PSCL 101 - Final Exam

Harlow, 1958

• infant love - mother (cloth vs wire w/ monkeys)

• preference for cloth mother - haven when scared/unsure

• mother-infant bond = security not feeding

Attachment

an enduring emotional bond with another person

• seek comfort/security when distressed/uncertain

• evolutionarily-based tendency for infants to bond with a primary caregiver

• ensures survival (broadly)

• John Bowlby, Mary Ainsworth

John Bowlby

role of attachment in early development

• infant attachment to a primary caregiver → evolutionarily adaptive

• attachment figure - secure base (ensures survival)

Mary Ainsworth

individual differences in attachment

• parenting behavior (sensitivity/responsiveness) predicts attachment security

• insecurity - tied to internal working models of self/others/relationships (IWMs)

• attachment styles reflect patterns of (in)security

IWM

internal working model

• mental models of close relationships and/or what to expect from relationship partners

Strange Situation - Ainsworth & Bell, 1970

7 segments - separations + reunions w/ child, primary caregiver, +- stranger

• observe child

  • secure-base behavior

  • reactions to parent leaving

  • reactions to stranger

  • reunion behavior *** weighed most

Secure

Caregiver

• consistently responsive

• consistently sensitive

• appropriate to child’s needs

IWM = positive, secure

Infant - Strange Situation

• parent = secure base

• upset during separation

• seeks contact, calms down (positive affect) during reunion

Insecure/Avoidant

Caregiver

• consistently unresponsive

• consistently insensitive/inappropriate to child’s needs

IWM = negative, avoidant

Infant - Strange Situation

• explores freely

• stranger & parent treated similarly

• unreactive during separation/reunion - “masking” possible

Insecure/ambivalent

Caregiver

• inconsistently responsive

• inconsistently sensitive/appropriate to child’s needs

IWM = negative, anxious

Infant - Strange Situation

• clingy

• upset during separation

• not easily soothed during reunion

• seek & resist parent contact

Attachment Styles

attachment security differs across infants and may influence social and emotional development

• secure

• insecure/avoidant

• insecure/ambivalent

• insecure/disorganized - not well defined

Parenting Styles

• conceptualized as varying along dimensions of warmth/responsiveness and control/demandingness

• contributes to social and emotional development

Features - Baumrind, 1967, 1971, Maccoby & Martin, 1983

• Warmth/Responsiveness

  • sensitivity, responsiveness, positivity, acceptance, involvement, patience

  • emotional connection

• Control/Demandingness

  • demands, rules, expectations, supervision, feedback

  • promotes maturity & alignment with social standards

Four Styles

1. Authoritarian

2. Authoritative

3. Disengaged

4. Permissive

Authoritarian Parenting Style

• low warmth, high control

• heavy control over child behavior

• desire for authority

• lower displays of positivity and affection

Authoritative

• high warmth, high control

• clear and reasonable expectations

• consistent feedback

• warmth and sensitivity to child’s needs

• most beneficial **** w/ sociocultural variations

Disengaged

• low warmth, low control

• low involvement in terms of supervision and responsiveness to child’s needs

• less studied

Permissive

• high warmth, low control

• high responsiveness to child

• weak/inconsistent enforcement of rules and expectations

Adolescence

• growth in autonomy and self-regulation

  • bigger role of peer relationships

  • risk-taking, sensation-seeking

  • growth in EF skills, moral reasoning, self-identity

Emerging Adulthood

Arnett, 2000; 2004

• “in between” period (18-25)

• delay in typical adult milestones (compared to older gens)

Young & Middle Adulthood

• less focus in developmental frameworks

Major Areas:

• Relationships (parenting/family)

• close/romantic relationships & adult attachment

Work-Life Balance

• spillover b/w work and personal life

• social clock

• embodying a “sandwich generation”

• feeling productive - Erikson, 1963

Older Adulthood

• interest in gerontology + aging research

• socioemotional selectivity theory

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

Carstensen, 1992

• more selective with their socioemotional and psychological resources

• focus on the present instead of planning for the future

• predict biases favoring positive information

Person Perception

how we perceive ourselves and others

Attitude

evaluative orientation toward a particular target

• has associated emotions, cognitions, and motivations

• self-esteem

Self-Esteem

attitudes about oneself

Attribution

explanation about the causes of behavior

Stereotype

• mental representation (schema) about a social group

reasons for forming and relying on stereotypes

• social learning & reinforcement

• inherent motivations → perceived competition, us vs them, self-esteem/dominance

• fewer cognitive resources required

  • using heuristics (rules) in social perception V. processing individual qualities

Person Bias

Fundamental Attribution Error

• attribute others’ behavior to internal (V. situational) factors

Self-Serving Attributional Bias

• attribute own success to internal factors

• attribute own failure to situational factors

Types of Bias

have important social, financial, legal, and other consequences

• person bias - fundamental attribution error

• self-serving attributional bias

• baby-face bias

• attractiveness bias

Prejudice

negative attitude about group (or members of group)

Discrimination

differential treatment due to group membership

Explicit Bias

• consciously held beliefs

• within one’s awareness

• can be stated (even if kept private)

• e.g. Modern Racism Scale

Implicit Bias

• automatic

• operate below conscious awareness

• captured with subtle measures - Implicit Association Test

Implicit Association Test

• participant will have a shorter reaction time (RT) when the task pairs concepts with a stronger association in their implicit memory

Cognitive Dissonance

• discomfort from a sense of conflict b/w one’s beliefs/values/attitudes & one’s actual behavior

• motivates a desire to resolve/avoid such conflict

  • change attitudes, match beliefs, reevaluate new info, justify previous behavior

Social Influence

• psychological forces (real or imagined) placed onto us by other people

• social situations influence our behavior, typically described as:

(subtle) conformity ←→ compliance ←→ obedience (overt)

• conformity → presence of others

  • group size, unanimity, expertise/status, ambiguity

• compliance → request from others

  • reciprocity, liking/friendship, commitment/consistency, social proof, authority

• obedience → command from authority figure(s)

  • legitimacy of authority, extent of responsibility, impact of actions, proximity, models

Conformity

change in behavior → mimic behavior/preferences of other people in one’s enviro

• from real/imagined group pressure

influences leading to conformity:

• informational influence

• normative influence

related findings/concepts:

• bystander effect

Information Influence

pressure to be correct or accurately understand the world

Normative Influence

pressure to maintain social approval

Bystander Effect

• lower likelihood of intervening in a situation in the presence of others vs alone

• e.g. pluralistic ignorance, diffusion of responsibility

Compliance

• change in behavior → response to a request

Techniques (promote compliance)

• foot-in-the-door

• door in the face

• bait-and-switch

• low ball

• labeling

Foot-In-The-Door

make a small request, then add a larger request

Door-In-The-Face

make a very large (unreasonable) request → make a smaller (more reasonable) request

Bait-And-Switch

offer an attractive option → switch to a less-attractive option

Low Ball

offer attractive option → increase terms of that option

Labeling

label person as someone who would comply with request

Obedience

change in behavior → direct commands from an authority figure

• Milgram’s 1963 obedience experiments

Autonomy

respect and protect the personal needs and rights of people who participate in research, including those in vulnerable populations

Beneficence

• minimize risks to participants relative to the benefits of research

• may include direct benefits to participants or benefits to society c/o this knowledge

Justice

distribute risks and benefits equally across different populations of people

Integrity

promote truth and honesty in all aspects of research

Informed Consent

Provide participants with information about:

• study’s purpose

• study procedures

• right to decline any procedures

• right to terminate study participation

• right to confidentiality deception that takes place

• risks and benefits of participation + compensation

& obtain consent to participate from all participants

Ethical Data Collection

• determinations about ethical concerns may not always be straightforward

• researchers must adhere to certain ethical principles and relevant ethical considerations when conducting research

• many safeguards in place to promote ethical research conduct - researchers must still hold themselves accountable

• limit deception unless absolutely necessary to achieve goals of the study

  • debrief participants about any deception that takes place

• lack of coercion/pressure to participate in research

  • ensures people choose/continue to participate voluntarily (not due to any sense of coercion) → limit social pressure, monetary compensation

• anonymity & confidentiality

  • keep data confidential and not accessible to anyone w/o permission to access

  • keep personal/identifiable info separate from data (e.g. ID#s not names)

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

• reviews all aspects of human subjects research studies → judge risks/benefits, confidentiality & any other ethical concerns in any research study

• US → all projects w/ human participants requires IRB approval before data collection

  • most universities have their own IRB

Sharing Research Findings

• integrity → required accuracy when collecting/analyzing data, even when results do not match hypotheses

• offenses - fabricating data/results; plagiarism of others/own work

Morally Gray Practices: (from pressure to publish in academia)

• HARKing

• p hacking

• underreporting non-significant results

• false positives(?)

• “replication crisis”

• conflict of interest

Mitigation of Issues:

• disclosing funding sources & conflicts of interest

• team science w/ active collaboration/accountability

• study preregistration - log hypothesis/analysis plan before data collection

• open data - sharing data/code publicly for evaluation

• open materials - sharing study materials publicly for evaluation/replication

• encouragement to replicate findings or meta-analysis before conclusions can be made

HARKing

• hypothesizing after results are known

• skip to analyzing data; explain pattern of results after

p hacking

making selective choices with data/analysis that encourage significant results

underreporting non-significant results

• null findings may never be publicized

false positives (?)

• over-emphasizing significant results found in just one sample

  • may not replicate/exist in population

“replication crisis”

• prioritizing novel findings

• discouraging replication of past work

conflict of interest

• holding a financial/meaningful stake in the findings of one’s own research

Personality

• relatively consistent patterns of thought, feeling/emotion, and behavior

• evident across different situations for a given person

• may lead people to respond differently to the same situation

• major aspect of individual differences in psychology

Trait Approaches

• emphasize individual differences in specific, reliable personality traits and dimensions

Big 5 Personality Traits (Rammstedt & John, 2007)

1. Openness to Experience

2. Conscientiousness

3. Extraversion

4. Agreeableness

5. Neuroticism

Openness to Experience

• tendency to pursue and be comfortable with novelty/variety

• display fluid/creative thought/curiosity/imagination

Conscientiousness

• tendency to successfully control one’s behavior to meet goals

  • to be organized, careful, responsible, etc

Extraversion

• tendency to pursue and enjoy interpersonal interactions

• to be outgoing/assertive with other people

  • to be energetic, optimistic, etc.

Agreeableness

• tendency to regard others with warmth/sympathy/concern

  • to bee good-natured, trusting, helpful, etc.

Neuroticism

• tendency to experience distressing emotions and thoughts

  • NOT emotionally stable/calm/secure

Psychodynamic Approaches

Freud’s Psychoanalysis

• individual differences in behavior → due to competing mental forces (id, ego, superego)

• threatening motives → display of defense mechanisms

  • repression, denial, projection, displacement

id (Freud)

one’s unconscious motives for pleasure

ego (Freud)

conscious awareness of reality

superego

desire to meet social standards

Humanistic Approaches

• emphasize individual differences in the conscious experience of the self, motivations, and beliefs

• clinical approach → self-actualization (becoming one’s full self)

  • fulfilling true potential, achieving sense of autonomy, accepting oneself + others

  • Pyramid: self-actualization (growth need) → esteem needs → belongings and love needs → safety needs → physiological needs (deficiency needs)

  • progress → predicted increase in well-being

• Self-Determination Theory

Self-Determination Theory

• individual differences in well-being and success reflect one’s sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness

Autonomy → Self-Determination

sense that our behavior is motivated from within

Competence → Self-Determination

opportunity to demonstrate our strengths

Relatedness → Self-Determination

opportunity to feel affiliated with others

Motivational Approaches

• emphasize individual differences in motivation orientation

  • approach/avoidance tendencies

• BIS-BAS

  • Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS)

  • Behavioral Activation System (BAS)

  • vary in tendency to be motivated by either system (work independently)

Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS)

underlies sensitivity to threat or punishment and avoidance behavior

Behavioral Activation System (BAS)

underlies sensitivity to reward or excitement and approach behavior

Social-Cognitive Approach

• emphasize individual differences in beliefs about one’s self and about the word

• conscious or unconscious

E.g.:

• internal v. external locus of control

• self-efficacy and outcome efficacy

• performance V. mastery orientation

• fixed V. malleable traits

Perspective Approaches

individual differences are thought to reflect:

• trait approaches

• psychodynamic approaches

• humanistic approaches

• motivational approaches

Psychopathology

pathology/disorder of a psychological nature (related to one’s thoughts/behavior/emotions)

• characterized by deviance, distress, dysfunction/disability, danger

• characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regular, or behavior

• reflects dysfunction in psychological, biological, or developmental processes of mental functioning

• associated with significant distress/disability (social/occupational/etc)

• subjective and/or tied to many factors

NOT mental disorder:

• expectable or culturally approved response to common stressor/loss

• socially deviant behavior and self V society conflicts (unless resulting from a dysfunction)

Causes:

• predisposition → "diathesis-stress” patterns

• precipitation

• perpetuation

Factors

• cultural/societal norms/supports

• identity and demographic characteristics

• clinician knowledge/expertise/expectations

deviance

atypicality of thoughts or behavior → not expectable or culturally approved

distress

negative thoughts/emotions

dysfunction/disability

difficulty leading a typical life

danger

risk or harm to self/others

Predisposition (Predisposing Cause)

• precedes onset

• increases risk for disorder

Precipitation (precipitating cause)

• acute/immediate trigger for onset of disorder

Perpetuation (perpetuating cause)

• consequences of disorder that keep it going

“Diathesis-Stress” Patterns

• predisposition (diathesis) leads to disorder for those exposed to less-ideal environments (stress)

  • dual-risk patterns → high predisposition + high stress = high chance of manifesting disorder

  • diathesis + stress = development of the disorder

Diathesis (D-S Pattern)

• a predisposition or vulnerability

• inherited predisposition to develop the disorder

Stress (D-S Pattern)

• environmental stressors

• prenatal trauma

• childhood sexual/physical abuse

• family conflict

• significant life changes

Development of Disorder (D-S Pattern)

• stronger the diatheses → less stress necessary to produce disorder

• psychological disorder

Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)

• 5th edition text revision

• Criteria developed and updated by the American Psychiatric Association

• dictates diagnoses - issues with reliability and validity of diagnosis are important to consider

Anxiety Disorders

• generalized anxiety disorder

• phobias

• social anxiety disorder

• panic disorder

• agoraphobia

• obsessive-compulsive disorder

Trauma & Stressor-Related Disorders

• post-traumatic stress disorder

• acute stress disorder

Mood Disorders

• depression

• major depressive disorder

• persistent depressive disorder

• bipolar disorder (I & II)

Psychological Disorders

• there are hundred of diagnosable psychological disorders, some more common than others, each with their own typical criteria

• many thought to emerge through both biological vulnerability and stressful experiences → conceptualized through diathesis-stress patterns

• many factors influence perceptions of mental illness

• labels have both problematic and beneficial outcomes

Examples

• autism spectrum disorder

• attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

• schizophrenia

• dissociative identity disorder

• personality disorders

Autism Spectrum Disorder

• deficits in social communication and social interaction

• restricted or repetitive patterns of behavior or interest

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

• hyperactivity

• impulsivity

• poor behavioral control

• difficulty shifting or focusing attention