psych exam (multiple choice practice)

personality

suite of unique patterns in cognitive (thought), emotional and behavioral responding

oral: 0-18 months

conflict: children become aware of their dependence on their mothers (caregivers) and the unreliability associated with this, namely, managing their separation anxiety

fixation: clingy, needy personality profile, with a strong need for approval (neurotic habits involve the mouth - bitting nails, cigarettes)

anal: around 2 years

conflict: children become aware of the value judgments associated with the waste their body produce, priming concern of cleanliness, order, control and compliance

fixation: either extreme neatness and fussiness (retentive) or extreme messiness and laziness (expulsive)

phallic stage: 4-6 years

conflict: children begin to parse gender identity, identify with same-sex parent, covert attention of other parent, oedipus/electra complex, castration anxiety or penis envy

fixation: differs with gender role, males who cannot move past oedipal conflict assert their mascunlility ****in brash, destructive ways, whereas women grow emotional

latency stage: 7-11 years

conflict: children begin to sublimate and suppress their Eros desires, focusing on maintaining a dispassionate Ego as a safety mechanism

fixation: excessive comfort found in the neutrality of proportional self-denial can become a crunch, stunting later psychosexual development, leading to sexuality, leading to asexuality and dullness

genital stage: 12 years up

conflict: children begin the slow process of sexual maturity, parsing the new intense desires, as well as sources anxiety and possible failures/rejections

fixation: various sexual obsessions or resurgence of earlier partial fixations

defence mechanisms

protect conscious mind from unconscious urges

• repression: block particular demands

• displacement: redirect a desire on a substitute object

• regression: revert to patterns of a earlier age

• rationalisation: provide alternative story for our behavior, mask our id drive

• denial: refusing to acknowledge an issue

• projection: own desire or thoughts to other people

• defence mechanism = shape personality

social-cognitive approach to personaility

personality development mostly explained by

• learning mechanisms: classical and operant conditioning

• social/observational learning

personality (behavioural repertories) depends on:

• behavioral-outcome expectancies - beliefs about what is possible

• self-efficacy expectancies - confidence accrued from past successes (most important in task performance)

• competencies: acquired skill useful in problem solving (procedural)

• self-regulation: managing new gaps in expectancies and competencies

humanistic approach to personality

therapeutic movement: affirming the character of the individual, empowering choices and personal progress, and supporting people on their path towards self-actualisation

thus, personality development focused primarily on growth by choice

• human nature and human individual character is fundamentally good

• desire and capability to survive, grow and improve

• intentional choices and ‘free will’ shape our self-perceptions: helps us become who we wish to become

the three selves

true self: our true ‘inner being,’ what is fundamental to us, untainted and always ‘good’ by default

false self: the typical view of self, created by personal experiences and worldly limitations, distorts true self

ideal self: the imagined best version of ourselves, who we can picture ourselves one day being and aspire to become

five factor model

more recently analysis has benn used to identify underlying structure of personality

• factor analysis commonly yields five overarching personalities, which a series of ‘facets”

BIG FIVE (OCEAN)

• Openness to experience: fantasy, intellectual ideas, flexible, emotionally open

• Conscientiousness: order, self-disciple, dutifulness

• Extraversion: warmth, excitement seeking, assertiveness

• Agreeableness: trust, altruism, tenderness

• Neuroticism: anxiety, depression, self-consciousness

groups

a collection of individuals who have relations to one another that make them interdependent to some significant extent

• interdependence is exchange or mutual reliance in a social domain

• groups sometimes share a explicit goal, but every group has the implicit goals of maintaining harmony and cohesion between members

group think

reduce expression of disagreement and critical scrutiny to avoid risking group cohesion and harmony

false consensus

the belief that other group members silently agree with the plan

pluralistic ignorance (extreme cases)

where a group collectively pretends to not notice a problem everyone has noticed

group polarizations

tendency for groups to ‘magnify’ the average consensus to into increasingly extreme decisions

normalisation

exposure to shared/similar perspectives allows groups to loose awareness of alternatives

value affirmation

expressing extreme attitudes signals loyalty to the shared position

social facilitation

performing better than you would alone when around others

social interference

performing worse than you would alone when around others

social loafing

putting less effort into group tasks than individual tasks

when participating in a task that will only be evaluated on as a group, individuals are tempted to ‘free ride’ on effort of others

