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PSYC 100 Study Guide Exam 4

Chapter 10: Cognition (Thinking & Language) 1. Thought: any cognitive processes directed toward problem solving, understanding language, memory 2. Mental Set: in problem solving, a tendency to approach a problem or situation in a predetermined way, regardless of the requirement of the specific problem 3. Confirmation Bias: in problem solving, the tendency to seek out evidence that confirms a hypothesis and to overlook contradictory evidence 4. Inductive Reasoning: reasoning that draws broad conclusions by generalizing from specific instances 5. Deductive Reasoning: reasoning that begins with a general premise that is believed to be true, then draws conclusions about specific instances based on this premise 6. Belief-bias Effect: tendency to accept conclusions that conform to one’s belief (and reject conclusions that do not conform), regardless of how logical or illogical these conclusions are

Chapter 14: Personality (Theories & Assessment) 1. Personality: distinctive patterns of behavior, emotions & thoughts that characterize an individual’s adaptations to his/her life 2. Surface Trait: In Raymond Cattel’s trait theory of personality, dimensions or traits that are usually obvious (such as integrity or honesty), and that tend to be grouped into clusters that are related to source traits 3. Source Trait: In Raymond Cattel’s trait theory personality, basic, underlying traits that are the center or core of an individual’s personality 4. Unconscious Mind: According to Freud’s theory, the vast reservoir of the mind that holds countless memories & feelings that are repressed or submerged because they produce anxiety 5. Psychoanalytic Theory: theory of personality that views people as being shaped by ongoing conflicts between primary drives & the social pressures of civilized society 6. Id: In Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, the biological component of personality consisting of life instincts and death instincts 7. Libido: In Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, the energy that fuels the id & motivates all behavior 1

8. Pleasure Principle: According to Freud, the principle guiding the id that seeks immediate gratification of all instinctive drives regardless of reason, logic or the possible impact of behaviors 9. Ego: In Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, the component of personality that acts as an intermediary between the instinctual demands of the id & the reality of the real world 10. Reality Principle: According to Freud, the tendency to behave in ways that are consistent with reality: governs the ego 11. Superego: According to Freud, the 3rd system of personality that consists of an individual’s conscience as well as the ego-ideal (the “should” of behavior) 12. Anxiety: free-floating fear or apprehension that may occur with or without an easily identifiable source 13. Defense Mechanism: In Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, an unconscious maneuver that shields the ego from anxiety by denying or distorting reality 14. Repression: In Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, the defense mechanism by which ideas, feelings or memories that are too painful to deal with on a conscious level are banished to the unconscious 15. Rationalization: defense mechanism in which an individual substitutes self-justifying excuses or explanations for the real reasons for behaviors 16. Projection: defense mechanism in which an individual reduces anxiety created by unacceptable impulses by attributing those impulses to someone else 17. Displacement: defense mechanism in which a person diverts his/her impulse-driven behavior from a primary target to secondary targets that will arouse less anxiety 18. Sublimation: Form of the defense mechanism displacement, in which impulse-driven behaviors are channels toward producing a socially valued accomplishment 19. Reaction Formation: defense mechanism in which the ego unconsciously impulses with their opposites 20. Psychosexual Development: stages of development, in Freud’s perspective, in which the focus of sexual gratification shifts from one body site to another 21. Oral Stage: According to Freud, the 1st stage o psychosexual development, spanning birth through 12-18 months, during which the lips & mouth are the primary erogenous zone 22. Anal Stage: In Freud’s theory of psychosexual development, the period between about 12 months-3 years of age, during which the erogenous zone shifts from the moth to the anal area

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23. Phallic Stage: According to Freud, the 3rd phrase of psychosexual development, spanning age 3-5 or 6, during which the focus of sexual gratification is genital stimulation 24. Oedipus Complex: In Freud’s theory of psychosexual development, the attraction a male child feels toward his mother (and jealousy towards his father) during the phallic stage 25. Electra Complex: the female counterpart to the Oedipus Complex 26. Latency Period: 4th stage of psychosexual development in Freud’s theory, extending from about age 5-puberty, during which sexual drives remain unexpressed or latent 27. Genital Stage: 5th and final stage in Freud’s theory of psychosexual development, beginning with puberty, during which sexual feelings that were dormant during the latency stage reemerge 28. Fixation: In Freud’s theory of psychosexual development, arrested development that results from exposure to either too little or too much gratification 29. Personal Unconscious: In Carl Jung’s theory, the part of the unconscious that is akin to Freud’s concept of a reservoir of all repressed thoughts & feelings 30. Collective Unconscious: In Carl Jung’s theory, a kind of universal memory bank that contains all the ancestral memories, images, symbols & ideas that humans have accumulated throughout their evolution 31. Striving for Superiority: In Alfred-Alder’s Neo-Freudian theory, a universal urge to achieve selfperfection through successful adaptation to life’s circumstances, mastering challenges & personal growth 32. Reciprocal Determinism: According to Albert Bandura, the principle that individual behaviors, and thus personalities, are shaped by the interaction between cognitive factors & environmental factors 33. Self-efficacy: individual’s belief that he/she can perform adequately & deal effectively with a situation 34. Behavioral Observation: behavior assessment method that involves observing individual’s behavior as they interact with the environment 35. Interview: method used in psychological studies in which an individual is asked questions that may be informal & unstructured or highly structured 36. Paper-and-Pencil Questionnaire: in personality testing, an objective self-reporting inventory designed to scientifically measure the variety of characteristics or traits that make up personality 37. Projective Test: personality tests that consist of loosely structured, ambiguous stimuli that require the subject’s interpretation 3

