Personality psych test 4 PDF

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Personality Psych Test 4 study guide for Dr. Whiting...

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Susan Cain Ted talk on the Power of Introverts:  Cultural bias towards extraversion  Quiet revolution manifesto- solitude is a catalyst of innovation  Introversion is about how you respond to stimulation (including social); introverts feel more capable in quiet and low key environments  Our most important institutions are designed for extroverts who need high stimulation (ex. In school desks now in pods instead of rows, group projects)  Introverts get better grades but teachers see extrovert as model student  Introverts passed over for leadership positions even though they have been proven to be better leaders because they allow others to go their own direction  Introvert/extrovert spectrum  Solitude is crucial ingredient to creativity  In major religions, leaders go off alone and then have epiphanies  Groups instinctively follow leaders’ opinions even though they are not always the best idea; we should all go off on our own, get our own ideas, and then come to group and discuss  Used to live in culture of character but in 20th century moved to culture of personality  1) Stop madness for constant group work (we need more privacy, freedom, autonomy), 2) go to the wilderness and have your own revelations 3) take a look at what is inside your suitcase and why you put it there, and occasionally open it up for people to see Chp. 16- Sex, Gender, and Personality Sex- refers to biological condition of being a man or a woman Gender- more the social interpretation of what it means to be a man or woman; can change over time and differ from culture to culture     

People worried that if difference is found between genders, may be used to keep women out of politics (concerned w/ political implications of findings of sex differences) Some worried they will foster gender stereotypes, oppress women, or are concerned with the practical implications of sex differences for their everyday lives Some argue that differences reflect gender stereotypes; any differences that exist are because of bias of researcher Some argue that we have to not pretend that gender differences don’t exist, and that scientific psychology and social change will be impossible without coming to terms w/ the real sex differences that exist Sex differences: average differences between men and women on characteristics like height, body fat distribution, or personality characteristics w/ no prejudgment about the cause of the difference

Before 1973, common practice in psych to use only male participants 1974 two researchers: Eleanor Mccoby and Carol Jacklyn

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Published Psychology of Sex Differences Reviewed hundreds of studies that drew many conclusions about how men and women differ Found that men were more aggressive than women but other than that overall differences very trivial By 1992 fed gov’t required that both genders needed to be represented in research Psych journals changed their reporting practices and started to require authors to calculate and report sex differences Research has developed more precise quantitative procedures like metaanalysis (summarizing findings of large numbers of individual studies and measures how large difference between studies is; known as effect size) Effect size (d); d of .5 is ½ standard deviation, d of 1 is 1 SD, d of .25 is ¼ of an SD .2 or -.2 is small effect size, -.5 or .5 is medium, .8 or -.8 is large positive d statistic means men higher in trait and negative means women are higher d statistic of -0.04 in GPA in college (barely different) large effect sizes don’t mean much about individual differences

5 Factor Model (research study on the traits of 5 factor model) Extraversion (d=.15) Subscale: Extraversion-Assertiveness (d=.50); men tend to be higher on this because they tend to be more assertive, in group setting may talk more, talk over women Agreeableness – kind, sympathetic, warm (found small to medium effect size) Subscale: tender-mindedness (d= -.97); nurturing towards others, show empathy - Smiling behavior (d= -.6); made leap that smiling behavior correlated with agreeableness, but also found in people of lower status towards people of higher status (could be related to dominance and submission on a social level) Why differences exist: Socialization Theory- boys and girls become diff because they receive social reinforcement by parents, teachers, and media about what it means to be masculine or feminine - In accordance to Bandura’s Social Learning Theory: we learn by observing behaviors in others - Doesn’t explain why cultures raise girls to be more sexually restrained, more nurturing than boys - Becomes chicken and egg thing; are parents socializing children in sex linked ways or are children eliciting in their parents cues for sex linked behaviors - Question of direction of effects: whether parents are socializing children into sex-linked ways or whether children are eliciting their parents’ behavior to correspond to their existing sex-linked preferences - Provides no account of the origins of differential parental socialization practices

