Chapter 14

Question 1

How does Operant Conditioning contribute to gender roles?

Answer 1

Even before the child can talk, parents speak to and play with their daughters differently than they do with their sons

Parents will reward children with toy associated with their gender. But few children who asked their parents for toys not associated with their gender were much less likely to get what they wanted.

Question 2

How are Gender-role behaviors acquired through observational learning?

Answer 2

Parents are big role models

gender-role behavior tends to resemble that of our mother or father

children learn which behaviors are expected of males and which are expected of females by watching siblings, playmates, neighbors, and television characters

Question 3

Explain an important step with internalizing gender roles through observational learning:

Answer 3

child must first notice that a behavior is performed more often by one gender than the other

Question 4

How did the way be measure masculinity and femininity change?

Answer 4

Used to be on one continuum (if high masc, automatically low fem)

Changed it so they are independent measures (can be high on both, low on both, or high one one / low on other)

Question 5

What was an early assumption of gender roles and well-being?

Answer 5

the more people’s gender-role behavior matched their gender, the more psychologically healthy they were

Question 6

What is the current thinking around gender roles and well-being? (which group is healthiest)

Answer 6

androgynous people!

Ex. Masculine people do well as long as the situation calls for a masculine response, such as asserting one’s rights or taking over the leadership of a group.
But when masculine individuals are called on to act in a traditionally feminine manner, such as showing compassion or sensitivity, they falter

Question 7

In hypothetical character sketches of individuals from each of the four gender type categories, which is liked the most?

Masculine

Feminine

Androgenous

Undifferentiated

Answer 7

androgynous person is liked more!

Undergraduates in one study said the androgynous person was likely more popular, more interesting, better adjusted, more competent, more intelligent, and more successful than people described in masculine, feminine, or undifferentiated terms

• Also found androgenous ppl = more romantically desirable

Question 8

do these impressions of hypothetical people translate into actual desirability of androgenous people?

Answer 8

masculine men and feminine women paired up enjoyed their interactions the least.

• More enjoyment when androgenous person is paired up with somebody (other persons group doesn’t really matter)

Question 9

Does the desirability of androgenous people translate to long-term realtionships?

Answer 9

Researchers find the highest level of relationship satisfaction among people who are married to either an androgynous or a feminine spouse; that is someone who possesses feminine characteristics

Question 10

What is it that makes feminine or androgynous people preferable romantic partners? (two reasons)

Answer 10

1. Higher on femininity: affectionate, compassionate, and sensitive to others’ needs
2. able to express romantic feelings (sensitivity and the understanding needed for intimacy as well as the assertiveness and willingness to take the risks required to make things happen)

Question 11

What is the difference between communion (femininity) and unmitigated communion?

(Basically, ex. being feminine, or being on the extreme of femininity)

Answer 11

unmitigated communion (femininity): can become so concerned with taking care of others that they sacrifice their own needs and interests. Also don’t assert themselves

Issues:
-People high in unmitigated communion tend to score low on measures of well-being and self-esteem

• Health issues might take a back-seat when it comes to caring for their family (wont do bed rest etc)

Question 12

What is the difference between agency (masculinity) and unmitigated agency?

(Basically being masculine vs being on extreme of masculinity)

Answer 12

Unmitigated Agency (masculine): insensitive to the needs of others and who always opts to go his own way. Such individuals tend to be narcissistic, focusing on themselves to the exclusion of others

Issues:
- Will not accept help from others (even if health is on the line)
- few close friends and are reluctant to seek or receive help from others

Question 13

What does decades of research say about IRL aggression and media aggression?

Answer 13

people exposed to aggressive models sometimes imitate the aggressive behavior

Question 14

Why do individuals sometimes imitate aggression when most of the time they do not? (Bandura’s Answer)

Answer 14

Observational learning and performance consist of four interrelated processes.

People must go through each of four steps before exposure to aggression leads them to act aggressively

Question 15

Explain Bandura’s four steps of exposure that leads ppl to act aggressively:

1. attend
2. remember
3. enact
4. expect

Answer 15

1. attend to the aggressive action
   - Pay attention to aggressive act (sometimes ppl do this when frustrated)
2. remember the information
   - Practice and mental rehearsal can keep the action fresh in our minds
3. enact what they have seen
   - Might know from movies how to hold and fire gun, but don’t have access to one. shooting someone with a handgun is one learned behavior I will probably never enact
4. expect that rewards will be forthcoming
   - “elementary school bullies often believe their aggressive acts toward other children will result in higher social status and popularity”
   - learn what is likely to happen to us as a result of imitating aggressive actions (if aggressive hero is praised, might act the same way)

Question 16

Do spouse abuse at home, criminal activity in the neighborhood, and playground fights at school effect violence in children?

Answer 16

the more children are exposed to this type of violence, the more likely it is that they will turn to violence themselves

Question 17

Do children imitate justified and unjustified violence equally?

Answer 17

people are more likely to imitate aggressive behavior that is portrayed as justified

Children are more likely to imitate a superhero who smacks around a bad guy for the good of society than a supervillain who acts violently only for his own good. Children see that the villain is punished

Question 18

Does Viewing aggression increase the likelihood of acting aggressively especially over a short time span?

Answer 18

Yes

Question 19

How do they test aggression after viewing aggression?

Answer 19

Typically, participants watch a segment from either a violent or an arousing but nonviolent program or movie.

Then, they are given the opportunity to act aggressively against another individual, often by administering what they believe to be electric shocks or loud noise that will hurt the other person.

