Personality, Social Psychology, and Learning - First Exam

First claim of psychology

We experience and experience the world psychologically.

Second claim of psychology

We can study psychology scientifically

Third claim of psychology

We have much to gain from psychological science

Psychoanalysis

a therapy that aims to give people insight into the contents of their unconscious minds

Psychogenic symptoms

blindness, speech stutters, paralysis, etc. symptoms that couldn’t be explained

Free association

talking about anything (even if it seemed irrelevant) they wanted or by responding quickly to a word which offered a glimpse into the contents of their unconscious minds

Catharsis

Bringing repressed memories into consciousness so they don’t have as much power over you. Cure for hiysteria

Importance/Interpretation of Dreams

Dreams fulfill Unconscious wishes; can reveal Unconscious desires; royal road to unconscious

Biological strivings

humans are just physical beings who behave like animals; lead by basic needs and instinct

Infantile emotional life

Adult relationships are a reflection of infantile emotional life

Superego

the mental system that reflects the internalization of cultural rules, mainly learned as parents exercise their authority

id

the part of the mind containing the drives present at birth; it is 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; mediator between superego and id

Ego defense mechanisms

unconscious coping mechanisms that reduce the anxiety generated by threats from unacceptable impulses; repression, rationalization, reaction formation, projection, regression, displacement, identification, sublimation

Repression

Removing painful experiences and unacceptable impulses from the conscious mind: “motivated forgetting.”

Rationalization

Supplying a reasonable-sounding explanation for unacceptable feelings and behavior to conceal (mostly from oneself) 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.

Regression

Reverting to an immature behavior or earlier stage of development, a time when things felt more secure, to deal with internal conflict and perceived threat.

Displacement

Shifting unacceptable wishes or drives to a neutral or less threatening alternative.

Identification

Dealing with feelings of threat and anxiety by unconsciously taking on the characteristics of another person who seems more powerful or better able to cope.

Sublimation

Channeling unacceptable sexual or aggressive drives into socially acceptable and culturally enhancing activities.

Problems with classical psychoanalysis?

You do not know if patients are representative; interpretations aren’t verifiable; can not deduce if therapy is truly effective; don’t know if theories are valid

Clinical Multiplicity

Different psychologist will interpret the same signs differently - why interpretations aren’t truly valid

How does psychoanalysis suggest “we experience and navigate the world psychologically?”

How we respond to current situations is merely a reflection of infantile emotional life

Trait psychology

focuses on the surface manifestations of personality, measured through self-reports

Characteristics of trait psychology

defines personality as constellations of behavioral tendencies that is largely on the surface; assessed through self-report questionaries; evaluated through statistical research; originates from a substantial genetic contribution (and unknown environmental influences)

Characteristics of psychoanalysis

defines personality as our desires, needs, defenses, and internalized standards that is located in the “Unconsciousness”; assessed through free association analysis; evaluated clinical experience, therapeutic effect; originates in early childhood experience (and some genetic contribution)

Five Factor Model aka Big 5

the traits of the five-factor personality model: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism

Openness to experience

imaginative………….down-to-earth variety…………………routine independent……….conforming

Conscientiousness

organized …………..disorganized careful…………………careless

self-disciplined…….weak-willed

Extraversion

social…………………..retiring

fun loving ……………sober

affectionate…………reserved

Agreeableness

softhearted………….ruthless

trusting ……………… suspicious helpful………………… uncooperative

Neuroticism

worried ………………calm

insecure………………secure

self-pitying …………self-satisfied

Why the big 5 traits?

Language prominence (lexicon hypothesis); Inventory hypothesis;

lexicon hypothesis

belief, subject to verification using evidence, that the most important human individual differences will be encoded in language

Inventory hypothesis

found similar clusters from personality research form manual that evidently displayed 5 clusters

Reasons to be skeptical of self-report accuracy?

people change answers based on what they think is socially acceptable, may not understand question

Evidence on measurement of traits

Reliability (repeated applications result in consistent scores), validity (specific inferences are appropriate, meaningful, useful)

Correlation

a relationship between variables in which variations in the value of one variable are synchronized with variations in the value of the other (between -1 and 1)

Thin Slices Research Paradigm

Participants took a personality test, recorded video reading weather forecast, other participants saw the video and were able to guess and judge personality types.

Found that observers usually agreed with one another and were accurate in their judgements

Social psychology

The study of the causes and consequences of sociality

First claim of strong social psychological claims

Most human behavior is social in some fashion - it is influenced by the anticipated or actual judgements and behaviors of others

Social Influence Marketing

We are more likely to do what other people do.

In study, the most effective way to get guests to reuse towels was when researchers informed them that most other guests reused towels.

