exam 1 material Flashcards
Case Study (Strenghts and Weaknesses)
Strengths
o Provide excellent description of an individual
o One can find commonalities and form a hypothesis (kids who watch violent movies act violent)
o Disconfirm beliefs?????
WEAKNESSES
o Cannot be replicated at a later time
o Cannot prove anything
o Could be based on retrospective reporting (memory) which is not reliable
o Cannot generalize the results to others (because people are different results of one case study does not apply to everyone)
Correlational study
o Answers questions about the relationship between two variables aka how is a related to b
o Pearson correlation ranges from -1 to 1 with 1 being the highest Positive correlation and 0 meaning no correlation
o Positive correlation occurs when both variables move in the same direction (as x increases so does y)
o Negative correlation occurs when the variables move in different directions (as x decreases y increases
Strenths
o Simple
o Inexpensive
o Can be used to circumvent ethical issues
Weakness
o Correlations does not equal causation
o A extraneous variable could be the cause of the issue (bananas are not related to divorce but there is a strong correlation between the two)
EXPERIMENT
o Internal validity (the reason for an outcome HAS to be due to the ID
o Use matching and random assignment to increase internal validity
o External validity (the ability to generalize to other groups based on the results of your experimental group.
o One must balance between control and the ability to generalize and experiment
MMPI 2
• Strength
o Communicate degree of overall disturbance (in contrast the mmpi cannot determine the source of the disturbance)
Validty Scales of MMPI 2
o Cannot say scale- ( counts the # of times someone does not answer a question this is significant because there is a predetermined relationship between questions and answers so a blank says something about the subject)
o Lie Scale-(Asses how hard a person is trying to look normal
o Frequency Scale (uses repeat questions to measure carelessness)
o Correlation Scale (measure the extent to which a person will not answer questions that make them seem as if they have something wrong with them ex. Do you have a headache answer. No I never have headaches ever. The subject makes it seem as if nothing is wrong ever.
Supplimentary Scales (Scales created using more than one factor ex. Anxiety + depression= some other psychological thing)
o Repression
o Ego Strenght
o Dominance
Biases in self report data (by self report we mean the mmpi 2 or similar things)
- ) ATTITUDES don’t correlate with behavior (aka they are faking the test)
a. People don’t want to look good or bad
b. False positives (people want to look bad?) - ) Social desirability
a. People will answer test items in a socialy desirable way
i. One can test for this by using neutral questions such as asking the subject if they are easily awakened by noise. There is no right answer to this question
b. Use a forced choice inventory in which social desirability cannot be found in the answers (some argue that social desirability is a large part of psychology and should not be removed from self report data.)
Alternatives to self report data
- ) Ratings (have people close to the subject fill out the questionnaire)
a. Problems with ratings
i. Ex. A mother will answer positively about her daughter
ii. The rater thinks certain traits go together
iii. The contrast error - The rater does not use an objective (fair) scale
- ) Nominations
a. Group of peers or involved people fill out a questionnaire concerning the subject
i. Ex. Classmates fill out a questionnaire concerning the way Johnny acts in class. 60% say he fidgets and gets up in class. He might have adhd - ) Direct Observation
a. Watch the subject directly and record how they behave
i. Strenghts - doesnt rely on self reports
- more realistic
ii. Weaknessess - Large time investment
- Reactivity
a. The presence of a watcher or camera or two way mirror could change the way that people behave.
PYSCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVE
Assumptions
- Personality is dynamic
a. Behavior is caused by something eg. An unconscious force we cannot control - Personality is dynamic
a. Excahgne of energy between different forces of the mind (this energy is not unlimted. - Personality is Organized
a. There are different functions of different emotions - Development
a. Personality is developed by age 5 so these years are very important
Frueds Dream theory
- Dreams are the best source about what is happening in ones unconscious mind Dreams are significant and have meaning
- Two Types of dream content
a. Latent
i. THe actual underlying meaning ex. My teeth fall out because im nervous
b. Manifest
i. What you remember from a dream - This is not always true
Dreamwork
- The process of modifying a dream
Condensation
- The ego combines and compresses dreams into one
Displacement
- Shifting the emphasis in a dream
Censorship
- It is what it is
Symbolic substitution
- The use for a symbol that substitutes for something less threatening
a. A silo is a penis… anything taller than wide is a penis… everything is a penis
Process of dream Interpretation
- Person reports manifest content
- Person makes associations
- Analyst interprets latent content
Projective
• Standard set of vague stimuli in which the subject is supposed to project themselves
- Response reveals something about personality
a. Ink Blot –if the person sees his father murder his mother in an ink blot something is probably wrong
4 categories of projectives
- Associative
a. What do you think of when you see this ink blot? - Construction
- Completion
- Expression
Validity of Projectives
• Today they are used in a secondary fashion becase they are not vary reliable
b. Regression
i. A person will return to earlier more succesfull mechanism to cope with difficult times. Behaviors are often less mature
c. Undoing
i. Individual tries to compensate for unacceptable behaviors
d. Reaction Formation
i. Mante Teo denying that he is gay on public television
e. Defense projection
i. Attributes ones own unacceptable impulses on someone else
1. 3 step process
a. Repress impulse
b. Project impules one someone else
c. Distance yourself from the person you are projection on to.
f. Displacement
i. Yell at your wife because your boss was a dick
1. The ego shifts the expression of an impulse from an unacceptable target to an easy safe target
g. Rationalization
i. Trying to find logic in what you are doing
1. Saving face
2. Everyone does this