PSYC-210 Module III Exam

Schizophrenia

A disorder characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and/or diminished, inappropriate emotional expression.

Psychotic Disorders

A group of disorders marked by irrational ideas, distorted perceptions, and a loss of contact with reality.

Delusion

A false belief, often of persecution or grandeur, that may accompany psychotic disorders.

Chronic (Process) Schizophrenia

A form of schizophrenia in which symptoms usually appear by late adolescence or early adulthood. As people age, psychotic episodes last longer and recovery periods shorten.

Acute (Reactive) Schizophrenia

A form of schizophrenia that can begin at any age, frequently occurs in response to an emotionally traumatic event, and has extended recovery periods.

Personality

An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.

Psychodynamic Theories

Theories that view personality with a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences.

Psychoanalysis

Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions.

Unconscious

According to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware.

Free Association

In psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing.

Id

A reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. It operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification.

Ego

The largely conscious, “executive” part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. It operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id’s desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain. Our rational self, “reality principle.”

Superego

The part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations. “Morality Principle.”

Psychosexual Stages

The childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which, according to Freud, the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones.

Oedipus Complex

According to Freud, a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father.

Identification

The process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing superegos.

Fixation

In personality theory, according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved.

Defense Mechanisms

In psychoanalytic theory, the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.

Repression

In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories.

Collective Unconscious

Carl Jung’s concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species’ history.

Projective Test

A personality test, such as the Rorschach, that provides ambiguous images designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics.

Thematic Apperception Test

A projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes.

Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base with physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher-level safety needs and then psychological needs become active.

Self-Actualization

According to Maslow, one of the ultimate psychological needs that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved; the motivation to fulfill one’s potential.

Self-Transcendence

According to Maslow, the striving for identity, meaning, and purpose beyond the self.

Acceptance, Unconditional Postive Regard

One of the three conditions that facilitates growth. Acknowledging feelings, even problems, without passing judgment; honoring, not devaluing.

A caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude, which Carl Rogers believed would help people develop self-awareness and self-acceptance.

Self-Concept

All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, “Who am I?” People are happiest with one that matches their ideal self. Thus, it is important to ask people to describe themselves as they are and as they ideally would like to be.

Trait

A characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act in certain ways, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports.

Personality Inventories

A questionnaire (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to assess selected personality traits.

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

The most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests. Originally developed to identify emotional disorders (still considered its most appropriate use), this test is now used for many other screening purposes.

Empirically Driven Test

A test (such as the MMPI) created by selecting from a pool of items those that discriminate between groups.

Social Psychology

The scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.

Attribution Theory

The theory that we explain someone’s behavior by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency for observers, when analyzing others’ behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition.

Attitude

Feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events.

Peripheral Route Persuasion

Occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker’s attractiveness.

Central Route Persuasion

Occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts.

Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon

The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.

Role

A set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

The theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent. For example, when we become aware that our attitudes and our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes.

Conformity

Adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.

Normative Social Influence

Influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval.

Informational Social Influence

Influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality.

Social Facilitation

Improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others.

Social Loafing

The tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable.

Deindividualization

The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity

Group Polarization

The enhancement of a group’s prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group.

Groupthink

The mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives.

Oral (0-18 months)

Psychosexual Stage: Pleasure centers on the mouth - sucking, biting, chewing.

Anal (18-36 months)

Psychosexual Stage: Pleasure focuses on bladder and bowel elimination; coping with demands for control.

Phallic (3-6 years)

Psychosexual Stage: Pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with incestuous and sexual feelings.

Latency (6 to puberty)

Psychosexual Stage: A phase of dormant sexual feelings.

Genital (puberty on)

Maturation of sexual interests.

Regression

Defense mechanism. Retreating to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy becomes fixated.

Example: A little boy reverts back to the oral comfort of thumb sucking in the car on the way to his first day of school.

Reaction Formation

Switching unacceptable impulses to their opposites. Compensates.

Example: A politician gives anti-gay speeches, then turns out to have homosexual tendencies.

Projection

Disguising one’s own threatening impulses by attributing them to others. Distracts.

Example: Someone with an anger problem accuses everyone else of being angry and threatening.

Rationalization

Offering self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening unconscious reasons for one’s actions.

Example: A habitual drinker says she drinks with her friends “just to be social.”

Displacement

Shifting sexual or suggestive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person.

Example: A little girl kicks the family dog after her mother sends her to her room.

Denial

Refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities.

Example: a partner denies evidence of his loved one’s affair.

Erogenous Zones

Sensitive areas of the body that the id is focused on.

Personality

Develops from the efforts of our ego, our rational self, to resolve tension between our id, based in biological drives, and the superego, society’s rules and constraints.

Psychodynamic/Psychoanalytic Theories

Focus on the inner forces that interact to make us who we are.

Behavior, as well as human emotions and personality, develops in a dynamic (interacting, changing) interplay between conscious and unconscious processes, including various motives and inner conflicts.

Humanism

Focusing on the conditions that support healthy personal growth.

The Humanistic Perspective

Maslow and Rogers studied healthy people rather than people with mental health problems.

Genuineness

One of the three conditions that facilitates growth. Being honest, direct, not using a façade.

Empathy

One of the three conditions that facilitates growth. Tuning into the feelings of others, showing your efforts to understand, listening well.