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Definitions of PersonaIity

• "Personality is that which gives order and congruence to all the different kinds of behavior in which the individual engages" (Hall & Lindzey, 1958, p.9).

• Personality is "the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment" (Allport, 1937, p.48).

• "personality is what a man really is"

Personality

• A complex set of unique psychological qualities that influence an individual's characteristic pattern of behavior across different situations and over time

• The central goal of theories of personality is to specify the differences among people that allow predictions to be made about their course of life.

Personality Psychology

• The scientific study of the psychological forces that make people uniquely themselves.

• Questions Asked:

• How are we unique individuals?

• What is the nature of self?

"What makes a person tick?"

• Personality psychology is scientific due to the use of methods of scientific inference to test theories.

• Examples: correlational analysis, case studies, cross-cultural

comparisons, and research into biological structures.

• Personality psychology focuses on 8 key aspects that help us to understand the complex nature of the individual.

8 Key Aspects of Personality

• 1) Unconscious forces

• Forces not in moment-to-moment awareness.

• 2) Ego forces

• Provide a sense of identity or "self".

• 3) Cognitive forces

• Thinking and interpretation of the world.

• 4) Biological forces

• Genetic, physical, physiological, and temperamental nature of the individual.

• 5) Conditioning/shaping forces

• Shaped by the environment and experiences.

• 6) Traits, skills, & predispositions

• Personal abilities and inclinations.

• 7) Spiritual (existential) forces

• Thoughts about the meaning of existence.

• 8) Person-situation (environmental) interactions

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Psychodynamic Theory

• "The psychoanalytical definition of the mind is that it comprises processes of the nature of feelings, thinking, and wishing, and it maintains that there are such things as unconscious thinking and unconscious wishing" (Freud, 1943,

p.23)

Freud's Theory of Personality

• The core of personality are events within the mind

(Intrapsychic).

• These intrapsychic events motivate our behavior.

• Operate consciously and unconsciously

• All behavior is motivated. NO chance or accidental

happenings cause behavior; all acts are determined by motives.

Freud's Theory of Personality (The Unconscious)

• The portion of the mind that is inaccessable to usual conscious thought.

• "Thoughts, feelings, and desires of which we are not aware but which very much influence our behavior" (Strean, 1994, p. 16).

• According to Freud, the unconscious is the "depository of sexual and aggressive drives, defenses, superego mandates, memories, and feelings, that have been repressed" (Strean, 1994, p. 16).

• Freud believed that the gateways to the unconscious were free association and dreams.

Freud's Theory of Personality (Drives)

• The source of motivation for human actions is psychic energy found within each individual.

• Each person has inborn instincts or drives that are tension systems. When activated, these energy sources can be expressed in many different ways:

• Self-preservation: meeting basic needs (ex. hunger).

• Eros: sexual urges and preservation of the species.

• Libido: the sexual energy that underlies psychological tension.

Freud's Theory of Personality

• The physical sources of sexual pleasure change in an orderly progression called Stages of Psychosexual Development.

• Fixation (an inability to progress normally to the next stage of development) at different stages can produce a variety of adult traits.

"used to describe individuals who have never matured beyond a certain point of psychosocial development and are unable, in many ways, to mature further" (Strean, 1994, pgs. 19-20).

• Regression: "implies that the individual has successfully mastered certain psychosocial tasks but he or she returns to previous, less mature gratifications when certain demands in the present induce anxiety" (Strean, 1994, p. 19)

Psychosexual Stages of Development

^Stage

^Erogenous

^Zone

Oral (birth to 12-18 months)		Mouth
Anal	(12-18	Anus
months to
3 years)
Phallic(3to		Genitals
5-6 years)
Latency (5-6 years to puberty)		None
Genital		Genitals
(puberty
onward)

Conflicts/

Experiences

Adult Traits Associated with Problems at This Stage

^Weaning Oral gratification from sucking, eating, biting

^{Toilet training}

Gratification from _{expelling and} withholding feces

Oepidal conflict Sexual curiosity Masturbation

Optimism, gullibility, dependency, pe simism, passivity, hostility, sarcasm, aggression

Excessive cleanliness, orderliness, stinginess, messiness, rebelliousness, destructiveness

Flirtatiousn ss, vanity, promiscuity, pride, chastity

Period of sexual cahn

Interest in schoot hob- bies, same-sex friends

Revival of sexual interests

Establishment of mature

^{xua] r lati}

^{n hips}

Copyright© 2001 by Allyn and Bacon

Freud's Theory of Personality

• Psychic Determinism: all the mental and behavioral reactions are determined by earlier experience. These Earlier experiences are buried in the unconscious.

