General Psychology Exam 4 (Final) - Professor Jacobs Rutgers

Social Psychology

The branch of psychology concerned with the way individuals' thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by others. The study of attitudes and perceptions, persuasions, and typical behaviors of relatively normal people in their relationships with others.

Norms

The rules that establish expected and accepted behavior; prescribe proper behavior, what is considered normal. All cultures have their expectations of appropriate behavior.

Person Perception

The process of forming impressions of others

Psychology

The scientific study of behavior and mental processes

Sociology

The study of groups of people

Social Psychologists

Study social behavior; Interested in the ways people influence and are influenced by each other

Altruism

Social Psychologists want to know why we sometimes accept some disadvantage to ourselves in order to help others. An unselfish regard for the welfare of others

Equity

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

Self-Discolsure

Revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others

Bystander helpfulness or apathy

The presence of many people during a crime may create a sense of diffusion of responsibility. We may convince ourselves that if there are many other people present, someone else will help, so we need do nothing.

Social Loafing

The tendency to "loaf" or work less work when a part of a group or sharing work with other people

Lawrence Kohlberg

Founder of Moral Development. Argued that moral reasoning progresses through distinct stages; Our powers of reasoning about moral right and wrong change as we mature

Moral Dilemmas

Problems that pit one moral value against another (ex: man can't afford drugs to save his wife, should he steal the drugs anyway?)

Prejudice

An irrationally unfavorable attitude toward a group of people, usually based on gender, religion, race, or membership in group

Aversive Racism

The behavior of unintentionally discriminating against some groups while expressing the belief that all people are equal. It's subtle prejudice, with conflicting feelings

Discrimination

Behavior, usually negative, directed towards others. It's actual behavior or actions. Unequal treatment of different groups.

Social Perception and Cognition

Mental processes that help us to collect and remember information about others, and to make inferences and judgements based on that information

Primacy effect

The principle that the first information learned about someone will be a more powerful influence on our perceptions that any later information will be

Stereotype

A generalized belief about a group of people.

Internal or Dispositional Attributions

Explanations based on an individual's perceived stable characteristics, such as attitudes, personality traits, or abilities. People tend to attribute another person's behavior to internal causes

Attribution

The set of thought processes we use to to explain the causes of behavior

External or Situational Attributions

Explanations based on the current situation and events that would influence all people. External causes could be due to something about a person's situation.

Harold Kelley's Attribution Theory

We need 1) Consensus Information, 2) Consistency Information, 3) Distinctiveness

Consensus Information

How one individual's behavior compares with other people's

Consistency Information

How the person's behavior varies over time

Distinctiveness

How the person's behavior varies between situations

Self-Serving Biases

Attributions that we use to optimize our perception of ourselves, where we attribute our success to personal factors and failures to situation factors

Strategies of Persuasion

Common techniques of persuasion to know and resist. These are actions in accordance with wishes, suggestions, or direct requests of other people

Foot-in-the-door Technique

A modest request followed by a larger one; A strategy designed to gain a favorable response to a small request at first. Intent is to get you to agree later with a larger request

Door-in-the-face Technique

An outrageous initial request is followed by a more reasonable one. Someone makes a large unreasonable request, expecting you to refuse, and then likely get you to agree to a smaller request later.

Bait-and-Switch Technique

A very favorable deal is followed by additional demands after a commitment has been made

That's-Not-All Technique

The offer is improved before any reply is given

Low-Ball Technique

Someone makes you a very attractive initial offer to get you to commit to an action, then makes the terms less favorable after you commit

Attitude

A like or dislike that influences our behavior towards a person or thing

Persuasion

Any attempt to change your attitudes and thus your behavior

Proximity, Mere Exposure, Similarity

How do you choose your friends?

Proximity

We are likely to become friends with people who live near us and become familiar to us

Mere Exposure

The more often we see someone or something the more likely we are to start to like the person or thing

Similarity

We are drawn to those who are like ourselves in background, attitudes, interests, and other important ways

Physical Attractiveness

Once proximity affords contact, the next most important thing in attraction is physical appearance

Conformity

The maintenance or alteration of one's behavior to match the behavior and expectations of others. It occurs when people yield to real or imagined social pressure.

Solomon Asch's Classic Experiment

Demonstrated that conformity was also likely even when one could be sure that a judgement was correct. His experiment had actors incorrectly guess line size, and eventually the non-actor would agree with the answer of the actors.

Solomon Asch

A pioneer in social psychology. He demonstrated that conformity was likely even when one could be sure that judgement was correct. He founded the Institute of Cognitive Studies at Rutgers.

Philip Zimbardo's Experiment

A surprising and disturbing study done at Stanford University that provided evidence that people are inclined to change their behavior in response to assigned rules and to follow outrageous and immoral orders

Obedience

A form of compliance that occurs when people follow direct commands, usually from someone in a position of authority

Compliance

Conformity that involves acting in accordance with social pressure while privately disagreeing. You comply but you mentally disagree with it, but you just perform the behavior.

