psy 301 vocab & readings

What did the Monopoly study show about wealth and compassion/entitlement?

As feelings of wealth rose, compassion and empathy went DOWN while entitlement, deservingness, and an ideology of self-interest went UP.

What happened to the 'rich' Monopoly players over ~15 minutes?

They became more dominant and entitled: acted rude, talked about how well they were doing, ate more of the snack (pretzels), and credited their own skill instead of the coin flip/rigging.

Why is the Monopoly study a good demonstration of causation (not just correlation)?

Players were RANDOMLY assigned to be rich or poor, so the advantage was unearned. Behavior changes can be attributed to feeling wealthy, not to pre-existing personality differences.

Self-serving attribution of success (as in Piff's talk)

Crediting our own talent/effort for good outcomes while overlooking luck and advantages. Rich Monopoly players explained their wins as skill even though the game was rigged.

Piff's car study: what did he find?

The more expensive the car, the more likely the driver was to break traffic laws (cut off other drivers, fail to yield to pedestrians at a crosswalk).

Piff's candy-jar study: what did he find?

Upper-class participants took more candy from a jar they were told was meant for children (a measure of taking what isn't theirs).

Piff's cheating study (game for a $50 prize): what did he find?

Wealthier participants were more likely to cheat to win credits toward the cash prize.

What broader pattern does Piff describe about wealth and behavior?

The wealthier you are, the more you tend to pursue personal success/achievement at others' expense. Lower-income people tend to be more generous, helpful, and community-oriented.

What is the 'good news' in Piff's talk?

Small psychological nudges (e.g., a short video on child poverty, reminders of cooperation or gratitude) can restore empathy and egalitarian behavior, even in wealthy participants.

According to Gary Evans, why is childhood poverty harmful?

Mainly through CHRONIC STRESS: an accumulation of physical and psychosocial stressors that overwhelms the stress-response systems.

Name Evans' two categories of poverty stressors with examples.

Physical: housing problems, noise, crowding, pollution. Psychosocial: crime, family turmoil, residential instability (frequent moves).

How does chronic stress from poverty affect the brain (Evans)?

Brain regions for EXECUTIVE CONTROL change (less efficient regulation of cognition/emotion), while the AMYGDALA becomes over-developed/over-activated (quick stress responses).

What 'bad mix' results from poverty-related brain changes?

Heightened emotional reactivity combined with weaker control and regulation.

Executive control

Brain functions that coordinate and organize thinking and behavior (planning, regulating attention/emotion). Sensitive to chronic stress.

Evans' study of 24-year-olds: what was linked to family income at age 9?

Childhood poverty was linked to adult deficits in memory, greater psychological and physiological distress, and higher aggression.

What did Evans find about persistence and helplessness?

Children and adults from disadvantaged backgrounds show less persistence on tasks and give up more when challenged, fitting a model of low mastery/self-efficacy.

Self-efficacy / sense of mastery

Belief that your actions can control outcomes. Evans argues high-stress environments undermine it, promoting helplessness.

What policy approach does Evans favor?

Raise family income in a predictable, reliable way AND provide accessible, affordable services. Multiple interventions are needed because poverty is a convergence of risk factors.

Emotions vs. moods vs. traits ('feelings')

Emotions: changes in experience, physiology, and behavior in response to a meaningful event, lasting seconds. Moods may last days. Traits are tendencies across situations. 'Feelings' is the umbrella term.

Affect

Feelings described by two dimensions: valence (pleasant-unpleasant) and arousal (high-low). 'Actual affect' = what people feel; 'ideal affect' = what they want to feel.

High arousal positive (HAP) vs. low arousal positive (LAP) states

HAP: excitement, elation, enthusiasm. LAP: calm, peacefulness, relaxation.

Universalism

View that basic emotions are the same across cultures because they evolved as responses to our ancestors' environments (hard-wired, 'automatic').

Social constructivism

View that emotions are shaped by culture because groups adapted to different environments; emotions can feel natural yet be culturally shaped. Lutz: Ifaluk see emotions as exchanges BETWEEN people.

Display rules

Cultural rules about which emotions are appropriate to show in a given situation. Example: tongue-biting signals embarrassment in India but not in the U.S.

Where do people from the U.S. vs. Japan focus when reading emotion?

U.S.: the mouth. Japan: the eyes.

Individualism vs. collectivism (Hofstede)

Individualism vs. collectivism (Hofstede)

Individualism (e.g., North America): personal needs over group needs. Collectivism (e.g., East Asia): group needs over personal needs.

Independent self

Self as distinct from others and stable across situations. Goal: express and assert the self and INFLUENCE others. Common in the U.S., Australia, Western Europe.

