PSY 111 Exam 3 Flashcards

personality traits

Enduring characteristics that describe an individual's behavior

"The Big Five" Model of Personality (OCEAN)

openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism

Openness

High: Open to new experience, adventurous
Low: Likes to stick to the same routine

Conscientiousness

High: Dependable, orderly, self-disciplined
Low: Impulsive, disorganized

Extraversion

High: Outgoing, assertive, sociable
Low: Reserved, quiet, withdrawn

Agreeableness

High: Cooperative, trusting, good-natured
Low: Critical, suspicious

Neuroticism

High: Prone to anxiety, anger, depression
Low: Calm, even-tempered

HEXACO model of personality

- Similar to the "Big Five Model" of personality
- Adds in a 6th personality trait: Honesty-Humility

Honesty-Humility

High: Honest, sincere, fair, and selfless
Low: Manipulative, narcissistic, and self-centered

Conscientiousness, agreeableness, and extraversion tend to \___________ with age.

increase

Neuroticism tends to \________ with age.

decrease

Openness to experiences tends to \_______ after middle age.

decrease

person-situation debate

A debate centering on how much someone's behavior in different situations is due to their personality or the situation

fundamental attribution error

We have a tendency to attribute other people's behavior to personality, when their behavior might be better explained by the situation

positive pyschology

The study of human flourishing, with the goals of discovering and promoting strengths and virtues that help individuals and communities to thrive

Positive psychology has identified several positive character strengths and skills, including...

Forgiveness, humility, gratitude

Forgiveness

Showing grace and mercy and pardoning someone for what they have done wrong. People can forgive others and forgive themselves, but forgiving does not mean forgetting.

Humility

An accurate sense of your abilities and achievements. Not overestimating or underestimating your abilities.

Gratitude

Feeling appreciation and thankfulness for one's gifts in life.

Toxic positivity

The act of rejecting or denying stress, negativity, or other negative experiences that exist

What are the 4 keys to positive romantic relationships?

Positive relationship deposits, active-constructive responding, forgiveness, active listening

Positive relationship deposits

For romantic relationships to flourish:
- Aim for a 20:1 ratio of positive interactions to negative interactions in everyday life.
- Aim for a 5:1 ratio during conflict
- Positive interactions need to significantly outnumber negative ones.

Active-constructive responding

Responding enthusiastically to positive news shared by your partner. Helps to build intimacy between partners.

Active & Constructive Response

Authentic, enthusiastic, supportive

Passive & Constructive Response

Understated support

Active & Destructive Response

Pointing out the negative

Passive & Destructive Response

Ignoring the event

Forgiveness in relationships

Apologize for mistakes and forgive your partner. Unresolved conflict can lead to a negative cycle of interaction in the relationship.

Active listening

Empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies. Works to validate the other person's feelings.

The 2 paths to persuasion are...

Central route and peripheral route

Central route

A method of persuasion that uses evidence and logical arguments to influence people

Peripheral route

A method of persuasion characterized by an emphasis on factors other than the message itself (relies on things like sex appeal, celebrities, and cute animals).

Triad of Trustworthiness

authority, honesty, likability

perceived authority

People are more persuaded by people who possess more perceived authority, expertise and credibility

likeability

Affection resulting from physical appearance, behavior, or other personal traits. We tend to trust people that we like.

honesty

The moral dimension of trustworthiness

4 Techniques to increase "trustworthiness"

1.) Testimonials and endorsements
2.) Presenting the message as education
3.) Word of mouth
4.) The maven

Testimonials and endorsements

Featuring someone, like a celebrity, saying how the product worked for them can be convincing (children are particularly persuaded by this).

Presenting the message as education

The message is presented as objective information. Salespeople are educating you, so that you can make an informed decision about the product.

Word of mouth

Information about products, services, and experiences that is transmitted from consumer to consumer

The maven

Mavens:
- Know and communicate with a lot of people
- Are trusted and likely to be asked for their opinions by others
- Enjoy sharing their opinion with others
*Salespeople can plant seeds with mavens*

7 Persuasive Tricks

- Free gifts and reciprocity
- Social proof
- Getting a foot-in-the-door
- A door-in-the-face
- "And that's not all"
- The sunk cost trap
- Scarcity

Free gifts and reciprocity

When someone does something for us or gives us something, we feel obligated to "return the favor"

social proof

Positive influence created when someone finds out that others are doing something.

getting a foot-in-the-door

Once we have made an initial commitment, it is more likely that we will agree to subsequent commitments

A door-in-the-face

Start with a large request (which you think the other person will say "no" to), and then follow it with a smaller, more reasonable request.

"And that's not all"

Salesperson asks for a high price, pauses to let the customer consider, then lowers the price or adds a bonus offer

The sunk cost trap

You continue to spend money or time on something because you don't want to "lose" your prior investment

Scarcity

Things tend to be more attractive when their availability is limited

Conformity

Tendency to think and act like the people around us.

Normative influence

A reason for conformity. We're concerned about what others think of us, and we don't want to be different from everyone else.

Informational influence

A reason for conformity. Other people are a valuable source of information and can change our perspective.

Conformity tends to increase when...

- There are more confederates in the study
- Participants are teenagers.

Conformity tends to decrease when...

- One confederate in the study isn't conforming
- Confederates in the study aren't aware of the participant's response

Obedience

Responding to an order or command from a person in authority.

