Exam 3 Review Flashcards
Social Psychology
- The study of how people influence thoughts, behaviors, and attitudes
- Humans are highly social
Attitudes
- fundamental attribution error (FAE)
- cognitive dissonance
Attribution:
- Process by which we assign causes to behavior
- (as humans we are prone to trying to explain why something occurs)
FAE:
- tendency to overestimate dispositional influences on others’ behavior
and underestimate situational influences on others behavior
Jones and harris (1967):
The castro study
-Debators: students were randomly assigned to defend pro- or anti- Castro positions in a debate
- REGARDLESS of their actual feelings
- Raters: subjects were asked to rate how actually pro- Castro they thought the debators were
- Raters thought pro- castro debators were actually pro- castro, DESPITE knowing topics were assigned
attributes behavior to internal rather than external causes
- When reasoning about ourselves, we do the opposite!
-Overestimate situational factors
- Underestimate dispositional factors
Cognitive dissonance theory
- Unpleasant feeling of tension or unrest that results from conflicting thoughts or beliefs
- Humans dont like to feel this way. So, we use clever strategies for getting around it
dissonance reduction strategies
(all involved changing our minds after an action)
-Avoid dissonant information
-Firm up beleifs to justify an action (preference reports)
-Generate a new belief to reconcile the conflict (seekers cult)
-Change a beleif to justify an action (insufficient-justification effect)
Conformity
- tendency to alter behavior as a result of group pressure
o Face the rear video: confederates all face away from the elevator door and the candid subject will eventually turn away as well due to conformity
Festinger and Carlsmith (1959):
- Participants completed extremely boring task
- Were paid to lie about experiment to next subject (either $1 or $20)
- Then they were asked to rate the study’s enjoyableness
- People offered $1 to lie rated the experiment as more enjoyable
(insufficient justification)
Social Influence
- When the presence of others influences our behaviors
- Conformity
o Asch’s conformity experiment - Bystander Non-intervention
Why do we conform?
Two general reasons:
- Information influence: Others might know better
- Normative influence: we want to fit in
Asch Experiments
- Tested whether people conform and why
- Subjects seated in a group of 6-8 people
- Asked to perform a simple visual perception task
- BUT – all other people are confederates (actors)
- Confederates were instructed to give the wrong answer
- Actual subject seated second-to-last
Results: (asch)
- 75% of subjects conformed at least once
o Some on all, some only 1 or 2 trials - On average, subjects conformed about 40% of the time
Factors that influenced conformity:
Unanimity: if another person gave the correct answer, conformity dropped
* Differences in wrong answer: if others differed from the majority, conformity dropped
* Group size: a larger group resulted in greater conformity, up to ~5-6 people
But why did subjects conform?
- In another version, subjects were asked to write down their answers, instead of saying them out loud
o Much less conformity in written answers
o Suggests NORMATIVE influence is responsible
Kitty Genovese
- “37 who saw murder didn’t call the police”
- She was attacked and chased after by a man. Tried to get away and get help but everyone just watched. Nobody helped.
Bystander Nonintervention
the presence of others makes us less likely to act in emergencies
Bystander nonintervention…why?
Two reasons:
- Pluralistic ignorance: error of assuming no one in a group perceives things as we do
When something strange happens:
o Social referencing: looks to others for cues
o We tend to act in accordance with others - Diffusion of responsibility: the presence of others makes each person feel less personally responsible
Personality
e.g.
-Genetic & Environmental Influences
-Minnesota twin studies
-Adoption studies
Traits
- Relatively consistent predispositions that influence our behaviour across situations
- Individual characteristics rather than overarching set of characteristics
How do we develop traits?
