Psych. 101 Ch. 10, 11, 12, 13, & 14

Ch 10, 11, & 12 for now

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

worked in Vienna, and lots of his work reflected the culture and environment of those times – repression of women, etc.;

believed that the sexual drive (anything pleasurable) was the most important motivator for human behavior; ongoing struggle between unconscious drives and societal norms;

Psychoanalysis

talking to address such issues as hysteria (no known physical cause); idea that hysterical symptoms came from unconscious psychological conflicts; most of personality as part of the unconscious iceberg

Structures of Personality

Id, Ego, Superego

Id

unconscious drives; source of sexual energy; pleasure principle

Ego

portion of personality that deals with the demands of reality; how far can we push things? Partly conscious; acts as mediator between the id and superego

Superego

part of personality that monitors right and wrong; our conscience; judges the morality of our behavior;

Defense Mechanisms

tactics used by the ego to reduce anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality; unconscious; used in moderation, not necessarily unhealthy;

Denial

ego refuses to acknowledge anxiety-producing realities

Displacement

directing unacceptable impulses at a less threatening target (kicking the dog)

Sublimation

form of displacement where person expresses an unconscious wish in a socially valued way

Projection

see in others those things that we hate in ourselves

Reaction formation

person’s conscious experience is the opposite of their true unconscious desires; (strip clubs in the bible belt)

Repression

most powerful and pervasive; pushes unacceptable impulses into the unconscious mind; foundation for all other defense mechanisms;

Psychosexual Stages of Personality Development

i. Oral Stage (first 18 months)

ii. Anal Stage (18 – 36 months)

iii. Phallic Stage ( 3 to 6 years) – focus on the genitals

• Oedipal Complex – son’s desire to replace his father; castration anxiety; triggers identifying with father; for women it involved penis envy – notion of being 2nd class citizens in Vienna

iv. Latency Period – (6 years to puberty)

v. Genital Stage – (adolescence and adulthood) – time for sexual reawakening

Psychodynamic Critics and Revisionists

i. Sexuality is not the pervasive force behind personality

ii. First five years of life not that influential in shaping adult personality

iii. Ego and conscious processing more prevalent than Freud thought

iv. Socio-cultural factors play a role

Horney’s Sociocultural Approach

hypotheses v. facts; importance of security over sex

Jung’s Analytical Theory

unconscious is important; the collective unconscious – commonalities/influences for all of us obtained by our common ancestral past;

Archetypes

ideas that have symbolic meaning for all people; anima and animus – passive feminine side and assertive male side that we all have

i. The Shadow, Magician, Lover, Hero, Jester, etc.

ii. Darth Vader/Sauron, Dumbledore/Obi Wan, Titanic/Romeo & Juliet, Potter/Skywalker, Joker/Olaf

Adler’s Individual Psychology

people motivated by purposes and goals; believed in the importance of birth order

Evaluating the Psychodynamic Perspectives

a. Personality influenced by current experiences + early life

b. Unconscious motives do exist

c. Often there is conflict between inner thoughts and external world

d. Personality should be viewed as developing over time

Maslow’s Approach

a. Learn from the self-actualizers

i. Spontaneous and creative

ii. Biased towards whites with European ancestry

Roger’s Approach

a. Began as a psychotherapist; trying to understand unhappiness;

b. Born with the raw ingredients for a fulfilling life; need to be loved and accepted

c. Explaining Unhappiness – when need for positive regard from others is not met; seeking unconditional positive regard – regardless of our behavior;

i. Typically, only when we meet conditions of worth

d. Promoting Optimal Functioning – finding a relationship with unconditional positive regard, empathy, and genuineness

Evaluating the Humanistic Perspectives

consider the whole person and the positive nature of human nature

Trait Theories

dominant approach to personality for four decades; personality

consists of broad enduring dispositions or traits that lead to characteristic

responses; building blocks of personality (Lexical approach)

