Psychology 101
Review Sheet for Exam #3
Table of Contents
Personality
- Personality
- Definition
- Levels of Analysis
- Traits
- Definition
- Importance
- Five Factor Model
- Trait Stability
- Behavioral Genetics
- Modeling Variability
- Assessment Techniques
- Typical Correlations
- Understanding What's Inherited
Overview
It has been said that every person is "like all other people, some other people, and no other person." Personality psychology studies these similarities and differences.
Traits represent the fundamental unit of personality. Thousands of traits have been distinguished, but many contemporary psychologists believe these traits represent five broad dimensions of personality.
Behavioral geneticists study how genetic and environmental factors influence personality. Most traits show a strong genetic component, with environmental factors (and error) accounting for the remaining variance.
Specifics
- Define personality and identify three levels of analysis.
- Define traits and discuss three factors that influence trait development.
- Identify and describe the factors that comprise the Five Factor Model.
- Summarize research on trait stability, with respect to mean levels and rank-order stability and age.
- Be familiar with (a) the methods that behavioral geneticists use to study the influence of genes and the environment on personality, (b) the typical findings, and (c) what these findings reveal about the effects of growing up in the same household.
Freud 1
- Historical Context
- Victorian Era
- Theory's Breadth
- Freud's Influence
- Critique
- Sources of Controversy
- Psychoanalytic Theory
- Overview
- Personality
- Structure of the Mind
- Structure of Personality
- Id
- Ego
- Superego
Overview
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian physician who transformed the field of psychology from the study of sensation, perception, and learning to the study of psychological functioning (and dysfunction). Freud also transformed the way ordinary people think about psychological phenomena (particularly sexual drives and the role of the unconscious) and, along with Marx and Einstein, is considered one of the most significant theorists of the 20th century.
Although Freud's influence has been vast, his theory and methods have been subject to a great deal of criticism. Many of these criticisms are fair by today's standards, but they are less compelling when the theory is judged in the context in which it was developed.
At its core, psychoanalytic theory is a theory of psychological conflict among primitive, animalistic desires, and the need to accommodate these desires to environmental realities and moral imperatives. These competing elements exist within different regions of the mind, and the way people manage this conflict comprises their personality.
Specifics
- Critique Freud's theory in terms of the three criteria used to evaluate theories.
- Be familiar with at least three things people commonly believe that stem from Freud's theory (i.e., dreams sometimes reveal deep-seated conflicts and desires).
- Know three common criticisms of Freud's theory, and possible rebuttals to these criticisms.
- Know Freud's ideas about the structure of the mind, their contents, and how he used an "iceberg analogy" to characterize their size and importance.
- Distinguish three components of personality, including their function, corresponding brain regions, and methods (including distinctions between the primary process and secondary process thinking).
Freud 2
- Ego Strength
- Balance and Anxiety
- Traits associated with an ineffectual ego
- Traits associated with an ineffectual superego
- Personality Development
- Psychosexual Stages
- Oedipus Complex
- Superego Development
- Sex Differences
Overview
The Id is a constant force, but people vary with respect to the power and effectiveness of their ego and superego, with particular traits associated with particular strengths and deficiencies.
In addition to providing a theory of personality structure and functioning, Freud also offered a theory of personality development. This aspect of the theory is highly controversial. Freud believed that people start out capable of deriving sexual (sensory) pleasure from any part of the body and come, through socialization, to derive sexual (sensory) pleasure from intercourse with a member of the opposite sex. According to Freud, this transformation occurs as people move through five psychosexual stages of development.
Specifics
- Describe "ego strength", know how it influences anxiety, and describe different traits that characterize people with exceptionally weak or strong egos and superegos.
- Know what is meant by the term polymorphously perverse and the role it plays in Freud's theory of personality development.
- Describe five stages of psychosexual development, including their approximate ages, erogenous zones, modes of resolution, and fixations.
- Describe the Oedipus Complex and the role it plays in superego development among boys and girls.
Identity and Attachment
- Attachment
- Harlow
- Bowlby
- Strange Situation
- Attachment Styles
- Erikson Erikson
- Biography
- 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development
- Adolescent Identity Crisis
Overview
Freud argued that early childhood experiences shape personality development. In this lecture, we discussed two other research areas that share this perspective: Attachment theory and Erikson's model of psychosocial development. Attachment theory contends that the bond we form with our primary caregivers during the first year of life affects the trust and security we experience with others throughout life. Erikson's model echoes this belief, also emphasizing that personality continues to develop as individuals confront and master age-appropriate life tasks.
Specifics
- Describe Hull's theory of attachment bonds, and know how Harlow's work tested it.
