Final Flashcards
Unique and relatively enduring set of behaviors, feelings, thoughts, and motives that characterize an individual.
Personality
A disposition to behave consistently in a particular way.
Trait
Biologically based disposition to behave in certain ways, which lays the foundation for later personality traits.
Temperament
The point at which a person moves from not having a particular response to having one.
Behavioral thresholds
Measuring fetal heart rate
Can reveal about temperament differences.
A high rate at 36 weeks foreshadowed less predictable eating and sleeping habits at 3-6 months.
Id
functions out of the “pleasure principle”
one of Freud’s provinces of the mind; the seat of impulses and desire; the part of our personality that we do not yet own; it owns or controls us.
Ego
Operates on the “reality principle”
A sense of self; the only part of the mind that is in direct contact with the outside world.
Superego
Operates out of the “moralistic principle”
The part the self that monitors and controls behavior; “stands over us” and evaluates actions in terms of right and wrong; hence, our conscience.
unconscious strategies the mind uses to protect itself from anxiety by denying and distorting reality in some way.
Defense mechanisms
Repression
the unconscious act keeping threatening thoughts, feelings, or impulses out of the consciousness.
Reaction formation
a defense mechanism that occurs when an unpleasant idea, feeling, or impulse is turned into its opposite.
Ex: homophobes
Sublimination
A defense mechanism that involves expressing a socially unacceptable impulse in a socially acceptable way.
Projection
A defense mechanism in which people deny particular ideas. feelings, or impulses and project them onto others.
Freud’s Psychosexual Stages (order)
Oral Anal Phallic Latency Genital
Fixation
being stuck in a stage, associated with Freud.
Social loafing
phenomenon in which the presence of others causes one to relax one’s standards and slack off
Social facilitation
phenomenon in which the presence of others improves one’s performance
rules about acceptable behavior imposed by the cultural context in which one liives
Social norms
Informational social influence
conformity to the behavior of others because one views them as a source of knowledge about what one is supposed to do
Normative social influence
conformity to the behavior of others in order to be accepted by them
Conformity
tendency of people to adjust their behavior to what others are doing or to adhere to the norms of their culture.
Groupthink
situation in which the thinking of the group takes over, so much so that group members forgo logic or critical analysis in the service of reaching a decision
a type of conformity in which a person yields to the will of another person
Obedience
Attribution
inferences made about the causes of other people’s behavior.
Two types: internal (dispositional attributions)
External (situational attributions)
Fundamental attribution error
the tendency to explain others’ behavior in dispositional rather than situational terms
Stereotypes
schemas of how people are likely to behave based simply on groups to which they belong
Difference between discrimination and prejudice
Prejudice-a biased ATTITUDE toward a group of people…
Discrimination-preferential TREATMENT of certain people, usually driven by prejudicial attitudes.
action that is beneficial to others
Prosocial behavior
selfless attitudes and behavior towards others
Alturism
Types of altruism
Kin-Selection-you help your relatives and kin first.
Recipricol-selfless in hope that you’ll receive that treatment in the future.
Social-Exchange Theory-People will help others when the benefits outweigh the cost.
Empathy Alterism hypothesis-people will help others selflessly only when they feel empathy for them.
Bystander effect
phenomenon in which the greater the number of bystanders who witness an emergency, the less likely anyone is to help
Assortative Mating
People tend to be attracted to and partner with people of similar level of attractiveness to themselves.
Three criteria that qualify a behavior as disordered
Deviant, distressing, and dysfunctional
General Anxiety Disorder
characterized by pervasive and excessive state of anxiety lasting at least six months. People with GAD often have been anxious throughout their lives and cannot recall when they began to feel that way.
Panic Attacks
brief episodes of anxiety associated with perceptions of threat and occurring because of fear of danger, inability to escape, embarrassment, or specific objects, for example.
Characterized by an overwhelming sense of impending doom, accompanied by heart palpitations, trembling, dizziness, intense dread, and even fear of dying.
Usually last about ten minutes
PTSD
A type of anxiety disorder triggered by exposure to a catastrophic of horrifying event that poses serious harm or threat.
Three categories of symptoms:
1. re-experiencing the trauma
2. avoiding thoughts, feelings, and activities associated with the trauma.
3. increased arousal, such as irritability, sleeping, or exaggerated startle response.
Phobias
an anxiety disorder: an ongoing and irrational fear of a particular object, situations, or activity.
Agoraphobia
an anxiety disorder involving fear of being in places from which escape might be difficult or in which help might not be available should a panic attack occur.
OCD
an anxiety disorder in which obsessive thoughts lead to compulsive behavior.
Obsession
an unwanted thought, word, phrase, or image that persistently and repeatedly comes into a person’s mind and causes distress.
Compulsion
a repetitive behavior performed in response to uncontrollable urges or according to a ritualistic set of rules
mood disorder characterized by pervasive low mood, lack of motivation, low energy, and feelings of worthlessness and guilt that last of at least two consecutive weeks
Major depressive disorder
mood disorder characterized by substantial mood fluctuations, cycling between very low (depression) and very high (manic) moods.
At one time, it was called “manic depression”.
Bipolar disorder
one mood cycle in bipolar disorder, typically involving increased energy, sleeplessness, euphoria, irritability, delusions of grandeur, increased sex drive, and “racing thoughts”
Manic episode
D-I-G-F-A-S-T
Distractibility Indiscretion Grandiosity Flight of ideas Activity increased Sleep (decreased need for) Talkativeness
a relatively mild but long lasting form of bipolar disorder.
Cyclothymia
psychotic disorder characterized by significant disturbances in thought and emotion, specifically problems with perceptions, including hallucinations.
Schitzophrenia
Positive symptoms of Schitzophrenia
Hallucinations, delusional thinking, and disorganized thought and speech.
Negative symptoms of Schitzophrenia
nonresponsiveness, emotional flatness, immobility or the striking of strange poses (catatonia), reduction of speaking, and inability to complete tasks.
Somatization disorder
psychological disorder in which a person complains of multiple physical disorders that have no known medical or physical basis.
