Review from Book: Mod 40-49

Question 1

What factors affect our attributions? How does culture affect our attributions?

Answer 1

Westerners - attribute behavior to people’s personal traits

China & Japan - more sensitive to power of the situation

Question 2

When are attitudes especially likely to affect our behavior?

Answer 2

When external influences are minimal and the attitude is stable, specific to the behavior, and easily recalled

Question 3

What is the foot-in-the-door phenomenon and how does it relate to what happened to US prisoners of war during the Korean War?

Answer 3

the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.

Captors secured prisoners’ collaboration in various activities, ranging from simple tasks (running errands to gain privileges) to more serious actions (false confessions, informing on other prisoners, and divulging U.S. military information). After doing so, the prisoners sometimes adjusted their beliefs to be more consistent with their public acts (Lifton, 1961). When the war ended, 21 prisoners chose to stay with the communists. Some others returned home convinced that communism was good for Asia

Question 4

What is minority influence? When is it likely to be successful?

Answer 4

The power of one or two individuals to sway majorities

hold firmly to your position and don’t waffle
self-confidence stimulates others to consider why you react as you do
people may privately develop sympathy for the minority position and rethink their views

Question 5

What are group polarization and group think?

Answer 5

Polarization - the enhancement of a group’s prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group

Think - the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives

Question 6

What is implicit prejudice?

Answer 6

a negative attitude, of which one is not consciously aware, against a specific social group

Question 7

How does violent media relate to social scripts?

Answer 7

Media violence teaches us social scripts—culturally provided mental files for how to act in certain situations

Question 8

What is the decision-making process for bystander intervention?

Answer 8

Before helping, one must first notice an emergency, then correctly interpret it, and then assume responsibility

Question 9

What did Freud believe about defense mechanisms? (do not need to know each type)

Answer 9

Freud proposed that the ego protects itself with defense mechanisms—tactics that reduce or redirect anxiety by distorting reality

Question 10

What do the Thematic Apperception Test and the Rorschach inkblot test measure?

Answer 10

TAT - a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes

Rorschach - the most widely used projective test. Designed by Hermann Rorschach, the test seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing how they interpret 10 inkblots

Question 11

What is Maslow’s hierarchy of need and what is self-actualization?

Answer 11

Psychological needs
Safety
Love and belonging
Esteem
Self-actualization -the process of fulfilling our potential

Question 12

What are self-efficacy and the self-serving bias?

Answer 12

Self-efficacy - our sense of competence and effectiveness

Self-serving bias - a readiness to perceive ourselves favorably

Question 13

How do the medical model and the biopsychosocial approach differ?

Answer 13

Medical model - psychological disorders have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and, in most cases, cured, often through treatment in a hospital

Biopsychosocial approach - emphasizes that mind and body are inseparable

Question 14

What is epigenetics?

Answer 14

the study of the molecular mechanisms by which environments can influence genetic expression

Question 15

What is the prevalence of suicide and what are some risk factors of suicide?

Answer 15

800,000 suicides a year

Anxiety and depression

Question 16

What are protective factors for psychological disorders?

Answer 16

Aerobic exercise
Community offering empowerment, opportunity, and security
Economic independence
Effective parenting
Feelings of mastery and control
Feelings of security
High self-esteem
Literacy
Positive attachment and early bonding
Positive parent-child relationships
Problem-solving skills
Resilient coping with stress and adversity
Social and work skills
Social support from family and friends

Question 17

What is panic disorder?

Answer 17

an anxiety disorder marked by unpredictable, minutes-long episodes of intense dread in which a person may experience terror and accompanying chest pain, choking, or other frightening sensations; often followed by worry over a possible next attack

Question 18

What is rumination and how does it contribute to the cycle of depressed thinking?

Answer 18

compulsive fretting; overthinking our problems and their causes

(1) Stressful experiences interpreted through (2) a ruminating, pessimistic explanatory style create (3) a hopeless, depressed state that (4) hampers the way the person thinks and acts. This, in turn, fuels (1) further stressful experiences such as rejection. Depression is a snake that bites its own tail.