• Behaviors are motivated by drives in our unconscious and all behavior has a manifest and latent content.

Freud's Theory of Personality

The Structure of Personality

• ID: storehouse of fundamental drives, operating irrationally on impulse, pushing for expression and immediate gratification (Pleasure Principle)

• SUPEREGO: Storehouse of values, including morals.

• The "oughts and "should nots"

• The individuals view of the kind of person he/ she should strive to become.

• Often in conflict with the ID.

• EGO: Reality based aspect of the self.

• Director between ID impulses and SUPEREGO demands.

• Reality Principle.

Conscious

Level

Preconscious

Level

Unconscious

Level

Aspect of

Level of

Personality

Consciousness

Description/Function

Ego

Mostly conscious

Mediates between id impulses and

superego inhibitions; reality

principle; rational

Superego

All levels, but

mostly preconscious

Ideals and morals; conscience;

incorporated from parents

ld

Unconscious

Basic impulses (sex and

aggression) ; pleasure principle;

seeks immediate gratification;

irrational, impulsive

Copyright©

2001 by Allyn

and Bacon

Freud's Theory of Personality (Defense Mechanisms)

• Repression: the psychological process that protects an individual from experiencing extreme anxiety or guilt about impulses, ideas, or memories.

• Most basic defense

• Defense mechanisms help a person to maintain a favorable self- image and to sustain an acceptable social image.

• When overused, they create more problems than they solve.

• Unhealthy to spend too much time and psychic energy in defense

mechanisms.

relationships.

Leaves little energy for productive living or satisfying human

Criticisms

• 1) Concepts are too vague and cannot be evaluated scientifically.

• 2) Cannot predict what will occur because it is applied after events have occurred.

• 3) Never studied on children.

• 4) Very male-centered.

Modification

• Greater emphasis on ego functions, development of self, conscious thought process, and personal mastery.

• Focus on role of social variables.

• Less emphasis on sexual urges.

• Extended personality development beyond childhood to include the entire lifespan.

Humanistic Theory

• The motivation for behavior comes from a person's unique tendency to develop and change in positive directions toward the goal of self-actualization (striving for inherent potential).

• Sometimes conflicts with the need for approval from the self and others, especially when the individual feels certain obligations or conditions must be met to gain approval.

Humanistic Theory (Carl Rogers)

• Unconditional Positive Regard: complete love and acceptance of an individual by another person, such as parents for a child, with no conditions attached.

• Is stressed because worrying about seeking approval interferes with self-actualization.

• Needs to be given and received to those you are close to.

• Also need to feel it for yourself.

Humanistic Theory (Carl Rogers)

• The "real-self" requires favorable environmental circumstances to be self-actualized (parental love, warmth, friendship)

• Anxiety develops in the absence of these, that stifles spontaneity of expression of real feelings and prevents effective relations with others.

• To cope with basic anxiety people resort to interpersonal and intrapsychic defenses.

Humanistic Theory (Abraham Maslow)

• Hierarchy ofNeeds

• These needs activate and direct human behavior.

• We are not driven by all needs at the same time.

• Only one need dominates our personality, depending on which others have been satisfied.

• The order of needs can be changed according to Maslow.

• Example: During a economic recession that causes some to lose their jobs, the safety and physiological needs may reassume priority.

Humanistic Theory (Characteristics)

• Holistic: explain individual's acts in terms of their whole personality.

• Dispositional: focus on innate qualities that exert a major influence over the direction behavior will take.

• Subjective: emphasize the individual's frame of reference.

• Existential: focus on higher mental processes.

B. F. Skinner's Theory of Personality

• The term "personality" is meaningless.

• There is no place for internal components of personality, psychical structures (id, ego, superego), traits, self-actualization, needs, or instincts.

• What is labeled "personality" is merely a group of responses to the environment.

• Operant behaviors taken together = personality.

