Individuals and Society- MCAT prep PDF

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Psychology summary for Medical College Admission Test or MCAT...

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"Individuals and Society" Monday, January 8, 2018

8:40 PM

"Self-Concept, Self-Identity, and Social identity" • • • • • •

"Self-Esteem, Self-Efficacy, and Locus of Control"

Self-concept is how someone perceives themselves Self-concept consists into two sections: Existential and Categorical Existential is to be separated and distant from others Existential also means awareness in constancy Once a person is aware of an existential-self, then they can move on to their categorical-self Categorical-self comes by awareness of one-self and his surroundings. It is when a person categorizes themselves into a group. For instance age, gender, skills, size, etc. • Think of this as a toddler growing into a child. The baby will first become aware of his existence, and later he will become aware of others existence and similarities. • Carl Rogers was a humanistic and he believed we have three components in the self-concept. Those are self-image, self-esteem, and ideal-self. To develop these three concept, we form social-identity which is divided into personal identity and social identity. • In a summary: CATEGORIZE → IDENTIFICATION (behave+acting) → COMPARISON

" Overview of Theories of Development" • Development is a series of age related changes that happen over the course of a life span. • Sigmund Freud proposed psychosexual theory of development which states that personality develops in childhood. • Erikson proposed the psychosocial development theory which stated that personality occurs through one's entire lifespan. • Lev Vykotsky proposed the socio-cultural development theory which states children learn actively thru hands-on experiences. • Lawrence Kohlberg proposed the moral development theory which refers to how we develop our moral throughout our life. • Note: Freud and Erikson theories refers to personality • Note: Vykotsky and Kohlberg theories refers to cognition

• Self-esteem is the respect one has for self. • Self-efficacy is the belief in one's capability to succeed in a certain situation. An strong sense of self-efficacy consists of people who view challenge problems as challenges that has to be mastered, they also develop strong interests in the activities they participate, the form a strong sense of commitment to their interest, and they also recover quickly from disappointments. Hence: Recover Interests Strong Enjoy • People with a weak sense of self-efficacy tend to avoid challenged tasks, believe these difficult task are beyond their capability, focus on personal failings, and quickly lose confidence and abilities. Hence: Fail Avoid Lose Lack • To know whether someone has a strong or weak self -efficacy, four points most be considered. First, the person contains mastery of expenence or has performed a task successfully. Second, the person has social modeling or someone similar to themselves who happens to be successful. Third, a person has social persuasion or hears frequently encouraging words from others. Fourth, a person has psychological responses or has learn from difficult times so much that developed to have a strong self -efficacy. • Remember: a person with low self-esteem can have high self-efficacy. For example, perfectionists are a case. • Locus control is the extent in where people perceived control of their lives. There are two types: internal and external • An internal locus of control is when a person believes he or she can influence events and their outcome • An external locus of control is when a person believes external forces influence events an their outcome.

"Freud's psychosexual development"

"Erikson's psychosocial development"

"Vygotsky Sociocultural Development" "Kohlberg Moral Development"

Libido: a natural energy source that fuels the mechanism of the mind Fixation: the persistence of anachronistic natural sexual traits

A successfully completed stage makes a positive personality (virtue), and a negative personality is the result of an uncompleted stage.

Mental functions are ways of learning. They change as we develop. -More knowledgeable than other or MKO is a teacher; ex: parents. -Zone of proximal development is the part where the most sensitive instruction is given. -Inner speech is an important key in learning and developing. It helps create thought and give us the ability to think for ourselves.

"Social Influences" • Imitation is one of the most basic form of human behavior. • Andrew Meltzoff published a study that questioned the theory of understanding ourselves and others happens a few month after birth. He believed is imitation rather than understanding. • Neuroscientist have found that when a person imitates another person, the same firing neurons are happening in both people's bodies. • Social norms provide order and it gives us a role in society which we tend to use to identify ourselves. We imitate roles in society.

"Attribution Theory - Basic Covariation" • Attribution theory help us find explanations for the behaviors of others. This theory analyses internal vs. external values. • Internal factors can happen when an individual's behavior is consistent thru time. For example, a friend who cancels every time and makes excuses; you can assume the conflict is internal. • External factors happen when an individual's behavior ar random and unique. For example, a friend who is supper nice but out of nowhere becomes mad with a delivery order; you can assume the conflict is external. This can be also seen when a group of people behave exactly the same way; for example, a group of employees were late for their shift at 7 am; you can assume the conflict is external

"Attribution Theory - Attribution error and culture" • Fundamental attribution error refers to when people (like doctors) tend to assume individual's conflicts are caused because by their internal problems. For example, assuming an obsessed patient put themselves in their position. It is important to recognize this error when diagnosing. • Also, fundamental attribution error refers to when we diagnose our own behavior, we tend

People goes thru a series of moral stage (in order) but not all people reach the last stage. Heinz dilemma refers to a poor person steeling medicine to save someone's life. 1. Pre-Moral stage deals with children. A child sees rules as unbreakable and moral or they can understand there is more than one point of view to the situation.

