Psyc 1101 Final

Emotions

Emotions

consist of patterns of physiological responses and species-typical behaviors/responses of the whole organism, involving physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and, most importantly, conscious experience resulting from one's interpretations

3 components of emotion

behavioral, autonomic, hormonal

Behavioral

muscular movements that are appropriate to the situation that elicits them

Autonomic

facilitate the behaviors and provide quick mobilization of energy for vigorous movement

Hormonal

Hormonal responses reinforce the autonomic responses

How to measure emotion

self report, behavioral observayion, physiological measures

facial expression

Most important and observed nonverbal communication/ facial expressions can be suppressed but micro expressions are revealing

emotional component

bodily, arousal, expressive behaviors, conscious experiences

autonomic nervous system (ANS)

sympathetic/parasympathetic

sympathetic

arousing, increases bodily functions

Parasympathetic

calming, rest and digest

How does arousal affect performance?

Performance peaks at lower levels of arousal for difficult tasks, and at higher levels for easy or well-learned tasks

James-Lange

emotion occurs when we become aware of our body's response to emotion-inducing stimuli (we observe our heart pounding and feel fear)

Cannon-Bard Theory

physiological response to an emotion-inducing stimulus occurs at the same time as our subjective feeling of the emotion (one does not cause the other)

Schachter-Singer Theory

Our experience of emotion depends on two factors: general arousal and a conscious cognitive label.

Zajonc; LeDoux Theory

Some embodied responses happen instantly, without conscious appraisal.

Lazarus Theory

Cognitive appraisal ("Is it dangerous or not?")—sometimes without ourawareness—defines emotion

basic emotions

Happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, shame, anger, contempt, surprise

social psychology

study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another

components of social psychology

social thinking, social influence, social relations

correlation between attitudes and behaviors

Attitudes play little or no role in guiding behavior (Wicker, 1969). Attitudes are just verbal habits that only influence what people say.

Power of Individuals

The power of social influence is enormous, but so is the power of the individual.

Attrubution theory

we have a tendency to give causal explanations for someoneʼs behavior•by crediting either the situation or the personʼs disposition

dispositional/personal attributions

Internal or dispositional attributions are based on an individual's perceived stable characteristics - attitudes, personality traits, or abilities

situational attribution

explanations based on the current situation and events

Fundamental Attribution Error

Tendency to overestimate the impact of personal disposition and underestimate the impact of situations in analyzing others' behavior

The actor-observer effect

We make situational attributions for our own behaviors and dispositional ones for the behavior of others

self-serving biases

attributions that we adopt to maximize credit for success and minimize blame for failure

Self-handicapping strategies

intentionally put themselves at a disadvantage to provide an excuse for failure

attitude

belief and feeling that predisposes a person to respond in a particular way to objects, other people, and events

When do attitudes predict behavior?

When outside influences are minimal, attitude is specific to the behavior, we are made aware of our attitude

Foot-in-theDoor phenomenon

the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request

cognitive dissonance

-an individual holds contradictory attitudes on an issue

- has exhibited behavior that is inconsistent with an expressed attitude

How does behavior affect attitude in wartime?

When evil behavior occurs we tend to justify it as right

How does behavior affect attitude in peacetime?

Moral action affects moral thinking

Stanford Prison Experiment

Philip Zimbardo's study of the effect of roles on behavior. Participants were randomly assigned to play either prisoners or guards in a mock prison. The study was ended early because of the "guards'" role-induced cruelty.

Conformity

Adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.

normative social influence

Influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval

informational social influence

Influence resulting from one's willingness to accept others' opinions about reality

suggestibility

adjusting our behavior or thinking toward some group standard

Asch Study

subjects conformed to group opinion about 1/3 of the time

Conditions that strengthen conformity

1. One is made to feel incompetent or insecure

2. The group has at least 3 people

3. The group is unanimous

4. One admires the group's status and attractiveness

5. One has no prior commitment to a response

6. The group observes one's behavior

7. One's culture strongly encourages respect for a social standard

Obedience

-People comply to social pressures

-How would they respond to outright command

Milgram Experiment

obedience; electrical shocks to incorrect answers; learners were paid actors;80% continued giving shocks after the learner screamed

Why did people continue Milgram Experiment?

•Afraid experimenter would be disappointed/hurt

•Situation was ambiguous & experimenter seemed like a legitumate source to listen to

•Self-justification

Milgram's Conclusion

The most fundamental lesson of our study is that ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process.

