Paradox of Progress and Modern Challenges

Adjusting to Modern Life (Chapter 1)

• Technological advancements in the past century haven't improved collective health and happiness
• People struggle with identity, vision of the future and loneliness
• Individuals seek direction and purpose in their lives, often turning to self-help resources
• Psychology studies behaviour, underlying physical and mental processes, applies knowledge to practical issues
• Behaviour: any observable response or activity by an organism
• Mental processes significantly influence behaviour
• Clinical psychology addresses psychological problems and disorders' diagnosis and treatment
• Adjustment: psychological processes people use to manage challenges of daily life

Scientific Approach to Behaviour

• Empiricism: acquiring knowledge through observation
• Research methods include experimental and correlational approaches
• Experiment: manipulating one variable (independent) under controlled conditions to observe effects on another (dependent)
• Experiments help determine cause-effect relationships
• Correlation: exists when two variables relate to each other
• Correlation coefficient: indicates the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables
• Naturalistic observation: observing behaviour carefully without intervention
• Case study: in-depth investigation of a single subject
• Surveys: using structured interviews/questionnaires to gather data on participant behaviour, attitudes, or beliefs
• Correlational research explores relationships that experiments can't, but doesn't determine causation

Roots of Happiness

• Subjective well-being: individual assessment of overall happiness/life satisfaction
• Unrelated factors: money, age, gender, parenthood, intelligence and attractiveness
• Somewhat related factors: health, social relations, religious belief, leisure activity, culture
• Very related factors: relationship status, work, genetics and personality
• Objective realities are less significant than subjective feelings
• Affective forecasting: predicting emotional reactions to future events
• Hedonic adaptation: shifting mental scale used to judge experiences, altering the neutral point or baseline

Developing Sound Study Habits

• Establish a study schedule to avoid last-minute cramming
• Find a focused study environment
• Set realistic goals and reward achievements
• Overlearning: continued review after initial mastery
• Testing effect: assessment enhances retention
• Distributed practice is more effective than massed practice
• Retention improves with organization
• Information processing depth matters more than study duration
• Mnemonic devices: enhance memory strategies
• Mnemonic devices include acrostics/phrases, acronyms/words, link method/mental image, and method of loci/familiar path

Theories of Personality (Chapter 2)

• Personality: unique consistent behavioural traits of an individual
• Personality trait: a stable tendency to behave a certain way across situations

Five-Factor Model of Personality

• Most personality traits stem from five larger traits:
• Extraversion: outgoing, sociable, positive
• Neuroticism: anxious, insecure
• Openness: curious, imaginative
• Agreeableness: sympathetic, cooperative
• Conscientiousness: diligent, dependable

Psychoanalytic Theory

• Psychodynamic theories: derived from Sigmund Freud, focus on unconscious mental influences
• Psychoanalysis: treats mental issues via long verbal interactions, exploring patients lives deeply
• Three personality structures: id, ego, superego:
• Id: primitive, operates via the pleasure principle
• Ego: decision-maker, operates via the reality principle
• Superego: incorporates societal standards of right/wrong
• Conscious: current awareness
• Preconscious: easily retrieved memories
• Unconscious: thoughts/memories/desires that impact behaviour outside of awareness

Conflict and Defense Mechanisms

• Defense mechanisms: unconscious reactions that protect from painful emotions like anxiety
• Rationalization: creating excuses to justify unacceptable behaviour
• Repression: burying distressing thoughts
• Projection: attributing one's traits/feelings to another
• Displacement: redirecting feelings from original to substitute source
• Reaction formation: behaving opposite to true feelings
• Regression: reverting to immature behaviour
• Identification: forming an alliance to boost self-esteem
• Excessive defense mechanism use impairs mental health

Psychosecual Stages of Development

• Psychosexual stages: periods with sexual focus that affect adult personality
• Fixation: failure to advance due to over/under-gratification
• Oral stage: mouth is primary stimulation source (0-1 years old)
• Anal stage: pleasure from bowel movements (2-3 years old)
• Phallic stage: genitals are the focus (4-5 years old)
• Oedipal complex: desires for opposite-sex parent with hostility towards same-sex parent
• Latency/genital stages: sexual urges are suppressed (6-12 years old) before reemerging after puberty

Jung's Analytical Psychology

• Unconscious includes personal and collective layers:
• Personal unconscious: repressed/forgotten material
• Collective unconscious: shared ancestral memory traces
• Archetypes emotionally charged universal images and thought patterns

Alder's Individual Psychology

• A primary human motivator is the drive for superiority
• Compensation: efforts to overcome deficits by developing one’s abilities

Behavioral Perspectives

• Behaviourism focuses psychology on observable behaviour
• Personality is seen as response tendencies linked to stimuli
• Response tendencies are shaped via conditioning and observation

Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning

• Classical conditioning: neutral stimulus gains ability to evoke response by pairing with another stimulus
• Acquisition: initial learning phase including the unconditioned stimulus
• Unconditioned stimulus: naturally triggers a response
• Unconditioned response: unlearned, natural reaction
• Conditioned stimulus: previously neutral, now triggers a response
• Conditioned response: learned reaction after conditioning
• Conditioned and unconditioned responses often involve the same behaviour
• Extinction: conditioned response gradually weakens

