Gen Psych Exam Three

What’s social psychology?

Examines how people affect one another, and it looks at the power of the situation

Group

Consists of two or more people who interact and are interdependent in the sense that their needs and goals cause them to influence each other

What are social roles and social norms?

• Social norm: a group’s expectation of what is appropriate behavior for all its members

• Social roles: shared expectation in a group about how particular members are supposed to behave

What’s social perception?

The study of how we form impressions of and make inferences about other people

situational attirubutions

• involve explaining behavior with the situation or environment

Fundamental attribution error

the tendency to overestimate disposition factors and underestimate situational factors when making attributions for other people’s behavior

Actor-observer bias

Occurs when we attribute other people’s behavior to dispositions while attributing our own to the situation

Self-serving bias

the tendency to make dispositional attributions for our successes and situational attributions for our failures.

just-world hypothesis

the belief that people get the outcomes they deserve

• this leads to victim blaming

attitudes

evaluations of a person, idea, or subject

beliefs

knowledge about an object or event

cognitive dissonance

discomfort that arises from holding two incompatible cognitions

three ways to reduce cognitive dissonance

1. changing one of out dissonant cognitions

2. adding a third cognition to the equation that resolves the dissonance between the two dissonant cognitions

3. changing our behavior so that the cognitions aren’t dissonant anymore

justification of effort effect

says we value goals and achievements more that we put a lot of effort into

yale attitude change approach

three things influence the persuasiveness of a message

1. a messages source

2. messages content

3. messages audience

elaboration likelihood model

says the route we take to persuasion influences attitude change

two routes to persuasion

central route: involves considering facts related to an arguments worth

peripheral route: involves considering things that don’t relate to the messages worth, source credibility or the number or arguements made

conformity

a change in a persons behavior to go along with a group

informational conformity

occurs because the group is viewed as competent and having correct information

normative conformity

a change in a persons behavior to go along with a group (we want to fit in)

Asch’s conformity experiment

Picked what line matched line A

1/3 of people conformed to the trials

76 percent of people conformed at least once

what factor influenced conformity in Asch’s research?

increasing the group size up to seven members

groupthink

desire for group cohesion and harmony

group polarization

tendency for groups to make decisions or adopt attitudes that are more extreme than initial inclinations of their individual members

social facilitation

perform simple tasks better in front of others

social loafing

put in less effort when working with others

Milgram’s obedience experiment

shocking tests

stereotypes

beliefs and assumptions about a person based on group membership

prejudice

an evaluation based on group membership

discrimination

behavior toward a person based on group membership

self-fulfilling prophecy

a processes in which ones expectations about another person eventually lead that person to behave in ways that confirm those expectations

consummate love

balanced combination of intimacy, passion, and commitment

romantic love

combination of imtimacy and passion

companionate love

combination of intimacy and commitment

social exchange theory

we use memberships in out ingroups as a source of self-worth

personality

the long-standing traits and patterns that propel individuals to consistently think, feel, and behave in specific ways

MMPI

clinical questionnaire used to assess personality and psychological porblems

projective tests

assessments in which a person responds to stimuli that reveals unconsious thoughts and feelings

TAT

reveals unconsious desires, fears, and stuggles by looking at pictures

What is the trait approach to personality

uses traits to characterize differences among individuals

traits

stable tendency to behave in a particular way

factor analysis

method of identifying associations among variables to reveal a small number of factors

what’s the five factor model?

OCEAN
Openness: imagination, feelings, actions, ideas

Conscientious: competence, self-discipline, thoughtfulness, and achievement striving

Extraversion: socialability, assertiveness, excitement seeking, and emotional expression

Agreeableness: cooperativeness

Neuroticism: emotional stability

what are the three personality clusters

Friendly, conventional

Relaxed, creative

Temperamental, uninhibited

psychodynamic approach

personality is shaped by needs, strivings, and desires operating unconsciously

Id

immersive, pleasure-driven component

Ego

rational, reality-driven

superego

rule-based, moral component

Dominant id

impulsive

dominant superego

excessively guilty

defense mechanism

unconscious protective behavior that reduces anxiety

displacement

transferring inappropriate urges or behaviors onto non-threatening targets

rationalization

justifying behaviors by substiuting acceptance reasons for them in place of less-acceptable reasons for them

repression

pushing painful memories and thoughts into the unconsious

psychosexual stages

stages of child development in which a child’s pleasure-seeking burgess are focused on specific areas of the body called erogenous zones