Interdependent self

Self as connected to others and responsive to situations. Goal: suppress personal desires and ADJUST to others. Common in China, Japan, Korea.

Cousins (1989) Twenty Statements Test

Complete 'I am ___' twenty times. U.S. students listed psychological traits (friendly, cheerful); Japanese students listed social roles (daughter, student).

Tsai et al. (2002) European American vs. Hmong American emotional recall

Physiological arousal and reported feelings were similar, but European Americans smiled more often and more intensely. Physiology is similar across cultures; facial expression differs.

Soto et al. (2011): emotional suppression across cultures

Suppression is linked to more depression and lower life satisfaction in European Americans, but NOT in Hong Kong Chinese, for whom suppression is a normal part of fitting in.

Depression and emotional responses: European American vs. East Asian American

Depressed European Americans show muted emotional responses, but depressed East Asian Americans show similar or even increased emotion, so muted emotion is a depression marker mainly in European American contexts.

Hydraulic model of emotion

Freud-linked idea that suppressing/repressing emotion builds pressure and harms functioning. Supported in North American contexts, not universally.

Culture and mixed emotions during positive events

East Asians are more likely than North Americans to feel bad AND good during positive events (e.g., worry after winning), tied to dialectical thinking and valuing balance.

Dialectical thinking

Tolerance of contradiction and change; accepting that positive and negative feelings can coexist. More common in East Asian contexts

How do ideal affect preferences differ by culture?

North American contexts favor high arousal positive states (excited, energetic). East Asian contexts favor low arousal positive states (calm, peaceful). Seen in children as young as 3-5, college students, and older adults.

Why do independent vs. interdependent selves value different arousal states?

Influencing others requires action, which involves high arousal. Adjusting to others requires suspending action and attending, which involves low arousal.

Real-life consequences of ideal affect

People choose activities matching ideal affect (skydiving vs. lounging at the beach), define well-being differently (excitement vs. calm), and depression links to lacking the culturally valued state (HAP for European Americans, LAP for Hong Kong Chinese).

Storybook study (Tsai et al., 2007)

Bestselling U.S. books show more excited content/smiles than Taiwanese ones. Preschoolers read exciting stories later preferred arousing toys (loud drum); calm stories led to preferring calm toys, in all cultural groups.

Affect Valuation Theory (Tsai)

Culture shapes IDEAL affect (how people want to feel) more than actual affect; temperament shapes ACTUAL affect (how they really feel) more than ideal affect.

What did Chim et al. suggest about increasing happiness?

Calm states are easier to elicit than excited ones, so valuing calm more could boost happiness in excitement-valuing cultures.

Emotion coherence

The degree to which emotional responses (experience, behavior, physiology) converge with one another.

General link between emotion and well-being

More frequent positive emotion and less frequent negative emotion go with higher well-being: life satisfaction, physical health, stress resilience, social connection, even longer life.

What three aspects of emotion experience change the emotion-well-being link?

(1) Intensity, (2) fluctuation over time, (3) context. Answer to 'which emotions should we feel?' is 'It depends!'

Inverted U-shape of positive emotion

More positive emotion helps well-being only up to a point; extremely high levels are linked to risky behavior (binge eating, drug use) and mania. Aristotle: moderation is key.

Can too little negative emotion be a problem? Examples.

Yes: blunted sadness characterizes major depressive disorder; too little fear is a hallmark of psychopathy; too little embarrassment can damage social ties. People who aim NOT to feel negative emotion have worse well-being.

How does emotional fluctuation relate to well-being?

Greater fluctuation (even of positive emotion) is linked to worse well-being, depression, borderline personality disorder, and neuroticism, even controlling for average emotion levels.

Instability vs. psychological flexibility

Stability (not rigidity) is best: strong fluctuations signal emotional instability, but flexibility (adapting emotions to changing situations) is linked to good well-being.

Three contexts that affect the emotion-well-being link

(1) The external environment/situation, (2) other emotional responses (coherence), (3) other emotions felt at the same time (mixed emotions).

Why does emotion coherence matter for well-being?

Emotions serve social communication; when behavior doesn't match experience, a person may seem inauthentic or confusing, reducing social connection. Suppression similarly harms relationships.

Anhedonia

Loss of interest or pleasure in activities one previously enjoyed. A core symptom of a major depressive episode.

Hypersomnia

Excessive daytime sleepiness or prolonged sleep episodes

Psychomotor agitation vs. psychomotor retardation

Agitation: restless increased motor activity (pacing, fidgeting). Retardation: slowing of physical activity (routine tasks done unusually slowly).