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Social role theory- sex differences originate because men and women are distributed differently into different occupational and family roles; fails to account for origins of sex-linked roles, who assigns them? Hormone Theory- argues that differences between men and women exist because of the influences of hormones - after puberty testosterone circulated 10 times higher in men than women - women’s testosterone peaks right before ovulation - testosterone relates to sexual urges and sex drive - higher testosterone levels associated with greater dominance and aggression in both sexes - sexual desire linked to levels of circulating testosterone in women - men have weekly, monthly, and seasonal peaks - sexual arousal can result in increase in testosterone - hormone levels and behavior are bidirectional (both can influence each other) - still doesn’t explain why it’s different in men and women Evolutionary Theory- looks at question from standpoint of adaptive problems (any problem that needs to be solved for our species to survive and reproduce) - women and men have to adapt differently - sexes differ in domains in which men and women have confronted different adaptive challenges, like in domains of mating and sexuality - women have evolved mating preferences for men who show willingness to invest in them and children - men’s best chance of having their genes promoted is to mate with as many women as possible, so aggression serves them well to mate with more women; competing for female resource - men have more preferences for sexual variety and larger number of sex partners, seek sex sooner in relationship, more fantasies of casual sex - doesn’t fully explain sexual differences between men and women - questions remain about what causes sex differences - some men have more of a tendency of monogamy than some women; still inconsistencies Chp. 17- Personality and Culture Want to see if concepts relevant from one culture to the next and what differs from one culture to the next - in U.S. it’s considered good manners to shake someone’s hand but not valued in every culture, monks do not shake the hands of women (hand-shaking varies from culture to culture) What is culture? Culture- how people within groups are similar to each other but how they differ from other groups Cultural variation- differences in custom; within group similarities and between group differences 3 major approaches to explaining and exploring personality across cultures:

Evoked culture- cultural difference caused by differing environmental conditions activating a predictable set of responses - Facebook is expression of this; everyone has their own wall and that distinguishes us and reflects our personality - Ex. Callous and sweat - 2 ingredients necessary to explain cultural variations: 1) there has to be an underlying universal mechanism (in US money) and 2) environmental differences in the degree to which the underlying mechanism is activated - Evoked cooperation- tendency to be cooperative or selfish; dependent on personality and how personality gets expressed in groups based on cultural norms - Ache tribe and how they share food: in high variance conditions (feast or famine), food tends to be shared; makes cooperative sense for him to share the food so everyone eats and also there will be a time when he isn’t able to get food and will want others to share with him - Ache tribe distinguishes many types of fathers (ex. Father that put it in, father that mixed it in, those who spilled it out); fathers bound by shared paternity - In US we have enough money so everyone should be able to eat, but not the case; 1 in 6 people and 1 in 5 children wonder where their next meal is going to come from - Differences with mating preferences - Belsky: children raised in uncertain and unpredictable environments learn that you cannot rely on a single mate; tend to start having sex early in life and seek multiple mates; children from divorced home tend to start puberty earlier, impulsive, engage in sex earlier, more sex partners - Harsh, rejecting, inconsistent child-rearing practices, erratically provided resources, and marital discord lead to personality of impulsivity and mating strategy marked by early reproduction - Sensitive, supportive, and responsive child-rearing combined with reliable resources and spousal harmony foster personality of conscientiousness and mating strategy of commitment, delayed reproduction, and stable marriage - Influx of divorce has changed culture of relationships; what is committed long term relationship - Different mating strategies evoked in different cultures How is culture transmitted? Transmitted culture- ideas, values, and beliefs that exist originally in at least one person’s mind that then gets spread to other people’s minds in the group through interactions with the original person - Uncertain why some ideas spread and some don’t - Cultures differ in their beliefs of what is morally right and wrong - Passed on through generations not by genes but through teachings or observations of the behavior of others in a culture - Monogamy function of agrarian culture; person becomes private property - We don’t know why some cultures practice polyamory and some practice monogamy

