Psychology Concepts: Social, Cognitive, and Clinical
Social Psychology Concepts
Thin Slicing – Rapid processing of social cues.
Personal Attributions – Internal attributions; refer to things within people.
Situational Attributions – External attributions; refer to the situation.
Fundamental Attribution Error – The tendency for people to base explanations of behavior on personal characteristics.
Actor-Observer Discrepancy – People’s tendency to focus on situation when interpreting their own negative behaviors and to focus on dispositions when interpreting other people’s negative behaviors (vice versa).
Proximity – We tend to like people who are physically near us.
Mere Exposure Effect (Familiarity) – The greater the exposure to an item (more familiarity), causes people to have more-positive attitudes about the item.
Similarity – “Birds of a feather flock together”, similarity in attitudes increases the likelihood of a relationship.
Reciprocity – We like those who like us; we work for each other’s benefit.
Arousal – When physiologically aroused, more likely to be attracted.
Reactance – We want what we can’t have.
Matching Principle – People tend to pair with someone who is similar in physical attractiveness.
What Is Beautiful Is Good – Unconscious belief that attractive people are better people.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy – If someone thinks you’re attractive, you behave more attractively.
Social Brain Hypothesis – Larger prefrontal cortexes allow humans to live in dynamic social groups that change over time.
Transitivity – Form opinions on other people based on opinions in your group.
Social Identity Theory – Value similar-identity groups and take pride through membership.
Ingroup Favoritism – People are more likely to distribute resources to ingroup members than to outgroup members.
Outgroup Homogeneity Effect – People tend to view outgroup members as less varied than ingroup members.
Medial Prefrontal Cortex – Important for thinking about people; works harder for ingroups.
Social Norm – Rule of behavior or expectations accepted by most group members.
Conformity – Change in behavior due to the influence of others.
Normative Influence – Conform due to the need to be liked.
Informational Influence – Conform due to the need to be right.
Private Acceptance – Genuine belief that the group is right.
Public Compliance – Conforming without believing what saying/doing.
Compliance, Obedience, and Group Dynamics
Compliance – Tendency to do things requested by others.
Foot-in-the-Door Effect – Start small.
Door-in-the-Face Effect – Start big.
Low-Balling Effect – Once agree to a request, add others onto it.
Obedience – Following an order or command, usually given by an authority.
Deindividuation – Less sense of self, more of group; do things normally would not if alone.
Risky-Shift Effect – Groups make riskier decisions than individuals.
Group Polarization – Initial group attitudes become more extreme over time.
Groupthink – Group polarization leads to impaired decision-making, cohesion emphasized, usually a leader present.
Social Loafing – Don’t work as hard in a group as alone.
Social Facilitation – Presence of others generally enhancing performance.
Bystander Effect – Anonymity, diffusion of responsibility, fear of social blunders, cost/benefit.
Altruism – Providing help when it is needed, no reward; inclusive fitness, reciprocal helping.
Subordinate Goals – Goals that require people to cooperate reduce hostility.
Cognitive Dissonance and Stress
Cognitive Dissonance – Occurs when there is a contradiction between two attitudes or between an attitude and a behavior.
Postdecisional Dissonance – Motivates a person to focus on the chosen option’s positive aspects and the unchosen’s negative.
Restrained Eaters – Or chronic dieters, are more prone to excessive eating in certain situations because they rely on cognitive control of food.
Eustress – Stress of positive events.
Distress – Stress of negative events.
Major Life Stressors – Change that strain central areas of people’s lives.
Daily Hassles – Small, day-to-day irritations and annoyances.
Hardiness – People seem stress-resistant because they are capable of adapting to life changes by viewing events constructively.
General Adaptation Syndrome – A nonspecific stress response, three stages.
Alarm Stage – Brief reduction in resistance as the body provides energies to muscles and brain.
Resistance Stage – Hormonal mechanisms give a prolonged defense from stressor as well as a boost in immunity.
Exhaustion – Various physiological and immune systems fail.
SAM System – Immediately increases sympathetic NS activation; release of epi- and norepi-.
