psych final 4

social, personality, disorders, therapy, stress coping,

normative social influence

type of conformity where ppl will change their behavior to fit into a group. have the desire to be liked and accepted,

conforming to group norms, unspoken social rules, usually to avoid social discomfort or rejection

driven by social approval, public compliance, fitting in

normative social influence example

somone choosing a haircut / style bc its popular in their freind circle, or in trend at their school rn

informational social influence

ppl conform to the belief / behavior of others bc they beleive others have more accurate info, especailly in uncertain situations

driven by the desire to be right and know how to behave, leads you to have the same pov

informational social influence example

during new job, employee will be unsure how to interact with everyone but will learn by observing experienced colleagues and their behavior and will adopt similiar behavior

Asch’s study of conformity?

social psychologist Solomon Asch 1950’s

shows how influenctail group pressure can be on ones judgement / morals /

study was: participants, unaware of others in the study were a part of it, asked to judge the length of lines, the participant went with the answer that the rest gave out, even when it was clearly the wrong answer

shows that significant amount of particpants conformed to the groups judgment, wven when it went agaisnt their judgement

shows: group pressure, conformity, normative social influence → desire to fit in to a group and avoid social rejection

Milgram’s Study of obedience

study by Stanley Milgram 1960-63

study the extent in which particiapnts are willing to follow orders from a higher power/authority, even when it meant harming others.

• study had a shocker and a learner → the shocker was made to believe they were shocking ppl for the wrong answer. leaner was a participant answering questions and shocked with every question wrong

study shows a signifianct number of ppl 65% were willing to give painful electric shocks to others, despite the protest and crys for help from learner. shows a strong desire to obey authroity, or feel like the one in power, the one in control

• study showed high authority figure following, highly unethical study, how ppl will folllow the lead of power regradless of unethical or harmful actions

social loafing def

tendency for ppl in groups to give less effort in group work compared to when working alone

• reduced productivity, less effective group performace

• ppl end up relying on others to pick up thier slack

deindividuation def

psychological state where ppl lose their sense of personal identity and lose accountability within a group

• could lead to higher chances of being impulsive with actions, and reduced self control

• reduced acountability

• increase in confromity - follwoing group norms + or -

deindividuation examples

person in a crowd can act aggressively as they feel anonyumous and less acountable for their actions

• online bullying - anonyumus, more confortable and less restrain in acting out behvaiors

group polarization def

psych phenomenon, groups mentality / belief become more extreme since their more ppl who think the same as them.

• causes for more extreme beliefs or descions or disscussions, with the collective opinion becoming more magnified, leading to exreme viewpoints

group polarization examples

online disscussions

• if a player is already hard on themselves for doing a bad job, they will inherintly focus on the bad comments left online and base their ideas on the negative instead of the positve

extremist groups

• will find like minded people who will continue to reinfroce their ideals/ beliefs and form a strong identity connected to the groups ideology

groupthink def

psych phenon. where group members will prioritze comfort, and unity and same level thinking, over critical thinking

• leading to poor descions made, bc of the desire to create harmony from under extreme pressures within a group leads to failing to look for solutuions or alternate options leading to negative consequences

groupthink examples

pearl harbor attack - even though warnings were recieved, they were ignored leading to a suprise attack

bay of pigs invasion → even when a plan was approved to invade, desions makers under extreme pressue to succeed decieded to make a differnt plan that failed

prejudice def

pre made opionion not based on reason of expereince

• preconception /biased

simply not liking a group /ppl for their race, sex, religion,

stereotyping

fixed preconceptions / oversimplified idea of a person / race / sex/ idenitdy / activriy

discrimination

excluding or not interacting with person bc of a certain aspect of them

• unjust / prejudical treatment of different categories → ethnicity, age, sex, disability

explicit prejudice def

deliberate conscious negative attidutes towards a specific group,

• expressed thu words and actions

• ppl who express this are aware of negaive views and act on it

• held in their minds

explicit prejudice examples

school teacher might express that some students of specific ethnicity are better at math