In almost all cases, participants who watch the violence act more aggressively than those who see the nonviolent clip.

Question 20

Limitation to short term aggression after viewing aggression?

Answer 20

The effects typically are short-lived, and the opportunity to hurt another person provided by the experimenter is unique (might not be applicable irl)

Question 21

What were the results of long-term field studies to gauge the impact of exposure to violence and aggressive behavior outside the laboratory?

( researchers use the amount and kind of television children watched at one point in their lives to predict how aggressive the children will be at a later date)

Answer 21

researchers found a significant relationship between the amount of television the participants watched as children and the likelihood that they would have been convicted for criminal behavior by age 30

Question 22

What is one potential issue with measuring amount of TV watched and violence later in life?

Answer 22

possibility that the children watched television because they were aggressive, not the other way around

BUT: research shows that aggressive people prefer aggressive television programs

• when researchers control for the child’s initial aggressiveness level, the findings still suggest that watching television causes the later aggressive behavior

Question 23

Is there a connection between playing violent video games and some disturbing behaviors?

Answer 23

Yes, usually aggression

Question 24

What features of video games do psychologists find worrying?

Answer 24

1. Players don’t just watch violence, but play close attention and engage in it
2. designed to reward violence (more you do, higher your reward)

Question 25

Explain the results of a 4 year study of teens, to see if glorified risk in video games impacted IRL?

Answer 25

the more participants played video games that glorified risk, the more likely the teenagers were to engage in high-risk behaviors like binge-drinking
(another found more physical fights)

Question 26

What is learned helplessness?

Answer 26

cognitive, motivational, and emotional deficits that follow a perceived lack of control over important aversive events.

Ex. A fourth-grade boy does poorly on a math test. He becomes frustrated and distressed on his next few math assignments and eventually refuses to even try. He begins to struggle in other subjects and soon loses interest in school altogether.

Question 27

Explain Learning to Be Helpless in the dog shock experiment:

Answer 27

• Shocked dog: no way for it so escape

Then:
-Situation where escape is possible
- Non previously shocked dogs would escape when shocked
- Shocked dog would lie down and cry

the animals had learned that they were helpless ( the dogs inappropriately generalized what they had learned in the first situation to the second situation.)

Question 28

How did they test Learned Helplessness in Humans?

Answer 28

Same experiment with loud noise

Participants were told they could turn off the noise by solving a problem

However, other participants were given problems for which there were no solutions. Like the dogs in the earlier studies, these people soon learned there was no way to escape the aversive stimulus.

Then: Second situation with problem that can actually be solved:
participants who had felt helpless to turn off the noise performed significantly worse on the second set of problems. Like the dogs in the shuttle-box, they appeared to have inappropriately generalized their perception of helplessness in one situation to a new, controllable situation.

Question 29

What are Some Applications of Learned Helplessness?

• in the Elderly
• Psychological Disorders

Answer 29

• in the Elderly
• Are communities that cater to elderly engaging in learned helplessness?
• Live under great control, might contribute to learned generalization of learned helplessness.
• Patients encouraged to take responsibility and given responsibility to care for plant had a 93% improvement. (other group had staff take care of plant)
• Psychological Disorders
  
  • observed that depressed patients often act as if they are helpless to control what happens to them
  • people perceive a lack of control over one important part of their lives and inappropriately generalize that perception to other situations.
  • Causes them to feel depressed

Question 30

What is the locus of control? (+ health example)

Answer 30

A personality trait that divides people along a continuum according to the extent to which they believe what happens to them and others is controllable

Ex. if feel health is cuz taking care of yourself = internal locus on control

If feel health is luck = external

Question 31

Are internals or externals happier?

Answer 31

researchers find that, with a few exceptions, internals tend to be happier than externals

Question 32

Connection between locus of control and psychological disorders:

Answer 32

People suffering from psychological disorders tend to be more external than internal

Why?
- It may be that externals often find themselves in situations similar to that of research participants who cannot control important outcomes (learned helplessness)
- patients described themselves in more external terms as they became more suicidal.

Question 33

notes of caution when interpreting the findings of locus of control and depression:

Answer 33

1. Most external ppl are happy and adjusted (small minority they studied)
2. The relationship is correlational ( it is difficult to make strong statements about external locus of control causing the disorder)
3. the strength of the relationship between locus of control and depression may vary from culture to culture (Collectivist: found weaker association)

Question 34

Connection between locus of control and achievement:

Answer 34

• Indicator of well-being in western society = Achievement
• Internal = better in careers too
  -internal students receive higher grades and better teacher evaluations than externals

Why?
- See themselves as responsible for their results

This also seems to be applicable across cultures

Question 35

Connection between locus of control and psychotherapy results:

Answer 35

• clients tend to become more internal as they pass through successful psychotherapy
• Should therapists give control to patients?
  internals respond well when given control over their treatment

   externals sometimes do better when treatment remains in the therapist’s hands

Question 36

Are internals or externals in better health?

Answer 36

internals are in better health than externals

Externals = think not much they can do to avoid health issues

Internals = think they have big role in personal health (also take steps to be healthy: exercise, control stress, seek information about health issues,

Question 37

Besides internal / external, what is a big thing that signifies better health in individuals?

Answer 37

You also need to place great value on good health.

Question 38

health professionals face two tasks when trying to get patients to take better care of themselves, what are they? (summary)

Answer 38

1. Patients must place their health high on their list of things they value
2. they must believe that they can influence the extent to which they are healthy.