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442 Cards in this Set

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What is the fundamental attribution error?
We tend to overemphasize the importance of personality and udnerestimate the situation, behavior is attributed to personality
what is Social Psychology?
concerned with how people influence other peoples thoguhts feelings and actions
How does a great deal of mentally actvity occur?
automatically and without consciou awareness of intent
What is selfconcept?
everything you know about yourself, viwed as a cognitive structure that guides out attnetion to information that is relevant to us and that helps us to adjust to the environment
what is selfawareness?
The sense of self as the object of attention in the psychological state
What is objective self awarenss?
self awareness leads people to act in accordance with thier perswonal baluies and beliefs
What is the self discrepancy theory?
awareness of differences between personal standards and goals leads to strong emotions
What is self schema?
cogntive aspect of the self concept consisting of an integrated set of memories, beleifs, and generalizations about the sefl, helps filter info, consists of those aspects of your behavior and personality that are important to you
What is activated when people access information about themselves? How is this related to memory?
middle of the frontal lobes, the greater the activation of this area during self referencing the more likely you are to remember the item later during a surprise memory task
How does the sense of self vary?
from situation to situation because it is limited by the amoint of personal information that can be processed at a given time
What are independent self construals? Where are they most common?
self concepts are determined to a large extent by their social roles and personal relationships, more prevalent is eastern culture
What are independent self construals?
be self reliant and pusue success even at the expense of relationships, sense of self is based on being distinct from others, western prevalence
What is self esteem?
the evaluative aspect if the self concept, referring to whether people perceive themselves as worthy or unworthy
What is self esteem based on?
How others perceive us
What is reflected appraisal?
people internalize the values, beliefs expressed by important people in their lives, people respond to themselves how others respond tothem
what does self esteem monitor?
the likelihood of exclusion
What is a sociometer
an internal monitor of social accpetance or rejection ie self esteem
What is the terror management theory?
self esteem protects people from the horror associated with knowing that they will eventually die, people counter immortality through contributing to their culture and upholding its values, reminding people of their immortality causes enhancement of self esteem
Is high self esteem always good?
No when these people feel challenged they also act in such ways that get people pissed at them ie being boastful
How do most people think of themselves?
In favorable terms
how do people have positive illusions of themselves?
overestimate their skills, unrealistic perception of their personal control over events, optimistic about future
How is self esteem affected?
not only by how people perform, but by how relevant their performances are to their self concepts and how their performances compare with those of significant people around them
What is the theory of selfevaluative maintence?
people feel threatened when someone close to them out performs them, causes people to exaggerare or publicise their connections to winners and minimize relationships with losers
What is social comparisons?
occurs when people evalutate their own actions, abilities, and beliefs by contrasting hem with other peoples, important way to understand our actions and emotions
What are downward comparisons?
high self esteem people normally, compare to people who are deficient to them
What is upward comparison?
low self esteem normally, compare to people that are superior
How do people compare their past?
Use downward comparisons, view their current self as better than their past self
What is selfserving bias?
take credit for success but blame failures on external factors
How do minoritiy groups apply selfserving bais?
blame negative feedback on prejudice
What are humans well equipped to do?
protect our positive beliefs about ourselves
Are self serving baises universal?
self enhancement is universal, but the tactics for acheiving it vary across cultures
What is the concept of attitude?
evalutation if an object, event or idea, beliefs, opinions
What are explicit attitudes
we are aware of them
What are implicit attitudes?
We aren't aware of them
What attitudes do people have towards new objects?
develop negative attitides faster than postive ones
What is the mere exposure effect?
the more familiarity the more you will like it
Can attitudes be conditioned?
yep!
What is attitude accessibility?
the ease with which meories related to an attitude are retrieved, predicts behavior consistent with the attitude
Implicit attitudes?
accessed from memory quickly with little consious effort or control, shape behavior without awareness
Do people possess dual attitudes?
people possess dual attitudes about many objects, one is automatic and unconscious, the other is explicit
What is cognitive dissoanance?
occurs when there is a contradiction between two attitudes or between an attitude and a behavior, dissoannce causes anxiety and tension and therefore motivates people to reduce it, reduce it by changing attitudes or behaviors
What does insufficent justification results in?
in order to justify the dull experience they changed their attitude about the experiment
Post decisional dissoance?
motivates the persoon to focus on the psotive characteristics of the choosen, and the negative characterics of the not choosen ie colleges
What is effort justification
having sacraficed so much to join the group, the group must be very important
WHat is persuasion?
the active and conscious effort to change attitudes through the transmission of a message
What is the eloborative likelihood model?
a theory of how medssages lead to attitude change,
What is the central root to persuasion?
people pay close attention toa rgments consider all the info and use the rational cogntive processes, leads to strong attitudes that last over time and are resistant to change
The peripheral route persuasion?
people minmally process the message
What influences the persausive nature of a message?
source (who delivers it), content(what the message says), and receiver (who processes the message)
What do people notice about a person first?
usually the face
What is another important verbal cue?
gait, how someone walks, providfes info about affective status
What are attributions
people's causal explanations for why events or actions occur
What is the just world hypothesis
they had it coming
What are personal attributions?
explanations that refer to something within a person such as abilitie, traits, moods, or effort
What are situational attributions
refer to outside events, such as weather, accidents or the actions of other people
What are correspondence bias?
people expect others' behaviors to correspond with theor own beliefs and personalities
What leads to the actor observer discrepancy?
when people make attributions about themselves they tend to focus on situations rather than personal distributions+the fundmental attribution error
What are stereotypes?
cogntive schemas that organize information about people on the basis of their membersip in certain groups, mental shortcuts that allow for easy, fast processing
Can automatic stereotyping be changed?
yes they think so?
What can influence basic perceptual processes?
implicit social attitudes ie the gun tool thing
What is the self fulfillinh prophecy?
stereotypes that initially are not true can become true, people start behave in ways that confirm expectations
prejudice is...?
refers to the affective or attitudinal responses associated with stereotypes and usually involves negatives judgemnts about people on the basis of their group membership
What is discrimination?
the unjustified and inapprop. treatment of people due to prejudice
What are ingroups and outgroups?
in group=we belong
outgroup=we don't belong
What is the outgroup homogencity effect?
people tend to view outgroup membera as less varied than ingroup members
What is ingroup favortism?
people are more likely to distribute resources to members of the ingroup than the outgroup
Who shows more automatic outgroup bias?
women
When do men fail to favor their ingroups?
when it is based on sex
What reduces prejudice?
communal activities working toward subordinate goals
What is social facilitation?
the mere presence of others enhances performance, also seen in animals, dominant response will either be correct or incorrect leading to enhancement or impairment
What is social loafing?
peoples efforts are pooled so hat no one individual is accoutable or feels less responsible for groups output, work less in a group
What is deindividation
occurs when people are not selfaware and therefore are not paying attention to their personal standards, especially likely to occur when people are aroused and anonymous and when there is a diffusion of responsibility
What is the risky shift effect?
people make riskier decisions in a group
What is group polarization?
enhance the initial attitudes of members, ie more cautious or more risky