• The universal laws of behavior acquisition, resulting in what we know as personality, operate in the same manner in human and (although more simply) in nonhuman animals.

Social-Learning Theory

• Combines principles of learning with an emphasis on human interactions in social settings.

• Humans are not driven by inner forces, nor are they helpless to environmental influences.

• Personality is based on a complex interaction of individual factors, behavior, and environmental influences.

Social-Learning Theory

• Reciprocal Determinism: Your behavior can be

influenced by your attitudes, beliefs, or prior history of reinforcement as well as by environmental influences.

• Observational Learning is a critical component.

• Models

• The basis of observational learning.

• Learning can occur through observation or example rather than only by direct reinforcement.

We learn by observing other people and modeling our behavior after theirs.

• By observing the behavior of a model and repeating that behavior, it is possible to acquire responses that we have not performed previously and/or to strengthen or weaken existing responses.

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Social-Learning Theory

• Self-Efficacy: the belief that one can perform adequately in a particular situation. Self-efficacy judgments include:

• Vicarious experience: your observations of the performance of others

• Persuasions: others convincing you that you can do something, you convincing yourself.

• Monitoring emotional arousal when thinking about a tasks (ex.

Anxiety suggest low expectations)

• Influences how much effort you expand and how long you persist when faced with difficulty.

• Behavioral outcomes depend both on people's perceptions of their own abilities and their perceptions of the environment.

Cognitive Approaches of Personality

• Focuses on ways in which individuals come to know their environment and themselves.

• How they perceive, evaluate, learn, think, make decisions, and solve problems.

• View human perception and human cognition as the core of what it means to be a person.

• The way we interpret the environment is central to our humanness, and the way we differ from one another.

• Schema: a cognitive structure that organizes knowledge and expectations about one's environment.

• The schema activated in a given situation is a major determinant of a person's expectations, inferences, and actions in that situation.

Evolutionary Personality Theory

• Individual differences are due to either adaptive strategies or random variations.

• Difficult to determine the precise cause of any behavior or personality characteristic (Nature vs. Nurture).

• Still do not know the extent to which genes affect personality in normal development.

Trait Approaches to Personality

• Trait: a distinguishing personality characteristic or quality.

• Trait Approach: uses a basic, limited set of adjectives or adjective dimensions to describe and scale individuals.

• Much about an individual's consistent reaction patterns can be predicted from knowing his/her core personality traits.

• Frequently utilized in our daily lives to describe the personality of people we know.

• Generally rely on outstanding characteristics or features to summarize what a person is like.

Culture & Personality

• Culture: The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, beliefs, values, norms and traditions shared by a large group of people.

• Influences how an individual makes sense of the world.

• Behaviors that seem natural and normal to one culture can often only be identified as culture-specific through comparison with other cultures.

• Individuals are shaped by their cultures and in many ways are like others in the same culture, but different than those in other cultures.

Culture & Personality

• The ideas of personality and predictable behavior are meaningless outside of the cultural context.

• Since everyone grows up in a culture, it makes sense to incorporate culture into theories of personality.

• With knowledge about cultural influences, we are less likely to accept universal proclamations about personality and less likely to ignore cultural influences.

Culture & Personality

• Cultural factors to consider:

• Socioeconomic Status (SES)

• Language

• Cultural Elements (Material & Aesthetics)

• History & Acculturation

• Social Structure

• Values: what a given culture values or appreciates

• Norms: accepted ideas about appropriate behavior.

• Morals

• Cultural Roles

• Customs

Gender Differences in Personality

• Obvious difference in physical development and physiological functioning.

• Often leads "to a simple biological justification for all personality differences between men and women".

• Biological differences exist in the context of the social world.

• "Whether or not gender discrepancies in personality actually exist, many people perceive significant differences between men's and women's personalities, and these perceptions influence their attitudes about and behavior toward others, thereby influencing personality".

Gender Differences in Personality

• Hyde, J.S. (2005)The Gender Similarities Hypothesis.

American Psychologist, Vol. 60 (6)

• The media and general public are captivated by findings of gender differences.

• This extensive study argues that men and women are basically alike in terms of personality, cognitive ability, and leadership.

• The Gender Similarities Hypothesis states that males and

females from childhood to adulthood are more alike than different on most psychological variables.