Obedience rates decrease when (Milgram's Study)...

- The teacher is in the same room as the learner
- The teacher needs to touch the learner to administer the shock
-Participants saw other teachers refuse to administer the shock
- Instructions came from another participant, instead of the experimenter

Bystander intervention research focuses on...

- How bystanders identify emergency situations
- When bystanders take responsibility for helping during an emergency situation
- How the costs and benefits of helping affect bystanders' decisions of whether and how to help

plurastic ignorance

The case in which people think that everyone else is interpreting a situation in a certain way, when in fact they are not. This can lead to a person not acting in an emergency situation.

diffusion of responsibility

- If a bystander is alone, the responsibility to help all falls on that person
- If there are multiple bystanders, the responsibility to help is divided among the bystanders
- Since bystanders have less personal responsibility, they may not intervene

Costs and benefits of helping

Potential helpers engage in a cost-benefit analysis (help is more likely to be given when there are fewer potential costs).

3 Potential reasons to help others

- Evolutionary forces
- Selfish, egoistic motivations
- Selfless, altruistic motivations

evolutionary forces as a reason to help other people

We are helpful in ways that increase the chances that our DNA will be passed on to future generations

Reciprocal altruism

Being a good helper increases the chances that you'll be helped later (Increases chances of survival and reproductive success).

Selfish, egoistic motivations for helping

Helpers help to the extent that it provides advantages to them or makes them feel better (benefits to the victim are just a byproduct).

2 models for selfish, egoistic helping

Negative state relief model - we help others in order to boost our own mood

Arousal: cost-reward model - we experience negative feelings when we see someone else in need, and we help to relieve those negative feelings

Altruism

Help with the ultimate goal of improving another's welfare; no expectation of benefits for the helper

empathy-altruism model

The key to altruism is empathizing with the victim and imagining how the victim might feel

Groups are helpful in these keys ways...

- Fulfill the "need to belong"
- Provide practical information, assistance, and support from other people
- Define our identity and influence our self-esteem (for better or worse)
- Increase our "evolutionary fitness" (EX: our ability to survive and procreate)

social identity theory

We categorize ourselves into groups and then draw part of our identity from those groups

A majority of groups tend to develop across these 5 stages...

1.)Forming - group members learn about one another and explore the group purpose
2.) Storming - group conflict, solutions are sought
3.) Norming - norms and roles develop, which increases group stability and cohesion
4.) Performing - group works as a unit to achieve desired goals
5.) Adjourning - tasks are completed, unresolved issues are dealt with, and the group disbands

social facilitation

An individual performs better when other people are around/watching (only occurs when other people are around/watching).

social interference

An individual performs worse when other people are around/watching (occurs for behaviors that aren't well-learned or instinctive)

social loafing

People exert less effort when working on a collective endeavor than when working alone

Social loafing is decreased and teamwork is increased when...

- Groups have a shared mental model (shared understanding between group members)
- Groups are cohesive (group members like one another and have group-level goals)

group polarization

After group discussion, judgements are more extreme than before group discussion

common knowledge effect

Groups spend more time discussing common knowledge, rather than knowledge known by only one or a few group members

Groupthink

The desire for group agreement overrides realistic evaluation of the situation

Factors that cause groupthink...

- Extreme cohesion in the group
- Isolated group
- Biased leader
- Decisional stress

Two of the cognitive tools that we use regularly to simplify our world are...

Schemas and Heuristics

Schema

A mental model of things that we come across in our daily lives

Heuristic

Mental shortcuts that reduce problem solving to simple, rule-based decisions

Representative heuristic

Judging the likelihood that something belongs to a category based on how similar it is to your mental representation of that category

Availability heuristic

Judging the likelihood of an event based on how easily instances of that event come to mind

Planning fallacy

Underestimating how long it takes to complete a task

Affective forecasting

Predicting how you will feel in the future after a given event

Impact bias

Overestimating the intensity of future feelings after an event

Durability bias

Overestimating the duration (or amount of time) that future feelings will last after an event

Hot cognition

Cognitive process are influenced by our thoughts and feelings

Motivated skepticism

Skeptical of evidence that goes against what we want to believe, even if that evidence is strong

Need for closure

The desire to come to a decision quickly can influence how carefully we consider the available information

Mood-congruent memory

It's easier for us to recall memories in which we were experiencing a mood similar to our current mood

Explicit attitude

An attitude that a person is consciously aware of and can report

Implicit attitude

An attitude that a person cannot verbally or overtly state.

Discontinuous development

View that development takes place in unique stages, which happen at specific times or ages (EX: Learning to walk)

Continuous development

View that development is a cumulative process: gradually improving on existing skills (EX: Learning a language later in life)

Identical twin studies can be helpful in determining the extent to which a trait is driven by...

Nature (biology) vs. nurture (environment)

If the identical twins are similar on a given trait (EX: IQ), then that trait is probably driven by...

Nature (genes)

If the identical twins are different on a given trait (EX: IQ), then that trait is probably driven by...

Nurture (environment)

The 4 stages of cognitive development are...

- Sensorimotor stage (birth-2 years)
- Preoperational reasoning stage (2-6 years)
- Concrete operational reasoning stage (7-11 years)
- Formal operational reasoning stage (12 years- adult)

Sensorimotor stage

In Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities