Exam 4

Question 1

Explain the difference between an inter-individual and group-average approaches to studying behavior

Answer 1

Inter-individual means studying behavior based on an individual alone whereas group-average studies the social norms

Question 2

Weigh the relevance of genetic and environmental factors in shaping personality

Answer 2

Personality seems to have a genetic component, but genes still have a relatively small effect on personality relative to other external factors

Question 3

Define personality

Answer 3

A person’s characteristic thoughts, emotional responses, behaviors

Question 4

Define personality trait:

Answer 4

A person’s pattern of thought, emotion, and behavior, that’s relatively consistent over time and across situations

Question 5

Trait approach:

Answer 5

Focuses on how individuals differ in personality dispositions

Question 6

Humanistic Approach:

Answer 6

Approaches to studying personality that emphasize how people seek to fulfill their potential through greater self-understanding

Question 7

Temperaments:

Answer 7

Biologically based tendencies to feel or act in certain ways

Question 8

Three personality characteristics considered temperaments

Answer 8

Activity level, emotionality, sociability

Question 9

Describe the relationship between temperaments and personality traits

Answer 9

The gene-environment correlation phenomenon:
-Genes and environment affect not only behavior but also each other
-Even if genes and environments are unrelated to start with, they become
complementary over time because of decisions people make

Question 10

List and describe the Big Five traits used to assess personality

Answer 10

-openness to experience
-conscientiousness
-extraversion
-agreeableness
-neuroticism

Question 11

Biological trait theory

Answer 11

-Personality traits had two major dimensions: introversion/extraversion and emotional stability
-Proposed that personality traits are based on biological processes
that produce behaviors, thoughts, and emotions

Question 12

Describe the relationship between age and trait stability

Answer 12

traits stay relatively stable throughout life, particularly 50+, lowest stability in childhood, life events affect traits

Question 13

Rank-order stability

Answer 13

Lack of change in where a person stands on the trait relative to other people

Question 14

Situationism:

Answer 14

The theory that human behavior is determined by surrounding circumstances rather than by personal qualities.

Question 15

Idiographic approaches:

Answer 15

Person-centered approaches to studying personality; focus is on individual lives and how various characteristics are integrated into unique persons

Question 16

Nomothetic approaches:

Answer 16

Approaches to assessing personality that focus on
how common characteristics vary from person to person

Question 17

Compare and contrast explicit and implicit measures

Answer 17

Explicit: self-report surveys–include a large inventory of traits. Participants might distort the truth to appear more positive
Implicit: behavioral measures–using an environment to make assumptions about someone’s personality. Other examples of implicit measures include projective measures

Question 18

What criteria do psychologists use to identify behavior as pathological?

Answer 18

If the behavior is maladaptive, harmful, disruptive

Question 19

Describe the general content of the DSM

Answer 19

DSM: Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Disorders are
described in terms of observable symptoms.
-The main purpose of it is description. It groups disorders based on similarity of
symptoms.
-Another purpose of it is to allow care providers to bill health insurance companies
for treatment via DSM diagnosis.

Question 20

Categorical:

Answer 20

A person either has a psychological disorder or does not
-Fails to capture differences in the severity of a disorder

Question 21

Dimensional:

Answer 21

Considers psychological disorders along a
continuum on which people vary in degree rather than in kind.
-Recognizes that many psychological disorders are extreme versions of normal feelings

Question 22

Comorbidity

Answer 22

Many psychological disorders occur together

Question 23

Anxiety disorders:

Answer 23

Psychological disorders characterized by excessive fear in the absence of true danger

Question 24

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)

Answer 24

State of constant anxiety not associated with any specific object or event

Question 25

Social anxiety disorder

Answer 25

Fear of being negatively evaluated by others

Question 26

Major depression

Answer 26

A disorder characterized by severe negative moods or a lack of interest in normally pleasurable activities

Question 27

Persistent depressive disorder

Answer 27

Not severe enough to be diagnosed as major
depressive disorder (sometimes called dysthymia)

Question 28

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

Answer 28

Developmental disorder characterized by deficits in social interaction, impaired communication, and restricted interests

Question 29

Two essential features of ASD

Answer 29

1. Impairments in social interactions
2. Restrictive or repetitive behaviors, interests, or activities

Question 30

Describe cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and its use in treatment of psychological
disorders

Answer 30

CBT: A therapy that incorporates techniques from cognitive therapy+behavior
therapy to correct faulty thinking and change maladaptive behaviors.
-CBT is about as equal as antidepressants. Can be effective on its own, but
combining it with antidepressants might be more effective than each separate treatment option.

Question 31

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy:

Answer 31

Based on the idea that those who recover
from depression still suffer from faulty thinking. Helps clients learn to disengage
from it through meditation.

Question 32

Addiction:

Answer 32

Compulsive use of a drug despite negative consequences

Question 33

Tolerance:

Answer 33

Needing more and more of a drug to feel the same effect

Question 34

List and describe the four basic types of study validity:

Answer 34

-Construct validity: Are we studying what we intend to study? Are the constructs
(conceptual variables like impulsiveness) being measured/ manipulated?
-Statistical validity: How thorough are the statistics that we used to back up our
findings?
-Internal validity: Confidence that a study demonstrated that one variable causes
another.
-External validity: Generalizability of findings beyond study across populations,
settings, species. Established with replication.

Question 35

Explain the difference between internal validity and external validity

Answer 35

External validity concerns generalizability, and internal validity concerns the accuracy of the study

Question 36

Threats to internal validity

Answer 36

History, maturation, instrumentation, testing, regression to the mean, attrition, selection