What is group think?
when preoccupied with the cohesiveness that they make bad decisions
What are social norms?
expected standards of conduct, influence behavior in multiple ways
What is conformity?
the altering of one's behavior or opinions to match those of others or to match social norms, is also a powerful form of social influence
What do groups enforce?
conformity and those who fail to go along get rejected
What is compliance?
when people do things requested by others
What is the foot in the door effect?
people are more likely to comply with an undesired request if they have earlier agreed to a small request
What is the door in the face effect?
people are more likely to agree to a small request after they have refused a large request
What is obedience?
people follow order s given by an authority
What is agression?
refers to a variety of different behaviors, but basically it is any behavior or action that involves the intention to harm someone else
What can alter aggression?
stimulating or damaging the septum, amygdala or hypothalamus
What levels of serotonin were found to cause a person to be less hostile and more cooperative over time?
More serotonin
What is the frustration aggression hypothesis?
the extent to which people feel frustrated predicts the likelihood that they will be aggressive
What is the cognitive neoassocationistic model?
frustration leads to aggression because it elicits negative affect, thus, any situation that induces negative affect can trigger physical aggression even if it does not induce frustration
Does violence vary across culture?
yes
What is the culture of honor principle?
a belief system in which men are primed to protect their reputation through physical aggression
What doe prosocial mean?
meaning that they act in ways that benefit others
What is altruism?
providing of help when it is needed without any apparent reward
What does altruism suggest about natural selections?
occurs at the level of the gene rather than the individual
What is inclusive fitness?
the adaptive benefits of transmitting genes rather than focusing on individual survival
What is kin selection?
tendency to be altruistic toward those who you share a genetic bond
What is reciprocal helping?
one animal helpes another because the other can return the favor in the future
What is the bystander intervention effect?
the failure to offer help by those who observe someone in need of help, a person is less likely to help if there are other bystanders around
What is neophobia?
humans have a general fear of anything new
What type of faces do people prefer for beauty?
symmetrical
What is passionate love?
a state of intense longing and sexual desire
What is compassionate love?
A strong commitment to care for and support that develops slowly over time
What are attachment styles in relationships?
The type of attachment style you have as an adult is assumed to relate to how your parents treated you as a child, those who has warm supportive parents form secure attachments and those that form avoidant attachments have a hard time trusting
What are the four horsemen of the apocolaypse?
being overly critical, holding the partner in contempt, being defensive, and mentally withdrawing from the relationship
What is important for a marriage?
fighting
What is the most successful type of couple?
a validating couple, with each partner consdidering the other partners opinions and emotions valid even if they disagree
Was genie able to develop language?
only the most rudimentry skills
What is developmental psychology?
concerned with changes in phsyciology, cognition, and social behavior over the lfie span
What is social development?
refers to the maturation of skills or abilties that enable us to interact with others
What happens during the prenatal period
the body develops in a fixed sequence
What does the consistancy of infant development tell us?
that our genes set the pace and order of devleopment
What afre people the products of?
nature an nurture
What happens during the first two motnhs of development?
we have a little embryo, then a fetus, than infant
How does the human brain form?
forebrain,midrbrain and hindbrajin form by week four, cortex cells appear by week 7, thalamus and hypothalamus are visible by week ten, basal ganglia and left and right hemispheres are there by week 12, by the seventh month there is a nervous system, at birth has cortical layers, and neuronal activity, and myelination, but develops through adulthood
What puts the fetus at risk for lower IQ
insuffiecent thyroid hormone from mom
What are teratogens?
egents (bacteria, viruses, chemicals, drugs) that cause abnomral devleopment in the womb, the extent of damage depends on when the fetus is exposed
What is fetal alcohol syndrome?
the symptoms of which consist of low birthweight, face and head abnormalities,slight mental retardation, and behavioral and cogntive problems
Can small amounts of alcohol be problematic?
yep
What can smoking cause during pregnancy?
low birthweight and abortion, brithdefects
What can newborns do when they are born?
see, smell, hear, taste, and touch
What sense is better in newborns?
hearing
What might the visual range of infants encourage?
to focus on what is most important, the moms breast and face
What is the rooting reflex?
the autonomic turning and sucking that infants engage in when a nipple or similar object is near their mouths, some beleive these reflexes pave the war for learning more complex behaviors
What are the two important aspects of brain growth?
specific areas within the brain mature and become functional and regions of the brain learn to communicate with each other through synaptic connections
How do brain circuits mature?
Through myelination, occurs in different brain regions at different stages of development and is beleived to reflect the maturation of fibers
What is the brain's use it or lose it principle? What is this called?
the connections that are frequently used are preserved, those that are not decay, called synaptic pruning and occurs in different areas of the bran at different times
What does malnutrition do to the brain?
affects myelination and other aspectsd of the brain, children who are malnurished hve less myelination and they also lack the energy to interact with objects and people in their environment and this lack of stimulation undermines brain development
What is a critical period?
devleopmental period during which specific skills and knowledge can be acquired, if not acquired now they cannot be acquired later, exist because this is when brain can do it the most easily
What is the criticial perios hypothesis?
There are biologically determined tinme periods when a child must be exposed to language in order to acheive normal brain developmnet
What are sensitive periods?
specific points in development at which some skills are most easily learned
What is attachment?
a strong, intimate, emotional connection between people that persists over time and across circumstances
What does infant attachment lead to?
heightened feelings of safety and security
What does attachment motivate in infants?
to stay close to caregiver, helps seecure caregivers attention and ultimately their protection and thus is is adaptive
What is the problem with chickens, geese etc? What happens?
can walk right after hatching and so they are at risk, they go through imprinting during which they attach and follow someone or thing
What do infants need in addition to food?
comfort and security, the want contact comfort
What does attachment encourage? What does this make us predict?
proximity between infact and caregiver so the child should have an anxiety response once they gain mobiltiy, this is true
What is secure attachment?
applies to majority, happy to play alont, friendly to stranger upset when figure leaves, but i comforted quickly upon return
Avoidant Attachment?
Do not appear distressed or upse by the attachment
Anxious-ambivalent attachment?
ambivalance marks the relationship, wants to be held, but the rejects
What is disorganized attachment?
When the child shows inconsistant or contradictory behavior
how is oxytocin related to attachment?
related to social behaviors, influences maternal tendencies, suckling triggers the release of oxytocin
What is temperment?
a person's typical mood, activity level, and emotional reactivity, frequency of fussiness defines
What can pushing a child do?
Lead to behavioral problems
What is the best way to respond to a child?
clam, firm, patient, and consistent
what does overprotectiveness do?
encourage a child's anxiety
What is divorce associated with?
negative outcomes?
Does having a stepfather resolve the problem?
no it may make it worse
What do children need to do?
obtain info from the world
What do infants ten to look longer at?
look more at stimuli that interest them and they will longer at novel stimuli
What is the preferential looking technique?
if they look longer at one, researchers know the infants can distinguish
What is the orienting reflex?
tendency of humans, even from birth, to pay more atention to novel stimuli than to stimuli which they hae become habituated or grown accustomed to
What dies habituation allow?
researchers to create a response preference for one stimulus over another
What is an increase in visual acuity do to?
development of infant's visual cortex as well as the development of cones in the retina
What do babies have at sixth months?
Nearly adult levels of auditory function,
Can infants remember sounds?
