Psyc Exam 2

What are the five traits in the Big Five personality factos?

O - openness to experience

C - conscientiousness

E - extraversion

A - agreeableness

N - neuroticism

According to Alloport’s Trait Theory, what types of traits direct most of a person’s activities?

Cardinal traits

According to Freud’s psychoanalytic approach, this part of personality is known as the “pleasure principle” and represents primitive drives or urges.

Id

This type of approach to personality emphasizes the importance of people’s goodness and their tendency to progress to higher levels of functioning.

Humanistic

The Rorschach test and TAT (Thematic Apperception Test) are types of personality assessments?

Projective personality tests

Standard measures used to assess behaviors objectively are known as what?

Psychological tests

Seville recently experienced a significant barrier in life that mildly impacted her daily functioning because she had a network or people who cared and were interested in her well-being. Having a network of caring and interested people is known as what?

Social support

Name the approach that states that personality is a collection of learned behavior patterns

Behaviorist

Joseph is an active athlete and always gets stressed before a game. However, he views this as a good kind of stress that motivates him. What is the name of this type of stress?

Eustress

According to the textbook, _____ culture focuses on individual achievement while _____ culture focuses on communal relationships with others.

Individualistic; collectivistic

What term describes a change in behavior that occurs in response to direct commands from an authority figure, as demonstrated in Stanley Milgram’s 1963 study?

Obedience

When a large crows witnesses someone collapse in public, but no one steps forward to help because everyone assumes someone else will. This is an example of?

Diffusion of responsibility

What are the four common types of compliance techniques?

Foot-in-the-door, Door-in-the-face, Thats-not-all, and Not-so-free sample techniques

When someone cutes you off in traffic and you immediately think, “What a rude person!” instead of considering that they might be rushing to the hospital, what type of bias does this illustrate?

Fundamental Attribution Bias

Based on the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion, the _____ route is logic driven and uses facts to convince people of an argument’s worthiness, whereas ____ route is an indirect route that uses peripheral cues to associate positivity with the message.

Central; peripheral

What term is used to describe when we lack a sense of control or express feelings of powerlessness for events that happen in our lives?

Learned helplessness

Flor is someone who has two contradicting attitudes towards smoking. What is the term used to describe a person who holds conflicting thoughts regarding their behavior?

Cognitive dissonance

To change Sophie’s attitudes about a topic, what are three factors we should consider?

Message source; characteristics of the message; characteristics of the target

A state of self-fulfillment in which people realize their highest potential

self-actualization

This test uses distinct inkblots with no specific designs, categorized by color, ranging from black to multicolored pastel shades. Psychologists analyze the responses to gauge an individual’s personality and thought processes. Name the test.

Rorschach test

This subfield investigates the psychological factors related to wellness and illness, including the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of medical problems

Healthy psychology

What are the categories of stress?

Cataclysmic, personal background stressors/daily hassle

What are the different categories of coping?

Emotion focused-coping, Seeking social support, Problem-focused coping, Avoidant coping

List the two primary appraisals of stress, and the two secondary appraisals of stress

Primary: Challenge and threat

Secondary: Effective options and ineffective options `

What are the consequences of stress? Give an example from each category highlighted in the lecture and discussion section.

Direct physiological effects; Harmful behaviors; Indirect health-related behaviors

You encounter a bear on a hike. Name each stage, as described in Selye’s general adaptation syndrome

1. During the alarm stage: the adrenal gland secretes cortisol + adrenaline to help one react

2. In the resistance stage: cortisol + adrenaline are still being secreted until the person puts enough distance b/w them and the bear

3. the person arrives back at their campsite only to realize they are exhausted from the fear of being attacked by the bear

Psychoanalytic Approaches

• Psychoanalytic theory

  • Freud’s theory that behavior is triggered by forces within the personality of which we are not aware

• Unconscious

  • Part of the personality that contains memories, knowledge, beliefs, feelings, urges, drives, and instincts of which one is not aware

  • Motivates much of our behavior

Level of consciousness (iceberg)

1. survival

2. relationships

3. self-esteem

4. transformation

5. internal cohesion

6. making a difference

7. service

Structure of personality

• Id

  • raw, unorganized, inborn part of the personality

  • pleasure principle

    • immediate reduction of tension and the maximization of satisfaction

• Ego

  • strives to balance the desires of the id and the realities of the objective, outside world

  • reality principle

    • instinctual energy is restrained in order to maintain the safety of the individual and help integrate the person into society

• Superego

  • Represents the rights and wrongs of society as taught and modeled by a person’s parents, teachers, and other significant individuals

  • includes “Conscience”