• this gives rise to a ‘tragedy of the commons’ dynamic, where the suspected lack o effort from group members justifies further withdrawal of effort for each individual, undercutting total group effort

social facilitation and interference

in original research on improved performance in social settings, two different but mutually reinforcing factors were identified:

• co-action effects: performance stimulated by others doing the same activity (competitiveness)

• audience effects: performance is stimulated by others simply watching your behavior (more intense if they are evaluating you)

contradicts social interference (stage fright, choking)

undermining social loading

• is caused by diffusion of responsibility, so the only effective tactics for reducing it involve increasing individual responsibility within the group

• the delegation of specific roles that people can be held accountable to reduces the opportunities for social loafing and reduces discoordinartion

• people also have increased personal investment (and feel responsible for) group outcomes when inspired by effective leadership

social norms

unspoken, expected standard of behavior

in a given social situation, there is often a ‘normative standard’ of what kind of behavior could be considered both ‘normal’ and ‘correct’

• social norms typically transmit purely through observation and interference, not requiring explicit instruction

• most social norms carry an implicit value-judgment suggesting that someone is doing the ‘wrong-thing’ if they don’t follow it (politeness, queuing)

conformity

tendency to align behavior to norms of others

is our tendency to bring our behaviour in-line with perceived social norms, and happens through two mechanisms

• informational influence: we assume that an apparent norm must exist for a good reason and follow along out of a desire to do the correct thing

• normative influence: we suspect that others would disapprove of us violate the norm they’re following, so follow along to avoid social scrutiny

obedience

deferring judgement to follow instructions from authority

when given instructions to do something by someone in a position of authority, we tend to suspend our own judgments and comply with the instructions

• obedience is stronger the more legitimate and trustworthy we view the authority figure as being, and the closer their oversight it

attribution

innate tendency to attach meaning to behavior

• when we see the action of others, we make rapids, intuitive judgments about we think cause the behavior in question

categories of attribution

• internal (disposisitional) = within the person we observe vs external (situational) = outside the person we observe

• stable vs unstable

• controllable vs uncontrollable

distinctiveness: how they behave to other situations

consensus: how other people behave normally

consistency: how they behave to the same sitution

fundamental attribution error

disproportionately use internal attributions when judging other (they are behaving due to the type of person they are)

action-observer bias

use external attributions for us (response to the environment), internal to others (due to the type of person they are), on same behaviour

self-serving bias

switch attribution for own behaviour to enhance self-image, internal for good things and external for bad things (as an mode of ego deference)

attitudes

attitude object: the thing the attitude is about

attitude valence: an evaluation/sense of positivity or negativity

attitude intensity: how stringy felt the valence judgement

example: I really (high intensity) hate (negative valance) onions (object)

affect: positive or negative feelings

behaviour: tendency to approach or avoid

cognition: relevant thoughts, beliefs and judgments

acquiring attitudes

• direct instruction: attitudes are learned as part of specific facts or events

• self-perception theory: we make self-attributions about our own past behaviour

• balance theory: we are biased towards an attitude valence that is consistent with our exciting attitudes and beliefs (hate people my enemies like)

persuasion

persuading someone to change how they behave, think or feel can be difficult and usually involves targeting a specific functional domain (rather than the whole associated attitude)

• ingratiation is performing a small favour to make them feel positive about you and your offer (affect)

• the foot-in-the-door: is getting someone to make a small initial act of commitment, then haggling them up (behaviour)

• presenting selecting information can be useful way to give someone new, through potentially false, beliefs (cognition)

cognitive dissonance

is the feeling of discomfort one experiences when made aware of internal contradiction between their beliefs and/or their actions

• to escape cognitive dissonance, people will often change either their relevant attitude or behaviour, which is easier at the time

confirmation bias

general tendency to search for, interpret and recall information is ways that confirm our exisiting beliefs while overlooking or minimising contradictory information

• contributes to how difficult it is to change attitudes

social identity theory

• in-group: any group a person belongs to and indetities with

• out-group: all other identifiable groups, especially rival groups

social identity theory: outlines the main three processes involves

• social categorization: what groups exist?

