation coping

a strategy that involves a fixation with the emotional consequences of health problems → getting wrapped up in the "sick role"

palliative coping

a strategy that involves a variety of self-help responses aimed at alleviating the unpleasantness of the situation

distraction coping

a strategy that involves attempts by a person experiencing a health problem to think about more pleasant experiences, engage in unrelated activities, or seek the company of others

instrumental coping

a strategy that involves task-oriented responses such as actively seeking out health information or seeking medical advice

health psychology

a subfield of psychology that provides psychology's contribution to behavioral medicine

coping

alleviating stress using emotional, cognitive, or behavioral methods

bullying

an intentional act of aggression that is meant to harm a victim either physically or psychologically

emotion-focused coping

attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to our stress reaction -we tend to use these strategies when we believe we cannot change a situation -ex: if, despite our best efforts, we cannot get along with that family member, we may relieve stress by reaching out to friends for support and comfort

problem-focused coping

attempting to alleviate stress directly—by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor -we tend to use these strategies when we feel a sense of control over a situation and think we can change the circumstances, or at least change ourselves to deal with the circumstances more capably -ex: if our impatience leads to a family fight, we may go directly to that family member to work things out

which component of the Type A personality has been linked most closely to coronary heart disease?

feeling angry and negative much of the time

driving to school one snowy day, Marco narrowly misses a car that slides through a red light. "slow down! what a terrible driver," he thinks to himself. moments later, Marco himself slips through an interaction and yelps, "wow! these roads are awful. the city plows need to get out here." what social psychology principle has Marco just demonstrated? explain.

by attributing the other person's behavior to the person ("he's a terrible driver") and his own to the situation ("these roads are awful"), Marco has exhibited the fundamental attribution error

what are the three main categories of stressors?

catastrophes, significant life changes, daily hassles

when people act in a way that is not in keeping with their attitudes, and then change their attitudes to match those actions, _____ _____ theory attempts to explain why.

cognitive dissonance

envy

coveting something (or someone) that somebody else has -the wish to get what one does not have -generally brings strong emotional reactions related to anger and deceit

catharsis

emotional release; in psychology, the catharsis hypothesis maintains that "releasing" aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges -western cultures are more in favor of this notion for achieving emotional release than more communal and interdependent cultures -sometimes when people retaliate against a provoker, they may indeed calm down, but this tends to be true only if: 1) they direct their counterattack toward the provoker; 2) their retaliation seems justifiable; 3) their target is not intimidating -expressing anger can be temporarily calming if it does not leave us feeling guilty or anxious, but despite this temporary afterglow, catharsis usually fails to cleanse our rage; more often, expressing anger brings more anger

schadenfreude

enjoyment that comes from seeing or hearing about the troubles of others -experienced by everyone -more common in people with low self-esteem -correlated with envy -calibrated to the gravity of misfortune -makes shows like America's Funniest Home Videos popular

bystanders

everyone (other than the bully and the victim) present during a bullying incident

what is the best way to predict a person's future behavior?

examine the person's past behavior patterns in similar situations

narcissism

excessive self-love and self-absorption -has been found to be positively associated with materialism, the desire to be famous, inflated expectations, more hookups with fewer committed relationships, more gambling, and more cheating, all of which have been on the rise as narcissism has increased

what are some of the tactics we can use to manage successfully the stress we cannot avoid?

exercise, relaxation procedures, mindfulness meditation, and religious engagement

attitude

feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events -our attitudes affect our actions and our actions affect our attitudes

which of the following strengthens conformity to a group? finding the group attractive, feeling secure, coming from an individualist culture, or having made a prior commitment

finding the group attractive

are people in different cultures more likely to differ in their interpretations of facial expressions or of gestures?

gestures

what is the term that describes when like-minded groups discuss a topic and the result is the strengthening of the prevailing opinion?

group polarization

what is the term that describes when a group's desire for harmony overrides its realistic analysis of other options?

