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Final Introduction to Psychology Exam 3 Study Guide Note: All the material below is from the lectures. Social Cognition: 1. Bridge between social and cognitive- between the way we process information in general, and how we do this in the particular case of other people’s minds Explain what is meant by our ability to engage in “mind-reading” a. Making inferences about your beliefs, thoughts, desire, goals and so on. EX: Are you angry or happy? Hot or Cold? Nice or mean? 1. Can’t look at/ touch beliefs but know that they are there and what they are. 2. Basically, gaining access to the mental state of the others. The Centrality of Social Cognition: o Our perceptual and Conceptual systems are cahoots to anthropomorphize our surroundings, to see animate agents, to see minds, and faces everywhere o Minds are ready to infer things, which gives us clues on who we are interacting with. b. Know each of the following examples, and know how they provide evidence of the centrality of social cognition 1) Perceiving faces everywhere 1. Something about the pattern of movement makes us all prone to thinking about it in a way that isn’t at all appropriate for this particular situation. So like an optical illusion, there is something about this display that leads you to attribute real social content to it, social content that we know isn’t really there. 2. Thus, we are prepared to see social things everywhere. EX: a. Movie poster with face like setting; in a closer inspection reveals it’s all branches. b. Items that have similar facial like features: mobs, etc c. Jack-o-Lantern 3. 1 Final c. Point-light walkers 1) A set of a dozen lights moving in a coordinated fashion -something about their pattern of movement makes us inexorably think of a person walking despite it being all dots. d. The data on social-brain evolution o How is social information realized in the human brain? We have larger cortical volume than other species even if our overall brains aren’t much bigger. (Brain size /= cortical volume) Robin Dunbar looked at these ratios and how they relate to the size of the group that species live in. Social Brain evolution: Strong relationship between having larger group sizes that you live in you will tend to have larger cortical volumes. o As if there were new cognitive demands for dealing with larger groups that are met by increased cortical volume – that our big brains are in a sense for big groups. o Larger cortical volume allows to manage social relationships (Humans: more than 150 relationship) The number of x-mas cards adults will send out, number of real friends among your Facebook friends, number of people you might invite to your wedding (approximation of our actual social network size) The most complicated thing we encounter is mind of another person As number of intelligent humans to deal with increase, the amount of processing power it will take to navigate them successfully also increase. As we have to remember relationship and their personality etc. Dunbar’s experiment: o Revealed that even thought there were more than 1000 Facebook or IG friends; people only interacted with about 150. e. The pain of social exclusion 1) Social Exclusion: act as a form of physical(neurological) pain EX: Frisbee – excluding to pass it to one person. 1. Anterior Cingulate Cortex-central to experience physical pain EX 2: Cloth and Wire Mother 2. ATTACHMENT THEORY a. Humans have fundamental need for attachment/ want somebody to comfort them. 2 Final b. Monkey would go to cloth mother as social instinct despite the fact that it was wired mother that fed the monkey. Failures of social cognition: a. Shape chasing (Heider & Simmel video with the triangles and circle; typical response vs. response of individuals with autism) Typical Response: Triangle example: where the bigger triangle was in control, or trying to take control of the smaller triangle and the circle, the rectangular shaped place was similar to like a room with a closed door that um, if you went in there you were safe until that triangle came in. The small triangle and the circle were trying to escape from the large triangle and when they did, the large triangle became very furious and destroyed things. Autistic Individuals They would say a rectangle, two triangles, and a small circle. The triangle and the circle went inside the rectangle, and then the other triangle went in, and then the triangle and the circle went out and took off, left one triangle there. And then the two (pause) parts of the rectangle made like a [sic] upside-down V, and that was it.’’ o no actual use of mental state terms, no wanting or trying, etc. o missing: the use of mental state language. So ASD is often thought of as a very specific detriment to reasoning about mental states. b. Failures of social cognition in individuals with autism a. Autism as a person with a major failure of Theory of Mind even when other kinds of cognition may be unimpaired. i. Description of autistic child, from the 40s ii. Theory of Mind: An Assessment of an individual human’s degree of capacity for empathy and understanding of others b. Disregard for the distinction between people and objects, an inability of disinclination to take the intentional stance when interacting with others. EX: False Photograph test What do you think, will autistics do well on this test or fail. When they are asked to identify what will be in the photo after Apple falls. 3 Final o o If anything, autistics do better, suggesting the problem is really specific to thinking about what other people KNOW, not general to just changes in state… So again, evidence for a very specific problem in Autistics EX: o False Belief test: Where will Sally look for the ball? o It’s as if young children can’t over-rule their own knowledge—they know where it is, so they can’t imagine that other people don’t know. This is called a failure to understand false belief, or more broadly, a failure to have a theory of mind. What is meant by social cognition as “mind-melding” a. Getting others to experience what I experience b. Getting myself to experience what others experience How it is handled? 1) The role of language EX: Pragmatics or syntax of language to signal a meaning or etc. 1. Language is deeply social as its about other people all of the time: Gossip. 2) The role of emotion 1. We have other signals that we often use to communicate emotions a. Look at faces and get a strong signal for what each person is thinking or feeling. So emotional displays allow these people to get what’s in their mind into the mind of others around them. 3) The role in teaching 1. If going to learn from one/teach one then need to understand that you have mental states that I can influence them a. So, capable of understanding things I am capable of understanding 2. Require mental state understanding to learn or teach. EX: Monkeys and primates find themselves in this situation, where they Don’t have those understandings, so teaching is waste of time. 4 Final a. Don’t understand others have mental states, and they don’t try to influence those mental states, to get the other person to have certain mental states, like particular piece of knowledge. Identify/explain each of the following and how each relates to “mind-melding” a. Emotion-sharing (e.g., pain) 1) Our desire to share in the mental sates of other is so insistent that you may feel some distress watching someone in pain. 1. Injection on lip, we are drawn to that mental state. 2) Parts of the brain that are active when you are in pain are active when you see somebody else in pain 3) Amygdala: Brain region that is involved with fear, and if presented with a fearful stimulus such as spider, amygdala will activate crazy. 1. EX: Show a face of somebody who’s in fear then amygdala activates, which shows that we share emotions. b. The Chameleon effects 1) People spontaneously mimic the behavior of others 2) Mimicry facilitates smooth interactions and increases liking between people 3) People with high empathy scores spontaneously mimic more than low empathy folks. c. The Fundamental Attribution Error EX: If something bad happens to somebody else (Fail on test) will be more likely to attribute it to their trait. 