Basic and social psychology Flashcards
Personality
Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristics behavior and thoughts
The characteristics or blend of characteristics that make a person unique
Freud: Sigmund Freuds psychodynamic model assumes there is an interaction between nature and nurture in personality development.
The structural model
Id- Primitive and instinctive component of personality. Contains libido and death instinct. ID operates on the pleasure principle
Ego: Mediates between the will of the Id and the outside world to aid in our decision making. Operates according to reality principle
Superego (psyche): Represents the morals of society, which are learned from our parents. It can punish the Id with feelings of guilt and can be thought of as our conscience.
Alternative theories
Trait theory: Traits are the fundamental units of personality. People differ with regard to how much of a trait they possess, which can result in an endless number of different personalities.
Should remain consistent across situations and over time, explaining why people behave in a predictable way in different settings.
Allports theory.
Gordon Allport believed that people have core central traits that are usually apparent to others and affect a person’s behavior
In general people have approximately 5-10 central traits. Alport believed that people also have secondary traits. These are more specific that only a close person might notice and influence
Cattells 16 personality factor approach
Raymond cattell collected data from a range of different sources
L Data, Q data, T data.
Identified 16 traits common to all people
Divided these into surface traits (obvious) and source traits (more subtle)
Source traits influence several aspects of a persons behavior and are regarded as more important in determining their personality
Eysenck’s approach
Behavior could be represented by two dimensions which combine to form a variety of personality characteristics
Extraverts
Introverts
Neurotic unstable
Stables
He believed that a person’s personality was related to their autonomic nervous system and determined by the balance of excitation and inhibition
Big 5 personality traits
openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism
Emotion
There are 6 primary emotions identified by Paul Ekman
Surprise, fear, sadness, anger, happiness, disgust.
4 main theories of emotion
James-Lange theory
Emotion is the result of bodily changes.
Event - arousal - interpretation - emotion
The stimulus for emotion arises from physical sensations
Cannon bard theory (aka thalami theory)
Information about an emotional situation is sent to the thalamus, which simultaneously sends information to the cortex and the autonomic nervous system.
The brain creates the emotion.
SInger- schacther theory (aka 2 factor theory)
Emotions result from cognitive interpretations of the physiological changes.
The stimulus for emotion arises via a combination of physical sensations and the minds evaluation from them
Lazarus theory
This theory suggests that a thought is first required before an emotion occurs.
The stimulation for emotion arises from the mind.
Motivation
Maslow hierachy of needs
- Basic needs (Physiological - food, water, sleep. Safety needs - shelter, safety)
- Psychological needs ( Social belonging needs - friendship, intimacy. Esteem needs - feeling valued/respected)
- Self fulfilment needs (Self actualisation - sense of achieving one’s full potential)
Once basic needs are met the person will focus on higher level needs. If any point one of the lower level sets of needs is no longer being met this will be prioritised again.
Attitudes
To do
Intelligence
Louis leon thustone arugued intelligence could not be measured by a single factor. Arises from 7 independent factors, primary abilities:
Word fluency
Verbal comprehension
Spatial visualisation
Number facility
Associative memory
Reasoning
Perceptual speed
Cognitive dissonance
In general people hold beliefs congruent with their actions, however cognitive dissonance (conflict) allows a person to hold two differing beliefs in their consciousness simultaneously.
Self psychology
Self esteem: the attitude one holds towards themselves reflects their worthiness
Self consciousness: the awareness of the self in comparison to others. Something thought only to be associated with the human race
Self image: Is often a combination of physical attributes, personality traits and social roles.
Gordon Gallup Jr- touching the dot experiment aimed to demonstrate when self recognition had been developed.
Attribution
Attribution
Attribution is the process in which we make judgements about the cause of behaviours. As humans it is important we attempt to understand the actions of others. So we piece together to reach a reasonable conclusion. In doing this we often introduce bias, which leads us to inaccurate inferences regarding human behaviour.
