Psych Exam

Gender Identity

an individual’s perception of having a particular gender (may or may not correspond with the sex assigned to them at birth)

Gender Expression

external behaviors that are socially defined as masculine, feminine, etc. such as dress grooming, mannerisms, etc.

Gender Stereotypes

widely held (and often inaccurate) beliefs about an individual’s abilities, personality traits and social behavior

Gender Difference

actual disparities in behavior between men and women, based on research observations

Gender Roles

culturally defined expectations

Gender-role identity

identification with traits regarded as “masculine” or “feminine”

Sexual orientation

preferences regarding sexual partners (ex: bisexual, pansexual, straight, etc)

Male stereotypes=

instrumentality

-orientation towards action and accomplishment

Female stereotypes=

expressiveness

-orientation towards emotion and relationships

Androcentrism

-the belief that the male is the norm

Gender Similarities Hypothesis

-men and women are similar on most psychological variables

-when there’s differences, usually are small

Gender Similarities Hypothesis: Cognitive Abilities

-no gender differences in overall intelligence

-verbal abilities: women have slight advantage (smarter, better spoken, better at writing)

-math abilities: neither have advantage (but males can tend to have higher math scores)

-spatial abilities (perceiving and mentally manipulating figures): males have slight advantage

Personality Traits

-males have more of self-esteem than females

-males more likely to participate in physical aggression while females are more likely to participate in relational aggression (gossip, “mean girls”)

Emotional Expression

-females have greater emotional expression

-no gender differences in emotional experiences

-men tend to talk more

-women more effective at reading non-verbal communication messages

Psychological Disorders: men

-antisocial behavior

-alcohol and drug-related disorders

Psychological Disorders: women

-depression

-anxiety

-eating disorders (linked to body image)

-more likely to attempt suicide (men more likely to actually go through with it)

Gender Theories: social role theory

-minor gender differences are exaggerated by the different social roles that males and females occupy

Gender Theories: social constructionism

-individuals construct their own reality based on societal expectation, conditioning, and self-socialization

Biological Origins

-cerebral hemispheres: the right and left halves of the cerebrum, which is the outer layer of the brain

-Corpus Callosum: the band of fibers connecting the two hemispheres of the brain

-Hormones: chemical substances that are released into the bloodstream by the endocrine system

Environmental Origin of Gender: socialization

socialization: the acquisition of the norms and roles expected of people in a particular society

-part of this process is teaching children gender roles (parents usually reinforce “gender appropriate” behaviors and often punish behavior considered “gender inappropriate”

Environmental Origin of Gender: observational learning

-imitating the behavior of a parent or older sibling (“modeling”)

-children most likely to imitate the same-gender parent and peer

Environmental Origin of Gender: self-socialization

-Gender schemas: cognitive structures that guide the processing of gender-relevant behavior

-gender roles

Gender Role Socialization Sources

-parents

-schools

-peers

-media

Gender Role Expectations: males

-achievement

-aggression

-autonomy (shouldn’t rely on anyone)

-sexuality

-stoicism (men shouldn’t share pain, be cool calm and collected)

Issues with Male Role

-pressure to succeed

-emotional realm

-sexual problems (should be having sex, can cause fear of needing to live up to this)

Gender Role Expectations: females

-drastic changes have taken place over the past 40 years

-the marriage mandate (women should get married)

-the motherhood mandate (women should want to have kids)

-work outside the home

Issue with the Female Role

-diminished career aspirations

-juggling multiple roles

-ambivalence about sexuality

Gender in the past and future

-gender roles are changing

-traditional gender roles no longer make economic sense

-likely to remain in flux for years to come (will keep changing)

-alternatives to traditional gender roles

Androgyny

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

Gender Role Transcendence

-proposes that to be the fully human, people need to move beyond gender roles as a way of organizing their perceptions of themselves and others

-studies reinforce the idea that gender roles are important part of human behavior

-self-fulfilling prophecy

Sibling Gender

-females with brothers acquire more traditional gender norms with negative consequences for their labor earnings

Gender in Workplace

-sexism: discrimination against people based on their gender (benevolent sexism)

-Economic Discrimination

-The Glass Ceiling

-Sexual Harassment: unwelcome conduct on the basis of gender

-Quid pro quo harassment: employees are expected to give into sexual demands in exchange for employment, raises, promotions, etc

-Environmental harassment: employees are exposed to sexist or sexually oriented comments, cartoon, posters, etc

-Targets of Harassment

Effects of Sexism + Sexual Harassment

-depression

-distress

Reducing Sexism and Sexual Harassment

-shift in societal norms

-culture which discourages sexism and harassment

The Nature of Personality

-Personality: an individual’s unique constellation of consistent behavioral traits (ex: outgoing, pessimistic)

