Term
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Definition
| a claim about the cause of someone's behavior. |
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Definition
| Field of psychology that deals most explicitly with how people view one another and are influenced by one another. |
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Definition
| People tend to give too much weight to personality and not enough to the environmental situation when they make attributions about others' actions. |
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Term
| social comparison -- reference group |
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Definition
-The process of comparing ourselves with others in order to identify our unique characteristics and evaluate our abilities.
-The group against whom the comparison is made. Our self-concept varies depending on the reference group. |
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Term
| Actor-Observer Discrepancy |
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Definition
| The difference between the kinds of attributions people make about their own and others' behavior. The person who performs an action (actor) commonly attributes the action to the situation. "I am whistling because it's a beautiful day." The person who sees the act attributes the action to the actor's internal characteristics. "He is whistling because he is a cheerful person." |
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Term
| knowledge-across-situations hypothesis |
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Definition
| people tend to judge the behavior of close friends as more flexible (more determined by the situation and less by unvarying personality traits) than people who they know less well. |
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Definition
| We naturally infer and imagine what others think of us from their reactions, and we use those inferences and images to build our own self-conceptions. |
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Term
| self-fulfilling prophecies/ Pygmalion effects |
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Definition
| The beliefs and expectations that others have of a person - whether they are initially true or false - can to some degree create reality by influencing the person's self-concept and behavior. (Pygmalion in the classroom effect--teachers told of special "spurters," who were actually chosen at random, yet when tested later these kids actually showed significant improvement in IQ. Teachers made a better learning environment for those students and in turn changed those students' self-concepts) |
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Definition
| one's feelings of approval and acceptance of oneself. |
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Definition
| self-esteem acts like a meter to inform a person of the degree to which he/she is likely to be accepted or rejected by others. |
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Term
| self-serving attributional bias |
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Definition
| The tendency of people to attribute their successes to their own personal qualities and their failures to the situation. |
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Term
| Personal Identity vs. Social Identity |
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Definition
-Self descriptions that pertain to the person as a separate individual.
-Self descriptions that pertain to the social categories or groups to which the person belongs. |
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Definition
| The schema (organized set of knowledge or beliefs) that we have about any group of people. |
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Term
| Explicit Stereotypes vs. Implicit Stereotypes |
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Definition
-Stereotypes that the person consciously uses in judging other people. Conscious thought processes modifiable by deliberate learning and logic.
~Public- what one says to others about a group.
~Private- what one consciously believes but doesn't say.
-Sets of mental associations that can guide our judgements and actions toward members of a group without our conscious awareness, even if those associations run counter to our conscious beliefs. Products of primitive emotional processes, modifiable by such means as classical conditioning. |
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Term
| Priming tests vs. Implicit association tests |
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Definition
-Priming is a general method for measuring the strengths of mental associations, so the test would give some stimulus (say a black/white face) and then given some adjective that they have to associate with that stimulus as quickly as possible. See what primes people's minds when they see a certain group of people.
-Test takes advantage of the fact that people can classify two concepts together more quickly if they are already strongly associated in their minds than if they are not strongly associated. (male/female with violent/nonviolent test) |
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Term
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Definition
| Any belief or opinion that has an evaluative component (judgement or feeling that something is good or bad, likable/unlikable, etc.) Attitudes tie individuals cognitively and emotionally to their entire social world. |
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Term
| Insufficient-justification effect |
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Definition
The change in attitude that results when one behaves in a way that runs counter to their attitudes, which results in cognitive dissonance.
Requirements:
1. No obvious, high incentive for performing the action.
2. Subjects must perceive their action as stemming from their own free will.
(Ben Franklin's opponent lending him a book) |
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Term
| Elaboration Likelihood Model |
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Definition
| We reserve our elaborative reasoning powers for messages that seem most relevant to us, and we rely on mental shortcuts to evaluate messages that seem less relevant. ("Cognitive misers") |
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Term
| Cognitive Dissonance Theory |
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Definition
-We have a mechanism that creates an uncomfortable feeling of dissonance, or lack of harmony, when we sense some inconsistency among the various attitudes, beliefs, and items of knowledge that constitute our mental store.
-Dissonance-reduction drive can lead us to avoid or reduce dissonance in illogical and maladaptive ways. (like hunger drive leads us to eat) |
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Term
| Social facilitation vs. Social interference |
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Definition
-The enhancing effect of an audience on task performance. Usually occurs with relatively simple or well-learned tasks.
-A decline in performance when observers are present. Usually occurs with complex tasks or tasks involving new learning. |
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Term
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Definition
| a particularly potent cause of choking on academic tests. For example, black college students did worse on tests that were labelled as intelligence tests, especially if they were reminded of their race before the test. It produces its effects by increasing anxiety and distraction. |
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Definition
| The ways by which people modify their behavior to influence others' impressions of them. (consciously or unconsciously) |
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Term
| Informational influence vs. normative influence |
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Definition
-Social influence that works through providing clues about the objective nature of an event or situation. We follow examples of others. (People cross bridge A and avoid bridge B, they know something we don't, so follow them)
-Social influence that works through the person's desire to be part of a group or to be approved of by others.
--These are the two general reasons why we tend to conform to others' examples. |
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Term
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Definition
| -When a group is unevenly split, discussion typically pushes the majority toward a more extreme view in the same direction as their initial view. |
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Definition
| The influence one or more persons has on the way one thinks. People are more concerned with keeping the group together than making legitimate arguments/decisions, so they just agree with whatever the group says. |
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Term
| Fundamental Attribution Error |
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Definition
When good things happen to us we think it's because of us, bad things are because of environment. If good things happen to someone else we think it's luck/chance (environment), bad things are because of them.
*We tend to underestimate situational influences on another person's thinking/behavior/attitudes/way of life. (Another name for Person Bias) |
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Term
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Definition
| the generalizing of experience. For example, saying "going abroad changed my life," going abroad is a praxis because you generalize those experiences as personality changing. |
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Term
Sales Pressure Techniques:
-Low-Ball Technique
-Foot-in-the-Door Technique
-Pregiving (Reciprocity Norm) |
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Definition
-Customer first agrees to buy a product at a low price and then, after a delay, the salesperson "discovers" that the low price isn't possible and they must pay more. Works only if customers make verbal commitment to original, low-ball deal.
-People are more likely to agree to a large request if they have already agreed to a small one.
-People feel obliged to return favors. Doing something for someone else (even if they never asked for it) often elicits a sense of obligation to return the favor in the person. |
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Definition
| When a particular course of action or inaction will benefit the individual but harm the others in the group and cause more harm than good to everyone if everyone takes that course. |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| When the whole group benefits from the improvement of cooperation (punishment of the cheaters=improved cooperation), while only the punisher and the person being punished pay a cost. |
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Term
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Definition
| Goals that were desired by both groups and could be achieved best through cooperation between groups. These goals resolved the between group conflict. (Boys camp Eagles vs. Rattlers conflict) |
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Term
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Definition
| Discomfort that people feel when they are socially rejected or when they lose a valued companion. Social pain magnifies physical pain and vise versa. |
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Term
| Self-conscious emotions (4 emotions) |
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Definition
Guilt, Shame, Embarrassment, Pride.
-These emotions are linked to thoughts about the self or one's own actions. |
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Term
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Definition
| -A person's general style of interacting with the world, especially with other people. |
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Term
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Definition
| A relatively stable predisposition to behave in a certain way. They are considered to be part of the person, not part of the environment. |
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Term
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Definition
| -Goal of any trait theory of personality is to specify a manageable set of distinct personality dimensions that can be used to summarize the fundamental psychological differences among individuals. |
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Term
| Five-Factor Model ("Big Five" theory) |
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Definition
-Neuroticism (vulnerability to emotional upset)
-Extraversion (tendency to be outgoing)
-Openness to experience
-Agreeableness
-Conscientiousness |
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Term
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Definition
| Freud's method of treatment in which his patients would talk freely about themselves and he would analyze what they said in order to uncover buried memories and hidden emotions and motives. Also used this term to refer to his theory of personality -- the real reasons behind our everyday actions are hidden by our unconscious mind, and our conscious reasons are cover-ups, plausible but false rationalizations that we believe are true. |
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Term
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Definition
Personality theories that emphasize the interplay of mental forces. Two guiding premises of psychodynamic theories:
1. people are often unconscious of their motives
2. processes called defense mechanisms work within the mind to keep unacceptable or anxiety-producing motives and thoughts out of consciousness |
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Term
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Definition
| Mental processes of self-deception operate to reduce one's consciousness of wishes, memories, and other thoughts that would threaten one's self-esteem or in other ways provoke a strong sense of insecurity, or anxiety. |
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Term
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Definition
| The process by which anxiety-producing thoughts are pushed out or kept out of the conscious mind. Basis for most other defense mechanisms. |
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Term
| Displacement (sublimation) |
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Definition
Occurs when an unconscious wish or drive that would be unacceptable to the conscious mind is redirected toward a more acceptable alternative. Child sucks on lollipop instead of breast because that act is unacceptable at their age.
~When displacement may direct one's energies toward activities that are particularly valued by society, such as artistic/scientific endeavors. |
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Term
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Definition
The conversion of a frightening wish into its safer opposition.
Ex. homophobia- people who have a tendency toward homosexuality, but fear it, may protect themselves from recognizing it by vigorously separating themselves from homosexuals. |
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Term
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Definition
| The use of conscious reasoning to explain away anxiety provoking thoughts or feelings. |
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Term
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Definition
| Occurs when a person consciously experiences an unconscious drive or wish as though it were someone else's. |
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Term
| Humanistic theories of personality |
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Definition
| -Emphasize people's conscious understanding of themselves and their capacity to choose their own paths to fulfillment. (As opposed to psychodynamic's emphasis on the unconscious motivation and defenses) |
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Term
| Phenomenological reality (phenomenology) |
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Definition
Each person's conscious understanding of his/her world.
*Phenomenology-the study of conscious perceptions and understandings. |
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Term
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Definition
| The process of becoming one's full self, of realizing one's dreams and capabilities (humanistic term) |
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Term
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Definition
| Self-told story that gives the individual a sense of direction and meaning to life. (McAdams had people tell him their stories--all had some common factors like themes, morals, subordinate characters, conflict/resolution, consistent tone) |
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Term
| Social-cognitive theories of personality |
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Definition
| Emphasize the roles of beliefs and habits of thought that are acquired through one's unique experiences in the social environment. (Social-cognitive theories regard the term 'unconscious' as automatic mental processes) |
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Term
| Locus (location) of Control (internal vs. external) |
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Definition
A generalized disposition acquired from past experience, to believe that rewards either are or are not usually controllable by one's own actions.
Internal-Individuals control their own rewards
External-Factors outside of the individual control rewards |
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Term
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Definition
People's beliefs about their own abilities to perform specific tasks.
-High self-efficacy~ people who expect they can perform a certain task.
-Low self-efficacy~ people who expect to fail at a certain task. |
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Term
| Allocentrism vs. Ideocentrism |
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Definition
-Highly concerned with personal relationships and promoting the interests of the groups to which they belong. Emphasize similarities with the group. Respond to conditions of their social environment. (collectivist manner of thinking)
-Focus more on their own interests and abilities. Emphasize own uniqueness within a group. Motivated by their own inner needs and aspirations. (Individualist manner of thinking) |
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Term
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Definition
-Any characteristic of a person's actions, thoughts or, feelings that could be a potential indicator of a mental disorder.
-A group of interrelated symptoms manifested by a given individual. |
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Term
| Syndrome is a mental disorder if it follows these 3 criteria: |
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Definition
1) It involves a clinically significant detriment. (must involve distress or impairment of functioning- these must be serious enough to warrant professional treatment)
2) It derives from an internal source. (source of distress or impairment must be located within the person- person's biology -not in the person's immediate environment)
3) It is not subject to voluntary control. |
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Term
| Medical students' disease |
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Definition
| A strong tendency to relate personally to, and find in oneself, the symptoms of any disease or disorder described in a textbook. |
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Term
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Definition
| Expressions of mental disorders that are almost completely limited to specific cultural groups. (Japanese disease of being scared of offending people through social behavior vs. anorexia in the US) |
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Term
| Predisposing Causes of Mental Disorders |
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Definition
| Causes that were in place well before the onset of the disorder and make the person susceptible to the disorder. (Genetically inherited characteristics that affect the brain) |
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Term
| Precipitating Causes of Mental Disorders |
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Definition
The immediate events in a person's life that bring on the disorder. (any loss such as death, real/perceived threat to well being such as physical illness, any new responsibilities, any change in day to day life)
It is often talked about under the rubric of stress. If predisposition is high, then a low amount of stress can bring on a mental disorder. |
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Term
| Perpetuating Causes of Mental Disorders |
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Definition
| Those consequences of a disorder that help keep it going once it begins. The negative consequences of the disorder generally help perpetuate it. (ex. depression may cause someone to withdraw from friends and lack of friends can perpetuate the depression) |
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Term
| Generalized anxiety disorder (hypervigilance) |
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Definition
-People who worry more or less continuously, about multiple issues, and they experience muscle tension, irritability, difficulty in sleeping, and sometimes gastrointestinal upset due to overactivity of the autonomic nervous system. (traumatic experiences in childhood & genetic disposition can predispose a person to this disorder)
-automatic attention to potential threat (react more to threatening words like "cancer" or "collapse" than to unthreatening words) |
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Term
| Phobia (Social vs. Specific) |
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Definition
-An intense, irrational fear that is very clearly related to a particular category of object or event. Fear must be long-standing and sufficiently strong to disrupt everyday life in some way.