Interplay between genes & environment
Genetic factors:
Genetic influence on personality
- ½ from each parent
Shared Environmental factors:
Experiences individual share (and make us more alike)
Example: Birth Order matters
- Early born
–> Achievement driven, tend towards status quo - Middle born
–>Diplomacy driven, experiences aligned with both sides - Late born
–> More likely to take risks, rebel, support radical ideas
Non-shared environmental factors:
Experiences individuals do not share (and make us less alike)
Twin Studies
- Fraternal (Dizygotic twins)
–> Share 50% genetic info
–> Same as if 2 siblings born at once - Identical (Monozygotic twins)
–> Share 100% genetic info - Allows for study of genetic contributions to personality
–> Test how traits vary when genes don’t vary
Minnesota Twin Studies
- Longitudinal study of twins conducted by minnesota university
–> Investigating genetic and environmental influences on the development of psychological traits
–> Put together registries of twins for study
–> 130 pairs of twins that were raised apart
How much of personality is genetic?
How well do the traits of identical twins correlate?
- About 50% similar
- Genetic factors DO influence personality, but not all of it
Does a shared environment influence personality?
Do traits of monozygotic twins raised apart differ more than traits of monozygotic twins raised together?
- Nope.
- Shared environment has very little influence on personality
Adoption Studies
- Children adopted at birth are compared to adopted parents and birth parents
–> More similar to their biological parents despite them being raised by their adopted parents - Separated biological siblings are more alike than adopted siblings raised in the same home
- Genes appear to influence personality but do not determine it
- Causes of personality aren’t simple
–> Personality: “Polygenic trait”
° Influenced by sets of genes
–> No evidence for single “trait genes”
–> Many different genes and factors involved
Takeaways
Genetics do influence personality, but not all of it
What is a psychological disorder?
- Difficult to define, even for professionals
- Psychological disorders are complex and diverse
- What we consider “abnormal” isn’t stable
- Varies across time and culture
- Family-resemblance view: members of a category share some, but not necessarily all, features
Statistical rarity:
are uncommon in the population
Subjective distress:
causes the person distress
Impairment:
interfere with daily functioning
Societal disapproval:
socially unacceptable
Biological dysfunction:
involves brain impairments
Diagnosis: how do we define and diagnose?
- DSM-5: manual outlining a standard system for labeling and diagnosing mental disorders
o Biopsychosocial approach: recognizes the interplay of biological, psychological, and social factors
Classifying individuals—
- Classifying individuals can be helpful
- Classifying individuals can be harmful
- We do not classify individuals by their diagnosis
- Say “individual with schizophrenia” not “schizophrenic”
- Comorbidity: co-occurrence of 2 or more diagnoses
o Ex: panic disorder and agoraphobia
these disorders are “comorbid”
Cultural Variations
- what we consider a mental disorder is culturally determined
o homosexuality - some mental disorders are culturally specific
o anorexia
o koro: a cultural belief that genitals will be sucked into the abdomen and eventually disappear
o taijin kyofusho: anxiety “I’m so offensive to you that I have to stay away” - Rates of disorders vary across cultures
o ADHD
Anxiety Disorders
- Panic disorder
- Generalized anxiety disorder
- Phobias
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder
*Post-traumatic stress disorder (related to classification)
Anxiety Disorder
- Disorders in which the most common symptom is fear or anxiety
- 29% of people will meet the criteria for an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives
Panic Disorder –
- Panic: feelings of helpless terror
- Panic attack: brief, intense episodes of extreme fear and feelings of impending death or insanity
o May feel: heart racing, shortness of breath, dizziness
o No specific trigger: can occur at any time without warning
Characteristics: - Anxiety related to having panic attacks
Panic Disorder Diagnosis:
Diagnosis:
- Experienced at least two panic attacks
- Each followed by at least 1 month of anxiety over the occurrence of another attack
- 2-5% of the US population meet criteria
- 20-25% of college students report at least one panic attack
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) Characteristics