groupthink

social facilitation

improved performance on *simple or well-learned tasks* in the presence of others -on tougher tasks (learning nonsense syllables or solving complex multiplication problems), people perform WORSE when observers or others working on the same task are present -when others observe us, we become aroused, and this arousal amplifies our other reactions -it strengthens our most LIKELY response — the correct one on an easy task, an incorrect one on a difficult task -the energizing effect of an enthusiastic audience probably contributes to the home advantage that has shown up in studies of more than a quarter-million college and professional athletic events in various countries

self

in contemporary psychology, assumed to be the center of personality, the organizer of our thoughts, feelings, and actions

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

what type of blood cell would be used to identify, pursue, and ingest harmful invaders and worn-out cells needing to be cleaned up?

macrophages

what type of blood cells would pursue diseased cells that need to be cleared out?

natural killer cells

central route persuasion

occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts → occurs mostly when people are naturally analytical or involved in the issue; because it is more thoughtful and less superficial, it is more durable -climate scientists marshal evidence of climate warming -an automotive ad may itemize a car's great features

peripheral route persuasion

occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker's attractiveness → doesn't engage systematic thinking, but does produce fast results as people respond to uninformative cues -a trusted politician may declare climate change a hoax -a perfume ad may lure us with images of beautiful or famous people in love

self-esteem

one's feelings of high or low self-worth

self-efficacy

one's sense of competence and effectiveness

locus of control

one's sense of control in personal achievement situations -internals believe they control their own destinies -externals believe their destinies are controlled by forces out of their control

adaptation-level phenomenon

our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a neutral level defined by OUR prior experience

spotlight effect

overestimating others' noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders (as if we presume a spotlight shines on us) -others are less aware than we suppose of the variability of our appearance and performance -to turn down the brightness of the spotlight, we can use two strategies: (1) simply know about the spotlight effect—public speakers who understand that their natural nervousness is not obvious perform better; (2) take the audience's perspective—when we imagine audience members empathizing with our situation, we tend to expect we will not be judged as harshly

feel-good, do-good phenomenon

people's tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood

to cope with stress, we tend to use ______-focused (emotion/problem) strategies when we feel in control of our world, and ______-focused (emotion/problem) strategies when we believe we cannot change a situation.

problem, emotion

the field of _______ studies mind-body interactions, including the effects of psychological, neural, and endocrine functioning on the immune system and overall health

psychoneuroimmunology

defensive self-esteem

self esteem that is fragile and focuses on sustaining itself, which makes failure and criticism feel threatening -such egotism exposes one to perceived threats, which feed anger and feelings of vulnerability

subjective well-being

self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life; used along with measures of objective well-being (for example, physical and economic indicators), to evaluate people's quality of life -included as part of studies about positive psychology

what is the term to describe when people tend to exert less effort when working with a group than they would alone?

social loafing

what perspective on personality did Albert Bandura propose that emphasizes the interaction of people with their environment? what term did he use to describe the interacting influences of behavior, thoughts, and environment?

social-cognitive, reciprocal determinism

what general effect does stress have on our overall health?

stress tends to reduce our immune system's ability to function properly, so that higher stress generally leads to greater incidence of physical illness

aerobic exercise

sustained exercise that increases heart and lung fitness; may also alleviate depression and anxiety

the stress response system: when alerted to a negative, uncontrollable event, our _____ nervous system arouses us. heart rate and respiration _____ (increase/decrease). blood is diverted from digestion to the skeletal _____. the body releases sugar and fat. all this prepares the body for the _____-_____-_____ response.

sympathetic, increase, muscles, fight-or-flight

what situations have researchers found to be most likely to encourage obedience in participants?

the Milgram studies showed that people were most likely to follow orders when the experimenter was nearby and was a legitimate authority figure, the victim was not nearby, and there were no models for defiance

self-control

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

you are organizing a meeting of fiercely competitive political candidates. to add to the fun, friends have suggested handing out masks of the candidates' faces for supporters to wear. what phenomenon might these masks engage?