Lexical approach

look at the thousands of words that describe people and factor analyze them to identify core factors;

The Five-Factor Model of Personality

a. Openness to Experience – imaginative and interested in trying new things

b. Conscientiousness – reliable, hard-working, and dependable

c. Extraversion – social, active

d. Agreeableness – kind, nice, trusting

e. Neuroticism (aka emotional stability) – negative emotion more often than positive;

Evaluating the Trait Perspective

a. Lots of research support;

b. Provide for testable hypotheses

c. Can’t neglect the importance of the situation

Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory

behavior, environment, and person/cognitive factors all influence personality

Observational Learning

modeling others; observing others and learning;

Personal Control

Are you in control of the outcomes of behaviors?

i. Internal locus of control (have control)

ii. External locus of control (no control)

Self-Efficacy

belief that one has the competence to accomplish a goal or task; very important work-place variable

Mischel’s Contributions

the Marshmallow test, testing self control

Mischel’s Critique of Consistency

did not see the consistency across situations that others (e.g., Allport) discussed; behavior can change to fit the situation;

i. What matters more, the personality or the situation?

ii. Most likely a mix

iii. Determining when and how personality predicts behavior with the recognition that it won’t always

iv. More limited the trait, the more predictive it will be (more precise/stronger)

v. People vary in regards to their trait consistency

vi. Personality more influential in ‘weaker’ situations than ‘stronger’ ones (Behavior at a bar or family dinner v. during an interview)

CAPS Theory

i. Delay of gratification – putting off pleasurable experiences in the interest of some larger/later reward

ii. Cookie experiment

iii. Our thoughts and emotions about ourselves and the world affect our behavior and become linked in ways that matter to behavior

Evaluating the Social Cognitive Perspectives

a. Focus on interactions of individuals with their environment

b. Maybe too much focus on the situation and not enough on enduring personality?

c. Neglects the role that biology plays

d. Difficult to generalize

Theories Linking Personality and the Brain

idea goes back thousands of years – Hippocrates and four humours;

Eysenck’s Arousal Regulation Theory

explaining extraversion/introversion based on the reticular activation system

i. Idea that there is an optimal arousal level, and extraverts and introverts vary on it

ii. Extraverts being under the optimal arousal level, and introverts being above it; therefore need to engage in appropriate behaviors to adjust it.

iii. Seems to be more related to the basal ganglia than the RAS

Gray’s Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory

i. Influence of the Behavioral Activation System and the Behavior Inhibition System

ii. Explain differences to rewards and punishers

iii. BAS sensitive to rewards; BIS sensitive to punishments

The Brain and Neurotransmitters

i. Extraversion and the Neuroscience of Reward – more dopamine in the brain’s reward centers for extraverts;

ii. Neuroticism and Avoiding Punishment - low levels of serotonin associated with neuroticism

iii. Other Traits – Openness associated with higher levels of dopamine and serotonin; agreeableness with oxytocin and serotonin; and conscientiousness associated with brain volume in areas that control attention and impulses;

iv. The Brain and Traits – still operates in a social environment and causality is unclear

Personality and Behavioral Genetics

a. The study of the inherited underpinnings of behavior characteristics

b. Lots of the research comes from the twin studies at the University of Minnesota (another Big 10 school!)

c. Heritability estimates for the Big 5 are about 50%

d. Reminder that most traits are probably influenced by multiple genes

Evaluating the Biological Perspectives

a. Lots of potential and focus in this area as brain science gets more and more advanced

i. Is biology the cause or the effect of personality?

ii. Did brain pathways ‘cause’ the personality or did personality ‘cause’ the pathways?