2. Conventional stage deals with teenager and their conformity. People care about what others think, so the answer to the dilemma will come from what outsiders think is right. Also, cares about law and order, so judgment concerns what's good in societies point of view. 3. Post-conventional stage refers to when people realize laws can change and they are not always right. This stage also involves the universal ethical principal in where people develop their own morals which may or may not fit the law.

"George Herbert Mead - The I and the Me" • Sociologists Charles Cooley and George Herbert Mead thought that other people coul play a significant role in how we view ourselves. However they differ in how that mi happen. • Cooley thought that a person who interacts within our lifespan can influence our self identity in some way or another. • Mead thought that only certain people can influence our perception of ourselves and only during certain periods of time. Also, he thought that this influence can change across the lifespan. For example, he thought children focus on themselves and do not pay attention to what others think of them; that can also be very familiar to Piaget's concept of egocentrism. However, that idea of self -focus changes as people grow up Mead explained that thru three stages: the preparatory stage, the play stage, and the game stage. • In the preparatory stage children interact with others through imitation. (play with cleaning supplies, dolls, etc.) • In the play stage children become more aware of the social relationships. (play as parents, doctors, superheroes, etc.) • In game stage children's become to consider attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors from individuals who are closest to them. They also understand people can have more than one role. As a result, children start to become more concerned about how they behave affront of others. At this stage, children formulate the "I" and the "Me". Where the "M is a social-self and the "I" is a response to social-self.

"Charles Cooley-Looking glass self" • Socialization describes the process by which people learn the attitudes, values, and behaviors that are appropriate and expected by their culture and community. This is typically learnt by the interactions with the people we are surrounded by. Those peop can be our family, teachers, and many other people around us including those in TV. • Charles Cooley used the term of looking glass self in order to describe this process. H

• Fundamental attribution error refers to when people (like doctors) tend to assume individual's conflicts are caused because by their internal problems. For example, assuming an obsessed patient put themselves in their position. It is important to recognize this error when diagnosing. • Also, fundamental attribution error refers to when we diagnose our own behavior, we tend to think is because external problems instead of personal problems. Actor - observer bias is when an individual act as a victim to external circumstances.

• Fundamental attribution errors happen more frequently in individualistic societies such as North American and European cultures because they place immense emphasis on individual achievements and independence. Success Failure Individualistic Cultures (Ex: Europe and North America)

-Over attribution of success in internal factors

Collectivist Cultures (Ex: Africa and Asia)

-Over attribute success in external -Blames mainly internal factors factors

-Blames mainly external factors

• Self-Serving bias is made in order to protect and enhance our own self-esteem. This bias is more common in individualistic societies.

"Stigma - Social and Self" • Social stigma is the really extreme disapproval and discrediting of an individual by society. • Stigma comes in two different forms: social and self. • Social stigma is associated with stereotypes, prejudices, and discrimination. It can occur when people make assumptions based on a certain group. For example, a doctor making assumptions on a patient based on their popular stigma. Another example, the stigma of: mentally ill patients are violent. • Self-stigma can happen by internalization of social stigma. When individuals believe the stigmas and relate them to themselves, they feel rejected by society to the point they may become denial about their truthful self and become depressed or other mental illness. • Stigma can occur amongst interactions of one-self, family, society, and media.

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"Social Perception - Primacy recency" • First impression tend to be long because they last a long time, strong because they are hard to change, and easy to build upon because it almost impossible not to make them. This is called the primacy bias. • The most recent action is important for perception as well. This is called the recency bias • Social impression is a combination of these two examples (first and recent impression). In general, people formulate their impressions based in what is most rememberable towards themselves.

• Socialization describes the process by which people learn the attitudes, values, and behaviors that are appropriate and expected by their culture and community. This is typically learnt by the interactions with the people we are surrounded by. Those peop can be our family, teachers, and many other people around us including those in TV. • Charles Cooley used the term of looking glass self in order to describe this process. H theorized that our self-identity comes, not only from our perspective, but also from th perception we are being perceived by others. • Cooley included three steps in his analysis: First, we imagine how we must appear to others. Second, we imagine how they must evaluate us. Third, we develop feeling abo ourselves based on our impressions of their evaluation and observation.

"Stereotypes, stereotype threat and self-fulfilling prophecies" • Stereotyping means attribution of thoughts and cognitions to a group of individuals. In other words, overgeneralizing a group of individuals. • Disadvantages of stereotyping is that they are inaccurate . • Advantages of stereotyping is that allows us to rapidly assess large amount of social information. • Stereotype threat refers to when the exposure of a negative stereotype causes a decre in the performance of an individual. • Also, stereotypes can affect people who believe in them by changing their emotions towards whoever is stereotyped and even changing their actions towards whoever is stereotyped. In other words, stereotype has an affective component which refers to prejudice, and it has a behavioral component which refers to discrimination. • Also! Stereotypes and perceptions of others has a circular movement where it might come back towards you! For example if you dislike someone and avoid them because you think they are rude, then that person will avoid you because they think you are ru which will later cause you to think you were right in the first place and they are in fac rude. This circle will continuously feedback itself. Self -fulfilling prophecy refers to th cycle of believing and acting on stereotypes.

