Psych Part 1 Flashcards
Biological Explanations of Behaviour in Animals
Foraging behaviour
Mating behaviour/mate choice
(random v. assortive)
Inclusive fitness/altruism
Game Theory
Persuasion
A method of behaviour and attitude change
Key elements:
1. Message Characteristics
- Source Characteristics
- Target Characteristics
Elaboration Likelihood Model
Determines what factors were most relevant in persuasion. Two routes:
Central Route: Focus on content, result is long lasting. Need to be motivated and attentive.
Peripheral Route: Superficial and result is temporary and susceptible attachment.
Social Cognitive Theory
Theory of behaviour change that highlights the interaction of people and the environment, but also takes cognition and social factors into account.
Reciprocal determinism between BEHAVIOUR - ENVIRONMENT - PERSONAL FACTORS
Behavioural Genetics
Determine the role of genetics in behaviour.
A word on language: Intelligence is 50% heritable, means that 50% variation in intelligence is dictated by genes. Not that your genes are responsible for 50% of intelligence.
Francis Galton
1800s.
First theory of intelligence.
Highly genetic.
Published “Hereditary Genius”
Alfred Binet
(early 1900s) Developed the IQ test, later termed the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale
Charles Spearman
(early 1900s) “general intelligence” - that was highly heritable
Raymond Cattell
(1950s) proposed two types intelligence
Fluid: thinking on feet
Crystallized: regurgitate
Howard Gardiner
(1980s) Multiple Intelligences: logical, linguistic, spatial, musical, social
Emotional Intelligence
Only proposed in the 1990s, but emerged from work by Gardiner et al.
Personality
Patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaviour
Psychoanalytic Perspective
Personality shaped by unconscious thoughts, feelings and memories.
Unconscious experiences are revealed through dreams, slips of tongue, post-hypnotic suggestion, free associations.
Psychoanalytical Instinctual drives
Libido - life drive; focused on growth, creativity, pain aversion, pleasure
Death drive - aggressive; driven by desire to hurt onesself and die
3 Components of Psychic Energy (Psychoanalytic Theory):
Id - Subconscious. Pleasure Principle guides. No reasoning. Children largely here.
Ego - Preconscious. Reality Principle. Governs id, but also will appease.
Superego - Subconscious. Inhibits id. Purusit of higher moralistic/ethical goals. Higher Purpose. Guilt/punishment avoidance.
Ego defence mechanisms:
Repression
Denial
Reaction formation - expressing opposite of what one feels
Projection
Displacement - redirecting inappropriate thoughts/feelings from forbidden to less bad ones.
Rationalization - denying motivations
Regression - reverting to earlier behaviours
Sublimation - direct aggression/sexual energy to productivity
Psychosexual Development
Oral
Anal
Phallic - attraction to opposite parent: Oedipus (male); Electra (female)
Latency
Genital
Psychological fixation occurs if a stage is over-indulged or stunted.
Erik Erikson - Psychosocial approach
- Trust v. Mistrust. If needs not met, may mistrust world.
- Autonomy v. Shame/Doubt. If no autonomy may later feel dependent.
- Initiative v. Guilt. If don’t make decisions may later feel guilt for making them.
- Industry v. Inferiority. School age. Understand world. Develop gender identity. May later feel inadequate.
- Identity v. Role Confusion. Adolescence, need to test limits. Could later have role confusion.
- Intimacy v. Isolation. Young adult. No intimate relations, may become isolated.
- Generativity v. Stagnation. Middle Age. If not productive may be stagnant.
- Integrity v. Despair. Hopeless if do not look back and see worth.
Humanistic Perspective
Carl Rogers.
Focuses on healthy development as opposed to conflict.
Assumption: Human inherently good.
Basic motive of humans: Actualizing - drive to maintain or enhance organism.
Care-giver disapproval demonstrates conditional approval. Leads to attempts to embody caregiver traits.
Use term: Client (not Patient) as not trying to treat as if unwell.
Therapy: create environment for clients to accept themselves.
Therapists: Empathetic, unconditional regard
Humanistic Perspective: Self Concept
Conscious subjective perceptions. Shaped by introjections (influence of caregiver)
Psychopathology: dissonance between self-concept and true values.
Incongruence: Describes discomfort when self-concept are contradicted by events. PPL tend to distort event, not change self-concept.
