PSYC 102 - MIDTERM 1

Textbook Notes:

Chapter 1:

Psychology:

• the scientific study of mind and behavior

Evolutionary Perspective:

• identifies aspects of behavior that are the result of evolutionary adaptations

Cultural Perspective:

• Investigates how cultural context affects people’s thoughts and preferences

Cognitive Perspective:

• Studies the mental processes that underlie perception, thought, learning, memory, language, and creativity

Emotional Perspective:

• Examines how the human capacity to feel, express, and perceive emotions plays an important role in decision making, behavior, and social relationships

Biological-Neuroscience Perspective:

• Studies the biological underpinnings of how we think, act, and behave

Personality Perspective:

• understand aspects of behaviour that are relatively stable over time and situation

Social Perspective:

• considers how social contexts influence thoughts, feelings, and behaviours

Clinical Perspective:

• focuses on the causes and treatments of psychological disorders with the goal of improving human well-being, daily functioning, and social relationships

WEIRD Samples:

• Western

• Educated

• Industrialized

• Rich

• Democratic

Psychological Science:

• study of psychology

Confirmation Bias:

• tendency to seek out, pay attention to, and believe only evidence that supports what we already are confident we know

Pseudoscience:

• makes claims that are supposedly based on rigorous science and fact but that are not supported by reliable evidence

Evidence:

• an available body of facts and information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true and valid

Empirical:

• based on astute observation and accurate measurement

Critical Thinking:

• purposeful, reasoned, and goal-directed

Evolutionary Perspective:

• identify aspects of behavior that result from evolutionary adaptations that have facilitated humanity’s survival

Cultural Perspective:

• seeks to identify how culture affects people’s thoughts and preferences

Culture:

• the rules, values, customs, and beliefs that exist within a group of people who share a common language and environment

Cognitive Perspective:

• study the mental processes that underlie perception, thought, learning, memory, language, and creativity

Emotional Perspective:

• understand how our capacity to feel, express, and perceive emotions plays an important role in decision making, behavior, and social relationships

Unconcious:

• mental processes we cannot directly observe or influence

Biological-Neuroscience Perspective:

• seeks to understand the biological underpinnings of how we think, feel, and behave

Neuroscience:

• scientific study of how nerves and cells send and receive information from the brain, body, and spinal cord

Dysfunctions:

• impaired functions

Developmental Perspective:

• study how people change physically, cognitively, socially, and emotionally as they age

Personality Perspective and Social Psychological Perspective:

• seek to understand how human behavior changes and stays the same across situations

Clinical Perspective:

• use psychological science to identify the causes and treatment of psychological disorders

Growth Mindset:

• belief that human personality and behaviour can change

• ex. through goal-setting and facing setbacks

Positive Psychology:

• emphasizes factors that make people happy, keep them healthy, and help them manage stress

Metacognition:

• an awareness and understanding of your own thought processes

Chapter 2:

Theory-Data Cycle:

• involves developing a theory about what people do and collecting data that are compared with the theory—the data either confirm or disconfirm the theory

Theory:

• set of propositions about what people do and why

Hypothesis:

• prediction about what will happen based on the theory.

Data:

• observations from a study, usually in numerical form

Replication:

• study has been conducted more than once

Variable:

• something of interest that can vary from person to person or situation to situation

Manipulated Variable:

• amount that a researcher controls by assigning different participants to different levels of that variable

Operational Definitions:

• specify the exact process for determining the levels or values of each variable

Descriptive Research:

• focus on one measured variable at a time with the goal of describing what is typical

Sample:

• select group from a population

Population of Interest:

• larger set of individuals (or cases) the researcher is trying to understand or describe

Random Sample:

• equal chance of selection from a population

Naturalistic Observation:

• psychologists observe the behavior of animals or people in their normal, everyday worlds and environments

Case Study:

• conducting an in-depth examination of one person’s experience, abilities, and behavior

Correlational Research:

• measuring two or more variables to analyze the relationship between them

Scatterplot:

• graph where dots (scatter points) represent a participant

• x axis represents one variable

• y axis represents one variable

Third-Variable Problem:

• when the correlation observed is influenced by a third variable (not accounted for)

Experimental Research:

• conducted to support causal claims

• ex. alcohol leads to aggression

Independent Variable

• the hypothesized cause

Dependent Variable.

