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40 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Groups |
- Security from predators - Assistance with hunting - Getting help when you are injured/sick - Protection from other groups |
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Social Brain Hypothesis |
- Our brains are wired to coordinate with groups of people - The size of a primate's neocortex is related to their standard social group size - Larger groups require keeping track of and maintaining multiple complex relationships |
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Outgroup Homogeneity Effect |
- Think of people in a group that you dislike: - ex. People in opposing pol. group - Now think of people in a group that you are a member of - Which group is easier to think of as individuals? - Which group seems to consist of more or less the same person |
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In-group bias |
- Giving more to members of your own group and even actively working to prevent the other group from getting something - ex. Abu Ghraib, 2003 - Abu Ghraib was an American prison in Iraq designed to hold prisoners prisoners during the Iraq war - Prisoners were tortured in horrible ways - One prisoner even died from the abuse |
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Stanford Prison Experiment |
- A fake prison is set up at Stanford
- Male undergraduates were randomly assigned to 2 groups: guard or prisoner - The first day the guards and prisoners were acting out their roles, not taking it very seriously - After the first day the "guards" started to change, becoming brutal and sadistic - Prisoners were forced to do tedious and degrading tasks, such as cleaning a a toilet with their bare hands - The study was planned for 2 weeks but had to be stopped after only 6 days because guards were abusing the prisoners. |
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Deindividuation |
- People can often lose their sense of identity when they are in a group - When self-awareness disappears, so does your personal standards - People that had never stolen a thing in their life don't think twice about looting stores during a huge riot. |
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Conformity |
- The altering of one's behaviors and opinions to match those of other people or to match other people's expectations. |
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The Asch Experiment |
- 75% of the time participants conformed to the group by giving the wrong answer at least once - |
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Groupthink |
-People in groups will often change their thinking to try keep it the same as the rest of the group - In 1986, due to a faulty component, the Challenger space shuttle exploded killing all of the crew - Even though engineers had told NASA for months about the faulty component, a group of administrators at NASA had convinced themselves it was still okay. - No one in the group stood up to challenge the decision |
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Milgram Experiment |
- Participants were told they were needed to fill the role of a "teacher" who gives electric shocks to a person (the "learner") doing a simple memory task - Participants hear the "learner" say they have a minor heart condition and are worried, but the "experimenter" (the person in charge of the study) says that is OK - The participant ("teacher") is told how to use a machine that gives shocks to the "learner" that increase in voltage with each wrong answer |
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Kitty Genovese |
- was walking home from work when she was violently attacked for half an hour. Eventually, Kitty died from the attack.
- A newspaper reported that none of the 38 witnesses to the crime had contacted the police or tried to help her. - Eventually discovered that only very few people actually saw the crime take place, and two people did call the police. - However, public outrage led to research being done on what is now called the Bystander Intervention Effect |
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Bystander Intervention Effect |
-A person is less likely to offer help or intervene in a situation if there are other people nearby After seeing smoke: - Most participants on their own quickly went for help - Participants with at least two other people (who acted calm) only went for help 10% of the time. - The other 90% coughed, rubbed their eyes, and even opened the window - but did not report the smoke. |
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Cognitive Dissonance |
- Most of the time people hold consistent viewpoints, but sometimes we believe and do things that are contradictory to each other. - We try yo get rid of these contradictions by either changing our beliefs, or convincing ourselves (and others) they aren't a big deal... |
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Group Cognitive Dissonance |
- There are situations where people put themselves through pain or embarrassment to join a group - Think about hazing to get into a fraternity or sorority (or even a sports team) - People feel a lot of discomfort being hazed, but they still decide to do it - This causes Cognitive Dissonance - They resolve this dissonance by believing the group must be very important to them - In order to go through something terrible to join, they must believe it's a great group, right? |
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Personality |
How psychologists categorize people based on common ways they: - Think - Respond to things emotionally - Behave in different situations |
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Psychodynamic theory of personality |
Unconscious forces - such as wishes, desires, and hidden memories - determine our behavior - By Sigmund Freud - ex. Oedipus complex |
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Psychosexual stages |
- we go through them when we are young, determines our personality when we are older - ex. during oral stage, infants learn from breast feeding to experience relief through sucking - If an infant is prevented from sucking at this stage, they will grow into adults that become fixated on oral cravings, such as smoking |
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Rorschach inkblot test |
- Early way of assessing personality, reveal hidden motives, wishes and unconscious conflicts - A person describes what a meaningless inkblot means to them - Their answer is analyzed to uncover unconscious desires and conflicts - Unfortunately this test diagnoses many normal children and adults as mentally disturbed |
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Temperaments |
- Children appear to be born with general tendencies in how they act - Activity Level - Emotionality - Sociability |
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Temperament effect late in life |
- There seems to be a link between temperaments that children are born with, and how they behave later in life - By noticing how children as young as 6 weeks react to new and strange situations and objects, we can predict how likely they are to be shy later in life - Young children who avoid being social are more likely to be anxious, depressed, and unemployed as adults |
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Genetics of personality: twin studies |
- Identical twins tend to have much more similar personalities than fraternal twins - Identical twins share nearly the same genes, fraternal twins do not - Other twin studies have found that genetics explained about half of the similarities in personality between twins - Twins raised apart are often as similar in personality (and sometimes more similar) as twins raised in the same family - Children raised in the same household not biologically related tend to not be that similar to each other |