Behaviourist Perspective
Personality is a result of learned behaviour rooted in a person’s environment.
Deterministic: Assumes humans are a blank slate and influenced by environment.
Learning occurs through: Classical and Operant Conditioning
Therapy focuses on ABCs:
Antecedents; Consequences; and Behaviour
and works to change A and C through least aversive means.
Social Cognitive Perspective
Reciprocal Interaction of Behaviour - Cognition - Environment
Behaviour: Learned through classical/operant conditioning
Cognition: mental processes evoked by observation, self-efficacy beliefs
Cognitive + Behavioural Theory = Cognitive Behavioural Theory.
A persons feelings are a response not to a real event, but a person’s thoughts about the event.
Goal: Recognize created thoughts.
Trait Perspective
Identifying and comparing trait perspectives.
Personality traits are, stable and pre-disposed to certain behaviour.
Differentiate: Surface Traits and Source Traits.
No trait is pathological. Weakness are meant to be made aware of. Not concerned with WHY traits develop.
McRae and Costa 5-factor model
Extroversion
Neuroticism
Openness to experience
Conscientiousness
Agreeableness
**Often used by HR departments to select for careers.
Biological Perspective
Hans Eysenck:
Extroversion: Dictated by reticular formation
Neuroticism: Shaped by limbic formation
Jeffrey Alan Gray:
Personality is a consequence of: Sympathetic system; Behavioural approach system (impulsivity/optimism); Behavioural Inhibition System (worry/anxiety)
Also C. Robert Cloninger
Person-Situation Controversy
Division on whether a reaction is a result of trait or state
Motivation influences
Instincts - suckling; holding breath underwater; fears of height
Drives/feedback - negative feedback drives toward homeostasis
Arousal - seek optimal levels
Needs - basic needs
Drive reduction Theory
A theory of how motivation affects human behaviour.
A physiological need creates a state of arousal that drives an organism to reduce need.
Incentive Theory
A theory of how motivation affects human behaviour.
External stimuli motivate. Motivation is strongest with physiological need and external incentives.
Expectancy-Value theory
A theory of how motivation affects human behaviour.
Expectancy: action being considered and likelihood of producing result
Value: degree of desire for end result
Self-determination Theory
A theory of how motivation affects human behaviour.
Inherent motivation to achieve growth and personal well-being.
Inherent motivation is healthier than external motivation.
3-factors to external growth:
1. autonomy
2. competence
3. connection
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Physiological
Safety
Love/Belonging
Esteem
Self-actualization
Critiques: individualistic; some diseases flip aspects of the pyramid (ex. eating disorders)
Attitude
A persons feelings/beliefs about other people and tendency to behave based on these evaluations.
Components: (A)ffect; (B)ehavioural Tendency; (C)ognition
When attitude influences behaviour
When social influence is reduced.
Overall behaviour. Principal of aggregation.
When looking at specific, not general attitudes.
When attitudes are made more powerful through self-reflection.
When behaviour influences attitude
Role Playing.
Public Declarations.
Justification of effort (won’t become an actor if you studied for the MCAT)
Foot in the door (enticing through small actions and increasing demand incrementally)
Cognitive Dissonance Behaviour
Attempts to explain why self-justification is such a powerful tool for attitude modification.
If there is dissonance between attitude and behaviour, we will change attitude.
Emotion Components
Psychological; behavioural; cognitive
Adaptive Role of Emotion
There is an adaptive role of emotions.
Optimal range of arousal for effectiveness. Yerkes-Dodson Law (Upside down smile)
Emotion Moderates
Performance, Embarrassment, Survival
James-Longe Theory of Emotion
Physiological precedes emotion.
Emotions are generated by autonomic processes.
Problems:
1. Each emotion has a distinct physiological state.
2. Assumes we are accurate in labeling physiological states.
Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion
Emotion and Physiological experience are simultaneous.
Severed afferent nerves in cats to eliminate physiological input. Still expressed emotion.
Problematic:
1. Does not explain well, situations in which physiological state alters emotions (breathing)
Schachter-Singer Theory
Physiological –> Cognitive Interpretation –> emotion.
Problematic:
1.
Self-reference
Easier to recall things that are relevant to self.
Depth of processing model
Experiences with greater neural processing are more easily remembered.
Dual coding Hypothesis
Words are easier to remember when associated with an image.
