MCAT Psych #6 Flashcards
self concept
our own internal list of answers to the question Who am I?
o Goes beyond self-schemata (labels such as athlete, physician) because it includes who we used to be and who we will become.
self schema
a self-given label that carries with it a set of qualities.
o Ex: athlete: physical fitness, youth, behavior
identity
the individual components of our self-concept related to the groups to which we belong.
o While we have one self-concept, we have many identities that define who we are and how we should behave in a given context.
o Ex: religious affiliation, personal relationships, and membership in social groups.
o Different social situation = different identity
gender identity
describes a person’s appraisal of him- or herself on scales of masculinity and femininity.
children are more likely to model individuals who are _____
more like themselves
the happiest people on earth have:
high self-esteem, view themselves as effective people, feel that they are in control of their destinies, and see themselves living up to their own expectations.
androgyny
the state of being simultaneously very masculine and very feminine.
undifferentiated
receive low scores on both tests of masculinity and femininity
gender schema
key components of gender identity are transmitted through cultural and societal means. These means help to shape the gender of an individual.
ethnic identity
refers to one’s ethnic group, in which members typically share a common ancestry, cultural heritage, and language.
• Exp: white vs. black doll and most of the kids chose the white doll as the one they preferred.
nationality
based on political borders.
• Shared history, media, cuisine, and national symbols such as a flag.
• Does not need to be tied to ethnicity or legal citizenship.
hierarchy of salience
we let the situation dictate which identity holds the most importance for us at any given moment.
The more important the identity the more we conform to its roles and expectations at that moment
self discrepancy theory
maintains that each of us has three selves.
Actual self: made up by self-concept, the way we see ourselves as we currently are.
Ideal self: the person who we would like to be
Ought self: our representation of the way others think we should be.
The closer these are to each other, the higher the self-esteem.
• People with low self-esteem are more critical of themselves.
actual self
self discrepancy theory
made up by self-concept, the way we see ourselves as we currently are.
ideal self
self discrepancy theory
the person who we would like to be
ought self
self discrepancy theory
our representation of the way others think we should be.
who others want us to be
self-efficacy
o Self-efficacy: our belief in our ability to succeed.
Differs depending on the task
Overconfidence: self-efficacy is too high, leads us to take on tasks for which we are not ready, leading to frustration, humiliation, and injury.
Learned helplessness: when you begin to feel controlless, you give up, even when the opportunity to have control is given back to you.
overconfidence
Overconfidence: self-efficacy is too high, leads us to take on tasks for which we are not ready, leading to frustration, humiliation, and injury.
learned helplessness
Learned helplessness: when you begin to feel control-less, you give up, even when the opportunity to have control is given back to you.
Ex: dogs in the experiment that had no control over the administration of shocks to them. Even when given the opportunity to avoid the shocks, they continued to act hopeless.
occurs when an individual continuously faces a negative, uncontrollable situation and stops trying to change their circumstances, even when they have the ability to do so.
locus of control
the way we characterize the influences in our lives.
Internal or external depending on who you feel controls your life.
freud psychosexual development
o Libido: sex drive (Freud believed it is present at birth)
o Fixation: occurs when a child is overindulged or overly frustrated during a stage of development.
Neurosis: the child forms a personality pattern based on the particular stage and it persists into adulthood.
o Five stages of psychosexual development: at each stage faced with conflict between societal demands and libidinal tension
1. Oral stage (0-1 years old): libidinal energy is focused on the mouth and putting objects into the mouth
2. Anal stage (1-3 years old): libido is centered on the anus and gratification is gained through the elimination and retention of waste materials.
3. Phallic or Oedipal stage (3-5 years old): resolution of the Oedipal conflict for males or Electra conflict for females.
• Male wants to be his father and take over his mother but this feeling is sublimated by focusing on things like school work or doing other stuff.
• Girls experience penis envy
• Ends when libido is sublimated.
4. Latency stage (after phallic and until puberty): libido is sublimated
5. Genital stage (puberty-adulthood): normal development heterosexual practices, non-normal development other practices (homosexuality or fetishes)
libido
sex drive (Freud believed it is present at birth)
fixation
Freud Psychosexual development
occurs when a child is overindulged or overly frustrated during a stage of development. Results in: Neurosis: the child forms a personality pattern based on the particular stage and it persists into adulthood.
neurosis
Freud
the child forms a personality pattern based on the particular stage and it persists into adulthood.
