Midterm 2 Flashcards
Ideological concerns?
Research used.misused to make ideological point
Eugenics?
- Is the notion that we can design the future of the human species by
- Fostering the reproduction of people with certain traits
- Discouraging the reproduction of people without those traits
Heritability?
- extent to which genetics predict behaviour or trait
- How much do genetic differences among individuals cause differences in something, such as height, extraversion, or sensation seeking.
inherited?
Behaviour or trait is determined by genes alone
Heritable vs. Inherited
- Physical features (such as height) are largely heritable, but not inherited
- Example: if both your parents are 5’2”, it doesn’t mean you will be exactly 5’2”
Our genes?
- 90% of genes inherited are same across species (all human share these)
- 10% differ across species
Genotypic Variance?
Genetic variance that is responsible for individual differences in the phenotypic expression of specific traits
Environmentality?
Percentage of observed variance in a group of individuals that can be attributed to environment
Cake Metaphor?
- Cake metaphor: You bake a cake with flour, sugar, eggs, and water
Is the finished cake caused more by the flour or the eggs? - Both needed, combined and cannot be separated from finished cake
What Heritability Means?
- Heritability estimates are tied to a place and time
- If everyone in a population has exactly same environment, then influence of genotypes will tend to be greater
- If environment differs greatly across people in a population, then influence of genotypes will be less
Traits are influenced by Genotypes?
- Does not mean that genes influence behaviour directly
- Perhaps genes influence physical or physiological characteristics, which influence behaviour & personality
Selective Breeding?
- Can only occur is a desired trait is heritable
- Selective breeding studies of digs (or other animals)
- Cannot be ethically conducted with humans
- You can think different personality traits of dogs and different breeds (or other animals)
- Dog personality questionnaire
Family Studies?
- Correlates the degree of genetic overlap among family members with the degree of similarity in personality trait
- if a trait is highly heritable
- Family members with greater genetic relatedness should be more similar to one another on the trait than family members who are less closely genetically related
Family studies Limitations?
- Members of a family who share the same genes also usually share the same environment – confounds genetic with environmental influences
- This doesn’t mean people can have different environmental influences within a family
- Thus, family studies are never definitive
Twin Studies?
- Monozygotic (MZ) twins are identical twins
- Dizygotic (DZ) twins are fraternal twins
- MZ share 100% of genes
- DZ share 50% of genes that vary across species
- Same as siblings of same parentage
-If MZ twins are more similar than DZ twins, this provides evidence of heritability - Calculating heritability estimates
- Different ways to do it
Twin Heritability Estimates
- Because MZs share same genes, differences in phenotypes (traits) can only be attributed to “environment”
- Differences between Twin 1 and Twin 2 not due to genes; therefore, due to “environment” - Differences in phenotypes between pairs of DZ twins can be attributed to different genes for different “environment”
- Some of the genes are different between DZ twins
Twin Study Limitations?
- Equal environments assumption: The twin method assumes that the environments experienced by identical twins are no more similar to each other than are the environments experienced by fraternal twins
- General support for this assumption, but it is an ongoing concern with this kind of research
- Representativeness: The experience of twins is not representative of the general population (i.e., generalizability)
Adoption Studies?
- Positive correlations on traits between adopted children and adoptive parents provide evidence of environmental influence
- Positive correlations on traits between adopted children and genetic parents provide evidence of genetic influence
- Adoption studies are powerful because they can disentangle genetics and environment a bit more
- Biological parent and child: are they the same because of genetics or environment?
- Generalizability still a concern
Problem of selective placement of adopted children
Adoption Twin Studies?
- Combine twin & adoption studies
- Mz Twins raised in the same environment (reared together)
- MZ Twins raised in different environments (reared apart) - MZ reared apart unlikely to have same environments as MZ reared together
- Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart
- 1979 by Tom Bouchard
- Newer twin studies continue at University of Minnesota today
Sexual Orientation?