• Gender differences seem to depend on the context in which they were measured.

• Gender differences fluctuate with age.

Gender Differences in Personality

• Hyde, J.S. (2005)The Gender Similarities Hypothesis.

American Psychologist, Vol. 60 (6)

• Misconceptions are perpetuated by media depictions of men and women as different which can affect men and women at work, home, as parents, and as partners.

• Children also fall victim to these myths which lead to differences in social expectations and performance.

Psychopathology

• Disruption in the emotional, behavioral or thought processes that lead to personal distress or that block one's ability to achieve important goals.

What is Abnormal?

• 1) Distress or Disability: experiencing personal distress or disabled functioning.

• 2) Maladaptiveness: behaving in a fashion that hinders goal attainment, does not contribute to personal well-being, or often interferes significantly with the goals of others and needs of society.

• 3) Irrationality: acts or speaks in ways that are irrational or incomprehensible.

• 4) Unpredictability: unpredictable behavior from situation to situation.

• 5) Statistical Rarity: violation of socially acceptable norms of behavior.

• 6) Observer Discomfort: behavior that makes others feel uncomfortable.

• 7) Violations of moral and ideal standards ofbehavior.

What is Abnormal?

• More confident in judging behavior as abnormal when more than one indicator is present.

• Psychological disorders are best thought of on a continuum that varies between mental health and mental illness.

• The goal in making judgments regarding if an individual has a disorder is to be as objective as possible.

Diagnosis

• Psychological Diagnosis: the label given to an

abnormality by classifying and categorizing the observed behavior pattern into an approved diagnostic system.

DSM

• Main guide for mental health professionals listing over 200 disorders.

• Emphasizes description of patterns of symptoms and courses of disorders.

• Clinically Significant Distress: the symptoms present

cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Etiology of Psychopathology

• Casual or Contributory factors in the development of psychological problems. 2 general categories:

• 1) Biological approaches: disturbances are directly attributable to underlying biological factors.

• Abnormalities in the brain, genetic influences, etc.

• 2) Psychological Approaches: disturbances ore attributable to psychological or social factors.

• Personal experiences, trauma, environmental factors, etc.

Anxiety Disorders

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

• Feeling anxious or worried most of the time, when not faced with any specific danger.

• Often focused on life circumstances.

• Symptoms: muscle tension, fatigue, restlessness, poor concentration, irritability, and sleep difficulties.

• Panic Disorder: unexpected, severe panic attacks that begin with feelings of intense apprehension, fear, or terror.

• Attacks are unexpected and not evoked

• Labeled with or w I o Agoraphobia (an extreme fear of being in public places or open spaces from which escape may be difficult or embarrassing.

Anxiety Disorders

• Phobias: a persistent and irrational fear of a specific object or situation that is excessive and unreasonable given the reality of the threat.

• Social Phobia: arising in anticipation of a public situation in which an individual can be observed by others.

• Specific phobia: occurs in response to several different types of objects or situations.

• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD):

• Obsessions: thoughts, images, or impulses that recur or persist despite the individual's efforts to suppress them. Unwanted invasions that seem senseless, and are unacceptable to the individual experiencing them.

• Compulsions: repetitive, purposeful acts performed according to certain rules, in a ritualized manner, and in response to an obsession. Performed to reduce the discomfort associated with the obsession.

Anxiety Disorders

• PostTraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD):

• Characterized by the persistent re-experiencing of a traumatic event through distressing recollections, dreams, hallucinations, or flashbacks.

As a response to a traumatic event such as war, rape, severe injury, or a life-threatening situation.

Mood Disorders

• Major Depressive Disorder: characterized by the

presence of a major depressive episode.

• Depressed mood, loss of interest, weight fluctuations, sleep difficulties, fatigue, worthlessness, difficulty concentrating, thoughts of death.

• Bipolar Disorder: characterized by periods of severe depression alternating with manic episodes.

• Inflated self-esteem, decreased sleep, talkative, flight of ideas, distractibility, activities with a high potential for painful consequences.

Personality Disorders

• A chronic, inflexible, maladaptive pattern or perceiving, thinking, or behaving that can seriously impair the individual's ability to function and can cause significant distress.

• Been with an individual for a number of years

• Has to do with personality rather than a specific problem area.

