Psych 1 Exam 2

What is personality?

Long-standing traits and patterns that cause individuals to consistently think, feel, and behave in specific ways.

What is the psychoanalytic theory?

Freud's theory that behavior is triggered by forces within personality that people are often unaware of.

What is the unconscious?

The part of personality containing memories, knowledge, beliefs, feelings, urges, drives, and instincts that a person is not aware of. It motivates much of our behavior.

What are the three structures of personality according to Freud?

Id, ego, and superego.

What is the id?

The raw, unorganized, inborn part of personality that contains primitive drives and seeks immediate satisfaction.

What is the pleasure principle?

The desire to immediately reduce tension and maximize satisfaction. It guides the id.

What is the ego?

The part of personality that balances the desires of the id with the realities of the outside world.

What is the reality principle?

Restraining instinctual energy to maintain personal safety and function in society. It guides the ego.

What is the superego?

The part of personality that represents society's ideas of right and wrong, learned from parents, teachers, and other important people.

What is the conscience?

The part of the superego that prevents a person from behaving in morally improper ways.

What is the ego-ideal?

The part of the superego that represents the perfect person we wish we could be.

How do the id, ego, and superego interact?

The id wants immediate satisfaction, the superego focuses on morality, and the ego balances both with reality.

What is Freud's legacy?

His ideas about the unconscious, defense mechanisms, and childhood experiences influencing adult psychological difficulties.

What are defense mechanisms?

Unconscious strategies people use to reduce anxiety by concealing the source of anxiety from themselves and others.

What are criticisms of Freud's theories?

Lack of compelling scientific evidence, reliance on abstract and unobservable concepts, and his view of women as inferior.

What is the neo-Freudian perspective?

An approach that builds on Freud's ideas but introduces different explanations of personality.

What is Jung's collective unconscious?

A set of inherited influences from relatives, the human race, and even nonhuman animal ancestors.

What is Adler's inferiority complex?

Feelings of inferiority developed during childhood that a person has been unable to overcome as an adult.

What is the trait perspective?

An approach that explains consistent patterns in people's behavior through personality characteristics.

What are traits?

Consistent personality characteristics and behaviors displayed in different situations.

What is Allport's cardinal trait?

A single dominant characteristic that directs most of a person's activities.

What is Allport's central trait?

A major characteristic that describes an individual's personality.

What is Allport's secondary trait?

A less influential characteristic that affects behavior in fewer situations.

What is Cattell's contribution to trait theory?

He used factor analysis to identify basic dimensions of personality.

What is factor analysis?

A method of summarizing relationships among many variables into fewer, more general patterns.

What are source traits?

The basic dimensions of personality identified through trait research.

What are Eysenck's three personality dimensions?

Extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism.

What is the social cognitive approach?

An approach emphasizing how thoughts, feelings, expectations, and values influence personality.

What is self-efficacy?

A person's belief in their own capabilities.

What is self-esteem?

The positive and negative evaluations a person has of themselves.

What is the humanistic approach?

An approach emphasizing people's basic goodness and their tendency to grow toward higher levels of functioning.

What is unconditional positive regard?

Acceptance and respect for a person regardless of what they say or do.

What is self-actualization?

A state of self-fulfillment in which people realize their highest potential.

What are psychological tests?

Standardized measures designed to objectively assess behavior.

What are self-report measures?

Personality assessments in which individuals provide information about themselves.

What is the MMPI-2?

A personality test used to identify specific psychological difficulties and predict other behaviors.

What is behavioral assessment?

Directly measuring an individual's behavior to identify characteristics associated with personality.

What is a projective personality test?

A test in which a person responds to an ambiguous stimulus by describing it or telling a story.

Roschach test and the TAT

What is the Rorschach test?

A projective personality test that asks people to interpret ambiguous inkblots.

What is the TAT (Thematic Apperception Test)?

A projective test in which people create stories about pictures or scenes.

What is health psychology?

The study of psychological factors related to wellness and illness, including prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of medical problems.

What is stress?

The process of perceiving and responding to events that threaten or challenge a person's well-being.

What is the stimulus-based definition of stress?

Stress is characterized as an external stimulus that causes certain reactions.

What is the response-based definition of stress?

Stress is characterized as a person's response to environmental conditions.

What is primary appraisal?

The process of judging whether a situation or stressor is threatening.

What is secondary appraisal?

The process of determining whether effective options are available to manage a stressful situation.

When is stress most likely to occur?

When a situation is viewed as extremely threatening or when there are few or no effective coping options.

What is the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)?

A theory suggesting that the body's response to a stressor occurs in three stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.

What is the alarm and mobilization stage?

