REA Guide For The Introductory Psychology CLEP Terms Flashcards
Psychology
Scientific study of human behavior and mental processes.
Answers philosophical questions about human nature.
Uses methods borrowed from other disciplines.
Wilhelm Wundt
German. Set up first psychology lab. Was a Structuralist.
Studied how people sense and perceive world around them.
Structualists
Believed that consciousness was made of basic elements. combined in different ways to produce different perceptions.
They wanted to discover the form or elements of mental experience.
introspection
Technique favored by structuralists for examining mental experience. Involves reporting one’s own conscious thought and feelings. It fell out of favor, too subjective, not usable on children or animals.
Edward Titchener
Set up first American psychology lab, was a structuralist.
Functionalists
Believed mental experiences were adaptive, or functional for people. Believed behavior and consciousness allowed people & animals to adjust to environments.
William James
a most notable functionalist.
Current state of the study of psychology
psychologists study both the structure and functions of behavior. both are methods, are of many that are used to study psychology.
Approaches to understanding human behavior
Biological, Psychodynamic, Behavioral, Cognitive Approach, Humanistic
Biological approach
Focus on physiological and biochemical processes might produce psychological phenomena.
Psychodynamic approach
Thoughts, feelings and behaviors stem from the interaction of innate drives and restrictions on those drives. Most important drives according to Sigmund Freud are that of sexual and aggression.
[we have drives]+[society, limitations]=[conflicts]
how we approach conflicts determines personality.
The reason for much of your behavior are unconscious and rooted in childhood.
Behaviorist approach
Explains behavior in terms of learned responses to predictable patterns of environmental stimuli.
Pavlov (and his dogs) = classical conditioning
Skinner = operant conditioning
They study animals in order to understand people more often than the other approaches. They don’t believe in expectations, feelings or thoughts.
Cognitive approach
reaction against behaviorism.
Focuses on explaining behavior in terms of expectations, feelings, and thoughts.
Humanistic approach
They believe that people are not machines based on genetic code, stimuli, or calculations, but instead humans have the desire for optimal growth & development (i.e. self-actualization).
They believe people are basically good and focus on positive aspects of development.
experiments
cause and effect relationships
independent variables
The “cause” & always involves treating subjects in at least two different ways
experimental group
exposed to cause
control group
not exposed to cuase
dependent variable
the “effects” of the cause
placebo effect
different behavior because the subject knows they are being tested/getting special treatment
placebo
fake special treatment
blind study
subjects unaware if they are reciving special treatment or not
double blind study
both experimenter and experimetee are unaware of who has recivied special treatment
correlational studies
assessing the relationship between two variables
positive relationship
high score in one variable results in/correlates to a high score in another variable (+1)
negative relationship
high score in one variable results in/correlates to low scores in another variable (-1)
correlation coefficient
(+/-)1, the higher the absolute value = more correlation, +/- indicates type of relationship, 0 is no relationship
surveys
participants fill out questionaries that ask about variables, researchers determine patterns
case studies
in-depth analysis of only one person (Freud used these a lot).
naturalistic observation
studying behavior as it occurs in real life settings
must be unobtrusive, and have inter-judge/inter-rater/inter-observer reliability (the confirmation of what is happening)
behavioral neuroscience
focused on communication between body parts, how behavior is influenced by it
nervous system
organization of neurons, transmitters, and brain structures that moves information throughout the body
neurons
pathways for communication (i.e. nerve cells)
sensory neurons
aka afferent neurons. They take in information and transmit to the spinal cord and brain.
motor neuorns
aka efferent neurons. They send information in opposite direction (away from brain)
interneurons
aka associasion neurons. They communicate with other neurons
cell body
keep cell alive and functioning, nucleus, etc.
dendrites
short fibers that take information from outside the cell
axons
fibers that pass information along to other nerve cells, gland or musclesfibers that pass information along to other nerve cells, gland or muscles
mylein sheaths
fats that surround axons and accelerates transmission of information
action potential
electrical impulse that activates nerves and sends messages
+outside, -inside cell
refractory period
the neuon has time to pump out sodium ions and fire again
neurotransmitters
chemicals contained within vesicles (sacs) that when released from the axon terminal cross the synaptic gap to next cells dendrites, continue relay
serotonin
controls arousal and sleep. low levels of this in the brain is typical of depression
agonists
drugs that mimic a neurotransmitter or make more by blocking reuptake
antagonists
drugs that block neurotransmitters receptor sites or inhibit release
CNS
brain, spinal cord, reflexive behavior and relays information. Central Nervous System.