Dissociative Disorders

• A disturbance in the integration of identity, memory, or consciousness.

•

• Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID): previously called

Multiple Personality Disorder

• Two or more distinct personalities exist within the same individual.

• Commonly confused with Schizophrenia

• Each personality has a unique identity, name, and behavior pattern

• In some cases can have dozens of different personalities.

• Most theories on DID point to chronic severe abuse in childhood and that DID developed as a survival tool to distance themselves from the reality of their lives.

Schizophrenic Disorder

• NOT SPLIT PERSONALITY

• Severe form of psychopathology in which personality seems to disintegrate, thought and perception are distorted, and emotions are blunted.

• Involves illogical thinking, associations among ideas that are remote or without apparent patterns, and bizarre sensory experiences.

• Hallucinations: hearing voices is the most common(+)

• Delusions: false or irrational beliefs (+)

• Language: illogical, incongruent, word salad (-)

• Blunted or inappropriate emotions (-)

• Psychomotor retardation or agitation. (+)or (-)

• Social withdrawal

(+) =positive symptoms, (-) negative symptoms

Disorders of Childhood and Adolescence

• Many disorders are first diagnosed in childhood and adolescence and have no adult counterpart

• Psychological Disorders present themselves differently in children

• Even those shared in adulthood

• Child and adolescent psychotherapy and treatment is different from adult treatment.

• 1 out of 5 (20%) children and adolescents has a moderate to severe psychological disorder.

• Teachers make a lot of referrals.

Disorders of Childhood and Adolescence

• DSM classifies disorders by syndromes. The 4 main categories are:

• 1) Disruptive Behavior Disorders: involving impulsive, aggressive, and other acting out behaviors.

• ADHD, Conduct Disorder,

• 2) Disorders of Emotional Distress: anxiety and depression.

• SeparationAnxiety Disorder,

• 3) Habit Disorders: disruptions of eating, sleeping, and elimination.

• Anorexia, Bulimia, Enuresis, Encopresis

• 4) Learning and Communication Disorders: involving difficulties with reading, writing, and speaking.

• Learning Disorders.

How Stigma Interferes with Mental Health Care

Corrigan, P. (2004). How stigma interferes with mental health care. American Psychologist, 58, 614-

625.

• Despite the quality and effectiveness of mental health treatments and services:

• A) Many people with mental illness never pursue treatment

• B) Others begin treatment but fail to fully adhere to services as prescribed.

• Less than 30% of people with psychiatric disorders seek treatment.

• 40% of individual with severe disorders such as schizophrenia failed to obtain treatment.

Stigma of Mental Illness

• Individuals w I psychological disorders are frequently labeled as deviant.

• Stigma in the context of psychology is a negative set of attitudes about a person that sets him/her apart as unacceptable.

• These negative attitudes come from many sources including:

• Media portrayal that psychiatric patients are violent

• Jokes about the mentally ill

• Family denial of a family member w I a mental illness

• Bias perceptions and actions toward these individuals.

The Relevance of Stigma

• The stigma of mental illness affects individuals seeking and/or completing treatment.

• Stigma as 4 Social-Cognitive Processes

• 1) Cues: psychiatric symptoms, social skills deficits, and physical appearance

• 2) Stereotypes: commonly held stereotypes about people with mental illness (violence, incompetence, to blame)

• 3) Prejudice: negative emotional reactions and negative evaluations

• 4) Discrimination: avoidance, not associating with an individual with mental illness

Public & Self Stigma

• Public Stigma: individuals labeled mentally ill publicly can be robbed of important life opportunities that are essential for achieving life goals Gobs & housing).

• Influence the interface between mental illness and the criminal justice system.

• Criminalizing mental illness contributes to higher rates of individuals with serious mental illness in jail.

• Impact on general healthcare 7 depth and breath of health care.

less likely to benefit from the

Public & Self Stigma

• Self Stigma: accepting stereotypes and suffering from diminished self-esteem, self-efficacy, and confidence in one's future.

• Believe they are less valued because of their psychological disorder

• Family shame

• Significant correlation between shame and avoiding treatment

Strategies that Diminish Stigma

• 3 approaches that may diminish aspects of the public stigma experienced by people with mental illness

• 1) Protest: protest inaccurate and hostile representations of mental illness and for people to stop believing negative views.

