Give an example of normative social influence
What are the big 5 personality traits?
openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism
which disorder has positive and negative symptoms?
schizophrenia
positive: hallucinations, delusions
negative: absent emotion, expressionless, rigidity, social withdrawal etc
What is the distinction between structuralism and functionalism?
aimed to identify the basic elements/ building blocks of our psychological experience; aimed to identify what adaptive function psychological traits and processes serve (i.e. why is it important for survival)
How would the James-Lang theory explain our experience of anxiety and the physiological response of sweat hands/pounding heart.
What are three factors that increase the likelihood somebody will conform?
feeling incompetent/insecure
group of 3 or more people
unanimous group behavior (one dissenter will increase odds we DON'T conform)
admiration of group status
public responses
What is the thematic apperception test (TAT) and what does it aim to measure?
patients are given an ambiguous life image and asked to come up with a story; as a projection test used in psychodynamic theory it aims to reveal unconscious thoughts and motives that shape our personality
Rorschach inkblot test: asked participants what they saw in abstract ink drip pictures
what is one theory for why women have a heightened risk of depression?
data suggests women are more likely to overthink/ruminate, a key thinking pattern associate with depression
What would the control vs. the experimental groups be in a study testing the effect of stress on food consumption.
Control group: participants not experiencing stress
experimental group: participants manipulated to feel stress
How do stimulant drugs affect an indvidual?
excites neural activity and speeds up bodily functions
What is the distinction between group think and group polarization?
Group polarization: When a likeminded group develops even more extreme views after a group discussion
who are two psychologists who proposed humanistic theories of personality and what was their specific theory?
Carl Rogers: personality is the result of our self-concept (composed of the real and the ideal self)
Abraham Maslow: personality shaped by which needs in a hierarchy of needs are met vs unmet
How does stimulus generalization relate to PTSD?
tendency to form conditioned responses (e.g. fear) to stimuli that closely resemble the triggering stimulus from the original traumatic event (e.g. anything that sounds like a gun)
Which psychologist proposed that children learn aggression via observational learning and exposure to violence at home or in the media?
Albert Bandura
Witnesses to a robbery recently heard on the news that the suspect had red hair. After this news report, many witnesses started reporting they had seen somebody with red hair at the crime scene. This was actually impossible for them to have seen because the suspect's hair was fully covered by a ski mask during the robbery. This provides an example of what type of memory error:
The misinformation effect
what is the fundamental attribution error?
tendency to overestimate dispositional influence and underestimate impact of situational factors when explaining others' behavior
Briefly summarize the main view proposed by each of the below personality theories:
1) humanistic;2) psychodynamic; 3)trait;4) social-cognitive
humanistic: personality develops as part of personal growth
psychodynamic: personality is shaped by the unconscious mind and the importance of childhood experiences
trait: personality is defined by a set of stable traits that we all have in varying degrees (measured on a continuum)
social-cognitive: personality develops as interaction between cognition (internal thoughts, traits etc), behavior and environment
Antisocial personality disorder is associated with ______ (more/less) arousal in response to threatening stimuli. Thus, which part of their autonomic nervous system is behaving abnormally?
less; sympathetic
what is conservation and what stage of development does it occur in
ability to understand that certain object properties (quantity, volume etc) remain the same even when their appearance changes due to form/layout changes as long as nothing is added or removed; concrete operational
Define: 1) the spacing effect; 2) the self-reference effect; and 3) the testing effect
1) memory benefits from spaced out vs. crammed studying
2) memory benefits from making the information personally relevant
3) memory benefits from actively testing yourself vs. passive study strategies like rereading/highlighting notes
What is the scapegoat theory and what is one piece of evidence we discussed as support for this idea?
theory that prejudice offers an
outlet for anger by providing somebody to blame; heightened prejudice during economic downturns
According to Freud, what is fixation and how does it relate to personality?
Fixation is when a person gets "stuck" in a specific psychosexual stage of development due to an unresolved conflict important during that stage. This is then though to produce personality flaws, e.g., fixation in the oral stage may result in smoking, overeating etc
What is confirmation bias and why is it relevant to psychological disorders?
tendency to search for/interpret information in a way that confirms our prior expectations; stigmas and assumptions that come with diagnosis labels can lead people to interpret somebody's behavior in a way that fits that diagnosis rather than approach them in an unbiased manner.
what are the four main parenting styles and provide a brief description of each
authoritative: firm boundaries but with warmth and open communication
authoritarian: my way or the high way
permissive: few demands/expectations and rarely punish, child has lots of freedom
negligent: disengaged and uninvolved with few rules but also little guidance
How do SSRIs work to treat depression
they act as an agonist helping to increase serotonin activity (a neurotransmitter or chemical signal released into the synapse) which is known to be abnormally low during depression