Psychological Perspectives and Sociocultural Key Ideas

HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE

  • Money (27+h: Contextual marker for Humanistic psychology overview.

  • Self-actualization: The process of fulfilling one's potential and achieving the highest level of psychological development.

  • Self-concept and Self-esteem: The core internal constructs regarding an individual's view of themselves and their perceived self-worth.

  • Unconditional positive regard: The provision of total acceptance and support regardless of an individual's actions or words.

  • Conditions of worth: The standards or expectations individuals believe they must meet to be accepted by others.

  • Free will: The belief that individuals have the power to make choices and are not merely determined by biological or environmental forces.

  • Hierarchy of needs: A structured framework of human motivations ranging from basic physiological requirements to self-fulfillment.

PSYCHOANALYTIC/PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE

  • Id/ego/superego: The tripartite structure of personality consisting of primitive urges (Id), realistic moderation (Ego), and moral conscience (Superego).

  • Archetypes and Collective unconscious: Universal, inherited symbols and shared psychological structures common to all humans.

  • Defense mechanisms: Unconscious psychological strategies used to protect the individual from anxiety arising from unacceptable thoughts or feelings.

  • Fixation: A lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage where conflicts were unresolved.

  • Free association: A technique in psychoanalysis where patients speak whatever comes to mind to uncover unconscious thoughts.

  • Projective tests: Assessment tools designed to let a person respond to ambiguous stimuli, presumably revealing hidden emotions and internal conflicts.

  • Latent vs. manifest content: In dream analysis, the distinction between the hidden symbolic meaning (latent) and the literal storyline (manifest).

SOCIOCULTURAL AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

  • Wensday (29th): Contextual marker for sociocultural discussion.

  • Attribution Biases:   - Fundamental attribution error: Overemphasizing personal traits and underestimating situational factors in others.   - Actor-observer bias: Attributing one's own actions to external causes while attributing others' behaviors to internal causes.   - Self-serving bias: Attributing personal successes to internal factors and failures to external ones.

  • Social Influence:   - Normative social influence: Conforming to be liked or accepted by a group.   - Informative social influence: Conforming because of a belief that the group possesses accurate information.

  • Group Dynamics:   - Groupthink: The tendency for a group to prioritize consensus over critical evaluation.   - Group polarization: The enhancement of a group's prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group.   - Deindividuation: Loss of self-awareness and restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity.   - Social facilitation and Social loafing: The tendency to perform better (facilitation) or exert less effort (loafing) when in the presence of others.

  • Cognitive dissonance: The psychological tension experienced when holding two conflicting beliefs or when behavior contradicts beliefs.

  • Persuasion techniques:   - Central route: Focuses on logic, facts, and the quality of the argument.   - Peripheral route: Relies on emotional cues, celebrity endorsements, or surface-level characteristics.

  • Social Perceptions:   - Just-world phenomenon: The belief that people get what they deserve.   - Halo effect: A cognitive bias where the overall impression of a person influences thoughts about their character.   - False-consensus effect: Overestimating the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors.

  • Intergroup Relations:   - Ingroup vs. outgroup: The social categorization of people into groups to which we belong versus those we do not.   - Ethnocentrism: Evaluating other cultures according to the standards of one's own culture.   - Stereotype v. Prejudice v. Discrimination: The progression from generalized beliefs (stereotypes) to negative attitudes (prejudice) to unjust actions (discrimination).

  • Control and Choice: Internal vs. External Locus of control.

  • Additional Phenomena: Self-fulfilling prophecy, Mere-exposure effect, and Altruism/Bystander effect.

HEALTH AND POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

  • friday (1st): Contextual marker for health and positive psychology.

  • Stress and Stressors:   - Eustress: Positive, motivating stress.   - Distress: Negative, damaging stress.   - Stressor: The specific event or stimulus triggering the stress response.

  • Coping Strategies:   - Problem-focused coping: Directly addressing the source of the stress.   - Emotion focused coping: Managing the emotional response to the stressor.

  • Tend-and-befriend stress response: A behavior pattern where individuals protect themselves and their offspring while seeking social support.

  • Positive Psychology Traits:   - Grit/resilience: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals.   - Signature strengths: Unique character strengths identified as core to an individual's identity.   - Posttraumatic growth: Positive psychological change experienced as a result of struggling with highly challenging life circumstances.

  • Well-being v. subjective well-being: General healthy functioning compared to an individual's personal perception of happiness and life satisfaction.

  • Positive Characteristics (Virtues):   - Wisdom   - Courage   - Humanity   - Justice   - Temperance   - Transcendence