Social Psychology and Therapy

Out-Group

"them"—those perceived as different or apart from our in-group.

In- Group

"us"—people with whom we share a common identity.

Who emphasized the importance of providing unconditional positive regard during psychotherapy? A) Mary Cover Jones B) Carl Rogers C) Sigmund Freud D) Hans Eysenck

B) Carl Rogers

Because Sara is motivated to "rid herself of toxins," she is on the 3rd day out of the 5-day juice cleanse. Sara goes out with friends and ends up drinking 3 beers. Sara decides that she will do a 6-day cleanse instead of a 5-day cleanse. This example represents which social psychological theory? A) Rationalization. B) Cognitive Dissonance. C) Social Comparison. D) Conformity.

B) Cognitive Dissonance.

Tardive dykinesia is associated with the long-term use of certain ________ drugs. A) antianxiety B) antipsychotic C) antidepressant D) mood-stabilizing

B) antipsychotic

Bart complied with his friends' request to join them in smashing decorative pumpkins early one Halloween evening. Later that night, he was surprised by his own failure to resist their pressures to throw eggs at passing police cars. Bart's experience best illustrates the A) bystander effect. B) foot-in-the-door phenomenon. C) fundamental attribution error. D) frustration-aggression principle.

B) foot-in-the-door phenomenon.

Cognitive Therapists believe that: A) Cognitions will follow behavior change. B) Client-centered therapy is key to cognitive changes. C) Free association is an effective tool for uncovering repressed thoughts. D) Changing or accepting a maladaptive thought is essential for therapy.

D) Changing or accepting a maladaptive thought is essential for therapy.

Carlos, a Democrat, believes that Republicans make some good points about tax breaks. After attending a social gathering with other Democrats, Carlos decided that Republicans are ruining the country. His new beliefs best illustrate A) Social comparison theory. B) the just-world phenomenon. C) deindividuation. D) group polarization

D) group polarization

If a cluster of people stand gazing upward, passersby will often pause to do likewise. This best illustrates A) the mere exposure effect. B) the bystander effect. C) social loafing. D) the chameleon effect.

D) the chameleon effect.

Marilyn judges her professor's strict class attendance policy to be an indication of his over-controlling personality rather than a necessity dictated by the limited number of class sessions in a course that meets only once a week. Her judgment best illustrates A) the mere exposure effect. B) group polarization. C) de-individuation. D) the fundamental attribution error

D) the fundamental attribution error

GRIT

Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction—a strategy designed to decrease international tensions.

Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud's therapeutic technique. Freud believed the patient's free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences—and the therapist's interpretations of them—released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain self-insight.

Aversive Conditioning

a type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state (such as nausea) with an unwanted behavior (such as drinking alcohol).

Systematic Desensitization

a type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety triggering stimuli. Commonly used to treat phobias.

Insight Therapies

a variety of therapies that aim to improve psychological functioning by increasing a person's awareness of underlying motives and defenses.

Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy

an anxiety treatment that progressively exposes people to electronic simulations of their greatest fears, such as airplane flying, spiders, or public speaking.

Eclectic Approach

an approach to psychotherapy that uses techniques from various forms of therapy.

Passionate Love

an aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a love relationship.

Social-Responsibility Norm

an expectation that people will help those needing their help.

Reciprocity Norm

an expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them.

Token Economy

an operant condition ing procedure in which people earn a token of some sort for exhibiting a desired behavior and can later exchange their tokens for various privileges or treats.

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.

Aggression

any act intended to harm someone physically or emotionally.

Counterconditioning

behavior therapy procedures that use classical condition ing to evoke new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behaviors; include exposure therapies and aversive conditioning.

Exposure Therapies

behavioral techniques, such as systematic desensitization and virtual reality exposure therapy, that treat anxieties by exposing people (in imagination or actual situations) to the things they fear and avoid.

Evidence Based Practice

clinical decision making that integrates the best available research with clinical expertise and patient characteristics and preferences.

Social Script

culturally modeled guide for how to act in various situations.

Active Listening

empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies. A feature of Rogers' client centered therapy.

Attitude

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

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

he theory that we act to reduce the dis- comfort (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 can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes.

Social Facilitation

improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others.

Interpretation

in psychoanalysis, the analyst's noting supposed dream meanings, resistances, and other significant behaviors and events in order to promote insight.

Resistance

in psychoanalysis, the block ing from consciousness of anxiety-laden material.

Transference

in psychoanalysis, the patient's transfer to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships (such as love or hatred for a parent).