• the hypothesized effect

Random Assignment:

• random method is used to put participants in a group

Experiment Group:

• active ingredient is present

• ex. intoxication

Control Group:

• condition is absent

• ex. sobriety

Placebo Condition:

• influencing the particiapants to think the active ingredient is present

Random Sampling:

• aka random selection

Validity:

• the appropriateness or accuracy of some claim or conclusion

Reliability:

• the degree to which a measure yields consistent results each time it is administered

External Validity:

• when the sample in the study can generalize to the population of interest

Internal Validity:

• the ability of a study to rule out alternative explanations for a relationship between two variables

• one of the criteria for supporting a causal claim

Confound:

• when the experimental groups accidentally differ on more than just the independent variable

Descriptive Statistics:

• statistics that summarize participants’ differing responses in terms of what was most typical and how much people’s responses varied from the average

Variability:

• the extent to which the scores in a batch differ from one another

Standard Deviation:

• a statistic that calculates how much a batch of scores varies around its mean

Effect Size:

• describes the magnitude of the relationship between manipulated or measured variables

Inferential Statistics:

• use sample results to infer what is true about the broader population

Statistical Significance:

• process of inference that applies rules of logic and probability to estimate whether the results obtained in a study’s sample are the same in a larger population

False Positive:

• statistically significant finding that does not reflect a real effect

Open Science:

• the practice of sharing one’s data, materials, analysis plans, and published articles freely so others can collaborate, use, verify, and learn about the results

Informed Consent:

• researcher explains the procedures, including the risks and potential benefits, to the prospective participants, who then decide whether to take part

Chapter 15:

Social Psychology:

• the study of how social context as well as broader cultural environments influence people’s thoughts, feelings, and actions

Transference:

• ex. the tendency to assume that a new person we meet has the same traits as someone else we already know, perhaps because they resemble that other person

False Consensus:

• tendency to use one’s self as an anchor and overestimate the similarity of one’s beliefs compared to another person

Impression Management:

• strategies in an attempt to put their best face forward for others

Attribution:

• assignment of a causal explanation for an event, action, or outcome

Internal Attribution:

• when people’s behaviour is a direct reflection of who they are

Fundamental Attribution Error:

• the tendency to assume that people’s actions are more the result of their internal dispositions than of the situational context

Self-Serving Attributions:

• perceiving our outcomes and actions in the world in ways that benefit ourselves

  • similar to the self-serving biases

Affective Forecasting Errors:

• suggests that our estimations of future happiness are not very accurate,

  • (due to) overestimating the influence of some factors and underestimate the influence of others

Attitude:

• orientation toward some target stimulus that has three components:

  • affective feeling

    • positive or negative

  • cognitive belief

    • about characteristics of a target

  • behavioural motivation

    • tendency to approach or avoid a target

Implicit Attitudes:

• our automatically activated associations, which are often learned through repeated exposure to a person, place, thing, or issue

Explicit Attitudes:

• when we explicitly report that we feel or believe about a person, place, thing, or issue

Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM):

• suggests that these changes can come about through two different routes: a central route and a peripheral route

Cognitive Dissonance:

• aversive state

• when people find themselves behaving in ways that are out of line with their beliefs, values, or attitudes

Post-Decision Dissonance:

• happens when we have to forgo an option that we have a positive attitude toward

Social Norms:

• patterns of behavior, traditions, beliefs, and preferences that are accepted and reinforced by others and influence our behavior

Conformity:

• when people implicitly mimic or adopt the behaviors, beliefs, and preferences of those around others

Informational Social Conformity:

• a kind of conformity to others’ actions or beliefs, in order to behave correctly or gain an accurate understanding of the world

Normative Social Influence:

• when we conform to gain approval from others or avoid disapproval

Social Facilitation:

• evidence that the mere presence of others can boost arousal in a way that facilitates the dominant response

• or most likely behavioral reaction to that task

Social Loafing:

• the tendency to expend less effort on a task when they are doing it with others rather than alone

Group Polarization:

• a tendency for people’s attitudes on an issue to become more extreme after discussing it with like-minded others

Groupthink:

• occurs during group decisions when people feel pressure to maintain allegiance to a group leader

  • or to render a difficult decision under time pressure

Milgram’s Shock Machine:

• In Milgram’s classic studies of obedience, participants were instructed to flip switches on this shock generator to administer what they believed to be increasingly painful electric shocks for each memory error made by a learner

