PSY 111 - Exam #1

Characteristics of Classical Clinical Psychology (4)

1. see patients
2. interpret signs from patients (projective tests)
3. conduct therapy
4. build theories about personality

Psychoanalysis (PA)

refers to Freud's theory of personality and treatment method

Psychodynamic Approach

an approach that regards personality as formed by needs, strivings, and desires largely operating outside of awareness - motives that also can produce emotional disorders

Psychogenic Symptoms

problems with no underlying physical cause

(use of hypnosis, free associations, and catharsis)

Three Parts of the Mind

1. Id
2. Superego
3. Ego

Id

part of the mind containing the drives present at birth; source of bodily needs, wants, desires, and impulses (particularly sexual and aggressive drives)

Superego

part of the mind that reflects the internalization of cultural rules, mainly learned as parents exercise their authority

Ego

part of the mind developed through contact with the external world, that enables us to deal with life's practical demands (mediates Id and Superego)

Repression

removing painful experiences and unacceptable impulses from the conscious mind (motivated forgetting)

Defense Mechanisms

unconscious coping mechanisms that reduce anxiety generated by threats from unacceptable impulses

Projection

attributing one's own threatening feelings, motives, or impulses to another person or group

Regression

reverting to an immature behavior or earlier stage of development, a time when things felt more secure, to deal with internal conflict and perceived threat

Reaction Formation

unconsciously replacing threatening inner wishes and fantasies with an exaggerated version of their opposite

Displacement

shifting unacceptable wishes or drives to a neutral or less threatening alternative

Identification

dealing with feelings of threat and anxiety by unconsciously taking on the characteristics of another person who seems more powerful or better able to cope

Rationalization

supplying a reasonable sounding explanation for unacceptable feelings and behaviors to conceal (mostly from oneself) one's underlying motives or feelings

Sublimation

channeling unacceptable sexual or aggressive drives into socially acceptable and culturally enhancing activities

Psychosexual Stages

distinct early life stages through which personality is formed as children experience sexual pleasures from specific body areas and caregivers redirect or interfere with those pleasures

Fixation

a phenomenon in which a person's pleasure-seeking drives become psychologically stuck, or arrested, at a particular psychosexual stage

Oral Stage

the first psychosexual stage, in which experience centers on the pleasures and frustrations associated with the mouth, sucking, and being fed

Anal Stage

the second psychosexual stage, in which experience is dominated by the pleasures and frustrations associated with the anus, retention, and expulsion of feces and urine, and toilet training

Phallic Stage

the third psychosexual stage, in which experience is dominated by the pleasure, conflict, and frustration associated with the phallic-genital region as well as coping with powerful incestuous feelings of love, hate, jealousy, and conflict

Oedipus Conflict

a developmental experience in which a child's conflicting feelings towards the opposite-sex parent are (usually) resolved by identifying with the same-sex parent

Latency Stage

the fourth psychosexual stage, in which the primary focus is on the further development of intellectual, creative, interpersonal, and athletic skills

Genital Stage

the fifth and final psychosexual stage, the time for the coming together of the mature adult personality with a capacity to love, work, and relate to others in a mutually satisfying and reciprocal manner

Self-Actualizing Tendency

the human motive toward realizing our inner potential

Existential Approach

a school of thought that regards personality as governed by an individual's ongoing choices and decisions in the context of the realities of life and death

Social-Cognitive Approach

an approach that views personality in terms of how the person thinks about the situations encountered in daily life and behaves in response to them

Trait

a relatively stable disposition to behave in a particular and consistent way

Reliability

evidence shows repeated use of the tool resulting in consistent scores

(required for validity)

Validity

evidence shows the specific inferences/predictions made from the test are accurate, meaningful, and useful

Personality

an individual's characteristic style of behaving, thinking, and feeling

Self-Report

a method in which people provide subjective information about their own thoughts, feelings, or behaviors, typically via questionnaire or interview

Projective Tests

tests designed to reveal inner aspects of individuals' personalities by analysis of their response to a standard series of ambiguous stimuli

Rorschach Inkblot Test

a projective technique in which respondents' inner thoughts and feelings are believed to be revealed by analysis of their responses to a set of unstructured inkblots

Lexical Hypothesis

experiment resulting in The Big Five; involved 18,000 personality-descriptive words narrowed down to what eventually became The Big 5

The Five Factor Model (The Big 5)

("O.C.E.A.N.")
1. Openness
2. Conscientiousness
3. Extroversion
4. Agreeableness
5. Neuroticism

Correlation

statistical measure of consistency of strength and direction of an association between scores on two variables

Fixed Mindset

belief that abilities are fixed traits and are innate and unchangeable

Growth Mindset

belief that talents and abilities can be developed

Social Psychology

the study of the causes and consequences of sociality

Central Claims of Social Psychology (2)

1. most human behavior is social in some fashion (influenced by actual/anticipated judgements of others) (influenced by social norms marketing)
2. behavior emerges from immediate situation

Social Influence

the ability to change or direct another person's behavior

Door-in-the-Face Technique

an influence strategy that involves getting someone to accept a small request by first getting them to refuse a large request

Conformity

the tendency to do what others do

Obedience

the tendency to do what authorities tell us to do

Foot-in-the-Door Technique

a technique that involves making a small request and following it with a larger request

Cognitive Dissonance

an unpleasant state that arises when a person recognizes the inconsistency of his or her actions, attitudes, or beliefs

