Psychology: Understanding Yourself and Others - Weeks 7 to 9 Review

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering key psychological terms, theories, and figures from Weeks 7, 8, and 9 lectures, including coping mechanisms, stress management, gender roles, relationship dynamics, and associated conceptual diagrams.

The hand model of the brain

A neurobiological model developed by Daniel J. Siegel (Mindsight, 2010) in which the spinal cord is represented by the wrist, the brain stem and limbic regions (hippocampus and amygdala) are represented by the palm and thumb, and the cerebral cortex and middle prefrontal cortex are represented by folding the fingers over the thumb.

Coping

Efforts to master, reduce, or tolerate the demands created by stress.

Window of tolerance

The optimal zone of arousal depicting how much stress an individual can handle before becoming pushed into hyperarousal (high energy, panic) or hypoarousal (feeling numb, disconnected, shut down).

Learned helplessness

Passive behavior produced by exposure to unavoidable aversive events, which can lead to a passive reaction to stressful events rather than active problem-solving.

Behavioral disengagement

A coping strategy where individuals with a pessimistic explanatory style view aversive events as out of their control, feel helpless, and give up, which is associated with increased distress.

Displacement

Freud's term for diverting aggression or emotional reactions away from the original source of frustration toward a substitute target.

Catharsis

Freud's concept that performing aggressive acts releases pent-up emotional tension (though modern research indicates it actually produces more anger and aggression).

Anger iceberg

A conceptual model illustrating anger as an overt, surface-level emotion visible above the surface, beneath which lie primary hidden emotions such as sadness, grief, fear, hurt, guilt, and exhaustion.

Defense mechanisms

Mostly unconscious reactions that protect an individual from unpleasant emotions such as anxiety and guilt, usually involving a distortion of reality.

Catastrophic thinking

A self-blaming cognitive distortion identified by Albert Ellis involving unrealistic appraisals, focusing on negative feedback, attributing failures to personal shortcomings, and overestimating disaster.

Constructive coping

Efforts to deal with stressful events that are judged to be relatively healthy, characterized by confronting problems directly, exerting effort, making realistic appraisals, managing emotions, and curbing destructive behaviors.

Ellis's ABC model

An appraisal-focused framework explaining that an activating event (A) does not directly cause emotional consequences (C); rather, one's belief system and appraisals (B) mediate emotional outcomes.

Emotional intelligence

The ability to perceive and express emotion, use emotions to facilitate thought, understand and reason with emotion, and regulate emotion.

Forgiveness

Counteracting natural tendencies to seek vengeance or avoid an offender, thereby releasing that person from further liability for their transgression.

Mindfulness

Being able to understand your feelings and deal with them

Instrumentality

An orientation toward action and accomplishment, culturally attributed to masculine traits.

Expressiveness

An orientation toward emotion and relationships, culturally attributed to feminine traits.

Androcentrism

The belief that the male is the norm, often making the traditional male stereotype appear more complimentary and leading to systemic issues.

Gender similarities hypothesis

The hypothesis proposing that males and females are similar on most psychological variables, and when differences do exist, they are small.

Relational aggression

A form of non-physical aggression intended to hurt someone's feelings, social status, or interpersonal relationships (e.g., using the silent treatment).

Indirect aggression

Hostile behaviors intended to harm someone without confronting the target directly, such as spreading rumors.

Socialization

The acquisition of the norms, roles, and behaviors expected of people in a particular society.

Ability-achievement gap

The phenomenon wherein young women continue to have lower career aspirations than young men with comparable educational backgrounds and capabilities.

Androgyny

The coexistence of both masculine and feminine personality traits in a single person.

Kinsey scale

A seven-point continuum classifying sexual orientation from $0$ (exclusively heterosexual) through $3$ (equally heterosexual and homosexual) to $6$ (exclusively homosexual).

Mere exposure effect

The psychological principle that positive feelings toward a person increase the more frequently one is exposed to them.

Matching hypothesis

The proposition that people of similar levels of physical attractiveness gravitate toward each other when choosing partners.

Parental investment theory

David Buss's evolutionary theory proposing that mating preferences depend on the resources each biological sex must invest to ensure the survival of offspring.

Social exchange theory

An interpersonal model asserting that relationship decisions are based on a cost-benefit analysis where individuals stay if perceived rewards outweigh costs.

Comparison level

An individual's personal standard of what constitutes an acceptable balance of rewards and costs in a relationship, formed from past experiences.

Comparison level for alternatives

One's evaluation and estimation of the available outcomes and benefits in possible alternative relationships compared to the current one.

Consummate love

According to Sternberg's triangular theory of love, the complete and ultimate form of love that manifests when intimacy, passion, and commitment are all present.

Internal working models

John Bowlby's term for cognitive frameworks and mental representations based on early infant-caregiver attachments that stabilize over time and guide later adult romantic bonds.

Endogamy

The cultural practice or tendency of people marrying within their own specific social, ethnic, or socioeconomic group.

Homogamy

The tendency of individuals to marry others who share similar personal characteristics, attitudes, values, or backgrounds.

Intimate partner violence

A prevalent form of gender-based violence involving physical, psychological, or sexual harm caused by a current or former intimate partner or spouse.