CH 10

How is personality defined? What are some characteristics of thought, feelings, and actions?

The distinctive and relatively enduring ways of thinking.
Behavioral components of identity, caused by internal factors, & organized and structured.

How does the psychodynamic approach explain personality?

It's like an iceberg, mostly below the surface.

What are the three segments of personality as defined by Freud? Describe each. Be able to recognize examples.

Id: Instincts, impulsive, acts on pleasure and avoids pain.
Ego: develops as children learn constraint. Acts on reality principle, partly conscious, makes decisions to ensure survival and success.
Superego: Moral component of personality. "Conscience", does not consider reality, conflicts with Id, Ego resolves that conflict.

What are Freud's defense mechanisms? Why did he say we use them? Be able to recognize examples.

When superego conflicts with id, ego makes us feel anxiety.
Denial, Repression, Projection, Regression, Rationalization
Displacement: Directing an emotion to an object or person other than the one who caused it.
Sublimation: Impulse transformed into socially acceptable behavior.
Reaction formation: urge to preform unacceptable behavior repressed, released through opposite behavior.

What is Jung's theory of personality? Know related terminology and be able to recognize examples.

Collective Unconscious: Deep unconscious experiences shared with ancestors.
Archetypes: ideas and images that have a symbolic meaning for all people
Anima/animus: Feminine vs. masculine aspects of personality
Persona: "Mask" you wear in public

How did Adler explain personality?

Individual Psychology: motivated by purpose and goals, strives for superiority, social interest, & emphasized birth order as influence on striving for superiority.

How does the humanistic perspective explain personality?

It's a choice. Desire to be valued and accepted. Self-actualization

How does Rogers define the self?

Organized, consistent set of perceptions and beliefs about oneself.

What does Rogers say about need for positive regard and need for positive self-regard? What are unconditional and conditional positive regard? What are conditions of worth? How do they develop? Be able to recognize examples.

P-Regard: Need for acceptance, sympathy, and love from others.
P-Self-Regard: Desire to feel good about ourselves.
Unconditional: A person is inherently worthy of love, regardless of accomplishments or behavior.
Conditional: Dependent on behavior, may lead to resentment and fluctuations I self-esteem.
Conditions of Worth: We approve of disapprove ourselves. Develop when lack of Unconditional PR from significant people.

What are personality traits? What is factor analysis?

Personality Traits: Relatively stable cognitive, emotional, and behavioral characteristics of people that help establish their individual identities and distinguish them from others.
Factor analysis: A way to determine clusters of correlated personality traits.

What is the 5-factor theory? What are the Big 5 traits? Be able to recognize examples.

Openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

What are the three reasons it is difficult to predict behavior across situations based on personality traits? Be able to recognize examples.

Traits interact with other traits and characteristics of situation, importance of trait to person influences consistency, and self-monitoring.

What is self-monitoring? Be able to recognize examples.

What is reciprocal determinism? How does it apply to personality? Be able to recognize examples.

Environment interacts with the person (cognitive) to produce personality.

What personal control factors influence behavior? Be able to recognize examples.

Internal: belief in personal control over life outcomes
External: believe in luck, fate and other uncontrollable outcomes.

What is self-efficacy? What 4 factors does Bandura say affect self-efficacy? Be able to recognize examples.

SE: Beliefs concerning ability to perform behaviors needed to achieve desired outcomes.
Situation specific, observational learning, Verbal persuasion, and emotional arousal.

How does the CAPS theory explain personality?

Situationism: personality and behavior vary from one situation to another.

What is Eysenck's theory of personality? Be able to recognize examples.

2-dimentional personality: Introversion-extraversion & Stability-instability (neuroticism).

What is Gray's theory of personality? Know the components and how they work to influence behavior.

Reinforcement sensitivity theory: two neurological systems
Behavioral activation system: sensitive to rewards, influences "approach" behaviors.
Behavioral inhibition system: sensitive to punishments, influences anxiety/fear responses.

How much influence do genetics seem to have on personality? How important is family environment? Personal experience?

Based on outcomes of twin studies: 40-50% of trait variance accounted for by genetics

Family environment not as influential as personal experience

CH 11

What is social psychology?

Scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to other people.

What is Attribution Theory? What is the difference between a personal attribution and a situational attribution? Be able to recognize examples.

Suggests how we explain someone's behavior by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition.
Personal=Internal & Situational=External

What is the Fundamental Attribution Error? Actor/observer discrepancy? Self-serving Bias? Be able to recognize examples.

We tend to overestimate the impact of personal disposition and underestimate the situation when explaining another person's behavior.
Tends to be the opposite when explaining our own behavior
We tend to attribute our success to our own disposition and our failures to the situation

What is a stereotype? What is confirmation bias? What is self-fulfilling prophecy? Be able to recognize examples.

Generalized belief about a group or category of people
Tendency to search for information that confirms one's perceptions
People's tendency to behave in ways that confirm their own or others' expectations.

What is prejudice? What is discrimination? Be able to recognize examples.

Unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members.
Unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group or its members.

What is an ingroup? Outgroup? What is ingroup favoritism? What is the outgroup homogeneity effect? Be able to recognize examples.

"Us", people we share identity with
"them", those different from us.
tendency to favors one own group.
We recognize the way we differ from other members of our ingroup, but overestimate the similarity of people in outgroups.

What are some ways to reduce prejudice. Be able to recognize examples.

Educate about stereotype threat

What is cognitive dissonance theory? Be able to explain and recognize in examples.

Need consistency in our attitudes or between attitude and behavior.

What is self-perception theory? Be able to recognize examples.

What are the ways in which we might be influenced while we are in a group? (social facilitation, social loafing, deindividuation, group polarization, groupthink). Know the definitions and be able to recognize examples.

What is the Chameleon Effect? Be able to recognize examples.

We unconsciously mimic others expressions, postures, and voice tones.

What is conformity and what are some factors that influence it? What are the types of social influence? Be able to recognize examples.

Adjusting our behavior or thinking toward some group standard.
Normative social influence & Informational social influence.

What was Milgrim's famous experiment? What percentage of people obeyed Milgrim's orders? What are some factors that influence obedience to authority? Be able to recognize examples.

67% showed complete obedience even when they did not want to.

What was Zimbardo's Prison Experiment? What happened? What was the finding?

What is aggression? What is the frustration-aggression hypothesis? What are some other influences on aggression? Be able to recognize examples.

frustration-aggression hypothesis: Frustration increases risk of verbal and physical aggression.
Heat, provocation, pain, and crowding

What is altruism? Be able to recognize examples.

Behavior that is aimed at helping others, requires some self-sacrifice, and is not performed for personal gain

What is the bystander effect? Be able to recognize examples. What is diffusion of responsibility?

Bystander: As the number of people at the scene increases the likelihood of a victim getting help decreases.
D-of-R: The feeling among bystanders that it is the responsibility of the group to help.

What are 3 things that influence attraction? What is the terminology to refer to these 3 effects? Be able to recognize examples.

Proximity, Physical Attractiveness, and Similarity.

What are Sternberg's levels of love? Be able to recognize examples.

Romantic, Affectionate, and Consummate (strongest).

What factors influence the success of romantic relationships?