pretty well, compelling evidence suggests that infants learn their mother's voice in the womb
What did Paget suggest?
That children fo through staages of cognitive development
What are schemes to Piaget?
conceptual models of how the worlds works that children form at each stage of development, each stage builds on the previous one through learning by assimulation and accomadation
What is assimulation?
the process through which a new exsperience is placed in an existing schema
What is accomadation?
The process through which a schema is adapted or expanded to incorporate the new experience
What is the senorimeter stage?
from birth until about two children acquire information about the world only through their senses, they react reflexively to objects
When do children develope their first schemas?
as they begin to control their movement
Describe sucking in terms of assimulation and accomadation
sucking other objects shows assimulation, since it does not provide the same reward this leads to accomadation with respect to the sucking schema: the child must adjust its understanding of sucking
How do infants react to objects according to piaget?
infants learn they can act on objects, manipulate them to understand the, rather than simply react to them
Object permanence?
another stage, in which the understand that an object continues to exist even when it cannot be seen
What is the preoperational stage?
two to seven, children can think about objects not in their immediate view and have developed conceptual models of tghe world, do not understand the law of conservation of quantity ie the gllass, egocentric,
What is the concrete operational stage?
7 to 12, begin to understand conservation, can think logially about objects and events, classifies objects according to several features, can think about objects in wats that are reversible
What is the formal operation stage?
abstract thinking, concern for hypothetical,fute and ideaological problems, can form hypothesis nd test it through deductive reasoning
Why is piaget's theory questioned so?
different areas of the brain are responsible for different skills and that the development of different skills therefore does not have to follow strict stages
How young can an infant remember an object?
three months, so have cogntive skills very early in life
How do infants show they understand an object exists even if it is out of sight?
respond differently to possible and impossible events
Are we born with numerical abilities?
yes such as the ability to understadn quantity
Can children under three understand more than or less than?
yes ie m&ms
What does the development of memory help children do?
learn about the world around them, they remember longer as they get older
What is infantile amnesia
inability to remember early childhood
When do some believe memories can only be attained
when we have the ability to remember autobiographical memory based on personal experience
how is childhood memory linked to langauage?
memory increases with lanngauge because the ability to use words and concewpts aids in memory retention
What is source amnesia?
youung children often have difficulty knowing where they learned something
What do children love to do?
confabulate
What do we need to do to protect oursevles and succeed in life?
we need to be aware of the intentions of other people
What is theory of mind?
knowing that other people have mental states and using that information to infer what another person is feeling or thinking
What does it mean to be egocentric?
they are not able to see another persons point of view, only thei own
When do children begin to read intentions?
the first year od life and get very good by the end of the second year
What does development of theory of mind and success at the false belief death coincide with?
the fronal lobes becoming more mature
What becomes active wheb people are asked to think about others mental states?
the prefrontal region
Why do they think theory of mind may develop independent of other brain functions?
Not general intelligence cuz downs syndrome develops it, but autism does not
What can affect the ability to speak
social isolation and lack of exposure to language
What do infants and their caregivers do for language?
attend to objects in their environment together and this joint facilitates learning to speak,
What may babbling be?
infants way of testing the system
What are preformatives?
wordlike sounds that are learned in a context and that a baby may not be using to represent a meaning
What do most first words do?
identify objects
When do children start putting words together?
18 months
What is telegraphic speech?
The tendency for children to speak using rudimentry sentences that are missing words and grammatial markings but follow a logical syntax
What do children do at age three to five with language?
make mistakes they weren't making befor
What overgenerlizations in language?
good though rare because children are not simply repeating what they hear
What us deep structure?
the implicit meaning of structure
What do we automatically do with langugae?
Turn surface structure into deep structure
Do young infants have a built in readiness to acquiire grammer?
yep
What is creole?
describes a language that evolves over time from mixing of existing languages
what is a pidgin?
an informal creole that lacks consisten grammatical rules
Does speech alone drive language acquisition?
no
What do phonics vs whole language do? which is better?
teaches an association between letters and their phonemes vs emphasis on meaning understanding how words are connected , phonics is superior
What is social development?
the maturation of skills or abilities that enable people to live in a world with other people
what is adolescence?
transition between childhood and adulthood
Describe sex vs gender?
sex refers to biological differences between males and females, and gender is used for the differnces between males and females as a result of socialization
Are women and men more similar or different?
More similar
What is gender identity?
whether you consider yourself male or female which shapes how you behave
how do children devlop expectation bout gender?
through observing their peer, parents, teachers and media
what are gender schemas?
cognitive structures that influence how people perceive the behaviors of females and males, they play a powerful role in establishing gender identity
what does gendertyped mean?
expect large differences between male and females
What does masculine mean? feminine?
low on stereotypically female and high on male, feminine is opposite, eequal is androgenous
what creates gender related behaviors?
interaction between people and a specific situation
What does play do?
takes numerous forms and helps children learn and practice skills that will be valuable in adulthood
What are early friends?
teachers and playmates
What causes adolescents to question themselves?
changing phsycial appearance, more sophisticated cognitve abilities, heightened pressure to prepare for the future
What is the group socialization theory?
proposes that children lern two sets of behaviors, one for the home and one for outside
What are the three levels of moral judgement?
preconventional level-classify answers in terms of self interest or pleasurable outcomes, conventional level-responses conform to rules of law and order to focus on others dissaproval, postconventional level-responses center around complex reasoning about abstract principles and values
What do moral values fail to predict? Why?
moral behavior because it is influenced more by emotions than cogntive processes
What are moral emotions?
empathy, quilt,sympathy, shame
What are self concious emotions
moral emotions and embarassment because they require comprehension of the self as a causal agent and evaluation of ones own responses
What is empathy?
An emotional state that arises from understanding anither emotional state in a maneer similar to what the other persons feels
When does sympathy arise?
from feelings of concern or piity
What are moral emotions based on?
phsiological mechanisms that help people make decisions
What are the adultstages of erikson's model?
intimacy vs isolation (finding a mate), generativity versus stagnation(giving back to society) and integrity vs despair (reflecting one ones life)
What is up with arranged marriages?
tend to be stable and most are satisfied
What is the benefit of being marrried?
healthier and live longer
Who is most satisfied for marriage?
Those who have sufficent economic resources, share decision making, and hold the view that marriage is a life long committment
how do older adults seek meaning in their life?
look back and evaluate what they done with their lives
What is dementia?
a progressive deterioration of thinking memory and behavior, excessive alcohol and HIV can heigten risk,
Dementia aside how has fewer mental health problems?
older adults
What is the sociomotional selectivity theory?
as people grow older hey perceive time to be limited and therefore adjust thier priorities to emphasize empotionally meaningful events or experiences
What happens to the frontal lobes with age and what does this cause?
frontal lobes shrink with age and older people have difficulty with memory
What might prove useful for helping memory> Why?
older adults ten not to use strategies thart facilitate memory which raises the possibility that cognitive training might be useful
What is fluid intelligence?
ability to process new general information the requires no specific knowledge
What is crystallized intelligence?