• sounds positive, but it demeaning to that ethnic group and other students as they are treated as second

implicit prejudice def

negative attitude - prejudice about a group they are unaware of holding

• unconscious bias

• influences perceptions behaviors, decisionswithout consuoi intention or awareness

• shaped by expereince, and leared associations

implicit prejudice examples

hiring manager will unconsiously perfer canadidtes with names that sounds white over names that sound black, hispanic, asian, etc

implicit association test?

tool designed to measure the strength of associations between mental concepts and attributions

• made to reveal unconscious attidues, automatic preferences, hidden biases

• measures how quickly ppl categorize and classify

just-world phenomenon def

cognative bias where ppl tend to believe the world is fair and ppl get what they deserve

• can be used to rationalize or excuse injustices

suggest that good happens to good people and bad happens to bad ppl

• sort of create a sense of predicability and control within the world

ties in with prejudice → perceive victims of misfortune as deserved reciptants bc they have placed stereotypes, are hateful, or want to excuse systemic inequalities

enable victim blame, ignoring systemic inequalities

realisitc conflict theory

Muzafer sherif

concept of scarity can lead to conflict and prejucie , hate amoung groups

• when pinned agaisnt each other, and figthing for the same limited resource → hate, discrimination can rise

• negative feelings and sterotypes are placed on rival

Sheriff Robber cave experiment

2 groups of boys were put into competition for prizes/resources

• showed how easily conflict could rise from the competiition and scarcity

• also showed how superordinate goals → goals that needed both groups to work together to acheive prizes, imrpoved cooperatetion and reduced prejudice between groups

social identity theory - SIT

ppls social identity is infleunced from groups they belong to, race, gender work

• puts emphazie that ppl cateogire themselves and others

• ppl tend to favor their in groups vs outgroups, leads to

when identity groups they belong to, they are infelunced by behavior beleif self esteem

ppl want to have a sense of belonging, so they seek + self image and + self esteem → achieve this by sticking to groups they belong to or are inflenced by

in group bias?

favor groups / ppl who you were inflenced by, or belong to

• tend to veiw that group more + than outsiders

• shown in many ways → preferal treatment, sharing resoruces more easily, overlooking faults

minimal groups def

groups formed with little related aspects

• where ppl have no prior hisotry with each other yet are still able to bond over small related aspects and defend their ingroup agaisnt out groups

minimal group paradigm

Study Tajfel - 1971 - min

study is used to see the basic mechanics of ingroup favor and in group bias,

• see how connected these random ppl can become with little related aspects

creates a sense of community and belonging, once feel that connection or bonding they willl defend their in group

• seeing how being categorized can lead to ingroup favoritism and out group discrimination

challanges the notion that intergroups need prior history conflict betwwen groups to create a sense of defense.

• but proven that even small connections can trigger the biases

contact hypothesis def?

positive intergroup contact can lead to less prejudice and improve intergroup relations

• improving two teams working together to benefit both instead of competing against each other

• improve contact between diff groups, decrease negative attitudes and increase positive

however depedns on specific factors to improve positve contact, equal status, common goals, intergroup cooperation

What is cooperative interdependence?

members of group that do share common goals, see how working together and individually is benefical to their success,

• success depends on participation of all memebrs

• ppl within groups understand their sucess is intertwinced with the success of others → supporting cooperation and mutual support

type of social interdependence,

jigsaw classroom

teamwork learning strategy, students work in mixed groups to become experts in diff aspects of a topic, then share knowlesge with oringal group

• promotes independence, active learning, peer teaching

• groups will work togehter and develop the info they learned from each exoert create a final product

What is the drive theory of aggression?

aggressive behavior motivated by internal drive, triggered by outside stimuli

• a theory for why ppl act this way to reduce tension caused by external stimuli

the need to restore internal balance, motivated to enegage in behaviors that reduce the drive and return to a balanced state

catharsis?

process of releasing, providing relief from repressed emotions

• process of releasing pent up emotions through different means, art or emotional expression

• provides short term relief, but can reinforce negative behavior and increase risk of emotional outburst in future

What is the frustration-aggression hypothesis?