Other factors known to affect behaviour include: Hawthorne effect aka the observer effect – there is a short term improvement in behaviour/efficiency when being watched.
Types of bias.
Fundamental attribution error: Overestimating character traits and minimising external factors as an explanation for behaviour. Often occurs in substance misuse. E.g person takes drugs because they are bad/immoral rather than consider the circumstances.
Self-serving bias. Tendency to attribute positive beahviours to internal factors and negative behaviour to external causes.
Actor observer effect: When comparing our behaviour to others, we have a tendency to attribute external factors to our own behaviours.
Just world hypothesis: This refers to the belief that we live in a just world therefor if something bad happens it was deserving/ you’re a bad person
False: consensus effect: Tendency to view the behaviour of one of a few individuals as representative of the entire group. Racial and cultural stereotypes.
Primacy effect: First impressions often heavily weighted.
Halo effect – assuming a person is whilly good based on a few superficial attributes
Pygmalion effect: self-fulfilling prophecy. If a label attached then will identify and affect results.
Theory of mind
Theory of mind: Is the understanding that others have beliefs/thoughts/feelings distinct from our own. Develops around 3-4 years of age. Autism there might be a deficit. Acute psychosis transient deficit in theory of mind.
Lingusitics: 4 key components of language are:
Semantics; Analyses the connection between language and meanings. Is meaning inherent in language or does it depend on how the individual is speaking.
Pragmatics: Studies the way in which context contributes to meaning.
Syntax: Study of sentence structre
Phonology: studies the organisation of sounds in language.
Methods of persuasive communication
Arousal of guilt
Reciprocity – offering or completing a favour prior to asking
Scarcity
Integration
Social validation
Foot in the door or door in the face teachnique.
Groups
Groups and confronting
Solomon Asch wanted to explore the effect a person’s willingness to conform in group scenario would have on their behaviour.
Asch told his subjects that they were anticipating a visual perception task. He put subjects into groups of eight to ten people. In each group there was only one real subject, with others being researchers in the study posing as other subjects? People would give deliberate wrong answer and others conform.
Wilfred Bion was a psycho analyst who is well known for his observations on group dynamics. He also coined the term containing which refers to the ability of a person or service to absorb another perosns projection.
Group normally split into working group and basic assumption group
Working group focusses on accomplishing the primary task of the group.
Basic assumption group describes the underlying assumptions of the group that influence the way it behaves.
Dependency: Group looks for a leader to provide security and protect them from anxiety. Leader is idealised by the group. Some individuals are more susceptible to this role than others, however group can resent the leader and find a replacement.
Fight-slight- Group unites against a common enemy. Might be shown by aggression (fight), seen in rivalry or if enemy is internal group may act out (flight) by chatting amongst themselves.
Pairing – Works on assumption that the group will be stronger if two of its members are paired.
Potential problems from working in group.
Groupthink – Term coined by Irving Janis in 1972. Occurs when a group of people make poor or irrational decisions because of the pressure to conform or succeed. Group will try and reach a consensus agreement without asking critical questions. Most likely to happen when group insulated from outside opinions, it’s members share similar backgrounds and there is a culture of loyalty and inflated confidence within the group.
Group shift – Phenemona in which initial positions of a group are exaggerated towards a more extreme position. For example in group more likely to make riskier decisions as it is shared.
By stander effect : Diffusion of responsibility
Consent in minors: Gillick competence – Used in medical law to determine if a child under 16 is able to consent to his or her own treatment without need for parental consent.
Court rules: Parental right to determine whether or not a minor child below 16 will have medical treatment terminated if the child achieves sufficient understanding and intelligence to understand fully what is proposed.
Fraser guidelines: Deal with the issue of contraception specifically.
Fraser guidelines state that consent is legal where:
Young person understands professionals advice
Cannot be persuaded to inform parents
Likely to begin or continue having unprotected intercourse
Unless person receives contraception their physical or mental health or both will suffer
Best interst require them to receive contraceptive treatment with or without parental consent.