refers to more specific knowledge that must be learned or memorized
When does intellectual decline occur
60s or 70s
What is personality?
refers to an individuals characteristics, emotional responses, thought, and behaviors that are relatively stable over time and across time and situations
What are those that study personality interested in?
the whole person
What is a personality trait?
a dispositional tendency to act in a certain way overtime and across situations
what is the best definition of personality?
the dynamic organization within the individual of those psuchphysical systems that determines his characteristics thoughts and behaviors
Why is personality dynamic
goal seeking, senstive to context, and adaptive to environment
What is psychodynamic theory?
unconscious forces such as wishes and motives, influence behavior, forces were instincts,
What is the energy that drives us to find pleasure?
libido
What is topographical model?
structure of mind is divided into three zones of awareness, conscious, preconscious (can be easily brought up) and unconscious
What is Freudian slip?
accidently reveals a hidden motive
What did Freudian thinking say about childhood?
early experiences had a major impact
What is the psychosexual stage?
when libido is focusedon one of the erogenous zones, the mouth, anus and genitals
What is the latency stage?
When libidinal drives are channeled into school work etc
What is the genital stage?
work to attain mature attitudes about sexuality
What is Id?
operates according to pleasure principle, acting on impulses and desires, driven by sex and agression, completely submerged in the unconscious
Superego?
the internaliization of societal and parental standards of conduct
What is ego?
the component of personality that tries to satisfy the wishes of the id while being responsive to the dictates of the superego
What are defense mechanisms?
unconsious mental strategies that the mind uses to protect itself from distress
What is it to rationalize?
blame situational factors over which they have little control
What is currently thought about defense mechanisms>?
protect self esteem rather than relieve unconscious conflict
What are humanistic approaches?
emphasize personal experience and belief systems and propose that people seel to fulfill their human potential , emphasizes subjective experience
What is the person centered approach?
emphasizes people personal understandings
What is uncoditonal positive regard?
children are accepted loved and prized no matter how they behave
what is subjective well being?
a general term for how much happiness and satisfaction people have in their lives
What are personality types?
discrette categories into which we place people
What is the implicit personality theory?
our tendency to assume that personality characteristics go together and therefore to make predictions about people on the basis of minimal evidence
Trait approach?
provides a mthod for assessing the extent to which individuals differe in personality dispositions such as sociability etc
What are the three subordinate traits?
introversion-extraversion, emotional stability, and psychotism
What is emotional stability?
refers to extent that people's mood and emotions change
What happens to people who are neurotic?
experience frequent and dramatic mood swings, hold low opinions of themselves
What is psychoticism?
decribves a mix of impulse control, emptahy and agression
What is the five factor theory?
idea that personality can be described with five traits: openness to experiennce, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, nueroticism
What do the OCEAN traits also apply to?
animals
What are personal constructs?
people understandings
What is the locus of control?
people differ in their beliefs that their efforts will lead to positive outcomes, if a person has an internal locus of control than they beleive they rbing about their awesomeness
What is self efficacy?
the extent to which people believe they can achieve specific outcomes, important determinants
What is CAPS?
Cognitive-Affective Personality System, people's responses in a given situation influenced by how they encode or perceive the situation, their affective response to the situation, the skills and competencies they have to deal with challenges, and their anticipation of the outcomes that their behavior will produce
What are pessimists and optimisits on a test?
do about the same, but provide different motivations
What is the self regulatory capacities?
people set personal goals, evaluate their progress, and adjust their ongoing behavio in pursuit of those goals
What is an important component of cognitive social theories of personality
pursuit of personal gials
What does personality represent>?
behavior that emerges from how people interpret their social words
What traits coul;d be seen in most species?
extraversion, neuroticsm, and agreeablness
What are idiographic approaches?
person centered in that they focus on individual lives and how various characterisitcs are integrated into unique persons
What do people like to be?
distinctive
What are central triats? secondary?
particularly descriptive of them in comparison to others, those that people consider less personally descriptive
how do people define themselves?
by creating persobnal myths that bind together past events and future possibilities
What are nomotheitc approaches?
focus on characteristics that are common among all people, but on which people vary in other words traits
What are projective measures?
tools that attempt to delve into the realm on unconcious by presenting people with abigous stimuli and asking them to describe the stimulus items or tell stories about them, the general idea is that people will project their mental contents into ambigious items
What is TAT
a projective measure of personality where the person must tell a sotry about a picture, shown to be useful for measuring motivational states especially those related to acheivement
What are objective measures?
straight forward asseessments usually made by self reporting or observer rating, although objective people's judgements are subjective
What is the California Q sort?
seperate 100 cards into piles
What are interactionists?
believe that behavior is jointly determined by situations and underlying dispositions, you need to know about both the person and the environment to predict behavior
WHat is the important point about personality?
personality is a dynamic system that reflects both underlying dispositions and the activation of goals and affective responses in given situations
How are genes linked to behavior?
Cause traits that cause , can cancel each other out
What are temperments>
considered much broader than triats and are decribed as general tendencies to feel or act in certain ways
What is activity level?
refers to the overall amount of energy and behavior a person exhibits
What is emotionality?
describes the intensigty of emotional reactions or how easily and frequently people become aroused or upset
What is sociability?
refers to general tendency to affiliate with others
What is shyness?
feelings of discomfort and inhibition during interpersonal situation, self focused, amygdala is involved in shyness
What is ascending reticular activating system?
regulates cortical arousal
Who is more sensitive to pain?
introverts
How do introverts and extroverts differ?
in arousability
What is the behavioral approach system?
consists of the braun structures that lead organisms to approach stimuli in pursuit of rewards
What is the behavioral inhibition system?
sensitive to punishment and therefore inhibits behavior that might lead to danger or pain,
Do introverts havea stronger BAS or BIS
BIS so less infleunced by reward
How has more dopamine action? What does this cause them to report?
extraverts, report high levels of energy, desire, and self confidence
Why might the big five have emerged:?
give information about mate selection
What do individual differences represent?
traits that were unimportant over time
Why do we have multiple traits?
diverse skills benefit the group
Does personality change?
not really, somewhat in childhood, people become less neurotic, extraverted and open to experiences with age, pattern holds in other cultures so personality change may be rooted in human physiology
What are basic tendencies?
dispositional traits
What are characteristic adaptations?
adjustments people make to situational demands which tend to be consistent because they are based on skills, habits, roles etc
What are personal concerns?
goals motives etc
Who might be more accurate at predicting your behavior?
close acquantances
What is situationism?
theory that behavior is determined as much by situation as personality
What is person situation debate
extent to which traitrs predict behavior which often depends on the trait
What is best predictor of marital failure?
neurotic-ness (FUCK!)
Do you always reveal the same aspects of your personality?
No
What happens to personal concerns vs dispositional traits over time?
ebb and flow as people mature into new roles
What is quantum change?
transformation of personality that is sudden, profound, and enduring, and that affects a wide range of behaviors, often unexpected
Do physical changes produce personality changes?
yes
What happens when there is temporallobe damage?
personality change
What is often a sign of a brain tumor?
sudden personality change
Do changes in behavior suggest changes in personality?
No
What is Sex vs. gender?
Sex = Physiological/Biological