John Dollard 1939

frustration or being blocked from achieving goals, can lead to aggression

• when ppl face trouble that prevent them from reaching desired outcomes they can respond with anger

• frustration → aggression

mere exposure effect?

phenom where ppl tend to develop preferences for things they are repeatedly exposed to even when if the exposure is short lived or subconscious

• familiarity causes increased liking and influence - shape preferences and attitudes

ex: liking a song after a repeated listens, brand preference after seeing their ads, becoming freinds with someone who you pass by everyday,

 bystander effect?

phenom that people in need to help wont recieve help ppl others around think others will help them out

diffusion of responsibility

ppl feel less personally responsible for taking action in a situation when others are present

• believe others around will take responsibility or have already done so

• less likly to help in emergency when others are around

Pluralistic ignorance

ppl incorrectly believe their own opinions are different from others in group, leading them to conform

• will see a groups behavior as a reflection even when when true opinion is different

ex: students believe their peers expect them to drink, even when students want to drink less / ppl in crowd will not intervene in emergency bc theybeleive someone else will help

Evaluation apprehension

fear that ppl expereince when they believe theri perfromance is being judged by others, leading to negative perceptions

• fear causes ppl to change behavior to prevent being perceived negativity

• will expereince this when in situtation where behavior is being judged and are concered for the outcome of evaluation

What is the psychoanalytic perspective of personality? What 2 factors did Freud emphasize in the development of personality?

Sigmund Freud 

• The influence that childhood experiences, the unconscious mind and early choold experience development and behavior 

• Theory that Personality is formed through different interactions and conflicts, and behavior is driven by unconscious desires and motivation

Unconscious mind - behavior is driven by, we are not aware of how it influences our thoughts, emotions, actions 

Childhood experiences - important first 5 years of life in shaping personality, said that specific experiences in psychosexual stages have a lasting effect. 

unconscious mind?

Mental process that is outside conscious awareness influences thoughts, feelings and behavior

• Associated with sigmued freud → said to be a reservoir of repressed memories, desires, and impulses, often unacceptable to the conscious mind. The unconscious mind could influence behavior

ID

pleasure principle, most primitive part of personality

Is in the unconscious mind, basic instinct

Pleasure principle → seeks immediate gratification of desires and needs

ex: baby crying until fed, someone buying a really expensive bag without considering cost or long term consequences

Ego

reality principle

Develops from ID, reality principle → tries to satisfy ID needs in realistic and socially accaple ways

Works in all places of the mind → conscious, preconscious, and unconscious mind, balancing between ID, superego, and external world

ex: someone seeking validation from others, highlights their achievements and constantly seeking praise from others

superego

conscious

Internalizeed moral standards and values, guides behavior, casues feelings of pride and guilt

Pushed ego to moral behavior, sense of shame when morals are violated

ex: somone has the urge to steal from store, but superego stops the urger and focusues on how the beahvior is wrong

Freud first 3 psychosexual stage?

Oral

anal

phallic

• theory of personality development developing thro 5 diff stages, each stage has a specific sensitivity and potential conflicts. Stages - Oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital

oral stage

birth - 18 months 

Exploring with mouth = bc mouth is primary source of pleasure and gratification

Learning who to depend on, who to trust

Oral fixation with biting, sucking, swallowing

anal stage

18 months - 3 yrs 

Conflict with parents on complicance and defiance

Attiduces toward order and disorder

Anal fixation → bladder movement, bladder control

phallic stage

3 - 6 yrs 

Develop oedipus complex - childs feelings of desire for opposite sex parent, and feelings of jelousy/anger towards same sex parent