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Polyamory crucial to social cohesion (functional), opting out causes problems Transmitted through:  religion- tells us what’s right and what’s wrong  economy (ex. For capitalist culture to work, has to be certain percent of population that is unemployed; points to cultural value that has impact on commerce studies; something we value more than protection of all people)  schools- train us how to be w/ in our culture Jung- collective unconscious: personal conscious is reservoir of all of our unique consciouses and collective organizes all of our consciouses that we are able to tap into Quantum physics- if we are all on a cellular level we are all connected

Cultural universals- researchers try to identify universals 1. Incest avoidance 2. Facial expressions for primary emotions: happy, sad, anger, disgust, surprise, fear 3. Favoritism towards group membership; favor groups that we’re in 4. Favoritism of kin over non kin 5. Collective ideas 6. Division of labor by sex (how it is divided may differ) 7. Revenge/retaliation 8. Sanctions (consequences) for crimes against the collective (how we go about what sanctions are differ) 9. Reciprocity in relationships 10. Envy, sexual jealousy, love (envy between you and another person, someone has quality you wish you had; jealousy between 3 people where you feel threatened or betrayed by 3rd person) Esther Perel- psychologist who wrote Mating in Captivity Rethinking infidelity Ted talk - Why do we cheat? - Adultery and the taboo against it has existed since marriage - Double standard is as old as adultery itself - Pressure for men to boast and exaggerate and pressure for women to hide - Used to be that monogamy was one person for life, today monogamy one person at a time - Monogamy has nothing to do with love - Definition of infidelity keeps changing, no universal agreement on what it means (ex. Sexting, watching porn, secretly being on online dating sites) - Affair: secretive relationship, emotional connection, sexual alchemy - We have a romantic ideal in which we depend on one person to fulfill all our needs - Infidelity is ultimate betrayal; threatens our sense of self

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We live in era where we are encouraged to pursue our desires; divorce used to carry shame, but now shame in staying when unhappy or could be happier Looking for another self, not turning away from other person but turning away from self; desire to feel special, important Lured by power of the forbidden; feel like we’re doing what we want Majority of couples who experience affairs stay together; have conversations of honesty; fear of loss rekindles desire and makes way for a new kind of truth Healing begins when perpetrator who acknowledges their wrongdoing People feel guilty for hurting partner but not for affair itself Focus on investigative questions not questions about details

Chp. 18- The Adjustment Domain Health Psychology- study of relationships between mind and body; looks at the mind’s reaction to stress and that impact on health - ways in which the mind and body respond to challenges from the environment to produce either illness or health - personality can have impact on health; stable patterns of behavior (whether a person copes well with stress, exercises, sleeps, avoids unnecessary risks, all related to life expectancy) Why do some people get more sick than others? Why do some people get better faster? Why do some people cope better? Research suggests that lifestyle alone contributes to more than half of the deaths that occur before the age of 65 (premature death) - Personality characterized by being unassertive or inhibited (unexpressed emotion) seen to be “cancer-prone” - Coronary heart disease- hostility and aggression; related to how we see stress (our arteries only constrict when we see stress as a negative thing) Stress- subjective feeling produced by events that are uncontrollable or threatening; perception that we are not going to be able to handle event; response to perceived demands in some situation, but not the actual situation itself - feeling of being overwhelmed by events that you cannot seem to control (stressors) - subjective response to some event For event to cause stress, needs to be both: 1. Threat 2. Loss of control (lots of people seek control) General adaptation syndrome (GAS)- describes chain of physiological events that occur when stress in on-going 1. Alarm stage- when fight or flight response kicks in (SNS activated) 2. Resistance stage- body uses its resources at above average rate even though immediate alarm has subsided (ex. Finished finals and going home but still at

