Notes for Exam Review - General Psychology-HC | PSY 1000, Study notes of Psychology

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1. Be able to define social norms & social roles. // Social Norms are rules that regulate life, including explicit laws & implicit culture. IE: how we dress, behavior in public places..the norm Social Roles are social positions that are governed by a set of norms for proper behavior (ie: mother, police officer)
2. What is an attribution? What is disposition? Be able to distinguish between situational & dispositional attributions. // Attribution is a process of assigning causes to behavior Disposition is a process of enduring characteristics, such as personality traits, attitudes, and intelligence/internal attributions. Situational attributions are peer pressure or external attributions, what is going on around them.
3. Fundamental Attribution Error // Tendency to overestimate the impact of dispositional influences on other people’s behaviors. For Example: We may assume incorrectly that a boss in a failing company who fired several of his loyal employees to save money is an asshole, when he was in fact under enormous pressure to rescue his company.
4. What is deindividualation & what effect does it have on people’s behavior? // The tendency of people to engage in uncharacteristic behavior when they are stripped of their usual identities. Effects: When people don’t know our identity (wearing a mask) we are more likely to do things we wouldn’t normally do as ourselves
5. In regards to Milgram’s obedience study, be able to describe the following roles and responsibilities: teacher, learner, and experimenter. Be able to describe the experimental apparatus (shock machine). Of those roles, who was acting and whose reactions were genuine? Who was actually shocked in the study? How were “teachers” recruited for the study?

The teacher read the learner a list of words & asked the learner to complete the “pair” with the pair word. Pairs an electric shock with the wrong answer, & for each wrong answer, the shock went up in strength. The learner was an actor who received a “shock” for each wrong answer –a prerecorded scream was sounded. (supposed mild heart condition) The shock machine (didn’t actually shock anyone) was from 15-450 Vol Shocks Milgrem himself was actually shocked.

6. What is diffusion of responsibility? In general, as the size of a crowd increases, what happens to the probability of an individual receiving help? Diffusion of responsibility is the reduction of feelings of personal responsibility in the presence of others. Generally, as the amount of people increases, the likelihood of someone receiving help decreases. People think someone else will help.
7. What is altruism? Helping others for unselfish reasons
8. What is self-perception theory? Theory that we acquire our attitudes by observing our behaviors.
9. What is foot-in-the-door technique? Recognize examples, & also explain how foot in the door tech. relates to Milgram’s obedience research Persuasive technique involving making a small request before making a big one. Milgram asked the participants to act as teachers & make small shocks, leading up to bigger ones.
10. Define stereotype & prejudice Stereotype is a belief, positive or negative, about the characteristics of members of a group that is applied generally to most members of the group; RACISM

Prejudice is drawing negative conclusions about a person, group of people or situation prior to evaluating the evidence.

11. What is meant by “comprehension proceeds production?” Children are learning to recognize & interpret words well before they can produce them
12. Imitation & nativist accounts of language, & lang acquisition device Imitation is the simplest explanation of children learning language: repeating what they hear Nativist account says children come into the world with some basic knowledge of how the language works. Language acquisition device is hypothetical organ in the brain in which nativists believe knowledge of syntax resides.
13. What is framing & how can it interfere with logical reasoning? Refers to the idea that the same information, problem or opinions can be structured & presented in different ways. It can interfere with logical reasoning when an idea is framed to highlight a negative or positive.
14. Availability heuristics: People based judgments & decisions on how easily information is available in memory. –Murder or suicide?
15. What is confirmation bias? Tending to look for evidence that will confirm one’s beliefs, opposed to evidence that goes against it.
16. Hindsight Bias: Tendency to review older memories & include new information, falsely believing one could have correctly predicted an outcome of an event.

17. Meta Cognition Awareness & understanding of your own cognitive abilities

18. G Factor *****

General intellectual ability underlying all mental activities

19. Alfred Binet & his role in intelligence testing Psychologist who developed testing for intelligence, IQ
20. What is mental age? What problem was with the original IQ testing? Mental age is the overall intelligence of a person & what age it corresponds to. The problem was it would consider many people mentally retarded who aren’t. * Age level @ which a person functions mentally/intellectually
21. Piaget’s stages for child development  Sensorimotor: ages 0-2; No thought beyond immediate physical experiences  Preoperational: ages 2-7; Think beyond here & now, but egocentric & unable to perform mental transformations  Concrete Operations: ages 7-11; Able to perform mental transformations but only on concrete & physical objects  Formal Operations: ages 11 & ^; Able to perform hypothetical & abstract reasoning
22. What is conservation? When the physical presentation of something changes, but its amount stays the same. IE: pouring liquid into tall cup, same amount as regular cup.
23. Zone of Proximal Development Stage of learning in which a child can benefit from instruction
24. What kind of model did Erikson develop & what is psychosocial crisis? Erikson developed a model of identity;

psychosocial crisis: a dilemma involving our relations to other people.