• boys develop exclusive relationship with mother, feeling his father as competition for mother attention

• Girls develop exclusive relationshi with father, feel mother as competition for fathers attention

These feelings are represented - made unconscious bc have fear of punishment or displasure by same sex parent

based on greek methodology → oedipus kills his father and unknowlingy marries his mother

Idenitication with father (boys) - starts to identify with the same sex parent, important for develiping a sense of gender identity and morality

freuds defense mechanisms

Repression

Projection

Rationalization

Displacement

Denial

Unconsuous mental strategies the ego uses to protect self from unpleasent emotions like anxiety / stress. It distorts reality to cope with internal conflicts

repression

thoughtst that induce anxiety to acknowledgment are blocked fromconscious awarenesss

ex: person expereincing phobias but not recalling tramatic expereinces, child who suffers abuse later in life stuggles to form healthy relationships

Projection

person projects their own unacknowledged feelings or impulses onto other ppl

ex: someone accusing theri partner of cheating, someone struggling with insecuirty accusing others of being insecure

Rationalization

tries to create logical explanations for behaviors to avoid discomfort

• want to avoid feeling guilt, shame or anxiety

ex: minimizing siutaiton → “its really not that bad” , making excuses → “i didnt have enough time anyway”

Displacement

directing emotions towards others that dont deserve it, displacement of emotions

ex: someone angry at their boss might take it out on their family

denial

refusing to aknolwedege realities or emotions

ex: ppl refusing to believe that they addiciton despite hiding evidence, student denying they are underprepared

Psychological determinism

theory that all humans behaviors and phenomonia are caused by specific prior events or conditions, instead of it being freely chosen or random.

• Goes against the concept of free will.

• implies that the future is fixed and predetermined, no different outcomes possible 

Freudian slips?

also known as parapraxis - “Slip of the tongue"

Memory that is throught to reveal unconscious thoughts or desires. Often used to suggest that repressed unconscious burgers can surface through errors

projective tests?

ambiguous stimulus which allows a person to connect with and respond with stimulis

• Rorschach Inkblot test - set of inkblots and tells what each picture resembles

humanistic perspective of personality?

individual free will, personal growth, subjective experiences

Sees individuals as good and capable of acehveing self actualization

• Rogers’s concepts of empathy and unconditional positive regard

carl rogers concepts of empathy and unconditional positive regard

developed people centered therapy

Emphazing Empathy - capacity to understand another persons experience cognitively or emotionally

Unconditional positive regard

• Therapist genuine accecptance and respect for client, regradless of prsonal opinions, values the client as a person 

•  given the sense that individuals are valued by parents and others 

Big Five traits - 5 factor model

OCEAN

openness to experience → intelligent / like to use brain in different situations / try diff things

Conscientiousness → cautious, dependable

Extraversion → enthusiastic, sociable, outgoing

Agreeableness → friendly, cooperative, go with the flow

Neuroticism → nervous, worrying, worry a lot, anxiety, depression prone, nervous

DSM?

Classificaltion guide

DSM → diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders

• Used to make clinical diagnoses

Current issue - DSM-5-TR 2022

Insurance require diagnoises to cover treatment

labeling theory

Stickiness of the diagnostic label

• The label and stigmas that comes with a diagnosis, could lead to society seeing that person as their disagnoises, sterotyping them, increasing in deviance behavior

Deviance beahvior to fight against the stereotyping placed on them,

• Deviance behavior that slowly matched the stereotype placed on them → faking sympotoms

Rosenhan’s study?

"On Being Sane in Insane Places,"

• investigated the reliability of psychiatric diagnoses

• 8 pateints pretending to be mentally ill, gaining admission to 12 diff mental hosptials

• study showed despite their fake sympotoms, all pateints were admitted and disgnosed with mental illnesses → mainly schizophrenia

psychiatrist stuggles to differenitae between geniallly ill and fake patients

• once diagnosed, pateint behavior was often seen through the lens of their diagnoses

anxiety disorders? generalized anxiety disorder?