1. If someone falls off the bike would think that person is clumsy However, If it happened to me 2. Unlikely to infer that bad trait (not infer that I’m the stupid sort of person, rather in this case I’m going to think of all the situational factors that led to this grade- lack of sleep, too much work, going out partying the night before) a. Willing to make more broad exceptions for ourselves that we don’t make with other people Key idea • • • We make sense of each other’s’ behavior in terms of their psychological states Social cognition seems to be a central human function that may have driven the expansion of the human brain Humans have a drive to bring their psychological experience “in register” with that of others and strive to change others’ mental states 5 Final • When others’ mental states cannot be changed, we often shift our own experience to be in line with that of others Groups Conformity Definition: o A social influence wherein, a person changes their opinions, beliefs or behaviors in order to fit in with the group. (Dark-side example) o Response to the pressure to be a part of a group –how important our social relationships really are (we feel physical pain when excluded) Why do they conform? Conform to avoid social rejection As it is painful to be excluded. Dark side: you may conform to bad behavior just because that is the norm of the group. There might be intergroup conflict or intergroup competition. Diffusion of responsibility may occur as well Light side: allows you to be a part of a group and when you feel like you are a part of a group it may boost your self-esteem. Distribution of knowledge and norms. Three kinds of ‘conformity’ (1) Conformity: Going along with the crowd (this is what we traditionally term ‘conformity’) Example a. Asch’s line Paradigm (be able to describe the study, identify key lessons, and be able to apply it to real world scenarios) i. Asked which line was same length as the other lines in the options, then when other people said the wrong answer, the subject also conformed to the answer despite knowing that the answer was wrong. 1. Most of these participants, afterwards when debriefed that they realized something was wrong, that they thought A was the right answer—but they are apparently unwilling to say so in front of the group the vast majority of the time 2. 70% of the participants conformed to the wrong answer 6 Final ii. Two types of conformity 1. Some people conformed because they thought the group was correct 2. Others knew they were wrong but conformed so that they didn’t have to go against the group. Avoiding Conformity i. Works for small and big groups alike but can be counteracted by just a single ally. So, even in big group of 10 people, if you have one ally- one person who says what you think is the right answer- you can avoid conformity and go with your true answer. ii. When the subject wrote it down: where other people cannot see their answers. (2) Obedience to authority a. Milgram’s shock experiments (understand basic setup, be able to describe study, identify key lessons about obedience from study, and be able to apply to real world scenarios) i. 61-66% of participants administered the strongest shock ’fatal’ shock just because of the presence of an authority figure. ii. The experiment required to continue to shock the subject. Many protests and ask for confirmation- and they carry on and continue shocking despite their misgivings. iii. Why do they conform: Afraid of authority figure/ belief on authority iv. What reduces compliance? i. ii. iii. There are some things however that may influence this type of conformity: contradictory commands, who is the authority figure (ordinary man or expert), where is the experiment taking place (institution like Yale or an ordinary place), is the authority physically present, physically touching the ‘fake test subject’ a. When done in a modest office park instead of yale, compliance decreased, which suggest that prestige of yale and yale professor was part of the effect. b. If you have to press someone’s arm down onto a shock plate, compliance drops… c. And when another teacher was there who refused, compliance dropped to about 10%... Physical contact reduce compliance Fellow ‘dissenter’ also reduce compliance Key Idea 7 Final - Obedience to authority is powerful force: if obedience is already high even when there are no consequences of disobedience, it stands to reason that in other circumstances conformity would be even higher. - Trappings of authority matter (3) Conformity to expected roles a. The Stanford prison experiment(understand basic setup, be able to describe study, identify key lessons about obedience from study, and be able to apply to real worldscenarios) i. Participants were randomly assigned to either be a prisoner or a guard. Conditions were made too real to completely look and feel like a prison. ii. Prisoners started becoming rebellious and guards started taking their roles more seriously as well – they became much stricter. Over time, this became even worse. iii. ROLE OF LEADERSHIP 1. Critical for understanding how brutality occurs Brown-eyes/ Blue eyes experiment Classroom of kids: group them by eye colors. ◦ ◦ Day 1: Teacher said blue eyed students are better than brown eyed students. This came with advantages for blue eyed students and disadvantages with brown eyed students ◦ Blue eyes get more recess time ◦ Make fun of brown eyes Day 2: Brown eyed students are better than blue eyed students. This came with advantages for brown eyed students and disadvantages with blue eyed students ◦ Reverse role ◦ Creating a conflict: using eyes to ridicule them ◦ Students performed better on days they were in the higher “better” group and worse when they were in the “worse” group. ◦ Students in the ”better” group started bullying students from the worse groups. A lot of conflicts was caused between these two groups. 8 Final What are norms? Norms of reciprocity? Norms of fairness? Norms Unspoken (but understood) rules of expectations that are governed socially - in a culture or society. Norms work to make a behavior acceptable or unacceptable. Almost everything you do is governed by norms. EX: When you visit a new country, behaviors that are “norms” (normal and acceptable) to you might be unacceptable in this new culture. Decision making of Norms that guide human behaviors (Persuasion Technique) 1. Reciprocity: Obligation to give when you receive a. Free samples, then expect to comeback for more / Tips or charity b. Giving back tips when mints are given in a restaurant. 2. Scarcity:People want more of what they can have less of a. Limited time offers/ Special editions 3. Authority: People tend to follow the lead of credible, knowledgeable experts a. EX: 8 in 10 dermatologists agree that ABC facewash works b. Dentists from Harvard say that XYZ toothpaste is 99% effective 4. Consistency: People like to be consistent with the things they have previously said or done a. Make the customers sign up to the weekly newsletter/ keeping subscribing to the same newsletter. b. Trump supporters, keep following trump to be consistent with their prior views 5. Liking:You are most likely to be persuaded by similar people who are cooperative and give you compliments – so people you like! a. Salesperson tries to build rapport by finding the customer’s interests- any commonalities/ 6. Consensus: especially when uncertain, people look to the actions and behaviors of others to determine their own a. Looking at the reviews before buying something/ see the consensus Norm of Fairness Origin of Fairness: with all other things being equal, we will offer more or less even splits, and we will turn down offers if they get too unfair EX: Two Monkeys with cucumber and grape 9 Final By doing the same task one gets a grape and other gets a cucumber, monkey with the cucumber sense unfairness Cultures (Norms of Fairness): - Ultimatum Game: making more or less equal distributions of shared sources. o Subject A has to split $100 with Subject B and subject B can accept or decline. If reject, then no money for both. o Now one might notice here that if offers of 80/20 are rejected 50% of the time, there is probably an optimal strategy, say giving 40 and keeping 60, that the other person will accept—so being perfecly fair isn’t always the optimal strategy, but it is a common one. You can imagine what you’d offer in this situation, remembering that if the other person rejects, you get nothing, so there is some substantial risk to being greedy. But the real power of this demonstration is in player 2. even in the 80/20 case, player 2 gets $2 or nothing. What would you rather have, $2 or nothing? There is no purely rational explanation for rejecting the offer of $2 in order to get nothing! But player 2 rejects because they’re pissed off, and they’re pissed