intro to psych: Pitt, Jennifer Cousins, exam 3

personality

an individual's characteristic style of behaving, thinking, and feeling

explanations of personality differences

prior events and anticipated

events that affect personality.

ways to measure personality

-self report

-MMPI-2

-observer report

-test data

-TAT

-inkblot test

Objective ways to measure personality and findings

-EAR

the trait approach

difference between a trait and state

trait: a relatively stable disposition to behave in a particular and consistent way, a pattern of emotional reactions consistent across life situations.

state: transitory - they come and go

the big 5

(ocean)

openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism

Heritability

ability of a trait to be passed from one generation to the next

personality

the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual's distinctive character.

Id

the part of the mind containing the drives present at birth; the source of our bodily needs,

wants, desires, and impulses, particularly our sexual and aggressive drives

ego

the component of personality, developed through contact with the external world, that

enables us to deal with life's practical demands

super ego

the mental system that reflects the internalization of cultural rules, mainly learned

as parents exercise their authority

defense mechanisms

unconscious coping mechanisms that reduce anxiety generated by

threats from unacceptable impulses

Denial: Distorts the cognition of reality and denies the existence of some emotionally significant part of reality.

Rationalization: supplying a reasonable-sounding explanation for unacceptable feelings and behavior to conceal one's underlying motives or feelings

Reaction formation: unconsciously replacing threatening inner wishes and fantasies with an exaggerated version of their opposite

Projection: attributing one's own threatening feelings, motives, or impulses to another person or group.

Displacement: shifting unacceptable wishes or drives to a neutral or less threatening alternative

Identification: helps deal with feelings of threat and anxiety by enabling us to unconsciously to take on the characteristics of another person who seems more powerful or able to cope

Sublimation: channeling unacceptable sexual or aggressive drives into socially acceptable and culturally enhancing activities

Regression: the ego deals with internal conflict and perceived threat by reverting to an immature behavior or earlier stage of development

humanistic approach to personality: Maslow's hierarchy of needs

Humanistic psychologists emphasize a positive, optimistic view of human nature; goodness and potential for growth.

existentialist approach to personality: mallows hierarchy of needs

Existentialist psychologists focus on the individual as responsible agent, negotiating the issue of meaning and the reality of death.

regards personality as governed by an individual's ongoing choices and

decisions in the context of the realities of life and death; argued by Rollo May

self attribution styles and gender differences between boys and girls

- internal and stable

-external and stable

-internal and unstable

- external and unstable

self concept

a person's explicit knowledge of his or her own behaviors, traits, and other

personal characteristics

self-narrative

the story we tell ourselves

agression

behavior whose purpose is to harm another

frustration-aggression hypothesis

a principle stating that animals aggress only when their goals are thwarted

agression: gender

Gender (being male) is the best predictor of aggression.

Socialization and testosterone may be causes

Status and/or dominance may be threatened

instrumental aggression

motivated by the desire to obtain a concrete goal, such as gaining possession of a peer's toy

relational aggression

harms others by damaging their peer relationships

groups

a collection of people who have something in common that distinguishes them from others

predudice

positive or negative EVALUATION of another person based on their group membership

discrimination

positive or negative BEHAVIOR toward another person based on their group membership

Deindividuation

when immersion in a group causes people to become less aware of their individual values

diffusion of responsibility

the tendency for individuals to feel diminished responsibility for their actions when they are surrounded by others who are acting the same way

the prisoners dilemma

a standard example of a game analyzed in game theory that shows why two completely rational individuals might not cooperate, even if it appears that it is in their best interests to do so. It was originally framed by Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher while working at RAND in 1950

ultimatum game

A game in which a proposer is given a sum of money and makes an offer to a responder as to how this money should be split between them. The responder must choose to accept the offer or reject it. This game has been used to study people's decision-making strategies.