Norm-based social influence (marketing)

we compare ourselves to others, but we don’t want to stand out, so we conform to the behaviors to others -

In a study based around energy consumption, experimenters gave participants forms describing each participant’s energy consumption in comparison to their neighbors; resulted in decreased energy consumption out of shame and desire to follow social norms

Second claim of strong social psychological claims

Human behavior emerges from the immediate situation - in our everyday life, we will have lots of influences, but what impacts us is what is immediately around us

Milgram obedience study

participants in this experiment reported to a laboratory at Yale University where they met a man who was introduced as another participant but who was actually a trained actor. An experimenter in a lab coat (the authority) explained that the participant would play the role of teacher and the actor wouldplay the role of learner. The teacher and the learner would sit in different rooms, the teacher would read words to the learner over an intercom (the 1960s version of a cell phone on speaker), and the learner would then repeat the words back to the teacher. If the learner made a mistake, the teacher would press a button on a machine that would deliver an electric shock to the learner. Its switches appeared to allow teachers to deliver 30 different levels of shock, ranging from 15 volts (labeled slight shock) to 450 volts (labeled Danger: severe shock). Participants were naturally upset by all this and typically asked the experimenter to stop, but the experimenter simply replied, “You have no choice. You must go on.” The experimenter never threatened the participant with punishment of any kind. Rather, they just stood there with a clipboard in hand, looking very authoritative, and calmly instructed the participant to continue. A stunning 80% of participants continued to shock the learner even after they screamed, complained, pleaded, and then fell silent — and an even more stunning 62% of participants went all the way, delivering the highest possible voltage.

When there was no verbal feedback from learner: 100% of teachers continued to max voltage.

When 2 confederates quit: only 10% continued

When responsibility shifted away from participant: 93% continued

When participants were given free choice over volts given: 2.5%

When there were contradicting experimenters: 0% continued

Field study of nurses

set-up: nurses were called by doctors (actors) against protocol and told to administered a restricted drug with the wrong dosage that would have severely impaired or even kill their patients

results: 96% of nurses continued doctor orders

Fundamental Attribution Error

the tendency to make a dispositional attribution when we should instead make a situational attribution

EX: “teachers” part of Milgram study aren’t actually psychos, they just didn’t know how to exist from situation and/or other reasons

Replications of Milgram study

set-up: Santa Clara University, reduced maximum voltage because once 80% passed 150, they would go to 450

results: 67% of men and 73% of women went past 150 volts

Possible explanations of Milgram obedience study by Neil

Influence in the immediate situation -

informational social influence (participants are confused about what they should do in the situation so they look towards the reactions of experimenters); instrumental social influence: the lack of easy, acceptable exits (participants are constrained to the room with just the experimenter)

Social Influence

the ability to change or direct another person’s behavior

Social informational influence

How individuals’ interpretation of the situation depends on the behaviors - When unsure, look to the behavior of others

Instrumental social-situational influence

How behavior is constrained by the ease or difficulty of acting a particular way

EX: Milgram study - behavior constrained to continue or to end the study

Norm of reciprocity

the unwritten rule that people should benefit those who have benefited them

Study: when researchers randomly selected the names of strangers from a data base and sent them holiday cards, they received holiday cards back from most of them

normative influence

another person’s behavior provides information about what is appropriate

Asch study

set-up: participants sit in a room with seven other people who appeared to be ordinary participants but who were actually trained actors. An experimenter explained that the participants would be shown cards with three printed lines, and their job was simply to say which of the three lines matched a “standard line” that was printed on another card. The experimenter held up a card and then asked each person to answer in turn. The real participant was among the last to be called on. Everything went well on the first two trials, but then on the third trial, something weird happened: The actors all began giving the same wrong answers!

results: Although most participants continued to give the right answer on most trials, 75% of them conformed and gave the patently wrong answer on at least one trial because they succumbed to normative influence (doing the “right thing”)

Why: the task transformed from a manual task to a socio-emotional task as they could potentially disrupt group functioning, stand out as different, elicit dislike (and cause ostracization)

Ostracism

being purposely left-out

Helping Behavior Research

set up: participant is in lab room without experimenter and given a questionnaire; then, smoke enters the room; question: would participants stop the questionnaire and tell or warn the experimenter?

results: Control (Alone) Condition: 78%

Two Passive Others: 10% (possibly because bystander effect / diffusion of responsibility effect and Informational Social Influence (participant doesn’t perceive smoke as a threat))

Helping Bystander Study

Set up: participants told to give a talk with different scenarios (deeply religious, thinking of parable of good Samaritan, or in a hurry) when they see an actor on the ground, seemingly needing help