heightened level of arousal); stress being resisted but takes considerable effort and energy; no existing threat but still in active state 3. Exhaustion stage- person becomes susceptible to illness and disease; physiological resources depleted Top 10 stressors: death of close family member, death of close friend, divorcing parents, jail term, major personal injury or illness, marriage, getting fired from a job, failing an important course, change in health of a family member, pregnancy Different kinds of stress: Chronic stress- daily grind; stress that we all go through Acute stress- comes from sudden onset of demands; experienced as tension headaches, emotional upsets, stomach aches, feelings of agitation, pressure; when we feel that others own our time; combat by declaring that we are the owners of our own time Episodic acute stress- repeated episodes of acute stress; can lead to migraines, hypertension, stroke, anxiety, depression, GI systems, suppresses immune system (ex. Facing regular deadlines; chronic; pressure always on) Traumatic stress- feeling of life threatening situation or witnessing someone having life-threatening situation - Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): occurs in some people after they have experienced themselves or witnessed life threating event; they relive the experience in nightmares, flashbacks, difficulty sleeping, feeling of detachment or estrangement from others, physical complaints, flattened emotions - Acute stress disorder: when you experience similar symptoms as PTSD, but with 30 days maximum PTSD video: - Dual awareness- being able to recognize that even though I’m feeling upset, what is going on with me now has to do with something in the past but I am in the now; sensory nervous system and balancing senses we get from extroceptors and our introceptors (ex. Heart beat); acknowledge internal experience and external experience Stress is subjective reaction of person to perceived threats Two cognitive events must occur for stress to be evoked: Primary appraisal: Perceives event as threat Secondary appraisal: person concludes he/she does not have the resources to cope w/ the demands of the threatening event Attributional styles- dispositional ways of explaining causes of bad events; where do you typically place the blame when things go wrong? 1. External vs. internal 2. Unstable vs. stable 3. Specific vs. global (specific- not good at particular task; global- I’m not good at anything

Optimism- how people view attributional style Pessimists: persons who make stable, global, and internal explanations for bad events - see themselves as helpless in face of difficult events - believe bad events have long-lasting causes that affect many aspects of their lives and that their behavior is not related to the outcomes in life Optimists: persons who make unstable, specific, external explanations for bad events - believe that life events are unstable and specific and what they do does influence outcomes in life Dispositional optimism- expectation that good events will be plentiful in the future and bad events rare in the future (related to self efficacy- confidence one has in one’s ability to perform actions needed to achieve a specific outcome) Risk has impact on health: Optimists perceive that they are at lower chance of risk than others; optimistic bias Optimism affects health: pessimists more likely to die at earlier age than optimists; pessimists had more accidental deaths, deaths due to violent causes How we manage our emotions - We don’t have to be so easily swayed by our feelings - When we suppress emotions (emotional inhibition) it takes a lot of effort; higher activation in SNS when not showing arousal; experienced more sadness than those who let their emotions show; higher mortality rate, greater likelihood of recurrence of cancer after treatment, and suppressed immune system Hostility- being easily frustrated and aggressive, lethal component of type A personality Things to do to reduce stress: connecting with nature, exercising, crying, meditation, yoga, actively bringing joy to our life, expressive writing, human connection (oxytocinlove hormone, released when we touch each other, make eye contact, creates feeling of bondedness and well-being; when we reach out to other people during stress and allowing people to help us) Chp. 19- Personality Disorders Personality disorder- an enduring pattern of experience and behavior that differs greatly from the expectations of the individual’s culture; maladaptive variations w/ in several domains including traits, emotions, cognitions, motives, interpersonal behavior, and self-concepts - maladaptive combination of personality traits; traits become inflexible and create enduring patterns of experience and behavior; greatly different from what you would expect from someone operating under normal conditions Affects at least 2 domains: Cognitive domain

Affective domain Interpersonal Impulse control Building blocks of personality disorders: - Motivation- motives describe what people want and why they behave the way they do; maladaptive variations on motives such as need to be superior, have power, intimacy, need to receive praise, need for order and detail - Cognition- mental activities like perceiving, interpreting, planning, all affe...