Gender = Cultural/Social
What are the anatomical characteristics of males vs females?
Anatomical Characteristics
Start out the same
Effects of androgens
Present in different levels for males and females
Different receptors are sensitive to androgens
Sometimes ambiguous genitalia
Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome
What are male/female differences in physical constitution and agression?
Physical Constitution
Females are sturdier
Aggression
Men = physical
Women = verbal, indirect
What is Hemispheric Specialization?
Women have more distributed function
Women have a thicker corpus callosum
What is Autism vs. Aspergers?
Autism and Aspergers
Impaired theory of mind
Social and communication problems
Autistic spectrum disorders (1 in 200 people)
10 times more common in boys
What is Baron-Cohens's theory?
The “extreme male brain” theory of autism
Two styles of figuring out the world
Empathizing and systemizing
what are empathisers?
Understand and care about how others feel
Predict others’ thoughts and behaviors
Respond with appropriate affect to others’ affective states
Understand the social world
What are systemizers?
World of “if-then” logic relations
“If I do X then Y happens”
Focus on details and understand physical laws and relations
Technical systems - computers, cars, mechanics
Natural systems - weather, tides
Abstract systems - mathematics, computer programs
Motoric systems - sports, play music
Organizable systems - collections, taxonomies
Why are girls more empthasizers
Girls show more empathy at early ages
Girls better at theory of mind tasks
Girls are more cooperative, more likely to share, and more likely to take turns
Females less likely to be psychopathic
Language skills and conversation style
Girls look at faces more and are better at nonverbal communication
Why are boys more systemizers?
Boys show more interest in mechanical toys
Some occupations are nearly totally male
Weapons making, boat building
Males 13 times more likely to score over 700 on SAT-Math
Males better at map reading, mental rotation, and tests of intuitive physics
Males have strange collections
trainspotters
What is the support for baron-cohen?
Girls > Boys at theory of mind tasks
Those with autism are even worse
Girls > Boys with early development of language
Those with autism have even worse language problems
Girls > Boys in making eye contact
Those with autism make even less eye contact
Boys > Girls in intuitive physics
Those with Aspergers even more
Boys > Girls in toy choice of cars, machines
Those with autism even more
What does finger length tell us?
Finger length ratio
Males tend to have longer ring fingers than second fingers
Those with autism and Aspergers even more so
This ratio influenced by hormones in the womb
What does early puberty have to do with autism?
Those with autism have early puberty
Influenced by testosterone
What do genetics tell us about Autism?
Higher rates of autism in engineers, mathematicians
Why is the extreme female brain not an issue?
What about extreme female brain?
Poor in math, physics, systemizing
Is that a disorder? If not, why not?
Why are men and women different
face different problems?
What are females problems?
Intensive care of small number of offspring
Additional matings are trouble
Advantage if has male resources for assistance
What is the difference for men with matings?
Each mating has reproductive payoff
What do people want is spouse?
Men should want someone who looks fertile and may have good genes
Women should want someone who has resources, and will stick around and help look after the children
what do women value in a spouse?
Considerate, honest, dependable
Kind, understanding
Fond of children
Well-liked
Good earnings and ambitious
Career-oriented
Good family background
Fairly tall
What do men value in a spouse?
Physically healthy
Good-looking
Good cook
Faithful
What are sources of socialization
Home
Who does what?
Subtle messages
Media
Television is male dominated
Toys reinforce stereotypes
School
Differential reinforcement
What about sexual orientation?
Known throughout history
2 to 4 % of humans
Hard to explain from evolutionary view
Early theories stressed deviance
Freud emphasized parenting
Domineering mother and passive father
No evidence of differences in parents
How does the prenatal hormone androgen play arole?
Prenatal hormone of androgen
Gay men have too little, lesbians have too much
Finger length
Index finger normally shorter (for women, only slightly)
Lesbians - especially shorter
Gays with older siblings - especially shorter
Why effect of more brothers?
The more older brothers, the more likely to be gay
Each pregnancy of male leads to higher androgens
Is homosexuality genetic?
Fruit flies and sexual orientation
Master gene (fru) determines sexual behavior
Altering expression of fru changes orientation
What about humans?
Strong genetic findings
52% MZ vs 22% DZ
Especially for males
Hamer (1993) “gay gene”
Hamer found a region of X chromosome (Xq28) more prominent in male homosexuals
What do genes affect for homosexuality?
Anterior hypothalamus (INAH3)
This region must larger in men than women
Twice as large in heterosexual men compared to homosexual men, in whom INAH3 were more similar to women
how pheromones influence homosexuality?
PET Imaging study (Savic et al., 2005)
Exposed men and women to male and female pheromones (derived from sweat and urine)
Female pheromones activated hypothalamus in males
Male pheromones activated hypothalamus in females
Gay men responded like women - greater activity in hypothalamus for male pheromones
Did not occur for lesbians
What causes attraction?
Exotic
Becomes
Erotic
So how might genes influence homosexuality?
Not to sexual orientation directly
Temperament and preferences
Where are friendships?
Gender conforming vs. gender noncomforming
Tomboys and sissy boys
how does the exotic become erotic?
Gender conforming children feel different from opposite sex
Perceive them as different, unfamiliar and exotic
Gender noncomforming children feel different from same sex
Perceive them as different, unfamiliar and exotic,Feeling dissimilar, unfamiliar produces autonomic arousal
For boys - girls are yucky
For girls - boys are scary
But, for noncomformings, this autonomic arousal is associated with same sex,Whatever the source, the arousal is later transformed into erotic/romantic attraction