hedonic motivation

people want to experience pleasure

approval motive

people want to be accepted and avoid rejection

accuracy motive

people believe what is right and avoid what is wrong

person perception

the different mental processes that we use to form impressions of other people

implicit measure (IAT)

measures the strength of associations between concepts and evaluations or stereotypes

normative influence

occurs when another person's behavior provides information about what is appropriate

door-in-the-face technique

a strategy that uses reciprocating concessions to influence behavior

Conformity (Asch)

the tendency to do what others do simply because others are doing it

Solomon Asch's (1907-1996) conformity study

Obedience (Milgram)

the tendency to do what powerful people tell us to do

Stanley Milgram's (1933-1984) obedience study

Attitude vs. Belief

Attitude: an enduring positive or negative evaluation of an object or event

Belief: an enduring piece of knowledge about an object or event

informational influence

occurs when another person's behavior provides information about what is good or right

systematic persuasion

the process by which attitudes or beliefs are changed by appeals to reason

heuristic persuasion

the process by which attitudes or beliefs are changed by appeals to habit or emotion.

Strength of the argument and whether an individual analyzes the evidence or uses heuristics matters.

People evaluate the accuracy of new beliefs by assessing their consistency with old beliefs.

foot-in-the-door technique

a technique that involves a small request followed by a larger request

cognitive dissonance

an unpleasant state that arises when a person recognizes the inconsistency of his or her actions, attitudes, or beliefs

Change to alleviate anxiety

Inconsistencies can be justified

Stereotypes and aspects and examples of them (inaccurate, overused, automatic and self-perpetuating)

Stereotyping: the process by which people draw inferences about others based on their knowledge of the categories to which others belong

Stereotypes can be inaccurate (acquired through hearsay or observation).

We overestimate rare events.

Stereotypes can be overused.

We underestimate within-category variability.

Stereotypes can be self-perpetuating.

Perpetual confirmation: when observers perceive what they expect to perceive

Self-fulfilling prophecy: the tendency for people to cause what they expect to see

Stereotype threat

Subtyping: the tendency for people who are faced with disconfirming evidence to modify their stereotypes rather than abandon them

Stereotyping can be automatic (occur unconsciously).

Training against this can help.

stressors

specific events or chronic pressures that place demands on a person or threaten the person's well-being

Stress

the physical and psychological response to internal or external stressors

Chronic stressors

sources of stress that occur continuously or repeatedly

Chronic stressors have been shown to be linked to environments through

environmental psychology

learned helplessness

Expectation based on previous experiences, that one's efforts will fail.

- Learn to be helpless victims

-Widely used in depression research

-Must have efficacy, control or self-determination to be intrinsically motivated

fight or flight

an emotional and physiological reaction to an emergency that

increases readiness for action

• Stay and "fight" or "flee" the scene

• ACTH, the HPA axis, catecholamines, and cortisol

• Automatic involuntary response

• Increase heart rate, pupils dilate, increased supply of blood to muscles

• Was thought to be a masculine response

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

a three-stage physiological response that appears regardless of the stressor that is encountered; GAS is non-specific and does not vary across stressors; developed by Hans Selye (1907-1982)

• Alarm phase (mobilize resources)

• Resistance phase (cope with stressor)

• Exhaustion phase (reserves depleted)

repressive coping

avoiding situations or thoughts that are reminders of a stressor and

maintaining an artificially positive viewpoint

Rational coping

involves facing the stressor and working to overcome it

involves three

steps: Acceptance, exposure, and understanding

Reframing

finding a new or creative way to think about a stressor that reduces its threat

Stress inoculation training (SIT)

a therapy that helps people to cope with stressful situations by developing positive ways to think about the situation

tend and befriend

under stress, people (especially women) often provide support to others (tend) and bond with and seek support from others (befriend)

relaxation therapy

a technique for reducing tension by consciously relaxing muscles of the body; developed by Edmund Jacobson (1888-1983)

biofeedback

the use of an external monitoring device to obtain information about a bodily function and possibly gain control over that function

• EEG biofeedback

psychosomatic illness

an interaction between mind and body that can produce illness

somatoform disorders

the set of psychological disorders in which the person displays physical symptoms not fully explained by a general medical condition

Hypochondriasis

a psychological disorder in which a person is preoccupied with minor symptoms and develops an exaggerated belief that the symptoms signify a life-threatening illness

somatization disorder

a psychological disorder involving combinations of multiple physical complaints with no medical explanation

conversion disorder

a disorder characterized by apparently debilitating physical

symptoms that appear to be voluntary, but that the person experiences as involuntary