PNS
sensory and motor neurons that connect the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body. Divided into the SNS and ANS. Peripheral Nervous System.
Somatic Nervous System
allow you to operate in the external environment. carries info to CNS, carries info from CNS to muscles, etc. SNS
Autonomic Nervous System
regulates the internal environment, controlling glands, organs, etc. ANS.
ANS divisions
Sympathetic = fight or flight (prepares you for action) Parasympathetic = rest and digest (slows your body down for rest)
Brainstem
spinal cord enters skull
controls breathing and heartbeat
thalamus
sits on top of brianstem and receives information on touch taste sight and hearing (not smell), sends info to higher brain regions
reticular formation
runs though both brainstem and thalamus and controls arousal and sleep (as well as filters incoming stimuli and sends info to other parts of the brain)
cerebellum
at the rear base of brainstem. adjustment of movements, coordination of voluntary movement
limbic system
sits near the cerebral cortex and comprises several component structures
hippocampus
processes memory
amygdala
influences fear and anger
hypothalamus
influences hunger, thirst, sexual behavior,
controls pituitary glad (a “master gland” which influences the release of hormones from other glands)
hormones
chemical messengers
this and the glads that produce this make up the endocrine system
cerebral cortext
the outer covering of the brain
primarily involved in motor, cognitive, and sensory processes
(divided into left and right hemispheres which are then each divided into four regions)
frontal lobes
coordinates movement and higher level thinking (such as planning and predicting) Also contains speech areas.
Broca’s area
speech (when damaged a person can usually understand speech but not speak as easily as everyone else)
Wernicke’s area
when damadged a person can physically speak but only with meaningless words
parietal lobes
involved in sense of touch, keep tabs on where hands and feet are (located on top of head behind frontal lobes)
temporal lobes
involve hearing (located just above and on either side of the ears)
occipital lobes
involve vision (located at the base of the skull)
sensation
transforming engery from outside stimulus to neural energy used for perception
perception
mentally creating an image of the outside world
psychophysics
area of psychology that addresses the topic of sensation, levels of intensity we detect stimuli, how sensitive we are to changes in stimulation, and how psychological factors influence our ability to sense stimuli
signal detection theory
our ability to notice a stimulus will vary based on psychological factors such as expectations, past experience, motivation
absolute threshold
minimum intensity necessary to detect a stimulus (detected 50% of the time it is present)
just noticeable difference
jnd/difference threashold is the smallest
difference
a person can detect
Weber’s Law
the ability to differentiate between like differences deceases with increasing intensity or magnitude of the stimuli
sensory adaptation
less frequent firing results in diminishing stimulus. This allows us to attend to stimuli that matter and not to those that don’t matter
feature detectors
detect specific stimuli, activate identification centers to understand more complex patterns
selective attention
too many stimuli to attend to so body is only aware of certain stimuli. reality is chosen organized and interpreted, not simply detected.
Gestalt Psychologists
discovered that the brain pieces together meaningful experiences out of fragments of sensation, mind fills in gaps in our sensations
Depth perception
allows to estimate distances between ourselves and objects we see (our retinas can only see 2D our brains do the rest) uses binocular cues and/or monocular cues
Binocular cues
requires both eyes, includes retinal disparity & convergence
retinal disparity
uses differences in images between right and left eye to gauge distance
convergence
extent to which eyes must turn toward the nose to gauge closeness of an object
Monocular cues
uses one eye only for depth perception (includes linear perspective, motion parallax, and texture gradients)
linear perspective
parallel lines appear to converge as they get farther away
closer together = farther away (like railroad tracks in the distance)
motion parallax
aka relative motion. apparent movement of stable objects as we move. fixation points are what you are looking at (these object move quickly when close to you and slowly when far away)
interposition = when an object partially blocks out another object and therefore looks closer than the object it is blocking out
texture gradients
objects closer have more texture, objects farther have
blend
together
critical period
time which exposure to stimuli is required in order for various perceptual skills to develop, even though many of these ideas are wired into our brains
general principle of sensation and perception
processing info about environment uses both a bottom up fashion (simple receptors to neural networks) and top down fashion (expectations, motives and cues down to raw data)
Consciousness
the state of being aware. reflecting on environment rather than just reacting to it (thinking, problem solving, learning and memory)
Circadian Rythm
rise and fall in predictable ways during the day, synchronized (these things have this: hormone levels, body temperature, wakefulness)
sleep
cycles through 5 stages every 90 minutes (stages named based on type and appearance of brain waves)
alpha waves
relatively slow and regular/awake stage
Stage 1
Slower breathing, irregular erratic brain waves. This sleep stage is 5 minutes long.
