PP Final

Question 1

What is Causal-Agency Theory

Answer 1

CAT - draws from research in motivational, personality, and developmental psychology to explain how people become self-determined and positions self-determination within the realm of personality and developmental psychology. pg-306

Question 2

Self-Determination Theory

Answer 2

SDT - is a comprehensive, organismic meta-theory of motivation that “details the origins and outcomes of human agenticn action”. SDT proposes 3 basic psychological needs - competence, autonomy and relatedness (pg 301)

Question 3

Compassion

Answer 3

stems from empathy, but includes the desire to help the person with whom we empathize

Question 4

Prosocial Lying

Answer 4

Lying to protect another individual from harm. It requires the ability to identify suffering in another person (empathy) and the desire to alleviate that suffering (compassion). More than that, even, it involves anticipation that our words or actions might cause suffering in a hypothetical future. Thus, prosocial lying reflects the development of at least four distinct human capacities: theory of mind, empathy, compassion, and the combination of memory and imagination that allows us to foresee the consequences of our words.

Prosocial lying is a common feature of everyday communication. For example, an employee may tell a colleague that they delivered an excellent presentation when they did not, or thank a gift giver for a gift they would have rather not received.

Question 5

Hostile Attribution Bias

Answer 5

Hostile attribution bias is a kind of interpretation bias in which individuals are more likely to interpret ambiguous situations as hostile than benign (Epps and Kendall, 1995; Wilkowski and Robinson, 2010). Negative interpretations of ambiguity are a potential cause of rumination (Hertel et al., 2014).

For example, such a person might see two people laughing together and make the assumption that they are laughing about them.

Question 6

Vicarious (secondary) Trauma

Answer 6

Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) is a concept that was developed by trauma specialists Beth Stamm, Charles Figley and others in the early 1990s as they sought to understand why service providers seemed to be exhibiting symptoms similar to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) without having necessarily been exposed to direct trauma themselves.

Question 7

Vicarious traumatization (VT)

Answer 7

Vicarious traumatization (VT) - was coined by Pearlman & Saakvitne (1995) to describe the profound shift in world view that occurs in helping professionals when they work with individuals who have experienced trauma: helpers notice that their fundamental beliefs about the world are altered and possibly damaged by being repeatedly exposed to traumatic material. A domestic violence shelter worker may stop being able to believe that any relationship can be healthy. A child abuse investigator may lose trust in anyone who approaches their child. Again, examples of this abound and vary based on the type of work that we do.

Question 8

Compassion Fatigue

Answer 8

The symptoms of vicarious and secondary trauma combined with professional burnout; the result of chronic empathy when working with traumatized individuals.

Question 9

Problem-focused responses

Answer 9

Problem-focused responses emphasize doing something to change or mitigate the stressor. Involves handling stress by facing it head-on and taking action to resolve the underlying cause. For example, when anxious about an upcoming exam, use of problem-focused coping strategies might involve checking with the teacher about material one is unsure of, or increasing the time spent studying, or even deciding not to take the exam. (Best in scenarios where you have control over the stressor)

Question 10

Emotion-focused responses

Answer 10

Emotion-focused responses emphasize minimizing distress caused by the stressor. Emotion-focused coping focuses on regulating negative emotional reactions to stress such as anxiety, fear, sadness, and anger. This type of coping may be useful when a stressor is something that you cannot change. Many people think mainly of solution-focused coping strategies as the best way to manage stress. (best in scenarios where you have no control over the stressor)

Example: Meditating, Journaling, Reframing, Cognitive Distortions, and Positive Thinking

Question 11

Types of Courage

Answer 11

• Physical courage: involves physical risk to the actor
• Moral courage: involves standing up for someone else or for an ideal against others, thus risking social harm for challenging the opposing person or group
• Civil courage: defined as having the goal of enforcing social and ethical norms despite a range of risks to the self
• Social courage: the individual risks damaging relationships or social image, although the goal is open

Question 12

Global Index of Well-Being (GLOWING)

Answer 12

is an early-staged project with the goal of building an international team of researchers and end users who will develop, implement, evaluate and render sustainable a global index of wellbeing for use in research and decision making.

Question 13

Traits vs States

Answer 13

Traits: long-lasting, stable, internally-caused characteristics of an individual
States: brief, temporary, feelings of an individual that are externally caused

Question 14

Hedonic

Answer 14

is pursuing pleasure and material life

Question 15

Eudemonic

Answer 15

Wanting to find the meaning of life and wanting to leave a better future. Or otherwise transcending self-interest to connect to something larger”

Question 16

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

Answer 16

Socioemotional selectivity theory is a life-span theory of motivation that posits age differences in goals result from shrinking time horizons. When time is perceived as expansive, individuals will prioritize information-focused goals.

Question 17

Sense of Awe

Answer 17

Defined as a perception of vastness that cannot be assimilated but can be accommodate, or as the experience of humility and wonder—adventure—toward living.