    • prevents us from behaving in a morally improper way

  • ego-ideal

    • represents the “perfect person” we wish

Freud’s legacy

• Well-adapted concepts:

  • unconscious

  • Defense mechanism: unconscious strategies people use to reduce anxiety by concealing the source from themselves/others (e.g., repression of childhood roots of adult psychological difficulties)

Neo-Freudian perspective

• Jung’s collective unconscious

  • a set of influences we inherit from our own relatives/ the whole human race

• Adler’s inferiority complex

  • situations in which adults have not been able to overcome the feelings of inferiority that they developed as children

Trait perspectives

• cardinal trait

  • a single characteristic (directs a person’s activities)

• central trait

  • the major characteristic of an individual

• secondary trait

  • characteristics that affect behavior in fewer situations

Social cognitive approach

emphasizes the influence of a person’s cognitions - thoughts, feelings, expectations, and values - in determining personality

Assessing personality

• psychological tests

  • standard measures devised to assess behavior objectively

• self-report measures

• MMPI-2

  • a test used to differentiate people with specific sorts of psychological difficulties as well as to predict a variety of other behaviors

Humanistic approaches

• emphasize people’s basic goodness and their tendency to grow to higher levels of functioning

• unconditional positive regard

  • an attitude of acceptance and respect on the part of an observer, no matter what a person says or does

• self-actualization

  • a state of self-fulfillment in which people realize their highest potential

Categorizing stressors

• chronic vs. acute

• traumatic events

• life changes

• background stressors (daily hassles)

• uplifts

• job strain

  • job burnout

Primary and secondary appraisal

Primary appraisal (challenge or threat?); Secondary appraisal (potential options and how effective?)

General adaptation syndrome (GAS)

theory that suggests that a person’s response to a stressor consists of the following three stages (alarm and mobilization stage, resistance stage, and exhaustion stage)

Psychological basis of stress

• stimulus-based definition: stress as a stimulus that causes certain reactions

• response-based definition: stress as a response to environmental conditions

process of perceiving + responding to events that threaten a person’s wellbeing

Psychological effects of stress

psychological disorders (psychosomatic disorders), harmful behaviors, and indirect health-related behaviors

stress and illness

a lower rate of stress-related illness consisting of the three components

• commitment

• challenge

• control

stress and personality

personality characteristic associated with a lower rate of stress-related illness

Coping strategies

• Turn threat into challenge

• make a threatening situation less threatening

• change your goals

• take physical action

• prepare for stress before it happens

Percieved control

a person’s belief that they can influence their internal states, behavior, environment, and life to get desired outcomes

Stress reduction

emotion-focused coping (managing stress by changing the way they feel about the problem causing the stress) + problem-focused coping (modify the source of the stress)

Happiness

an enduring state of mind consisting of joy, plus the sense that one’s life has meaning and value

Job strain

work situation where a person is experiencing excessive job demands + workload

• job burnout

  • emotional exhaustion + cynicism about one’s job

Following medical advice

• Noncompliance

• creative nonadherence

  • adjusting a treatment prescribed by a physician, relying on their own medical judegment/experience

• Increasing compliance with advice

learned helplessness

a state when people conclude that unpleasant stimuli cannot be controlled

Attitudes

evaluations of a particular person, behavior, belief, or concept

Persuasion

changing attitudes

Cognitive dissonance

occurs when a person holds two attitudes or thoughts (referred to as cognitions) that contradict each other

Social cognition

processes that underline our understanding of the social world

Attribution theory/biases

• attribution thoery

  • how we decide, what the specific causes of that person’s behavior are

• attribution biases

  • self-serving bias

  • fundamental attribution error

  • halo effect

  • assumed-similarity bias

Conformity

a change in behavior brought about by a desire to follow the beliefs of other people

Groupthink

a type of thinking in which group members share such strong motivation to achieve consensus that they lose the ability to critically evaluate alternative points of view

Compliance

submitting to direct social pressure

• foot-in-the-door tech

  • small request followed by a larger request

• door-in-the-face technique

  • large request followed by a smaller request

• that’s-not-all technique

  • offered a deal at an inflated price

• Not-so-free sample

  • norm of reciprocity

Obedience

obeying direct orders

Prejudice and discrimination

• stereotypes

• prejudice

• discrimination

• social learning approaches

• mass media

• social identity theory

Pro-social behavior

helping behavior

Liking

factors

• proximity

• mere exposure

• similarity

  • reciprocity-of-liking effect

• physical attractiveness

Types of love

• Passionate (or romantic) love

• companionate love

  • strong affection that we have for those with whom our lives are deeply involved