Psy 201 Final Flashcards
IQ tests are more commonly used in (Western/Eastern) cultures
Western
Are IQ tests valid?
May primarily relate to school achievement and the number of years of schooling; may also be different types of “intelligences”
Is intelligence inherited or due to the environment?
Both
Flynn effect
over about the last 50 years, the average intelligence score has gone up (don’t know why)
Are there cultural differences in intelligence?
Yes - field of corn analogy: differences due to environment (soil) and within the environment due to heredity (seeds)
IQ ranges are due to ?, but the measured IQ is shaped by both ? and ?
heredity (range might be 115-145); heredity and environment (you score a 125)
two important components of personality
consistency of behavior (how likely the person responds similarly across a variety of situations) and distinctiveness (act in a characteristic way - “he would never do that”)
personality refers to
an individual’s unique collection of consistent behavioral traits
personality trait
a durable disposition to behave in a particular way in a variety of situations
Gordon Allport
identified 4500 personality traits before it was decided that there must be a smaller group of more comprehensive traits (which is the basis of a lot of personality tests)
5 factor model for personality
agreeableness neuroticism (negative emotionality) extraversion (positive emotionality) openness to experience conscientiousness (constraint)
Freud’s psychoanalytic theory
psychoanalysis as therapy for client’s psychological problems; uncover repressed childhood memories, unconscious motivations, and defense mechanisms
hysteria-conversion reaction
psychological problem; person believes they have lost function in some body part, typically more common for females and due to the brutality of war
Freud’s personality structure
iceberg analogy: conscious (ego and superego), preconscious (ego and superego), unconscious (ego, superego, and id)
conscious
contact with outside world
preconscious
material just beneath the surface of awareness
unconscious
difficult to retrieve material; well below surface of awareness
ego
reality principle, secondary-process thinking
superego
moral imperatives, conscience
id
pleasure principle, primary-process thinking
according to Freud, ? is the hallmark of existence, and it results from ? and may lead to ?
conflict; the interactions of the three personality structures (ego, superego, id); anxiety
defense mechanisms (DMs)
used to rid people of anxiety, primarily thought to be used by the ego to mediate the conflict between the id and the superego
(DM) rationalization
creating false but plausible excuses to justify unacceptable behavior
(DM) repression
keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious
(DM) projection
attributing one’s own faults to others
(DM) displacement
diverting emotional feelings to a substitute (“Go home and kick the dog”)
(DM) reaction formation
behaving opposite to real feelings
(DM) regression
reversion to an immature pattern of behavior
(DM) identification
building up self-esteem by identifying with a powerful group
(DM) sublimation
channeling aggressive or disturbing feelings into a more socially-acceptable activity
psychosexual stages of development
developmental periods with a characteristic sexual focus that leaves its mark on adult personality; can get fixated at a stage (excessive conflict b/w id and ego or overgratification)
Psychosexual stage: oral
ages 0-1
erotic focus: mouth (sucking, biting)
key tasks and experiences: weaning (from breast/bottle)
Psychosexual stage: anal
ages 2-3
erotic focus: anus (expelling/retaining feces)
key tasks and experiences: toilet training
Psychosexual stage: phallic
ages 4-5
erotic focus: genitals (masturbating - play with, be aware of)
key tasks and experiences: identifying with adult role models; coping with Oedipal crisis
Psychosexual stage: latency
ages 6-12
erotic focus: none (sexually repressed)
key tasks and experiences: expanding social contacts
Psychosexual stage: genital
age: puberty on
erotic focus: genitals (being sexually intimate)
key tasks and experiences: establishing intimate relationships; contributing to society through working
Carl Jung
was a close colleague of Freud’s for many years, but eventually split to escape Freud’s dogmatic adherence to psychoanalysis; wanted people to come up with their own ideas and do their own thinking; used dreams extensively as a window to the unconscious
Carl Jung believed in Freud’s notion of the unconscious, but
called it the personal unconscious; also a deeper level he called the collective unconscious (contains memories called archetypes - not specific memories, but forms that have universal meanings across cultures)
examples of archetypes
irrational fear of snakes, being drawn to fire and to the ocean, certain common spiritual beliefs, the great mother, the wise old man, the hero
Alfred Adler
originally a colleague of Freud’s, but had a bitter breakup due to his feeling that Freud put too much emphasis on sexual conflicts; believed people strive for superiority over life’s challenges; was much more aware of environmental influences on personality than Freud or Jung (e.g. believed that birth order could influence personality development)
compensation (Adler)
we all have to work hard to overcome our feelings of inadequacy; Adler also coined the phrase “inferiority complex,” which were exaggerated feelings of inferiority
problems with psychodynamic theories
poor testability, inadequate evidence, sexism
Behavioral Perspectives: Skinner
world operates on you; personality traits are just a product of conditioning; behavior appears to be consistent and enduring b/c of reinforcement history, no reason to look inside the person
Behavioral Perspectives: Albert Bandura
people operate on the world; social cognitive theory - people are conscious, thinking, and feeling beings who are able to seek out and process information in the environment; importance of observational learning and exposure to models
? emphasized self-efficacy, which is ?
