Unit IV Lecture Chapters # 10-Personality Chapter #1 1-Social Psychology

1. Unit IV Lecture Chapters #10-Personality Chapter #11-Social Psychology

2. PersonalityChapter #10 An individual’s unique and relatively consistent patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Are you more like your mother or father?

3. Personality Perspectives • Psychoanalytic—importance of unconscious processes and childhood experiences • Humanistic—importance of self and fulfillment of potential • Social cognitive—importance of beliefs about self • Trait—description and measurement of personality differences

4. Psychoanalytic Approach • Developed by Sigmund Freud • Psychoanalysis is both an approach to therapy and a theory of personality • Emphasizes unconscious motivation – the main causes of behavior lie buried in the unconscious mind

5. Psychoanalytic Divisions of the Mind • Id—instinctual drives present at birth • does not distinguish between reality and fantasy • operates according to the pleasure principle • Ego—develops out of the id in infancy • understands reality and logic • mediator between id and superego • Superego • internalization of society’s moral standards • responsible for guilt

6. Id: The Pleasure Principle • Pleasure principle—drive toward immediate gratification, most fundamental human motive • Sources of energy • Eros—life instinct, perpetuates life • Thanatos—death instinct, aggression, self-destructive actions • Libido—sexual energy or motivation

7. Defense Mechanisms • Projection—reducing anxiety by attributing unacceptable impulses to someone else • Rationalization—reasoning away anxiety-producing thoughts • Regression—retreating to a mode of behavior characteristic of an earlier stage of development

8. Psychosexual Stages • Freud’s five stages of personality development, each associated with a particular erogenous zone

9. Oral Stage (birth – 1 year) • Mouth is associated with sexual pleasure • Weaning a child can lead to fixation if not handled correctly • Fixation can lead to oral activities in adulthood

10. Anal Stage (1 – 3 years) • Anus is associated with pleasure • Toilet training can lead to fixation if not handled correctly • Fixation can lead to anal retentive or expulsive behaviors in adulthood

11. Phallic Stage (3 – 5 years) • Focus of pleasure shifts to the genitals • Oedipus or Electra complex can occur • Fixation can lead to excessive masculinity in males and the need for attention or domination in females

12. Latency Stage (5 – puberty) • Sexuality is repressed • Children participate in hobbies, school, and same-sex friendships

13. Genital Stage (puberty on) • Sexual feelings re-emerge and are oriented toward others • Healthy adults find pleasure in love and work, fixated adults have their energy tied up in earlier stages

14. Fixation • —an attempt to achieve pleasure as an adult in ways that are equivalent to how it was achieved in these stages

15. Five Factor Model • Described somewhat differently among researchers • Factors—usually rated from low to high • Extraversion • Neuroticism • Openness to Experience • Agreeableness • Conscientiousness

16. Personality Assessment Projective Techniques • Interpretation of an ambiguous image • Used to determine unconscious motives, conflicts, and psychological traits

17. Rorschach Inkblot Test • Presentation and interpretation of a series of black and white and colored inkblots • Numerous scoring systems exist

18. Thematic Apperception Test • Series of pictures depicting ambiguous scenes • Subject is asked to create a story about the scene • Answers are scored based on themes, motives, and anxieties of main character

19. Drawbacks to Projective Tests • Examiner or test situation may influence individual’s response • Scoring is highly subjective • Tests fail to produce consistent results (reliability problem) • Tests are poor predictors of future behavior (validity problem)

20. Self-Report Inventory • Psychological test in which an individual answers standardized questions about their behavior and feelings • The answers are then compared to established norms

21. MMPI Sample questions: I work under a great deal of tension I have diarrhea once a month or more Once in a while I think of things too bad to talk about I am sure I get a raw deal from life My father was a good man I am very seldom troubled by constipation Evil spirits possess me at times My sex life is satisfactory • Most widely used self-report inventory • Originally designed to assess mental health and detect psychological symptoms • Has over 500 questions to which person must reply “True” or “False” • Includes “lying scales”

22. Social PsychologyChapter #11 The branch of psychology that studies how people think, feel, and behave in social situations

23. Social Cognition The mental processes that people use to make sense out of their social environment • Person perception • Social categorization • Implicit personality theory • Attribution • Attitudes • Stereotypes

24. Person Perception • Your reactions are determined by your perceptions of others • Your goals determine the amount and kind of information you collect • You evaluate people partly in terms of how you expect them to behave (social norms) • Your self-perception influences how you perceive others

25. Physical Attractiveness • Implicit cultural message is “beautiful is good” • Attractive people are perceived as more intelligent, happier, and better adjusted. • Do you believe they are? • Really no difference between attractive and less attractive people on these characteristics • Attractive people are more likely to attribute other people’s approval of their accomplishments to looks rather than effort or talent.