Misattribution of arousal (Schachter)
Can we predict homosexaulity?
66 gender-noncomforming vs. 56-conforming
Assessed at 7 years of age
Followed until early adulthood
Findings
75% of noncomforming were gay
4% of comforming were gay
What is the emphasis on personality?
Whole person
Individual motivations
Individual differences
What did hippocrates believe?
Dominance of one of four bodily fluids or humors
What did blood domince lead to?
Sanguine - blood
is accepting of life, greets life on its own terms with a certain joyousness, and is optimistic and looks for the good in others.
What did chloreic lead to?
Choleric - yellow bile
easily irritated. Explosions of anger, violent movements, and an overall sense of pessimism pervade this type. A very aggressive person would be called choleric.
What did melancholic lead to?
Melancholic - black bile.
This person is introspective, brooding, and sad. In other words, "melancholy".
What did plegmatic lead to?
Phlegmatic - phlegm
is the predominant fluid, is slow, lethargic and uninterested in life. This type makes few friends.
What somatotypes?
body types
What endomorphy? What temperment did this create?
Tendency towards plumpness
Soft and round and not suited to hard labor
“built for comfort, not for speed”
Personality Temperament = viscerotonia
Relaxed posture
Sociable and warm
Love of physical comfort
Emotionally even
Tolerant and complacent
Indiscriminant goodwill
What is mesomorphy? What temperment did it create?
Tendency towards muscularity
Predominance of muscle and bone
Hard and rectangular, tough
Personality Temperament = somatotonia
Assertive posture and movement
Love of physical adventure
Competitiveness and aggression
Bold directness of manner
Energetic need for physical exertion
Indifference to pain
What is ectomorphy? What trait did it lead to?
Tendency towards thinness
Predominance of skin and nervous tissue
Delicate, linear and Frail
Personality Temperament = cerebrotonia
Restrained posture and movement
Love of privacy
Social avoidance and inhibition
Emotional restraint
Mental apprehension
Hypersensitive to pain
What is the problem with somatotypes?
correlation vs. causation
But, does highlight biological factors
What are types of self reports?
Interviews
Projective Assessments
psychodynamic
Questionnaires
Self-report
Personality Scales
Where are friendships?
Gender conforming vs. gender noncomforming
Tomboys and sissy boys
how does the exotic become erotic?
Gender conforming children feel different from opposite sex
Perceive them as different, unfamiliar and exotic
Gender noncomforming children feel different from same sex
Perceive them as different, unfamiliar and exotic,Feeling dissimilar, unfamiliar produces autonomic arousal
For boys - girls are yucky
For girls - boys are scary
But, for noncomformings, this autonomic arousal is associated with same sex,Whatever the source, the arousal is later transformed into erotic/romantic attraction
Misattribution of arousal (Schachter)
Can we predict homosexaulity?
66 gender-noncomforming vs. 56-conforming
Assessed at 7 years of age
Followed until early adulthood
Findings
75% of noncomforming were gay
4% of comforming were gay
What is the emphasis on personality?
Whole person
Individual motivations
Individual differences
What did hippocrates believe?
Dominance of one of four bodily fluids or humors
What did blood domince lead to?
Sanguine - blood
is accepting of life, greets life on its own terms with a certain joyousness, and is optimistic and looks for the good in others.
What did chloreic lead to?
Choleric - yellow bile
easily irritated. Explosions of anger, violent movements, and an overall sense of pessimism pervade this type. A very aggressive person would be called choleric.
What did melancholic lead to?
Melancholic - black bile.
This person is introspective, brooding, and sad. In other words, "melancholy".
What did plegmatic lead to?
Phlegmatic - phlegm
is the predominant fluid, is slow, lethargic and uninterested in life. This type makes few friends.
What somatotypes?
body types
What endomorphy? What temperment did this create?
Tendency towards plumpness
Soft and round and not suited to hard labor
“built for comfort, not for speed”
Personality Temperament = viscerotonia
Relaxed posture
Sociable and warm
Love of physical comfort
Emotionally even
Tolerant and complacent
Indiscriminant goodwill
What is mesomorphy? What temperment did it create?
Tendency towards muscularity
Predominance of muscle and bone
Hard and rectangular, tough
Personality Temperament = somatotonia
Assertive posture and movement
Love of physical adventure
Competitiveness and aggression
Bold directness of manner
Energetic need for physical exertion
Indifference to pain
What is ectomorphy? What trait did it lead to?
Tendency towards thinness
Predominance of skin and nervous tissue
Delicate, linear and Frail
Personality Temperament = cerebrotonia
Restrained posture and movement
Love of privacy
Social avoidance and inhibition
Emotional restraint
Mental apprehension
Hypersensitive to pain
What is the problem with somatotypes?
correlation vs. causation
But, does highlight biological factors
What are types of self reports?
Interviews
Projective Assessments
psychodynamic
Questionnaires
Self-report
Personality Scales
What are the types of interviews?
Types of interviews
Close-ended (yes or no)
Open-ended (what do you think……?)
Note, close-ended easier, but may prime meaningless information
What are projective measures?
Dreams and Free Associations
Projective Tests
Parapraxia - Freudian slips
Jokes
Accidents
What is parapraxia?
freudian slips
What is free association?
Free Association
Ludwig Borne The Art of Becoming an Original Writer in Three Days
Free associations reveal unconscious conflicts
Psychoanalysis - help person resolve these conflicts.
What is dream analysis?
Latent vs. manifest
Symbolism
What is the Rorschach Test?
Interpretation of neutral objects reveals unconscious wishes or desires.
Inkblot Pictures that are not supposed to mean anything
Assessor asks “What might this be?”
Coded assessment based on years of training
What are traits?
An enduring dispositions that is relatively stable over time and across situations Typically assessed through self-report
What are the two supertraits?
Extraversion/Introversion
Behavioral Tendencies
Outgoing and sociable vs. shy