Attributional style

How a person tends to infer the cause or meaning of events. Pessimistic style = internal, global, stable attributions for negative events (a vulnerability for depression).

Social zeitgeber

'Time giver': environmental cues like meal times and social interaction that keep biological rhythms and sleep-wake cycles regular.

Major depressive episode (MDE) criteria (DSM-5)

At least 2 weeks; 5 or more of 9 symptoms, including depressed mood and/or anhedonia, most of the day nearly every day, causing distress/impairment, not due to a substance or medical condition.

The 9 MDE symptoms

Depressed mood; diminished interest/pleasure; weight/appetite change; insomnia or hypersomnia; psychomotor agitation or retardation; fatigue; worthlessness/excessive guilt; poor concentration/indecision; recurrent thoughts of death/suicidal ideation.

Manic episode criteria

Abnormally euphoric, expansive, or irritable mood PLUS increased energy/goal-directed activity for at least 1 WEEK, with significant impairment. Needs 3+ symptoms (4+ if mood is only irritable).

The 7 manic symptoms

Grandiosity; increased goal-directed activity/agitation; reduced need for sleep; racing thoughts/flight of ideas; distractibility; talkativeness; excessive risky behavior.

Mania vs. hypomania

Hypomania lasts at least 4 days, is not necessarily impairing; mania lasts at least 1 week (or hospitalization) with significant impairment.

Major depressive disorder (MDD)

One or more major depressive episodes with NO history of manic or hypomanic episodes (unipolar).

Persistent depressive disorder (PDD/dysthymia)

Depressed most of the day, more days than not, for at least 2 YEARS, with 2+ other symptoms (appetite change, sleep problems, low energy, low self-esteem, poor concentration, hopelessness); never symptom-free over 2 months.

Bipolar I vs. Bipolar II vs. cyclothymic disorder

BD I: at least one manic episode (depression common but not required). BD II: hypomanic + depressive episodes. Cyclothymic: alternating hypomanic and mild depressive periods for at least 2 years (depression below full MDE).

DSM-5 specifiers: psychotic features, seasonal pattern, peripartum onset

Psychotic: delusions/hallucinations. Seasonal: same time of year for 2 consecutive years (often fall/winter). Peripartum: onset during pregnancy or within 4 weeks of birth (3-6% of mothers) vs. 'baby blues' (transient, most women, within ~10 days).

Gender and SES differences in MDD

Women have 2-3 times the MDD rate of men; the gap emerges at puberty (before puberty boys are similar or higher). Higher MDD prevalence goes with LOWER SES.

Ethnicity differences in mood disorders

European Americans have higher MDD prevalence than African and Hispanic Americans, but MDD is often more severe/less treated in African Americans. African Americans are often underdiagnosed for BD and overdiagnosed for schizophrenia.

Genetics of MDD (twin studies)

Familial influence is mostly genetic; individual-specific environment (e.g., romantic relationships) matters; SHARED sibling environment is negligible. No single gene; many variants plus environment.

Stressful life events and MDD

Severe events involving loss (divorce, unemployment) strongly predict depression, especially the FIRST episode; minor events matter more for later episodes.

Bipolar disorder: biological and psychosocial risk

Highly heritable; emotional-processing brain regions work differently. Severe stressors raise relapse; positive goal-attainment events can trigger mania (reward hypersensitivity).

Social zeitgeber theory

Stressors that disrupt sleep or daily routines (e.g., overnight travel) can trigger episodes in people with BD, due to circadian vulnerability.

Antidepressant classes and key drawbacks

MAOIs (dangerous blood pressure with tyramine foods: aged cheese, wine, soy sauce); tricyclics (cardiotoxic); SSRIs (most prescribed) and SNRIs (fewer serious effects but sexual, GI, and sleep side effects).

ECT, TMS, deep brain stimulation

ECT: seizure under anesthesia for severe/resistant depression (memory loss side effect). TMS: noninvasive magnetic pulses, fewer side effects. DBS: implanted brain electrode, still being researched.

Psychosocial treatments for MDD

Behavior therapy (pleasant/mastery activities), cognitive therapy (change distorted automatic thoughts), CBT, interpersonal therapy (grief, role disputes, transitions, deficits), and short-term psychodynamic therapy.

Why is lithium first-line for bipolar instead of SSRIs?

SSRIs/SNRIs can induce mania or hypomania in people with BD. Lithium is strongly effective but has side effects (cognitive, nausea, tremor, weight gain). Anticonvulsants are also used.