hypnogogic = drowsiness, floating or falling may be experienced
alpha waves are replaced by thetha waves
Stage 2
deeper relaxation and occasional bursts of brainwaves called sleep spindles and k-complexes. This sleep stage is 20 minutes long.
Stage 3
brain starts producing delta waves (large & slow), this is a transition to the next stage.
Stage 4
stronger more consistent delta waves.
Stages 3 and 4 are slow wave sleep, combined lasts 30 minutes (they are the hardest to wake someone during)
REM
After stage 4 sleep, they go to 3, 2, but then this stage for 10 minutes which is similar to stage 1 but breathing is more rapid and irregular, heart rate increases and eyes move back and forth
but, action/movement is blocked by brainstem.
rapid eye movement, sometimes called paradoxical sleep
They then go back through the cycle (stage 2, 3, …)
Insomnia
difficulty falling or staying asleep
Narcolepsy
sudden and uncontrollable attacks of sleep during daytime/waking hours (sometimes falling directly into REM)
sleep apnea
when the person stops breathing intermittently during sleep, the lack of oxygen then wakes the sleeper (this can happen 100s of time per night)
manifest content
(the images that actually appear to the dreamer) Freud thought that this was a disguised version of the dreams latent content (usually “forbidden” sexual or aggressive wish of the dreamer)
activation-synthesis theory
brains neurons fire randomly during sleep, we construct a dream in order to make sense of the random images
information processing
dreams are a way to consolidate information, sort through the day’s events and put them into our memory
REM rebound
when deprived of paradoxical sleep, people make up by experiencing prolonged periods of it
Hypnosis
deep relaxation and heightened suggestibility
some explanations for heightened suggestibility are that they are more motivated, fulfilling social roles, other think it involves dissociation which allows the person to become aware of their activities
psychoactive drugs
produce consciousness that is different than “normal”
mimicks, inhibits or stimulates neurotransmiters
depressants
slows body’s functions and neurological activity (such as alcohol, barbiturates, and opiates)
stimulants
increase neural activity and body functions
hallucinogens
distort perceptions and produce sensations that have no physical basis
learning
relatively enduring change in behavior that is the product of experience
stimuli
various effects that are capable of triggering responses or changes in behavior
cognitive factors
expectations and ability to represent events mentally
non-associative learning
repeated presentation of a single stimulus produces an enduring change in behavior
habituation
repeated presentations of stimuli reduces responses to that stimulus
i.e. clock chiming
sensitization
repeated or long lasting presentation of stimulus increases the response to a weaker stimulus
i.e. movie action to soft clap
Associative learning
learning of a connection between two stimuli or between a response and a stimulus
classical/Pavlovian conditioning
Making a connection between two stimuli. The US already produces the UR which is the desired response to the neutral stimulus.
{First letter = unconditioned/conditioned
Second letter = stimulus/response}
Before conditioning: US -> UR
First conditioning: neutral stimulus [-> no response] + US -> UR
After learning: CS -> CR
expectation
that the US will show up after the CS (remember the food and the bell)
extinction
if the CS is presented without the US, then the CR will go away
learning a new expectation: that US no longer follows CS
it returns to its baseline level (how it was before conditioning)
Operant/instrumental Conditioning
learning an association between a stimulus and a response that follows it (basically consequences) (B = behavior) Stimulus Applied: B Increase = Positive Reinforcement B Decreases = Positive Punishment Stimulus Removed: B Increases = Negative Reinforcement B Decreases = Negative Punishment
Cognition
mental activities involved in solving problems: thinking, language, memory and intelligence
Heuristics
Mental rules of thumb/shortcuts that are used to solve problems.
