Chapter 8

Question 1

What is Henry Murray’s “Need for achievement”

Answer 1

the desire “to accomplish something difficult; to master, manipulate or organize … to overcome obstacles and attain a high standard; to excel one’s self”

Basically: Desire to accomplish things

Question 2

How did early researchers measure strength of a participant’s need for Achievement?

Answer 2

by coding the participant’s responses on the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Question 3

What did the need for achievement researchers want to specially measure?

Answer 3

focused on entrepreneurial behavior (not super into arts or sciences)

Question 4

What did researchers find out about about people with a high need for Achievement?

Answer 4

They do not always fit our stereotypes of a highly successful businessperson.
-For example, we might guess that someone with a high need for Achievement is not afraid to take huge risks to get ahead. But as it turns out, high need achievers are only moderate risk takers.

Predictably, people with a high need for Achievement tackle their work with a lot of energy. But high need achievers don’t work hard at everything. Unchallenging, routine jobs hold no more interest for high need achievers than they do for anyone else

Question 5

What are some gender differences with need for Achievement?

Answer 5

men and women often think about achievement in different ways (cuz of gender role socialization)
- Ex. A businesswoman might value success at work, but on occasion she may put other concerns—such as the welfare of her customers—ahead of her personal accomplishments.

Men rely on external standards as accomplishment (gaining prestige or recognition) Women rely on internal standards (whether they accomplish what they set out to do)

Question 6

What are culture differences in need for achievement?

Answer 6

Individualistic: Personal achievements
- Competition with coworkers (motivate them to try harder)

collectivistic: cooperation and group accomplishments.
- Concern for coworkers (motivated to help coworkers succeed)

Question 7

What does our attribution dictate?

Answer 7

determines how we feel about the performance (ex. midterm exam) and how we perform in similar situations in the future.

Question 8

Explain the three main dimensions of attribution?

Stability:

Locus:

Control:

Answer 8

Stability: We can explain our performance by pointing to stable causes, such as intelligence, or to unstable causes, such as luck

Locus: Can be external - difficult test- or internal - amount of effort

Control: whether we can control or not control the cause of the success or failure

Question 9

How can the attribute approach be used to improve achievement motivation?

Answer 9

change people’s attributions

Ex. Students who fail a test,

- In particular, the students were encouraged to make controllable attribution for their performances (e.g., I need to develop better studying strategies)

Question 10

What are Achievement Goals?

Answer 10

Targets people aspire to in achievement situations

Thing you aspire to do / get

Question 11

What are Mastery goals in Achievement Goals?

Answer 11

concerned with developing competence. Students motivated by a strong mastery goal will work hard to learn the subject matter in a course

Question 12

What are Performance goals in Achievement Goals?

Answer 12

concerned with demonstrating accomplishments to others. Students motivated by strong performance goals want to obtain a high grade, possibly the highest grade in the class

Question 13

Explain the difference between approach goals and avoidance goals?

Answer 13

motivated either by a desire to achieve a sense of mastery (approach) or by a wish to not feel incompetent (avoidance).

Approach: I want to do well on the exam

Avoidance: I don’t want to fail and look stupid

Question 14

Are some achievement goals are more effective than others?

Answer 14

mastery goals lead to high achievement
- Do better and remember skills / info longer
(Also: often continue their interest in the material after recognition for the achievement has passed)

Question 15

Is a reliance on performance goal bad?

Answer 15

No,

In some cases, researchers find that a combination of mastery and performance goals can be particularly effective

Note: However, the advantages of focusing on performance appear to be limited to performance approach goals

Students motivated only by a desire to not receive a poor grade tend to do more poorly than those who come to class with other achievement goal

Question 16

Are our achievement goal traits stable?

Answer 16

Yes, a great deal of stability in the use of achievement goals in high school and college students

students sometimes adopt different achievement goals depending on the situation (So adaptable)

Question 17

In short: Explain origin of type A personality?