Social Phobia- Fear of being scrutinized or evaluated by other people (fears of public speaking, eating in public places, etc.)
Specific Phobia- Fear of some specific, nonsocial category of object or situation (fear of a typical animal-snake/spider, substance-blood, or situation-heights,small spaces) |
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Term
| Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder |
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Definition
-People who have disturbing thoughts that are followed by some action, which are severe, prolonged, and disruptive of normal life.
Obsession-- a disturbing thought that intrudes repeatedly on a person's consciousness even though the person recognizes it as irrational.
Compulsion-- a repetitive action that is usually performed in response to an obsession.
Similar to phobias in that it involves some irrational fear Different from phobias in that it exists only as a thought and can be reduced by performing some ritual. |
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Term
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Definition
-A feeling of helpless terror that comes at unpredictable times, unprovoked by an specific threat in the environment. Panic attacks usually last several minutes and are usually accompanied by high physiological arousal and a fear of losing control and behaving in some frantic, desperate way.
DSM-IV-- person must have had 2 panic attacks, each followed by a month of worry about another attack or by life-constraining changes in behavior motivated by fear of another attack. |
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Term
| Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) -- (traumatic grief) |
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Definition
-Symptoms of PTSD must be linked to one or more emotionally traumatic incidents that the affected person has experienced. Only anxiety disorder that is necessarily brought on by stressful experiences.
-- a syndrome similar to PTSD combined with extraordinary yearning for the deceased spouse. Developed significantly more incidences of flu, heart disease, and cancer than less-traumatized group. (form of psychological factors affecting medical condition) |
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Term
| Major Depression vs. Dysthymia (Double depression) |
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Definition
-Characterized by very severe symptoms that last essentially without remission for at least 2 weeks. (Depression characterized by prolonged sadness, self-blame, a sense of worthlessness, and absence of pleasure)
-Characterized by less severe symptoms that last for at least 2 years.
-Bouts of major depression occur over a long chronic state of dysthymia |
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Term
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Definition
Depression results from a pattern of thinking about negative experiences that reduces or eliminates hope that life will get better. People who are most prone to depression consistently attribute negative experiences in their lives to causes that are stable and global.
-A cause is stable to the degree that it is unlikely to change
-A cause is global to the degree that it applies to a wide sphere of endeavors. |
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Term
| Bipolar I disorder vs. Bipolar II disorder |
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Definition
-Classic type, characterized by at least one manic episode and at least one depressive episode.
-Similar to Bipolar I except its high phase is less extreme and is referred to as hypomania rather than mania.
--Manic episodes are characterized by expansive, euphoric feelings; elevated self-esteem; increased talkativeness; decreased need for sleep; and enhanced energy and enthusiasm |
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Term
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Definition
| -Disorders in which the person experiences bodily ailments in the absence of any physical disease that could cause them. |
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Term
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Definition
| Characterized by a long history of dramatic complaints about many different medical conditions, most of which are vague and unverifiable, such as dizziness, general aching of the body, heart palpitations, and nausea. (KAYLA) |
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Term
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Definition
The person temporarily loses some bodily function, perhaps (in the most dramatic cases) becoming blind, deaf, or partially paralyzed, in a manner that cannot be explained in terms of physical damage to the affected organs or their neural connections. (most extreme and disabling category of somatoform disorder)
Freud saw these disorders as resulting from the patients' unconscious minds that served to protect them from anxiety-producing activities and experiences (Anna O). |
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Term
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Definition
DSM-IV- Person must manifest a serious decline in ability to work, care for him/herself, and connect socially with others. Also must manifest, for at least 1 month, 2 or more of the following five categories of symptoms: disorganized thought and speech, delusions, hallucinations, grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior, and negative symptoms.
Delusion--a false belief held in the face of compelling evidence to the contrary.
-Most common hallucinations are auditory. |
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Term
| Catatonic Behavior & Negative Symptoms |
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Definition
-Behavior that is unresponsive to the environment. May involve excited, restless motor activity that's not directed meaningfully toward the environment; or it may involve a complete lack of movement for long periods (Catatonic Stupor)
-Symptoms that involve a reduction in expected behaviors, thoughts, feelings, and drives. Include a general slowing down of bodily movements, poverty of speech, flattened affect, loss of basic drives such as hunger, and loss of pleasure that normally comes from fulfilling drives. |
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Term
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Definition
The percentage of relatives of people who schizophrenia (index cases) who also have the disorder.