- Sexual orientation: refers to one’s sexual and/or emotional attraction to others based on their sex or gender. Identities associated with sexual orientation include gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, etc
Shared environment?
- in family environment, features of the environment shared by siblings
- E.g., Kids in same family have same SES, go to same schools, share same child rearing
Nonshared environment?
- In family environment, features of the environment that differ across siblings
- E.g., different friends, different teachers, different teachers, different relationship with parents
Genotype-Environment Interaction?
- People with different genotypes can respond differently to the same environments
- Example: Task performance of introverts versus extraverts in loud versus noisy conditions - People with different genotypes exposed to different environments
- Example: How often do you go to parties or not? Extraverts may opt into these environments more often
What are the three types of Genotype-Environment correlation?
- Passive
- Reactive
- Active
Passive
- Parents provide genes and environment, kid does nothing
- ex: Parents choosing number of books in home
Reactive
- Kid behaviour, parents reacts to specific genotype
- Kid likes reading, parents give kid more books or take the kid to the library more often
Active
- kid with particular genotypes seeks out environments
- Kid chooses to spend time in libraries
If personality traits are heritable, how does it work?
- Genetic code influences development of biological structures
- Genetic code influences activity of hormones, neurotransmitters, and other chemical processes within body
Phineas Gage Accident (1848)
- Phineas Gage suffered from a brain injury from a railroad construction accident
- Rod went through his skull, but he survived the accident - Suffered damage to his frontal lobe
- Prior to his accident, he was a highly agreeable and conscious
- After his personality changed dramatically, became obstinate and capricious
Physiological Measures?
- Electrodermal Activity (skin conductance)
- Sweating when presented with certain stimuli - Cardiovascular activity
- Examples: blood pressure & heart rate - Brain Activity
- Examples: EEG, PET, fMRI - Biochemical analyses of blood and saliva
- Hormone levels (e.g., cortisol)
- Neurotransmitter levels
Physiologically-Based Theories of Personality?
- Extraversion & arousal
- Sensitivity to reward and punishment
- Sensation seeking
- Neurotransmitters and personality
- Brain asymmetry and affective style
Eysenck & Extraversion?
- Basic assumption is that the human brain has excitatory and inhibitory neural mechanisms
- Balance between the two produces level of physiological arousal at any given moment
- Neural activity reflects activity of various neurotransmitters
- Dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, etc - Level of arousal fluctuates over course of day
- Arousal can be changed by:
- Environmental factors: music, noise
- Activities: exercise
- Ingested food/chemicals: sugar, caffeine, nicotine
excitatory mechanisms
alert, awake, aroused
Inhibitory mechanisms
sleepy, drowsy, sluggish
Regulation of Arousal
- Balance between excitatory and inhibitory activity is maintained (or regulated) by Ascending Reticular Activating System (ARAS)
If ARAS gateway is typically somewhat closed, baseline level of cortical arousal will generally be relatively low
- Extraverts’ situation
Is ARAS gateway is typically open wide, baseline level of cortical arousal will generally be relatively high
- Introverts’ situation
Finding optimal arousal: Extroverts?
- Extraverts attempt to increase arousal, and perform better when able to increase cortical arousal into pleasant range
- Seek stimulation from environment
Finding Optimal Arousal: Introvert
- Introverts attempt to decrease arousal, and perform better when able to decrease cortical arousal into pleasant range
- Seek to minimize stimulation from the environment
Green’s test of Eysenck’s Theory of Extraversion?
- Extraverts and introverts do Paired-Associates Learning Task with ransom background noise
- “You Decide” condition: ⅓ introverts and ⅓ Extraverts can adjust volume of noise
- Preferred condition: ⅓ introverts assigned to introverts’ noise preference; ⅓ of Extraverts assigned to Extraverts’ noise preference
- Opposite condition: ⅓ Extraverts assigned to introverts’ noise preference; ⅓ introverts assigned to Extraverts’ noise preference
Conclusions of Green Study?