Two types:
Quick boil: represented notably by mainstream quantitative-experimental research
Slow simmer: reflected palpably by more literary, qualitative forms of inquiry, seem to echo a larger, virtually archetypal clash at the heart of our Western industrialized culture

Six themes/lenses:
An acute awareness of the passing nature of time
The attunement to wonder and surprise
The realization of a cosmic context to everyday experiences
The perception of the intricacy and subtleties of life
The experience of being deeply, emotionally moved
The appreciation for solitude

Question 18

Savoring

Answer 18

An internal process through which people up-regulate their positive feelings by directing attention to emotionally relevant events.

Savoring occurs via five specific emotion regulation processes: situation selection, situation modification, attentional deployment, cognitive change, and response modulation

Up-regulation (savoring) of positive emotions
Down-regulation (dampening) of negative emotions

Question 19

Post-traumatic growth (PTG)

Answer 19

is a theory that explains this kind of transformation following trauma. It was developed by psychologists Richard Tedeschi, PhD, and Lawrence Calhoun, PhD, in the mid-1990s, and holds that people who endure psychological struggle following adversity can often see positive growth afterward.

“Examples of areas for growth include personal strength, appreciation for life, new possibilities in life, spiritual change, and relationships with others.” “Examples of PTG can be vast, ranging from writing books, finding God, starting charities, and many more.

Question 20

Psychological capital

Answer 20

An individual’s psychological state, or the degree to which an individual has confidence, hope, resilience, and optimism.

Question 21

Social Capital

Answer 21

The resources that individuals can recruit to increase their confidence and self-esteem, their sense of belonging and their sense of agency to improve their lives or communities.

Question 22

Platinum Rule of Friendship

Answer 22

Treat others how they want to be treated.

The golden rule is to do unto others as you’d have them do unto you; the platinum rule is to do unto others as they’d want done unto them. In other words, reject reciprocity as an ideal, in favor of something like empathy.

Question 23

Defensive pessimism

Answer 23

Setting low expectations for an outcome despite previous success in similar situations.

When implementing defensive pessimism, individuals set low expectations for their performance, regardless of how well they have done in the past. Defensive pessimists then think through specific negative events and setbacks that could adversely influence their goal pursuits. By envisioning possible negative outcomes, defensive pessimists can take action to avoid or prepare for them.[2] Using this strategy, defensive pessimists can advantageously harness anxiety that might otherwise harm their performance.[3]

Question 24

Strategic optimism

Answer 24

Setting high expectations based on past success, but avoiding thoughts about negative outcomes

Question 25

Self-handicapping

Answer 25

Claiming an impediment to performance to protect self-esteem in case of failure.

Behavioral self-handicapping occurs when people actively engage in behaviors that will undermine their performance. Examples include staying out late the night before a job interview, not putting effort into a term paper, procrastinating, and taking drugs.

Question 26

Mindfulness

Answer 26

A desirable mental state where awareness is focused on the present moment.

Benefits:
Promotes positive affect and moment
Diminishes stress
Heightens quality of life
Improves physical health and psychological outlooks

Question 27

3 Themes of Positive Relationships

Answer 27

Intimacy
Affection
Fun

Question 28

Secure attachment

Answer 28

Secure attachment is classified by children who show some distress when their caregiver leaves but are able to compose themselves quickly when the caregiver returns. Children with secure attachment feel protected by their caregivers, and they know that they can depend on them to return.

Bowlby defined attachment as a ‘lasting psychological connectedness between human beings. ‘ Bowlby (1958) proposed that attachment can be understood within an evolutionary context in that the caregiver provides safety and security for the infant. Attachment is adaptive as it enhances the infant’s chance of survival.

Question 29

Insecure Avoidant

Answer 29

Adults with an avoidant-dismissive insecure attachment style are the opposite of those who are ambivalent or anxious-preoccupied. Instead of craving intimacy, they’re so wary of closeness they try to avoid emotional connection with others. They’d rather not rely on others, or have others rely on them.

Question 30

Insecure Ambivalent Attachment Theory

Answer 30

The final attachment style (insecure ambivalent) is when a child exhibits ambivalent behaviour towards his/her caregiver. The child is not easily comforted by the caregiver and often demonstrates clingy and dependent behaviour towards an attachment figure yet still rejects them in times of interaction.

Question 31

Defensive hope

Answer 31

Maintaining high hope that people or circumstances will change in order to avoid facing reality; unrealistic positive expectations.

This is an expectation of a good outcome that is based on nothing but wishes and desires. There is no reality to the expectation, and it will fail you.

For example:
• I hope my company does better, because I really hope it will
• I hope my kids succeed, because I really want them to
• I hope my marriage flourishes, because I’m a positive person
Optimism is a good thing, but defensive hope makes us work hard on something when it might be time to prune back and face reality

Answer 32

Defensive hopelessness: a low hope condition that has adaptive values