The first stage of GAS, when a person becomes aware of a stressor.

What is the resistance stage?

The second stage of GAS, when the person attempts to adapt to and fight the stressor.

What is the exhaustion stage?

The third stage of GAS, when the negative consequences of prolonged stress appear.

What is the difference between acute and chronic stress?

Acute stress is short-term, while chronic stress is long-lasting or repeated.

What are traumatic events?

Events involving exposure to actual or threatened death or serious injury.

What are life changes?

Events requiring adjustments to a person's ongoing life that take time to adapt to.

What are background stressors or daily hassles?

Minor irritations that people experience repeatedly in everyday life.

What are uplifts?

Minor positive events that make people feel good.

What is job strain?

A work situation involving excessive demands and workload with little control or discretion.

What is job burnout?

A condition involving emotional exhaustion and cynicism about one's job.

What are psychophysiological disorders?

Actual medical problems influenced by interactions among psychological, emotional, and physical difficulties.

What is noncompliance?

Not following medical advice or a prescribed treatment.

What is reactance?

A negative emotional and cognitive reaction that occurs when a person's freedom is restricted.

What is creative nonadherence?

Adjusting a physician's prescribed treatment based on one's own medical judgment and experience.

How can medical compliance be increased?

Provide clear instructions, be honest about medical problems and treatments, and use positively or negatively framed messages.

What is a positively framed message?

A message emphasizing what a person can gain by changing their behavior.

What is a negatively framed message?

A message emphasizing what a person could lose by not changing their behavior.

What is coping?

Efforts to control, reduce, or learn to tolerate threats that cause stress.

What is emotion-focused coping?

Managing emotions by changing how a person feels about or perceives a stressful problem.

What is problem-focused coping?

Attempting to change or directly solve the stressful problem or its source.

What is learned helplessness?

A state in which people believe unpleasant or aversive situations cannot be controlled and eventually stop trying to change them.

What is hardiness?

A personality characteristic associated with a lower rate of stress-related illness.

What are the three components of hardiness?

Commitment, challenge, and control.

What is commitment?

One component of hardiness involving remaining engaged with activities and experiences.

What is challenge?

One component of hardiness involving viewing stressful changes as challenges.

What is control?

One component of hardiness involving believing that one can influence events in one's life.

What is social support?

A mutual network of caring and interested people who provide support.

What are effective coping strategies?

Turn threats into challenges, make situations less threatening, change goals, take physical action, and prepare for stress.

What is happiness?

An enduring state of mind involving joy, contentment, positive emotions, and the feeling that life has meaning and value.

What is a happiness set point?

A relatively stable level of happiness that people tend to return to after changes in circumstances.

What are characteristics of happy people?

High self-esteem, a sense of control, optimism, and sociability.

Does winning the lottery create permanent happiness?

Research presented in the slides suggests that lottery winners initially experience increased happiness, but eventually return to their happiness set point.

What are ways to increase happiness?

Count blessings, cultivate optimism, avoid overthinking and social comparison, practice kindness, nurture relationships, and engage in enjoyable activities.

What are additional ways to increase happiness?

Savor positive experiences, commit to goals, develop coping strategies, forgive, practice religion or spirituality, and take care of the body.

What is social psychology?

The study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and actions are affected by others.

What are attitudes?

Evaluations of a particular person, behavior, belief, or concept.

What three factors influence persuasion?

The characteristics of the message source, the message itself, and the target.

What is the message source?

The person delivering a persuasive message, also known as the attitude communicator.

What is a one-sided argument?

A persuasive message that presents only one side of an issue.

What is a two-sided argument?

A persuasive message that presents both sides of an issue.

What is a fear-producing message?

A persuasive message that attempts to change attitudes by creating fear.

What is central-route processing?

Being persuaded by carefully considering the issues and arguments in a message.

What is peripheral-route processing?

Being persuaded by factors unrelated to the actual quality or content of the message.

What is the difference between central and peripheral processing?

Central processing focuses on the arguments, while peripheral processing focuses on outside factors.

What is cognitive dissonance?

Discomfort that occurs when a person holds two contradictory attitudes or thoughts.

What is social cognition?

The mental processes that help us understand the social world.

What are schemas?

Sets of thoughts or knowledge about people and social experiences.

What is impression formation?

The process of organizing information about another person to create an overall impression.

What are central traits in impression formation?

Traits used to form an overall impression of another person.

What is attribution theory?

The theory explaining how people determine the causes of another person's behavior.

What are situational causes?

Causes of behavior resulting from something in the environment.

What are dispositional causes?

Causes of behavior resulting from a person's internal traits or personality.