Answer 17

Heart attack victims were more active, more energetic, and more driving than those without cardiovascular problems.

researchers identified this personality dimension as the coronary-prone behavior pattern (Pattern of behaviors associated with the disease)

Later, this individual difference was called Type A–Type B, or sometimes just Type A

Question 18

Type A and Type B personalities are a spectrum, describe each end:

Answer 18

TYPE A

Motivated to overcome obstacles

Like competition, power, and recognition

Don’t like wasting time

Find easy going ppl frustrating

TYPE B

Relaxed and unhurried

Work hard occasionally

Less likely then A to seek: competition or to be aroused to anger or action.

Question 19

Is type A or B more likely to dominate a group discussion?

Answer 19

Type As are more likely than Type Bs to dominate a group discussion (More controlling - Amy)

Question 20

Which personality type (A or B) does better on achievement tasks?

Answer 20

Type A

One reason for this difference is that Type As tend to set higher goals for themselves (Also blood and heart rate go up in competition)

Question 21

Which personality type (A or B) has a higher risk of heart disease?

Answer 21

Type A

Type A men in one 8½-year study had more than twice the incidence of heart disease than Type B men

 In another investigation, Type A was a better predictor of heart attacks than cholesterol level or cigarette smoking

Question 22

Multiple studies found conflicting findings over type A personality and predicting health issues, what is their solution?

Answer 22

led some researchers to look for the “toxic component” of Type A behavior

Question 23

What is the “toxic component” of Type A behavior?

Answer 23

hostility component as the culprit
- tend to have a strong reaction to the small frustrations and inconveniences we all experience

Several investigations find that scores on hostility and anger measures do a good job of predicting coronary artery disease

In a longitudinal study: the high-anger participants were nearly three times as likely to be hospitalized or die from heart disease during the study.

Question 24

Why is hostility related to cardiovascular problems?

Answer 24

unhealthy lifestyles

poor social support

immune system weaknesses

blood lipid levels

Other studies find that people high in hostility frequently exhibit the kind of physiological reactions associated with cardiovascular problems, such as high blood pressure

Question 25

Can we help people avoid the negative health effects?

Answer 25

evidence that programs designed to help potential cardiovascular victims reduce their anger can be effective

Question 26

What is social anxiety?

Answer 26

anxiety related specifically to social interactions or anticipated social interactions.

We all experience stress towards a social event (each of us can be placed along a continuum for how much social anxiety we typically experience)

Question 27

Is social anxiety the same as introversion?

Answer 27

It is not the same as introversion.

Difference: Whereas introverts often choose to be by themselves, the vast majority of socially anxious people do not like their shyness

Question 28

What are some Characteristics of Socially Anxious People?

Answer 28

• feeling awkward and nervous when they have to talk to others
• concerned about what others will think of them

-assume incorrectly that other people simply are not interested in getting to know them

• socially anxious students felt they were less liked and had come across as less competent than did the non-anxious participants.

Question 29

What do shy people look like in the minds of others?

Answer 29

The people they interact with also identify shy people as more tense, inhibited, and unfriendly than non-shy people

Question 30

In short: How do socially anxious people engage in conversation?

Answer 30

people high in social anxiety expect their social interactions to go poorly and look for evidence that the other person is rejecting them

Question 31

What is evaluation apprehension?

Answer 31

Researchers think it’s an underlying cause of social anxiety.

socially anxious people are afraid of what other people think of them (Fear negative emotion)

Question 32

How do socially anxious people deal with this fear of negative evaluation?

Answer 32

Often, they simply avoid social encounters altogether. They skip parties where they might not know anyone

If that doesn’t work: They will do what they can to reduce the amount of social interaction (Ex. One way they do this is by avoiding eye contact)

they do what they can to control the impressions others have of them

Question 33

Where do we find higher rates of shyness?

Answer 33

in cultures that emphasize concern for what others think of you and the importance of avoiding criticism

Question 34

Are shy people hopeless?

Answer 34

No! For some it’s starting the convo that is stressful, and are fine after it’s going.

Social anxiety could be less of a problem when with friends

Question 35

What are some of these consistent patterns with emotion? ( three ways our emotions can be examined as relatively stable personal characteristics)

Answer 35

First, each of us differs in the extent to which we typically experience positive and negative emotions.

Second, we differ in the typical strength of the emotions we experience.