What Is a Group?

•2 or more people

•interact with and influence one another

•perceive one another as "us"

social facilitation

stronger responses on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others/worse performances on un-mastered tasks or complex tasks

social loafing

The tendency of an individual in a group to exert less effort toward attaining a common goal than when tested individually

Deindividuation

•the process of losing one's sense of personal identity, which makes it easier to behave in ways inconsistent with one's normal values

•loss of self-awareness

When is deindividuation most likely to occur?

1. Physical anonymity

2. Group size

3. Arousing and distracting activities

group polarization

•Group discussions with like-minded others strengthen members' prevailing beliefs and attitudes

Groupthink

•People are driven by a desire for harmony within a decision-making group, with this desire overriding realistic appraisal of alternatives

•Individual power

The power of the individual and the power of the situation interact

stereotype

A generalized belief about a group of people

stereotype threat

when facing a negative stereotype, the fear that you will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype creates anxiety and lessens performance

prejudice

unjustifiable (usually negative) attitude toward a group (its members)/supported by stereotypes/Works at both conscious and (more) unconscious level

Why does prejudice arise?

•social inequalities

•social divisions

•emotional scapegoating

ingroup

people with whom one shares a common identity

outgroup

perceived as different from one's ingroup

Ingroup bias

tendency to favor one's own group

interpersonal attraction

liking or having the desire for a relationship with another person

factors of interpersonal attraction

-Physical attractiveness

-Proximity: physical or geographical nearness

-Similarity (or complementary)

-Reciprocity of liking: tendency of people to like other people who like them in return

mere exposure effect

repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases their attraction

aggression

Any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy

indirect aggression

Attempt to hurt another without obvious face to face contact

direct aggression

Intended to hurt someone in their face

emotional

Hurtful behavior stemming from anger

Instrumental Aggression

Hurting another to accomplish another non aggressive goal

biological influences on aggression

•genetic (twin studies, Y chromosome)

•neural (limbic system-amygdala)

•biochemical (testosterone)

Psychological factors

•dealing with aversive events

•learning aggression is rewarding

•observing models of aggression

•acquiring social scripts

altruism

prosocial behavior that is done with no expectation of reward and may involve the risk of harm to oneself

Reciprocal Altruism

to help others with the understanding that they should in turn help us

bystander effect

the effect that the presence of other people has on the decision to help or not help

diffusion of responsibility

a person fails to take responsibility for action or for inaction because of the presence of other people who are seen to share the responsibility

How can you help increase helping?

Reduce ambiguity/Cry for help/Appoint someone

Kitty Genovese

woman whose murder in front of witnesses led to research on bystander effect

Personality

individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.

Perspectives on Personality

psychodynamic, humanistic, trait, social-cognitive

Freud's theory of personality

Psychodynamic theories of personality view behavior as a dynamic interaction between the conscious and unconscious mind

id

a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. The id operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification.

Superego

part of the personality that acts as a moral center

ego

the largely conscious, "executive" part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality

conscious (ego)

• Awareness

• Rational

• Goal-directed thoughts

Unconcious (Id)

• Reservoir of unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings and memories

• Ugly contents of unconscious are kept hidden by repression

psychosexual stages

the childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which, according to Freud, the id's pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones

Oedipus complex

according to Freud, a boy's sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father

Electra complex

Conflict during phallic stage in which girls supposedly love their fathers romantically and want to eliminate their mothers as rivals

Repression

banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness, "motivated forgetting"

Regression

retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, "juvenile behavior"

reaction formation

converts thoughts or feelings into opposite ones

Denial

refuses to acknowledge a problem

Projection

disguises own threatening impulses by attributing them to others

Rationalization

offers self-justifying explanations instead of real, more threatening unconscious reasons for actions, "making excuses"

Displacement

diverts sexual/ aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening one, "safer outlet"

Sublimation

channels sexual/aggressive energies into socially acceptable behaviors

free association (psychoanalysis)

-leads to painful, embarrassing memories

- once release or reach "catharsis" the patient feels better

dream analysis

interpreting manifest and latent contents of dreams

Alfred Adler

Neo-Freudian; introduced concept of "inferiority complex"

Karen Horney

Neo-Freudian; offered feminist critique of Freud's theory