HPA Axis – Prolonged period of high sympathetic NS activation; release of cortisol may damage hippocampus breaking feedback loop.
Coping Mechanisms and Sleep
Maternal Responsively – Mothers who are more responsive to stress, less stress in children.
Stress Mismatch – Humans are built for acute stress (predators), but experience chronic stress (modern life).
Emotion-Focused Coping – A person tries to prevent an emotional response to the stressor; does not solve the problem.
Problem-Focused Coping – Taking direct steps to solve the problem; helpful when the situation can be improved.
Relationship-Focused Coping – Turn to family/friends for comfort and support.
Positive Reappraisal – A cognitive process in which a person focuses on possible good things in the current situation.
Downward Comparison – Comparing oneself to those who are worse off.
Creation of Positive Events – Giving positive meaning to ordinary events, silver lining.
Buffering Hypothesis – When others provide emotional support, the recipient is able to better cope with events; perceived is key.
Awake – Short, frequent, irregular brain signals; beta waves.
Pre-Sleep – More regular alpha waves.
Stage 1 – Short bursts of irregular waves called theta waves; images of shapes and sensation of body movement.
Stage 2 – Theta waves but with bursts of activity (sleep spindles) and large waves (K-complexes); less sensitive to stimuli.
Stages 3 & 4 – Large, regular brain patterns called delta waves; if awoken appear disoriented.
REM Sleep – Paradox of a sleeping body with an active brain and rapid eye movements; vivid dreams and full body paralyzation.
Restoration Theory – Sleep allows the body, including the brain, to reset and repair itself.
Circadian Rhythm Theory – Sleep has evolved to keep animals quiet and inactive in dangerous times of day.
Learning Theory – Neural connections which are made during the day are strengthened when sleeping, facilitating learning.
Activation-Synthesis Theory – States that random brain activity occurs during sleep and that this neural firing can activate mechanisms that normally interpret sensory input.
Hypnosis and Meditation
Social Cognitive Theory of Hypnosis – Hypnotized people behave as they expect hypnotized people to behave, even if those expectations are faulty.
Neodissociation Theory of Hypnosis – Views the hypnotic state as an altered state in which conscious awareness is separated from other aspects of consciousness.
Concentration Meditation – Focus attention on one thing.
Mindfulness Mediation – Let thoughts flow freely paying attention to them but trying not to react to them.
Flow – A particular kind of experience that is so engrossing and enjoyable that it is worth doing for its own sake.
Pleasant Life – Positive pleasantries in life.
Good Life – Maximizing one’s own potential in life.
Meaningful Life – Serving other people in life.
Fight-or-Flight Response – Refers to the physiological preparation of animals to deal with an attack; prevalent in men.
Tend-and-Befriend Response – Refers to protecting and caring for offspring, forming alliances with social groups; more prevalent in women.
Intern’s Disease – Tendency for people to believe that they or someone they know shares symptoms after hearing them.
Clinical Psychology Concepts
Disease Model – Distinguish normal from abnormal, goal is to cure illness.
Maladaptiveness – Refers to a person with psychopathology exhibiting thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are maladaptive.
Categorical Approach – Implies that a person either has a disorder or does not (DSM).
Dimensional Approach – Considers disorders along a continuum.
Abnormality Criteria – Deviance from social norms, maladaptive, cause personal distress or dangerous, causes discomfort or concern to others.
Comorbidity – Refers to psychological disorders occurring together.
RDoC – Defines basic domains of functioning and considers disorders across multiple levels of analysis.
Evidence-Based Assessment – An approach to clinical evaluation in which research guides the evaluation of psychopathology.
Structured Interview – Scripted, used for diagnoses.
Clinical Interview – Unstructured, used for research.
Objective Testing – Not subject to interpretation.
Projective Testing – Present people with ambiguous stimuli and interpret responses.
Diathesis-Stress Model – Describes an individual can have underlying vulnerability to a disorder and stress exacerbates that vulnerability (biological vs. environmental).
Family Systems Model – Proposes that an individual’s behavior must be considered within a social context.
Sociocultural Model – Views psychopathology as the result of the interaction between individuals and their cultures.
