Midterm Flashcards
What is personality psych
The study if how a person thinks, feels, and behaves and we use it to try to predict a person’s behaviour
What is personality used to explain?
Consistency: how a person usually acts over time and situations
Distinctivness: the differences that exist people when reacting to the same situation
Whats the difference between positive psych, normal psych, and abnormal psych
Normal psych is why people think and behave the way they do, abnormal psych focuses on the causes of how to fix melntal illness get from -ve to 0, postivie psych focuses on the thoughts and actions that can improve your life get from 0 to net +
What were the 4 possibilites seligman and team were using to come up with a definition for what positive psych is
- Positive intentions of psychologists
- Postiive ideology about human nature
- An appreciative less rigid stance of human nature
- Topics that are universally agreed to positive
Explain what positive intention of psychologists means and why it wasnt a good definition
Focused on psycholgists who wanted to improve other peoples lives make them more positive through the research they do or methods. Not a bood defintion bc a lot of psychologists want to improve peoples lives but might not be dealing with positive topics so they wouldnt fall under the positive psych umbrella, like people treating mental illnesses
Explain what positive ideology about human nature means and why it wasn’t a good definition for positive psych
focused on an inflexible idea that all humans are good by nature and want to grow by their very nature, and it’s only trauma that interrupts that. Not a good definition because we need a scientific approach and we already know that people don’t naturally always behave positively, there is research one people acting altruistically for selfish reasons
What does positive as an appreciative stance mean and why do we have to be careful?
rather than just make assumptions that people are naturally good, look at people on average and objectively but with a positive lens. Careful though because we could potentially fall back on an ideological perspective we need to use scientific method
What does positive as a set of topics mean?
topics that are universally agreed upon to be positive, resilience as well.
How do we know/assess what is positive?
choices, values, and subjective experiences
how do choices affect how we know what is positive?
if people choose something over and over again, we can infer that it makes them happy and its something positive. If a lot of people consistently choose something, we know we should study it as something positive
Where do our choices come from?
values
how do values affect how we know what is positive
things that people values are culturally specific and if they are common across generations they must be positive, otherwise why else would they stick around
how do subjective experiences affect how we know what is positive
If it feels good to you and makes you happy then it must be positive, but it’s different for everyone. people have different tastes of what is good and brings them joy.
Using research-based approaches what are the most frequently associated topics?
form empirical evidence, meta-analyses we have found that happiness and positive things about someone’s personality were the most common elements.
What is the difference between positive psychology and humanistic psychology?
Humanistic focuses on what makes people unique and how that makes you happy. Positive psych focuses on general trends for the general population.
How does positive psychology differ from pop-culture self help books?
positive psych follow scientific method, empirical evidence. Self-help is not tested used scientific method.
What is the jangle fallacy? what’s an example?
thinking 2 almost identical things are not the same because they have different names. Self-esteem and self-confidence
What is the jingle fallacy?
thinking 2 different things are the same because they share the same name.
How is the Big 5 similar to Strengths model?
Big 5 is made up of smaller facets that make up each trait, and 6 virtues are made up of 24 strengths
one of the qualifications of a strength is that it is trait like and can fall along a continuum
strengths are relatively consistent over time but can vary day to day like traits/state
provides common language
What does the positivity offset mean?
people generally look at and appraise the world/stimulus with a positive point of view and people generally feel positive most of the time even without a good event occurring.
Why do humans have a positivity offset from an evolutionary pov?
because if people were generally positive in their view of things they would be more likely to go off and explore and potentially find a mate
What is the negativity bias?
bad isn’t stronger than good but it is more attention grabbing and people give more weight to negative experiences
What did the study with negativity bias and money find?
people will put more effort into trying not to lose their money than putting in effort to make more money
What is the role of negative emotions?
feeling feel and sadness is essential to survival. can indicate when something is not right so you pay attention to threats and stay alive.
What is the difference between emotions and moods?
emotions are brief and usually caused by something specifically, moods are less intense and last longer
what are emotional traits?
relatively stable patterns in a particular emotion that stays the same over time
What is affect?
affect is more of a general term of how your feeling, not super specific
What is the difference between the basic emotions approach vs the dimensional perspective?
basic emotions is a list of a few different emotions that are in their own distinct categories where each emotion is different in terms of expression and physiological response.
