Psych 202

Central route (systematic) persuasion

The process by which attitudes or beliefs are changed by appeals to reason or logic (fact-based reasoning).

Altruism

"Pure form" of prosocial behavior motivated by unselfish interests in helping other people

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

- A widely used personality test based on Jungian types. - Unreliable due to relying on dichotomies; not used in psychology.

Things that increase the chances of conformity

- If the individual is made to feel incompetent - If a group has at least three people but is not a huge crowd - If the rest of the group is unanimous - If the individual admires the status and attractiveness to the group. - The individual's culture encourages respect for social standards - The group has not made a prior commitment to any response - Group members observe the person's behavior

Factors that decrease obedience

-If there is a role model for disobeying -The victim is in close proximity; being able to see the negative effects of one's obedience on others - If there are role models for disobeying the authority figure

NEO PI-R or NEO PI

-The personality inventory mainly intended to measure normal personality as opposed to MMPI, which is more for clinical populations -Based on "Big 5" personality dimensions

Factors that decrease bystander intervention

-The presence of other people -Being in a big city or very small town -Vague or ambiguous situations -When personal costs outweigh the benefits of helping

The four humors (temperament theory)

-The theory that certain types of bodily fluids being in excess in an individual led to certain temperaments -Important due to being the first theory to address personality

Factors that increase bystander intervention

-being in a good mood -feeling guilty -seeing others who are willing to help -perceiving the other person as deserving of help (vulnerable to danger, like a child) -knowing how to help -a personalized relationship -the person is similar to us -not rushed or in a hurry

Decision making steps before helping

1. Notice the incident 2. Interpret the incident as an emergency 3. Feel responsible and will assume responsibility; most important step and helps overcome diffusion of responsibility 4. Attempts to help.

Phineas Gage

A railroad worker who survived a severe brain injury (prefrontal cortex) that dramatically changed his personality and behavior; case played a role in the development of the understanding of the localization of brain function

Kin Selection

A mathematical formula that can calculate gene's frequency and how we pass along our genes through other who share them with us.

Persuasion

A phenomenon that occurs when a person's attitudes or beliefs are influenced by a communication from another person

Milgram Experiment

A series of psychological experiments which measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience.

A psychologist gives three members of a family - Ben (65 years old), Dan (35 years old), and James (10 years old) a personality inventory. The psychologist returns seven years later and gives the three family members the inventory again. Which of the family members is likely to have the most consistent (ranked ordered) trait values from the first to the second test? A) Ben B) Dan C) James D) Ben and Dan are equally likely and both are more likely than James E) Dan and James are equally likely and both are more likely than Ben

A) Ben

The classic "levels of processing" experiments showed that individuals recalled words better when they were forced to do __________ processing, as compared to _________ processing. A) semantic; auditory B) visual; semantic C) auditory; semantic

A) semantic; auditory

Which of the following is true of background distraction (such as background TV)? A. background distraction is most disruptive when it is present during memory encoding B. background distraction is most disruptive when it is present during memory retrieval C. background distraction equally disrupts encoding and retrieval D. background distraction disrupts some memory processes, but not memory or retrieval E. background distraction is not disruptive if you have a functioning hippocampus

A. background distraction is most disruptive when it is present during memory encoding

Factors that promote change

Abnormal experiences in which operant conditioning occurs

Conformity

Adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard

Prosocial behavior

Any voluntary behavior intended to benefit another person or society as a whole

Kathy sees a violent robbery taking place. Which of the following statements is TRUE about the probability that Kathy will attempt to help? A. Kathy is more likely to help if there are 10 other individuals nearby who can also help B. Kathy is more likely to help if she doesn't know the victim of the robbery C. Kathy is more likely to help if she has military training in close quarters combat

C. Kathy is more likely to help if she has military training in close quarters combat

Which individual is likely to show the highest ABSOLUTE LEVEL of agreeableness today? A. Bailey who is currently 6-years old B. None of the above, all individuals are equally likely C. Sandy who is currently 60-years-old D. Beatrix who is currently 35-years-old E. Karen who is currently 25-years old

C. Sandy who is currently 60-years-old

Bob studied for an exam in four different places - his dorm room, at the library, at the union, and at a coffee shop. Sarah studied for the same exam in only one location - in one seat in a classroom in psychology. Assuming Sarah and Bob are equal in all ways other than where they have studied the material, which of the following is expected: A. Sarah will do better on the exam than Bob no matter what because her studying was consistent B. Bob will do better on the exam than Sarah no matter what because he had variety in his studying C. Sarah will do better than Bob on the exam if she takes the exam in the exact same seat that she studied in, otherwise Bob will likely do better D. Sarah and Bob will do equivalently on the exam

C. Sarah will do better than Bob on the exam if she takes the exam in the exact same seat that she studied in, otherwise Bob will likely do better

A neurologist is speaking with the wife of a patient who recently had a stroke. The patient's wife indicates that the main issue she's noticed since her husband's stroke is that her husband's personality has totally changed. Prior to the stroke, her husband was extremely well-organized and hardworking. After the stroke, he became totally unreliable and careless. The patient's personality BEFORE the stroke would have been considered HIGH in what personality trait? A) Neuroticism B) Extraversion C) Openness D) Conscientiousness E) Agreeableness

D) Conscientiousness

Robert's favorite baseball team won the World Series. After the game, he was swept up in a mob of people celebrating. He strayed from his own moral values as he joined the mob in tipping over cars and smashing car windows. This illustrates the phenomenon of:

Deindividuation

Five different female individuals take a personality test: Jenny -current age: 16 years old Karen -current age: 20 years old Martha -current age: 30 years old Mary -current age: 40 years old Denise -current age: 60 years old Based only on this information, who would you expect to score highest for the agreeableness trait?

