Download Study Guide for the Mid-Term Exam

Study Guide for the Mid-Term Exam
Introduction to the Psychology of Adjustment
Fall Semester 2006
Questions in bold are possible discussion questions. They will be worth 4 points
each, and you will be answering 10 (no more than 2 per chapter) of them. You may
choose these from the study guide, answer them outside class and turn them in along
with your test. Questions not in bold will be multiple choice or matching. They will
be worth 1-2 points each and will be answered in class.
Chapter 1: Adjusting to Life
1. What is psychological adjustment?
2. What is critical thinking?
3. Are rich people happier?
4. What is subjective well-being? Is it the same thing as quality of life? Is it the same
thing as standard of living? According to Diener, how important do college students rate
it in surveys?
5. Briefly describe how the following variables relate to happiness (positively,
negatively, or not related).
- earned money; won money
- good social relationships
- age and gender
- education level
- physical attractiveness
- helping others
- faith and spirituality
6. What are the characteristics of happy college students?
7. What is an experiment? How does it differ from a correlational study? Which one
shows causation? What is the goal of correlational research?
10. Why should you not jump to conclusions about what causes what from the
newspaper headlines? In general, what are some problems with using
psychological information that is presented on television, on radio, or in newspapers
and magazines?
11. What are some of the criteria that you should use to evaluate the credibility of a
self-help book and/or a self-help website?
12. What is the difference between a clinical psychologist and a psychiatrist?
Chapter 2: Personality
13. Define personality.
14. You should be able to describe the id, ego, and superego. Is this part of the
personality conscious? Rational? Moral? What types of behavior might it engender if
left alone?
15. What is the purpose of defense mechanisms? What is the one that is necessary to the
function of all the others? You should be able to recognize a description of each of them.
16. What did all of the neo-Freudians disagree with Freud about?
17. What did Horneye, Jung, and Adler each think was the driving motive or force
behind human behavior? What were Horneye’s three coping strategies and what were the
differences between secure and insecure people?
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18. What is the primary operating assumption for all the behaviorists (classical &
operant conditioning) concerning how behavior develops?
19. What kinds of behaviors can be classically conditioned?
20. What is the importance of classical conditioning? In other words, what types of
experiences or behaviors might be affected by it?
21. Under operant conditioning, you should be able to recognize examples of positive
and negative punishment and reinforcement.
22. What are the four main processes involved in observational learning?
23. Describe reciprocal determinism, self-efficacy and delay of gratification.
24. What is the difference between internal and external locus of control?
25. What did Carl Roger’s think was inborn in everyone’s nature?
26. According to Rogers, what causes maladjustment?
27. What is unconditional positive regard? Is it possible to fully dissociate the
person from the behavior?
28. What is self-actualization?
29. What are the primary criticisms of the humanistic approach?
30. What is a personality trait?
31. You should be able to recognize descriptions of the big 5 personality traits.
32. What is situationism?
33. You should be able to recognize the difference between an individualist and a
collectivist attitude.
34. You should know the definitions of the following terms. Self-report test, projective
test, face validity, social desirability, empirically-keyed test.
35. What do the NEO-PI-R and the HPI test?
Chapter 3: The Self, Identity, and Values
36. What are ideal, real, and ought-selves and what is self-concept?
37. What are self-discrepancies, and what do they produce? What are the factors in
determining how disturbing they are?
38. What are possible selves? Are they always positive?
39. What is the general definition of self-esteem? Is it general or domain specific? Does
it fluctuate or remain stable?
40. Given the research, does increasing self-esteem necessarily lead to improved
performance?
41. What are two variables that are consistently linked to self-esteem?
42. What is narcissism? How does a narcissist behave, and what is the underlying
picture of their self-concepts?
43. What is identity and what are the four states of identity that Erickson and others have
talked about? How are these states related to crisis and commitment?
44. What are values?
45. What values appear to be increasing and decreasing in importance among American
college students?
46. According to Baumeister, there are four main needs that are related to having a
meaningful life. What are they and how does each one relate to meaning?