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Environment's effect on personality |
- 50% of similarities in twins explained by genetics - Even when two people are essentially the same genetically, 50% of their personality tends to be different due to environment most likely - There is evidence that good parenting contributes to whether a child displays antisocial behavior and skips school - ex. of nature and nurture working togehter |
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Five Factor Theory |
- Openness - Conscientiousness - Extraversion - Agreeableness - Neuroticism - Used by surveys to determine whether people have a high or low amt. of each factor - Results are consistent whether people rate themselves or rated by others - 5 personality factors are present in people across cultures and ethnic backgrounds |
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Situations |
Weak situation - at a party, these two people (extraverted and introverted) might act differently Strong situation - At a funeral, these two people are more likely to act similarly |
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Animals and personalities |
- There is evidence that animals do display personality traits. ex. extroversion, assertiveness, sociability, and emotionality have all been observed |
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Self Esteem |
- Western culture places a high emphasis on self-esteem
- People with high self-esteem report being smarter, more attractive, and better liked by people - On avg. they are not any smarter or thought of more highly by others - People with high self-esteem are also not any more successful in their careers than normal people - higher self-esteem ---> report to being happier than avg. - Violent criminals commonly report having high self-esteem - School bullies often report having high self-esteem - Often, if people w/ high self-esteem are challenged or do not feel lie they are getting enough respect, they can react by being: - boastful - Antagonistic and confrontational |
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Narcissism |
- When self-esteem is inflated it can be associated with narcissism - These individuals often feel entitled to special treatment - They can have explosive anger when challenged - They are often abusive to people who don't hold a high opinion of them - Often are unfaithful and cheat on their partners |
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Psychological Disorders |
- America - 25% of people over the age of 18 currently have a diagnosable pyschological disorder - 44% of college students experience symptoms of depression - 50% of college students said they felt overwhelming anxiety in the last year - ~50% of Americans will have a disorder at some point in their lifetimes - ~1/5 people receive treatment for disorders |
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Ancient disorders |
- First descriptions of mental illness was recorded in Ancient Babylon (founded 2300 BC) - Believed psychological disorders were caused when people were possessed by a demon called Idta - If you got possessed the cure was exorcism - They even had advice for staying healthy: try to be a good person, and stay away from women... |
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Medieval Disorders |
- In EU between 14th and 17th centuries a "dance plague" called Dance Mania, swept across EU. - Groups of people would suddenly start to dance erratically, sometimes thousands at a time - Sufferers would dance until they collapsed from exhaustion - First ex. of "mass hysteria", a real psychological condition that can effect large groups of people, making them behave in strange ways |
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Recent mass hysteria |
-In Portugal (2006), a popular teen girl's soap opera show called Morangos com Acucar was on TV
- The show featured an episode where a virus affects a school, making the students ill - After the episode, around 300 students at 14 schools in Portugal became ill with rashes, difficulty breathing, and dizziness |
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Lycanthropy |
- Medieval disorder - 1500s
- The belief that people were transforming into a werewolf - It was believed that this (and other psychological disorders) were caused by a problem in "bodily fluids" that ran throughout the body called "humors" - A doctor described patients as exhibiting paleness, dry tongue, great thirst, sunken, dim eyes and dry eyes |
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Modern diagnosis |
- 1952 manual: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) - Provided a way to diagnose people with different disorders based on symptoms experienced |
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Maladaptive |
- Something considered a disorder when it becomes maladaptive
- The symptoms of a disorder must interfere with at least one aspect of a person's life: work, social relations, or self-care. - doing something more than avg. is not a disorder, but if it interferes with ability to do things, then it may be a disorder |
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Borderline Personality Disorder |
- Have trouble being alone and an intense fear of abandonment - They desperately need an often intense exclusive relationship with a person, and will use manipulation to maintain the relationship |
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Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD) |
- Used to be called "psychopath"
- Behave in socially unacceptable ways such as breaking the law and harming other people without feeling remorse - Usually very charismatic and able to avoid punishment, however punishment is usually ineffective - People without this disorder tend to commit murder without planning, such as when they are provoked or angry. However, people with APD nearly always kill intentionally, usually planning and preparing - Some psychopaths are able to live undetected and become very successful in professions that reward certain aspects of their their behavior, such s business and politics |
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Autism Spectrum Disorder |
- Two essential features: impairments in social interactions, and repetitive behaviors, interests, and activities - Children with autism often do not: establish eye contact, smile at caregivers, desire physical contact (often becoming upset if touched) - From 1991- 1997 there was a dramatic 556% increase in the number of cases of autism - led people to be concerned that vaccinations might be the cause - we now know that vaccinations do not cause autism - we now have some evidence about possible genetic and environment contributions |
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Anxiety Disorders |
- Persistent excessive fear and anxiety in the absence of true danger - ~1/4 Americans will have an anxiety disorder at some point in their lifetimes - Sufferers experience: rapid heartbeat - even when a rest, increased blood pressure, headaches, inability to sleep, panic attacks/hyperventilation Can feel like: - The same tension you have standing on the edge of a cliff, but all the time - You need to be careful/watchful, something bad is happening or is about to happen |
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Anxiety: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) |
- Constantly checking the locks on the door, repeatedly counting different objects, washing hands over and over - It is not just simply worrying about a clean room, or being a "perfectionist" - These are behaviors that are so repetitive they interfere with work and relationships, causing a lot of anxiety. |
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Benefits to worrying |
- Worriers tend to sense and deal with threats faster than other people, as well as score higher on IQ tests - In ancient times these people were most likely the best look-outs/guards of the tribe/village |