Albert Bandura; the belief about one’s ability to perform behaviors that should lead to expected outcomes (differs depending on task)
Behavioral Perspectives: Walter Mischel
people are able to discriminate among different situations and therefore act differently depending on which situation they are in (behave differently if reinforcement potential is high than when it is low); emphasis on the situation controlling behavior
self-regulation
children who are able to wait longer for the better of two treats is predictive of later SAT scores
Humanistic Perspectives: Carl Rogers
person-cecntered theory: the self; self-concept is a collection of beliefs about one’s own nature, unique qualities, and typical behavior
congruence (Rogers)
self-concept meshes well with actual experience (some incongruence is probably unavoidable)
incongruence (Rogers)
self-concept does not mesh well with actual experience - generates anxiety
Carl Rogers believed that love and affection given to a child from its parents impacts ?
whether there is a congruent or incongruent self-concept
unconditional love
child is deemed worthy of affection no matter what they do - behavior is bad, not the child
conditional love
child feels that love is conditional on the child behaving well and living up to parents’ expectations; worried about parental acceptance which can lead to an incongruent self-concept
Maslow’s theory of self-actualization
a need to fulfill one’s potential; hierarchy of needs must be mastered before self-actualization can be achieved
“You must become who you are” in German (idea of self-actualization - thinking this may be a bonus)
“Du sollst werden, der bu bist”
Hans Eyserick
pioneering work on biological perspectives of personality; focused a lot on introversion/extroversion as a higher order trait; traits such as sociable, active, assertive, lively, etc. evolve from introversion/extroversion
Biological Perspectives: Galen (129-199AD)
took the 4 humors that Hippocrates said must be in balance for wellness and applied these to personality:
choleric (yellow bile) - quick tempered and fiery
phlegmatic (phlegm) - sluggish and unemotional
sanguine (blood) - cheerful, optimistic
melancholic (black bile) - sad, depressed
cultural differences in personality
people from different countries score relatively higher on some aspects of personality than others; some support for the notion that Asian cultures foster a more interdependent view of the self whereas Western cultures foster a more independent view (Japanese saying - “the nail that sticks up gets hammered down”)
broad types of personality tests
projective (give an ambiguous stimulus; a person’s answer is a projection of their personality) and objective (paper and pencil; based upon normative responses)
types of projective personality tests
Rorschach test (oldest - ink plots) and Thematic Apperception test (1930s - packet of many pictures/paintings and tasked with making up stories)
types of objective personality tests
NEO (5 factor personality), MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - developed at the University of Minnisota; most popular; initially 550 T/F q’s), 16PF (16 personality factors)
clinical psychology treats abnormal behavior as a ?
disease
terms borrowed by clinical psychology from medical model:
disorder, illness, psychopathology, also -
diagnosis: being able to tell one disorder from the other
etiology: cause and development of the disease
prognosis: probable outcome of the disorder
criteria used to classify abnormal behavior
- deviance (different from the norm)
- maladaptive behavior (not able to function effectively in the world)
- personal distress (person feels negatively about the disorder)
Dennis Avner (AKA ?)