Most frequently occurring disorders

Has anxiety when situations do not call for it

Like a diffused panic attack

• Symptoms → headaches, stomach aches, physcial symptoms

• Low levels of GABA chemicals, lack of calming chemical within the brain

mental healthy conditions - excessive worry, fear, anxiety that impact life greatly

phobias

Irrational fear of specific object or situations

Specific → fear of flying

Common way to deal with it: Avoidance

Most times emerge from traumatic experience

panic disorder?

Intense episoddes where ppl feel big sense pf panic

Not uncommmong to have 1 or 2 panic attacks within your like

• But to have more frequently would be considered a disorder

social anxiety disorder

fear of social situations, being judged/perceived

• Most common of anxiety disorders

ocd

obsessive complusive disorder

Reoccuring obessions and complusions, cause anxiety, distress that heavily impact ppls life

• Obessions → consistant and persistant thoughts, cant easily go away

• Compulsions → behaviors that must be performed or negative idealations will appear

major depressive disorder

Feelings of extreme sadness, unfufulness, regret, hoplessness

Feelings / thoughts can appear whenever, without a clear trigger

bipolar disorder

extreme mood swings – constantly switching between depression and mania

• Mania – period of abnormally euphoric mood, increased energy, willing to do anything, no clear explanation for actions performed or things said, most things said dont make sense

schizophrenia

Disorder of thought emotion, perception, with psychotic symptoms

• Psychotic symptoms - out of touch with reality

• Delusions – strongly held, fixed beliefs that have no basis in reality

• Hallucinations – sensory perceptions that distort or are experienced with no external stimuli

schizophrenia symptoms

Symptoms

• Disorganized speech – skips from topic to topic

• Word salad

• Catatonic symptoms – motor problems

• Positive symptoms – presence of something not usually there

• Delusions, hallucinations - Negative symptoms – absence of something

• Flat affect, expressionless faces

DID

Development of 2 or more personalities / alters, each with their own personalities, memories experiences

Can alternate within the brain to be in the consciousness mind or subconscious

The result of extreme and repeated trauma within childhood

Results in repressed memories/trauma, black spotsin memories, not having control over alters / actions that alters do when fronting

personality disorder

Personality traits that are inflexible and maladaptive

• across a broad range of situations

Borderline personality disorder

Extreme variability in mood, relationships, and selfperceptions

Result of abandonment or rejection as a child, carried into adulthood

Narcissistic personality disorder

High sense of self importance

Low self esteem, low confidence → their self esteem relies on the ability to appear your better than others, easy for it to be brought down

High need for admiration, need for others to admire and praise them

Psychoanalytic therapy

Freudian technique to make pateint aware of unconscious process, emotions or explainations behind actions

Uses approaches like: dream interpretation, free association → ppl verbalize whatever thoughts come to mind without judgement censor or direction from therapist

dream interpretation

Sigmund Freud and carl jung

process of assigning meaning to dreams

• Freud → believed dream were disguised as unconscious desires and conflicts

• Jung → dreams as a means to explore the unconscious and diff aspects of personality

free association

where person verbalizes their thoughts, feelings, images come to mind without censorship

• chance to gain insight into thoughts emotions

• patients relax ans share whatever comes to mind with no judgment

Humanistic therapy

Rogers technique - person centered therapy

Emphaises realization of human potential

Talk therapy foucsing on ppls indivudal nature, seeing potential of growth and self actualization

• Used to help ppl better understand themselves

Therapist shows empath, positive regard and allows person to have reflection within themselves

• Not giving insight, letting client coming to that conclusion themselves

• Allow resources to self heal

behavioral therapy?