- Discuss Bowlby's position during WWII and his ideas about the function of attachment bonds and their consequences for adulthood.
- Describe the "Strange Situation" and identity three attachment styles it can identify, including the parenting styles that are thought to produce them and the way they manifest themselves in adult, romantic relationships.
- Be familiar with Erikson's 8 stage theory of psychosocial development, including comparisons with Freud's psychosexual model.
- Describe the "adolescent identity crisis" and identify three commitments that are needed to resolve it.
Personality
- How do neoanalytic and object relations theories depart from and build on Freudian theory?
- What is meant by object relations? Describe three adult attachment styles.
- What are personal constructs, and how do they account for personality differences?
- Describe the roles of self-consistency, congruence, threat, and conditions of worth in Rogers's self theory.
- How does self-esteem develop? Describe the roles of self-verification and self-enhancement as motivational forces.
- What biological factors underlie Eysenck's dimensions of Extraversion and Stability?
- What are the major temperament factors? What underlies the inhibited behavior pattern?
- Describe the major features of social-cognitive theories and the importance of reciprocal determinism.
- How does the concept of behavioral signatures help reconcile the seeming paradox of personality coherence and behavioral inconsistency?
- How do projective tests differ from objective measures? Describe and compare the Rorschach and the TAT.
- How useful is criminal profiling?
Social 1
- Social Psychology
- Definition
- Principal Principles
- First Impressions
- Primacy Effects
- Behavioral Confirmation Effects
- Attractiveness
- Causal Attributions
- Definition
- Why why matters
- Heider's Theory
Overview
Social psychology is the scientific study of social life. The field is very broad and covers virtually all behaviors of an interpersonal nature, from altruism to violence. In this lecture I introduced the field, noting that social psychologists believe a person's behavior depends on what seems to be, rather than what is. Formally, this assumption is known as a phenomenological perspective. We then discussed two central topics in the field: (a) The process by which we form a first impression of a person and (b) the process by which we decide why people behave the way they do.
Specifics
- Define social psychology and identify its principal principles.
- Identify three factors that influence first impressions.
- Know what is meant by the term "primacy effect" in impression formation and be familiar with two reasons why it is thought to occur.
- Know the "what is beautiful is good" stereotype, and be familiar with how the perceived attractiveness of a face is influenced by the "averageness" of facial features and facial symmetry.
- Be familiar with behavioral confirmation effects and the process by which people can inadvertently confirm their opinion of others.
- Know Heider's "formula" for describing perceived behavior, and distinguish dispositional causes from situational ones.
Social 2
- Fundamental Attribution Error
- Definition
- Qualifications
- Attitudes
- Definition
- Three Components
- Attitude Formation
- Cognitive Dissonance Theory
- Main Assumptions
- Representative Research
Overview
When explaining behavior, people tend to assume that dispositional causes are more important than situational ones. This tendency is known as the fundamental attribution error.
Attitudes are evaluative reactions to people, objects, or issues. They are made up of three components that usually fit together in a psychologically balanced way. As a result, attitudes can be formed in a variety of ways.
People do not always act in accordance with their beliefs and feelings, however. According to Leon Festinger, these discrepancies create an aversive motivational state called cognitive dissonance. People resolve dissonance in one of three ways, choosing the easiest option.
Specifics
- Define the fundamental attribution error and identity three qualifications to it.
- Define attitudes and identify three components that comprise them.
- Be familiar with emotional theories of attitude formation, and know two examples.
- Define cognitive dissonance and describe three ways it can be reduced.
- Be familiar with the procedures and findings of Festinger and Carlsmith's (1959) study of cognitive dissonance.
Social 3
- Prejudice
- Defined
- Modern Prejudice
- Sources of Prejudice
- Reducing Prejudice
- Aggression
- Definition
- Origins
- Media Violence and Aggression
Overview
Prejudice is an attitude toward a group and its members. By definition, prejudice involves making overgeneralizations. Instead of treating people as individuals, we treat them as (interchangeable) group members, glossing over or ignoring their differences.
Prejudice has declined in the last 60 years; people's attitudes toward prejudice itself have changed as well, with most people believing it is wrong to be narrow-minded. Despite these advances, prejudice still exists, manifesting itself in more subtle and covert ways than in days gone by. Modern prejudice (as it is known) reveals itself when people are not monitoring their actions or can justify, excuse, or rationalize their bigotry.
Intergroup contact can reduce prejudice, provided four conditions are met. These conditions do not eliminate prejudice, but they do lead to improvements.