Do not necessarily steer towards correct judgement, though it probably frequently does
Representativeness Heurisitc
comparing characteristics, how similar one event is to something you already know
Avalibility Heuristic
judging the likelihood that an event will happen in terms of how readily you can bring an instance of it to mind
more vivid/memorable->more likely to happen than those that are less vivid or cecent
confirmation bias
people look for information that supports their beliefs, typically ignoring the information against your belief
functional fixedness
inability to see new uses for familiar objects
ex. unable to find screwdriver, but can’t use a quarter because that is what a screwdriver is for
semantics
rules for mapping morphemes onto the ideas they represent
morphemes are words or parts of words that convey meaning
syntax
rules for combining morphemes in meaningful ways
morphemes are words or parts of words that convey meaning
babbling stage
4-6 months to 1 yr
practicing sounds of the language, recognize sounds that aren’t used and don’t use them
one word stage
12 months (1 yr) to 18 months use one words with gestures sometimes
telegraphic speech
gestures accompanying speech to convey additional meaning
two word stage
use a noun and a verb combined or a few months later an adjective and a noun (also uses telegraphic speech)
language development and conditioning
B. F. Skinner said that conditioning probably can’t account for how quickly children learn language and the novel ways which they use it
Language acquisition device
Noam Chomsky claimed that children have this. A universal built in mental system that steers us toward interpreting and using language in particular ways
Memory
ability to store information and retrieve it again
3 types: sensory, short term, long term
Sensory memory
a fleeting awareness of whatever the senses have detected.
possible of entering short term memory
short term memory
aka working memory
can be kept in the mind long enough to solve problems
possible to store in long term memory with some work
long term memory
unlimited and perhaps permanent store house of memories
Mnemonic strategies: rehearsal, chunking
strategies deliberate to get information into long-term memory, sometimes unconscious: deliberate conscious repetition of info, grouping pieces of info (combining numbers or making acronyms, etc.)
intelligence
ability to solve problems
mental age
chronological age that corresponds to a given level of performance on an intelligence test
Alfred Binet was the first to develop an intelligence test.
IQ
mental age divided by chronological age multiplied by 100 (to eliminate the decimal point)
standardization or norms-based referencing
Now IQ tests are based on a comparison between test takers of the same age.
general intelliegence
aka “g”
title given to IQ scores by Charles Spearman.
a single unitary skill underlying peoples ability to solve all problems.
multiple intelligences
sperate disticnt problem solving abilities
Nature vs. Nurture
both contribute to differences in intelligence and there is interaction between them
biologically built vs. enviornment
Motivation
psychological process that energizes and directs behavior, activating behavior an steering it toward a goal. influenced by both biological and social-psychological factors (needs, and desires)
Hunger
not sure where it comes from. could be triggered by low glucose level (blood sugar from breakdown of foods) and/or high insulin level (a hormone that converts glucose to fat for storage)
externals become hungry based on external cues (such as smell of food or time of day), internals become hungry when their body is hungry (such as hunger pangs), externals are more likely to become overweight
Ventromedial Hypothalamus
main portion of this part of the brain that has to do with hunger, (aka VH, lower middle portion of Hypothalamus), stopping hunger.
stimulation depresses hunger & damage causes eating when full
Lateral Hypothalamus (LH, sides of Hypothalamus), increasing hunger, stimulation increases eating & damage stops eating
set-point
weight our own body works to maintain
Emotions
prepare us to deal with the many ways in which events can impact our motives, goals, values, etc. They can be a source of motivation.
basic level emotions
wired into our neverous systems
anger, sadness, joy, fear, love
(There are also combinations of basic level emotions [blended emotions] & learned emotions)
elements of emotion
physiological arousal (increase/decrease in heart rate, etc.) behavioral expression (running or punching, etc.) conscious experience (knowing the emotion, "I feel agitated", etc.)
Cannon-Bard theory
you perceive a stimulus has relevance to well-being and will generate arousal and subjective emotional experience simultaneously.
Information goes to the sympathetic nervous system (causes arousal), and to the cortex (causes experience).