• disturbing findings about people’s morality in relation to obidience

• obedience to authority can be changed by altering the legitimacy of the authority figure

General Aggression Model:

• framework for knitting together various factors that, in combination, predict the likelihood that people will act aggressively

Kin Selection:

• evolved or adaptive strategy of assisting those who share one’s genes, even at personal cost, as a means of increasing the odds of genetic survival

Norm of Reciprocity:

• an automatic tendency to help others who have helped in the past or are expected to help in the future

Empathy Gap:

• inability to simulate the mental suffering of another person

• “lacking empathy”

The Bystander Effect:

• occurs when people are less likely to come to the aid of a victim when other observers are present than when they are alone

Pluralistic Ignorance:

• where people are collectively unaware of each other’s true attitudes or beliefs

Diffusion of Responsibility:

• assumption that someone else is more qualified to act or has already acted

Stereotypes:

• mental representations or schemas we have about groups

Complementary Stereotypes:

• attribute both positive and negative traits to certain groups

• ex. all rich people are unhappy and poor people are more content

Prejudice:

• a negative attitude toward a group or members of a group.

Discrimination:

• tendency for individuals to receive different treatment or outcomes as a result of their membership in a given social group

Realistic Group Conflict Theory:

• a theory asserting that negative intergroup attitudes develop whenever groups compete against one another for access to the same scarce resources

Ingroups:

• tendency for people to think positively about themselves and automatically extends to their social groups

Outgroups:

• seeing other outside groups in a more negative light

Social Identity Theory:

• explains why people develop a more positive attitude towards their ingroups, rather than outgroups

Symbolic Racism:

• tendency to redirect one’s prejudice towards a racial or ethnic group to the policies that might benefit that group

Implicit Racial Bias:

• differential treatment resulting from the automatic activation of, and failure to control, negative attitudes or stereotypes of a racial group.

Aversive Racism:

• a tendency, even among egalitarian-minded people

• to have unconscious negative reactions to people of racial or ethnic outgroups.

Contact Hypothesis:

• the proposal that prejudice can be reduced through sanctioned, friendly, and cooperative interactions between members of different groups working together as equals toward a common goal

Four Important Elements of Positive Contact

(that help reduce prejudicial attitudes)

1. working together,

2. as equals,

3. toward a common goal

4. in an environment where those in the position of authority support social change.

Parental Investment Theory:

• a theory that predicts sex differences in attraction due to the greater time, effort, and risk assumed by women than by men during procreation.

Triangular Theory of Love:

• a model that specifies passion, intimacy, and commitment as distinct elements that combine in various ways that lead to different types of love.

Chapter 12:

Personality:

• set of relatively consistent ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving that together explain why different people can react differently to the same situations

Unconcious:

• thoughts and feelings that fall below the threshold of our awareness

Freud’s Explanation of Personality:

• unconcious motives of a person create a psychic energy

  • called the ID

The Pleasure Principle:

• where behavior is driven purely by what feels good, with no real filter or concern about what is polite or possible

Ego:

• largely concious awareness of reality

• sometimes preconcious and unconcious

Superego:

• Freud’s third part of psychoanalytic theory

• represents the internalized cultural rules and ideals to guide our moral conscience

Defense Mechanisms:

• the various ways in which the ego is thought to cope with conflict between the unconscious desires of the id and the moral constraints of society.

Displacement:

• response to anger that can flare up when we feel mistreated, insulted, or ignored

Projection:

• when an individual supposedly “sees” a trait in others instead of acknowledging the fact they have the trait

Repression:

• ego’s efforts at keeping unwanted feelings, thoughts, and memories from conscious awareness

Denial:

• related to defense mechanisms

• the ego’s refusal to even percieve a painful/threatening reality is occuring

The Existence of Unconcious Thought

• popularized by Freud

• the idea that thoughts can occur below our conscious awareness

Lexical Hypothesis:

• those traits and attributes that are useful for differentiating among people become a part of our language

Factor Analysis:

• statistical technique that groups a large set of variables into a smaller set of constructs based on how they correlate with one another

Assesment:

• developing and validating tools to accurately measure and quantify traits and other features of personality

The Five Factor Model:

• the dominant model of the building blocks that make up human variation

  1. Open-Mindedness

  2. Conscientiousness

  3. Extraversion

  4. Agreeableness

  5. Neuroticism

Gene x Environment Interactions:

• the interaction between environmental factors and a person’s genetic predispositions that determine the unique phenotypes expressed in personality.