25. According to Kuber-Ross, what are the 5 stages we go through when reacting to impending death? Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance 26.What part of our psyche uses defense mechanisms & what is their purpose? Ego uses them; unconscious maneuvers intended to minimize anxiety Repression: Returning psychologically to a younger, typically simpler & safer stage. Denial: Motivated forgetting of distressing external experiences A mother who loses a child in a car accident insists her child is alive somewhere. Reaction-Formation: Transformation of anxiety-provoking emotion into its opposite A married woman attracted to her coworker expresses hatred toward him. Projection: Unconscious attribution of our negative characteristics onto others. You are forgetful with your assignments but complain about others not ever helping you. Displacement: Direction impulse from a socially unacceptable target onto a more acceptable one. ~Golfer throws putter into woods after missing easy shot~ Rationalization: providing reasonable sounding explanations for unreasonable behaviors of failures Said you missed your shots on net at try outs because you didn’t really want to be on the team.

Intellectualization: Avoiding the emotions associated with anxiety provoking experiences by focusing on abstract and impersonal thoughts A woman who’s husband cheats on her focuses on the study that “x amount of men are sexually promiscuous by nature” so there is nothing to worry about Identification with Aggressor: adopting psychological characteristics of people we find threatening A college basketball player who initially feared his tyrannical coach now comes to accept his behavior and adopts them himself Sublimation: transforming a socially unacceptable behavior into an admired and socially valued goal A boy who enjoys beating up on other children grows up to become a successful professional boxer

27. Describe Adler’s inferiority complex: Feelings of low self-esteem that can lead to overcompensation for these feelings
28. Repertoire a list of roles we take on & perform
29. Locus of Control; Internal & External, & which one is associated with better health. Extent to which people believe that reinforces & punishers lie inside & outside of their control. Internal: believe that life events are largely due to their own efforts & personal characteristics External: believe that life events are largely a product of fate & chance Internal for better health; they feel they have more control of their lives

30. What is unconditioned positive regard, how is it different than letting people do whatever they want? What are conditions of worth? What prevents people from becoming fully functional human beings? UPR is the basic support of a person regardless of what that person does. IT is different because its not supporting their actions but moreso them as a person. Conditions of Worth: expectations we place on ourselves for appropriate & inappropriate behaviors. Incongruence: inconsistency between our personalities & innate dispositions. We are no longer our genuine selves, we’re acting in ways inconsistent with our underlying potentialities.

31. What is the Big 5 Model? Name each of the factors Five traits that have surfaced repeatedly in factor analyses of personality measures

Openness to Experience

Conscientiousness

Extraversion (being assertive/seeking out external stimuli)

Agreeableness

Neuroticism (tendency to experience negative emotional states)

32. What is a mental disorder (4 components) list & describe components Statistical Rarity: Uncommon to the population (like schizophrenia, Terrels condition)

• Subjective Distress: Produce emotional pain (anxiety or mood disorders)
• Impairment : Interfere with people’s daily lives & destroy relationships & marriages. (Most)
• Societal Disapproval: Society having negative attitudes towards/disliking conditions. (masturbational insanity, schizophrenia )

33. Categorical & dimensional models of psychopathology: Categorical: Model in which mental disorders differ from normal functioning in kind rather than degree; how DSM is set up… Ie: pregnancy –either pregnant or not Dimensional: (some disorders better fit this model…) mental disorders differ from normal functioning in degree rather than kind Ie: height
34. PTSD & four symptoms ( > 1 month) Marked emotional disturbance after experiencing or witnessing a severely stressful event Symptoms: Intrusive Thoughts Avoidance Behaviors Nightmares Increased anxiety/irritability/arousal
35. What is bipolar disorder & what is a manic episode? Depression & Mania; Manic Episode = period of time… dramatically eleveated mood, decreased need for sleep, increased energy, inflated self-esteem, increased talkativeness, irresponsible behaviors
36. What is person-centered therapy? Therapy centering around client’s goals & ways of solving problems
37. What is systematic desensitization? How does this work? Steps? When clients are taught to relax as they are gradually reexposed to what they fear in a stepwise manner.

• Therapist begins by teaching client how to relax. (imagine relaxing scenes, focusing on breathing and maintaining a slow breathing rate) -Therapist has client construct an anxiety hierarchy a “ladder” of situations that climb from least to most anxiety provoking.

-relax and picture first scene, moves on to the next, more anxiety producing only after client reports feeling relaxed while imaging first. Works by having clients condition by pairing an incompatible relaxation response with anxiety & training their reaction to adjust.

38. What is contingency management? Reinforcement of desired behaviors
39. How does Elli’s rational emotive therapy & Beck’s cognitive therapy attempt to treat mental disorders? ELLI: Challenges clients unrealistic thoughts; the vulnerability to psychological disturbance is a product of the frequency & strength of our irrational beliefs. Beck: Identifying & modifying distorted thoughts & beliefs. *more emphasis on changing behavior than Elli *
40. Scientist-Practitioner Gap & empirically supported treatments Refers to the sharp cleft between psychologists who view psychotherapy as more an art than science & those who believe that clinical practice should primarily reflect well replicated scientific findings. Empirically Supported Treatments: intervention for specific disorders supported by high quality scientific evidence.
41. What is ECT & when is it used to treat disorders? ECT = electroconvulsive therapy; delivers small electrical shocks to brain to lift peoples moods; used for 10% of severe depressive patients