Unfinished Business

1. Unfinished Business • There are TWO classes this week – • tonight • December 4 (to make up for Remembrance Day) • Test #3 • webCT exam dates: Dec 8 (10:00) - Dec 13 (5:00) • change in room: E610, E620 and E630

2. Review Question 1 You meet a 36 year old man who is a chain-smoker. What might Freud say about this person? A. He is fixated at the anal stage. B. He is caught in an Oedipus complex. C. He has an oral personality. D. He has a phallic personality. Answer: C

3. Review Question 2 Rotter’s theory of _____ focused on people’s differing beliefs that their efforts will result in positive outcomes. A. Personal control B. Personal constructs C. The locus of control D. The cognitive-affective personality system Answer: C

4. Personal Control Internal Locus of Control You pretty much control your own destiny External Locus of Control Luck, fate and/or powerful others control your destiny • Methods of Study • Correlate feelings of control with behavior • Experiment by raising/lowering people’s sense of • control and noting effects

5. Review Question 3 How is the study of personality different from the study of behaviour or biological processes? A. One cannot use objective means to study personality. B. The study of personality does not lend itself to explanation, only description. C. Personality cannot be directly observed. D. Personality is a false construct that has no place in science. Answer: C

6. Review Question 4 Which of the following is related to a higher degree of consistency in behaviour? A. High self-monitoring B. Low self-monitoring C. Extraversion D. Neuroticism Answer: B

7. Review Question 5 The personality traits of shyness, fearfulness and anxiousness have been associated with a. The frontal lobes b. The amygdala c. The pons d. The reticular system Answer: b

8. Self-Concept • Is a cognitive knowledge structure • schema (self-schema) • network of interconnected knowledge about oneself • cognitive aspect of self-concept • integrated set of memories, beliefs and generalizations about oneself

9. Self-Schema W. W. Norton

10. Self-Concept • working self-concept • varies as function of: • which memories you retrieve, • which situation you are in, • your role in that situation, • people you are with etc.

11. Inter/Independent Self-Concepts • some cultures place greater emphasis on the collective self than on the personal self • interdependent • view self inherently connected to other people • self-concept defined more by social roles and personal relationships

12. 13.07b W. W. Norton

13. Inter/Independent Self-Concepts • some cultures place greater emphasis on the personal self • Independent • view self fundamentally separate from others • sense of self based on feelings of being distinct from others

14. 13.07a W. W. Norton

15. Advantages Disadvantages Interdependent/Collective Self

16. Advantages Disadvantages Independent/Personal Self

17. Self-Esteem • Evaluative aspect of self-concept • emotional response as evaluate different characteristics about themselves • internalize values and beliefs expressed by important people in their lives (“reflected appraisals”)

18. Self-Esteem • Sociometer theory (Leary et al) • humans have need to belong • self-esteem monitors the likelihood of social exclusion • acts as internal monitor of social acceptance/rejection • is research support • low self-esteem highly correlated with social anxiety

19. Sociometer Theory W. W. Norton

20. Biological Basis of Self-Esteem • Twin studies - self-esteem moderately inheritable • traits associated with self-esteem such as extraversion and neuroticism have genetic components • serotonin levels affect self-esteem • increased activity leads to increased self-esteem/confidence

21. Maintaining Self-Esteem • Strategies • self-evaluative maintenance • exaggerate or publicize connections to winners • minimize or hide relations to losers • distance self from someone who outperforms them on task that is personally relevant • biased comparisons • evaluate self by contrasting actions, abilities and beliefs with others to see where they stand

22. Biased Comparisons • downward comparison • contrast self with people who are “deficient” on relevant dimentions • upward comparison • contrast self with people who are superior

23. Downward Comparison with Past Self W. W. Norton

24. Maintaining Self-Esteem • Strategies • self-serving biases • high achievers • take credit for success • blame failure on outside factors • low achievers • attribute success on outside factors • blame failure on personal factors

25. Attitudes • “Evaluation of objects or ideas to indicate like or dislike toward them”

27. Attitudes develop through: • direct experience/exposure • “mere exposure effect” • classical conditioning • advertising - pair positive image with product

29. Attitudes develop through: • direct experience/exposure • “mere exposure effect” • classical conditioning • advertising - pair positive image with product • operant conditioning • rewarded for behaviour

30. Attitudes develop through: • socialization • Would you eat a worm? • Heritability • genetic predisposition • attitudes towards death penalty, jazz, censorship and apartheid have high heritability components but not coeduation and straightjackets • inherit physiological characteristics that lead to certain responses

31. Attitudes Predicting Behaviour • When • more personally relevant • the more specific the attitude is • formed through direct experience • in line with normative social values • when expression does not lead to embarrassment

32. 13.13a W. W. Norton

33. Attitudes Predicting Behaviour • implicit attitudes • influence behaviour and feelings at unconscious level

34. Implicit Attitudes Test https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/ • People possess dual attitudes: • one automatic and unconscious • one explicit

35. Cognitive Dissonance (Festinger) • Contradiction between two attitudes or between an attitude and behaviour • creates anxiety and tension • shapes behaviour and perception to maintain cognitive dissonance • ignore behaviour that refutes/contradicts our beliefs • accept uncritically info that confirms them

37. Cognitive Dissonance: Cars • Should the government be allowed to restrict car sales based on their gas use? • P. 87 instructors manual

38. Cognitive Dissonance (Festinger) • motivated to reduce anxiety and tension • change attitudes • change behaviours • rationalize or trivialize discrepancy

39. Which group experienced more dissonance? Which group rated the task more highly?

40. 13.15 W. W. Norton

41. Cognitive Dissonance Worksheet

42. Dissonance and Cars • Arguments for banning gas-guzzling cars by those who agree with this position - • Arguments for allowing gas-guzzlding cars by those who don’t agree with this position -

43. Confirmation-Hypercriticality Effect • If logical, would evaluate the sensible arguments from each side and discard those that were ludicrous or just wrong • Cognitive Dissonance theory predicts: • will remember plausible arguments supporting own position • will remember ridiculous arguments supporting opposing position Pattern supported theory.

44. Changing Attitudes • Elaboration likelihood model to explain how persuasion leads to attitude change -

45. 13.16 W. W. Norton

47. Persuasion in advertising • Advertising to children • Botox Cosmetics radio/magazine Ad

48. Forming Attitudes about Others • Impression formation • attributions • causal explanations for why events or actions occur • basic need for order and predictability in lives • just world hypothesis • “blame the victim”

49. Attributional Dimensions • Personal attributions • internal or dispositional attributions • situational attributions • external attributions • other dimensions • stable vs variable • controllable vs uncontrollable etc.

50. Attributional Dimensions • Actor-observer discrepancy • biased towards situational explanations when explaining own behaviour • the bus was early; my roommate took too long in the shower; the traffic was backed up on Whoop-up • biased towards dispositional/personal factors when explaining behaviour of others • he’s lazy