Five stages of psychosexual development
Freud
at each stage faced with conflict between societal demands and libidinal tension
- Oral stage (0-1)
- Anal stage (1-2)
- Phallic or Oedipal stage (3-5)
- latency stage (after phallic and until puberty)
- genital stage
Oral stage
Freud Psychosexual Development
(0-1 years old): libidinal energy is focused on the mouth and putting objects into the mouth
fixation can lead to excessive dependency
Anal stage
Freud Psychosexual Development
stage (1-3 years old): libido is centered on the anus and gratification is gained through the elimination and retention of waste materials.
fixation can lead to excessive orderliness or messiness
phallic or oedipal stage
Freud Psychosexual Development
(3-5 years old): resolution of the Oedipal conflict for males or Electra conflict for females.
• Male wants to be his father and take over his mother but this feeling is sublimated by focusing on things like school work or doing other stuff.
• Girls experience penis envy
• Ends when libido is sublimated
latency stage
Freud Psychosexual Development
(after phallic and until puberty): libido is sublimated
genital stage
Freud Psychosexual Development
(puberty-adulthood): normal development heterosexual practices, non-normal development other practices (homosexuality or fetishes)
Erikson: Psychosocial development
o Based on a series of crises that derive from conflicts between needs and social demands.
Emphasizes emotional development and interactions with the social environment.
Don’t have to successfully compete each stage to move on but gain necessary skills.
What are the conflicts of Erikson’s Psychosocial Development
Decisions we have to make about ourselves and the environment around us at each phase of our lives.
Trust vs. Mistrust (0-1 years old):
• Trust wins: trust environment and self
• Mistrust wins: suspicious of the world.
Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (1-3 years old):
• Win: control over the world and self-restraint
• Loss: external locus of control
Initiative vs. Guilt (3-6 years old):
• Win: sense of purpose, initiate activity, feel accomplished
• Loss: fear of punishment
Industry vs. Inferiority (6-12 years old)
• Win: feel competent and exercise abilities and intelligence
• Loss: incompetent, sense of inadequacy and low self esteem
Identify vs. role confusion (12-20 years old)
• Physiological revolution
• Win: ability to see oneself as unique and integrated with sustained loyalties
• Loss: confusion of identity and personality shifts
Intimacy vs. isolation (20-40 years old)
• Win: love, intimate relationships, commit to another person
• Loss: avoidance of commitment, alienation, and distancing.
Generativity vs. stagnation (40-65 years old)
• Win: individual is productive, capable and contributing member of society
• Loss: stagnation, little care for others, bored
Integrity vs. despair (above 65 years old)
• Win: wisdom and gratefulness for life
• Loss: bitterness about one’s life, life has been worthless.
trust vs. mistrust
Erikson
0-1
Can I trust the world?
• Trust wins: trust environment and self
• Mistrust wins: suspicious of the world.
autonomy vs. shape and doubt
Erikson 1-3 years old Is it okay to be me? • Win: control over the world and self-restraint • Loss: external locus of control
initiative vs. guilt
Erikson 3-6 Is it okay for me to do, move, and act? • Win: sense of purpose, initiate activity, feel accomplished • Loss: fear of punishment
industry vs. inferiority
Erikson
6-12
Can I make it in the world of people and things?
• Win: feel competent and exercise abilities and intelligence
• Loss: incompetent, sense of inadequacy and low self esteem
identity vs. role confusion
Erikson
12-20
Who am I? What can I be?
• Physiological revolution
• Win: ability to see oneself as unique and integrated with sustained loyalties
• Loss: confusion of identity and personality shifts
intimacy vs. isolation
Erikson
20-40
Can I love?
• Win: love, intimate relationships, commit to another person
• Loss: avoidance of commitment, alienation, and distancing.
generativity vs. stagnation
Erikson
40-65
Can I make my life count?
• Win: individual is productive, capable and contributing member of society
• Loss: stagnation, little care for others, bored
integrity vs. despair
Erikson above 65 years old Is it okay to have been me? • Win: wisdom and gratefulness for life • Loss: bitterness about one’s life, life has been worthless.
Kohlberg: moral reasoning
o Focuses on the development of moral thinking
o Observations were based off of observations of responses to moral dilemmas.
6 stages of Kohlberg Moral Reasoning
Resolving moral dilemmas
Phase 1: Preconventional morality (preadolescent thinking): places an emphasis on the consequences of the moral choice
• Stage 1: Obedience: concerned with punishment
• Stage 2: Self Interest: gaining rewards
o Instrumental relativist stage: based on the concepts of reciprocity and sharing: scratch my back if I scratch yours
Phase 2: Conventional Morality (early adolescence): individuals begin to see themselves in terms of their relationships to others. Understanding and accepting social rules.
• Stage 3: conformity: person seeks the approval of others
• Stage 4: law and order: maintains the social order in the highest regard (if everyone stole, the people who produce the items would not be able to run their business).