- Introverts and extraverts differ in preferences for background noise
- Extraverts preferred more noise than introverts - Each has moderate arousal and best performance when in preferred noise environment
- Extraverts perform less well when in low arousal (introverts’) environment
Introverts perform less well when in high arousal (extraverts’) environment
Gray’s Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory: Behavioural Activation System (BAS):
- Behavioural Activation System (BAS):
- Responsive to rewards and regulates approach behaviour
- Active BAS produces impulsivity
- Neurotransmitter = dopamine
Gray’s Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory: Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS):
- Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS):
- Responsive to punishment, frustration, uncertainty, and motivates ceasing, inhibiting, or avoidance behaviour
- Active BIS produces anxiety
- Neurotransmitter = serotonin
Avoidance System (Behavioural Activation System)
- Both Approach & Avoidance based in Limbic System
- For approach system (BAS)
- In particular, the septal nuclei & nucleus accumbens - Causes one to be sensitive to potential rewards & motivates reward seeking behaviour
- When BAS active, one craves rewards (impulsive)
- When BAS inactive, one is unmotivated
Inhibitory System (Behavioural inhibitoy system):
- Based in hippocampus, although this region is mostly associated with memory, not just emotion
- Amygdala, in the limbic system, is also key (vigilance response to info) - Sensitive to potential punishments & motivated to avoid them
- When active, person is anxious
Individual Differences in BIS & BAS?
- Individuals differ in threshold for activating BAS (Activation system) and BIS (inhibition system)
- Some people more sensitive to reward than others
- E.g., first day at new school (anticipation or ho hum?)
- Some people more sensitive to punishment than others
- E.g., final exam (anxious or calm?)
Assessing BIS & BAS in Humans: BIS (inhibition):
- Even if something bad is about to happen to me, I rarely experience fear or nervousness. (R )
- Criticism or scolding hurts me quite a bit
- If I think something unpleasant is going to happen I usually get pretty “worked up”.
- I have very few fears compared to my friends. (R )
Assessing BIS & BAS in Humans: BAS (Approach):
- I go out of my way to get things I want
- I’m always willing to try something new if I think it will be fun
- When I’m doing well at something, I love to keep at it
- I will often do things for no other reason than that they might be fun
BIS & BAS: Daily Experience: High BIS sensitive
- Experienced more negative emotions
- More affected by negative events
BIS & BAS: Daily Experience: High BAS Sensitive
- Experienced more positive emotions
- Experienced more positive events
BIS & BAS Depression
- Kasch et al. (2002)
- People high in depression have higher BIS sensitivity and lower BAS sensitivity vs. people not depressed
- People high in depression with lower BAS sensitivity showed less recovery 8 months later
Updating Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory: BAS reward sensitivity (similar to extraversion)
- Motivation to approach potential rewards, impulsivity
Updating Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory: BIS Conflict sensitive (similar to neuroticism, anxiety)
- Sensitive to uncertainty, choice dilemmas, novelty
- No longer focus on punishment - more internal conflict
Updating Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory: FFFs (Fight, flight, freeze system): Sensitive to danger
- Demands immediate response
-Response to punishment to threat - Panic and fear
Sensation Seeking?
- Tendency to seek out thrilling, exciting activities, take risks, avoid boredom
Monoamine Oxidase (MAO)
- Enzyme that maintains neurotransmitter levels
- High sensation seekers have low levels of MAO
Dopamine
- Associated with pleasure
- Animals motivated to receive dopamine much like food rewards
- Several drugs (e.g., Cocaine) mimic dopamine, but reduce natural production
- related to extraversion
- Also related to Openness in some recent research (in a different way - salience of information)
Serotonin
- Low levels associated with depression and anxiety
- Common anti-depression prevent the reuptake of serotonin, making more serotonin available in the synapse for better transmission between neurons
- Related to neuroticism
Biological systems and processes are complicated?
Correlations between traits and absolute levels of a neurotransmitter can’t give you the full story
Dopamine and Extraversion?
