Unit 4: Social Psychology and Personality

Personality psychology

the scientific study of personality and its development, structures traits, processes, variations, and disordered forms

social psychology

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

person perception

refers to how we form impressions of people, we try to explain why others act the way they do

attribution theory

attempts to explain how people determine the cause of what they observe (“Why are they acting that way?”) dispositional or person attribution- my friend is very good at math, situational attribution- that must have been an easy test

fundmental attribution error

when observing the behavior of thers’s, people tend to overestimate the importance of dispositional factors and underestimate the role of situational factors

actor-observer bias

the tendency for those acting in a situation to attribute their behavior to external causes, but for observers to attribute others’ behaviors to internal causes (I’m behaving this way because of this situation)

prejudice

an unjustifiable and negative attitude toward another person or group, usually formed in advance of any experience with that person or group, consists of negative emotions, stereotypes, and a predisposition to action (discrimination)

stereotype

generalized (sometimes accurate but overgeneralized) beliefs about a group of people

discrimination

unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group or its members

just-world phenomenon

higher status grups often justify their privileged position with this

social identity

people's self-categorizations in relation to their group memberships

ingroup bias

we tende to see members of our own group as more diverse than members of other groups

outgroup

other groups

scapegoat theory

prejudice can also be a toll for protecting our emotional well-being, as when we focus our anger by blaming events on a scapegoat

other-race effect

tendency to recall faces of one’s own race more accurately than faces of other races

attitudes

the way in which a person views and evaluates something or someone, a predisposition or a tendency to respond positively or negatively toward a certain idea, object, person, or situation

foot-in-the-door phenomenon

if you get people to agree to a small request, they’re more likely to agree to a larger follow-up request (as poosed to just asking for the larger request first)

role

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

Leon Festinger

coducted the classic experiment about cognitive dissonance in the late 1950s

cognitive dissonance theory

is based on the idea that we are motivated to have consistent attitudes and behaviors, when they do not, they experience unpleasant mental tension or dissonance

persuasion

chaning people’s attitudes, potentially influencing their actions

peripheral route persuasion

involves attention-getting cues to trigger speedy, emotion-based judgements

central route persuasion

occurs when deeply interested people’s thinking is influenced by considering evidence and arguments

norms

a society’s understoood rules for accepted and expected behavior

Solomon Asch

(1951) conformity experiment with the three lines and confederates

conformity

adjusting our behavior or thinkiong to coincide with a group standard (like mimicry or suffestibility [impressionablitity])

normative and social influence

Normative social: we conform to avoid rejection or to gain social approval. Informational social: we conform because we want to be accurate

obedience

willingness to do what another asks them to do

social contagion

the spontaneous spread of behaviors

Stanley Milgram

(1974) obediance studies with teacher shocking confederates

social facilitation

the presence of others improving our task

social loafing

people cant ake advantage of being a member of a group

deindividuation

loss of self-restraint that occurs when grup members feel anonymous and aroused

group polarization

the tendency for groups to show a shift towards the extremes of decision-making when compared to decisions made by individuals

groupthink

the tendency for some groups to make bad decisions

culture

the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions, shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next

tight culture

a place with cellarly defined and reliably imposed norms

loose culture

a place withi felxible and informal norms

aggression

any physcial or verbal behavior intended to harm someone physcially or emotionally

frustration-aggression principle

the feeling of frustration makes aggressions more likely. considerable experimental evidence supports it.

social script

culturally provided mental files for how to act in certain situations

mere exposure effect

the tendency for repeated exposure to novel stimuli to increase our liking of them

passionate love

intimate love relationships start with an intensely aroused state

companionate love

over time, this may develop, which is a deep affectionate attachment

equity

a condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give

self-disclosure

involves sharing a piece of personal information with another, enhances companionate love

altruism

an apparently unselfish behavior that provides benfit to others at some cost to the individual

John Darley and Bibb Latane

researched how people decided whether or not to help others in distress

Bystander effect

the larger the nember of people who witness an emergency situation, the less likely any one is to intervene

social exchange theory

the view that we help others because it is in our own self-interest

reciprocity norm

an expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them

social-responsibility

an expectation that people will help those needing their help

conflict

a perceived incompatibility of actoisn, goals, or ideas

social trap

a situation in which people in conflict pursue their own individual self-interes, harming the collective well-being

mirror-image perceptions

each party in conflict views the opponent as untrustwotrhy and evil-intentioned and istself as an ethical, peaceful victim

self-fulfilling prophecy

beliefs that confirm themselves by influencing others to behave in ways that seem to justijfy those beliefs

superordinate goals

contact between hostile groups will reduce animosity of the two groups work toward a common goal that requires the participation of all (also contact theory)