off because the person offered them only 20% of a shared resource, which violates a norm of fairness. So player 2 will punish themselves to punish Player 1, who violated the norm of fairness. We will pay costs to punish people who violate norms! Average offers change by cultures: cultures determine how we act fairness. Diffusion of Responsibility o Kitty Genovese case o The “Bystander Effect” (be able to describe it, identify key lessons about the bystander effect, and be able to apply to real world scenarios) (Bystander Effect) - In an emergency situation, like hood of help decreases when passive bystanders are present. - Subjectively dividing the personal responsibility to help a stranger by the number of bystander present – Everyone assumes someone else will help EX: 10 Final o o - A woman was stabbed while 40 people saw it, they ignored. Follow-up research in laboratory settings has shown that this effect is general—that we have every reason to think that most of us in this room would have done the very same thing. In a classic paradigm, you’re taking part in a quiz game where you’re in a small cubicle along with several other individuals with whom you can talk over an intercom. At one point during the game one of the others—in fact a confederate faking—has a seizure, calls out for help, for an ambulance, etc. And just like in the Kitty Genovese case, when participants are one of many, say 6 others, very few leave their cubicle to help, call an ambulance, or alert the experimenter. If on the other hand it is just you and this one other person, the majority do indeed offer some form of help—suggesting that the notion that other people will take care of it is very powerful indeed. Overcoming Diffusion of Responsibility o Pick out an individual (one specific individual) and ask them directly for help. o As the size of the group increases people are less likely to help because the personal responsibility that they feel towards this situation decreases. Vice versa, an individual is more likely to help when they are alone (or there are very few bystanders) since personal responsibility increases The Fundamental Attribution Error We tend to assume that actions come from personality, from the kind of person we are. So only bad person would commit bad acts, but all of the norms, conformity (group behavior) suggest that these are wrong. Even good people will do that bad things if the situation is set in the right way. Prejudice Intergroup conflict o Conflicts that occur among members of different groups because of group affiliations 11 Final o The minimal group paradigm (what it is and what it shows) Minimal group paradigm is a social psychology research methodology that proposes that the minimal condition for group biases (like favoritism towards your own group and prejudice towards other groups) is simply being a member of a group. EX: US vs THEM o o Given two arts, want to see how people treat somebody who has a different art preference than you. Question: How much do you like those who share your art preferences? If you had to choose, which kinds of art fans would you give money to? People give more money to others who share the same art preferences. This is intergroup discrimination (ingroup bias) Researchers created teams by flipping a coin (Random). These are known as “minimal groups” What does this show? Shows that this does not relate to art preferences rather it is random. NATURE VS NURTURE Do we learn to be prejudiced or is there something about how we think about groups that takes us down this road? o We have bias automatically according to the experiment back in 70s-without having to learn it EX 2: o Participant’s come into lab in groups o Asked to estimate the number of dots on a page o Randomly assigned to groups: “Over estimator” and “Under estimators” o Ask participants to rate each group and allocate study payment to fellow ingroup members or outgroup members Over estimators viewed Under estimators as less likeable, kind, and effective than Over estimators. Under estimators viewed Over estimators as less likeable, kind, and effective than Under estimators. Over estimators distributed much less money to Under estimators. Under estimators distributed much less money to over estimators. o The Robbers Cave experiment (what it is and what it shows) MuzaferSherif’s argument: Intergroup Conflicts (conflicts between groups) occur when two groups are in competition for limited resources. 12 Final Validated Theory by Robber Cave experiment o Two groups of 12 year boys, strangers to each other when through stages Stages Bond Stage o Bond as two individual groups through the pursuit of common goals that required co-operative discussion, planning, and execution. o During the first phase, the groups did not know of the other group’s existence. The boys developed an attachment to their groups throughout the first week. Created own cultures and group norms. Competition Stage o 4-6 days: friction between groups through competitions such as baseball, tug war, football, etc o Winners would receive reward and none for the losers. Reducing Friction Period o Working together to solve a problem/ common goal o By working together with other group: they felt positive towards other groups Failed Experiment: When children/people build friendship prior to the experiment of conflict, they fail to participate in the conflict. Social stereotypes o What are stereotypes perceiving members of a given category as possessing various common attributes An efficient way of organizing and storing info about people in long-term memory Also, a source of bias and generalization Accuracy is a separate (and extremely controversial) issue Examples - women are delicate and sensitive and men are strong; Chinese people are good at math; someone wearing a Trump hat is racist Even when people are not aware of their presence, stereotypes will serve as an: o Energy saving tactic o Stereotypes of warmth and competence 13 Final o Sexism and stereotypes about women, and how these stereotypes reflect on gender disparities (e.g., in leadership positions) Work Reference Letter – Wording can reinforce gender stereotypes. Women: caring, nice, cooperative. Men – brilliant, trailblazer, etc. Implicit bias o What is implicit bias (implicit bias as beyond conscious control) Attitudes or Stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions unconsciously. Signal detection: we always need to monitor the environment for risky things (hunter gatherers needed to monitor for snakes and stuff, we need to monitor for guns and stuff) o Types of implicit bias (implicit racial, sex, and age bias) o What is the difference between explicit and implicit prejudice People in these studies are not explicitly being racist - whatever is causing this bias is also what’s going on in other cases of discrimination (black 14 Final people not getting hired, etc.) - it is the result of an implicit bias outside of people’s conscious awareness How is implicit bias measured/studied? o The Implicit Association Test (what it is and what it shows) Show White face or bad word and Black face or good word VS white face or good word and black face and bad word People are faster when they match black with bad word. IAT: uses reaction times as an indirect measure or an implicit measure to test people's associations between positive and negative emotions ● Used not only for race, but for other groups such as nationality, politics, gender, etc. ● Weak correlation with self-report measures ● Might only be relevant in current context (i.e., being showed well liked black public figures before performing task) Why do you think the IAT is a better predictor of implicit behavior and not explicit behavior? o If we have more time can cause Social desirability bias – we want to be socially desirable aka we want people to see us in a positive light, so our explicit behaviors often differ from our implicit behaviors such as the implicit biases revealed in the IAT. IAT eliminates the time. o o Implicit bias is not about bigotry. Implicit bias is grounded in basic human tendency to divide the social world into groups. Tacit racism may actually be a manifestation of a broader propensity to think in terms of “us versus them” — a prejudice that can apply, say, to fans of a different sports team.” How can we overcome Implicit Bias? Rational Deliberation o The resume study What it tested What it showed To see how much prejudice is happening based on name. White receives 50% more callbacks Quality didn’t help Black resumes Implications (about racial discrimination) How to overcome bias and reduce discrimination (important to know and be able to apply to current, real-world bias scenarios, and how to reduce bias) 15 Final o Explain the contact hypothesis and key features of quality contact o Factors that protect against bias Motivation to act egalitarian Sharing a common identity or common goals REDUCING DISCRIMINATION Motivation to act egalitarian o Having internal motivations to act in non-prejudiced ways has a bigger effect than having external motivations Fairness Slow down with motivation Brain Regions report study of race Amygdala: linked to automatic race based evaluations FFA: involved in the rapid identification of other race individuals ACC: Detect conflict between implicit race attitudes and conscious intentions to be non-biased. DLPFC: may regulate negative racial bias (evaluation) when conflicts are detected Fusiform gyrus: Identification of race from faces Act egalitarian: ‘I attempt to act in non-prejudiced ways towards Black people because it is personally important to me.’ (internal) ‘I attempt to appear non-prejudiced towards Black people in order to avoid disapproval from others.’ (external) Sharing a common identity o Effectiveness is shown through minimal group paradigms o Robber Cave Experiment: phase 3 Common goals They changed behavior after sharing a common goal/solving the same problem Friendship: common link o Overcoming bias When becoming a part of your team Racial bias decreases as seen in the MRI Part of the brain that distinguish the group activate everybody on the team: no longer responded to race Amygdala triggered to everybody in the in group with no racial bias Sharing identity Reduces Bias (implicit bias) - Common identity: there was a study where white participants were significantly more likely to help black interviewers when they wore a hat of the same university 16 Final as that worn by the interviewee because the hat led the white participant to categorize the interviewer as a ingroup member o minimal group paradigm says that the minimal condition for group biases is simply being a member of group. For instance, if I split the class in half and now there is 2 diff groups, that alone can cause biases. So you will have a bias in favor of your group. o So instead we just have us all in one group and we all share a common identity of being a part of recitation 21/17, and that’s something that helps reduce discrimination. Positive contact with outgroup members o EX: Protesting together for the BLM movement o Positive contact: contact hypothesis – when you have positive intergroup contact, you improve intergroup relations and reduce bias. Contact must be of good quality o The Contact Hypothesis EX: Assigning roommates with different race. Quality contact has these features: o Personal interaction o Equal status between groups o Cooperation between groups Changing Systems o EX: Police re-education programs police systems: hospitals can reduce perceived discrimination by changing the protocol doctors follow when interacting w/patients o Overcoming Bias EX Orchestra: hiding people’s gender, allowed fairness in selection. Process is more powerful than training people in removing bias Moral Psychology Kant and the Categorical Imperative (universal moral law/golden rule) Piaget’s perspective on the development of morality Kohlberg o Heinz dilemma 17 Final 3 levels of moral development (pre-conventional; conventional; post-conventional; 6 stages) of moral development (be able to describe each level) Social Domain Theory o Define o Moral and conventional rules o Comparison to Piaget and Kohlberg What is morality for? Hume’s perspective (contrast to Kant) What is included in the “first draft” of moral cognition from the moral foundations perspective Trolley dilemmas (what they are and what they show) Social Transmission of Morality o Relationship between emotions and moral judgment o Moral Contagion Hypothesis Moral Psychology · Kant and the Categorical Imperative (universal moral law/golden rule) Univseral Moral Law: - “Act as if your maxims should serve at the same time as the universal law of all rational beings” → The reason that Kant had such a huge influence is probably his belief that through human reasoning processes, we could discover eternal truths about the world. What that means for morality is that humans should be capable of reasoning through moral questions in order to discover the universal moral laws that exist. In fact, by the end of all the thinking that Kant did about morality, he believed most if not all morality could be reduced to a single law, and he called that law the categorical imperative. “Act as if your maxims should serve at the same time as the universal law (of all rational beings)” · Piaget’s perspective on the development of morality Universal, invariant sequence Focused on observables (outcomes) more than underlying properties (intentions) o Ex) A child knocks over one glass while trying to steal a cookie A child knocks over five glasses while trying to help her mom o Who deserves more blame? Younger children emphasize outcome (second child is worse and should get in more trouble) Older children emphasize intention (First child is worse) Piaget’s evidence (How morality change over time) o (1) Egocentric: I can play however I want. 18 Final o o · (2) Heteronomous: There is one right way to play, it has been the same forever. (3) Autonomous: There is an agreed upon way to play, but we could change it through consensus Kohlberg Created moral dilemmas and examined how people actually reasoned about morality. How do children actually reason? To test this question, he asked children to respond to what is called the Heinz dilemma. o Heinz dilemma A woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging 10 times what the drug cost him to make. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about 1,000, which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, “No, I discovered the drug and I’m going to make money from it.” So, Heinz gets desperate and considers breaking into theman’s store to steal the drug for his wife. · 3 levels of moral development (pre-conventional; conventional; post-conventional; 6 stages) of moral development (be able to describe each level) Pre-conventional level: Values based on external events o Stage 1 (ages 5-7): acting to avoid punishment Rules are mandatory Emphasis on avoiding physical harm Children weigh their own rights over others Stage 2 (ages 8-10): acting to further one’s own interest Instrumental Strict concerns for equality Some understanding that some rules are arbitrary- but not consistent Saying that the husband should not steal the drug b/c it’s breaking the law Conventional level: Assessing personal consequences o Stage 3 (ages 10-12): Decisions based on the approval of others Fairness requires more than strict equality More concerns about reciprocity Concern about living up to expectations (eg., you have to do something so your mom will be happy with you) o 19 Final o Stage 4 (ages 12-14): Judgment based on the relative rules and laws of society Conventions are viewed as completely arbitrary social expectations Moral decisions are based on fairness and concerns about harm (not by concern for rules or expectations) Morality is codified in laws (objective) Saying that the husband should steal the drug and accept to go prison Post-Conventional level: shared standard rights, duties, and principles o Stage 5 (ages 17-20):social contract rules & laws of social good Morality is relative to systems of laws NO system may lay claim to moral superiority All concerns about equality, harm, and fairness are same as before o Stage 6 (age 21 on): Guided by moral principle of justice What is moral are values and rights that exist prior to social attachment and contracts Morality is the values that any rational being would want to see reflected in a moral society Pre-conventional stage of moral development Saying that the husband should steal the drug and not go to prison as it is unfair. Challenge to Kohlberg’s Theory Social Domain Theory o Define: The idea that all of the rules that we see as existing in the social world can be divided into one of two domains. o Moral and conventional rules First domain: moral (physical harm, emotional harm, violations of fairness) o Moral rules are the ones that are intrinsic and universal, applying no matter what. Ex) Even if you lived in a country where there was no rule against murder, you would probably still