Third, we differ in the way we express our emotions

Question 36

Positive and Negative Affect Examples:

Answer 36

Positive Affect:
High: we find emotions like active, content, and satisfied.

Low: sad and lethargic

Negative Affect:
High: nervousness, anger, and distress.

Low: calm and serene.

Question 37

How are positive and negative affect related?

Answer 37

later studies found support for the more intuitive notion that being high on one of these dimensions means being low on the other

• the more I experience positive emotions like happiness and contentment, the less likely I am to experience anger and anxiety.

Question 37

What is emotional affectivity?

Answer 37

The extent to which people typically experience positive and negative emotions.

Question 38

Do differences in positive and negative affect predict a number of important behaviors?

Answer 38

Yes!

Positive:
people who are high in trait positive affect tend to be in better health than those who are low on this dimension

high in trait positive affect also act in ways that most people find attractive

Negative:
generally related to psychological stress

Studies also find that negative affect is related to complaints about health (also seem to complain more about symptoms)

Question 39

Why do positive affect people tend to engage in much social activity?

Answer 39

1. positive feelings cause you to want to be around friends or
2. being around friends makes you more positive

Question 40

What is Affect Intensity?

Answer 40

refers to the strength or degree to which people typically experience their emotions (mild reactions, vs extreme reactions)

Why?
Studies find that high-intensity people tend to overestimate the extent to which events will affect them and often draw unwarranted conclusions based on one good or one bad experience

Question 41

Is it better to be high on affect intensity and really experience life or low on this dimension and maintain a steady and calm approach to achievements and calamities?

Answer 41

Nope, score about the same on well-being

Question 42

What is Emotional expressiveness?

Answer 42

The extent to which people outwardly express their emotions

researchers find that women tend to be more expressive of their emotions than men (and women are better at reading emotions)

Question 43

Is expressing emotions good for us?

Answer 43

Yes

Participants identified as highly expressive were happier and experienced less anxiety and guilt than those who were low in expressiveness. Other researchers using similar procedures find that expressive people are less prone to depression

Question 44

What is dispositional optimism?

Answer 44

The extent to which a person typically adopts an optimistic or pessimistic approach to dealing with life’s challenges

Ppl are consistent with which they adopt

Question 45

Is being optimistic or pessimistic better?

Answer 45

People who take an optimistic approach to life tend to achieve more than those who don’t

Optimists set their goals higher, effectively prioritize their goals, and believe they can reach those goals

Also higher grades and less likely to drop out

Question 46

Were Japanese students more optimistic or pessimistic?

Answer 46

Japanese students consistently expressed a more pessimistic outlook than the Canadians.

Other investigators find that Asians typically have lower scores on dispositional optimism measures than participants from individualistic cultures

Question 47

Are optimists or pessimists better in adverse situations?

Answer 47

optimists deal with adverse situations better than pessimists.

men recovering from coronary artery bypass surgery were compared for general mood and quality of life 6 months after the surgery.

As in the other investigations, the dispositionally optimistic men looked much better after their surgery than did the pessimists.

Question 48

What is it about optimists that helps them come through life’s crises and challenges so well?

Answer 48

optimists and pessimists use different strategies to cope with their problems (more goal focused) (active coping strategies)

Pessimist may use denial as coping strategy

Question 49

Is optimism good for your health? Why?

Answer 49

Optimists are typically in better physical health than pessimists

First, optimists are more likely than pessimists to develop wide social networks and to turn to friends in times of crisis

Second, optimism and pessimism can lead to physiological changes that affect one’s health.
-Ex. When the law students felt more optimistic, they had stronger immune systems than when they were feeling more pessimistic

Third, and perhaps the most likely reason optimists are healthier than pessimists, an optimistic outlook leads to the kinds of attitudes and behaviors that contribute to good health.
– Ex. In Patients with heart condition = Compared to the pessimists in the program, the optimistic patients were more successful in reducing saturated fat from their diet, decreasing body fat, and increasing their aerobic capacity

Finally, the fatalistic view taken by pessimists may prevent them from practicing reasonable safety and health precautions, such as wearing a seat belt or using a designated driver