Within social psychology, aggression is a voluntary behavior intended to hurt another person. There are many different theories about the origins of aggression, but they fall into two camps: Those who argue that aggression is innate (i.e., part of human nature), and those who argue that it is either learned or the result of biological mistakes (i.e., a tumor or damage to some area of the brain).
Many psychologists believe that media violence promotes aggression, but the research on this point is inconclusive. The ready availability of guns and a culture that promotes their use are more likely causes of violence.
Specifics
- Define prejudice and identity its three components.
- Discuss "modern prejudice" and identify two ways it is measured, including the procedures and findings of the study discussed in class by Kleck and others.
- Contrast realistic group conflict theory and Tajfel's motivational model, and be familiar with Tajfel's research and findings using the Minimal Intergroup Procedure.
- Be familiar with four factors that are necessary (though not sufficient) if contact is to reduce prejudice.
- Define aggression and discuss its origins with respect to whether it is learned or innate.
- Identify three research strategies (and their respective findings) relevant to the association between media violence and aggression.
Social 4
- Milgram's Study of Obedience
- Milgram's Background
- Experimental Procedures
- Experimental Findings
- Milgram's Interpretation
- My Interpretation
Overview
Stanley Milgram conducted social psychology's best known experiment. The study revealed an alarming tendency for ordinary people to commit violence under the shroud of legitimacy. Whether these findings are due to obedience or aggression is debatable, but either way they provide a disturbing view of human nature and an exceptionally vivid testament to the power of the experimental situation Milgram created.
Specifics
- Be familiar with Milgram's methods and findings, and his interpretation of his data.
- Be familiar with my interpretation of his findings and the evidence that supports it.
Social Psychology
- Describe how communicator, message, and audience characteristics affect the persuasion process
- Describe situational factors that influence conformity to the group. When will minority influence be strongest?
- Identify four common compliance techniques and explain how they work.
- Describe social loafing, social compensation, and the causes and consequences of group polarization and groupthink.
- Describe deindividuation, its main cause, and how conditions in the Stanford prison study may have fostered it.
- Discuss how proximity, mere exposure, similarity, and beauty influence initial attraction.
- Based on social exchange theory, what factors determine whether a relationship will be satisfying and will continue?
- Contrast evolutionary and sociocultural explanations for sex differences in mate preferences.
- How is implicit prejudice measured? Describe cognitive and motivational roots of prejudice.
- How do self-fulfilling prophecies and stereotype threat perpetuate prejudice? How can prejudice be reduced?
- Discuss evolutionary, social learning, and empathy-altruism explanations for helping behavior.
Clinical 1
- Clinical Psychology
- Definition
- Symptoms & Syndromes
- Criteria
- Prevalence
- Origins
- Historical
- Contemporary
- Vulnerability-Stress Model
- Cultural Considerations
- Classifications
- Why classify
- DSM-IV-TR
- Multi-Axial Classification
- Major Disorders
- Comorbidity
- Labeling Liabilities
Overview
Most people think of psychology as the study of psychological disorders, yet only one area of psychology, clinical psychology, focuses on the study of psychopathology. In this lecture, I introduced the field of clinical psychology, emphasizing the classification and description of psychological disorders.
Specifics
- Identity 3 criteria used to determine whether a behavior is classified as a psychopathology.
- Be familiar with historical and contemporary views of psychopathologies, including the bio-psycho-social model and the vulnerability-stress model.
- Describe 2 ways cultures influence the prevalence and manifestation of psychological disorders.
- Know what DSM-IV-TR is, and how it uses a multi-axial system to classify psychological disorders.
- Describe 5 major psychopathologies, and know what is meant by comorbidity.
- What are the dangers involved in labeling a behavior as "pathological?">
Clinical 2
- Anxiety
- Syndrome
- Prevalence
- Varieties
- Origins
- Mood Disorders
- Depression
- Syndrome
- Bipolar
- Course
- Prevalence
- Origins
Overview
Anxiety and mood disorders are the most common forms of psychological distress. In this lecture, we reviewed their nature, subtypes, and origins.
Specifics
- Identify 4 symptoms of anxiety.
- Be familiar with 5 anxiety disorders, including their nature and course.
- Compare Freud's view of anxiety with a biological model.
- Identify 8 symptoms of depression.
- Distinguish major depression disorder and dysthymia in terms of their severity, symptoms, and course, and know how many symptoms are needed for the diagnosis of each disorder.
- Define bipolar disorder and hypomania, and compare them with unipolar depression in terms of course, prevalence, and treatment.
- Be familiar with biological, psychological, and environmental causes of depression mood disorders, and the drugs that are currently used to treat them.