Focused on changing behaviors by negative reinformcent - encourage desired behaviors - Classical conditioning methods

• Exposure therapy

• Flooding

• Systematic desensitization

• Token economy

exposure therapy

ppl confront fear head on

flooding

confront fear all at once, instead of slow steps

systemic desensitization

slowly showing the stimulus, allowing person to relax as gradually exposed - counter conditioning

More ppl willing to do this compared to flooding

ex: study with baby and cookies and rat → cookie, positive stimulus paried with scary stimulus lead to baby slowly becoming desensitized

token economy

where desired beahviors are rewarded with coins that can be redeemed for more stimulating rewards

Ex: Used in rehab, want people to go to group therapy sessions, when they go, they get rewarded and encrouged to go again

cognitive behaviorla therapy - CBT

Aaron beck - father of cogntive therapy

Focuses on throught proess of paitent - on the base pf psychological symptoms

Focus on identifying and changing helping thoughts patterns to improve emotional well being

Emphazing the helping of automatic irrational thoughts

More helpful bc - doesnt allow therapist to distort assumptions and belief of patient

• Identifies automatic irrational thoughts

• Focus on changing thoughts and behaviors into positive, socially acceptable onces

Selective thinking

Focusing on certain actions or phrases of circumstances, depends on pscyhogical state or mood

Over generalizing - if in relationship and ends, you assume yours unloveable now - completely irrational conclusion

Effectiveness of psychotherapy

Any form of therapy is more effective than no therapy

Cognitice behavioral therapy is better trusted and established than other forms of therapy

Is psychotherapy effective?

• Doesnt work the same way for every person,

• More studies have been done on CBT, and more confidence on the effectiveness of CBT

drug therapies

Medical therapies

Directly alter brain chemistry and psychology

drugs are used to treat schizophrenia,

antipsychotic meds

Dopamine antagisnt - block dopamine more effective for positive symptoms of delusuons

Helps with delusions, hallucinations

Big potential for side efects, - muscle tremors, weigth gain, word vision, constipation

drugs are used to treat anxiety

anti anxiety meds

GABA agonist, tranquilizers, xanax

Helps in short term - relax muscles, calm jittery feelings

Works immediednlty, but is hard to work or drive, sedated

Big risk of addiction with tranquilzers,

for emergency, not best for long term treatments

drugs are used to treat depression

antidepressant meds

Most common - SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor)

Anit depression med - can be used long term

drugs used to treat biploar disorder

mood stablizers

Lithium

Atypical antipsychotics - used to treat mania

What is electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)?

brief burst of electric current to induce seizure in brain

• Last resort from drug reisitance, Used as a last resort, emergeny technique

Very effective, works right away

• More invasive,

Induced sezuire, controlled environment

Casues memory loss, but solves extreme cases immediately

stress

bodys response to life altering situations

• significant life changes → job loss, relationship problem, finanical

how to measure stress

Holmes and Rahe stress scale

through the impact of significant life events and changes on person stress levels

• SRRS - social readjudgment on indiv stress levels

assign weight scores to various life events→ LCU, life change unit, showing a link between events and stress

What is the daily hassles approach to measuring stress?

focus on overall impact of minor stressors rather than life events

• the normal everyday annoyances and difficulties of daily life

when collected over period of time can increase overall stress levels

• is opposite of method that focus on major life changes

perceived stress?

how everyone experinces and handles theri stress

• how they assess stressful situations and ability to cope and manage them

• PSS → perceived stress scale , tool to measure this experience

PSS, percieved stress scale

usually 10 -14 questions, each question is a 5 point scale

• scale of 0 - 40,

• 0-13, shows low stress

• 14-26, shows moderate stress

• 27-40, shows high scores show greater percived stress

high stressleads to body tension, headaces, digestive problems, anxiety, sleep disorder, eating disorders

Cannon’s fight-or-flight mechanism?

bodies immediate phys response to stress or danger

• bodies built in mechanism to maintain good internal levels for survival

• activates sympathetic nervous system → prep body to face of fight

surge of hormones, adrenaline