think that murder is wrong, because it just is. Second domain: conventional (foods, dress, manners) o Rules that are created by individual cultures, and only apply when there are explicit rules or norms dictating them Ex) Eating with a fork is a conventional rule -- if you were in a culture where it wasn’t the norm to eat with forks, and everyone just ate with their hands, you probably wouldn’t say that it is wrong for people there to eat that way. 20 Final Issue with Domain Theory Comparison to Piaget and Kohlberg No stages (Developmental continuity) both morality and convention are present from the start, convention does not precede morality moral understanding is more abstract in early childhood · · What is morality for? Morality is a way to keep tribes tight-knit, to keep society organized, and so on, all so that a given tribe can prevail over other tribes our moral emotions do this even when no one is looking Hume’s perspective (contrast to Kant) Instead of grounding things in pure reason, Hume grounded them in emotional responses. Saying that our gut was guiding morality not reason, logic, education. It’s how we feel: Sentimnetalism The idea is that when we consider an unjust act like theft, we feel a surge of passion -- i.e. emotion -- and this leads us to not steal, or to punish the thief. Amd this negative response to theft doesn’t necessarily come from some abstract principle regarding the rightness or wrongness of the action, or any appeal to universal law, but simply the fact that some actions intrinsically excite our emotions in positive or negative ways. = called SENTIMENTALISM To put it more concisely, Hume famously said, “Reason is the slave of the passions.” Hume: “Morals excite passions, and produce or prevent actions. Reason itself is utterly impotent in this particular. The rules of morality, therefore, are not conclusions of our reason.” EX: Man riding an elephant: - Sub-conscious mind: elephant - Conscious mind: you o Indicate you don’t have much control over moral Emotion driving the moral · What is included in the “first draft” of moral cognition from the moral foundations perspective The idea is that we’re all born with 6 foundations: Care, fairness, loyalty, authority, sanctity, and liberty. (sort of a first draft of the moral code in our minds of the things that we need to organize a good society.) But, through exposure to the environment, we learn which of the foundations are important to us. This means that cultures might vary in terms of which foundations they value more. 21 Final · Trolley dilemmas (what they are and what they show) Rails with one person vs five people. Pull the switch to save five for one, which you change the direction? Forces us to choose when there are no good choices Stick to the moral code that prohibit causing someone’s death vs best outcome? 95% : Ok to save the five over one by flicking the switch Utilitarian answer Situation 2: Push a person to stop the track to save five Utilitarian: same answer (push to save five) Deliberately causing one’s death is different from allowing them to die as collateral damage 10% say it’s ok to push Instincts (emotions play a role) - personal Shows that logic that goes in the first dilemma isn’t the main driving factor, emotions tend to override that Brain location of mroral faculty Kant: Cerebral cortex: prefrontal cortex Hume(Emotion): Limbic system Morality in relation to evolution: Morality binds us in groups (Key binding function leads to success, so more favorable in natural selection: which passed down) Social Transmission of Morality o Relationship between emotions and moral judgment (How moral idea spreads) Morality and emotion are fundamentally connected o 1) Emotion covaries(follow) with moral judgement o 2) Emotion amplifies moral judgments / increases the intensity of them o 3) Emotion may even be moralizing itself (moralize nonmoral) If you are angry, you rationalize it by saying it’s justified because something is morally wrong. In summary, morality and emotion are intertwined, and this fact raises the prediction that emotion should be involved in the spread of moral ideas. EX: oMoral Contagion Hypothesis 22 Final Moral emotion increases diffusion of moral information in social networks o Moral emotion: emotional content that is functionally tied to a moral context o ex) sadness about the death of a pet is NOT a moral emotion, but anger toward an act of discrimination that violates an injunctive norm in your community is a moral emotion Moral contagion: Proof of concept Tested how categorization of words work in spreading the moral ideas: Emotions, moral, Moral + Emotions. This allowed to test the moral contagion hypothesis in the context of naturally formed social networks. Moral language alone was not sufficient to affect retweet rate in the gun control data set. However, language that had the special combination of morality and emotion significantly affected retweet counts. In fact, we show that for everyone moral-emotional word added, the predicted retweet rate increases by 15%. We also show that these results hold when adjusting for the effect of distinctly emotional content (which had similarly strong effects on retweet rate), as well as covariates known to affect retweet rate such as whether the tweet author was verified, whether there was a url or media attached to the tweet, and how many folders the tweet author had. Disorders (Guest Lecture by Dr. Ian Reed) What is considered “abnormal”? o Definition of mental disorder: A persistent disturbance or dysfunction in behavior, thoughts, or emotions that causes significant distress or impairment One way to think about mental disorder: Comparing them to normal psychological processes discussed in class thus far 23 Final o EX: o Perception, memory, learning, emotion, motivation, thinking, and social processes Conceptualizing mental disorder Physiognomy (In the past) o Suggested that mental disorder could be diagnosed from facial feature Medical Model o Abnormal psychological experiences are conceptualized as illnesses that like physical illness, have biological and environmental causes, defined symptoms, and possible cures. o In Diagnosis: Clinicians attend to Signs: objectively indicator of a disorder EX: “you look like crap/blue” Symptoms: subjectively reported behaviors, thoughts, and emotions EX: “I feel like crap” o Disorder: Refers to common set of signs and symptons o Disease A known pathological process affecting the body o Diagnosis: A determination as to whether a disorder to disease is present o Knowing that disorder is present doesn’t necessarily mean that we know the underlying disease process giving rise to the signs and symptoms. John Nash Game Theorist-schizophrenic Steve Jobs: Succesful Businessman…antisocial personality disorder Michael Jordan Best Basketball player-narcissitic personality disorder Thom Yorke Songwriter- Bipolar Disorder 24 Final Argue that these individuals were successful not in spite of these abnormalities, but because of them Often times our biggest strength are simultaneously our biggest weakness Classifying Disorders: The DSM(Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) A classification that describes the features used to diagnose each recognized mental disorder and indicate how the disorder can be distinguished from other, similar problems. DSM is Atheoretical o For a reason if we have 10 different clinical psychologists, present them with the same patients, potentially get 10 different explanations on what that person is dealing with and how they came across that difficulty etc. So that EVERYONE can use it History o DSM and DSM II (1968) Provided a common language for talking about the disorders Advance b/c EX: depression and anxiety were lumped together as general diagnosis of neurosis reaction o DSM-III(1980) and DSM IV (1994) Removed vague description in favor of Diagnostic criteria o Detailed lists of symptoms Two clinicians diagnosing the same individual were now much likely to come to the same diagnosis. o DSM-5 22 major categories containing more than 200 different mental disorders Also lists conditions that may be included as formal disorders but, for now, require additional research Why the switch to Arabic numerals? The thought is that there will be additional iterations (i.e. 