- Researchers have explored the number of dopaminergic neurons, and response to increasing dopamine with drugs
- The reaction to dopamine differs, not baseline levels
Serotonin & Neuroticism?
- Anti-depressants (SSRIs, specifically) try to reduce reuptake, but don’t work for everyone
- Some animal studies show direct increases in serotonin in hippocampus increases anxiety
- Might be due to different facets of neuroticism
Brain Asymmetry and Affective Style?
- Left and right sides of the brain are specialized, with asymmetry in control of psychological functions
- An EEG, can measure brain waves, such as alpha wave - an inverse indicator of brain activity
- Alpha waves oscillate at 8-12 times and second
- Less alpha wave is present, more the brain is active
EEG Readings?
- Higher activity in left frontal hemisphere = positive mood
- Higher activity in right frontal hemisphere = negative mood
Stable Asymmetry?
- Asymmetry (left over right and right or left) is a stable individual difference
- Some people have relatively more activation in right frontal hemisphere
- Respond more to anxiety-producing stimuli - Other people have relatively more activation in left frontal hemisphere
- Respond more to appealing stimuli
PA (Postive Affectivity)
- A tendency to experience more positive emotions (joy, vigour, alert, excited)
NA (Negative Affectivity)
- A tendency ti experience more negative emotions (Afraid, anxious, irritable, distressed)
What is Evolutionary Theory?
- Argues that distinctive features of human nature (physical and psychological) have developed by small increments over many generations because of the selective advantage they gave our ancestors
- I.e., those who had adaptive solutions to recurrent problems faced by the species were more likely to survive and reproduce successfully
What are the processes by which evolutionary adaption occurs?
- Natural Selection
- Sexual Selection
Theory of Natural Selection?
- Members of the species must differ on some characteristic (i.e., variants or variation)
- Some of these variations must be to some significant degree heritable (i.e., genetic)
- Organisms with “successful variants” leave more offspring because those attributes helps with the tasks of survival or reproduction
- Assumes hostile forced of nature
“Hostile forces of nature”
- Any event that impedes survival
- Example: food shortages, diseases, parasites, predators, & extreme weather - “As more individuals are produced than can possibly survive, there must in every case be a struggle for existence, either one individual with another of the same species, or with the individuals of distinct species, or with the physical conditions of life”
Natural Selection
- Natural selection is a process that helped our ancestors to survive challenges in the African savannahs ~200,000 yrs ago
- evolution is a slow process
Arousal?
- Limbic system: detects & interprets threatening stimuli
- The middle ground of arousal (not too low or too high) was most adaptive
Too high or too low was literally a matter of life and death (and ultimately, species survival)
Sexual selection?
- Passing on genes requires reproduction
- Those who don’t mate do not pass on genes
- Some heritable characteristics give selective mating benefits to those who possess them
- Peacock’s tail
- Stag large antlers
- Facial symmetry in humans
Intrasexual competition
- Members of same sex compete for mating access
- Example: Two stags locking horns in combat
Intersexual competition
- One sex chooses mate based on their preference for particular qualities
- If members of one sex have some consensus about qualities that are desirable, the individuals of opposite sex possessing those qualities will be preferentially chosen as mates
What are the three products of evolution?
- Adaptions
- By-products
- Evolutionary noise
Adaptations
- Exist due to Natural/Sexual Selection because they helped solve problems of survival or reproduction
By-products
- Do not solve adaptive problems and do not have functional design
Evolutionary noise
- Random variations that are neutral with respect to selection
Deductive reasoning approach
- “Top down,” theory-driven method
- Have an idea of how something works and test it
- Example: Understanding broad evolutionary rules and having an idea of how it applies to human aggression
Inductive reasoning approach
- “Bottom up,” data-driven method
- See something, then develop a hypothesis to help explain it
- Example: We find that men are generally more physically aggressive than women. Why?