5 stages of psychosexual

Oral (mouth), anal (pooping), phallic (opposite sex parent attention wanted), latent (creative skills), genital (sexual interests)

Criticisms of the psychodynamic approach

lacks empirical evidence

collective unconscious

segment of the deepest unconscious mind genetically inherited and shared among all human beings

self efficacy

individuals belief in their capacity to execute behavior necessary to produce specific performance attainments

locus of control

psychological concept representing an individual’s belief system regarding the causes of their experiences

psychopathology

the manifestation of a psychological disorder

psychological disorder

A condition in which there are disturbances in thoughts, feelings, and behavior

biological perspective

views psychological disorders as linked to biological phenomena

psychological perspective

emphasises the importance of learning, stress, faulty and self-defaulting think patterns and environmental factors in psychological disorders

diathesis-stress model

says someone with a predisposition for a psychological disorder is more likely than others to develop it when faced with adverse events

DSM

classification system describing disorder features and distinguishing characteristics

ICD

classification system that describes disorder and is also used to examine the health of populations (global covering all mental and physical diseases

comorbidity

the presence of two or more distinct chronic diseases or medial conditions in a patient simultaneously

most common type of disorder

major depressive disorder

phobia

intense, irrational fear of a specific object, or situation

two categories of phobic disorder

specific phobias: fear of specific objects or situations

agoraphobia: fear of public places

what characterizes ptsd

distressing memories of event

reliving event

irritability

detachment from others

mood disorders

characterized by severe disturbances in mood in emotions

the neurotransmitters linked to depression

serotonin (mood energy), norepinephrine (stress and response), and dopamine (motivation)

mania

extended state of intense, wild, elation

positive symptoms of schizophrenia

amplifications or exaggerations of normal functioning like hallucinations and delusions

negative symptoms of schizophrenia

reductions or deficits of normal functioning like emotional blunting, social withdrawl

DID

presence of two or more distinct personalities

Three clusters of personality disorders

Cluster A: odd or eccentric personalities

Cluster B: impulsive, overly dramatic, highly emotional

Cluster C: nervous or fearful

borderline personality disorder

have exaggerated and unjustifed sense of slef-importance

three tendencies that characterize antisocial personality disorder

disinhibition: immediate gradification

boldness

meanness: no close relationships

Psychotherapy

an interaction between a clinician and a person with a pysch problem with the goal of relieving the problem

biomedical therapy

uses drugs or medical procedures to improve psychological functioning

spontaneous remission

people recover without treatment

psychoanalysis

repressed thoughts and feelings are released in order to reduce their influence on behavior

What four things occur during psychoanalysis?

Free association: client says what comes to mind

Dream analysis

Resistance

Transference: transfer feelings for other individuals into therapist

criticisms of psychoanalysis

time consuming

interferes with unconscious

behavior therapy

employs learning principles to change undesirable behaviors

counterconditioning

involves learning a new response to stimulus you didn’t like before

adverse conditioning

pairing unpleasant stimulus with unpleasant behavior

systematic desensitization

exposure to a fear object through stimulus hierarchy (bee example)

flooding

behavioral treatment in which the client is suddenly confronted with phobia

token economy

reinforcing desired behavior with a redeemable token

contingency contracting

creating a goal contract and enforcing it with reinforcement and punishment

pros and cons of behavior therapy

useful for treating anxiety and effective

cognitive therapy

focuses on identifying and changing distorted thoughts about the self, others, and the world

three broad patterns of distorted thoughts

overgeneralizing

polarized thinking

jumping to conclusions

cognitive restructuring

teaching clients to question automatic maladaptive thoughts and replace them with rational thoughts

pros and cons of cognitive therapy

good for substance abuse and eating disorders

focus on rationality van be unrealistic way to help someone improve

cognitive behavioral therapy

a blend of cognitive and behavioral therapeutic strategies