Psych 120: Lecture Terms

Motivation

-The wants or needs that direct behavior toward a goal

Intrinsic Motivation

-The pursuit of activity because of internal factors
-Learning for the sake of learning

Extrinsic motivation

-The pursuit of an activity because of external factors

Overjustification effect

-Extrinsic motivation can outweigh pre-existing intrinsic motivation in certain circumstances

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

-We are motivated by needs not being met
-From the bottom and working upward to self-actualization

Drive (reduction) Theory

-Organisms seek to exist in a state of homeostasis within various biological needs
-If we deviate from homeostasis, we will experience a drive to address and reduce that need

Primary Drive

-Drives that are biological and innate

Secondary Drive

-Drives that are conditioned and learned

Optimal Arousal Theory

-We motivate to maintain an optimal level of physiological and psychological arousal
-If underaroused, we become bored
-If overaroused, we may feel stressed and overwhelmed

Self-determination Theory

-We are motivated by intrinsic goals, and want to feel like we are in control of our destiny

Goals

-Enhance motivation
-Should be Specific and Achievable

Learned Helplessness

-When goals are not achievable which leads to continued frustration
-A person begins to believe they have no self-efficacy
-Can lead to depression

Approach Goals

-Goals we seek or aspire toward

Avoidance Goals

-Goals we want to avoid

Performance Goals

-Performing well in front of others
-Being judged well

Mastery Goals

-Increasing competence and skills

Motivational Conflicts

-Behavior may depend on a choice between different motivators

Approach-Approach Conflict

-A choice between two appealing activities or goals

Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict

-Choosing between the "lesser of two evils"

Approach-Avoidance Conflict

-A choice has both positive and negative outcomes

Personality

-Defines who we are on a regular basis
-"The long-standing traits and patterns that propel individuals to consistently think, feel, and behave in specific ways."

Trait

-A unit of personality
-A characteristic that describes a habitual way of behaving, thinking, and feeling

Attributions

-Inferences about the causes of people's behaviors
-Why we rely on first impressions
-Can be Situational or Dispositional

Fundamental Attribution Error

-The tendency to attribute the motivations of others more to personality factors than to situational factors

Self-serving Bias

-The tendency for people to take personal credit for success but blame failure on external factors

Projective Tests

-Personality assessments that present ambiguous visual stimuli to the client and ask the client to respond with whatever comes to mind

Personality Inventories

-A series of questions about self with no right or wrong answers
-From responses, you can develop a personality profile

Thematic Appreciation Test

-A test where a person is asked to tell a story about the "hero" of a picture
-Psychologist interpret the needs and motivations that are projected in the story

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

-Identified by Carl Jung
-Measures personality across several personality "types"
-Often used for Employment/personnel management purposes

Personality Inventories (MBTI)

-Focus on the outer world or on your own inner world?
-Focus on the basic information you take in or prefer to interpret and add meaning?
-When making decisions, do you prefer to look at logic and consistency or look at the people and special circumstances?
-In dealing with the world, do you prefer to get things decided or do you prefer to stay open to new information and options?

Five Factor Model of Personality

-Proposed by Costa and McRae
-Neuroticism, Extroversion, Openness to experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness

Neuroticism

-Degree of emotional instability or stability
-Ex: Trouble sleeping due to overthinking

Extroversion

-How outgoing, talkative, sociable, and assertive a person is
-Introversion tends to increase with age

Openness to Experience

-Tendency to be original, have broad interests, be open to a wide range of stimuli, be daring, and take risks
-Tends to decrease with age

Agreeableness

-The tendency to get along well with other people.

Conscientiousness

-How dependable, responsible, achievement-oriented, and persistent one is

Albert Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory

-Looks at how children may learn personality through imitation and cognitive processes

Freud's Psychodynamic Personality Theory

-Emphasizes interactions between different components of personality
-Emphasizes psychosexual development of the Id, Ego, and Superego
-Has little empirical support

Freud's Stages of Personality Development

-Oral
-Anal
-Phallic
-Latency period
-Genital

Humanistic Theories

-Focus on personality development as part of our quest for growth and achievement of potential
-Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers
-Very influential in therapy
-Led to Positive Psychology

Abraham Maslow

-Emphasized pursuit of self-actualization

Carl Rogers

-Importance of unconditional positive regard, and congruence between real self and ideal self

Positive Psychology

-A subfield that emphasizes studying positive aspects of personhood

Paul Baltes' Framework

-Development is lifelong
-Development depends on history and context
-Development is multidirectional and multidimensional
-Development is plastic

Pre-natal Development

-Only 10-20% of fertilized eggs survive 2 weeks
-The single cell zygote develops to an embryo, then to a fetus
-Embryos are vulnerable to chromosomal disorders and miscarriages

Pre-natal Dangers

-Proper maternal nutrition is vital
-Maternal age outside of optimal range can pose difficulties (both in teen years and over 35)

Teratogens

-External/environmental contaminants that can put the pregnancy at risk
-Ex: Certain medical drugs, pollution, and nicotine

Sight in Newborns

-The most underdeveloped sense at birth
-Stimulation builds quickly

Reflexes

-Innate, unlearned, adaptive behaviors
-Ex: Blinking or eating

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

-Driven by improving skills to organize information
-4 stages: Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operations, and Formal Operations