- Evolutionary psych uses both, but is often criticized for the inductive approach
Human Nature?
- Human nature is a product of evolutionary processes
- Psychological mechanisms that are successful in helping humans survive and reproduce - Over evolutionary time, successful mechanisms spread through population and come to characterize all humans
- Examples of evolutionary analysis at the level of human
- The need to belong (may lead to social anxiety)
- Helping and altruism
- Universal Emotions
Need to belong
- Humans evolve to live in groups
- Consequently, an individual who is shunned by a group will feel anxious (i.e., social anxiety)
Biological Pathways
- Experience physical pain after social rejection
Inclusive Fitness Theory
- An attempt to broaden the scope beyond just heterosexual relationships and having kids
Fitness
Ability for organism to survive and reproduce (similar to differential gene reproduction from above )
Inclusive
Characteristics that facilitate reproduction that help your kids or relatives to survive
Sex Differences
- Similar adaptive problems between sexes, sexes will be more similar
- But if women and men experience different adaptive problems, then evolutionary psychologists claim that this could explain sex differences
Parental Investment Theory
In species in which females invest more heavily in offspring than males do, females become the valuable limiting resource on reproduction for males
Sexual Dimorphism Hypothesis?
- When sex differences (male versus female) in minimum obligatory parental investment, then one sex can sire more offspring than other sex
- Women have more constraints on reproduction (e.g., time of pregnancy, child rearing, and limits of menopause)
Agression?
- Differences in access to mates leads to “ferocious intrasexual competition”
- Males will fight each other for mates
- Those low on ‘pecking order” motivated to take big risk - Intrasexual competition leads to aggression
- Assert (or challenge) status/dominance
- Deter rivals - Aggression can solve problems but does so at a cost
- Cost of losing
- Concern about retribution
Sex Differences in Aggression?
- In almost every category (except verbal), men are more aggressive than women
Young Male Syndrome?
- Young men are particularly prone to engage in risky forms of aggression because in evolutionary history
- Age when men begin intrasexual competition
Environmental Triggers?
- People may shift away from human nature traits because of environmental differences
- examples: childhood adversity, divorced homes, etc
Contingent on Personal physiology?
- Your physique (size & strength) may influence how you express your personality & individual differences
- Example: Strength differences & using either aggression or kindness
Frequency-dependent selection?
- Can explain how 2+ variants of a trait continue on
- Example: Most people might be honest, but the few dishonest people can still thrive.
Optimal level of a trait?
- Certain levels of a trait are adaptive for different environments over time
- Example: ADHD adaptive in the past for survival
Agreeableness
Cooperate/selfish in conflicts over resources
Emotional Stability
Sensitivity to the adaptive problem of social exclusion
Extraversion
Risk-taking social strategy marked by success in short-term mating vs. adopting a more stable family life marked by long-term mating
Conscientiousness
Long-term strategy of delayed gratification and tenacity of goal pursuit vs. a more impulsive solution that involves grabbing immediate adaptive benefits
Psychic energy
a source of (limited) energy within each person that motivates all human activity
Instincts
Strong innate forces that provide all the energy in the psychic system
Freud redefined his theory with 2 specific instincts
- Libido: life instinct
- Thanatos: death instinct
Levels of mind: Conscious
Contains thoughts, feelings, and images about which one is presently aware
Levels of mind: preconscious
Contains information one is not presently thinking about, but can be easily retrieved and made conscious
Levels of the mind: unconscious
Part of the mind holding thoughts and memories that one is unaware of
Psychic Determinism
- Reasons could be discovered if contents of the unconscious could be examined
- Most symptoms of mental illness are caused by unconscious motivations
- To cure psychological symptoms, the unconscious cause must be discovered
Psychoanalytic personality theory
- Concerns how people cope with their sexual and aggressive instincts within the constraints of civilized society
- This involves different parts of the mind: id, ego, superego
The “Id”
- Dark, inaccessible part of personality
- Source of all drives & urges
- Operates under the pleasure principle
