Exam 3 PSYCH 100 - Social Psychology, something, and abnormal psychology

lock in

Prosocial vs. Antisocial

Pro: proactive, positive

Anti: avoid social, aggressive behaviors/ attitudes

Bystander Effect

Presence of others inhibits helping

More people, less likely to help

• We become who we are surrounded with

Diffusion of responsibility (B.E)

Belief that others will or should take responsibility for taking care of someone in distress

Ambiguity of a situation (B.E)

is this even an emergency

Pluralistic ignorance (B.E)

state in which people in a group mistakenly think that their own individual thoughts, feelings, or behaviors are different from those of the others in the group (others might think it is non-urgent)

Perceived personal competence (B.E)

trained professionals in situations of crisis that relate to their skills are more likely to step in, minimizes bystander effect

Anti: Aggression

Behavior intented to harm another individual

Violence

Behavioral, extreme acts of physical aggression

Anger

affective, strong feelings of displeasure in response to a percieved wronging

Hostitlity

attitudinal, negative attitude to another person or group

Frustration-Aggression hypothesis

main cause of anger and aggression is frustration - obstacle that stands in the way of doing something

Miller and Dollard’s hypothesis

Aggression increases proportionally to:

• amount of satisfaction person anticipates from meeting goal

• how completely person is prevented from goal

• how frequently person is blocked from goal

• how close person believes they are from goal

Criticisms of Frustration-aggression

1. All aggressive behaviors do not follow from frustration

2. Frustration does not necessarily lead to aggression

Learned helplessness

passive and depressed responses that individuals show when their goals are blocked and they feel that they have no control over their outcomes

Elaborations on frustration-aggression hypothesis

1. Negative feelings trigger aggression (pain, hunger, humiliation, etc)

Berkowitz and Troccoli 1990

people held arms horizontally for several painful minutes

Cultural factor of aggression

different cultures exhibit different aggressive behaviors

Gender factors

men universally more violent than women

• caveat:

  • boys more outwardly aggressive

  • girls more indirectly aggressive

Alcohol as a factor

impairs self control

lowers inhibition against aggression

Alcohol myopia

disruption in the way we process information

Heat as a factor

higher temps are associated with increased aggression

Stereotypes

Beliefs that certain attributes are characteristics of members of particular groups

• positive or negative

• true or false

Prejudice

is a feeling

negative attitude or response toward a certain group and its individual members

Discrimination

is a behavior

unfair treatment of members of a particular group based on their membership in that group

• may be on purpose or unintentional

Jane Elliot 1968

exemplified how stereotypes lead to prejudice which leads to discrimination

children atttack one another when power is unevenly distributed

Implicit prejudice

unwilling or unable to report their attitudes

Response latency

time it takes an individual to respond to a stimulus, such as attitude question

Implicit association test

based on notion that we are unaware of some of our attitudes

measures speed/ accuracy with which one responds to pairings of concepts

Attribution theory

linking event to a cause, ie. inferring personality trait was responsible for behavior

set of processes we use to assign causes to our own behavior and that of others

Fundamental attribution error

When we explain other people’s behavior we tend to:

1. overestimate the role of personal factors

2. underestimate the impact of situations

We make internal attributions for people’s behavior even when we see evidence for an external influence on behavior

Actor-observer effect

we tend to not make fundamental attribution error when explaining our own behavior

Attitutudes

Evaluations of objects in a positive or negative fashion

Three elements of attitudes (ABC)

1. Affect: how much people like/ dislike an object

2. Behavior: tendency to approach rather than avoid

3. Cognition: knowledge and belief about object

Cognitive Dissonance

Humans motivated by desire for consonance (compatibility between opinions or actions)

Cognitive dissonance theory

inconsistencies between a person’s thoughts, sentiments, and action create dissonance that leads to efforts to restore consistency

• can lead to bad behavior

Festinger and Carlsmith

Participants experienced cognitive dissonance because they had insufficient justification for lying

Proximity

single best predictor of attraction, physical proximity

Mere exposure

finding that repeated exposure to a stimulus leads to a greater liking of a stimulus

• people prefer mirror images of themselves

• people prefer true images of others

Cross, Calhomb, Matter

2 groups of rats with 2 different music, rats went to side of music they grew up listening to

Similarity

tend to associate with others who are similar to ourselves by

• demographic characteristics

• attitudes

• attractiveness

• experiences

Matching hypothesis

people tend to become involved romantically with others who are as attractive as them

Complementarity

people tend to seek out others with characteristics that are different from and that complement their own

ie. honest/ dishonest

hardworking/ lazy

Physical attractiveness

Subjective

Bias for beauty

• your work evaluated more highly

• make more money

What-is-beautiful-is-good stereotype

false belief that physically attractive people automatically possess desirable characteristics