Results: High Religiosity: 40%

Low Religiosity: 40%

Job Sermon: 29%

Samaritan Sermon: 53%

Hurry: 10%

No Hurry: 63%

Good mood in Helping Study

Set up: Participants are called by someone who just used their last quarter but still needs to call their brother to pick them up, actor asked participant to call brother for them; some participants are given stationary beforehand, some aren’t

results: Control (Neutral) Mood Help: 12%

Good Mood: 83%

ball-tossing paradigm through Cyberball

person is playing ball on the computer with 2 other “people” (actually just AI) and is eventually left out from the game

results: to 3 min of rejection produces strong feelings of sadness and anger

Theory of Reasoned Action

actions follow intentions, which are determined by attitudes and perceived social norms (if we think that the people around us are going to react one way, we are much more likely to act that way as well)

Why do we have friends?

social validation, common interests, company (reassurance, distraction), strategic advantage, and survival

Attraction to Others

we are attracted to socially desirable others (even if they seem outside our reach), similar others (more likely to get together with people who are like us both physically and ideologically), proximate others (those we see more often because they are close to us distance wise), those we experience arousal with (trauma bonding counts! because it’s easy to confuse physiological arousal with romantic attraction)

Why relationships end?

low relationship satisfaction, high quality of alternatives, low investments, unequal involvement, and calendar months

Behaviorism

an approach to psychology that restricts scientific inquiry to observable behavior

Watson’s approach to behaviorism

understand behavior, recognize naturalistic continuity (what applies to animals can apply to humans), study the external events preluding behavior

Classical conditioning

a type of learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus produces a response after being paired with a stimulus that naturally produces a response

Pavlov’s basics of classical conditioning

US → UR; CS/US → UR; CS → CR

Pavlov’s classical conditioning study

set-up: sounded a tone every time he fed his dogs → after few days, sounded tone without feeding dogs → dogs salivated

results: realized CS causes CR

Principle of Equipotentiality

the belief that every stimulus has the potential to be a conditioned stimulus (wrong tho…)

Elaborations of classical conditioning

extinctions, generalization, higher order conditioning, contingency

Extinction

The gradual elimination of a learned response that occurs when the CS is repeatedly presented without the US

Generalization

The CR is observed even though the CS is slightly different from the CS used during acquisition

Higher Order Conditioning

a type of learning in which a CS is paired with a stimulus that became associated with the US in an earlier procedure

Contingency

In the presence of a discriminative stimulus (classmates drinking coffee together in Starbucks), a response (joking comments about a psychology professor’s increasing waistline and receding hairline) produces a reinforcer (laughter among classmates). The same response in a different context — say, the professor’s office — would most likely produce a very different outcome

Watson’s conditioning of Baby Albert

scaring baby Albert while he held the white rat, so he was emotionally conditioned to be scared of anything white and fluffy through generalization

Krasnogorskii’s conditioning of salivation

same as Pavlov’s study with salivation but with humans an a trumpet

Taste Aversion (Scapegoat) Therapy for Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy

Patients would eat a weird food (CS) before their chemo session (US) and would then throw up (UR and CR), so that they don’t associate bad feelings with their favorite foods and would continue to eat normally (and not grow weaker)

Thorndike’s Puzzle Box

operant conditioning-

cat in box (unhappy), could open the box by pulling cord, bowl of milk outside door → cat eventually just learned how to open the door to get out of box

Law of Effect

When a modifiable stimulus-response connection is followed by a satisfying state of affairs, it will increase in strength

Reinforcement

Law of Effect but behaviorist-friendly;

A stimulus that increases the probability that a similar response will occur in the future

Basic Concepts of Instrumental Conditioning

Stimulus discrimination, reinforcement, shaping via successive approximations, schedules of reinforcement

Stimulus discrimination

not every stimulus is going to give you the same response

Skinner’s claims about Effective Behavior Control

response not exhortation, use positive reinforcement, avoid punishment, reward immediately

Observational learning

process in which an organism learns by watching the actions of others

Bandura’s experiment

set-up: researchers escorted individual preschoolers into play area that had number of desirable toys 4-year-iolds typically like. Adult model led into opposite corner of room where Bobo doll was at; model played quietly for a bit but then started aggressively playing with doll and yelling

Results: children who saw the model were more than twice as likely to interact with doll in aggressive manner as a group of children who didn’t see model

Shaping via Successive Approximations

when any approximate action to wanted behavior is reinforced (think Shamu reading)

Schedules of reinforcement

Every number of times an action is performed, the behavior is rewarded

Why do people not feel responsible even when they are?

There are questions of technical responsibility that can override moral responsibility, our intent can help us disregard the actions we undertake in order to reach our goal, we feel as though our discomfort is not at the same value as our obligation and duty to others or superiors, feel trapped in the situation, and there may be a disconnect from who or what we were responsible over.

Questions of technical responsibility

the question of who is accountable for which part of a larger plan, arises within an institution and is decide by that institution