-Personality traits: durable dispositions to behave in a particular way in a variety of situations (consistency, distinctiveness (unique across individuals))

Five Factor Model of Personality

“OCEAN”

-openness

-conscientiousness

-extraversion

-agreeableness

-neuroticism

Openness to Experience

-curiousity

-flexibility

-imaginativeness

-artistic sensitivity

-unconventional attitudes

Conscientiousness

-diligent

-disciplined

-well-organized

-punctual

-dependable

(women tend to score higher than men)

Extraversion

(positive emotionality)

-outgoing

-sociable

-upbeat

-friendly

-assertive

-gregarious (fond of company)

Agreeableness

-sympathetic

-trusting

-cooperative

-modest

-straightforward

-associated with helping behavior (sympathy)

(women score much higher than men)

Neuroticism

-anxious

-hostile

-self-conscious

-insecure

-vulnerable

-some researchers say they’re sensitive to reward too

(women score much higher than men)

Correlations with Life Outcomes

-high school and college GPA (ppl w neuroticism less likely to be successful and do well in school)

-occupational attainment

-divorce (high neuroticism=more likely to get a divorce)

-health and mortality (neuroticism=more likely to have physical or mental disorders)

Five Factor Model of Personality

-believed to be comprehensive and universal

-scores of the five factors are independent

-well-validated by researcher

-some argue there should be a 6th one- honest/humility

Behaviorism

a theoretical orientation based on the premise that scientific psychology should study observable behavior (revolutionary idea for the time by John Watson) (view personality as collection of response tendencies that are tied to various stimulus situations

Classical Conditioning

-ex: Pavlov dog scenario

-unconditioned response: unlearned response to an unconditioned stimulus (food)

-conditioned stimulus: the whistle, conditional response: dog salivating to the whistle

-pairing two things (neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus) that didn’t go together to now go together

Advantages and Disadvantages of Classical Conditioning

-helps us learn associations necessary for survival

-we can shape desirable behaviors (ex: parenting)

-many trials are needed to shape more everyday behaviors (i.e. not phobias)

Operant Conditioning

-a form of learning in which voluntary responses come to be controlled by their consequences (responses are admitted not elicited)

(more likely to continue doing things that are good, less likely to stop doing things that make us feel good)

Operant Conditioning: Reinforcement

-used to increase behavior by rewarding it (positive=giving something desirable, an addition) (ex: going to work for paycheck, going dog food bc it didn’t bark)

Operant Conditioning: Negative Reinforcement

-occurs when a response is strengthened (i.e. increased frequency) bc it’s followed by the removal of an unpleasant stimulus; removing/taking away something (ex: taking medicine to stop a headache, cleaning to get rid of a mess, buckling seat belt to get rid of noise)

Operant Conditioning: Punishments + Extinction

-used to decrease behavior by following it with an unpleasant stimulus (hitting a kid)

Negative Punishment: take away something desirable (taking away car keys after staying out past curfew)

-Extinction: the gradual weakening and disappearance of a response

Social Cognitive Theory: Observational Learning

-happens when a person or animal’s response to the environment is influenced by observing others, referred to as “models” (ex: albert bandura doll)

Social Cognitive Theory

Unique because:

-we pay attention to others behavior

-we understand the consequences that follow others behaviors

-Self-efficacy: belief about one’s ability to perform behaviors that should lead to expected outcomes

-the more you believe in yourself and view yourself as a capable individual, the better your performance or abilities will be

Humanism

-theoretical orientation that emphasizes the unique qualities of humans, esp their free will and their potential for personal growth

Humanism: Carl Rodgers Person -Center Theory

-self-concept: a collection of beliefs about one’s own nature, unique qualities, and typical behavior

-disparity between one’s self-concept and one’s actual experiences

Biological Perspectives

-personality is largely dominated by genetic influence

-twin studies: researchers assess hereditary influence by comparing resemblance of identical twins and fraternal twins on a trait

-heritability ratio: the proportion of trait variability in a population that is determined by variations in genetic inheritance

Biological Perspectives: Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths: research suggests personality traits are hereditary

Weaknesses:

-hindsight bias

-environmental and genetic factors can’t be separated

Narcissism

-personality traits marked by an inflated sense of importance, a need for attention and admiration, and a sense of entitlement

-perceived as charming and charismatic, but overtime may become annoying

Personality and Culture: Individualism

-putting ones’ personal goals ahead of group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group membership

Self Concept

-an organized collection of beliefs about the self

-also called self-schemas (include personality traits, abilities, physical features, values, and social roles)