The more closely a person is related to an index, the more likely they are to develop schizophrenia. |
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Term
| Placebo Effects & Spontaneous Remission |
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Definition
-The feelings and expectations that result from participating in an experiment, meeting regularly with someone who cares, and taking a drug that may work may restore feelings of hope and control and produce expectation of improvement. All such effects, which derive from the belief that one's disorder is being treated is referred to as the placebo effect.
-Improvement that would occur without any treatment, not even a placebo treatment. |
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Term
| Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) |
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Definition
-Used primarily in cases of severe depression that do not respond to psychotherapy or antidepressant drugs.
-Patient given a drug that blocks nerve muscle activity (no pain felt), then an electric current is passed through the patient's skull, triggering a seizure in the brain that lasts a minute or so. Usually treatments given in a series, one every 2 or 3 days for about 2 weeks. |
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Term
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Definition
| -The surgical cutting or production of lesions in portions of the brain to relieve a mental disorder. (prefrontal lobotomies in the 1930s-50s) Today's procedure involves destruction of very small brain areas by applying radio frequency current through fine wire electrodes implanted temporarily into the brain. |
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Term
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Definition
| Any theory-based, systematic procedure, conducted by a trained therapist, for helping people to overcome or cope with mental problems through psychological rather than directly physiological means. Usually involves dialogue between person in need and therapist, and its aim is usually to restructure some aspect of the person's way of feeling, thinking, or behaving. |
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Term
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Definition
Technique in which the patient is encouraged to sit back, relax, free his/her mind, refrain from trying to be logical, and report every image or idea that enters his or her awareness usually in response to some word or picture that the therapist provides as an initial stimulus.
Freud believed dreams are the purest forms of free association. |
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Term
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Definition
| -Patients often resist the therapist's attempts to bring their unconscious memories or wishes into consciousness. It may manifest itself in such forms as refusing to talk about certain topics, "forgetting" to come to therapy, or arguing incessantly in a way that subverts the therapeutic process. It stems from the general defensive processes by which people protect themselves from becoming conscious of anxiety-provoking thoughts. |
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Term
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Definition
| The phenomenon by which the patient's unconscious feelings about a significant person in his/her life are experienced consciously as feelings about the therapist. |
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Term
| Humanistic therapy -- Person-Centered Therapy (Unconditional Positive Regard) |
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Definition
-Goal is to help people regain awareness of their own desires and control of their own lives.
-Involves seeing the therapeutic process as involving a relationship between two unique persons-the client and the therapist. The therapist must attend to his/her own thoughts and feelings, as well as to those of the client, in order to respond in a supportive, yet honest way.
--Implies a belief on the therapist's part that the client is worthy and capable even when they client may not act or feel that way. |
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Term
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Definition
| Goal is to identify maladaptive ways of thinking and replace them with adaptive ways of thinking that provide a base for more effective coping with the real world. Generally centers on conscious thought (although thoughts can be automatic), unlike psychoanalysis |
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Term
| Rational-emotive therapy - ABC theory of emotions |
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Definition
Ellis- rational thought will improve clients' emotions.
A: ACTIVATING event in the environment
B: the BELIEF that is triggered in the client's mind when the event occurs.
C: the emotional CONSEQUENCE of that belief |
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Term
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Definition
Clients are exposed by the therapist to new environmental conditions that are designed to retrain them, so that maladaptive habitual reflexive ways of responding become extinguished and new, healthier habits and reflexes are conditioned.
While cognitive therapy deals with maladaptive habits of thought, behavior therapy deals with maladaptive behavior. |
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Term
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Definition
All therapy programs that alter the contingency between actions and rewards.
People learn to behave in ways that bring desired consequences and avoid behaving in ways that do not bring desired consequences. If someone is acting in a harmful way to him/herself or to others the therapist wants to know what reward is the person getting for acting this way? Then the behavioral therapist wants to change the contingency between actions are rewards to bring out desired actions. |
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Term
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Definition
Any treatment for an unwanted fear or phobia that involves exposure to the feared stimulus to habituate or extinguish the fear response.
-imaginative exposure- imagine feared scene as vividly as possible until it isn't fearful anymore
-in vivo exposure- real-life exposure
-virtual reality exposure |
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