AKA “Cat Man”; said he has a dream he needed to become a tiger, so he spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to become a cat and traveled around the country; committed suicide, so many he did have something wrong
Cultural differences in psychological disorders
acting out teenagers respond differently in different cultures
cultural-bound syndromes
Amok, Pibloktoq, Koro
In a study done by Kessler and others in 1994, the percent of people who have ever suffered from (see below) was higher in (males/females): Anxiety Depression Substance Abuse Schizophrenia Antisocial Personality
Anxiety - women (31% vs 19%) Depression - women (24% vs 15%) Substance Abuse - men (35% vs 18%) Schizophrenia - women (8% vs 6%) Antisocial Personality - men (6% vs 1%)
classification of psychological disorders
usually referenced from a book published by the American Psychiatric Association called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (it has been revised a number of times over the years, each time getting more complicated; up to the DSM-5 now; added “axes” for things like intelligence level, physical symptoms, etc.; the number of diagnoses has gone up from a little more than 100 in 1952 - DSM-1 - to almost 550 in the latest version)
types of anxiety disorders
generalized, phobic, panic/agoraphobia, OCD, PTSD
generalized anxiety disorder
marked by a chronic, high level of anxiety that is not tied to any specific threat
phobic disorder
persistent or irrational fear of an object or situation that poses no real threat
panic disorder and agoraphobia
intense attacks of panic (overwhelming anxiety) that can lead to a fear of public places (agoraphobia)
obsessive-compulsive disorder
marked by persistent, uncontrollable intrusions of unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and urges to engage in senseless rituals (compulsions)
Howard Hughes and OCD
gave in to OCD in later life; could only stay in a few rooms in his house, wouldn’t bathe, afraid of seeing people because of fear of germs
post traumatic stress disorder
involves enduring psychological disturbance attributed to the experience of a major traumatic event (nightmares, flashbacks, emotional blunting [emotionless most of the time], poor social relations, elevated anxiety, etc.)
biological factors of anxiety disorders
moderate genetic predisposition for anxiety; possible disturbances in GABA receptors and serotonin
conditioning and learning as it applies to anxiety disorders
anxiety can be acquires via CC and maintained via OC
cognitive factors of anxiety disorders
some individuals may misinterpret environmental cues or at least interpret them differently from others; tend to see the world as more threatening
stress as it applies to anxiety disorders
stress levels are predictive of the severity of a number of anxiety disorders
malingering
person says they have an ailment, but they don’t and are aware that they don’t - they’re pretending
psychosomatic
thought to be psychological in nature, but actual physical problem
somatoform
person reports a physical symptom, but the doctor can’t find anything
somatization disorder
a long history of various physical complaints that appear to be psychological in origin; “clinging to poor health”
hypochondriasis
preoccupation with one’s health (takes small symptoms and worries if they’re a sign of a big problem)
conversion disorder/conversion reaction
loss of function with no apparent physical basis - usually in a single organ system (e.g. hysteria in Freud’s early patients; a lot from WWI: “I can’t move my arm” but doctor can’t find anything wrong
etiology of somatoform disorders
primarily psychological in nature; common suggestion: person takes on a “sick role” and can try to avoid dealing with life’s problems/receive a lot of attention from others
dissociative disorders
a class of disorders in which people lose contact with portions of their consciousness or memory, resulting in disruptions in their sense of identity (relatively uncommon)
dissociative amnesia
a sudden loss of memory for important personal information that is too extensive to be due to normal forgetting; sometimes people wander off for a while - fugue states
dissociative identity disorder
involves a disruption of identity marked by the experience of two or more largely complete, and usually very different, personalities; used to be called multiple personality disorder (e.g. “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”)
etiology of DID (dissociative identity disorder)
relatively unknown and it is controversial whether it is even real
we all have dissociative experiences of varying degrees: e.g.
zoning out when people talk, talking to ourselves, zoning out and becoming unaware of the passage of time, forgetting all/part of a drive, a fantasy/day dream seeming real, no memory of important event, felt disconnect from body, look at world through fog, no idea how got somewhere, dressed in clothes without remembering putting them on
major depressive disorder (MDD)
persistent feelings of sadness and despair and loss of interests in previous sources of pleasure; can occur at any time in the life span, but common before 40; often multiple episodes; elevated risk for a variety of health problems and an increased mortality; higher in women than men
a central feature of MDD is ? which is a diminished ability to experience pleasure
anhedonia
bipolar disorder
marked by the experience of both depressed and manic periods
manic periods are
associated with greater energy, but often plans are unrealistic
unipolar mood disorder
used to be considered a type of bipolar disorder without manic stages, but is more like major depressive disorder
etiology of mood disorders
twin studies have indicated a strong genetic component; associated with decreased levels of NE and 5-HT in the brain, and maybe glutamate as well; supression of neurogenesis and reduced hippocampal size
cognitive factors of mood disorders
learned helplessness (Seligman) - exposure to uncontrollable averse events; depressed people tend to attribute aversive events to their their personal flaws rather than their environment; ruminate a lot
? usually triggers depressive episodes
precipitating stress
interpersonal roots of mood disroders: poor social skills leads to (3 things) which lead to (1 thing)
- acquire fewer reinforcers, such as good friends, top jobs
- court rejection because of irritability, pessimism
- gravitate to people who confirm negative self-views
- increased vulnerability to depression
schizophrenic disorders
a group of disorders marked by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thinking/speech, and a deterioration of adaptive behavior; very serious and often severe disorder that is common and costly
? coined the term schizophrenic in 1911 as it had previously been called ?