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, etc.) Causation of Disorders Biopsychosocial perspective (What is the biophysical perspective?): o Explains mental disorders as the result of interactions among biological, psychological, and social factors 25 Final o Biological perspective Focuses on genetic and epigenetic influences, biochemical imbalances, and abnormalities in brain structure and function o Psychological perspective Focuses on adaptive learning and coping, cognitive biases, and interpersonal problems o Social factors Focuses on poor socialization, stressful life experiences, and social inequities Diathesis-Stress model of psychopathology/psychological disorders o Suggests that a person may be predisposed for a psychological disorder thatremains unexpressed until triggered by stress Diathesis is the predisposition Stress is the external trigger o Possible for Someone with the predisposition to never encounter a precipitating stress Someone with a little genetic propensity to a disorder might suffer from it given the right pattern of stress For each of the following, know the basic definitions, subtypes, and examples (note: for each of the following ‘category’ of disorders, multiples types of disorders were discussed) o Anxiety disorders Definition: the class of mental disorder in which anxiety is the predominant feature Often comorbid o Comorbidity – the co-occurrence of two or more disorders in asingle individual Example: Include phobic disorders, panic disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder o Obsessive compulsive disorder: feature but not primary feature of anxiety disorder Generalized Anxiety Disorder; Panic Disorder; Phobias; OCD; PTSD (PHOBIC DISORDER) o Disorders characterized by marked, persistent, and excessive fear and avoidance of specific objects, activities, or situations o Needs to be Disproportionate to actual risk Impair ability to carry out a normal life 26 Final o Individuals recognize the fear is irrational, but can’t stop it from happening Specific Phobia An irrational fear of a particular object or situation that markedly interferes with an individual’s ability to function 5 Categories Animals (e.g. dogs, cats, rats, snakes, spiders) Natural environments (e.g. heights, darkness, water, storms Situations (e.g. bridges, elevators, tunnels, enclosed places) Blood, injections, and injury Other phobias, including choking or vomiting In children, loud noises or costumed characters Preparedness Theory • The idea that people are instinctively predisposed toward certain fears • Humans and monkeys can • Quickly be conditioned to have a fear response for stimuli such as snakes and spiders • Cannot be quickly conditioned to have fears of flowers or toy rabbits • Passed down from ancestors Social Phobia An irrational fear of being publicly humiliated or embarrassed Example o Can be restricted Public speaking, eating in public, or urinating in a public bathroom o Can be generalized Situations that involve being observed or interacting with unfamiliar people o Try to avoid situations where unfamiliar people might evaluate them 27 Final o Experience intense anxiety and distress when public exposure is unavoidable (PANIC DISORDER) - - A disorder characterized by the sudden occurrence of multiple psychological and physiological symptoms that contribute to afeeling of stark terror o Acute symptoms of a panic attack last only a few minutes EX: Include shortness of breath, heart palpitations, sweating, dizziness, depersonalization or derealization, and fear that one is about to go crazy or die o To meet criteria must Have recurrent unexpected attacks Report significant anxiety about having another attack Agoraphobia: o A specific phobia regarding fear of public places o Fear of Not necessarily of public places but rather having a panic attack in a public place or around strangers who might view them with disdain orfail to help them o This is typically experienced during a period of intense stress (Generalized Anxiety Disorder): - A disorder characterized by chronic excessive worryaccompanied by three or more of the following symptoms: o Restlessness, fatigue, concentration problems,irritability, muscle tension, and sleep disturbance - Uncontrollable worrying produces a sense of loss of control that can erode self-confidence o Simple decisions can be fraught with dire consequences Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) 28 Final - - - - - A disorder in which repetitive, intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and ritualistic behaviors (compulsions) designed to fend off those thoughts interfere significantly with an individual’s functioning o Behavior gives transient anxiety relief, so the behavior is reinforced. o Treatment: Expose the patient to the behavior but not allow it to happen. This causes extinction of behavior: LEARNING Anxiety plays a big role o Obsessive thoughts create anxiety o Compulsive behaviors reduce anxiety o Creates a loop that’s difficult to exit Obsession and compulsions o Intense, frequent, and experienced as irrational and excessive Attempts to cope with obsessive thoughts by repression are of little to no help o Thought suppression can actually backfire, increasing the intensity and frequency of obsessive thoughts Most common OCD obsessions and compulsions o Checking – 79% of OCD patients o Ordering – 57% of OCD patients o Moral concerns – 43% of OCD patients o Contamination – 26% of OCD patients Posttraumatic stress disorder - A disorder characterized by chronic physiological arousal, recurrent unwanted thoughts or images of the trauma, andavoidance of things that call the traumatic event to mind - Nowhere more apparent than in war o Many soldiers returning from combat experience symptoms of PTSD Flashbacks of battle Exaggerated anxiety and startle reactions Medical conditions that don’t arise from physical damage EX: paralysis or chronic fatigue Neural correlates to PTSD - 29 Final o Those with PTSD show Heightened activity in the amydgala Region associated with the evaluation of threatening information and fear conditioning Decreased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex Region important to the extinction of fear conditioning A smaller sized hippocampus The part of the brain most linked with memory o Correlational vs Causal? Gilbertson (2002) Study of PTSD victims and their identical twins Both combat veterans with PTSD and their identical twins showed reduced hippocampal volume This suggests that the veterans’ reduced hippocampal volumes weren’t caused by the combat exposure o Instead, both the veterans and their twin brothers had a smaller hippocampus to begin with o Likely a pre-existing condition making them more susceptible to PTSD when they were later exposed to the stimulus Depressive and Bipolar Disoder Mood Disorder Mental disorders that have mood disturbance as their predominant feature o Two main forms 1. Major Depressive Disorder (unipolar depression) A disorder characterized by a severely depressed mood and/or inability to experience pleasure that lasts 2 or more weeks and is accompanied by feelings of worthlessness, lethargy, and sleep and appetite disturbance Dysthymia 30 Final The same cognitive and bodily problems as in depression are present, but they are less severe and last longer, persisting for at least 2 years Double depression o A moderately depressed mood that persists for at least 2 years and is punctuated by periods of major depression o When both major depressive disorder and dysthymia co-occur together Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) o Recurrent depressive episodes in a seasonal pattern In most cases, the episodes begin in fall or winter and remit in spring Pattern is due to reduced levels of light over the cold seasons Winter-related depressions appear to be more prevalent in higher altitudes Kindling hypothesis o On average, major depression lasts about 12 weeks At least 60% of individuals with one episode will have another… At least 70% of individuals with two episodes will have a third… 90% of individuals with three episodes will have a fourth Helplessness theory (Why do we get depressed?) – The idea that individuals who are prone to depression automatically attribute negative experiences to causes that are internal (i.e. their own fault), stable (i.e. unlikely to change), and global (i.e. widespread) Example o A student who receives a low grade on an exam will make the following attributions That they are low in intelligence (internal) That their low intelligence will never change (stable) That this is representative of their failure in other realms (global) 31 Final 2. Bipolar disorder A condition characterized by cycles of abnormal persistent high mood (mania) and low mood (depression) o Depressive phase Clinically indistinguishable from major depression (as far as we know) o Manic phase Lasts at least 1 week Mood can be elevated, expansive, or irritable Other symptoms Grandiosity, decreased need for sleep, talkativeness, racing thoughts, distractibility, and reckless behavior o Lifetime risk of bipolar disorder is 2.5% Does not differ in men and women o Typically a recurrent condition 90% of affected people suffer from several episodes over a lifetime o 10% of those with bipolar disorder are rapid cycling Characterized by at least 4 mood episodes (either depressive or manic) every year This type is more difficult to treat Some think that those with psychotic and mood disorders (especially bipolar disorder) have higher creativity and intellectual ability o Pronounced energy, mania, grandiosity, and ambition helps people achieve great things Schizophrenia A disorder characterized by Profound disruption of basic psychological processes A distorted perception of reality Altered or blunted emotion Disturbances in thought, motivation, and behavior Must have two or more symptoms during the continuous period of at least 1 month with signs of the disorder persisting for at least 6 months Symptoms are described as either positive or negative Positive: 32 Final o Thoughts and behaviors present in schizophrenia but not seen in thosewithout the disorder, such as delusions and hallucinations Hallucinations False perceptual experiences that have a compelling sense of being real despite the absence of externalstimulations o Auditory 65% of schizophrenics reveal hearing voices repeatedly o hallucinations are more common than visual hallucinations Delusions A patently false belief system, often bizarre and grandiose, that is maintained in spite of its irrationality o EX: an individual may believe that he or she is Jesus Christ, Napoleon, Joan of Arc, or some other well-known person People with schizophrenia have little or no insight into their disordered perceptual and thought processes Disorganized speech Grossly disorganized behavior A severe disruption of verbal communication in which ideas shift rapidly and incoherently among unrelated topics Behavior that is inappropriate for the situation or ineffective in attaining goals, often with specific motor disturbances Catatonic behavior A marked decrease in all movement or an increase in muscular rigidity and over activity o Modern medications make this symptom less common Negative - Deficits or disruptions to normal emotions and behaviors (e.g., emotional and social withdrawal; apathy; poverty of speech; and other indications of the absence or insufficiency of normal behaviors, motivation, and emotion) 33 Final - These symptoms refer to something missing in schizophrenic patients o Rob people of emotion, flattened affect, deadpan responses, decreased interest in others, or decreased capacity to focus attention Cognitive – Deficits in cognitive abilities, specifically executive functioning, attention, and working memory – More difficult to notice since they are less bizarre and public than most positive symptoms Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) A condition beginning in early childhood in which a person shows persistent communication deficits as well as restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviors, interests, or activities o EX: Understands that Bob think it’s raining but not understand that Bob picks up an umbrella. In DSM-5, ASD now subsumes several distinct disorders from DSM-IV o Autistic disorder o Asperger’s disorder o Childhood disintegrative disorder o Pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified Current model o States that ASD can be understood as An impaired capacity for Empathizing – knowing the mental states of others A superior ability for Systematizing – understanding the rules that organize the structure and function of objects Brain imaging studies show decreased activity in regions associated with understanding the minds of others greater activation in regions related to basic object perception Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) A persistent pattern of severe problems with inattention and/or hyperactivity orimpulsiveness that cause significant impairment in functioning o Meeting criteria requires either (or both) Multiple symptoms of inattention 34 Final Persistent problems with sustained attention, organization, memory, or following instructions o Hyperactivity-impulsiveness Persistent difficulties with remaining still, waiting for a turn, or interrupting others Affects about 10% of boys and 4% of girls o Men are more likely for hyperactivity type o Woman are more likely for inattentive type o Depressive and bipolar disorders Depression (major depressive disorder/ unipolar depression); Dysthymia; Double depression; Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD); and Bipolar Disorder o Schizophrenia 35 Final Negative and positive symptoms—be able to identify Causes o Autism Spectrum Disorders o Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Personality An individual’s characteristic style of thought, feeling, and action Explain why the power of situations makes it difficult to define and study personality o Problem in social psych: power of situation Conformity Experiment Line experiment Stanford Prison Exp: role Milgram study with powerful authorities Influence of religious, authority, and other pressures, the context of just having a lot of other people around What makes it harder to separate personality from situations? o Need to be cautious of any attempt to define personality in total isolation removed from situations o Means that situation affects us almost irrespective of our personality. o But, some individuals often object to situations as well, override the power of situation So despite the power of situation, there is effect of personality in this situations o The trouble with personality People have to think of the situation as constant in order to think about the personality 36 Final Personality arises within situations—there is simply no such thing as a personality outside a situation, just like there is no such thing as a rectangle defined only by height. But a variant of this question is not so dumb… EX: o Asking one person: o How much of this person’s behavior is due to external factors (the situation) and how much is due to internal factors (personality)? o Asking Multiple people o How much of the variation in the behavior of these people is due to variation in external factors and how much is due to variation in internal factors? Personality is highly heritable o BUT the environment matters; the variation between the intelligence of people due to genes is much lower in poor areas due to severe barriers to people achieving their potential EX: - Wealthy Area: your intelligence will almost certainly be highly similar to your parent’s intelligence. Your parent’s intelligence strongly predicts your intelligence. (IQ) - Poor Area: your intelligence is likely to be only very weakly related to your parents’ intelligence. o Why? Wealthy Area, everything is set up for you to expand to your full abilities—your environment will be stable, and resources will be present for you to learn and thrive. In setting like this one, the range of likely variation is much greater. 37 Perhaps your parents didn’t finish high school and so test poorly on an IQ test, but you end up excelling in school Or perhaps your parents are well educated and good test takers, but you get wrapped up in gang activities and drop out before HS Final Malnutrition or drug abuse or broken families affects you or your parent and does so in different ways Thus, you will end up more different than your parent in intelligence, and indeed on most things NOT because your genes are fundamentally different from someone else’s in a rich neighborhood, but just because the environment is throwing more curve balls your way, more room for you to differ. o So we once again see here that trying to think of the individual as separate from an environment simply doesn’t work! o Power of Situation doesn’t mean that situations are the only source of variation in behavior But the situation often accounts for more variance than we naturally infer The Fundamental Attribution Error: WILL BE ON THE EXAM o When we look at somebody else, we assume that part of the behavior is driving all their personality It represents an Important Piece of what we know about human thinking. That is, we tend to underestimate the power of situations. Measuring Personality Two poles in study of Human Psychology: Broadest Level: Look at human universals: things true of all regularly developing humans Individual Level: Where each individual person is considered independently and uniquely. 