Ap Psychology Unit 6-Social psychology

Motivation

The needs or desires that directs behaviour

Ex) Watching a figure skater and working hard in skating lessons to become like that figure skater

Homeostasis

Maintaining a steady internal state
Ex) Hunger and thirst → homeostasis motivational drives

Incentive theory

An external goal that has the capacity to motivate behaviour

Ex) Good grades! Incentive that can motivate students to study hard

Drive reduction theory

Goal: Maintain a balance (homeostasis)

A physiological need (such as food and water) creates an aroused psychological drive (hunger and thirst) that motivates a behavior

Ex) Have a Need → have a Drive → Change behaviour
Food, water → hunger → eating, drinking

Ex) you are shivering bc it is cold, so you put on a jacket

Arousal theory (Yerkes-Dodson lawson)

Low arousal: low performance (complicated)
More stress: more performance
Difficult task: impairment performance because of high anxiety

Sensation seeking theory

-Experience seeking

-Thrill or adventure seeking (no longer bound by social norms)

-Disinhibited (do things dangerous, ignoring laws)

-Level of need for experiences

Ex) Skydiving

Self-determination theory

Most motivated by intrinsic factors!
Extrinsic: External factors (incentive theory) (mom put you in ballet)

Extrinsic becomes intrinsic

Intrinsic: Internal factors (YOU choose/want to do ballet)

Stages of development based on self determination theory

*All humans have three basic psychological needs*

Autonomy: the need to feel ownership of one’s behavior

Competence: The need to produce desired outcomes and to experience mastery

Relatedness: The need to feel connected to others

How can conflict be a source of motivation

Can be a source of motivation when it creates a situation where choosing one option requires giving up another

Motivational conflict theory (Kurt Lewin)

Approach-Approach: Two desirable options
Ex) What college you want to go to
Emory VS Tech

Avoidance-Avoidance: Two undesirable options
Ex) Dont want to do study guide, but don’t want to get a bad grade

Approach-Avoidance: Option with good and bad to it
Ex) Want to go to Emory! (Good school/education) BUT expensive

Hunger

Gherlin

Hormone secreted by empty stomach, sends “I’m hungry” signals to the brain

Leptin

Protein hormone secreted by fat secreted by fat cells; when abundant causes brain to increase metabolism and decrease hunger

Pituitary Gland

The endocrine system’ most influential gland. Under the influence of the hypothalamus the pituitary regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands

Hypothalamus

A neural structure lying below the thalamus; it directs several maintenance activities (eating, drinking, body temp) helps govern the endocrine system via the Pituitary gland and is linked to emotion and reward

Cultural factors of hunger

Food availability, food preferences and attitudes toward food and body image

Situational factors of hunger

time of day, social cues like dining with others, the availability and variety of food options, stress levels, environmental stimuli like food smells

Emotion

James-Lange theory

1. body reacts first

2. Emotion succession

Sight of oncoming car→ heart pounding →fear

bull→ arousal→ emotion

• measured by polygraph test

Cannon-Bard Theory

→ Hearts racing

Sight of a car

→ Fear

Happen at the same time (Simultaneous)

→Arousal (body)

Bull

→Emotion

Schachter-Singer Theory

Not know your scared until you label it (cognitive label)

→ Body(arousal)

Bull Fear

→ Cognitive (brain) appraisal

-You get to decide what the emotion is (excitement VS fear)

→Heart

Car

→Cognitive label (I’m scared) → fear

Ex) If we felt our hearts racing and palms sweating in the situation of kissing someone, our cognitive assessment would identify this emotion as lust.
BUT you could label that as another emotion if it as in a different context

Lazarus Theory

humans respond to experiences cognitively first, emotionally second, and physically last.

-sometimes without our awareness-defines emotion
-We appraise the sound of the rustling bushes as the presence of a threat. Later, we realized “it was just the wind”

Broaden and Build theory of emotions

Positive emotions(love, joy) → Broaden (novel thoughts, new activities, new relationships) → Build (social support skills, knowledge) → Transform (enhanced, health, survival, fulfillment)

-The happier you are, the healthier you are

Spillover effect (Schachter-Singer experiment)

Arousal fuels emotions, cognition channels it

Do good for someone else: feel-good, do-good
When you are happy, the happiness spills over to those around you

Display rules

A social group or culture’s informal norms that distinguish how one should express oneself.
-Culture, gender, age, socioeconomical classes

Ex) Women: don’t show anger

Facial feedback effect

The tendency of facial muscle states to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger, or happiness
Ex) Smiling should typically make individuals feel happier, and frowning should make them feel sadder

Behavior feedback effect

The tendency of behavior to influence our own and other's thoughts, feelings and actions
Ex) Let your own face mimic another person’s expression
(Going through the motions awakes the emotions)

Psychodynamic

Id

A reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drivers.

-Operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification

Ex) I want to eat the cookie

Ego

The largely conscious executive part of personality that according to Freud, meditates among the demands of the id, superego and reality.