38. Rorschach Inkblot Test: commonly used projective test in which the subject is asked to examine inkblots & say what they look like or bring to mind 39. Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): projective test for personality assessment in which the subject is shown cards depicting various scenes & is asked to describe what is happening in each scene

Chapter 17: Social Psychology 1. Diffusion of Responsibility: tendency for an individual to feel a diminished sense of responsibility to assist in an emergency when other bystanders are present 2. Person Schemas: generalized assumptions about certain groups or classes of people 3. Attribution Theory: theory that we attempt to make sense out of other people’s behavior by attributing it to either dispositional (internal) causes or situational (external) causes 4. Fundamental Attribution Error: tendency to overestimate dispositional (internal) causes of behavior & to underestimate situational (external) causes of behavior 5. Illusion of Control: attributional bias caused by the belief that we control events in our own lives that are really beyond our control 6. Attitude: any learned, relatively enduring predisposition to respond in consistently favorable or unfavorable ways to certain people, groups, ideas or situations 7. Impression Management: tendency of individuals to carefully select what information they reveal about their attitudes, depending on how they think such information will affect their image in the eyes of others 8. Stereotype Threat: the tendency to conform to negative stereotypes 9. Cognitive Dissonance Theory: the theory that people experience psychological discomfort dissonance whenever cognitions & behavior are in conflict 10. What causes cognitive dissonance? a. Example: you support women’s rights to choose abortion, but you find yourself protesting when you discover a close friend is considering abortion 11. What do people typically do to reduce cognitive dissonance? a. If we act contrary to our prevailing attitudes & if we cannot attribute our actions to coercion, we are more likely to see the rationale for what we are doing & to come to believe in it…

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i. After cheating on an exam, students may resolve this dissonance with claiming that “the professor’s exams are unfair anyway” which is a change in attitude about cheating 12. Prejudice: negative, unjustifiable & inflexible attitude toward a group & its members 13. Stereotypes: preconceived & oversimplified beliefs & expectations about the traits of members of a specific group that do not account for individual differences 14. Discrimination: in social psychology, the behavioral consequence of prejudice in which one group is treated differently from another 15. Conformity: tendency to change or modify behaviors so that they are consistent with those of other people 16. Compliance: form of social influence in which people alter their behavior in response to direct requests from others; usually involves a degree of coercion 17. Foot-in-the-door Technique: technique for encouraging compliance in which a person is first asked to agree to a relatively minor request that serves as a setup for a more major request 18. Door-in-the-face Technique: method for encouraging compliance in which an unreasonable request is followed by a more minor, reasonable request that is the requestor’s goal in the 1 st place 19. Obedience: social influence in which we alter our behavior in response to commands or orders from people perceived as having power or authority a. What was the major finding from Milgram’s studies on Obedience? i. The Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures was a series of social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram…he found that 65% of the participants proceeded to the final 450-volt level 20. Define each concept & describe how they contribute to interpersonal attraction a. Proximity: perceptual grouping principle whereby, all else being equal, we tend to organize perceptions by grouping elements that are the nearest to each other i. We often develop close relationships with people whom we see frequently in our neighborhoods, in school, at work or at church b. Similarity: in perception, the principle that we tend to group elements that are similar to each other

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i. People who are attracted to one another often share common beliefs, values, attitudes, interests & intellectual ability c. Reciprocity: the tendency to respond to others in a way similar to how they respond to or treat us i. When we are provided with indications that someone likes us, we tend to have warm feelings about these people & respond positively to them…a reaction that often influences them to like us even more d. Physical Attractiveness: physical features that persons of the opposite sex find appealing i. Research reveals that physically attractive people are more likely to be sought as friends, to impress potential employers favorably, to be treated better, and to be perceived as more likable, interesting, sensitive, poised, happy, sexy, competent & socially skilled than people of average or unattractive appearance 21. Interpersonal Aggression: any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt another person 22. Frustration-aggression Hypothesis: theory that aggression is always a consequence of frustration & that frustration leads to aggression

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