• 2) Education: provides information so that the public can make more informed decisions about mental illness.

• 3) Contact: stigma is further diminished when members of the general public have contact with people with mental illness who are able to hold down jobs or live as good neighbors.

• Many different approaches to therapy

• All therapeutic interventions are designed to assist the client in improving his/her current situation.

Goals of Therapy

• 1) Reaching a diagnosis

• 2) Proposing a probable etiology (cause)

• 3) Prognosis: the course of the problem

• 4) Treatment for the Presenting Problem

• 5) Decreasing problematic behavior

• 6) Increasing functioning in all areas

• 7) Gaining insight so that the client can help themselves.

Divisions of Treatment

• BiologicalTherapies: focus on the biological aspects of a disorder.

• Psychotherapy: focuses on psychological, social, and environmental factors.

Psychodynamic Therapy

• An individuals difficulties are caused by the psychological tension between unconscious impulses and wishes and inner conflicts that are repressed.

• Goal: establishment of intrapsychic harmony and understanding of the client's use of defense mechanisms to handle conflict.

• Bring inner conflicts, impulses and wishes into consciousness to gain insight.

Psychodynamic Techniques

• Free Association: allowing the mind to wander and giving running account of thoughts and wishes while relaxing comfortably, thus not allowing for defense mechanisms to censor what is said.

• Resistance: an inability or unwillingness to discuss certain ideas, desires, or experiences

• Barrier between conscious & unconscious

• Interpret and discuss with clients

• Ex: changing the subject; showing up late; acting out.

• Dream Analysis: examining the content of dreams to discover underlying motivations and symbolic meaning of significant life experiences and desires.

Psychodynamic Techniques

• Transference: the development by the client of emotional feelings toward the therapist formerly held toward some significant person in a past emotional conflict.

• Countertransference: the therapist's development of emotional feelings toward a client because the client is perceived as similar to significant peoples in the therapists life.

• This does not mean romantic feelings.

Behavior Therapy

• Utilizes the principles of learning to increase the frequency of desired behavior and/or decrease the frequency of problem behaviors.

• Range of treated problems includes anxiety, mood, aggression, and conduct problems.

Behavior Therapy Techniques

• Counterconditioning: when a new response is substituted for a previous maladaptive on by means of conditioning. Behavior that is learned can be unlearned. Types include: (ex: anxiety)

• Systematic Desensitization: a client is taught to prevent the arousal of anxiety by confronting the feared stimulus when relaxed.

• Implosion Therapy: client is exposed immediately to the most frightening stimuli at the top of a fear list, but in a safe setting. As the situation happens over and over, the stimulus loses its power to elicit anxiety.

• Flooding: similar to Implosion, but involves the client being placed in the feared situation.

Behavior Therapy Techniques

• Contingency Management: (relies on operant conditioning) the general treatment strategy of changing behavior by modifying its consequences.

• Strategies include: token economies, shaping, behavioral contracts.

• Social LearningTherapy: designed to modify problematic behavior patterns by arranging conditions in which the client will

2 main

observe models being reinforced for a desirable behavior. aspects:

• Models: observing others

• Social Skills Training: training more effective social skills using rehearsal and models.

Cognitive Therapies

• Change problem feelings and behaviors by changing the way clients think about significant life experiences.

• Cognitive-BehaviorTherapy: combines the cognitive

emphasis on the role of thoughts and attitudes influencing behavior with behaviorist strategies of changing performance through reinforcement of contingencies.

• Cognitive Restructuring: changing irrational, negative statements into constructive coping statements.

• Not just positive "everything is OK" statements

Aaron Beck

• Cognitive Distortions: the

idea that psychological problems arise as a function of how people think about themselves relative to others and the events they face.

Beck's Cognitive Triad Model

suggests that depressed individuals have the following:

(1) a negative view of themselves;

(2) a negative view of the world; and,

(3) a negative view of the future

Aaron Beck

• Changing cognitive distortions involves:

• 1) Challenging basic assumptions about functioning

• 2) Evaluate evidence the client has for and against accuracy of thoughts • 3) Reattribute blame to situational factors rather than the client's incompetence.

• 4) Discuss alternative solutions to complex tasks that could otherwise lead to experiences of failure.