- Desire for immediate gratification - Not rational, logical, or organized
- No notion of time
- Iceberg level = unconscious
- Often depicted as the devil on the shoulder
The “superego”
- Conscience, source of guilt/shame
- Internalizes values, morals, & ideals of society
- What one ought to do
- Parental influence is part of it - Also not bound by reality
- Iceberg level = between the conscious and unconscious
- Often depicted as the angel on the shoulder
The “ego”
- Negotiator, problem-solver, pragmatic
- Operates under the reality principle
- Guides behaviour based on the constraints of reality - Mediates between id, superego, & “environmental affordances”
- Iceberg level = mostly conscious
- Ego is the person between the angel & the devil
Objective anxiety
occurs in response to real, external threat to a person
Neurotic anxiety
is conflict between id and ego—trying to rein in unacceptable desires from the id
Moral anxiety
is conflict between ego and superego—trying to manage shame and guilt from the superego
Repression
- process in which a person forgets something they experienced because it is too painful
- Example: “repressed memories” of childhood abuse
Denial
- Refusal to believe
- Example: After being diagnosed with a chronic illness or terminal condition, a person might refuse to believe that the problem is as serious as it really is.
Regression
- Revert to earlier stage of development
- Example: A child who has recently learned to feed themselves may suddenly seem unable to do so and revert to relying on their caregivers to feed them
Projection
- Misattribute your feelings or thoughts to others
- Example: A person who is cheating on their partner is suspicious that their partner is cheating on them
Reaction Formation
- To hold back an unacceptable urge; a person may display a flurry of behaviour that indicates the opposite impulse
- Example: A neighbor is mean to you & you respond by being overly nice to them
Displacement
- A threatening or an unacceptable impulse is redirected from its original source to a less threatening target
- Examples: A person who is mad at their boss yells at a subordinate office intern
Rationalization
- Generating acceptable reasons for outcomes that might otherwise appear socially unacceptable
- Example: Rejected after first date? I didn’t like them anyways!
Sublimation
- Channel feelings into acceptable outlets
- Examples: art, exercise, etc.
- Most adaptive defense mechanism
Stage 1: Oral Stage
- General Timeframe: Birth to 18 months
- Erogenous zone: Mouth
- Developmental Task: Develop ego (i.e., learn to delay gratification through weaning)
- If successful: trust
- If unsuccessful: dependent or independent - If over/under-indulged, child develops an oral fixation
- Behaviour: gum chewing, overeating, smoking, drug addiction, etc.
Stage 2: Anal Stage
- General Timeline: 18 months to 3 years
- Erogenous Zone: anus
- Developmental Task: Develop self-control (e.g., through toilet training)
- If successful: mastery, self-control
- If unsuccessful: fixation can be either “anal-retentive” (obstinate, resistant, neat, frugal, stingy) or anal-expulsive (disorderly, sloppy, aggressive, lose temper, unkempt)
Stage 3: Phallic Stage
- General Timeline: 4 to 6 years
- Erogenous zone: genitals
Developmental Task: development of superego
- Identify with same sex parent & repress desire for oppositesex parent (also concepts of Oedipal complex & castration anxiety for boys, Electra complex and penis envy for girls) - Adopt gender roles
- Traits: Masculinity/Femininity - Successful: Adopt parents’ moral values
- Fixation: People who are stuck in this phase can be overly dramatic and use partners for sex
Stage 4: Latency Stage
- General Timeline: Age 6 to 12
- Erogenous zone: none
- “quiet period”, become sexually disinterested (Same-sex friendships) - Developmental Task: Drives need to be transformed through “sublimation”
- Reorient needs in new directions that are socially appropriate/acceptable - Coping skills learned
Stage 5: Genital Stage
- General Timeline: Puberty to Death
- Erogenous zone: genitals
- Developmental Task: Attach libido to real external objects
- Learn to love others
- Contribute to society by productive, cooperative work - Love and Work (recall circumplex: warmth/communion vs dominance/achievement)
Determined by how one satisfies libido at each of 5 stages:
- Trust
- Mastery/self-control/autonomous
- Masculinity/femininity
- Good coping skills, resilient
- Achievement motivated
- Interpersonally warm
Dream analysis
Interpreting that latent content in the dream
Free association
- Relax & say whatever comes to mind
- By relaxing the censor that screens everyday thoughts, free association allows potentially important material into conscious awareness.