James-Lange theory
you perceive a stimulus which causes arousal first which then causes emotion
heart pounding leads to emotion
facial feedback hypothosis
(an implication of the James-Lange theory) the activity of facial muscles tells us whether we are happy or not
Stanley Schacter’s two-factor theory
the arousal being labeled as a particular emotion is what varies the experience (arousal is the same physiologically regardless of the emotion)
abnormal psychology
the branch that deals with psychological disorders (thoughts, feelings or behaviors that interfere with person’s ability to function at work, in relationships, or at leisure)
DSM-IV
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Assosciation. different patterns of abnormal behavior that are grouped together to make diagnosis simpler and
more
reliable
Anxiety disorders
feelings of dread, fearfulness, or terror
Generalized anxiety disorder
feeling persistent anxiety, but unaware of its source
free-floating anxiety
may be accompanied by physical symptoms
panic disorder
unpredictable minutes long episodes of terror that have a sudden onset
generally accompanied by racing heart, breathlessness, dizziness, etc.
phobias
intense and irrational fears of specific objects or events (from the Freudian perspective, the things they are afraid of are symbolic or metaphorical reminders of things the person wants but can’t allow themselves to have)
OCD
obsessive compulsive disorder, repetitive (obsessive) thoughts that provoke anxiety and repetitive (compulsive) behaviors
Common obsesions/preoccupations are with germs and dirt, impending disaster, or neatness
mood disorders
depression, mania, or both
Major depressive disorder
feelings of sadness, hopelessness and discouragement (all lasting at least two weeks), and a loss of interest in pleasurable activities
bipolar disorders
back and forth between depression and mania
dissociative disorders
fragmentation of personality, behaves as if one part of their experience is separated from other parts
dissociative amnesia
being unable to remember personally relevant information due to stressful events
dissociative fugue
travels away from home or work unexpectedly, becomes confused about his or her past and identity, sometimes assuming a new identity
Dissociative identity disorder
two or more distinctly different identities in the same person, the person is controlled by one of these personalities at a time and typically has trouble remembering information about the other personalities
(used to be called multiple personality disorder)
Schizophrenia
often confused with having multiple personalities
it is really having symptoms of psychosis (hallucinations and delusions). they often have trouble distinguishing between the real world and their own fantasy or imagination. additional symptoms include incoherent speech, unusual behavior, and dull/flat emotions.
hallucinations
false sensations (hearing voices that aren’t there, or seeing objects that don’t exist, etc.)
delusions
false ideas, thoughts (for example that they are someone famous, like Teddy Roosevelt)
Paranoid Schizophrenics
delusions of grandeur (believing they are important/famous)
or delusions of persecution (believing others want to harm them)
and auditory hallucinations that reinforce the theme of their delusion
Disorganized Schizophrenics
have disorganized speech or behavior and inappropriate emotional responses
Catatonic schizophrenia
- odd motor activity (excessively active and agitated without any obvious reason/purpose or immobile)
- waxy flexibility (catalepsy) holding weird positions
- echolalia (senselessly repeating words that someone just said)
- echopraxia (repeating other people’s movements)
undifferentiated schizophrenia
can exhibit symptoms from the other versions but does not fit any of them exactly
Personality disorders
patterns of behavior or thinking that are inconsistent with the expectations of one’s culture
paranoid personality
suspecious and distrustful, but not delusional
antisocial personality
has no conscience, tramples on others rights, and is impulsive
borderline personality disorder
has trouble maintianing relationships and has wide fluctuations in both self image and emotional behaviors
narcissistic personality
needs undue attention and is preoccupied with fantasies of success, accomplishment and recognition, they feel entitled to special treatment and lack empathy for others
ions
electrically charged atoms
synapse
the junction where two neurons are connected/meet (there is a microscopic gap between the neurons
neural networks
groups of neurons that serve similar functions
perceptual sets
predispositions to perceive one thing and not another (such as stereotypes)
EEG
electroencephalogram (machine that shows brain waves)
reinforcement schedule (ratio, interval; fixed or variable)
rules for determining when reinforcement will be given [re: Operant Conditioning] (determined by how many times the response has been made, the amount of time since the last reinforcement; stays constant or changes)
Observational Learning
We can learn from seeing others (models) learn. Learning vicariously (by watching what happens to models) gives us opportunity for more learning
anorexia nervosa
people who are considered this want to be skinny/beautiful and are “obsessed” with food but avoid eating it
bulimia
people who are considered this want to be skinny/beautiful and binge then purge (eat a lot then get rid of it without allowing it to digest)
excitation transfer
when people’s arousal is increased (by exercise, etc.), they become more angry when insulted then people who haven’t been physiologically aroused first
cross-sectional study
Comparing people who are at different ages from each other at a single point in time.