- Constant, undifferentiated worry
- Worry about common things, but much more
- Muscle tension
- Difficulty sleeping
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) Diagnosis:
- At least 6 months of self-disrupting worry, independent of any other disorder
- 3-6% of US population meet criteria
Obedience
- adherence to instructions from those of higher authority
- good and sides (Helps us to accomplish goals, helps society run smoothly)
Miligram Experiment
- subjects responded to newspaper ad for a memory experiment
- were assigned roles as “teacher” and “learner
- learner’s job was to memorize word pairs, for each mistake, the teacher administered a shock
- shocks increased in voltage with each mistakes (15-450 volts)
- learners make frequent mistakes
*if the teacher hesitates, the experimenter replies with scripted responses such as “experiment must go on” - measured how far subjects would go
Milgram experiment predictions
*Experts at time predicted: most people would not go past 150 volts, only 1/1000 people
* learner is a confederate, was not actually shocked (the experiment is rigged so that the subject is always the teacher)
Milgram experiment results
*Approximately 2/3 of subjects administered the highest shock
Some factors influencing obedience:
- proximity
–> closer to learner: decrease in obedience
–> closer to experiment: increase in obedience - legitimacy of authority:
–> college campus
–> presence of lab coat
Deindividuation
- Tendency for people to engage in uncharacteristic behavior when stripped of usual identity (Stanford experiment)
- people behave more like a group, less like an individual (feeling of anonymity)
Stanford Prison Study:
- Brought to basement of psychology building
–> Designed as a “prison” - Each given role signifier
–> Guards wear khaki uniforms and mirrored glasses
–> Create authority, anonymity - Prisoners referred to by number, wore prison garb with their number on it
- Guards told their job is to keep prisoners in line
RESULTS: - By the second day the subjects internalised their roles
- Guards behaved cruelly, demanding prisoners to perform humiliating tasks
- Prisoners waged rebellions, held hunger strikes, became depressed & hopeless
- 2 prisoners released early due to emotional disturbance
- 2-week experiment terminated after only 6 days
CONCLUSIONS: - Subjects deindividuated
–> No longer individuals, but “prisoners” and “guards”
–> Lost themselves in their social roles
LESSONS: - The “power of the situation” can cause us to be less self-aware
- especially when acting as part of a group
Specific phobia:
Arachnophobia (starts to interfere with daily activities)
Acrophobia
fear of heights extreme. What makes someone have a phobia aside from regular fear is diagnosis and it makes you incapable of doing things you would usually be able to do
Agoraphobia:
“fear of the marketplace”
-fear situations where escape may be difficult, or help may not be available if needed
Social anxiety disorder:
- excessive fear of social situations; being closely watched, judged, and criticized by others
- Diagnosis: Fear must be long-standing and disrupt normal functioning
7-13% of U.S. population meet criteria at some point in their lives
Obsessive compulsive order (OCD)-
Obsession and/or compulsions must consume at least one hour each day and seriously interfere with daily functioning
1-2% of U.S. population meet criteria
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Marked emotional disturbance after extremely traumatic event
–> common in soldiers
flashbacks and/or nightmares
–> loss of sleep
startling easily
Diagnosis-
–> prevalent distress stemming from dangerous or life threatening event
up to 7% of the U.S. population may meet criteria
(But rates vary with culture and world events)
Major depressive disorder:
- Actual name for when you say “they have depression”
- prolonged sadness, self-blame
feelings of worthlessness - absence of pleasure
changes in sleep or eating habits
suicidal thoughts
Diagnosis:
very severe symptoms that last at least 2 weeks
up to 16% of U.S. population meets criteria
Persistent depressive disorder:
(AKA Dysthymia DSM4)
Mild depressive symptoms for at least two years
Bipolar Disorder
Characteristics:
- Presence of both depressive and manic episodes, in alternation
- Manic episode
o Dramatically elevated mood
o Heighten self-esteem
o Decreased need for sleep
o Hyperactivity
o Reckless decisions
Bipolar Disorder Diagnosis:
- Depression and experience of at least one manic episode
- 3-4% of US population meet criteria