Interpersonal and social rhythm therapy (IPSRT)

Adjunct therapy for BD that stabilizes daily routines and sleep, based on social zeitgeber theory; reduces recurrence risk.

Anxiety

A negative mood state with bodily symptoms (rapid heart rate, muscle tension), unease, and apprehension about the future. Normally useful; a disorder when it significantly interferes with life.

Triple vulnerabilities model

Disorders arise from biological + psychological + specific vulnerabilities plus triggering life stress; none causes a disorder alone.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD): key criteria

Excessive, hard-to-control worry about many things, more days than not for at least 6 MONTHS, with tension, fatigue, restlessness, irritability, sleep and concentration problems. Lifetime prevalence 5.7%.

Panic disorder (PD): key criteria

Unexpected panic attacks PLUS at least 1 MONTH of persistent worry/avoidance about them. Lifetime prevalence (PD or agoraphobia) 4.7%.

Why do panic attacks become a vicious cycle?

People interpret normal bodily sensations catastrophically (heart attack, going crazy), which triggers more anxiety and more sensations; the natural alarm becomes a learned false alarm.

Interoceptive avoidance; internal bodily (somatic) cues

Avoiding activities that create sensations like those of panic (e.g., exercise or caffeine for racing heart). The sensations are internal cues.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD): key features

Fear/avoidance of social situations from fear of negative evaluation, impairing daily life; more than exaggerated shyness. 'Performance only' type if limited to performance situations. Lifetime ~12.1%.

Causes of social anxiety (learned vulnerability)

Harsh criticism or punishment, or social trauma such as bullying (92% of adults with social phobia reported severe teasing/bullying in childhood vs. 35-50% in other anxiety disorders), or a panic attack conditioned to social situations.

Conditioned response

A learned reaction (classical conditioning) in which a neutral stimulus comes to elicit the response on its own; e.g., a panic attack becoming associated with social situations.

PTSD: criteria and symptoms

Exposure to actual/threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence (directly, witnessing, learning of it, or repeated exposure) followed by re-experiencing (intrusive memories, nightmares, flashbacks), avoidance, numbing, foreshortened future, hypervigilance, startle, anger. Lifetime 6.8%.

DSM-5 reclassification

PTSD moved to Trauma- and Stressor-Related Disorders and OCD moved to Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders (both were formerly anxiety disorders).

OCD: criteria

Obsessions (intrusive irrational thoughts: doubt, contamination, aggression) and/or compulsions (repetitive washing, checking, ordering) taking at least 1 HOUR per day or causing significant distress/impairment. Lifetime 1.6%.

Medication vs. CBT for anxiety disorders

Meds (antidepressants, anti-anxiety drugs) help but relapse is high after stopping, and benzodiazepines can be habit forming. Exposure-based CBT often has larger, more durable effects. About 50-80% show good initial response to either.

Exposure-based CBT: how it works

Patients learn to identify and change problematic appraisals and behaviors and gradually approach feared situations (exposure) to learn new, less fearful associations.

Emerging anxiety treatments

Drugs that enhance learning during CBT (d-cycloserine) and transdiagnostic treatments targeting shared core vulnerabilities.

Selective attention

The ability to select certain stimuli to process while ignoring distracting information.

Divided attention

The ability to flexibly allocate attentional resources between two or more concurrent tasks.

Limited capacity

The idea that humans have limited mental resources available at any one time, so we can only attend to a small amount of information.

Sustained attention (vigilance) and spatial attention

Sustained attention: staying alert over time to rare events (radar operators in WWII, TSA screeners). Spatial attention: focusing on one part of the environment and shifting to others.

Dichotic listening

A task in which two different messages are played, one to each ear.

Broadbent's Filter Model (1958)

EARLY selection: a filter chooses information based on physical features (ear, pitch); unattended information gets no further processing for meaning.

Treisman's Attenuation Model

Selection begins at the physical level but unattended information is only WEAKENED (attenuated), so highly meaningful input (your name) can still get through. Evidence: people followed a story that switched ears.

Deutsch & Deutsch late selection model (1963)

Deutsch & Deutsch late selection model (1963)

ALL input is processed for meaning first; only information relevant to the response reaches conscious awareness. Consistent with subliminal perception.

Multimode model (Johnston & Heinz, 1978)

Multimode model (Johnston & Heinz, 1978)

Where selection occurs is flexible, depending on the task. Early selection (physical cues) is easy and automatic; late selection (meaning) takes more effort but offers flexibility.

Why did Broadbent's model need revision?

Why did Broadbent's model need revision?

It can't explain why you notice your own name in an ignored conversation, which shows unattended information is processed somewhat for meaning.