The biggest problem with this is when someone’s age and cohort (a group of people born during the same period of time) are confused/”confounded” with each other. Cohorts make it hard to tell whether it is a factor of age or a factor of differences in the periods of time in which the subjects grew up.
longitudinal study
Tracking the behavior of a single cohort over a long period of time
The biggest problem is that age is confounded with the time of testing (the changing times could effect the subjects instead of their age).
cross-sequential study
people of different ages are followed over a long period of time
Piaget’s stages of cognitive development
Sensorimotor stage, Pre-Operational stage, Concrete Operations stage, Formal Operations stage
Sensorimotor stage
0-2 years old. Lacks concept of object permanence (understanding that objects continue to exist even when their presence can’t be sensed) & knows what they can do with their senses. Piaget.
Pre-Operational stage
2-6or7 years old. They understand object preminence, think symbolically (e.g. language), reason intuitively, don’t understand conservation (an objects mass, volume, weight, etc. does not change just because its appearance changes), and they are egocentric (they have trouble seeing things from others’ perspectives). Piaget.
Concrete Operational stage
6or7-11or12 years old. Piaget defines an “operation” is a logical thought. The person now thinks logically about things that are “concrete” (not algebra) and understands conservation. Piaget.
Formal Operations stage
Starts at about 12 years old. They can think scientifically and hypothetically about abstractions. Piaget.
disequilibrium
according to Piaget, this is what changes children’s understanding of the world. a child understands the world in a particular way (their scheme) then sees something happen that can’t fit into that understanding.
assimulation
understanding events in terms of your current scheme
Erikson’s theory of psycho-social development
Also holds that disequilibrium is necessary for change. Says people go through 8 stages in their life (each involving a different crisis). Depending on how the person deals with/comes out of each stage determines and develops their personality.
trust vs. mistrust
Determining if others are reliable. Erikson.
autonomy vs. doubt and shame
1-3 years old. capable of self control
Determining how you are allowed to exercise freewill. Erikson.
initiative vs. guilt
3-5 years old. can set goals
Determining if initiative is encouraged. Erikson.
industry vs. inferiority
6-11 years old. can reason and likes success
Determining whether or not you are praised and taught to do so. Erikson.
identity vs. role confusion
12-18 years old. can reflect on identity and consider multiple roles
Determining if you are willing to make an effort to integrate all of those roles. Erikson.
intimacy vs. isolation
18-35 years old. ready to break away from family and form new intimate relationships
Determining if you are ready to share yourself or not. Erikson.
generativity vs. stagnation
36-55 years old. kids are gone - you’re free
Determining whether or not you are going to show interest in others. Erikson.
integrity vs. despair
Starts at 55 years old. reflecting on your life
Determining if you are going to accept it all or not. Erikson.
Psychoanalytic personality theories
(including those by Freud, Jung,Adler, Horney, and Erikson) says that people’s behavior is motivated largely by unconscious needs; that people feel conflict between getting those needs met and social pressures to behave in ways that wouldn’t meet those needs; and that maladaptive, unhealthy behavior is the product of that conflict.
Freud’s theory of Psychoanalytic
Most important motives/needs according to Sigmund Freud are that of sexual and aggression.
[we have drives]+[society, limitations]=[conflicts]
how we approach conflicts determines personality.
id
Freud’s. biological part of personality. an infant’s personality is completely this.
pleasure principle
“do what feels good, and do it now”
ego
rational, realistic part of our personality. involves learning, problem solving, and reasoning.
the reality principle: “do what will gets your needs met effectively, efficiently, and without getting yourself hurt”
superego
the social part of our personality.
the morality principle: “do what’s right and don’t do what’s wrong”
defense mechanism
people distort reality in order to delude themselves into believing that something anxiety-provoking isn’t happening
anxiety = when there is conflict over how to behave; tension
psychosexual stages
by Freud. periods of life defined by parts of the body.
oral stage
birth-about 2 years old. experiencing tension having to do with their mouth, throat, and digestive tract. Freud.
fixation
a desire to build one’s life around getting certain needs met
anal stage
2-4 years old. children come into conflict with parents over potty training. anal retentive put it off until the last
minute
and anal expulsive people are messy and rebellious. Freud.
phallic stage
starts at about 4 years old. awkward stuff happens with you and your parents (o_0) So Freud thinks!