Denise

Gary is playing blackjack at a casino. After winning 10 hands in a row, he decides he is on a roll and thus wants to bet all of his money on his next hand. His wife on the other hand thinks that he is due for a loss and wants him to quit. In this case Gary is showing evidence of ___________, while his wife is showing evidence of _______________. A. risk aversion; loss aversion B. gambler's fallacy; hot hand fallacy C. loss aversion; risk aversion D. framing; anchoring E. hot hand fallacy; gambler's fallacy

E. hot hand fallacy; gambler's fallacy

Reciprocal Altruism

Expectation by "A" that "B" will "return the favor"

Normative social influence

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

Informative social influence

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

Valerie's computer started sometimes making a noise that Valerie found VERY annoying. Valerie discovered that if she rested her knee against the computer case, the computer made the noise less frequently. As such, Valerie started resting her knee against the case more and more often. In this case, Valerie's behavior has been:

Negatively reinforced

Barnum effect

People have the tendency to see themselves in vague, stock descriptions of personality

Bystander apathy

People's willingness to lend help decreases when others are around (reasoning that others will help instead of them).

Marie wants to train her cat to not scratch the couch. Thus, whenever Marie sees the catch scratching, she sprays the cat with water from a squirt gun. Eventually, not only does the cat stop scratching, but the cat avoids the entire couch as well as Marie. The use of the squirt gun in this case is an example of:

Positive punishment

Group Think

Results when group members try to maintain harmony in a decision-making group and ignore conflicting evidence or opinions

Reciprocity norm

Social norm reminding us that we should help someone in the future if they have helped us before or now.

Accuracy motive

The desire to do the right thing, so if more people are doing one thing, we could believe that that's the right thing.

Hedonic motive

The desire to either gain pleasure or avoid punishment Example: In avoiding jail (a punishment) we keep from committing crimes.

Approval motive

The desire to form connections, be accepted and avoid rejection. Example: Performing a certain action to gain acceptance from a group.

Group polarization

The enhancement of a group's prevailing attitudes through discussion within the group

Mere exposure effect

The more we're exposed to something, the more we like it.

(MMPI-2 or MMPI) Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory

The personality inventory that is much more commonly used to assess personality and psychological problems; devised empirically rather than theoretically.

Peripheral route (heuristic) persuasion

The process by which attitudes or beliefs are changed by appeals to emotion

Person-situation controversy

The question of whether a behavior is caused more by personality or by situational factors; when looking at two individuals in the same situation, however, overall they will still be more or less one of the big 5 than the other as they are usually.

Social facilitation

The tendency for weaknesses or strengths in performance to be magnified when people are watching.

Psychodynamic approach (Freud)

The theory that personality comes from conflicts in our unconscious minds

Social loafing

When less effort is exerted by individuals in a group, especially when their individual efforts aren't easily discernible from that of the group's as a whole.

Justification of effort

When people modify their attitudes to match their behaviors, specifically those involving effort

Cognitive dissonance

When there is a mismatch between two attitudes one holds or between one's thoughts/feelings and their behavior.

Josh wears his favorite blue t-shirt everywhere. When Josh wears the t-shirt inside his house at night (with incandescent bulbs on) the raw wavelengths of light will be more __________ than when he wears the t-shirt outside on a sunny day.

Yellow

Obedience

changing one's behavior at the command of (usually) an authority figure

Trevor is responsible for hiring people to be customer service agents for a large business. He wants to be able to give job candidates a test that will be predictive of how good they'll be at this particular job. He thus comes up with a list of 500 simple yes or no questions (e.g. "I always hold the door open for people behind me") and gives the questions to his current customer service agents. He then picks out 100 questions where the best customer service agents tended to answer differently from the worst customer service agents. He uses those questions as his test for candidates. This is an example of a(n) ______________ approach to measuring personality.

empirical

Big 5 Theory

openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism; argues that there are five dimensions along which people can vary

Social influence

the ability to control (or, rather, influence) another person's behavior

Phrenology

the detailed study of the shape and size of the cranium as a supposed indication of character and mental abilities.

Factors that promote stability

□ Attraction: individuals are attracted to environments because of their personality attributes. □ Selection: Individuals are often selected to enter environments because of personality (ex: receptionists fare better when they rank high in agreeableness and extraversion) □ Manipulation: of environments to match personalities

Factors that increase obedience

□ If the person giving the orders is close at hand □ If the person giving orders is perceived to be a legitimate authority. □ If the authority figure is associated with a prestigious institution □ If the victim is depersonalized or in another room. □ If there are no role models for disobeying the authority figure