Cognitive-Behavioral Approach – Abnormal behavior is learned through classical condition and can be unlearned.
Anxiety and Depressive Disorders
Anxiety Disorders – Characterized by excessive fear and anxiety in the absence of true danger.
Specific Phobia – An irrational fear of a specific object or situation.
Social Anxiety Disorder – Fear of being negatively evaluated by others.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder – Diffuse anxiety that is always present.
Panic Disorder – Consists of sudden, overwhelming attacks of terror and worry about having additional attacks.
Agoraphobia – Afraid of being in a situation in which escape is difficult or impossible.
OCD – Involves frequent intrusive thoughts and compulsive actions; manifests through negative reinforcement.
Obsessions – Recurrent, unwanted thoughts that increase anxiety.
Compulsions – Behaviors or rituals that one feels driven to perform.
PTSD – Involves frequent and recurring unwanted thoughts related to trauma.
Depressive Disorders – The presence of sad, empty, or irritable mood along with diminished interest in activities and bodily symptoms and cognitive problems that interfere with daily life.
Major Depressive Disorder – Consists of life-interfering depressive episodes during which he or she experiences a depressed mood for at least two weeks; often recurrent.
Persistent Depressive Disorder – Mild to moderate depressed mood that lasts at least 2 years.
Seasonal Affective Disorder – Experiencing depression only at certain times of the year.
Cognitive Triad – People with depression think negatively about themselves, their situations, and about the future.
Learned Helplessness – People come to see themselves as unable to have any effect on events in their lives.
Bipolar, Dissociative, and Schizophrenia
Mania – Refers to an excessively elevated or irritable mood.
Bipolar I – Based more on manic episodes than depression.
Bipolar II – Experience less extreme mood elevations (hypomania) but major depression.
Dissociative Disorders – Extreme versions of dislocations that involves disruptions of identity, memory, or conscious awareness.
Dissociative Amnesia – A person forgets that an event happened or loses awareness about a block of time.
Dissociative Fugue – Loses identity and travels to a new location.
Dissociative Identity Disorder – The occurrence of two or more distinct identities in the same individual, along with memory gaps.
Schizophrenia – Characterized by alternation in thought, in perceptions, or in consciousness.
Delusions – False beliefs based on incorrect inferences.
Hallucinations – False sensory perceptions that experiences without an external source.
Disorganized Speech – Incoherent speech, failing to follow normal structure.
Disorganized Behavior – Acting strangely.
Negative Schizophrenia Symptoms – Do not express emotion, tone of voice, movement.
Psychotherapy and Biological Therapies
Psychotherapy – Psychological treatment and involves interactions between practitioner and client.
Biological Therapies – Therapies based on the notion that disorders result from abnormalities in neural and bodily processes.
Psychodynamic Therapy – A therapist aims to help a client examine their needs, defenses, and motives (unconscious processes and insight) as a way of understanding why the client is distressed.
Behavior Therapy – Behaviors unlearned through the use of classical and operant conditioning (rewards/punishments).
Exposure – A person is exposed repeatedly to an anxiety-producing stimulus or situation.
Cognitive Therapy – Based on the theory that thoughts can produce maladaptive behaviors and emotions.
Cognitive Restructuring – A clinician seeks to help a person recognize maladaptive thought patterns and replace them.
Interpersonal Therapy – Focuses on circumstances and helping clients explore their interpersonal experiences and express their emotions.
Mindfulness-Based Therapy – Become aware of negative thoughts and learn to disengage from negative thinking through meditation.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy – Incorporates techniques from both branches and tries to correct client’s fault cognitions and to train the client to engage in new behaviors; most common.
Client-Centered Therapy – Approach encourages people to fulfill their individual potentials for personal growth through greater self-understanding.
ECT – Placing electrodes on head causing seizures.
TMS – Magnetic field induces electrical current in the brain interrupting function.
DBS – Surgically implanting electrodes to stimulate the brain.
Placebo Effect – Real effect, any improvement in mental health, attributed to the inert drug or minimal context.
Hedonic – Focus is on happiness.
Eudaimonic – Focus on meaning and self-actualization.