38 Final DRAW BACKS Broadest Level: o When I want to understand why you are doing/ what you are doing, when it is different than what someone else did, this level is hopelessly broad. IT can’t distinguish at all between individuals. Individual Level: o When it comes to your best friend, you are willing to hang out down here at the level at which everyone is unique. But,it is much effort to consider each person on a totally individual level, and we might think that, while it is logically true that every individual is unique, some individuals are more alike than others. That is, some of you have psychological things in common with me and some don’t---in some sense we can group people based on common elements of their personalities. So what we want is some intermediate level of analysis at which we can characterize kinds of people. Three ways psychologists have tried to do this… o Types o Themes o Traits Types Define and identify limitations of type-based approaches to defining and measuring personality o Measuring Personality type Problems of measuring types Galen’s Humours Galen was a Roman Physician, built on older Greek Theories in developing four kinds of people -four humours- each associated with a specific element o The idea was that we all have all four of these elements in us, and the best-functioning people are in perfect balance between them. But most of us have one of the areas as dominant—and this affects our personality as well as our health. So someone who is despondent and irritable is of the earth or melancholic temperament; Someone courageous, optimistic, and amourous is air— also known as sanguine. 39 Final Someone calm and unemotional is water, or phelgmatic, Someone easily angered and bad tempered is fire, or choleric. o Many theorists of the time believe that the weather, the season of the year, the season you were born in, and the foods you ate influenced the balance of humours in your body and thus your personality. This overall view actually survived with great popularity in Europe until the 19th century. Astrology The notion of zodiac signs having an influence on our personality, so when you were born (the month and day in western zodiac, year in Chinese zodiac) Body style These are debunked: type theories per se have largely fallen from favor. Tend to seem arbitrary, not linked enough to your actual psychology o Precise personality theories: Theories about the natural types that exist in the world of humans and what they are each like Personality types have been replaced by themes Themes Define and identify limitations of theme-based approaches to defining and measuring personality Other invalid measures o Sigmund Freud: thinks personality as interaction of these three different themes Id (Instincts) Strong desires: food/sex o The Provence of the id. Ego (Reality) Arbiter b/w id and real world o Get what the id wants but to do so within the confines of the real world o Need to work within the confines of other people, available food, social rules, and so on. Superego (Morality) Layer of control over the id: not based on realistic constraints but more on social morals o Norms, molarity, etc 40 Final o There might be circumstances in which we can gratify sexual needs, but refrain because it’s immoral o Rorschah ink blot test Modern astrology Traits The difference between type-based and dimension-based approaches to personality o EX: Ice-cube/steam Type: Two examples of water. represent two types of water—the ice type and the steam type, and we could imagine a third liquid type right in the middle. Dimensions: Conceptualize this as a continuum, a dimension, let’s call it molecular speed, and both of these things are just the same stuff at a different point along that dimension. Fundamentally different system than the types system, in which water and steam would be conceptualized as fundamentally different kinds of thing. On the dimensions approach, there is commonality and also difference— commonality of stuff, the same kind of thing, but difference of position along the continuum. Two different ways to characterize personality types. The point is not that one of these approaches is totally wrong, but that they are competing accounts of the same thing, Many find that the dimensions approach is much more powerful in the domain of personality. Be able to identify and recognize the characteristics of each of the “Big Five” personality traits (OCEAN): Dimensional model o Openness : Describes a person’s orientation towards novelty, change and uncertainty 41 Final o Conscientiousness: Describes the extent to which a person is focused, organized, and persistent in the pursuit of his or her goals o Extraversion: Describes a person’s level of arousal and preference for stimulation o Agreeableness Describes a person’s orientation toward and style of interacting with others compliance and modest… 42 Final Less agreeable: expresses opinions vs More agreeable: willing to help others… o Negative Emotionality (aka Neuroticism) Describes a person’s propensity to experience negative emotions Personality is our position on each of these five dimensions. Problems of Measuring Traits (Why might it be hard to get to the ‘true’ personality using this approach?) Reactivity (Subject Bias) EX: o Being asked questions about personality…how do you answer? How much do you worry about what your score will be? What if you don’t want to be an introvert, you’ve always felt like a wallflower and wished you were more outgoing? Therefore, shift your answers in the direction of what you expect to be extroverted. Lack of Insight o Do we then know you were accurate? 43 Final o On consciousness/ implicit bias—how do you know you even CAN have the necessary insight to answer the questions appropriately? Related issue can be Narcissism. Where does the difference come from/ Where personality (individuality) comes from o Twin studies (evidence on how genetics could determine personality) Monozygotic identical twins are usually compared to dizygotic or fraternal twins—because while DZ twins are no more genetically related than normal brothers and sisters, they are more like MZ twins in that they shared the same womb environment, are the same age, had more or less the same home environment, and so on. Correlation between genetically identical MZ twins are much higher than DZ twins, suggesting a genetic basis for personality. o Birth order There are consistent differences based on birth order that seem to hold very widely in many contexts. Firstborns score higher on objectively measured intelligence and additionally found a similar effect on self-reported intellect. However, we found no birth-order effects on extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, or imagination. o General Intelligence o Definition G– for general intelligence. This is what we might think of as intelligence, IQ, etc—and the idea is that G reflects your general ability to solve problems. o How it is measured Traditional way of assessing intelligence: Reliance on general knowledge, meaning results will vary with level of education, etc…so not ‘pure’ intelligence in one sense, since it will depend on educational background. Genetics doesn't seal your destiny when it comes to IQ. About half the variability in IQ is attributed to the environment. Access to nutrition, education, and health care appear to play a big role. But overall, the environmental determinants of IQ aren't as well understood as the biology. o The Flynn effect Gradual increase in avg IQ over time. 44 Final One of the very odd things about IQ testing though is that over time people are starting to score higher and higher on the tests! These amount to about 10 IQ points every 10-20 years! Education appears to be the most consistent, robust, and durable method yet to be identified for raising intelligence. • Both internal (personality) and external (situational) forces produce human behavior • Measuring internal factors is sticky business: types, themes, or traits? • Trait theories are most prevalent in personality psychology, but have serious limitations • Personality has a very strong genetic component, but can still be shaped by environment • Individual differences -- including intelligence -- likely reflect natural variability in cognitive modules 45