Social Cognitive Approach:

• emphasize the role of immediate environment has on shaping a person

Person x Situation Interactions:

• a model positing that in order to understand and predict behavior, it is necessary to account for both personal dispositions and the situation people find themselves in, as well as the interaction between the two

Social Learning Theory:

• a theory of how people’s cognitions, behaviors, and dispositions are shaped by observing and imitating the actions of others.

Reciprocal Determinism:

• the idea that personality guides cognition about the world in ways that can shape the environments people choose, serving to reinforce or amplify their personality

Locus of Control:

• A person’s perception of what determines his or her outcomes:

  • intrinsic (internal) characteristics

  • or random (external) forces

Outcome Efficacy:

• the belief that if a person can perform a behavior, a desired outcome will result

Self-Efficacy:

• the belief that one can successfully execute a behavior linked to a desired outcome

Learned Helplessness:

• when an individual develops a passive resignation to a situation

  • due to similar past experiences being negative

Depressive Realism:

• awareness of personal limitations that render outcomes as uncontrollable

Gender Identity:

• psychological identity we have as being male, female, or nonbinary

Gender Expression:

• the way in which our personality and behavior are expressions of masculine and feminine traits

Sexual Selection:

• evolutionary perspective positing that men and women develop distinct profiles of personality traits because of the different reproductive challenges they face

Social Role Theory:

• a theory positing that the roles people find themselves in can profoundly shape their personality

Self-Actualization:

• the process of fulfilling our true potential, gaining a sense of personal autonomy, accepting ourselves for who we are, and accepting those around us

Self-Determination Theory:

• well-being and success are most likely to be achieved when environments support three key motivations

  1. Autonomy

     • sense that behaviour is motivated from within

  2. Competence

     • opportunity to demonstrate strength

  3. Relatedness

     • affiliation with others

Self Concept:

• the broad network of mental representations that people have of themselves

Social Comparison:

• sizing ourselves up to people around us

Self-Serving Bias:

• characteristic ways of processing information to maintain a positive attitude toward the self

Sociometer Theory:

• a theory positing that people use self-esteem, a judgment of self-worth, to assess the degree to which they are accepted by others

Terror Management Theory:

• idea that the downside of human consciousness and self-awareness is our ability to see into the future and be aware of our own mortality

Narcissism:

• tendency for an unrealistic and self-aggrandizing view of one’s self

Independent Self-Construal:

• a notion of the self as a bounded and stable entity that is distinct from others

Interdependent Self-Construal:

• a notion of the self as defined by one’s connections to other people

Chapter 8:

Intelligence:

• the capability to think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, reason, plan, solve problems, learn from experience, and acquire new knowledge

Factor Analysis:

• analyzes a pattern of correlations to look for the common factors underlying the scores

General Intelligence Factor:

• Charles Spearman (1863-1945)

• single common ability accounts for 40% to 50% of overall data pattern

Fluid Intelligence:

• the ability to tackle new and unusual situations. You use it when you deliberately think your way through a challenging problem or decision

Crystallized Intelligence:

• accumulated knowledge

• knowledge of language and other facts, as well as your repertoire of skills and strategies for dealing with familiar problems

Mental Age:

• the average age at which children perform closest to the given child’s performance

Intelligence Quotient (IQ):

• Stanford-Binet Test:

  • calculated by dividing a child’s mental age by the chronological age and then multiplying by 100

Achievement Test:

• a test that is designed to measure how much a person has learned over a certain period of time

• used to determine how much one learns over a period of time

Aptitude Test:

• designed to measure the potential to learn new skills, also serve this purpose

WAIS:

• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale

WISC:

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children

Standardization:

• process of making test scores more meaningful by defining them in relation to the performance of a pretested group

Validity:

• extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to

Stereotype Threat:

• concern where one’s performance or behaviour might confirm a negative stereotype about one’s group

Achievement Gaps:

• persistent differences in educational outcomes of certain groups of people, usually based on characteristics like race or gender

Heritability:

• an indication of how much variation in phenotype across people is due to differences in genotype

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:

• a cycle by which others’ beliefs or our own can affect behaviour in ways that make the beliefs true

Mindset:

• can shape intellectual growth

• can vary across different intellectual domains and abilities