Self-Report Tests

the most commonly used method for measuring personality; generally, which traits describe you;

Concerns with social desirability responding

what the researcher wants to see or others want to see; can add in lying detector type questions or use an empirically keyed test that is difficult to identify what the researcher wants in an answer

i. Research suggests: personality tests can be faked; people are generally honest in their replies; people you don’t even know that well can usually accurately assess your personality;

MMPI

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

i. Been around since the 1940’s;

ii. 335 items

iii. Probably used more by clinical psychologists than organizational psychologists;

Projective Tests

presents an ambiguous stimuli to people and they are asked to react to it;

The Rorschach Inkblot Test

10 cards with ambiguous stimuli on them;

i. Around since the 1920’s

ii. Black & white and color stimuli

iii. Has not shown great reliability or validity

iv. Definitely in the domain of clinical psychologists

The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

tell stories based on various photo stimuli;

i. Around since the 1930’s

ii. Assess people’s unconscious motivations

iii. Need for achievement, affiliation, and power are three of the areas it assesses

Features of Social Psychology

always important to remember the social nature of humans; more focus at the individual level, while sociology looks more at the group level

Social Psychology is Connected to Real Life

most of what is studied in social psychology stems from some real-life event

i. Concentration camps in WWII, massacres in Vietnam, people not calling in a violent crime, etc.

Social Psychological Research is Often Experimental

some of the most famous experiments in psychology are social psych experiments

The Bystander Effect

i. The Case of Kitty Genovese – New York City in 1964; murdered over a 30 minute span, with 38 neighbors watching the scene and not calling for help

ii. When alone, people will help about 75% of the time; when others are present, it drops to about 50%;

iii. Social cues, deindividuation

Person Perception

how people use information to form impressions of others;

a. First impressions happen almost immediately

b. Ratings of personality fairly accurate for only minor acquaintances

c. Cues from a variety of places – body language, emotional expressions, clothing, hairstyle, etc.

d. Physical Attractiveness – very powerful social cue;

Physical Attractiveness

i. More average faces evaluated as most attractive – blending; average + symmetrical + youthful

ii. Attractive people receive the benefit of the halo effect – better adjusted, socially skilled, friendly, likable, successful on the job, etc.

iii. The stereotype of attractiveness

iv. Self-fulfilling prophecy – social expectations that cause an individual to act in a way that the expectations are realized

v. Stereotype Threat – an individual’s fast-acting, self-fulfilling fear of being judged based on a negative stereotype about their group

Attribution

trying to determine the underlying causes of behavior

a. Internal & External Causes

b. Stable & Unstable Causes

c. Controllable & Uncontrollable Causes

d. Attributional Errors and Biases

e. Heuristics in Social Information Processing

Attributional Errors and Biases

i. Fundamental Attribution Error – when observers make attributions about behaviors, they tend to overestimate the importance of internal traits when explaining an actor’s behavior;

ii. Especially true in individualistic cultures

iii. Self-Serving Bias – take credit for one’s successes and deny responsibility for one’s failures – sounds like lots of politicians

Heuristics in Social Information Processing

stereotypes as a form of heuristic

i. Quick judgments; little information

ii. False consensus effect – overestimating how much we think others think or act like we do

The Self as a Social Object and Social Comparison

a. Self-esteem – positive/negative feelings we have towards ourselves

b. High self-esteem usually = positive illusions (favorable self views)

i. Can lead to some good things

c. Social comparison – similar others; social nature; equity theory

Attitudes

opinions/beliefs about others;

a. Attitudes and Behavior

b. Behavior and Attitudes

Attitudes and Behavior

not a perfect prediction; better when

i. The attitudes are strong

ii. When the person has a strong awareness of their attitudes; rehearses them

iii. When the person has a vested interest

Behavior and Attitudes

behaviors can also influence attitudes!

i. Cognitive Dissonance Theory – discomfort caused by two inconsistent thoughts

• Boring experiment for $1 or $20;

ii. Self-Perception Theory – inferences about attitudes by observing behavior

Techniques of Persuasion

Elaboration Likelihood Model – two pathways of persuasion; central route engages audience thoughtfully; the peripheral route involves more hidden factors such as attractiveness of the message provider;

i. Peripheral route more persuasive when people aren’t paying close attention – TV commercials!

Resisting Persuasion

i. Making messages self-relevant

ii. Inoculation – develop arguments to weak versions of the persuasion

Altruism

- giving to another with the goal of benefiting the other, even possibly at a cost to yourself;

a. Distinct from egoism, which is doing good to feel good about oneself or to avoid guilt

b. Organ donation examples – how many of you have the red donor and heart on your driver’s license?

c. Makes more sense from a family/relation point of view; difficult to explain otherwise

d. Prosocial behaviors and positive mood

e. Recent examples of prosocial behavior?

f. Biological Factors in Prosocial Behavior – 30% - 50% of differences in our performing kind acts

g. Psychological Factors in Prosocial Behavior

h. Sociocultural Factors in Prosocial Behavior

Psychological Factors in Prosocial Behavior

i. Empathy – feeling of oneness with the emotional state of another

ii. Personality – agreeableness most strongly associated with prosocial behaviors

iii. Mood – happy people are more likely to help others

Sociocultural Factors in Prosocial Behavior

i. Socioeconomic Status – people from poorer backgrounds tend to be more attuned to suffering from others; linkage to more prosocial behaviors less certain

ii. Gender – women more likely to have an impulse to engage in prosocial behaviors, but safety concerns can hold them back some (probably for good reason)

iii. Media – much like aggression, there is evidence that media portrayal of prosocial behaviors can increase its display

Aggression

idea to harm someone else – physically or verbally

a. Biological Influences in Aggression

i. Genes – estimate of 50%

ii. Neurobiological Factors – limbic system, neurotransmitters, and testosterone

Psychological Influences on Aggression

a. Personality – low levels of agreeableness; hostility and irritability

b. Frustrating and Aversive Circumstances

i. Frustration-Aggression hypothesis – also pain, crowding, unpleasant events, heat (weather)

c. Cognitive Determinants – things triggering aggressive thoughts;

i. Weapons effect

d. Observational Learning – social learning; Bobo doll

Sociocultural Influences on Aggression

a. The Culture of Honor – cultural norms about masculine pride and family honor; honor killings

i. Southerners more aggressive than Northerners?

b. Gender – males more with overt aggression; females more with relational aggression

c. Media – televised aggression likely to have a small impact

Attraction

a. Proximity, Acquaintance, and Similarity

i. More likely to be attracted to people you are physically close to – exposure effect

ii. Similarity – friends and romantic partners tend to be more similar to us than different;

b. Approaches to Attraction and Relationships

i. From an evolutionary perspective, men should be attracted to younger women

ii. Women should be attracted to males who will invest in her and her offspring

iii. Culture and gender roles have influence as well

c. the Halo Effect

Love – romantic love and affectionate love

a. Romantic / Passionate love as having components of sexuality and infatuation; prevalent in early stages of relationship

b. Affectionate / Companionate love – deep, caring affection for another person and a desire to be near to them

Social Exchange Theory

costs and benefits of a relationship

The Investment Model

how commitment, investment, and the availability of attractive alternatives predict satisfaction and stability

Conformity and Obedience

lots of research in reaction to what happened during WWII; can be positive or negative

Conformity

i. Asch’s Experiment – 1951 experiment – which line matches the standard line? Group gave incorrect answers on 12 of 18 trials; volunteers conformed to the incorrect answer 35% of the time;

• Informational social influence – influence due to our wanting to be right

• Normative social influence – influence due to our wanting others to like us

ii. Conformity and the Brain – evidence that the brain is ‘happier’ when we fit in; if our choice doesn’t match with others – brain tries to figure out how we are wrong

iii. Conformity and Culture – collectivistic cultures even more extreme on conformity

iv. Jonestown Massacre as an extreme example of conformity (drink the kool-aid)