-Possible selves: refer to one’s conceptions about the kind of person one might become in the future

Types of self-perceptions

-actual self: qualities people think they actually possess/are like (ex: im tall and smart)

-ideal self: qualities people would like to have (ex: wanna be more determined)

-ought self: qualities people think they should posses/have (ex: culturalization, social norms)

Self-discrepancies and Effects

-when the actual self falls short of the ideal self: we feel dejected and sad

-when the actual self falls short of the ought self: we feel irritable and guilty (can lead to anxiety) (ex: not doing charity work)

3 Main Factors determine the impact of discrepancies:

-amount of discrepancy experienced

-person’s awareness of discrepancy

-whether the discrepancy is actually important to the person

Coping

-change their behavior to being it more in line with the ideal, or ought selves

-blunting self-awareness by:

-avoiding situation increasing self-awareness

-using alcohol

Factors shaping self-concept:

-social comparison theory: we compare ourselves with others in order to asses and/or improve our abilities/opinions

-reference group: set of people who are used as a gauge in making social comparisons

-observations of our own behavior are subjective and distorted in a positive direction

-feedback from others is important in balancing our own observations

-Social context also affects our self-concept (may view ourselves more or less critically depending on situation)

Cultural values and self-concept

-individualism: cultures put personal goals ahead of group goals (defined more in terms of personal attributes)

-more independent view of the self (unique, self-contained, distinct from others)

-collectivism: putting group goals ahead of personal goals (defined more in terms of the groups one belongs to)

-more interdependent view (more connected to others)

Self Esteem

-one’s overall assessment of one’s worth as a person

-a global evaluation of many aspects of the self

-trait self-esteem: enduring sense of confidence (regarding abilities and characteristics)

-state self-esteem: dynamic feelings about the self that change with the situation

-narcissism

4 Parenting Styles

-authoritarian (low acceptance, high control)

-authoritative (high acceptance, high control) (linked to high self esteem)

-neglectful (low acceptance, low control)

-permissive (high acceptance, low control)

Two different types of cognitive processes:

-automatic processing: default mode in which we handle info without much deliberate decision making (ex: morning routine)

-controlled processing: active thinking required for important decision-making and analysis

(self-attributions: inferences ppl make about the causes of their own behavior)

Types of Attributions

-internal attributions: ascribe the causes of behavior

-external attributions

-stable attributions: cause of behavior is unlikely to change over time

-unstable attributions: the cause of behavior is variable, or subject to change (this dimension interacts with the internal-external attributions of success)

-controllable vs uncontrollable (this dimension considers whether the person has any control over the behavior)

Explanatory style (tendency to use similar causal attributions for a wide variety of events in one’s life)

-optimistic explanatory style: attributes setbacks to external, unstable, and specific factors

-pessimistic ex style: attribute setbacks to internal, stable, and global factors

Two motives guide self-understanding

-self-assessment: desire for truthful info about oneself

-self-enhancement: desire to maintain positive feelings about oneself

Methods of self-enhancement

-downward social comparison: defensive tendency to compare oneself with someone whose troubles are more serious than yours

-self-serving bias: attribute one’s successes to personal factors and one’s failures to situational factors

-basking in reflected glory: enhance one’s image by publicly announcing one’s association with those who are successful

-self-handicapping: sabotaging one’s experience (ex: not studying for an exam and failing)

-self-regulation: process of directing and controlling one’s behavior

Self-efficacy 4 Sources

-mastery experiences (learning new skills increases self-efficacy) (important to persist in face of mistakes)

-vicarious experiences

-persuasion and encouragement

-interpretation of emotional arousal

Self-defeating Behaviors

seemingly intentional actions that thwart a person’s self interest

-deliberate self-destruction: ppl want to choose harmful courses of action

-trade-offs: engaging in potentially harmful behaviors in order to pursue desirable outcomes or goals

-counterproductive strategies: persisting in ineffective strategies to achieve a goal

Self-Presentation

-public self: an image presented to others in social interactions

(can vary according to situation or role people are in)

-adjustment is best when there’s overlap/integration in various public selves

Self-Presentation: Impression management

-Impression management: usually conscientious efforts by ppl to influence how others think of them

1. Ingratiation: behaving in ways to make oneself likable to others

2. Self-promotion: accenting your strong points in order to earn respect

3. Supplication: acting weak or dependent in order to get favors from others

4. Negative acknowledgment: admitting your flaws

Self-Presentation: self-monitoring

-the degree to which ppl attend to and control the impressions they make on others

-high self-monitors: more concerned about making favorable impressions and are good at interpreting what others see

-low-self monitors: more likely to express their true feelings or attitudes