Eugene Bleuler; dementia praecox
symptoms of schizophrenia
irrational thought, deterioration of adaptive behavior, distorted perceptions, disturbed emotion
irrational thought (schizo)
delusions - false beliefs that are maintained even though they are clearly out of touch w/ reality; often “delusions of grandeur” or ideas of reference
deterioration of adaptive behavior (schizo)
social functioning and personal hygiene are not good
distorted perceptions (schizo)
hallucinations (sensory perceptions that occur in the absence of a real, external stimulus or are gross distortions of perceptual input); more often auditory hallucinations (e.g. hearing voices)
disturbed emotion (schizo)
often “flattened affect” (lack of emotions); giggling at inappropriate things (e.g. death of a loved one); emotional response becomes detached from reality
traditionally 4 types of schizophrenia (DSM-5 has dropped these subtypes)
- paranoid
- catatonic
- disorganized
- undifferentiated
paranoid type of schizo
delusions along with extreme ideas of reference (e.g. somebody is out to get them)
catatonic type of schizo
striking motor responses; can be weird writhing motions, but is often a waxy rigidity
disorganized type of schizo
aimless babbling, word salad, extreme inappropriateness
undifferentiated type of schizo
leftover category for those who can’t be put in the other categories
Amok
a period of brooding followed by a violent outburst, often resulting in murder; often triggered by a perceived insult and found only in men in Malaysia, Papa New Guinea, Philippines, Polynesia, Puerto Rico, and the Navajo
Pibloktoq
Inuit only; tear off clothes, break things, shout obscenities, eat feces; acts are later forgotten
Koro
fear of penis disappearing in the body and death; after a sexual encounter; East Asian men
etiology of schizophrenia
genetic vulnerability; neurochemical factors such as the dopamine hypothesis (too much > schizo); enlarged ventricles in the brain (unsure if cause/effect); neurodevelopmental hypothesis (any prenatal problems), returning home to family with high expressed emotion (rather than low/supportive) makes it worse; precipitating stress may trigger
autism spectrum disorders
characterized by profound impairment of social interaction and communication and severely restricted interests and activities, usually apparent by age 3; not associated with vaccines
personality disorders
a class of disorders marked by extreme, inflexible personality traits that cause subjective distress or impaired social and occupational functioning
antisocial personality disorder
marked by impulsive, callous, manipulative, aggressive, and irresponsible behavior - large portion of people in prisons; don’t change due to punishment
borderline personality
20% of all psychiatric patients and 3-5% of the population (2/3 afflicted are women); most widely diagnosed; lack of identity and pattern of instability in self-image, mood, and social relationships - e.g. Marilyn Monroe
narcissistic personality disorder
marked by a grandiose sense of self-importance, a sense of entitlement, and an excessive need for attention and admiration
eating disorders
severe disturbances in eating behavior characterized by preoccupation with weight concerns and unhealthy efforts to control weight
anorexia nervosa
intense fear of gaining weight, disturbed body image, refusal to maintain normal weight, and use of dangerous measures to lose weight (often have comorbid conditions such as anxiety or depressive disorders; significant mortality rate)
bulemia nervosa
involves habitually engaging in out-of-control overeating, followed by unhealthy compensatory efforts, such as self-induced vomiting, fatigue, abuse of laxatives and diuretics, and excessive exercise; much less life threatening than anorexia
binge-eating disorder
distress-inducing eating binges that are not accompanied by the purging, fasting, and excessive exercise seen in bulemia; frequently overweight
comorbidity
in general, a person afflicted by one disorder will likely have another as well (disorders coincide with others)
