personality entire year

importance of relationships

examine monkeys raised in isolation (fearful and cannot interact with peers), feral children (unresponsive to other people, cannot function in social settings)

need to belong

motivated to form and maintain relationships, Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs, unmet needs suffer profound negative side effects

good predictors of friendships

extraversion and agreeableness; low negative emotionality, high positive emotionality, self control, low rejection sensitivity

predictors of dating success

extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, low neuroticism

romantic relationships similar personality

similar personality is not a strong predictor of relationship success, most people are average on Big 5 and tend to get along, likely won’t have success swhen each extreme is paired (high and low agreeableness)

deal breakers

untrustworthy, anger issues, dispositional contempt (i feel like others are wasting my time), rejection sensitivity

individual differences in romantic relationships

vary in values and preferences, love styles, sociosexuality (committed vs casual)

committed relationships

find others as unattractive, argued that this is a relationship maintenance strategy

strange situation

classically studied 1-2 year old, found 3 attachment patterns

anxious ambivalent

care giver is inconsistent, can sometimes be relied on but not always, caregiver leaves and has trouble being soothed

avoidant attachment

caregiver is unreliable, infant does not appear distressed when caregiver leaves

secure attachment

child feels that attachment figure is reliable, upset when caregiver leaves, reunite easily when caregiver returns

early attachment

emotional bond between infant and caregiver, important for care and protection

two dimensional attachment model

high vs. low avoidance, high vs. low anxiety, low on both=secure

avoidant adult

distant, less interested in romantic relationships, relationships likely to break up

anxious adult

obsessive, controlling, jealous, more likely to break up and get back together

secure adult

stable, enjoyable relationships, seek out and provide emotional support under distress, can have relationship problems still especially when paired with other attachment styles

working self concept

idea that self changes depending on who you are with, stems from attachment behaviors

DSM

difficult to specify the point where variation becomes pathological, list of personality and psychological disorders

purpose of DSM

make diagnosis objective, common language to discuss patterns of behavior, methods to prescribe medication/treatment

personality disorder

unusually extreme behavior, cause problems for person or others, affect social life, stable over time, may not recognize that they have a problem

ego syntonic

those who have personality disorder don’t think anything is wrong

ego dystonic

mental disorders, would like to be cured

cluster a

odd patterns of thinking, schizotypal, schizoid, paranoid

cluster b

impulsive and erratic, most stable, histrionic, narcissistic, antisocial, borderline

cluster c

anxious and avoidant emotional styles, dependent, avoidant, obsessive compulsive

maintained personality disorders in DSM-5

schizotypal, narcissistic, antisocial, borderline, avoidant, obsessive compulsive

schizotypal personality disorder

extreme patter of thoughts, unconventional behavior, superstitious beliefs, difficulty in close relationships, cluster a

narcissistic personality disorder

extreme pattern of arrogant, exploitative, entilitled, damagin behavior combined with lack of empathy

antisocial personality disorder

extreme pattern of manipulative and dangerous behavior

borderline personality disorder

extreme and dangerous patter of emotional instability, confused behavior, self harm, more common in women

avoidant personality disorder

fear of failure, criticism, rejection, leads to avoidance of regular activity

obsesssive compulsive personality disorder

pattern of rigid, conscientious behavior, anzious and infflexible, focused on rules and rituals, perfectionism

pathologizing behavior

describing behaviors as a result of mental illness, may be overusing pathologization

positive psychology

move beyond focusing only on pathology, define mental health in terms of characteristics of psychologically healthy person

labeling

misleading, fail to promote understanding, recognize and address behavior

amygdala

emotion processing, correlated with neuroticism, anxiety, and extroversion

frontal lobe

plays role cognition, planning, anticipating consequences, emotion, related to conscientiousness and neuroticism

brain damage

observe those who suffered brain injuries, damage part of animal’s brain to study it

brain stimulation

stimulate brain directly with electrodes and observe the response, transcranial stimuation to temporarily shut off parts and observe the response

brain activity and imaging

observe brain activity while its working, ex. EEG- electrodes on the scalp to measure electrical brain activity, ex. fMRI- map brain activity using oxygen in blood

brain imaging limitation

all parts of brain are active to some degree, researchers look at small areas, brain activity responds to stimuli but doesn’t exhibit same psychological response each time

fMRI limitations

participant must lie still, expensive (small n), interpretation is complex

assay and injections

measure samples of blood, saliva, urine, spinal fluid; inject NTs/hormones into the body-examine relationship to personality and behavior

dopamine

turns motivation into action, plasticity dimension of personality (extroversion and openness)

serotonin

inhibiting behavioral impulses (worry, anger, stress, sensitive), stability dimension of personality (agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability)

testosterone

higher in men, linked to aggression and sexuality, related to sociability, dominance, impulsivity, and career; injections caused participants to do worse on cognitive reflection test