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 Perceptions

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.

Central Route Persuasion

occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts.

Peripheral Route Persuasion

occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker's attractiveness

Post-Traumatic Growth

positive psychological changes as a result of struggling with extremely challenging circumstances and life crises.

Biomedical Therapy

prescribed medications or procedures that act directly on the person's physiology.

Superordinate Goals

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

Psychosurgery

surgery that removes or destroys brain tissue in an effort to change behavior.

Self-Disclosure

the act of revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others.

Repetitive Trans-cranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS)

the application of repeated pulses of magnetic energy to the brain; used to stimulate or suppress brain activity.

Companionate Love

the deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined.

Group Polarization

the enhancement of a group's prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group.

De-individuation

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.

Resilience

the personal strength that helps most people cope with stress and recover from adversity and even trauma

Mere Exposure Effect

the phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them.

Frustration-Aggression Principle

the principle that frustration—the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal—creates anger, which can generate aggression.

Social Psychology

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

Psychopharmacology

the study of the effects of drugs on mind and behavior.

Bystander Effect

the tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present.

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.

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.

Foot-In-The-Door Phenomenon

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

In-Group 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. Also called the cross-race effect and the own-race bias.

Social Exchange Theory

the theory that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs.

Scapegoat Theory

the theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame.

Attribution Theory

the theory that we explain someone's behavior by credit- ing either the situation or the person's disposition.

Group Therapy

therapy conducted with groups rather than individuals, permit ting therapeutic benefits from group interaction.

Psychodynamic Therapy

therapy deriving from the psychoanalytic tradition; views individuals as responding to unconscious forces and childhood experiences, and seeks to enhance self-insight.

Behavior Therapy

therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors.

Cognitive Therapy

therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking; based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions.

Family Therapy

therapy that treats the family as a system. Views an individual's unwanted behaviors as influenced by, or directed at, other family members.

Psychotherapy

treatment involving psychological techniques; consists of interactions between a trained therapist and someone seeking to overcome psychological difficulties or achieve personal growth.

Discrimination

unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members.

Alturism

unselfish regard for the welfare of others.

Anti-Anxiety Drugs

drugs used to control anxiety and agitation.

Anti-Psychotic Drugs

drugs used to treat schizophrenia and other forms of severe thought disorder.

Which psychological theory or principle was discussed in lecture, but not the textbook? A) Social Comparison Theory B) Cognitive Dissonance Theory C) Fundamental Attribution Theory D) Bystander Effect

A) Social Comparison Theory

A therapist helps Rebecca overcome her fear of water by getting her to swim in the family's backyard pool three times a day for two consecutive weeks. The therapist's approach to helping Rebecca best illustrates A) stress inoculation training. B) aversive conditioning. C) exposure therapy. D) EMDR.

C) exposure therapy.

Mr. Hughes heard what sounded like cries for help from a swimmer located 30 yards from the ocean shoreline. He continued walking along the beach, however, because he figured that one of the many swimmers in the vicinity would provide help if it was needed. His reaction best illustrates the dynamics involved in A) the fundamental attribution error. B) group polarization. C) the bystander effect. D) the mere exposure effect.

C) the bystander effect.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

a belief that leads to its own fulfillment.

Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)

a biomedical therapy for severely depressed patients in which a brief electric current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized patient.

Therapeutic Alliance

a bond of trust and mutual understanding between a therapist and client, who work together constructively to overcome the client's problem

Unconditional Positive Regard

a caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude, which Carl Rogers believed would help clients develop self-awareness and self-acceptance.

Equity

a condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it.

Stereotype

a generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people.

Client-Centered Therapy

a humanistic therapy, developed by Carl Rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine, accepting, empathic environment to facilitate clients' growth. (Also called person-centered therapy.)

Conflict

a perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

a popular integrative therapy that combines cognitive therapy (changing self-defeating thinking) with behavior therapy (changing behavior).

Meta-Analysis

a procedure for statistically combining the results of many different research studies.

Lobotomy

a psychosurgical procedure once used to calm uncontrollably emotional or violent patients. The procedure cut the nerves connecting the frontal lobes to the emotion controlling centers of the inner brain.

Role

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

Social Trap

a situation in which the conflicting parties, by each pursuing their self-interest rather than the good of the group, become caught in mutually destructive behavior.

Conformity

adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.

Anti-Depressant Drugs

drugs used to treat depression, anxiety disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, and post traumatic stress disorder. (Several widely used antidepressant drugs are selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors—SSRIs.)