Acceptance

Conformity that involves both acting and believing or agreeing, in accordance with social pressure

Stanley Milgram

Designed a study that investigates the effects of authority on obedience. Widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of social psychology. Experiment with having people "shock" other people and see how far they'd go

Group Polarization

If most members of a group already have a strong opinion on a matter they will lean even more strongly in that direction after discussion. Discussion serves the purposes of making the group more extreme in its views rather than opening a dialogue on differing opinions

Groupthink

Can emerge in a group regardless of the level of cohesion. Group members suppress doubts about an issue or decision for fear of being ostracized. Sometimes dominant members will silence dissenters, sometimes dissenters fail to speak up at all

Personality

An individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting; derives from Latin word persona (mask). Consistent ways in which one person's behavior differs from that of others, especially in social contexts

Sigmund Freud's Theory

Developed the first psychodynamic theory of personality; relates personality to the interplay of conflicting forces within the individual

Catharsis

The release of pent-up emotions associated with unconscious thoughts and memories; "Talking Cure"

Psychoanalysis

To bring unconscious thoughts and emotions to consciousness to achieve insight; A method of explaining the workings of personality, based on the interplay of conscious and unconscious internal forces; "talk therapy"

Memories, emotions, and thoughts, some of which are irrational or socially unacceptable

What does the unconscious mind hold?

Freud's Iceberg Theory

The mind is like an iceberg. It is mostly hidden, and below the surface lies the unconscious mind. The preconscious stores temporary memories

Unconscious Mind

A reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories

Free Association

Asking patients to say whatever comes to their minds in order to tap the unconscious and uncover hidden thoughts and feelings

Oedipus Complex

Freud's conclusion that children wish to have sex with their opposite sex parent but realize that is forbidden. A boy's sexual desire for his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father. A girl's desire for her father is the Electra Complex

Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Development

Developed a framework to explain the development of personality over the course of childhood and adolescence. Related personality development to the changing nature of the individual's psychosexual interest and pleasure

Libido

Sexual desire or psychosexual energy; The preferred channel for gratifying this desire changes over the lifespan.

Psychosexual Stages

The Oral Stage (The first year of life), The Anal Stage (About 1 to 3 years old), The Phallic Stage (About 3 to 6 years old), The Latent Period (About 6 years to adolescence), The Genital Stage (Adolescence and beyond)

Evaluation of Freud's Stages

These stages are difficult to test empirically and research on this model have been inconclusive

Freud's Three Components of Personality

Id, Ego, Superego

Id

Comprised of all of our biological drives that demand immediate gratification. Unconsciously strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives, operating on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification.

Ego

The rational, negotiating, and decision-making component of the personality. Functions as the "executive" and mediates the demands of the id and superego.

Superego

The internalized values and rules we receive from our parents and society. Provides standards for judgement (the conscience) and for future aspirations

Freud's Structure of Personality

Involves conflicts and anxiety over unpleasant impulses and thought

Defense Mechanisms

Keeps unpleasant thoughts and feelings banished in the unconscious; function as healthy ways to suppress anxiety

Rationalization

"Making excuses" and reframing unpleasant events or actions as beneficial or appropriate. Offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one's actions

Repression

"motivated forgetting" of unacceptable thoughts and feelings. Banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness

Regression

A return to juvenile behavior. Leads an individual faced with anxiety to retreat to a more infantile psychosexual stage

Denial

Refusal to acknowledge a problem

Projection

Attributing one's own undesirable characteristics or motives to other people. Leads people to disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others

Displacement

Diversion of an unacceptable thought or impulse from its target to a less threatening one. Shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person, redirecting anger toward a safer outlet

Sublimation

The transformation of sexual or aggressive energies into acceptable and pro-social behaviors

Reaction Formation

Presentation of one's thoughts or feelings as the extreme opposite of what they are. Causes the ego to unconsciously switch unacceptable impulses into their opposites

Karen Horney

Believed in the social aspects of childhood growth and development. Believed Freud exaggerated the role of sexuality in human behavior and motivation, and misunderstood the motivation of women and the dynamics of family relationships

Carl Jung

Believed in the collective unconscious, put greater emphasis on the continuity of human experience and need for spiritual meaning in life

Collective Unconscious

contains a common reservoir of image derived from our species' past; why many cultures share certain myths and images such as the mother being a symbol of nurturance

Archetypes

Figures and themes that emerge repeatedly in human history and across cultures

Alfred Adler

Founded the school of individual psychology; proposed that humans naturally seek personal excellence and fulfillment, and strive for superiority. People who fail suffer from an inferiority complex

Inferiority Complex

People who fail suffer an exaggerated feeling of inadequacy

Humanistic Psychology

Founded by Abraham Maslow, Deals with values, beliefs, and consciousness, including spirituality and guiding principles by which people live their lives; See people as essentially good

Gender Role

A psychological aspect of being male or female.

Self-Actualization

Proposed that we as individuals are motivated by a hierarchy of needs; Fulfilling our potential

Unconditional Positive Regard

An attitude of acceptance of other despite their failings. Carl Rogers believed human nature is good; An ideal state like the regard that a loving parent has for a child

Self-Concept

An image of the person that they really are. They also develop an ideal self, an image of the person they'd like to be.

Trait

A consistent, long-lasting tendency in behavior, such as sociability, shyness, or assertiveness

State

A temporary activation of particular behavior

The Big Five personality traits

Neuroticism, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience

Neuroticism

The tendency to experience unpleasant emotions very easily

Extraversion

A tendency to seek stimulation and enjoy the company of other people

Agreeableness

A tendency to be compassionate rather than antagonist towards others

Conscientiousness

The tendency to show self-discipline, to be reliable, and to strive for competence and achievement

Openness to Experience

A tendency to enjoy new experiences and new ideas

Standardized Test

Administered according to strict rules and interpreted using a prescribed category or tradition. It is administered to a large sample of people representative of the population for whom the test will be utilized

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

The most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests. It was originally developed to identify emotional disorders

The Rorschach Inkblots

The most widely used projective test uses a set of 10 inkblots and was designed by Hermann Rorschach. It seeks to identify people's inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Developed by Henry Murray, it is a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes