AP Psych Q4 Test

the freudian defense mechanisms

unconscious strategies used by the ego to protect the mind from anxiety/bad impulses

gestalt theory

you can’t truly understand someone unless you see the world the way they do

active listening in therapy?

focus entirely on client, unconditional positive regard, etc.

humanistic approach

emphasizes free will, inherent goodness, and an individual's drive toward personal growth and self-actualization

unconditional positive regard

no judgement at all, humanistic approach

Carl Rogers

psychopharmacology

study of mental health medications

how do antipsychotics work?

they function as dopamine antagonists, occupying D2 receptor sites to prevent neurotransmitters from binding

tardive dyskinesia

muscle tics resulting from heavy use of antipsychotics

systematic desensitization

treating a phobia through gradual, controlled exposure to it

compensation

when someone pushes themselves in order to deal with perceived inadequacy (inferiority complex)

collective unconscious

shared memory traces/archetypes common to all humans

aversion therapy

eliminate unwanted habits by pairing w/ unpleasant, aversive stimuli, creating negative association (conditioned aversion) w/ target behavior

only mental health disorder improved from ECT

severe depression

ingroup bias

cognitive tendency to favor members of one's own group ("us") over people in other groups ("them")

social facilitation

tendency to perform better/act at a higher level in the presence of others

• physical presence of an audience increases physiological arousal, which naturally brings out a person's "dominant response”

deindividuation

loss of self-awareness & personal accountability that occurs in group settings, weakening self-restraint and leading to impulsive acts that wouldn’t occur alone

• Anonymity: When individuals feel they blend into a crowd or wear masks/uniforms, they feel less accountable for their behavior.

• Arousal: High-energy situations decrease inhibitions and increase impulsive responses

• Diffusion of Responsibility: As group size increases, the burden of personal responsibility is spread out, making individuals feel less guilty about their actions.

situational attribution

attributing person’s behavior to events (external, environmental, contextual factors) occurring at that time instead of internal personality traits

NIMBY

not in my backyard → supporting development as long as its not within one’s own vicinity

dispositional attribution

attribute behavior to personality → explaining a person's behavior using their internal traits, personality, motives, or abilities

• ex: if someone cuts you off in traffic and you think, "They are a reckless, terrible driver!

just-world phenomenon

a cognitive bias in social psychology where people believe that the world is inherently fair and that individuals generally get what they deserve

• belief that a group suffers inequality because there is something wrong with them

observational learning

process of acquiring new behaviors or information by watching others & imitating them

ex: video game violence creating aggression

conformity / group think

the adjusting of one's behavior, attitudes, or beliefs to coincide with a group standard. It is primarily driven by the desire to fit in or the belief that the group has accurate information, and is heavily influenced by social norms

Milgram

did obedience experiment → investigated how ordinary individuals would obey authority figures even when instructed to inflict harm, 65% of participants delivered the maximum 450-volt shock

milgram factors of conformity

Legitimacy of Authority

Physical Proximity

Lack of a Dissenter: When other confederates were present and refused to continue, participants were far more likely to disobey

Diffusion of Responsibility

asch factors of conformity

Group Size: Conformity increases as the group size increases, peaking around 3 to 5 people.

Unanimity: A group's unanimous consensus greatly increases conformity. Having just one dissenting voice (an ally) drops conformity drastically.

Task Difficulty: The harder or more ambiguous the task, the more people look to others for the answer and conform.

Public vs. Private Responses: People conform more when they have to state their answers publicly in front of the group compared to when they write them down in private.

Status

social scripts

culturally modeled guides for how to act in specific situations, serving as cognitive frameworks that help individuals navigate social interactions.

• outline expected behaviors, sequences of actions, and responses, often learned from media, culture, and past experiences

the chameleon effect

tendency to take on characteristics of a group of people

group polarization

groups become increasingly difficult & separate over time → individuals in a group adopt more extreme positions on an issue after discussing it with like-minded peers

difference between prejudice vs. discrimination

prejudice → thought

discrimination → action

foot-in-the-door phenomenon

tendency for people who have agreed to small requests to agree to larger ones later on

why did the people of Le Chambon resist Nazi orders to round-up Jews while the Jozefow cooperated?

the people of Le Chambon had a role model for defiance → the clergyman

according to Asch’s experiment, what amount of people agree with the group even when the group is wrong?

60%

Asch experiment

study demonstrating how individuals adjust their behavior to match group pressure, even when the group is clearly wrong

• Participants asked to complete visual judgment task identifying which of three comparison lines was the exact same length as a standard line. Participants were placed in a room with 6 to 8 actors (confederates) who deliberately gave the wrong answer in 12 out of 18 "critical trials". The real participant was always placed near the end of the line

confederate

an actor or researcher who pretends to be an ordinary participant but secretly works for the experimenter.

social loafing (coat-tail riding)

tendency to work less in a group effort

Calhoun experiment → what will happen to an over-crowded society?

breakdown of social functioning & eventual extinction

Calhoun experiment

overcrowded society w/ mice

attractiveness

symmetric & proportional faces

self-disclosure

act of purposefully revealing intimate, personal, or hidden aspects of oneself to another person

companionate

a deep, affectionate attachment and emotional intimacy shared with someone whose life is intertwined with yours → desire to “hang-out” w/ someone

reward theory

we like people who provide us with rewards

what keeps people in relationships longer than they should? (according to reward theory)

companionship

incentive theory

behavior motivated by desire to attain external rewards (incentives) & avoid punishments

mere-exposure effect

people attracted to those who they are around most often

what is the key to stable, successful relationship? (according to reward theory)

equality (power balance)

three basic methods of thought reform / brainwashing

compliance, persuasion, education

common characteristics that all potential cult members have

alone & psychologically vulnerable

why do cults need to be isolated from the outside world?

to better succeed in thought reform & the indoctrination of new members

why is forcing a person to commit acts that violate their personal beliefs so important in thought reform?

to utilize the person’s guilt & self-betrayal against them to manipulate them

national center for the analysis of violent crime (NCAVC)

national organization that profiles criminals

power-oriented serial killer

murders to control & dominate

psychotic killer

out-of-touch with reality

psychopathic killer

in-touch with reality

common personality traits of serial killers

intelligent, bad students, fetishists, arsonists

mission-oriented serial killer

kills to improve society by removing “bad” people

spree killer

no cooling off period, as opposed to serial killers

how do serial killers choose their victims

availability, vulnerability, desirability

the trigger

a specific stressor or psychological cue that initiates a killer's urge to act

visionary serial killer

commits murder because of hallucinated commands or images

hedonistic serial killer

sadistic, murders for the sick fun of it, the thrill

mass murderer

kills at one location