- Bipolar I: manic episodes and major depression
- Bipolar II: hypomania (mild) and major depression
- Cyclothymia: mild form of BP—characterized by Persistent Depressive Disorder (PDD) and at least one episode of mild mania
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
AKA: Multiple Personality Disorder
Characteristics:
- Presence of two or more distinct identities that recurrently take control of one person’s body
- Identities called “alters”
o Can be different ages, genders, races
o Usually, distinct personalities and /or abilities that differ from the “host” personality
Including handwriting, eyeglass prescriptions, etc. - Not well understood and highly controversial
Explanations:
- Posttraumatic model
o Coping mechanism – severe child abuse results in compartmentalizing of the self
o Other alters arise to cope with situations when the host is overwhelmed - Sociocognitive model
o Alters are mainly created in therapy through suggestion, hypnosis, and coaxing
o Ex: diagnosis of DID tends to follow media attention
Schizophrenia
- Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder
o Class of disorders involving disruptions in thoughts, perceptions, emotions, etc
Characteristics:
- Severe disorder of thought and emotions, associated with a break from reality
- Severe impairment in daily functioning and relationships
- Symptoms are highly variable
Diagnosis:
- Severe impairment of everyday functioning, plus at least 2/5 of the following:
o Delusions: strongly held beliefs with no basis in reality
Delusion of persecution
Delusions of being controlled
Delusion of grandeur
o Hallucinations: sensory perceptions that occur in the absence of external stimuli
Seeing imaginary people
Hearing voices…(thought to be a confusion of the person’s inner monologue)
o Disorganized thought and speech; incoherent speech
May arise from meaning, and word association difficulties
o Disorganized behavior
Catatonia: motor problems
Echolalia: repeating phrases like a parrot
o Negative symptoms: lack or reduction in normal thoughts, emotions, drives, and behavior
What is personality?
- Personality = characteristics, traits, and behaviors that are consistent across time and situations
o How we are as individuals
Psychoanalytic theory
- Sigmund Freud
- Psychogenic cause of illness: caused by mind not body (e.g. glove anesthesia – there must be a mental cause to which his patients came and complained about having pain in specifically the hand)
- Freud believed in the unconscious mind
- His theory is based on tapping into the unconscious
Id:
controls primitive urges (unconscious)
Ego:
main decision maker (parts in the conscious and unconscious)
Superego
sense of morality (parts in the conscious and unconscious)
Repression:
memory is driven into the unconscious
Denial
refusal to admit or remember
Regression
acting out qualities of a younger age
Reaction formation
reversing anxiety-causing emotion
Projection
attribution of negative qualities onto others
Rationalization
twist unreasonable to sound reasonable
Intellectualization
focus on facts or impersonal thoughts
Sublimation
transforming socially unacceptable impulse into an admired goal
Identification w the aggressor
taking on characteristics of, or sympathizing with, a threatening person
Displacement
redirecting emotions to a safer outlet
Freud’s theory of personality development
- Psychosexual stages
o Oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital - Satisfaction comes from certain behaviors, at certain times
- Fixation: people who are over- or under-satisfied in each stage develop certain traits
Oral (birth to 12-18 months): focuses on the mouth
o Fixation results in:
* Regression under stress
* A need for reassurance
* Bad habits such as nail-biting or chewing pencils excessive drinking, smoking, overeating
Anal (1.5-3 years): focus on toilet training
o Fixation results in:
* Anal personality
Phallic (3-6 years): children are attracted to the opposite-sex parent
o Oedipus complex (for boys)
* Identification with the aggressor
o Electra complex (for girls)
* Penis envy
Latency (6-12 years):
- sexual impulses are submerged into the unconscious
- No sexual interest (e.g. “down w girls, no more cooties” protest poster)
Genital (12 years and up):
- sexual impulses reawaken
- If no fixation has occurred, the person engages in healthy romantic relationships
Criticisms of Freud’s theory:
- Unfalsifiability (cause you can’t measure the unconscious)
- Failed predictions
- Lack of evidence
- Questionable conception of unconscious
- Unrepresentative samples