Neurotocism/Stable
Emotional Stability
Ease or frequency with which person becomes upset or shy.
Describe extraverts?
Extraverts talk more and sooner than introverts when they meet someone for the first time.

Extraverts are drawn to occupations which involve dealing directly with other people.
likely to be in sales, nursing or teaching, whereas introverts are likely to prefer more solitary pursuits, such as artists, scientists, and engineers.
Extraverts behave much more impulsively than introverts and are willing to take many more risks.
extraverts gamble much more than introverts.
Extraverts are also more sexually active than introverts.
extraverts are more permissive in their sexual attitudes, confess to higher levels of sex drive and are less prone to anxiety and inhibitions about sex
Who is more biologically arousable?
introverts
What is up with neuroticism?
Highly neurotic men are more likely to complain about health problems and experience severe midlife crises.

Recent studies have shown that neuroticism (in either the husband or wife) is the greatest predictor of divorce or marital breakup.

Neuroticism is related to inappropriate and awkward social responding.
What is the big five?
Factor Analyses of Multiple Samples
Different items
Cross-cultural

Impressive consistency in Five Factors
But, disagreement about what to call them
What is extrversion?
Social vs Retiring
Fun loving vs. Sober
Affectionate vs. Reserved
Friendly vs. Aloof
Spontaneous vs. Inhibited
Talkative vs. Quiet
What is Neuroticism?
Worrying vs. Calm
Nervous vs. At east
High Strung vs. Relaxed
Insecure vs. Secure
Self-pitying vs. Self-satisfied
Vulnerable vs Hardy
What is agreeableness?
Good natured vs. Irritable
Soft hearted vs. Ruthless
Courteous vs. Rude
Forgiving vs. Vengeful
Sympathetic vs. Callous
Agreeable vs. Disagreeable
What is Conscientiousness>?
Conscientious vs. Negligent
Careful vs. Careless
Reliable vs. Undependable
Well-organized vs. Disorganized
Self-disciplined vs. Weak-willed
Persevering vs. Quitting
What openness to experience?
Original vs. Conventional
Imaginative vs. Down to Earth
Creative vs. Uncreative
Broad interests vs. Narrow interests
Complex vs. Simple

NOTE - also called Culture
What is sensation seeking?
Defined by the need for varied, novel, and complex sensations and experiences and the willingness to take physical and social risks for the sake of such experiences”

The key terms are the willingness to take risks and novelty-seeking
What are sensation seeking factors?
Thrill and adventure Seeking (TAS)
People who score high on this scale like to take physical risks

Experience Seeking (ES)
Reflect the pursuit of new experiences.

Disinhibition (DIS)
items described as a hedonistic pursuit of pleasure, so such things as drinking, parties, sex and gambling.

Boredom Susceptibility (BS)
an aversion to routine activities or work.
What are the finding for sensation seeking?
Greater variety of sexual experiences.
Increased variety and frequency
Greater use of recreational drugs
Especially cocaine
Alcohol use is related mostly to the DIS subscale.
Prefer spicy food
Especially crunchy food
What are more findings for sensation seeking?
Greater gambling
Engage in physically risky activities.
Engage in a variety of sporting events.
Volunteer for unusual psychological studies.
More impulsive than sociable in terms of extraversion
Socially like to keep their options open
Tendency to prefer mates of the same level of sensation seeking
If woman has higher score than man = divorce
Where does personality come from?
Biology, genetics
Early socialization
how does behavior influence personality?
All personality traits show genetic component
40-60% of variability
Evidence?
Twin studies
amazing similarities for MZ twins raised apart
Are siblings alike?
After controlling for genetic relatedness, siblings are no more alike than any two people plucked off the street
Correlations for adopted children raised in the same environment are essentially zero
Some correlation in early childhood, but it disappears over time
However, there are shared effects of the environment
Neighborhood peer groups
Why do siblings differ so much>?
Gene - Environment Interactions
Reactive Interaction
Evocative Interaction
Proactive Interaction
What are reactive interactions?
Different individuals exposed to the same environment, experience it, interpret it, and react to it differently.
Parents do not treat children equally
Birth order
Parental favorites?
Differential treatment based on sex
Small initial differences may become larger over time
What is evocative interaction?
Every individual evokes distinctive response from others.
Some children are easier
Difficult children elicit negative reactions
Parents work harder to control aggressive children
What is proactive interaction?
As children get older, they can move beyond the environments constructed by their parents and actively shape their own environments.
What happens with twins?
Because they are identical, reactive, evocative, and proactive are more similar.

This happens whether raised together or not!

Sometimes raised apart more similar than raised together
Parents work to make twins distinctive
how do genes affect personality?
Genes influence temperament
Biological basis of personality
Emotional or behavioral styles
Degree of reactivity to environment
How do certain gene polymorphisms predispose a person to an anxious temperament?
Human Studies
- chromosome 17 polymorphism
- those with one variant more anxious
amygdala response to fear faces
more likely to binge drink in college
What did they discover about infants early on abotu shyness?
Two general types
Inhibited - shy - 10-15% of infants
Uninhibited - outgoing 10-15% of infants
Rated as children 21 months, 4, 12, 18 years
Many children remain in the same category
What was unique about the dunedin study?
Prospective longitudinal study
No retrospective bias

Birth cohort
All SES included

Low attrition
96% participation at age 26!