Aggression

behavior whose purpose is to harm another

Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis

a principle stating that animals aggress when their goals are frustrated

Proactive Aggression

aggression that is planned and purposeful

Reactive Aggression

aggression that occurs spontaneously in response to a negative affective state

Cooperation

behavior by two or more individuals that leads to mutual benefit

Diffusion of Responsibility

the tendency of individuals to feel diminished responsibility for their actions when surrounded by others who are acting the same way

Social Loafing

the tendency of people to expend less effort when in a group than when alone

Bystander Intervention

the act of helping strangers in an emergency situation

Altruism

intentional behavior that benefits another at a potential cost to oneself

Reciprocal Altruism

behavior that benefits another with the expectation that those benefits will be returned in the future

Milgram's Obedience Study

teacher-learner electric shock experiment; 65% of participants shocked max amount; results were impacted by prestige of institution, actors in room quit, no verbal feedback, shifted responsibility, free choice, contradicting experimenters, etc.

Fundamental Attribution Error

tendency to think in terms of people's dispositions and neglect the situations they are in (reasoning behind why we are so bad at predicting behavior)

Asch Line Study

An experiment where participants had to pick which line in a group of lines were of the same length. Sometimes the confederates gave the wrong answer and often the participant conformed. They reasoned that they did not want the others to think that they were weird.

Good Samaritan Experiment

Experiment to see who would take time to help an injured man at a roadside. subjects either on-time, early, or late. On their way through an alley, the seminary students found a man slumped in the doorway, coughing and groaning.
40% offered help
Low hurry situations: 63% helped
Medium hurry situations: 45% helped
High hurry situations: 10% helped
Factors: lack of time pressure, recently observing pro-social model, mood, guilt

Ostracism

deliberate social exclusion of individuals or groups

Cyberball Experiment

experiment involving the virtual throwing of a ball between three players, one of whom was ostracized from the group, producing strong feelings of sadness and anger

What Draws People Together? (3)

1. attraction to social desirable others
2. attraction to similar others
3. attraction to proximate others

Why Do Relationships End? (4)

1. low relationship satisfaction
2. higher quality alternatives
3. level of investment
4. ease of exit/break up

Mere Exposure Effect

the tendency for liking a stimulus to increase with the frequency of exposure to that stimulus

Passionate Love

an experience involving feelings of euphoria, intimacy, and intense sexual attraction

Companionate Love

an experience involving affection, trust, and concern for a partner's well-being

Comparison Level for Alternatives

the cost-benefit ratio that a person believes they could attain in another relationship

Equity

a state of affairs in which the cost-benefit ratios of two partners are roughly equally favorable

Social Cognition

the processes by which people come to understand others

Learning

the acquisition from experience of new knowledge, skills, or responses that results in a relatively permanent change in the state of the learner

Habituation

a general process in which repeated or prolonged exposure to a stimulus results in a gradual reduction in responding

Sensitization

a simple form of learning that occurs when presentation of a stimulus leads to an increased response to a later stimulus

Classical Conditioning

a type of learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus produces a response after being paired with a stimulus that naturally produces a response

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

something that reliably produces a naturally occurring reaction in an organism

Unconditioned Response (UR)

a reflexive reaction that is reliably produced by an unconditioned stimulus

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

a previously neutral stimulus that produces a reliable response in an organism after being paired with a US

Conditioned Response (CR)

a reaction that resembles an unconditioned response but is produced by a conditioned stimulus

Acquisition

the phase of classical conditioning when the CS and the US are presented together

Second-Order Conditioning

a type of learning in which a CS is paired with a stimulus that became associated with the US in an earlier procedure

Extinction

the gradual elimination of a learned response that occurs when the CS is repeatedly presented without the US

Spontaneous Recovery

the tendency of a learned behavior to recover from extinction after a rest period

Generalization

the CR is observed even though the CS is slightly different from the CS used during acquisition

Discrimination

the capacity to distinguish between similar but distinct stimuli

Biological Preparedness

a propensity for learning particular kinds of associations over other kinds

Operant Conditioning

a type of learning in which the consequences of an organism's behavior determine whether it will repeat that behavior in the future

Law of Effect

the principle that behaviors that are followed by a "satisfying state of affairs" tend to be repeated, and those that produce an "unpleasant state of affairs" are less likely to be repeated

Operant Behavior

behavior that an organism performs that has some impact on the environment

Reinforcer

any stimulus or event that increases the likelihood of the behavior that led to it

Punisher

any stimulus or event that decreases the likelihood of the behavior that led to it

Introspection

process of "looking within" to observe one's own thoughts, beliefs, and feelings

Models of Learning (4)

1. Habituation
2. Classical Conditioning
3. Operant/Instrumental Conditioning
4. Cognitive Learning

Fixed-Interval (FI) Schedule

an operant conditioning principle whereby reinforcers are presented at fixed time periods, provided that the appropriate response is made

Variable-Interval (VI) Schedule

an operant conditioning principle whereby behavior is reinforced on the basis of an average time that has expired since the last reinforcement

Fixed-Ratio (FR) Schedule

an operant conditioning principle whereby reinforcement is delivered after a specific number of responses have been made

Variable-Ratio (VR) Schedule

an operant conditioning principle whereby the delivery of reinforcement is based on a particular average number of responses

Intermittent Reinforcement

an operant conditioning principle whereby only some of the responses made are followed by reinforcement

Intermittent Reinforcement Effect

the fact that operant behaviors that are maintained under intermittent reinforcement schedules resist extinction better than those maintained under continuous reinforcement