Unit 4 AP Psychology

Groupthink

group of people make irrational decision to avoid conflict in group

Self-Serving Bias

crediting success to personal traits and failure to outside forces

focuses on how you judge yourself

Deindividuation

having less self awareness/accountability in a group

Self-Efficacy

your personal sense of your own competence

Superordinate Goals

goals that can only be achieved through cooperation of the whole group

Out-group bias

hating on another group simply because its not yours

In-Group bias

favoring your own personal group

Unconditional Postive regard

accepting someone even with their faults and shortcomings

External Locus of Control

belief that any outcome is controlled entirely by outside forces/the situation

Internal Locus of Control

belief that any outcome is because of yourself and your own traits

Just World Hypothesis

the idea that evil is punished and good is rewarded because the world is fair

DIffusion of Responsiblity

people feel less acountable when there are others present

Self-fulfilling prophecy

false belief something will happen → shift in behvior → belief coming true

Rorschach Test (purpose)

inkblot test

patients are asked to describe ambiguous inkblots so that therapists can peer into their unconscious minds

Thematic Apperception Test (purpose)

projective test that evaluates a person’s unconscious motives, emotions, and interpersonal conflicts

Facial Expression Universality Theory

core human emotions are recognizable across cultures

• anger

• disgust

• fear

• happiness

• sadness

• surprise

Facial Feedback Effect

facial muscle movements can influence emotion rather than just signify it

False Consensus Effect

cognitive bias where people overestimate how much others believe in the same values they do

Factor Analysis

method used to group many related survey questions into smaller set of hidden concepts

Approach-Approach conflict

you must choose between two appealing options

Appoach-Avoidance conflict

you want something but also don’t want it / a part of it at the same time

Avoidance-Avoidance conflict

both options are bad but you have to pick one

Actor-Observer Bias

excusing your own bad behavior due to the situation, but assuming someone else’s bad behavior is due to their disposition

how we judge others versus ourselves

Display Rules

informal social/cultural norms regulating how, when, and to who people should express their emotions

Yerkes-Dodson Law

performance increases with mental or physical arousal up to an optimal point.

after that, performance starts to decline

Polygraph Test (flaws)

only measure heart rate and sweating rather than actual deception

Emotional Appraisal

process of evaluating an event or situation to determine how it effects you

the result shapes how you react

Mere Exposure Effect

familiarity leads to liking something

Milgram Obedience Experiment

unethical experiment in 1961

psychologist ordered people to “shock” actors. The actors pretended to be shocked while the people truly believed they were harming the other person

purpose was to see how far a person would go using the “I was just following orders” defense used during the Holocaust

Thalamus & Amygdala link to emotional response

1. thalamus recieves sensory signals from sensory organs

2. thalamus sends sensory messages to amygdala so brain can spot any possible danger

3. amygdala checks data for emotional response

Fundamental Attribution Error

blaming other people’s behavior on their internal traits rather than situation

focuses on judgement about others

Stanford Prison Experiment

famous unethical experiment in 1971

volunteers were assigned as either guards or prisoners by Philip Zimbardo

guards quickly got drunk on power and became aggressive, and prisoners experienced stress, anxiety, and breakdowns

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

mental discomfort when attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors conflict with each other

5 Factor Model of Personality

O - Openness to experience: creativity, curiosity, imagination

C - concientiousness: organization, self-discipline, diligence

E - Extraversion: sociability, energy levels, enthusiasm

A - Agreeableness: compassion, trust, kindness, cooperation

N - Neuroticism: emotional instability

Drive Reduction Theory

needs motivate us to satisfy those needs

Incentive

external reward pulling people towards an action

Arousal

physical or mental activation that makes a person alert and ready to respond to stimuli

Evolutionary Theories of Motivation

human/animal behaviors are driven by innate biological instincts that increase survival and reproductive success

Defense Mechanisms

unconscious ways the mind protects a person from anxiety or harsh truths

Projection

shifting your own uncomfortable behavior on another person to avoid the discomfort

Rationalization

developing a logic or excuse to justify something making you uncomfortable

Denial

refusing to accept the truth

Displacement

focusing your anger on a less threatening target

Sublimation

unconsciously transforming unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable actiosn

Regression

behaving like a child

Reaction Formation

replacing anxiety/bad feeling with the exact opposite

Homeostasis

the body wants to stay in ___________ (balance)

Collectivism

philosophy that prioritizes group needs over individual ones

Individualism

philosophy that prioritizes yourself over others

Ethnocentrism

”my culture’s better than yours !”