Skinner's Operant Conditioning

• Operant conditioning: voluntary responses are controlled by consequences
• Voluntary responses are emitted, involuntary responses are elicited
• Positive reinforcement: a response strengthens when followed by pleasant stimuli
• Negative reinforcement: a response strengthens when followed by the removal of unpleasant stimuli
• Extinction: the behaviour gradually disappears
• Punishment: response weakens when unpleasant stimuli arrives

Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory

• Observational learning: influenced by observing others (models)
• Self-efficacy: belief in one's ability to succeed in specific behaviours

Humanistic Perspectives

• Humanism: focuses on humans' unique qualities, free will, potential
• Humans have an innate drive for growth
• Individuals can choose their path
• Humans are conscious and rational beings

Roger’s Person-Centered Theory

• Self-concept: beliefs about one’s nature, qualities, behaviour
• Incongruence: disparity between self-concept and reality
• Congruent self-concept supports psychological health

Maslow’s Theory of Self-Actualization

• Hierarchy of needs: systematic arrangement of needs, according to priority, in which physiological needs, safety and security needs, belongingness and love needs, esteem needs, cognitive needs, aesthetic needs come before self-actualization
• Self-actualization completes one's potential

Eysenck’s Biological Theory

• Personality determined by inheritance
• Personality structure characterized as a hierarchy of traits

Recent Research in Behavioural Genetics

• Twin studies: assessing hereditary influence by comparing twins

Heritability Ratio

• Estimate of trait variability proportion due to genes

Evolutionary Approach to Personality

• Evolutionary psychology: studies behaviour in terms of adaptive value
• Hindsight bias: molding past interpretations to fit outcomes

Narcissism

• Narcissism: inflated self-importance, need for attention and entitlement
  • Grandiose narcissism: arrogance, extraversion, aggressiveness
• Vulnerable narcissism: inferiority, introversion, neuroticism
• Terror management theory: culture helps manage death fear
• Self-esteem: also serves as a terror management function

Culture and Personality

• Trait structure is consistent across cultures
• Perceptions of national character tend to be inaccurate
• Individualism: personal goals and identity are defined by unique traits
• Collectivism: group goals and identity are defined by group membership

Key Concepts in Psychological Testing

• Psychological test: standardized measure of behaviour sample
• Standardization: uniform administration and scoring
• Test norms: score ranking information
• Reliability: test consistency
• Validity: test measures what it's designed to measure
• Self-report inventories: assess personality through question responses
• Projective tests: responses to stimuli revealing traits, unconscious elements by:
  • Obscuring transparency
  • Revealing subjectivity
  • Demonstrating limited scientific backing

Self-Concept (Chapter 6)

• Self-concept: collection of beliefs about one's nature and behaviour
• Possible selves: future conceptions of oneself
• Possible selves can be motivations for maintenance and goals
• Goal setting helps mental health

Self-Discrep

• Actual self: current qualities
• Ideal self: desired qualities
• Ought self: perceived duties
• Self-discrepancy: mismatch between actual, ideal, and ought selves
• High self-esteem: alignment with personal standards
• Ideal self-discrepancy causes sadness
• Ought self-discrepancy causes guilt
• Behaviour reflects our ideal self
• Individuals focus on positives to see a good image

Factors Shaping the Self-Concept

• Social comparison theory: evaluate by comparing to others
• Comparison serves to improve skills, maintain self-image

Self Improvement

• Reference group: the standard for comparisons
• Upward social comparison makes a reference group superior
• Downward social comparison makes a reference group inferior
• Individuals overvalue themselves versus reality
• Self-concept reflects feedback from important figures
• Michelangelo phenomenon: a sculpting partner guides one’s ideal self
• Situation impacts self-concept
• Culture impacts how we see ourselves

Independence

• Interdependence in a view of the self as distinct
• Interdependent view of the connected self prioritizes harmonious relationships

Self Esteem

• Self-esteem: the individual evaluation of worth
• Unclear self-concept lowers self-esteem
• Trait self-esteem: constant confidence
• State self-esteem: dynamic, varies depending on circumstances
• Self-esteem correlates to happiness
• High self-esteem makes individuals receptive to criticism
• Sociometer: success is measured by popularity
• Negative expectations lower self-esteem
• Positive opportunities are moderated rather than exploited with higher self-esteem

Development of Self-esteem

• Parenting practices can develop positive and or negative self esteem
• Authoritative parenting: firm guidance fosters high self-esteem
• Authoritarian parenting: strict control lowers self-esteem
• Permissive parenting: support lowers self-esteem
• Neglectful parenting produces the lowest self-esteem

Ethnicity in Relation to Self-esteem

• Ethnic patterns reflect individualism differences
• Minority ethnic groups: often exhibit higher self-esteem
• Males show differences with their physical, athletic and personal prowess
• Behavioral, ethical, and moral actions are valued by females

Cognitive Processes

• Automatic processing works without using many cognitive ressources
• Controlled processing requires mindfulness
• Attention is selective for self-relevant data
• People overestimate attention to themselves