GRIT

Growth, Resilience, Instinct, and Tenacity

personality

our unique and persitent patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving

psychodynamic theories

viewe behavior as a dynamic interaciotn between the conscious and unconscious mind

psychoanalysis

a system of psychological theory and therapy that aims to treat mental conditions by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements in the mind and bringing repressed fears and conflicts into the conscious mind by techniques such as dream interpretation and free association

Sigmund Freud

believed that one’s perosnlaity was essentially set in early childhood

unconscious

we do not have access to thoughts in this, and Freud thought we spend tremendous amounts of psychic energy to keep threatening thoughts in the unconscious

free association

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

id

in the unconscious and contains instincts and psychic energy

ego

negotiates between the desires of the id and the limitations of the environment (the reality principle), it’s partyly in the unconscious and conscious mind

superego

acts as a conscience, develops around age 5

defense mechanisms

the ego uses these to help protect the conscious mind from threatening thoughts buried in the unconscious

repression

blocking thoughts out from conscious awareness

Alfred Adler

agreed that childhood is important, but emphasize childhood social- not sexual- tensions as being crucial for personality formation

Carl Jung

proposed that the unconscious consists of two different parts: the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious

collective unconscious

passed down though the species and, according to Jung, explains certain similarities we see between cultures

terror-management theory

thinking about one’s mortality provokes various terror-management defenses (increases aggression toward rivals, heightens self-esteem, etc.)

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

consists of a number of cards, each of which contains a picture of that person or people in an ambiguous situation and participant is aksed to describe what is happening in that picture

projective test

show people stimuli that are open to many possible interpretations, treating answers as revelations of inner dynamics

Roschace inkblot test

involves showing people a series of inkblots and asking them to describe what they see

Abraham Maslow

proposed that human motivations form a hierarchy of needs

humanistic theories

focuses on the potential for healthy personal growth and people’s striving for self-determinism and self-realization

hierarchy of needs

physiological (survival), safety, love (belonging), esteem, self-actualization (the motivation to fulfill one’s potential), and finally, self-transcendence (striving for identity, meaning, and purpose beyond oneself)

self-actualization

the motivation to fulfill one’s potential

self-transcendence

striving for identity, meaning, and purpose beyond oneself

Carl Rogers

believed that the ingredients of a growth-promoting environment are acceptance, genuineness, and empathy

unconditional positive regard

a blanket acceptance, unconditional love

self-concept

all of the thoughts and feelings we have in response to the question “who am I?”

trait

personality inventory

a self-assessment method, often a standardized questionnaire, that reveals insights into an individual's character

denial

not accepting the ego-threatening truth

displacement

redirecting one’s feeling toward another person or object

projection

believing that the feelings one has towards someone else are actually held by the other person and directed at oneself (Biff insits that Muffy still cares for him)

reaction formation

expressing the opposite of how one truly feels

regression

returning to an earlier, comforting form of behavior

rationalization

coming up with a beneficial result of an undesirable occurrence

intellectualization

undertaking an academic unemotional study of a topic

sublimation

channeling one’s frustration toward a different goal

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

one of the most widely used self-report instruments, an empirically derived test

empirically derived test

it uses empirically derived methods to create measures that can differentiate between groups

Robert McCrae and Paul Costa

proposed that personality can be described using th ebig five personality traits: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience, and emotional stablity (or neuroticism)

big five factors

are generally stable across the lifespan and describe personality in various cultures reasonably well. Openness to experience: creativity, curiosity, and willingness to try new things; conscientiousness: how hardworking, responsible, and organized you are; extraversion: how outgoing or shy someone is; agreeableness: how easy to get along with someone is; neuroticism: how consistent one’s mood is.

social-cognitive perspective

views behavior as influenced by the interaction between people’s traits (including their thinking) and their social context, apply principles of learning (behaviorism), cognition, and social behavior to personality. Also: the understanding of how individuals interpret and make sense of themselves, others, and events in everyday life

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