Obedience

i. Milgram’s Experiment – Yale University; ‘experiment’ effects of punishment on memory;

ii. 30 switches coinciding to 30 progressively stronger electric shocks (15 to 450 volts)

iii. “You must go on. The experiment requires that you continue.”

iv. Roughly 65% of the subjects delivered all of the shocks

vi. Study replicated by Burger in 2009, and he got similar results (slightly weaker)

i. Novelty of the situation; normative information provided; opportunity to deny responsibility; limited time to think about the decision

Conformity and Obedience

lots of research in reaction to what happened during WWII; can be positive or negative

vii. Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment

i. 12 ‘prisoners’ and 12 ‘guards’ in a makeshift prison in a Stanford University building

ii. Two-week experiment was ended after six days

Deindividuation

when being part of a group reduces personal identity and erodes the sense of personal responsibility

i. Mob behavior

ii. Impact of masks/hoods

iii. Do social media and cellphones make deindividuation less likely?

Social Contagion

imitative behavior involving the spread of behavior, emotions, and ideas

i. Laughing more in a crowded theater

ii. Job satisfaction and engagement in work settings

Social Facilitation

idea that one’s performance improves due to the presence of others; presence of others is arousing

• Usually leads to at least a 1-minute performance improvement in my 5K times

• How long can you hang? How many pull-ups?

Social Loafing

tendency to slack off in group settings where individual effort cannot be determined

• Experiments with shouting; tug of war

• Ohio State Football Coach, Woody Hayes, and filming offensive linemen

Risky Shift and Group Polarization

idea that groups are more willing to accept riskier decisions; groups can also move you closer to your initial position – group polarization;

Groupthink

impaired decision making; right decision is less important than maintaining group harmony

• Irving Janis (1972)

• Explains lots of political and business decisions

• More likely with a directive leader, overestimating the power and morality of the group, close-mindedness, pressure for uniformity, urgency;

• Combat it with non-directive leader, appointing a devil’s advocate, slowing down, avoid isolation, outside experts, encourage participation from all, listen to all sides

Majority & Minority Influence

majority can influence through both informational influence and normative influence; minority can only ‘win’ via informational influence/pressure

Social Identity

how people define themselves in terms of their group memberships – UMD student, gender, religion, etc.;

a. Commonalities with others

b. Idea that social identity is a crucial part of self-image; valuable source of positive feelings; social identity theory

Ethnocentrism

tendency to favor one’s own group over others

Prejudice

negative attitude toward an individual based on the individual’s membership in a group

Systemic racism

systems, structures, and procedures in a society that disadvantage a racial group and privilege another

Group names

black, white, African-American, Caucasian, etc.

i. Expansion of what is considered Asian

ii. ‘African-American’ soccer players on the English team in a recent Euro Cup

iii. Self-labels on forms – Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, my kids

iv. ‘White’ names 50% more likely to be called for an interview than ‘Black’ names

v. Reminder of the Implicit Bias Tests at Harvard – p. 440

Factors in Prejudice

competition between groups; scarce resources; innate in- group bias; parental attitudes

Stereotypes and Prejudice

reminders to eyewitness testimony

Microaggressions

everyday subtle and potentially unintentional acts that communicate bias to members of marginalized groups;

i. Imagine people’s surprise when my adopted daughter didn’t love math and didn’t give a great piano recital!

Discrimination

negative or harmful actions towards a member of a group simply due to group membership; lots of applications in I/O psychology

Improving Intergroup Relations

a. Increasing the amount of contact between groups

b. Sherif’s Robbers Cave experiment

c. Breaking the Prejudice Habit

Three Criteria of Abnormal Behavior

Deviant, Maladaptive, & Personally Distressful

Deviant

atypical or statistically unusual; deviates from acceptable behavior

Maladaptive

disrupts a person’s ability to lead a satisfying life; interferes with the ability to function effectively in the world

Personally Distressful

the person finds the behavior troubling