Clinical 3
- Schizophrenia
- Distortions
- Subtypes
- Symptom Categories
- Prognosis and Prevalence
- Heritability
- Origins
- Personality Disorders
- Defined
- Antisocial Personality Disorder
- Borderline Personality Disorder
Overview
Schizophrenia is a severe psychological disorder, characterized by deficits in five areas of functioning. Although it is relatively rare, many people diagnosed with schizophrenia require hospitalization and never fully recover.
Personality disorders, which affect ~12% of the population, are chronic deficits in social and behavioral functioning. These disorders fall into three clusters.
Specifics
- Describe three kinds of somatoform disorders. What causal factors might be involved?
- What is the central feature of dissociative disorders? Describe the three major dissociative disorders.
- How are sociocultural factors related to prevalence, manifestations, and sex differences in depression?
- What are the major motives and risk factors for suicide? Describe four guidelines for helping a suicidal person.
- Describe the major characteristics of the antisocial personality disorder.
- How do biological, psychoanalytic, and behavioral theorists account for antisocial personality disorder?
- How might the brain differences between successful and unsuccessful psychopaths relate to their behavior?
- Describe the major features of BPD and the hypothesized causes of the disorder.
- Describe the major features and causal factors in ADHD and autistic disorder, as well as implications for adult functioning.
Therapy 1
- Psychotherapy
- Definition
- Psychotherapists
- Major Approaches
- Behavior Therapies
- Exposure Therapy
- Systematic Desensitization
- Aversion Therapies
- Behavior Modification
- Token Economy
- Psychopharmacology
- Varieties
- Criticisms
- Integrative Eclecticism
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Overview
Most psychologists are involved with the treatment of psychological distress. Although there are several approaches to psychotherapy, none has proven universally more effective than another. Instead, each approach is effective in treating certain disorders, with some approaches being broader than others. For this reason, most therapists draw on a range of theoretical perspectives when treating clients.
Specifics
- Define psychotherapy and distinguish 3 types of psychotherapists (with respect to their respective advanced degrees).
- Identify 5 major approaches to psychotherapy.
- Be familiar with exposure therapy, including its aims, basis in learning theory, and 3 ways people can confront an anxiety-provoking stimulus in the context of therapy.
- Be able to recognize an “aversion therapy” and know what they aim to do and how they differ from exposure therapies.
- Define a token economy and know what aspect of learning it uses to create behavioral change.
- Be familiar with the drugs that are used to treat five psychopathologies, and know what neurotransmitters they affect.
- Know what is meant by the term “integrative eclecticism” and discuss its relevance to dialectical behavior therapy.
Therapy 2
- Psychoanalysis
- Techniques
- Contemporary Psychoanalysis
- Humanistic Therapies
- Assumptions
- Rogerian Psychotherapy
- Evaluating Psychotherapies
- Empirical Findings
- Commonalities
Overview
For many years, the terms "psychotherapy" and "psychoanalysis" were synonymous, as Freud's theory was the major approach to treating psychological disorders. This is much less true today, in part because Freud's approach is time-consuming and costly. In this lecture, we discussed his approach, and reviewed newer approaches, including humanistic therapies.
Specifics
- Know the aims of psychoanalysis and the five techniques used to achieve these aims.
- Know why Freud referred to dreams as the "royal road to the unconscious," distinguish the manifest and latent content of a dream, and know why dreams are always disguised according to Freud's theory.
- Be familiar with the central assumptions of humanistic therapies, and the role that unconditional positive regard plays in Roger's theory.
- Know what is meant by "the Dodo verdict" and identify three factors common to almost all psychotherapies.
- How is mindfulness training being utilized in MBSR, MDRP, ACT, and DBT?
- What principles underlie family and marital therapy? What is the importance of acceptance in marital therapy?
- What barriers to therapy exist for ethnic minorities? What characteristics are found in culturally competent and gender-sensitive therapists?
- How do antianxiety drugs work, and how effective are they? Do they have any drawbacks?
- How do antidepressant drugs achieve their effects? What concerns have been raised about them?
- Which disorders do and do not respond favorably to ECT and psychosurgery? What are their drawbacks?
- What is the rationale for deinstitutionalization? What prevents the achievement of its goals?
- What therapeutic issues exist in managed-care environments?
- Describe two major approaches to prevention, and provide an example of each.
- Ainsworth, Mary
- Asch, Solomon
- Beck, Aaron
- Bowlby, John
- Darley & Latané
- Ellis, Albert
- Erikson, Erik
- Festinger, Leon
- Freud, Sigmund
- Harlow, Harry
- Heider, Fritz
- Linehan, Marsha
- Milgram, Stanley
- Rogers, Carl
- Taylor, Shelley