Rogers’ self/person-centered theory
an example of the humanistic approach to personality (people are basically good).
in this theory, the components of personality are (1) true self (talents, thoughts, desires, and feelings that we genuinely have; similar to Freud’s id), (2) self concept (what we think we’re like; similar to Freud’s ego), and (3) ideal self (what we would like to be; similar to Freud’s superego)
self actualization
accepting who you are as part of your self concept and adjusting your ideals to reflect that; in other words, being all you can be.
This is sometimes hindered due to conditions of worth imposed by parents and others. conditions of worth can be terminated when parents/others are empathetic, accepting, genuine, and offer the person unconditional positive regard (an appreciation of who the person is, faults and all). basis of self esteem
social-cognitive approach to personality
Focused on how people think about themselves and their relations with the world around them.
reciprocal determinism
An important part of social-cognitive approach to personality. It shows that (1) how people think, (2) how people act, and (3) what their environment is like all interact to influence the consistency of behavior.
individual difference approach to personality
often focused on traits (consistent patterns of behavior) through self-report questionaires
Big Five
the main traits (which were determined through factor analysis).
Openness (inquiring, independent, curious)
Conscientiousness (dependable, self-controlled)
Extraversion (outgoing, socially adaptive)
Agreeableness (conforming, likable)
Neuroticism (excitability, anxiousness)
mania
heightened excitement and risk taking optimism
explanations for abnormal behavior
approaches include: medical (biological), psychoanalytic, cognitive (in terms of abnormal thinking patterns), and learning aka behavioral (the problems were learned/encouraged to continue)
psychoanalytical approach to therapy
made by Freud, uncommon today (but an important basis for other methods). tries to help the person recognize the conflict (between what the want to do and what is socially acceptable) that they have repressed, and help them deal with it in a socially acceptable and productive way.
free association
having the person relax as much as possible and say whatever comes to mind (often by starting with a recent emotional experience, dream, or memory). used in the psychoanalytical approach to therapy.
catharsis
the liberation of energy which was formerly spent trying to hold back the conflict in the psychoanalytical approach to therapy. therapists also look at transference, which is expressions toward the therapist that indicate feelings linked to earlier relationships.
humanistic therapies
puts more of an emphasis on what is currently happening in the person’s life and what they want for the future (instead of their childhood).
client vs. patient
Carl Rodgers (a humanist) preferred using the term client whereas psychoanalysts tend to use the term patient
client-centered therapy
a humanistic therapy. instead of trying to help the person, the therapist is trying to help the person help themselves. the therapist provides the right (encouraging) environment so that the client can work out their problems.
active listening
made by Rodgers. paraphrasing what the client said, asking for clarification/elaboration, and reflecting on the client’s feelings.
cognitive approach to therapy
doesn’t assume that there conflict/anxiety as the problem, tries to fix the person’s way of thinking so that they see the world accurately and rationally.
behavior modification
behavioral therapies. fixing their problems through classic or operant conditioning. Counterconditioning is used when the person has learned their behavior that is trying to be remedied.
systematic desensitization
a method of counterconditioning. imagining a mild form of a fear-arousing situation then relaxing, then continuing to do this, gradually working your way up to the scariest situation. this makes the person
relax
when they run into this situation in real life, and thus not being afraid
flooding
a method of counterconditioning. the person goes into a fear-provoking situation assuming that it is not harmful
and
when they realize that they were right the CR is extinguished.
aversive conditioning
in therapy, an unpleasant response becomes associated with what would normally be a pleasant activity, thus eliminating the activity
operant conditioning therapies
usually focused on rewarding desirable behaviors and eliminating rewards for undesirable ones (punishing undesirable behavior can often create more problems than it solves). a token economy is based on getting tokens that you can turn in for rewards
social psychology
focuses on how people are influenced by other people. it has 3 main sections: social cognition, social influence, and social realationships
attribution theory
dispositional attributions = internal, explains behavior in terms of factors inside the person (personality, intelligence, maturity, etc.)
situational attributes = external, explains behavior in terms of factors outside the person (luck, interference from other people, social etiquette, etc.)
attributions are Not rational (although they were first thought to be)
actor-observer difference
observers tend to attribute others’ behavior to dispositions (this is called the fundamental attribution error)
but people attribute their own behavior to the situation (because they know how their own behavior changes from one situation to another)
cognitive dissonance theory
if you behave in a way that is inconsistent with one of your attitudes you feel compelled to explain what you did in order to ease your “conscience”, so you try to blame it on the situation, etc.
foot-in-the-door tecnique
a social influence strategy. getting someone to comply with a small request before asking them to comply with a larger request. after complying with the small request, they will be more likely to comply with the larger request than they otherwise would be.
door-in-the-face tecnique
a social influence strategy. making a request that is so big that it will be turned down then making a smaller, more reasonable request.