Large sample
Can look at sex differences, SES differences
What did age three temperment predict if undercontrolled?
Undercontrolled
Impulsive, restless, negative bias
11% of sample (38% female)
Undercontrolled children had most problems at all ages
Fighting, lying, bullying, disobeying
assessed by parents and teachers
What did age three temperment predict if inhibited?
Inhibited type
Shy and withdrawn
8% of sample (60% female
Inhibited children showed internalizing problems
Worrying, crying easily, fussing
Especially during adolescence
Who is most likely to be kicked out of school?
Undercontrolled children most likely to be kicked out of school
also most likely to be unemployed

Psychiatric and Criminal Behavior
What were confident children like?
Confident
27% of sample (48% female)
Zealous, somewhat impulsive, but well-adjusted
What were reserved children like?
Reserved
15% of sample (52% female)
Timid, but not extremely so, mostly cautious
What were predictors of crime?
Predictor of crime
Undercontrol, parent changes, moves, single parent family
Predictor of violent crime
Undercontrol AND parent changes, moves
Does environment matter?
Impulsive kids more likely to be delinquents in bad neighborhoods.
No effect on non-impulsive kids (gene-environ interaction)
What was the effect of MAOA gene?
influences amount of MAO
MAO deactivates neurotransmitters (catecholamines, DA, NE, 5-HT)
MAOA gene implicated in emotionality
MAOA gene polymorphous
Compare boys with high vs. low MAO gene activity
What is big picture for temperment?
There are genetic effects on temperament
Temperament predicts behavioral and psychological outcomes
Family effects are modest
But, parent changes, single parent households put certain kids at risk for delinquency and crime
Maltreatment has greater influence on some
The environment matters
Low SES neighborhoods associated with problems for some kids (i.e., impulsive)
What are types of change?
Rank-Order Personality
Compared to peers
If everyone drinks less, this person still drinks the most

Group Level Change
Everyone becomes less sensation seeking

Individual Change
Some people change more than others
Can occur even when ranks stay the same
What happens as people age?
Clear evidence in US that people become more conscientious and less neurotic and extraverted in later life.
What about other cultures?
If consistent, suggests that personality change itself is under biological control?
What is the seeking motive?
Seeking Motive
Associated with failure to change
Things are bad, but not truly horrible
External barriers to change
Often friends and family
Ambivalence about change
Good and bad features about behavior
Part of personal identity
What is the escape motive?
Escape by moving
Moving allowed person to escape intolerable circumstances
But, maybe misattribute change to the move
Move for normal reasons
Change easier after move (Robbins’ vets)

Emphasis on the negative aspects of previous situation
Perhaps remembering previous situation as worse than it really was
Motivates maintenance of change
What helps lead to change?
Change in Self-Perception
Reports of greater personal insight
Leads to focus on costs of situation
Impossible to ignore self-destructive behavior
Makes change more salient
Increases intensity of motive to remain changed
Crystallization of discontent
Change in the meaning of the situation,Change in Self-Perception
Reports of greater personal insight
how do focal events maintain motivation?
Makes change more salient
Increases intensity of motive to remain changed

One woman quit eating chocolate after her mother died of breast cancer
Creates very powerful reason compared to changing behavior because of a few pounds
Eating chocolate now shows disrespect for mother’s memory
What is crytsallization of discontent?
Not all focal events were powerful
Touch of the flu
Waking up with a sore throat
Getting a new boss
Therapist raises price of therapy
What is the overall pattern of dissatisfaction?
Overall pattern of dissatisfaction
Ignore minor problems, but they mount up
“straw that breaks the back”
Once linked together, they emphasize stability and permanence of negative features
New focus on overall level of negativity
what happened with the scary shock test?
People predicted fewer than 1 in 1000 would go all the way to XXX
65% of men and women went all the way.
What do people often overlook?
People overlook the power of the situation
What do humanistic psychologgist have to say about free will?
Everything is a choice (with consequences)
Erich Fromm
Freedom scares people, so they escape from freedom
Automaton conformity
Act according to role or niche in society
Mindless bureaucrat
Even noncomformists adopt the noncomformist patterns of others
What happens in groups?
Groups act in ways that individuals do not
Riots
Soccer fans
Mob violence

The mob has its own personality and morals
Does not reflect morals of the individuals within the mob
People lose their sense of distinctiveness
what happens with deindividuation?
Occurs when people lose their sense of distinctiveness and an awareness for their actions.

Loss of sense of self, identity is as part of group

Become disinhibited
What is self regulation?
Regulation of self by the self to achieve goals
Fundamental goal: survive and reproduce

Requires ability to:
set goals and make plans
project self into future
monitor progress and detect errors
implement behavioral strategies
Inhibit impulses
What happens when self regulation fails?
Obesity, violence, unprotected sex, drinking and driving, etc.
What is the importance of self awareness for selfregulation?
Attend to personal values, goals, and plans
Monitor ongoing behavior and adjust as needed
Loss of self-awareness leads to self-regulation failure
What happens with deindividuation?
loss of self control, low level thinking,Focus on external cues,Focus on external cues,No long-term plans
how does boot camp deindividualize?
Strip away identity
Uniform, haircut, rank, serial number
Group identity - “God, marines, company, self”
Anonymous people killing anonymous victims
High arousal
Exercise, gunfire, yelling
Prepare for arousal of battlefield
What is common in warrior cultures?
Warrior cultures
Aggressive cultures wear masks
Anthropologists found 12 out 13 cultures identified as aggressors wore masks compared to 3 out of 10 cultures identified as non-aggressors.
What are the overall obedience studies finding?
Greatest shock when participant is anonymous
Greatest shock when diffusion of responsibility
Greatest shock when the victim is dehumanized
Who do we mistreat?
Ingroup-Outgroup
Categorization occurs automatically
Can be based on minimal cues (gender, race, age)

Ingroup Differentiation Bias
In-group members seem diverse

Outgroup Homogeneity Bias
Outgroup members all seem the same
How do stereotypes can alter how we perceive people?
Memory
Perception
Personal judgments
Theory of Mind?
What is ingroup bias?
We favor members of our in-group and derogate outgroup members
Realistic conflict theory
Compete over resources when they are scarce
Minimal Groups
Ingroup favoritism still occurs
Social Identity Theory
Ingroup differentiation
Personal motivation for positive social identity
Social identities derived from group identities
Favor our own group to protect our social identities
What happened at the stanford prison study?
1970s in Palo Alto
75 Volunteers for Prison Study
10 prisoners and 11 guards chosen
Most stable, mature, and social
Prisoners assigned numbers
Personal possessions taken, dressed in smocks
Had to learn 16 rules
Scheduled to last for two weeks
Lasted only six days
One prisoner lasted only 36 hours and left in hysteria
All prisoners showed signs of psychological disturbance
Guards became brutal tyrants
Harassed prisoners
Sadistic acts
how do we explain Abu Ghraib?
Ingroup-outgroup bias
Fear of the outgroup
Desensitization of outgroup
Deindividuation
Power of situation to shape behavior