"Emotion and Cognition in Prejudice" • Prejudice is made of different components. The first being a fundamental underlying thought or overgeneralized belief which is often known as cognition or stereotypes. T second component of prejudice is that carries an emotional component such as anger, dislike, etc. The third component is a behavioral component which causes to act according to the prejudice, or otherwise known as discrimination. • Stereotype → Discrimination • There is a type of personality that it is more open to prejudice. That personality is called: Authoritarian Personality. You can think of this type of personality as militaristic in some ways because they tend to listen to their superiors (obedient), they don't have much sympathy for people who are in an inferior situation (oppressive). Also, they are rigid thinkers and inflexible with their viewpoints. This personality is often created under a lot of disciplining when growing up. However, people with authoritarian personality use prejudice to help them protect their ego and confront the unacceptable aspects of themselves. • The Frustration Aggression Hypothesis: However, many scholars do not agree that prejudice has to do with personalities. Some believe it has to do with emotions such a frustration. Frustration turns into aggressive components. However, sometimes peopl restrain aggression. For example, think of someone being upset to [parents, employer teacher, whoever is the authority] but they cannot show their frustration to those peop so they go and show that anger to others [typically people who are inferior]. • Relative Deprivation Hypothesis suggest that people become very frustrated when the are deprived of something they think they are entitled to. Relative deprivation refers t the difference between our expected future and actual future. When the expectations not fulfilled a collective unrest happens which upsurge in prejudice and discriminatio

"Discrimination Individual vs. Institutional" • Discrimination is differential treatment and harmful actions against minorities. Key word: ACTION • Discrimination can occur under many factors including race, age, religion, etc. And i can occur under an individual level as well as an institutional level. • Individual discrimination refers to when an individual takes personal actions against a minority group. For example, a professor not allowing women to enter his classroom. • Institutional discrimination refers to when an organization takes actions against a minority group. For example, public schools not allowing African Americans to enrol • Unintentional discrimination can occur by side -effect discrimination. This explains ho institutions can influence others negatively. For example, if a court releases an unjust verdict for a citizen, this may get him/ her troubles on finding future jobs. • Unintentional discrimination can also occur by past-in-present discrimination which explains how things that have been done in the past can have consequences in the future. For example, African American students are still discriminated against when they are enroll in integrated schools since they were segregated in past schools. You c see how past laws still influence the future as well as the present.

"Social Perception - The Halo Effect" • The Halo Effect refers to how we make perceptions in people's skills based on our perception of them. For example, if we have a good perception of someone, then we think their abilities are overly good, and we think their disabilities are nonexistent; in other words, we put a halo on them and think they are perfect. Think of celebrities, gods, etc. • This halo effect normally happens to people who are attractive and charismatic. (likable) • On the contrary, the devil effect happens if we have a bad perception towards an individual. For example, we exaggerate their mistakes if we don't like them.

"Social Perception - The Just World" • The just world hypotheses relates good events to good behavior, and bad events to bad behavior. In other words, if an individual does good, then good thing will happen to that individual. • Obviously, the just world hypothesis is not realistic because people are not always rewarded/punished for their actions. What really happens with this hypothesis is that societies will believe people who are in a bad position are there because of their own action. As well, they will believe those who are in a good position are there because of their good actions. • Events happen because of personal reasons, external reason, or any combination in between. The just world hypothesis only focus on personal reasons.

"Harlow Monkey Experiments" • The strong bond between mother and child is known to scientists as "attachment". • The Harlow Monkey Experiment is an experiment were baby monkeys were detached form

"Prejudice and discrimination based on race, ethnicity, power, social cla and prestige" • Race: Prejudice and discrimination can occur based on people skin color and other genetic aspects. However, it is limited to other genetic aspects such as eye colors. • Ethnicity: It can also occur based on ethnical backgrounds such as nationalities and religion. • Power: It also occurs against people of different political views, economical background, minority groups, and even personal preferences as simple as where a person goes out to eat lunch. • Social class: it also occurs under a hierarchy of social status where those on top or bottom believe they are there because of physical or psychological trails that the othe group lack. This is called the Just World Phenomenon. • Prestige: It often refers to occupations, and it occurs between dominant group membe and less dominant group members.

"Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism in group and out group" • Ethnocentrism refers to when people are quickly to judge different culture's traditions and norm based on the views from their culture. In other words, judging ones culture be superior than other cultures. • Cultural relativism means that there is no right or wrong but different cultures who ar themselves valid and equal. • Group polarization is when a group makes decisions that are more extreme than any o

between. The just world hypothesis only focus on personal reasons.

"Harlow Monkey Experiments" • The strong bond between mother and child is known to scientists as "attachment". • The Harlow Monkey Experiment is an experiment were baby monkeys were detached fo...