Lowballing
a social influence strategy. getting someone to commit to doing something, then increasing the effort or cost required to fulfill the commitment.
Solomon Asch
did experiments about conformity (changing your behavior in order to fit with group norms). he had some of the “participants” give the wrong answer (for which of 3 lines was the same length as the 4th line) and 2/3rds of the time the participants conformed.
normative social influenece
pressure to comply with a norm in attempt to not be rejected by the group
informational social influence
what other people do provides information about how to behave (for example if you are not sure if someone has made a joke, you would wait until everyone else laughs before you do)
Stanley Milgram
dude who had issues (if the experiment was real). wrong answer = “shock” = obedience experiment
63% of the subjects continued until the end
obedience is less likely when…
1) the authority figure isn’t close by, 2) the victim (from Milgram’s experiment) was visible, and 3) the other subjects disobeyed
frustration-aggression hypothesis
aggression (behavior that is intended to hurt others) is always the product of frustration and frustration always leads to aggression (this is of course wrong), this led to tests that showed that any adverse event can lead to aggression depending on a variety of factors
testosterone
a hormone (which men normally have higher levels of then women), the more you have the more easily you are provoked to aggression
weapons effect
the presence of aggressive cues leads to higher levels of aggression amoung people who have already been provoked
altruism
behavior aimed at “unselfishly” helping others
Kitty Genovese
a young woman who was murdered in New York City, while none of the 38 witnesses called the police until after the murderer fled. this event made more people conduct studies on altruism.
bystander effect
in an emergency, increasing the number of witnesses decreases the likelihood that any of them will help
social-exchange theory
says that our goal in life is to maximize our rewards and minimize our costs (the minimax principle), so if helping someone will benefit us more than it will hurt us, we’ll help.
test-retest reliablility
consistency of scores (does this person get about the same scores on this test every time they take it, including in different situations, etc?)
Coefficients larger than about +.70 are generally considered adequate
Cronbach’s alpha
split-half reliability (often used to test internal consistency) is where the even and odd questions/answers are scored separately to make sure that the two scores are approximately the same
face/content validity
face/content validity
predictive validity
how well scores on a test predict the actual behavior that the test is supposed to measure
construct validity
whether scores on the questionnaire are related in expected ways (i.e. positively or negatively) to scores on other questionnaires (for example does someone have consistent traits on all of the personality tests they have taken?)
population
all of the people who fit under a particular category (such as all Americans, all high-school students with an eating disorder, etc.)
sample
a representative subset of a population (in other words, less than all of the people from the population)
descriptive statistics
mode = the most common score
median = the middle of all of the scores
mean = all the scores added together then divided by the number of scores
standard deviation = and index of how widely scattered scores tend to be around the mean
inferential statistics
they allow you to make inferences about populations based on the characteristic of your sample, using statistical significance
statistical significance
a relationship between two things in a relationship could just happen by chance, so the farther away from .00 the coefficient is, the more certain you can be that it was not just by chance (which would mess up the reliability)….
social responsibility norm
we are obligated to help people who need our help
reciprocity norm
we are obligated to help those who have helped us
kin selection hypothesis
this is an example of the idea that helping behavior has evolved. it says that those of our ancestors who were genetically predisposed to help their relatives would have been passed down and spread throughout the human race, thus today we help those who are similar to us and who has the same genes as us… (see pg. 92)
anti-depressant drugs
Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, etc. they prevent the re-uptake of serotonin
anti-anxiety drugs
Librium, Valium, etc. they reduce arousal by depressing activity in the central nervous system
anti-psychotics
Clozapine, Thorazine, etc. these that threat the symptoms of schizophrenia block the operation of the neurotransmitter dopamine
Classical Learning vs. Operant Learning
C = reflexive O = voluntary
Epinephrine
Adrenaline