Projective techniques
Rorschach (inkblot) tests (which have terrible reliability & validity)
Resistance
Patient creates obstacles to progress
Transference
Patient reacts to therapist like a person in their own life
Drew Weston (1998) five postulates
- Childhood plays an important role in personality development, particularly in shaping adult relationship styles
- Personality development involves not just regulating sexual and aggressive feelings, but also moving from an immature socially dependent way of relating to others to a mature independent relationship style
Imagination Inflation effect
A person’s imagination takes over. They elaborate so much on an imagined event that they believe it actually happened.
Confirmatory bias
Tendency to look only for evidence that confirms belief, and not to look for evidence that disconfirms
Motivated unconscious
Unconscious (e.g., a repressed wish) can motivate subsequent behaviour.
Cognitive unconscious
- Content of the unconscious mind is assumed to operate just like thoughts in consciousness.
- Examples: Button a shirt or typing on a keyboard—usually, you do these things automatically without conscientiously thinking about it
Subliminal perception
- Perception that bypasses conscious awareness, usually achieved through very brief exposure times, typically less than 30 milliseconds
- Research on subliminal perception indicates that unconscious information does not influence people’s motivations
Priming
- Technique to make associated material more accessible to conscious awareness than material that is not primed.
- Example: Say a color yellow & ask person to name objects.They should be more inclined to list yellow objects
My hot take
If priming effects do exist, my guess is that their influence is smaller than you would think
Contemporary psychoanalysis
- Shift in focus from id to ego
- Anna Freud also argued this point, too
Erik Erikson
Emphasized ego as a powerful and independent part of personality
Identity crisis
Confusion & desperation a person feels without a strong sense of self
Erikson’s Eight Stages of Development
- Trust vs. Mistrust
- Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
- Initiative vs. Guilt
- Industry vs. Inferiority
- Identity vs. Role Confusion
- Intimacy vs. Isolation
- Generativity vs. Stagnation
- Integrity vs. Despair
Stage 1: trust vs. Mistrust
- Occurs in infancy
- Will I be taken care of?
- Development of parental (or caretaker) bonds
- Trust that basic needs will be met
Stage 2: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
- Terrible twos
- How much of this world do I control?
- Exploring, testing their environment
- If parents are too strict, increase in shame and doubt
Stage 3: Initiative vs. Guilt
- Around 3 years old
- Practice adult tasks via play
- Learn to work together with other kids in social groups,learn ambition, goal setting
- Failure (or fixation) leads to not taking initiative for goals
Stage 4: Industry vs. Inferiority
- Around age 4
- Social comparison, developing sense of competence & achievement
- Lack of development kids think they might not be good at anything or have any talents/skills
Stage 5: Identity vs. Role Confusion
- Adolescence
- Who am I?
- Try out new things (new groups, hobbies, values, etc.)
- Failure in this stage, people struggle to figure out who they are into adulthood
- Some cultures/religions have rites of passage during this stage
Stage 6: Intimacy vs. Isolation
- Late teen years into adulthood
- Developing intimate relationships that are mutually satisfying
- Can manifest in marriage (although not a guarantee)
- Isolation is a result of not achieving this, which is related to lower life satisfaction
Stage 7: Generativity vs. Stagnation
- Most of adulthood
- Having meaningful adult role and ways to spend time
- Can be a bunch of things, depending on values(common ideas are career, family, volunteering, etc.)