Dimension perspective: classifies emotions into subtle variations on one continuum that define different emotions
What is a problem with using the basic emotions approach to define an emotion
some emotions wouldn’t match the criteria and wouldn’t count as an emotion such as ambivalence
describe the circumplex model of affect
y axis is level of activation from high to low activation, x axis is level of pleasantness from unpleasant to pleasant, emotion is classified on where it falls on those 2 variables.
What are the 5 component of an emotion?
Appraisals Physiological changes Expressions Subjective experience Action tendencies
what does appraisal of emotion mean?
how we perceive an event in terms of well-being and our own concerns, happens automatically usually but sometimes deliberate
what does physiology of emotion mean?
how your body responds and changes to feeling that emotion. it goes through these changes so that you are prepared to respond to the situation. Could be things such as pupil dilation and sweating
Which side of the brain is activated to good/approach motivation?
left side
what does expressions of emotion mean?
how the emotion makes your body behave, in terms of facial expression, tone of voice, posture.
what is a Duchenne smile vs a non Duchenne smile?
Duchenne smile includes the eyebrow muscles and the zygomatic muscles, whereas a non-duchenne smile only includes the zygomatic muscles.
what is subjective experience of emotions mean?
these are our personal feelings related to feeling the emotion
Why is time important to consider when when measuring subjective experience?
people construct an average of how they felt for something that happened a long time, which might be different than what actually happened
what is duration neglect?
when people underweight how long an experience was when recalling an average later
what is savouring?
a tool people can use to enjoy positive experiences more, stop and take them in.
what are action tendencies of emotion?
this is the motivational component of an emotion, why you’re going to respond the way you do
How does the broaden and build model explain the purpose of positive emotions?
When we have positive emotions they broaden our thoughts and emotions which encourages us to explore, play and socialize with others. Over time we can build new skills and improve upon them from what we got when our thought and behaviours broadened. We benefit from what we got from broadening our thoughts and behaviours, for example increasing our socializing with others leads to better communication skills and stronger friendships, which can help us in the future.
How does broaden and build contrast with our action tendencies for negative events?
positive emotions make us increase the variety of our thoughts and behaviours whereas negative events narrow our thoughts and behaviours (fight or flight)
What is the difference between broadening effects and building effects?
broadening effects are instant, building effects take time to build the skill but last a long time.
what are the limitations to broaden and build model?
- mostly just correlational data
- some positive states do narrow your attention instead of broaden them, like flow theory, gets you in the zone more than broadens your thoughts
What is happiness in terms of hedonia?
doing things in the moment that make you feel good increase your happiness. Happiness as a pleasure.
what is happiness in terms of eudaimonia?
doing things that increase your sense of purpose, meaning, and help you grow as a person in the long term, which increases happiness in the longterm.
define SWB
SWB is how a person currently thinks about their own well-being at the moment
what does high SWB encompass?
high life satisfaction
having a lot of positive emotions
not having a lot of negative emotions
The happiest people have all 3
define life satisfaction
how a person feels about how their life is going and if the conditions of their life are good.
Can be divided into different categories, and we might define it based on what has most recently happened to us (availability heuristic)
What was the average score for undergrads on the Satisfaction with life Scale?
23.5
What are the 6 aspects of Ryff’s (1989) approach to psychological well-being?
competence/environmental mastery autonomy relatedness/ positive relationships with others self-acceptance purpose in life personal growth
what is self acceptance
viewing yourself positively in the past and present while acknowledging both the good and bad
How is Ryff’s psychological well being similar to self determination theory
competence, autonomy, and relatedness
what are the 5 Key aspects of Seligman’s PERMA
positive emotion engagement relationships meaning accomplisment
what are the similarities and differences between Ryff’s 6 aspects of psychological well being model and seligman’s PERMA?
similarities: engagement is related to competence, relationships, meaning is similar to purpose
Differences: seligman included a hedonic element
what is the flourishing scale from Diener (2009)?
looks at how much a person is flourishing in life which is closely related to eudaemonia
What is Nozick’s Experience machine?