Self-Attributions

• We make self-attributions for our behaviour
• Behaviour attribution occurs in three key dimensions:
  • Internal versus external
  • Stable versus unstable
  • Controllable versus uncontrollable
• Internal attribution: personal traits
• External attribution: situational demands
• A stable versus unstable factor applies
• Stable is fixed
• Unstable is subject to change
• Sometimes events can or cannot be controlled by effort or aptitude

Explanatory Style

• We use casual attributions for a sense of life
• Optimism attributes success to factors outside the person but is unstable and specific
• Pessimism attributes short comings on inside the person but is stable and global

Self assesment

• Our desire is to see ourselves as we are
• Evaluating our abilities faces difficulties and can produce bias when we measure our own skill or knowledge
• When we think of performance intensity of events we can predict our emotional reactions or intensity to those incidents
• Focalism overemphasizes personal impact

Distorted Expectations

• We are influenced by biased impact

Self-Enhancement

• Our tendency is to accept positive and deny information in disagreement of our identity
• Responses demonstrate underlying motive, personality and behaviour
• We measure our personal qualities in terms to others in flattery
• In terms of downard comparisons we use a defensive tendency to compare ourselves with other peoples troubles or our own troubles

Self-Serving Bias

• Where we make the excuse of failures due to personal circumstances
• We place personal value or self control in an automatic drive

Basking in Reflected Glory

• We tend to publicly announce our successes but distance ourselves from those who are unsuccessful

Self-Handicapping

• Self sabotage when efforts lack to test limits or provide an excuse for failure

Self regulation

• Control ourselves to achieve desired outcomes
• It remains stable as we grow

Ego Depletion

• With stronger self-regulation we are less likely to have our sense of self worth impacted
• Self control is impacted by scenes of sugar, good moods and scenes of nature

Chapter 7: Social Thinking and Social Influence

Forming Impressions of Others

• Process of creating opinion
• Appearance
• Actions
• Verbal ability
• Situational cues
• Non verbal

Bad Impressions versus Good

• Snap judgments with limited information is less correct
• Systemic judgments comparing them to a variety of more meaningful relationships

Attributions

• Key dimensions
• External with the impact of situational behaviour
• Internal with uncontrolled and controlled aspects Those most likely to have attributions are of negative or unexpected behaviour

Expectation

• Confirmation is the tendency to seek supporting factors while not actively disproving
• Facts are selectively recalled and aligned to perceptions
• When people present inconsistencies the bias is less likely to occur
• Prophecies are most likely to be fulfilled

Cognitive

• Categorization is aligned to origin
• There is emphasis on inside versus outside group similarities and differences
• Homogeneity is an assessment of shared characteristics where some will show themselves as all alike

Stereotypes

• Shared beliefs cause one to see things as certain
• Open and friendly exchanges will reduce the chance of assuming stereotypes
• One must put in effort to achieve an imagined contact or positive outlook

Personal Behavior

• Where actions are often seen as situational factors without knowing the initial details

Attribution Process

• Make a personal attribution
• Evaluate other situational differences

Defensive Blaming

• To avoid the circumstance of feeling less to be a victim
• People want to apply as little effort to the task as possible

Primacy and Cognition

• Information is weighted stronger due to the original point Contradictory conditions create distress

Selectivity

• People see what they expect and lock into those first impressions

Negative Attitude

• Leading into prejudice requires a differentiation of some form
• Discrimination involves unfaire practice
• Where sexism, etc. lead to justifications in the form of safety or other measures
• People may harbor prejudices more than they can admit and hide behind ethics to avoid the expression

Causes Of Prejudice

Is from those that show little difference or have some sort of authority such as:

• Aggression
• A strong support from others where they are authoritarian and view most others that oppose their values as immoral
• Categorizing groups to create in/out group differences
• Social identity issues on memberships and group dynamics

Stereotype Threat

• A self assessment based on measures of vulnerability

Reducing Bias: Requires focus, attention, and control

Equality Measures

To unite people versus alienate:

• Work together
• Reach goals in supportive manners where equal status are reinforced in an environment

Communication Forms

• Persuasion is a communication of arguments where attitudes are to alter. It is used where beliefs are aligned with thoughts and feelings
• The source is what sends the information and the destination receives said information
• With a message in some form
• The most effectiveness is trustworthiness and expertise

Strategies

• To make feelings more supportive will garner better results
• Need for supportive thought
• Being forewarned allows the reduction of persuasive messaging
• Understanding the likelihood of receiving better/deeper messaging will prevent the effects

Social Influence

• Confinity needs imagined or actual social impact
• Increase conformity through public behaviour

Ethical Factors

• Where compliance occurs
• Negative impact will deter
• By standers won't often step in where things could be handled between individuals
• Individuals will take strong action even when it can cause harm
• Those with status are often legit and given control

Explore the 'Paradox of Progress' and its impact on modern society. This includes feelings of being lost, technology's role in loneliness, hurdles in achieving a clear vision, and psychology's contribution to self-understanding. Understand the challenges of modern life despite advancements.