Albert Ellis - Rational Emotive Therapy (RET)

• Psychological problems are caused by people's reactions to such events on the basis of irrational beliefs.

• ABC model:

• A) Activating Experience, B) Irrational Belief or thought that follows, C) Consequences for the person.

• Therapy involves confronting and disrupting the irrational beliefs (B) so that emotional and behavioral consequences will change accordingly.

• Teaches clients to recognize the "should", "oughts" and "musts"

Humanistic Therapy

• Attempts to help clients define their own freedom, value their experiencing selves and the richness of the present moment, cultivate their individuality, and discover ways to realize their fullest potential (self-actualization).

• Helps "average" (wI o diagnosis) individuals achieve greater levels of performance and richness of experience.

• Client-Centered Therapy:

the task of therapy is to help

clients learn how to behave in order to achieve self-actualization

by removing barriers that limit this move toward self- actualization.

• Therapy environment 7

• Let the client lead the way, the therapist facilitates.

Unconditional Positive Regard

• OtherTypes ofTherapies:

• Group Therapy

• Family Therapy

• CouplesTherapy

• PlayTherapy

• ArtTherapy

Social Psychology

• The study of how individuals' feelings, thoughts, and behaviors are influenced by social stimuli.

• Individuals: this distinguishes social psychology from other social sciences.

Such as sociology and anthropology

• Social Stimuli: refers to humans and their products including groups, norms, the presence of others, and past social situations.

• The interactions and transactions with others.

• Our social behavior is influenced by both the objective situation and our own subjective experience.

Is Social Psychology Just Common Sense?

• Hindsight Bias: the tendency to exaggerate, after learning the outcome, one's ability to have foreseen how something turned out.

• "1-Knew-It-All-Along" phenomenon.

• Main problems with the common sense idea is that it occurs after the fact.

• Events are much more predictable after the fact.

• Causes a problem for students in social psychology.

Miss important information (ex. Research results).

Constructing SociaI ReaIity

• Social situations obtain significance when observers selectively encode what is happening in terms of what they expect to see and what they want to see.

• Example: A football game

• Social Perception: the process by which people come to understand and categorize the behaviors of others.

Attribution Theory

• The theory of how people explain the behavior of others.

• People tend to attribute someone's behavior to internal causes

(Dispositional Attributions) or external causes (Situational Attributions).

• We believe that others' intentions and dispositions correspond to their actions.

• Normal or expected behavior tells us less about the person than does unusual behavior.

Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)

• The tendency for observers to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional influences upon the behavior of others.

• More prominent when it serves our own interests.

• Even when people know they are causing someone else's behavior they still commit the FAE.

• Intelligent and socially competent people are more likely to make the FAE.

• Everyday examples include when we overestimate the knowledge of doctors, TV game show hosts, and professors.

Actor-Observer Effect

• In explaining our own behavior, we are more likely to make situational attributions.

• The exception is when we make attributions for our own success.

• The tendency to make dispositional attributions for our successes and situational attributions for our failures in called the Self-Serving Bias.

Why do we make the FAE?

• We observe others from a different perspective.

• Our perspectives change with time.

• Our own self-awareness, which makes us self-conscious instead of situation-conscious.

• Culture: FAE occurs across all cultures.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

• A belief that leads to its own fulfillment.

• Our ideas lead us to act in ways to produce their apparent confirmation.

• Examples:

• Pygmalion in the classroom

• Subjects in a learning experiment who expected to be taught by an excellent teacher, perceived their teacher as more competent and interesting than students with low expectations and thus worked harder.

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Conformity

• A change in behavior or belief to accord with others. Types include:

• Compliance: conformity that involves publicly acting in accord with an implied or explicit request while privately disagreeing.

• Obedience: acting in accord with a direct order.

• Acceptance: conformity that involves both acting and believing in accord with social pressure.

• Sometimes follows compliance.

Group Pressure (Asch)

• That "reasonably intelligent and well meaning young people are willing to call white black is a matter of concern. It raises questions about our education and about the values that guide our conduct."

• Implications: subjects conformed with minimal pressure and no

rewards or ptmishment.

