Quiz 2

• Personality:

  • internally based characteristics are referred to as personality traits
  • uniqueness- personality traits are specific to each person
  • consistency- how an individual behaves over time in similar situations
  • explanation- reasoning behind traits
• Freud's perspective:

  conscious mind- only the activities the individual is constantly aware of

  preconsious mind- mental information that can be easily accessed, but also remove from awareness

  unconscious mind- any thoughts or impulses threatening to the conscious mind
• Freuds perspective:

  The ID: core component of personality, located in the unconscious mind (basic human needs as an individual)

  The ego: can subdue the id's sexual and aggressive behaviour (reality principle)

  The superego: sense of right and wrong, moral code
• thumb-suckingAnxious defence mechanisms:

  • repression- burial of anxiety-arousing wishes
  • reaction formation- impulses made to look opposite
  • projection- "throw" threatening impulses to others
  • regression- retreat in development (reverting to thumb sucking)
  • sublimation- expressing inappropriate impulses acceptably
  • denial- of the existence of a threatening impulse or event
  • rationalisation- self-justify our actions
  • displacement- aggressive or sexual impulses are directed towards a more acceptable target
• Carl Jung:

  • collective unconscious theory- interconnected with experiences of past generations of different people throughout history (universal knowledge and tendencies that people share)
  • Archetypes- believed that all of this inherited knowledge was stored in the form of archetypes (universal thought patterns and behaviours triggered by specific situations)
• Alder's perspective:

  • founded individual psychology, emphasizing the individual
  • focused on the struggle of the individual for power or superiority
  • coined the term inferiority complex
• Karen Horney:

  • argued in favour of love and acceptance in a social context
  • people strive for social security, being loved and safe in our relationships
  • believed when people lacked these feelings they developed anxiety
  • believed people strive to reduce feeling of anxiety and insecurity
• Rogers self theory:

  • Carl Rogers founded the person-centered approach to psychology
  • believed that the core element to personality is the self concept (who am I, how do I perceive my skills)
  • ideal self- our view of who we should be
  • actual self- form of self that a person is currently at
• Social-cognitive perspective:

  • started by Albert Bandura
  • acknowledges the existence of traits but emphasizes their interaction with situational effects
  • the self-system is a set of cognitions people use to observe, evaluate and regulate behaviours in different situations
• Rotter's social learning perspective:

  • believed that a core element of personality is based on one's locus of control
  • locus of control- represents degree to which individuals believe that they are in control of their outcomes and experiences
  • people with an internal locus of control believe that they are in control of their lives
  • people with an external locus believe that their life is largely outside their control
• Delay of gratification:

  • marshmallow test which shows delay of gratification has clear ties to self control
  • the willingness to resist a smaller but immediate reward for a larger reward in the future
• Behavioural genetics perspective:

  • considers situational variables (socioeconomic status) that can effects expression of genes
• Neurological perspective:

  • examines the extent that physiological factors (hormones) and brain activity (eg, arousal) determining the expression of certain personality types
• Eysenck's trait theory:

  • effort to identify a link between theorhetical personality factors and observable biological factors
  • three-factor theory: three personality axes was psychoticism -impulse control, extraversion-introversion, neuroticism-emotional stability
  • five-factor model, has been empirically verified in a large variety of cultures
• Observational assessment techniques:

  • monitoring behaviours in a naturalistic or controlled setting
  • behavioural observation: recording behaviours as they occur and remaining as unobtrusive as possible
  • self-monitoring techniques: a person keeps track of occurrence of a behaviour of interest by recording frequency
  • Thought-sampling technique: individuals write down the nature and frequency of the thoughts they have in certain situations
• Psychophysiological assessment techniques:

  • electrophysiological techniques: linking certain bodily processes (heart rate) to different dimensions of personality
  • biochemical measures: involve linking assortment of biochemical processes such as neurotransmitters to different dimensions of personality
  • cortisol measures: involve linking level of electrical activity in different regions of the brain with different dimensions of personality
• Attribution theory:

  • framework to understand the reasons behind the actions of others
  • can attribute the person's behaviour to dispositional (internal) causes
  • can attribute the person's behaviour to situational (external) causes
  • often we attribute another person's actions to internal causes and attribute our own behaviour to external causes
• Fundamental attribution error:

  • according to this, we attribute the behaviour of others to dispositional (Internal) causes rather than environmental
  • underestimate the influence of the environment and overestimate the role of the individual
• Fundamental attribution error: self-serving bias

  • attributing one's success to internal causes and failures to external causes (helps preserve self-esteem)
• FAE: Actor-observer bias

  • attributes the cause of one's own behaviour to external causes and the behaviour of others to internal causes
• Primacy effect:

  • the belief that the initial information learned about another person has the strongest effect on impression formation
  • negative information has a bigger effect on us in impression formation
• Confirmation bias:

  • implies that information that we later acquire about a person is interpreted or selected to confirm our initial impression
  • more likely to process facts or events that are consistent with our initial impression
• Self-fulfilling prophecy

  • when desired outcomes are more likely to occur because we unwittingly act in a way to bring them about
  • ex. demonstrating self-confidence in a job interview may have a favourable impression on the other person
• Social norms:

  • prescribed behaviours that vary across contexts, cultures and time
  • useful in indicating which behaviours are appropriate in different settings
• Social script:

  • a guide to how to behave in a certain situation
  • help us navigate new situations
  • can be harmful (thinking abuse is normal)
• Conformity:

  • is the extent to which individuals modify their behaviour to be consistent with the behaviour of others in the group
• Groupthink:

  • a manifestation of conformity and convergence in group dynamics, rather than divergence
  • faulty decision-making that occurs when a high degree of conformity and group cohesion are highly valued
  • components: overestimating the group, close-mindedness, pressure for uniformity
• Milgram experiments:

  • experiment on authority, shows conformity with authority
  • teacher and learner experience with multiple choice questions and if answered incorrectly the teacher administered an electrical zap
  • 65% of people continued to the highest voltage
• Zimbaro:

  • Stanford prison experiment
  • did a study of jail simulation with guards and prisoners (both participants)
  • found that guards and prisoners quickly fell into their set roles
• Altruism:

  • for an act to be altruistic the person doing the good act must not expect a reward for doing the good act
• bystander effect:

  • a person in need is less likely to receive help as the number of people present increases
  • diffusion of responsibility- explains why there's an inverse relationship between the number of bystanders and if help is provided
  • no one person is held responsible when in larger groups
• Cognitive dissonance theory:

  • developed by Leon Festinger
  • occurs when there is a large discrepancy between ones beliefs and ones behaviours
  • act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thought are inconsistent
• Compliance: foot in the door

  • tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply with a larger request
• Compliance: door in the face

  • someone who has rejected a large request may accede to a smaller request later
• Compliance: lowballing

  • salesperson will get you interested in making a purchase for a modest amount, eventually additional charges are added to the item but you already feel committed
• Dorothy Martin:

  • cult grew around her reported communications with extraterrestrial beings
  • people believed they would be saved when the world was ending
  • experienced cognitive dissonance when the world didn't end