Phase 3: Postconventional morality: level of reasoning that not everyone can have
• Stage 5: social contract: views moral rules as conventions that are designed to ensure the greater good, with reasoning focused on individual rights
• Stage 6: universal human ethics: reasons that decisions should be made in consideration of abstract principle
o Progress through the stages as thinking matures.
Preconventional morality
Kohlberg’s theory of Development of Moral Reasoning
Phase 1: Preconventional morality (preadolescent thinking): places an emphasis on the consequences of the moral choice
• Stage 1: Obedience: concerned with punishment
• Stage 2: Self Interest: gaining rewards
o Instrumental relativist stage: based on the concepts of reciprocity and sharing: scratch my back if I scratch yours
Conventional Morality
Kohlberg’s theory of Development of Moral Reasoning
Phase 2: Conventional Morality (early adolescence): individuals begin to see themselves in terms of their relationships to others. Understanding and accepting social rules.
• Stage 3: conformity: person seeks the approval of others
• Stage 4: law and order: maintains the social order in the highest regard (if everyone stole, the people who produce the items would not be able to run their business).
Postconventional morality
Kohlberg’s theory of Development of Moral Reasoning
Phase 3: Postconventional morality: level of reasoning that not everyone can have
• Stage 5: social contract: views moral rules as conventions that are designed to ensure the greater good, with reasoning focused on individual rights
• Stage 6: universal human ethics: reasons that decisions should be made in consideration of abstract principle
Kohlberg Stage 1
Obedience: concerned with punishment
Kohlberg Stage 2
Self Interest: gaining rewards
Kohlberg Stage 3
conformity: person seeks the approval of others
Kohlberg Stage 4
law and order: maintains the social order in the highest regard (if everyone stole, the people who produce the items would not be able to run their business).
Kohlberg Stage 5
social contract: views moral rules as conventions that are designed to ensure the greater good, with reasoning focused on individual rights
Kohlberg Stage 6
universal human ethics: : reasons that decisions should be made in consideration of abstract principle
Vygotsky: Cultural and Biosocial Development
o Focused on understanding cognitive development
o The engine driving cognitive development was the child’s internalization of various aspects of culture.
o Zone of proximal development: those skills and abilities that have not yet fully developed but are in the process of development.
Gaining the skill oftentimes requires the help of a more knowledgeable individual
Ex: riding a bike
Zone of Proximal Development
Vygotsky
those skills and abilities that have not yet fully developed but are in the process of development.
Gaining the skill oftentimes requires the help of a more knowledgeable individual
Ex: riding a bike
Bobo doll experiment
o Bobo doll experiment: observational learning contributes to our future behaviors.
Child would also attack doll. But if the actor got yelled at then the child would not attack the doll.
role-taking
children playing house, good for future to understand perspectives and roles of others.
theory of mind
the ability to sense how another’s mind works
Ex: understanding how a friend is interpreting a story while you tell it
looking glass self
others reflecting our selves back on ourselves and us modifying behavior based on it. Can also lead to a change in personality: maintaining, modifying, etc.
Individuals base their sense of self on how others view them.
describes the process wherein individuals base their sense of self on how they believe others view them. Using social interaction as a type of “mirror,” people use the judgments they receive from others to measure their own worth, values, and behavior.
reference group
our self-concept depends on whom we are comparing ourselves to.
Ex: physicians are rich compared to the average household but compared to people they live with (very wealthy) they may not be considered as rich.
personality
describes the set of thoughts, feelings, traits, and behaviors that are characteristic of an individual across time and different locations
identity vs. personality
Identity describes who we are while personality describes how we act and react to the world around us.
Psychoanalytic or psychodynamic theories of personality
assumption of unconscious internal states that motivate the overt actions of individuals and determine personality.
Freud: id, ego, and superego
Psychoanalytic or psychodynamic theories of personality
Has been discredited
• Id: consists of all the basic, primal, inborn urges to survive and reproduce.
o Pleasure principle: the aim is to achieve immediate gratification to relieve any pent-up tension.
o Primary process: the id’s response to frustration: obtain satisfaction now not later.
o Wish fulfillment: mental imagery, such as daydreaming, fulfills the need for satisfaction.
o Cannot effectively reduce tension on a permanent basis.
• Ego:
o Reality principle: taking into account objective reality as it guides or inhibits the activity of the id and the id’s pleasure principle.
o Secondary process: guidance, postpone the pleasure principle until satisfaction can actually be obtained.
o Working with reality promotes growth of perception.
o Moderates the desires of the superego.
• Superego: personality’s perfectionist, ideal self, judging our actions and responding with pride at our accomplishments and guilt at our failures. Divided into two subsystems which are morals taught by caregivers.
o 1. The conscious: a collection of the improper actions for which a child is punished
o 2. Ego-ideal: consists of those proper actions for which a child is rewarded.
