Social Psychology, Personality, and Psychological Disorders Flashcards

Flashcards based on lecture notes for review.

What is social psychology?

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

What is attribution theory?

Explaining someone’s behavior by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition.

What is fundamental attribution error?

The tendency for observers to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition.

What is the foot-in-the-door phenomenon?

Getting a person to agree to a large request by having them agree to a modest request first.

What is cognitive dissonance theory?

Psychological tension created when an individual's behavior is inconsistent with their beliefs.

What is central route persuasion?

Offers evidence and arguments to trigger careful thinking; focuses on central cues and main arguments.

What is peripheral route persuasion?

Uses attention-getting cues to trigger speedy emotion-based judgments; focuses on external cues and attractiveness.

What are social norms?

Rules for expected and acceptable behavior.

What is conformity?

Complying with social pressures.

What is social contagion?

Attitudes or behaviors rapidly spread throughout a group from one member to others without rational thought and reason; also known as the Chameleon effect.

What is obedience?

Behavior in compliance with a direct command.

What is social facilitation?

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

What is social loafing?

Tendency for people in a group to exert less energy than when working as an individual.

What is deindividuation?

Losing self-awareness and often self-restraint.

What is group polarization?

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

What is groupthink?

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

What is prejudice?

Unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members.

What is explicit prejudice?

Conscious and deliberate negative attitude towards a group or individual.

What is implicit prejudice?

Unconscious and unintentional bias that can still influence behavior.

What is the just-world phenomenon?

Tendency to think that the world is just and people get what they deserve.

What is ingroup bias?

Favoring one's own group compared to the outgroup.

What is outgroup homogeneity?

Exaggerating beliefs to apply to all of the other group.

What is scapegoat theory?

Individuals undergoing negative experiences are assumed to blame an innocent individual or group for causing the experience.

What is the other-race effect?

The tendency to more easily recognize faces that belong to one's own racial group.

What is aggression?

Any physical or verbal behavior intended to harm someone.

What are social scripts?

Culturally modeled guides of how to act in certain situations.

What is the mere exposure effect?

Exposure to novel stimuli increases our liking.

What is the reward theory of attraction?

We most like people whose behavior is rewarding or beneficial to us.

What is the two-factor theory of emotion?

Two ingredients of emotion are physical arousal plus cognitive appraisal.

What is intimacy in Sternberg's triangular theory of love?

Feelings of closeness, connectedness, and bondedness.

What is passion in Sternberg's triangular theory of love?

Feelings and desires that lead to physical attraction, romance, and sexual consummation.

What is commitment in Sternberg's triangular theory of love?

Feelings that lead a person to remain with someone and move toward a shared goal.

What is altruism?

Unselfish concern for the welfare of others.

What is the bystander effect?

Individuals are less likely to help others when others are present.

What is diffusion of responsibility?

The decreased responsibility of action each member of a group feels when they are part of a group or when others are present.

What is personality?

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

What is Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory?

Childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality.

What is the id?

Reservoir of unconscious psychic energy to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives; operates on the pleasure principle.

What is the superego?

Conscience or moral compass; represents internalized ideals and standards for judgment.

What is the ego?

Largely conscious; mediates between the id and superego; operates on the reality principle.

What are defense mechanisms?

The ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.

What is the inferiority complex?

Belief that children feel inferior to adults and strive for love and security.

What are projective tests?

Designed to let a person respond to ambiguous stimuli, presumably revealing hidden emotions and internal conflicts.

What is the Rorschach inkblot test?

Subjects interpret 10 standard black or colored inkblot designs to assess personality traits and emotional tendencies.

What is self-actualization?

The realization or fulfillment of one's talents and potentialities, including creative activities.

What is self-transcendence?

Striving for identity and meaning beyond oneself.

According to Rogers, what conditions promote personal growth?

A growth-promoting social climate involves Acceptance, Unconditional positive regard, Genuineness, and Empathy.

What is the trait theory?

Personality is defined as stable and enduring behavior patterns; characteristic behaviors and conscious motives.

What is a trait?

A characteristic pattern of behavior or disposition to feel and act in certain ways.

What is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)?

Uses T/F or agree/disagree to gauge a variety of behaviors; developed to identify emotional disorders and assess personality traits.

What are the Big Five personality traits?

Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

What is reciprocal determinism?

Interaction of behavior, personal factors, and environment.

What is the possible selves theory?

Each individual has both positive images of the selves he or she desires and expects to become and negative images of the selves he or she wishes to avoid becoming.

What is a psychological disorder?

Syndrome marked by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior.

What is the medical model of psychological disorders?

Mental illnesses are diagnosed based on symptoms, treated through therapy, and ideally cured.

What is a phobia?

Anxiety disorder marked by a persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object, activity, or situation.

What is obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)?

Characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts and/or repetitive actions.

What is posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)?

Characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, hypervigilance, avoidance of trauma-related stimuli, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia following a traumatic experience.

What is major depressive disorder?

Characterized by persistently depressed mood or loss of interest in activities, causing significant impairment in daily life.

What is bipolar disorder?

Person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania.

What is schizophrenia?

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

What is anorexia nervosa?

Characterized by avoiding food, severely restricting food, or eating very small quantities of only certain foods.

What is bulimia nervosa?

Characterized by frequent episodes of eating unusually large amounts of food and feeling a lack of control, followed by behavior that compensates for the overeating.

What is binge-eating disorder?

Characterized by loss of control over eating and having recurring episodes of eating unusually large amounts of food; not followed by purging, excessive exercise, or fasting.

What is autism spectrum disorder (ASD)?

Cognitive and social-emotional disorder marked by social deficiencies that impair the ability to communicate and interact.

What is attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)?

Psychological disorder marked by extreme inattention and/or hyperactivity and impulsivity.

What are dissociative disorders?

Involve experiencing a loss of connection (dissociation) between thoughts, memories, feelings, surroundings, behavior and identity.

What is dissociative identity disorder (DID)?

Two or more distinct identities, each with its own voice and mannerisms, seem to control the person’s behavior.