-Operates on the reality principle satisfying the id’s desires that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain

Ex) Maybe I can compromise (eat one cookie)

Superego

The part of personality that according to Freud represents internalized ideas and provides standards for judgement( the conscience) and for future aspirations.

Ex) Its not right to eat that, I will get diabetes

Defense mechanisms

• Denial

• Displacement

• Projection

• Rationalization

• Reaction formation

• Regression

• Repression

• Sublimation

Denial

Refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities

Ex) Someone who continues to shop for expensive clothes while in debt

-Someone who ignores health symptoms or the severity of a substance abuse problem

Displacement

Shifting sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person
Ex) when someone is angry with their boss at work but takes their frustration out on their family members at home by yelling at them,

Projection

Disguises one’s own threatening impulses by attributing them to others
Ex) Talks a lot about how mad his parent is at the coach

-You hate someone but that is unacceptable so you believe that the other person hates you (not you hating them)

Rationalization

Offering self-justifying explanation in place of the real, more threatening unconscious reasons for one’s actions

Ex) After being rejected from a prestigious college, a student might claim they never truly wanted to attend that particular institution anyway.

Reaction formation

Switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites

Ex) A child who bullies others because they feel insecure themselves

-a man who feels insecure about his masculinity might act overly aggressive.

Regression

Retreating to an earlier psychosexual stages, where some psychic energy remains fixated.

Ex) Wants to go to his grandma’s house to plat cards and eat her chocolate chip cookies
-Go curl up in a fetal position and watch my little pony

Repression

Unconsciously blocking painful or unacceptable thoughts and feelings

Ex) car accident: a person might not remember the details despite being behind the wheel

Sublimation

Transferring of unacceptable impulses into socially valued

Ex) Decides instead to join the cross-country running team

Projective tests

A personality test such as the Rorschach that provides ambiguous images designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics

Ex) Projected their feelings into the pictures

-Murray engaged children in a frightening game. When he shows the same photos after the game, the kids said it was more evil than before the game

TAT

A projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories that they made up about ambiguous scenes
Ex) Person assumes that a description of a picture can determine what they are feeling inside

Rorschach

A set of 10 Ink blots, designed by Rorschach; seeks to identity people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the ink blots

Ex) what do you see in this picture? A weapon?(experienced trauma) or something else?

Humanistic psychology

Theory of Humanism

Theories that view personality with a focus on the potential for healthy personal growth
-Emphasized the ways people strive for self-determination and self-realization

Self Actualization

the process of realizing one's fullest potential by pursuing personal growth, creativity, and self-fulfillment!

- arises after basic physical needs are met ( focus shifts to achieving personal meaning, self-expression, and purpose.)

Ex) creative, positive people were self-aware, loving and caring, and not paralyzed by other’s opinions.

Unconditional positive regard

A caring, accepting, nonjudgemental attitude, which Carl Rodgers believed would help people develop self-awareness and self-acceptance

Ex) An attitude of Grace even knowing one’s failures

Self concept

All the thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question “who am I”

Ex) If self-concept is positive, we tend to act and perceive the world positively.

Personality (Traits)

Factor analysis

A statistical procedure that identifies clusters (factors) of test items that tap basic components of a trait
Ex) Introvert Vs extrovert

5 factors in the big five

CANOE

Conscientiousness

Agreeableness

Neuroticism

Openness

Extroversion

Conscientiousness

Lower: Disorganized careless, impulsive
Higher: organized, careful, helpful

Agreeableness

Lower: ruthless, suspicious, uncooperative
Higher: Soft-hearted, trusting, helpful

Neuroticism

Lower: calm,secure, self-satisfied
Higher: anxious, insecure, self-pitying

Openness

Lower: practical, prefers routine, conforming
Higher: imagination, prefers variety, independent

Extroversion

Lower: retiring, sober, reserved
Higher: sociable, fun-loving, affectionate

Trait theory (pro and con)

pro: relative stability and predictability
con: experiences and situations can change (people can act differently in different situations and settings)
(classroom VS party)

Bandura’s social-cognitive perspective

people learn behaviors through their interactions and observations of others, as well as their direct experience

Ex) A child with strict parents may learn to follow orders rather than think for herself.

Reciprocal determinism

The interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition and environment

Ex) Rosa’s past romantic experiences (behaviors) influences her romantic attributes (internal factors) which affect how she now responds to Ryan (environmental factor)

.

.

Internal factor(thoughts about risky activities)

.