the anonymity provided by the masks, combined with the arousal of the contentious setting, might create deindividuation (lessened self-awareness and self-restraint)

coronary heart disease

the clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; the leading cause of death in many developed countries -high blood pressure and a family history of the disease increase the risk, as do smoking, obesity, a high-fat diet, physical inactivity, and a high cholesterol level

group polarization

the enhancement of a group's prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group -can feed extremism and even suicide terrorism -electronic communication and social networking have created virtual town halls where people can isolate themselves from those with different perspectives

stressor

the events and conditions that trigger our stress response, because they are perceived/appraised as overwhelmingly challenging, threatening, and/or harmful

learned helplessness

the hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events

reciprocal determinism

the interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment -we can see this interaction in the habits people develop in relationships; for example, someone's history of romantic relationships (past behavior) influences her attitudes toward relationships in general (internal factor), which changes how she now responds to her boyfriend (environmental factor)

deindividuation

the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity

groupthink

the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives -prevented when a leader welcomes various opinions, invites experts' critiques of developing plans, and assigns people to identify possible problems → just as the suppression of dissent bends a group toward bad decisions, open debate often shapes good ones

external locus of control

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

relative deprivation

the perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself

internal locus of control

the perception that we control our own fate

stress

the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging -arises less from events themselves than from how we appraise them: for example, one person, alone in a house, ignores its creaking sounds and experiences no stress, while someone else suspects an intruder and becomes alarmed

social psychology

the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another

positive psychology

the scientific study of human flourishing, with the goals of discovering and promoting strengths and virtues that help individuals and communities to thrive -in the 21st century, under the leadership of American Psychological Association past-president Martin Seligman, positive psychology is using scientific methods to study human flourishing

psychoneuroimmunology

the study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect the immune system and resulting health -your thoughts and feelings (psycho) influence your brain (neuro), which influences the endocrine hormones that affect your disease-fighting immune system

fundamental attribution error

the tendency for observers, when analyzing others' behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition

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 -is especially common among men in individualist cultures -caused by three things: (1) people acting as part of a group feel less accountable, and therefore worry less about what others think; (2) group members may view their individual contributions as dispensable; (3) when group members share equally in the benefits, regardless of how much they contribute, some may slack off → unless highly motivated and strongly identified with the group, people may free ride on others' efforts

the foot-in-the-door phenomenon

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

behavior feedback effect

the tendency of behavior to influence our own and others' thoughts, feelings, and actions -if you walk for a few minutes with short, shuffling steps, keeping your eyes downcast, you will most likely feel different than if you walk around taking long strides, with your arms swinging and your eyes looking straight ahead -likewise, people perceive ambiguous behaviors differently depending on which finger they move up and down while reading a story

facial feedback effect

the tendency of facial muscle states to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger, or happiness → has been found many times, in many places, and for many basic emotions

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 clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes -in the Milgram experiment, after the participants learned of the deception and actual research purposes, virtually none regretted taking part → however, this may have been because by then the participants had reduced their cognitive dissonance

attribution theory

the theory that we explain someone's behavior by crediting either the situation (situational attribution) or the person's disposition (dispositional attribution)

personality

the unique adjustment to one's environment (which includes all life experiences), which is heavily influenced by one's temperament

temperament

the way a person's brain is hardwired to react to any given stimuli and how he/she processes information -it influences, and is influenced by, our experiences and is a significant factor in the development of a personality

which one of the following is an effective strategy for reducing angry feelings: retaliate verbally or physically, wait or "simmer down," express anger in action or fantasy, or review the grievance silently?

wait or "simmer down"

jealousy

wanting something (or someone) that somebody else has but you think belongs to you -the wish to keep what one has -can often bring about paranoia and feelings of insecurity and fear

do women or men report experiencing emotions more deeply and tend to be more adept at reading nonverbal behavior?

women