cortisol

stress response, supresses immune system, related to anxiety, depression, higher risk of heart disease; low levels are related to PTSD

oxytocin

“love hormone”, parent-child bonding, nurturing behavior, some relate to trust

heritability

measures the degree to which phenotypes are related to genotypes, genetic relatives should be more similar than non genetic relatives

biological approach

based on differences in brain anatomy and physiology, genetics, evolution

behavioral genetics

behaviors passed down to child, genes influence patterns of behavior

calculating heritability

compare monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins, compare correlations between self report and behavioral measurements, (rMZ - rDZ) x2

gene-environment interactions

genes don’t cause behavior, environment can affect heritability ex. children with poor educational stimulation=doesn’t reach full IQ potential

heritability interpretation

percentage of variance of a trait can be attributed to variance in genes, avg=0.40

evolutionary psychology

origins of patterns of behavior that humans share

evolutionary psych explaining personality differences

diversity is necessary for adaptation in response to changing conditions ex. neuroticism is helpful in an unsafe situation

evolutionary psychology limitations

cannot test empirically, if traits evolved they should occur across cultures, determinism-that behavior is inevitable

humanistic approach

seeks to examine the heart of the human experience (creativity, meaning of life)

biological (and trait) approach

somewhat dispassionate and removed from humanity, denounced that psych can be studied like other sciences

construal

differences in people’s perceptions of their experiences

maximizers

those who always seek the best outcome, prone to perfectionism, depression, and regret

satisficers

those who believe some outcomes are good enough, tend to be happier and more optimistic

self actualization

Rogers, goal of existence, live to your full potential

hierarchy of needs

Maslow, ultimate need or motive is to self actualize, lower needs must be met first

optimistic humanism

existentialism with assumption that people are basically good

happiness defined by

positive emotions and life satisfaction

sources of happiness

genetic setpoint, circumstances, intentional activity

happiness set point

baseline happiness, large genetic component (based in extraversion, neuroticism, and conscientiousness), stable over time, revert to set point

happiness circumstances

demographics, income, marriage, children, age

humanistic psychology

that everyone has a different reality and nobody is right, each view is psychologically important

phineas gage

metal through brain changed personality, became socially adapted

Elliot study

brain tumor on frontal lobe, unemotional, unable to make simple decisions

limitations of heritability

cannot explain nature/nurture

McClelland’s Need Theory of motivation

need for achievement, power, and affiliation, US focuses on achievement ex. Little Engine that Could

strengths of the head

intellecutal and self oriented, creativity, curiosity, learning; associated with more job growth, democratic, diversity

strengths of the heart

emotional and interpersonal, gratitude, hope, love, religion

tight culture

tend to be less diverse and more densely populated ex. India, Pakistan

loose culture

tolerant of deviations from cultural norms, less densely populated, more diverse ex. United States

individualism

prioritize individual goals, peolpe aere viewed as separate, independence is valued ex. US, Germany

collectivism

prioritize group goals and needs, small boundary between self and others, interdependence valued, spend more time socializing with less people ex. Guatemala, China

ecological influence

people influenced by physical environment ex. temperature

selective migration

different people are attracted to different cities/regions

social influence

people are influences by those around them

ecology

physical layout and resources of the land where the culture began, combined with the problems and circumstances the culture has faced

existentialism

Philosophical movement starting in the 1800s, to regain contact with the experience of being alive and aware

coping with existential anxiety

don’t think or worry about negative feelings (follow society’s advice for living a good life), accept our mortality and seek purpose anyways (optimal strategy)

terror management theory

Fear of death leads us to engage in behaviors to help avoid thinking about mortality, Culture evolved as a defense mechanism

financial stability and happiness

happiness is more strongly correlated with financial well being in poor countries than in rich countries

positive psychology

Study of human strengths that enable people to thrive

health behaviors of happiness

good sleep, regular exercise, healthy eating are linked to reduced levels of depression

life outcomes of happiness

financial security, relationship satisfaction, linked unemployment to depression, linked supportive relationship to long-term well being

cross-culture psychology

better understand people across cultures to understand human universals and variety of human experience

WEIRD samples

western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic samples, broad claims that don’t actually generalize across cultures

comparing cultures limitations

variation with Big 5, different traits predict same outcome based on culture (secular vs religious country)

traits across subcultures

in USA: friendly/conventional, relaxed/creative, tempermental/uninhibited

subculture effect sizes

variation among individuals IN culture is larger than variation BETWEEN cultures

behaviorism

personality=behavior, reward and punishment, focuses on observable behavior, ignores social learning

habituation

decrease in responsiveness to stimuli with each repeated exposure, ex. numb to violence in media

classical conditioning

unconditioned response is naturally elicited by stimulus becomes elicited by new conditioned stimulus, ex. Pavlov’s Dog