47. Can a person be too concerned with self-fulfillment according to Baumeister?
What might be the negatives of this?
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48. Victor Frankl says that life is meaningful because it is what?
49. What do critics say that Americans are too concerned with, and what are some
alternative value priorities?
50. What did Gabarino find in his interviews with youth in 1999?
51. What has been the value emphasis in American education in recent decades,
and what are some criticisms of the effects that it has produced?
52. Do most people around the world indicate that they believe in God?
53. What percentage of American middle-aged adults consider spirituality a major part
of their lives?
54. Describe changes in religiosity or the belief and practice of religion in America
in recent decades.
55. Practice of religion appears to be positively related to good health and a long
life. What are some of the factors that might contribute to this relationship?
56. What is religious coping, and what are some of the aspects of it?
Chapter 4: Stress
57. What is stress? What is a stressor?
58. Briefly describe the General Adaptation Syndrome. What are its stages?
59. What are the two main pathways involved in the body’s response to stressors?
60. What is the name of a primary stress hormone produced by the adrenal glands?
61. According to Lazarus, what is cognitive appraisal? What is the difference between
primary and secondary appraisal?
62. Define psychoneuroimmunology. With regard to the immune system, what are high
and low levels of stress associated with?
63. What are the categories of life events that produce stress?
64. Describe two possible direct links of stress and cardiovascular disease.
65. Describe the relationship between stress and cancer.
66. What effect do positive social ties have on stress?
67. Describe three types of conflict? What are overload and burnout?
68. Describe a Type A and Type B personality patterns. What is the behavior
component most consistently associated with coronary problems?
69. Describe a person who is characterized by hardiness. How are self-efficacy and
internal locus of control related to hardiness?
70. What is/are the cause(s) or PTSD and what are its symptoms?
Chapter 5: Coping
71. What is coping? What is the difference between problem-focused and emotionfocused coping? Which is usually more effective in the long run?
72. What is meaning-making coping, and what are the differences among activecognitive, active-behavioral, and avoidance coping strategies?
73. What is cognitive restructuring? What is self-talk?
74. How can self-talk become a self-fulfilling prophecy?
75. What are some ways that you can monitor and adjust your own self-talk?
76. What is a positive self-illusion? Is it unhealthy?
77. How does Martin Seligman define or describe optimism as opposed to
pessimism?
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78. What does an optimistic outlook do for mental and physical health?
79. What is thought stopping?
80. How does humor help a person to cope?
81. Discuss the facets of social support and specific ways in which it helps us to
cope.
82. What is emotional approach coping? Is emotion-focused coping generally more or
less effective than problem-focused coping? What is rumination?
83. What is emotional regulation?
84. What are the four components of emotional intelligence?
85. Stress management programs often involve relaxation training and/or
assertiveness training? How could assertiveness training reduce stress?
86. Has meditation been found to be superior to relaxation in terms of its physical
and psychological effects?
Chapter 6: Social Thinking, Influence and Intergroup Relations
87. Describe the fundamental attribution error and the self-serving bias.
88. What is impression management? What works in almost any situation?
89. What is self-monitoring, and what groups of people are good at this?
90. The process of deliberately changing other people‘s attitudes is called persuasion.
What are four major factors in the effectiveness of the persuasion?
91. What leads us to attribute credibility to a source?
92. How do emotional appeals work?
93. What are two characteristics of the target that will determine whether or not a
message will be effective?
94. What are conformity, normative social influence and informational social influence?
95. How do the factors of group unanimity, prior commitment, personal
characteristics and cultural values tend to affect levels of conformity?
96. Why did people obey in the Stanley Milgram experiments?
97. What is compliance and what are the strategies people use to get you to comply?
98. Describe the principle of reciprocation, the door-in-the-face strategy, and the foot-inthe-door strategy.
99. How do you defend yourself against some of these strategies?
100. What does belonging to groups do for us?
101. What are social identity, ethnocentrism, prejudice and discrimination?
102. According to Social Identity Theory, how is social identity related to
ethnocentrism?
103 What are some sources of prejudice?
104. Discuss some ways to improve interethnic relations.
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