Sigmund Freud and psychodynamic approach to personality

Freud = unconscious processes and childhood experiences shape personality

Psychodynamic theory

relating personality to interplay of conflicting forces, including unconcious ones, within the individual

Id

Immediate gratification, primal drive

“I want it now”

Ego

Seeks realistic and socially acceptable ways to meet Id’s demand

“Let’s be realistic how to get it”

Superego

Social rules

Do’s vs. Don’t

Morals

Ego’s defense mechanisms against anxiety (RDRDRPRS)

Repression: removal of something to the unconscious

Denial: refusal to believe unpleasant information

Rationalization: attempt to show that actions are justifiable

Displacement: diverting a thought or behavior away from its natural target and toward a less threatening target

Regression: return to more immature level of functioning

Projection: attributing one’s own undesirable characteristics to others

Reaction formation: presenting as the opposite of your true self

Sublimation: transforming sexual/ aggressive energies into culturally acceptable behaviors (like aggression into playing football)

Carl Jung

Follower of freud

Collective Unconcious

Collective Unconscious

the cumulative experience of preceding generations shapes personality

Alfred Adler

Different from freud and jung

Individual psychology

Individual psychology

Psychology of person as a whole rather than parts like id/ego/supergo

Inferiority complex

everyone experiences feelings of inferiority from childhood, motivates people to grow/ improve

strive for superiority in terms of personal growth and development

Learning approach

personality = social learning

ie. toddler falls, reaction of them is based on how parent reacts

Trait vs. State

Traits: constant tendency in behavior ie. shy, talkative

State: temporary activation of a behavior

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory MMPI

Used to identify clinical problems

ie. depression, paranoia, scizophrenia

NEO personality inventory revised

mainly used to assess normal aspects of personality

ie. extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness

Projective techniques (test)

designed to encourage people to project their personality characteristics onto ambiguous stimuli

Mental disorder

clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological, or developmental processes underlying mental functioning

Deviant

Different from most others in a culture

Distressful

feeling that something is wrong

Dysfunctional

ability to work/ live is impaired

Culture matters in terms of disorder

Symptoms understood differently by each culture

Stigma around mental health may affect people’s willingness to seek help

Cultural stressors might make symptoms worse

Biopsychosocial Model

Includes biology, social-cultural, and psychological influences for understanding abnormal behavior

Biology: evolution, individual genes, brain structure

Social-cultural: roles, expectations, definitions of normality and disorder

Psychological: stress, trauma, learned helplessness, mood related perception

DSM-5

Popular categorical approach to disorder

sets criteria for making diagnosis

constantly evolving

Anxiety

Similar to fear, more generalized not to a specific source

General anxiety disorder

frequent/ exaggerated worries

Panic disorder

frequent anxiety and occasional panic attacks

Phobias

fear that interferes with normal living

Exposure therapy

leverages principles of fear extinction by gradually exposing person to what they are afraid of in safe and controlled way

OCD

Obsession: repetitive, unwelcome stream of thought

Compulsion: repetitive, almost irrestible action

Substance related disorders

Dependence: unable to quit a destructive habit

Alcoholism: overuse of alcohol, genetic influence, depends on culture

Major depression

condition where person experiences major lack of interest, pleasure, or motivation in daily life

Bipolar disorder

condition where someone fluctuates between mood extremes (kanye)

Scizophrenia

Nature based - passed down by genes but can be triggered by environment

Symptoms: deterioration of daily activities, hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech

Symptos are either positive or negative in terms of:

Positive: added things like delusions

Negative: things are missing (loss of normal behavior)

Autism spectrum disorder

Symptoms: Impaired social relationships, impaired communication, stereotyped behavior (little eye contact, repetitive speech and movement)

discovered before age 2

really bad at some tasks, supergenius at others

Psychotherapy

treatment of psych disorder by methods including a personal relationship between trained therapist and client

Empirically supported treatments (demonstrated to be helpful)

Psychodynamic therapy

attempt to understand conflicting impulses, including some that you are not aware of (freudian)

Behavior therapy

begins with a clear, well-defined goal

achieve goal through learning

Cognitive therapy

Seeks to improve psycholigical well-being by changing people’s interpretations of events

Humanistic

therapist listens to client with total acceptance and unconditional positivity

Family systems therapy

guiding assumption is that most people’s probelms develop in family setting, best way to deal with it is to improve family relationships and communication

Group therapies

administered to multiple people at once

ie. alcohol anonymous

How effective is therapy

Smith, miller, glass

• 80 percent effective