Asch's Line

Judgement Task

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S t andard line

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Comparison lines

Milgram's Obedience Experiments

• A group of psychiatrists, college students, and middle-class adults predicted that the subjects would disobey giving

someone an electric shock at 135 volts.

expected any subject to go beyond 300 volts.

None surveyed

• During the actual experiment 65% of subjects went to 450 volts.

Milgram's Obedience Experiments

• Major conclusions:

• Subjects were willing to obey a destructive authority at a higher rate than predicted by others.

• Obedience increases to a legitimate authority.

• Subjects were more likely to shock an anonymous victim. Subjects were more likely to shock when they were lead to believe that the authority figure would be held accountable.

• The presence of others who do not obey the authority will substantially decrease obedience.

Milgram's Obedience Experiments

• 4 Factors that determined 0 bedience:

• 1) Emotional distance of the victim: personalizing the victim decreased obedience.

• 2) Closeness and legitimacy of the authority: the physical presence of the experimenter increased obedience.

• 3) Institutional Authority: being associated with a university increased obedience.

• 4) The presence of at least 1 person that disagreed ::::::> decreased obedience.

The Power of the Situation

• Social psychologists believe that the primary determinant of behavior is the nature of the social situation in which the behavior occurs.

• Social situations exert significant control over individual behavior, often dominating personality and a person's past history of learning, values, and beliefs.

• A number of situational variables can have an effect on people's behavior.

The Power of the Situation

• Roles and Rules

• Social Role: a socially defined pattern of behavior that is expected of a person when functioning in a given setting of group.

• Different situations make different roles available.

• Different roles make different types of behaviors more or less appropriate and available.

• Situations are also determined by the operations of rules (behavioral guidelines for specific settings).

• Rules can be explicit or implicit (learned through transactions with others in a specific setting) .

The Power of the Situation

• Roles and Rules

• The Stanford Prison Experiment

A "growing confusion between reality and illusion, between role-playing

and self-identity

as creatures of its own reality" (Zimbardo 1972)

This prison which we had created

was absorbing us

Self-conscious acting may diminish as the actors becomes more absorbed in the role and experiences genuine emotions,

• Can this happen in everyday life?

• Positive and/or negative

The Power of the Situation

• Social Norms: the specific expectations for socially appropriate attitudes and behaviors that are embodied in the stated or implicit rules of a group.

• Can be broad guidelines and/or can embody specific standards of conduct.

• Belonging to a group typically involves discovering the set of social norms that regulate desired behavior in the group setting. Occurs in two ways.

• You notice the uniformities in certain behaviors of all or most members, and you observe the negative consequences when someone violates a social norm.

• Narms serve important functions

• Orienting members and regulating social interactions.

Altruism

• A concern for the welfare of others that is expressed through such prosocial acts as sharing, cooperating, and helping.

• Behavior that benefits another person, regardless of the actor's motives.

• Selfishness in reverse

• A motive to increase another's welfare without conscious regard for one's self-interests.

Theories of Altruism

• Social ExchangeTheory

• Human interactions are transactions that aim to maximize one's rewards and minimize costs.

• Rewards that motivate helping can be internal or external.

• Most eager to help someone we fmd attractive and thus gain their approval.

• Helping increases our sense of self-worth.

• More likely to help after our self-image has been damaged.

• Negative mood increases helping in adults and decreases helping in children.

Theories of Altruism

• Biological/EvolutionaryTheory

• Individuals are more likely to receive protection from natural enemies and to satisfy their basic needs if they live together in cooperative social units.

• Social LearningTheory

• The most important influence on children's altruism is the behavior of others - the social models to whom they are exposed.

• Children who witness an altruistic model often become more altruistic.

What inhibits Altruism?

• Bystander Effect: a person is less likely to help when there are others present.

• When the situation is ambiguous, people are less likely to help.

• Fail to feel responsible because others will help.

• Taking action may lead to embarrassment or disapproval.

• Time Pressure: people in a hurry are less likely to help.

• Similarity: people are more likely to help those similar to themselves.

Improving Atruism

• Reverse the factors that inhibit helping.

• Having a personal connection makes one feel less anonymous and more responsible.

• Helpfulness increases when one expects to meet the victim and other witnesses again.

• Concern about your public image will increase helping.

• Socializing Altruism:

• Model Altruism

• Attribute helpful behaviors to altruistic motives.

• Learn about altruism.