Id
Freud Psychoanalytic or psychodynamic theories of personality
consists of all the basic, primal, inborn urges to survive and reproduce.
o Pleasure principle: the aim is to achieve immediate gratification to relieve any pent-up tension.
o Primary process: the id’s response to frustration: obtain satisfaction now not later.
o Wish fulfillment: mental imagery, such as daydreaming, fulfills the need for satisfaction.
o Cannot effectively reduce tension on a permanent basis.
Pleasure principle
Freud Psychoanalytic or psychodynamic theories of personality
Id
the aim is to achieve immediate gratification to relieve any pent-up tension.
Primary process
Freud Psychoanalytic or psychodynamic theories of personality
Id
the id’s response to frustration: obtain satisfaction now not later.
Wish fulfillment
Freud Psychoanalytic or psychodynamic theories of personality
Id
mental imagery, such as daydreaming, fulfills the need for satisfaction and relieves some of the tension created by the pleasure principle.
Ego
Freud Psychoanalytic or psychodynamic theories of personality
o Reality principle: taking into account objective reality as it guides or inhibits the activity of the id and the id’s pleasure principle.
o Secondary process: guidance, postpone the pleasure principle until satisfaction can actually be obtained.
o Working with reality promotes growth of perception.
o Moderates the desires of the superego.
reality principle
Freud Psychoanalytic or psychodynamic theories of personality
Ego
taking into account objective reality as it guides or inhibits the activity of the id and the id’s pleasure principle.
The aim of the reality principle is to postpone the pleasure principle until satisfaction can actually be obtained.
secondary process
Freud Psychoanalytic or psychodynamic theories of personality
Ego
guidance, postpone the pleasure principle until satisfaction can actually be obtained.
o Working with reality promotes growth of
superego
Freud Psychoanalytic or psychodynamic theories of personality
personality’s perfectionist, ideal self, judging our actions and responding with pride at our accomplishments and guilt at our failures. Divided into two subsystems which are morals taught by caregivers.
o 1. The conscious: a collection of the improper actions for which a child is punished
o 2. Ego-ideal: consists of those proper actions for which a child is rewarded.
The conscious (Freud)
Freud Psychoanalytic or psychodynamic theories of personality
Superego
a collection of the improper actions for which a child is punished
Ego-ideal
Freud Psychoanalytic or psychodynamic theories of personality
Superego
consists of those proper actions for which a child is rewarded.
Freud and behavioral instinct: what is Freud’s definition of instincts?
Our behaviors are influenced by instinct: an innate psychological representation of biological need.
• Separates these instincts into life and death instincts.
Defense mechanisms
Freud
falsify, deny, or distort reality and operate unconsciously. Reduces anxiety arising from unacceptable or potentially harmful stimuli.
used by the ego to relieve the clash between the id and the superego.
what are the 8 defense mechanisms
freud
repression. suppression, regression, reaction formation, projection, rationalization, displacement, sublimation
repression
Freud Defense mechanism unconsciously removing an idea or feeling from consciousness
a man who survived 6 months at a concentration camp cant remember anything from that time period
suppression
Freud Defense mechanism consciously removing an idea or feeling from consciousness
a terminally ill cancer patient has put away his anxiety to enjoy a family gathering
regression
Freud Defense mechanism returning to an earlier stage of development
a husband speaks to his wife in baby talk when telling her bad news
reaction formation
Freud Defense mechanism
an unacceptable impulse is transformed into its opposite
suppress urges by unconsciously converting to opposites.
two coworkers fight all the time because they are actually very attracted to each other
projection
Freud Defense mechanism
attribution of wishes, desires, thoughts, or emotions to someone else
a man who has committed adultery is convinced his wife is cheating on him despite a lack of evidence
rationalization
Freud Defense mechanism
justification of attitudes, beliefs, behaviors
a murderer who claims that, while killing is wrong, his victim deserved it
displacement
Freud Defense mechanism
changing the target of an emotion, while the feelings remain the same
when sent to his room as a punishment, a child begins to punch and kick his pillow
sublimation
Freud Defense mechanism
channeling of an unacceptable impulse in a socially acceptable direction
a boss who is attracted to his employee becomes her mentor and advisor
Rorschach inkblot test:
Freud - Projection
the client projects his or her unconscious feelings onto the shape.
Thematic apperception test
Freud - Projection
consists of a series of pictures that are presented to the client, who is asked to make up a story about each one. Story elucidates unconscious feelings.
Carl Jung and Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality
Also believe there was a psychic energy but not just a psychic energy rooted in sexuality
Ego: conscious mind
Unconscious: personal unconscious and collective unconscious