- Stagnation: going through the motions
Stage 8: Integrity vs. Despair
- Late in life
- Retirement, empty nest, letting go of generative role
- Pull back from adult role and prepare for death, reflecting on life, regrets
Fear of success
Gender difference in response to competition and achievement situations
self-serving bias
Taking personal credit for wins, but downplay personal influence in losses
Narcissism
Inflated self-admiration and constant attempts to draw attention to self and keep others focused on self
Narcissistic paradox
Although the narcissist appears high in self-esteem, he or she has doubts about his or her worth as a person
separation anxiety can develop, or infants can become depressed/unloved
- Ambivalent attachment
- Avoidant attachment
Adult relationship styles: Secure
Few problems developing satisfying friendships and relationships; trusts people
Adult relationship styles: Avoidant
Difficulty trusting others, remain suspicious of the motives of others, and afraid of making commitments
Adult relationship styles: Ambivalent
Vulnerability and uncertainty about relationships, overly dependent on partners & friends
Motives
- Internal state that arouses and directs behaviour toward a specific object or goal
- motives are based on needs
What is a “need”
- A readiness to respond, a state of tension
- A feeling of being compelled, pulled
- Not necessarily conscious
- High levels of some needs interacted with the amounts of various other needs within each person—interaction makes the motive concept dynamic
Abasement
to surrender and accept punishment
Achievement
to overcome obstacles and succeed
Acquisition (conservancy)
to obtain possessions
Press
A situation or opportunity that provokes or “pulls for” a particular need
Alpha press
objective situation
beta press
perceived or subjective situation
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
- Person interprets ambiguous situation in ways that might reflect their current needs
- This is a projective test (like the Rorschach)
What are the Big Three Motives
- Need for Achievement (nAch)
- Need for Power (nPow)
- Need for intimacy (nInt)
Need for Achievement (aAch)
- refers to interest in reaching or setting a standard of excellence
- Words that positively evaluate a performance (e.g., good, better,best)
- Winning/competing (except when goal is power)
- Negative feeling as a result of doing badly
Need for Power (nPOW)
- refers to desire to control or influence others, or have an impact on the world
- Strong forceful actions (e.g., attack, chase, accuse)
- Attempts to influence (e.g., argue)
- Giving help/advice
- Attempts to impress others (status symbols)
Need for Intimacy (nInt)
- is a concern with establishing & maintaining friendly relations among persons or groups
- Positive/friendly feelings towards another
- Sadness about separation, disruption, loss of friend
- Doing things together for sake of friendship
Humanistic Tradition
- Approach is a counter-response to both the psychoanalytic and behavioural traditions
- Which believes that people have little free will in determining their actions
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Hierarchy goes from the bottom to the top:
- Physiological
- Safety
- Belongingness
- Esteem
- Self-actualization
Deficiency needs
- People yearn for the gratification of these needs
- Need to satisfy these needs for health and well-being
- Deprivation leads ill-health
Physiological
food, water, air, sleep, and sex
Safety
shelter and security
Belongingness
accepted by others and welcomed into a group
Growth needs
- Desire to be a better person, to be all you can be
- These needs:
- People don’t “yearn” for them
- Not related to health or well-being
- Pursuit of these needs lead to a sense of fulfillment
Esteem
esteem from others and self-esteem
Self-actualization
need to develop one’s potential and develop one’s true self
Peak experiences
A momentary feeling of extreme wonder, awe, and vision. Characterized by feelings of euphoria, harmonization, a deep sense of meaning and purpose, and interconnectedness
Flow
A subjective state that people report when they are completely involved in an activity to the point of forgetting time, fatigue, and everything else but the activity itself
Rogers’ contributions
- Parents should give kids unconditional positive regard (and later significant others)
- Love, affection, & respect without a kid having to do something to earn it
- Develop positive sense of self - However, conditional positive regard still happens
- Examples: I love you if you do well in class, a sports competition, artistic event, etc.
Need for positive regard
All children are born wanting to be loved and accepted by their parents and others.