• social identification: what groups are my groups?

• social comparison: are my groups better than the other groups?

schema

stereotypes are generalized beliefs about social groups, which share expectations and assumptions about members of these groups

psychologists call these kinds of knowledge-structures as ‘schema’

• we process infomation more quickly when it is consistent with our schema

• we focus attention more easily on information consistent with our schema

• we make tacit (unspoken) assumptions to make schema-inconsistent details together

prejudice and discrimination involve judging or reducing an information to stereotypes assumption (can be harmful even when positive)

health psychology

is the field of psychology concerned with the thoughts, beliefs and habitual behaviours that influence maintenance (or undermining) body health

health-compromising behaviours

self managed behaviours that can have a cumulative impact on any person’s longevity and quality of life

• temporal discounting – benefits now vs. consequences later

• drive mismatch – ancestrally rare things are now common (e.g., sugar)

there are also indiviudal differences that influence some issues

• satiety – how long it takes to feel cessation of hunger when eating

• attention – differential ability to ignore unwanted messaging (advertising)

• emotion-regulation – differential tendencies to indulge as self-soothing

the protection-motivation theory

perceived suseptibility: does it affect people like me?

perceived severity: how bad would it be if i got it?

benefits and barriers: what do i stand to gain or lose?

cues to action: what tells me I should or shouldn’t?

self-efficacy: will i succeed if i try to change?

theory of planned behaviour

explains that behaviour is driven by intention, which is shaped by a person’s attitude, social pressure (subjective norms), and how much control they think they have over the behaviour.

stress

stress is the sensation we experience when our nervous system is responding to a perceived change

• appraisal of challenge: depends on one’s context and personal abilities, so things that are merely ‘exciting’ to some can be stressful to others (evoking emotions of anger, anxiety, frustration or grief)

the physiological costs of stress

because the sympathetic and parasympathetic subsets of the ANS work as opponent processes, the chronic or prolonged activation of the former suppresses the latter

• this means that the crucial bodily maintenance work of healing, digesting nutrients, managing immunity to pathogens and preparing for future respoinses are all suppressed while stressed

the longer stress resposnes lasts = the more your body breaks down

evoluntionary mismatch

• for most of human (and pre-human) history, typical challenges were spontaneous events demanding bodily responses

today our main challenges are long-anticipated or accumulate daily

emotion-focused coping

these are strategies aimed at reducing or avoiding the immediate discomfort and emotional sensations caused by stress, such as...

• indulgence or consumption – boozing, smoking, stress-eating, or other hedonistic behaviours that discount the future for the present

• giving up & blaming – lower expectations, learned helplessness

• aggressive ‘lashing out’ – ‘venting’ stress through catharsis

• distraction – listen to music, engage in leisure activities, etc.

• reappraisal or reframing – positive self-talk, meditation, humour

problem-focused coping

these are strategies aimed at addressing the underlying challenges that are causing the stress response, such as...

• increased planning – trying to better forecast future sources ofstress, & breaking down existing stress into manageable parts

• routine self-care – prioritise regular rest, exercise, healthy food

• asking for help – swallowing one’s pride to seek out support inaddressing the problem or expertise in identifying solution

• establish boundaries – socially minimise taking on new stressor

offering support

people most commonly seek support from friends and family or members of their immediate community, but will someones need to reach out to insitutions and specialists such as allied health workers

• while problem-focused coping strategies are generally the most adaptive long-term, people are easily put off by others presuming to tell them how to solve their problems without invitation

• rapport with clients is built by supporting emotion-focused coping

indiviudal differences in coping

there are also some factors that vary between individuals that need to be considered before deciding what balance of emotion- and problem-focused coping is most appropriate

optimism – makes it easier for people to expect good outcomes and commit to long-term strategies (related to agreeableness)

conscientiousness – higher levels means people have an easier time planning for the future and maintaining new habits

neuroticism – higher levels predict more volatile responses to stress, requiring greater care for emotion-focused coping