Cultural Relativism

understanding that different cultures are different and there is no “best” culture

Psychodynamic Psychology

branch of psychology focusing on how unconscious forces, hidden drives, and childhood experiences shape human behavior/personality

Humanistic psychology

branch of psychology focusing on whole person, free will, and innate drive towards personal growth and self-actualization

Implicit attitudes

unconscious evaluation of a person

Explicit attitudes

conscious, deliberate attitudes

Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology

study of human behavior in workplace and application of pscyhology to optimize employee performance and well-being

Social Psychology

how individual thoughts, feellings, and behaviors are influenced by real, imagined, or implied presence of other people

Attribution Theory

people interpret cause of behavior as either dispositional or situational

Scapegoat Theory

people redirect frustration/anger/blame onto less powerful target

Foot-in-the-Door phenomenon

a person agrees to a minor request and then does a larger request

Door-in-the-Face phenomenon

asking for an unreasonably large request so that the smaller request (the true goal) seems better

Peripheral Route Persuasion

persuasion through surface-level features rather than logic

Central Route persuasion

persuasion through logic and facts

Normative Social Influence

people change behavior/opinions to conform/avoid rejection

Informative Social Influence

people change behaviors because they think the other person genuinely has more accurate information

Solomon Asch experiment

experiment regarding conformity

a volunteer was placed in a room with a bunch of actors pretending to be volunteers. the psychologist would ask which lines were the same length, and the actors purposely gave the wrong answer

most volunteers ended up picking the wrong answers for the sake of conformityt

Conformity

tendency to change behaviors to match group/social norms

Social Facilitation

when there is an audience:

• if you’re already good at the task, you’ll do better

• if you’re inexperienced/bad at the task, you’ll do worse

Social Loafing

exerting less effort when working in a group compared to working alone

Group Polarization

people make more extreme decisions when discussing a view with a group

Frustration-aggression Principle

obstacle in the way of completng goal → frustration → hostility/violence

social script

learned behaviors/actions that guide how people should act in daily situations

Self-Disclosure

sharing private and honest feelings/information to another person

Altruism

selflessness

Bystander Effect

being less likely to help because there are others available who could help

Social Exchange Theory

people interact relationships with cost-benefit analaysis

Reciprocity Norm

social rule compelling people to repay kindness and favors

Social Responsibility Norm

expectation that people must help those that depend on them without expecting a reward

Social Trap

doing something that feels good in the short-term but is harmful in the long-term

Mirror-image Perceptions

two conflicting sides hold matching but reversed views of each other

• they view themselves as peaceful and ethical

• they view the other as evil and aggressive

Psychoanalysis

system of psychological theories + methods created by Freud to treat mental disorders by learning about the unconscious mind

Sigmund Freud

austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis

• came up with id ego and superego

Free Association

therapy tactic of letting a person just talk and talk to see where their mind wanders

Id

primitive, unconscious part of the mind that’s driven by pleasure principle

Ego

unconscious and conscious

balances between id and superego

operates on reality principle

Superego

moral compass of the mind

operates on morality principle

Projective Test

theory

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

theory that humans are motivated by 5 basic categories of needs

LESS URGENT

• self-actualization

• self-esteem

• love and belonging

• safety and security

• physiological needs

• URGENT

Self-actualization

the process of realizing and reaching your full potential

Carl Rogers

american psychologest and one of the founders of humanistic psychology

created person-centered psychotherapy

Person-Centered Psychotherapy

technique of talk therapy where you lead the conversation like you’re the expert

therapist doesn’t say anything and just lets you find the answers yourseflf

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

test designed to assess personality traits + diagnose mental disorders

Albert Bandura experiment

experiment where a child witnessed an adult hit a doll, so it started hitting it as well

• shows imitation

• boys were generally more physcially aggressive

Reciprocal Determinism

behavior is controlled or determined by the individual, cognitive processes, and the environment

Spotlight Effect

the false belief that people are paying more attention to you than they actually are

Narcissism

excessive self love

Affiliation Need

the need to belong

Self-Determination Theory

human needs and motivation based on autonomy, competence, and relatedness

Intrinsic motivation

doing something just for the sake of doing it

no incentive

Extrinsic Motivation

doing something because of some external stimuli