Sensorimotor Stage

-Learning and thought are centered on the sense and the motor skills
-0 months - 2 years
-Babies develop more complex schemes for understanding the world
-No sense of object permanence
-End goal is mental representation

Object Permanence

-Our understanding that objects exist without seeing it
-Why babies find peek-a-boo believable

Mental Representation

-The ability to form internal images of objects and events

Preoperational Stage

-Follows the onset of mental representation at the end of the sensorimotor stage
-2-6 years old
-Marked by advances and refinements
-Can now manipulate information in the mind, but with limitations

Preoperational Stage Limits

-Centration and Egocentrism

Centration

-A tendency to focus on only one dimension of a problem
-Can't do conservation tasks

Egocentrism

-A tendency to only be able to reason about a problem from one's own viewpoint
-Three Mountain Problem

Concrete Operations

-Onset of logical, but not abstract thought
-7-12 years old
-Better at mental representation
-Able to reason Multiple Dimensions
-Cannot fully comprehend non-concrete concepts

Multiple Dimensions

-Multi-dimensional reasoning
-Improves conservation
-Allow ability to use maps and understand complex math

Formal Operations

-Ability to think Abstractly
-Can deal w/ abstract concepts w/o concrete representation
-Able to deal w/ Hypothetical-deductive Reasoning
-Synaptic Pruning

Hypothetical-deductive Reasoning

-Evolution of "what if" ability for abstractions
-Ex: "what if the US hadn't been hit on 911?"

Synaptic Pruning

-The normal developmental process through which synapses that are rarely activated are eliminated

Argumentativeness

-Teens have their own form of reasoning and begin to "fight" for what they believe

Indecisiveness

-There are too many options to choose from, so adolescents tend to find it hard to choose

Finding Fault with Authority

-Teens don't want to be told what to do, so they tend to rebel more

The Imaginary Audience

-We worry about how others perceive us, but fail to see how little it matters

Invulnerability

-Teens tend to overestimate their control over situations
-Ex: Dangers with driving or drugs

Weaknesses in Piaget's Model

-Piaget underestimated the capabilities of young children
-Violation of Expectations

Violation of Expectations

-Method to determine if babies understand basic physical properties of objects

Behaviorism

-Gender identity is based on reinforcement and punishment
-Adults treat boys and girls differently
-Social Learning

Social Learning

-Learning through observing others.

Cognitive Development

-Children categorize or develop gender schemata
-Used to define sexes and expectations

Parenting Styles

-Dependent on one's own upbringing, the temperament of both the parent and the child, and the child's attachment style

Authoritarian

-Everything related to authority, no reasoning
-Strict punishment
-Children are more likely to end up withdrawn and distrustful

Permissive

-Value self-expression at the expense of structure
-Not demanding and rarely punish
-Children tend to be disruptive, immature, and undisciplined

Authroritative

-Firm, but loving
-Emphasizes social rules
-Use reasoning in explaining punishment and rules
-Children feel more secure, more self-confident, and exploratory

Power Assertion

-reliance on authority
-More likely from fathers
-Least effective disciplinary method

Induction

-Attempt to reason with the child
-Better for extending discipline to social situations

Withdrawal of Love

-Ignoring/isolating the child
-May not be purposefully used

Adolescence

-Changes in all dimensions
-Physical, Cognitive, Social, Emotional, and The Self

Obesity

-Increased consumption of high-fat foods
-Less exercise

Anorexia and Bulimia

-Eating disorders
-Based in distortion of body image
-Need for control
-Greater emphasis on body image

Middle Adulthood

-Least studied
-Hard to define ages
-Declines in sensory/physical performance
-Menopause

Midlife Review

-Questioning what impact a person will make on the world once they are gone
-Happens during middle adulthood
-Similar to a midlife crisis

The Aging Population

-85+ is the fastest-growing population group
-Women, on average, live longer than men

Primary Aging

-Inevitable process of deterioration
-No matter the level of self care, these changes are inevitable
-Ex: Wrinkles

Secondary Aging

-The product of abuse, disease, and poor care
-Leads to Functional Age

Functional Age

-How old your abilities are relative to your chronological age
-Ex: You could look other than you truly are

Dementia

-Deterioration in cognitive functioning form physiological causes

Alzheimer's Disease

-A highly heritable, progressive, degenerative neurological disorder
-Effects appear in reverse order of brain development
-Diagnosed by testing, but only confirmed by autopsy

Social Psychology

-Studies the individual within the social context

Norms

-The rules that govern our behavior in a social context
-Usually unspoken rules
-Learned by experience

Role

-A pattern of behavior that is expected of a person in a given setting or group

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.

Entrapment

-Taking baby steps to get people further and further into a specific role
-At some point, there is no way to back out and you are "trapped"

Deindividualism

-The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity
-The anonymity emboldens people
-"Mob mentality"

Diffusion of Responsibility

-In groups, the tendency of members to avoid taking responsibility for actions and decisions under the assumption that someone else will do it
-Leads to Social Loafing and Bystander Apathy

Social Loafing

-Phenomenon whereby individuals become less productive in groups

Bystander Effect

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

Conformity

-A tendency of people to go along with the group
-Peer pressure among teenagers