26. Using Attitudes as Ways to “Justify” Injustice • Just-world bias • a tendency to believe that life is fair, e.g., it would seem horrible to think that you can be a really good person and bad things could happen to you anyway • Just-world bias leads to “blaming the victim” • we explain others’ misfortunes as being their fault, • e.g., she deserved to be raped, what was she doing in that neighborhood anyway?

27. Attitudes What is an attitude? • predisposition to evaluate some people, groups, or issues in a particular way • can be negative or positive • Has three components • Cognitive—thoughts about given topic or situation • Affective—feelings or emotions about topic • Behavioral—your actions regarding the topic or situation

28. Cognitive Dissonance • Unpleasant state of psychological tension or arousal that occurs when two thoughts or perceptions are inconsistent • What is your “cognitive dissonance”? • Attitudes and behaviors are in conflict • it is uncomfortable for us • we seek ways to decrease discomfort caused by the inconsistency

29. Prejudice A negative attitude toward people who belong to a specific social group

30. Stereotypes What is a stereotype? • A cluster of characteristics associated with all members of a specific group of people • a belief held by members of one group about members of another group • Name some stereotypes of white people.-race • Name some stereotypes of Japanese people.-culture • Name some stereotypes of women.-gender • Name some stereotypes of rich people.-economic

31. Social Influence • How behavior is influenced by the social environment and the presence of other people • Conformity • Obedience • Helping Behaviors

32. Conformity • Adopting attitudes or behaviors of others because of pressure to do so; the pressure can be real or imagined • 2 general reasons for conformity • Informational social influence—other people can provide useful and crucial information • Normative social influence—desire to be accepted as part of a group leads to that group having an influence

33. Obedience • Obedience • compliance of person is due to perceived authority of asker • request is perceived as a command • Milgram interested in unquestioning obedience to orders Milgram video

34. Stanley Milgram’s Studies Basic study procedure • teacher and learner (learner always confederate) • watch learner being strapped into chair • learner expresses concern over his “heart condition”

35. Stanley Milgram’s Studies • Teacher goes to another room with experimenter • Shock generator panel – 15 to 450 volts, labels “slight shock” to “XXX” • Asked to give higher shocks for every mistake learner makes

36. Stanley Milgram’s Studies • Learner protests more and more as shock increases • Experimenter continues to request obedience even if teacher balks

37. Obedience • How many people would go to the highest shock level? • 65% of the subjects went to the end, even those that protested, over 450 volts!!! Does this relate to the Nazi movement and holocaust?

38. 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Percentage of subjects who obeyed experimenter The majority of subjects continued to obey to the end Moderate (75-120) Very strong (195-240) Extreme intensity (315-360) XXX (435-450) Danger severe (375-420) Slight (15-60) Strong (135-180) Intense (255-300) Shock levels in volts Obedience

39. Why Don’t People Always Help Others in Need? • Diffusion of responsibility • presence of others leads to decreased help response • we all think someone else will help, so we don’t

40. Individual and Groups • Social Loafing—tendency to expend less effort on a task when it is a group effort • Reduced when • Group is composed of people we know • We are members of a highly valued group • Task is meaningful • Not as common in collectivist cultures

41. Influence of Others’ Requests —Compliance Sales techniques and cognitive dissonance • four-walls technique • question customer in such a way that gets answers consistent with the idea that they need to own object • feeling of cognitive dissonance results if person chooses not to buy this thing that they “need”

42. Sales Techniques and Cognitive Dissonance Foot-in-the-door technique • ask for something small at first, then hit customer with larger request later • small request has paved the way to compliance with the larger request • cognitive dissonance results if person has already granted a request for one thing, then refuses to give the larger item

43. The Reciprocity Norm and Compliance We feel obliged to return favors, even those we did not want in the first place • opposite of foot-in-the-door • salesperson gives something to customer with idea that they will feel compelled to give something back (buying the product) • even if person did not wish for favor in the first place

44. Defense against Persuasion Techniques • Sleep on it—don’t act on something right away • Play devil’s advocate—think of all the reasons you shouldn’t buy the product or comply with the request • Pay attention to your gut feelings—if you feel pressured, you probably are