when you ask people if they would choose to plug their brain into a machine that made any experience you desired most people would say no because people value authenticity over pleasure
How does the big 5 correlate with happiness
high on extraversion, low on neuroticism, agreeableness and conscientiousness have smaller correlations as well and opens less consistently related
is SWB stable
relatively stable across lifespan, dips a bit in middle age because of all the stress going on
What is the hedonic treadmill
happiness is relatively stable when a major life event happen that greatly increases or decreases happiness, people adapt and happiness levels usually return to baseline
What did diener and seligman find when they identified the happiest people?
the happiest people had the highest quality of personal relationships
Does gender affect SWB
no consistent link, women report more negative affect also higher level of positive affect
does age affect SWB
weakly associated, emotional intensity decreases for both positive and negative emotions
does age affect SWB
health is positively correlated with health, but more subjective health instead of objective.
is education related to SWB
small positive correlation, more of an effect for people who are poorer, but also could be because education gives you better income
What is personality?
personality is how a person on average think, feels, and behaves
Can personality be represented differently at different times?
yes, depending on the circumstances we are in
What is temperament?
Something that is determined from birth from your genetics, it’s how a person typically responds in terms of how intense their emotions are, how good their attention span is and their activity level.
What are the 3 assumptions are made in personality psych about every person?
everybody is
- like everyone else (universality): this is in terms of needs, like self determination theory where everyone has a need for competence, autonomy and relatedness and will focus on getting those needs satisfied and will feel happy when they do.
- different than some people but similar to others. this refers to traits mostly, where people could be higher in lower in different traits. Also include, values, attitudes, demographic differences, etc.
- unique in their own way. This refers to the exact pattern of traits and mid level units they have and how everyone falls on different parts of each traits continuum.
What is the key assumption for self-determination theory
humans have a need for growth and intrinsic motivation
what is competence?
competence is feeling that you can interact with your environment and master whatever you are doing.
what is autonomy?
autonomy is when you get to choose what you’re interested in and how you behave without interference from something or someone else.
what is relatedness and how do we foster it?
relatedness is wanting to feel close with other people and you can foster it by showing interest and investing time spent with your friends and family
what are life experiences
collection of experiences in a person’s life that define who you are
personal projects
tasks that you are currently working on and are important to you
What does openness to experience encompass?
it means that you seek out new experiences, are creative, like a variety of activities, and imaginative
What does conscientiousness encompass?
achievement orientated, organized, dependable, high self regulation
What does extraversion encompass?
excitableness, friendliness, get’s energy from other people, assertiveness
What does agreeableness encompass?
cooperative, trusting of others, even tempered, compassionate
What does neuroticism encompass?
anxiousness, depression, low emotional stability
What is difference between a state and a trait
a trait can be an average of states over a period of time. states are more impacted by situation whereas traits are more stable.
What makes someone extraverted?
people who are extraverted may have more sensitivity to potential rewards so they may notice those stimuli more in their environment and get more of a mood boost when they seek out those stimuli
What is the strength’s model?
positive psychology wanted to have it’s own model for describing differences in people.
main idea is fulfillment.
includes 24 strengths contained within 6 virtues (AKA the VIA classification of character strengths)
needs more empirical evidence still a work in progress
What are the six virtues in the strengths model/VIA classification?
- Wisdom
- Courage
- Transcendence
- Justice
- Humanity
- Temperance
What is wisdom
allows you to gain knowledge and spread the knowledge to others, could be giving advice. Also recognize uncertainty and see different peoples perspective.
what is courage
strength inside that allows you to pursue your goals even when the face of hardships
what is humanity and the tend and befriend model
humanity include being kind, loving, and social intelligence
when there is a threat, we go to to our social networks to protect them or seek out protection from others in that network.
what is justice
being fair and having a good leader
what is temperance
the opposite of hedonism, avoiding things in excess and forgiving, being modest
what is transcendence
self-actualization, humour, gratitude and appreciation
what are signature strengths?
people’s traits that they feel are the strongest and most authentic, they come naturally and increase SWB when used
what are the differences between the big 5 and strength model?
strengths valued aspect of personality
method used to create them, big 5 more empirical, objective.
trait model includes non desirable traits as well