Behavior(learning to rock climb) ←> Environmental factors (Rock climbing )

impacts of personality

Biological:
-Genetically determined temperament
-Autonomic nervous system reactivity
-Brain activity

Cognitive:

-Learned responses
-Unconscious thoughts
-expectations and interpretations
Ex) anxious person tends to react strongly to relationship threat

Social:
-Childhood experiences
-situational factors
-cultural experiences
-Social support

Socio-cognitive

Self efficacy

One’s sense of competence(successfulness) and effectiveness
Ex) academic self-efficacy: their confidence that they can do well in a subject

Self esteem

One’s feelings of high or low self-worth

High self-esteem: a person that likes their personality and thinks they are good at tasks

Low self-esteem: a person that thinks they have a lot of flaws and can’t do things well.

Self concept

People who are down on the selves tend to be down on others
-Accept yourself, find it easier to accept others

Attribution Theory

Does a person’s behavior reflect their situation or the person’s disposition

• Dispositional attributions

• Situational attributions

Dispositional attributions

Intelligence, personality, attitude caused by something within the person. (Internal factors)
Ex) “Hes a crazy driver”

Situational attributions

Group pressure, social weather, luck caused by something outside the person (situation) (External factors)

Ex) Maybe they needed to poop

Attribution bias

The tendency to inaccurately attribute the causes of someone’s behavior to their character while underestimating situational factors
-Fundamental attribution error

Fundamental attribution error

Tendency for observers when analyzing another’s behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition.

Ex) Judging others (YOU are bad)
-Blame somebody’s character is blamed not situational

Actor observer Bias

The tendency for people to attribute their own behavior (as the ‘actor’) to external; situational factors, while attributing other behavior (as the observer) to internal personal traits or disposition
Ex) compares others VS ourselves
-Give Grace for yourself because you know your situation, hate others because of their disposition

Situational about ourselves, but dispositional to others

Self-serving bias

A tendency to attribute one’s success to internal factors(like ability) and failures to external factors(like luck)
-Judge ourselves
-Protect your self esteem by blaming it on something else

-Know its situational

Explanatory style

How one explains life events

• Optimism

• Pessimism

Optimism

View setbacks as temporary and isolated and blame them on outside forces
- Temporary, controllable, nor personal

Ex) You win an award and say “I worked hard for this”

Pessimism

View setbacks as personal, permanent, and pervasive
- Permanent, personal, uncontrollable
Ex) You win an award and say “I just got lucky”

Locus of control

Internal locus of control: the perception that we control our own fate
External locus of control: the perception that chance or outside forces beyond our personal control determines our fate
Ex) Religion, parents

Person perception

the processes by which people think about, appraise and evaluate other people. An important aspect of person perception is the attribution of motives for action
Ex) physical appearances, behavior, speech, what you can see hear about other people

Mere exposure effect

Repeated stimulus
-The more you are exposed to it the more you like it
Ex) You see a guy at the gym multiple times, you start to grow to like them more

Self-fulfilling prophecy

We reinforce our belief that it will happen in the future
Ex) you believe that your bestie is mean, so they might get cranky and act mean to you (confirming that belief)

Upward social comparison

comparing oneself to other who are better or superior in some way

Positive effect= hope, inspiration
Negative effect=dissatisfaction and envy

Downward social comparison

Comparing oneself to others who are perceived as inferior in some respect
positive effect=gratitude
negative effect=scorn

Relative deprivation

the perception by an individual that the amount of a desired resources(money, social status) they have is less than some comparison standard
Ex) I am rich but then I compare myself to somebody who has more and think you are less.

Stereotype

generalization and assumptions made about a group and applied to a group or individual; can be positive or negative, a heuristic (Cognitive shortcut)
Stereotype: thought
Prejudice: Belief
Discrimination: Behavior

Prejudice

The attitudes and judgement made about a group or individual based on stereotypes, these are usually negative

Discrimination

The unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members

Implicit bias

your background, personal experiences, and cultural context can have an impact on your decisions and acting without you realizing
“without your conscious awareness”

Ex) Racism , sexism, xenophobia
The red cross pool diagram : all the “not cool kids” were portrayed by people of color

Explicit bias

Attitudes that is in our consciousness (in our radar of awareness)

Ex) a teacher mat openly claim that students of Korean ethnicity are exceptionally good at math

Just-world phenomenon

the tendency of people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get

Outgroup homogeneity bias

the tendency to assume that the members of other groups are very similar to each other
Ex) differences in Korean immigrants, and see white people all the same

Ethnocentrism

is the tendency to view the world from the perspective of one own;s culture and believe that it is the BEST

Availablity heuristic

Make assumptions based on information around me (available to me)

Hindsight bias

a type of bias that causes people to convince themselves that a past event was predictable/inevitable

Ex Say “I knew they were going to break up” after a friend couple breaks up

Belief perseverance

the tendency to hold onto a belief even when presented with evidence that contradicts it
Ex) “is a smoker but sees evidence that you will get lung cancer, you still smoke

Cognitive dissonance (Leon Festinger)

The theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent
Ex) Smoking is bad for you / you are a smoker
1. Change idea

2.Change behavior

Cognitive load

the amount of mental effort required to process and retain information
(too tired)→ generalize that everyone is the same