Neurons: The Building Block of the Nervous System Learning Objectives

Identify the basic structures of a neuron, the function of each structure, and how messages travel through the neuron. Identify what the myelin sheath is, where it is located, and what its role is within the nervous system. Identify the functions of synapses.

Name the major neurotransmitters, identify what they do, and understand why they are important.

26 Neurons Are Specialized Cells Designed for Communication

27 Neurons Communicate Using Electrochemical Processes

28 Neurotransmitters: The Bodys Chemical Messengers

Neurons Are Specialized Cells Designed for Communication Learning Objectives

Identify the basic structures of a neuron, the function of each structure, and how messages travel through the neuron.

Did a Neurological Disorder Cause a Musician to Compose Bolro and an Artist to Paint It 66 Years Later?

In 1986 Anne Adams was working as a cell biologist at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. She took a leave of absence from her work to care for a sick child, and while she was away, she completely changed her interests, dropping biology entirely and turning her attention to art. In 1994 she completed her painting Unravelling Bolro, a translation of Maurice Ravels famous orchestral piece, Bolro, onto canvas. As you can see in the following image, this artwork is filled with themes of repetition. Each bar of music is represented by a lacy vertical figure, with the height representing volume, the

shape representing note quality, and the color representing the musics pitch. Like Ravels music (see the following video), which is a hypnotic melody consisting of two melodial themes repeated eight times over 340 musical bars, the theme in the painting repeats and builds, leading to a dramatic change in color from blue to orange and pink, a representation of Bolros sudden and dramatic climax.

Adamss depiction of Ravels orchestral piece Bolro was painted during the very early phase of her illness in 1994. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0: Photo courtesy of New Scientist, http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn13599/dn135991_567.jpg.

Ravel's Bolro
This is a video clip of Maurice Ravel's Bolro composed in 1928 during the early phases of his illness.

Shortly after finishing the painting, Adams began to experience behavioral problems, including increased difficulty speaking. Neuroimages of Adamss brain taken during this time show that regions in the front part of her brain, which are normally associated with language processing, had begun to deteriorate, while at the same time, regions of the brain responsible for the integration of information from the five senses were unusually well developed. [1] The deterioration of the frontal cortex is a symptom of frontotemporal dementia, a disease associated with changes in artistic and musical tastes and skills [2] as well as with an increase in repetitive behaviors. [3] What Adams did not know as she worked on her painting was that her brain may have been undergoing the same changes that Ravels had undergone 66 years earlier. In fact, it

appears that Ravel may have suffered from the same neurological disorder. Ravel composed Bolro at age 53, when he himself was beginning to show behavioral symptoms that interfered with his ability to move and speak. Scientists have concluded, on the basis of an analysis of his written notes and letters, that Ravel was also experiencing the effects of frontotemporal dementia. [4] If Adams and Ravel were both affected by the same disease, it could explain why they both became fascinated with the repetitive aspects of their arts, and it would present a remarkable example of the influence of our brains on behavior. Every behavior begins with biology. Our behaviors, as well as our thoughts and feelings, are produced by the actions of our brains, nerves, muscles, and glands. In this unit, we begin our journey into the world of psychology by considering the biological makeup of the human being, including the most remarkable of human organsthe brain. We consider the structure of the brain and the methods psychologists use to study the brain and to understand how it works. Lets begin by looking at neurons, which are nerve cells involved with all information processing in your brain. A neuron is a cell in the nervous system whose function it is to receive and transmit information. Amazingly, your nervous system is composed of more than 100 billion neurons! As you can see in the following figure, neurons consist of three major parts: a cell body, or soma, which contains the nucleus of the cell and keeps the cell alive; a branching, treelike fiber known as the dendrite, which collects information from other cells and sends the information to the soma; and a long, segmented fiber known as the axon, which transmits information away from the cell body toward other neurons or to the muscles and glands.

Components of the Neuron

From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0, CC-BY-NC-SA.

The nervous system, including the brain, is made up of billions of interlinked neurons. This vast interconnected web is responsible for all human thinking, feeling, and behavior. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0: Photo courtesy of GE Healthcare, http://www.flickr.com/photos/gehealthcare.

Some neurons have hundreds or even thousands of dendrites, and these dendrites may be branched to allow the cell to receive information from thousands of other cells. The axons are also specialized, and some, such as those that send messages from the spinal cord to the muscles in the hands or feet, may be very longeven up to several feet in length. To improve the speed of their communication, and to keep their electrical charges from shorting out with other neurons, axons are often surrounded by a myelin sheath. The myelin sheath is a layer of fatty tissue surrounding the axon of a neuron that both acts as an insulator and allows faster transmission of the electrical signal. Axons branch out toward their ends, and at the tip of each branch is a terminal button.
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The nervous system operates using an electrochemical process (see the following video). An electrical charge moves through the neuron, and chemicals are used to transmit information between neurons. Within the neuron, when a signal is received by the

dendrites, it is transmitted to the soma in the form of an electrical signal, and if the signal is strong enough, it may then be passed to the axon and then to the terminal buttons. If the signal reaches the terminal buttons, they are signaled to emit chemicals known as neurotransmitters, which communicate with other neurons across the spaces between the cells, known as synapses. You will be learning more about synapses and why they are important later on in this module.

Firing Neurons
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References
1. Seeley, W. W., Matthews, B. R., Crawford, R. K., Gorno-Tempini, M. L., Foti, D., Mackenzie, I. R., and Miller, B. L. (2008). "Unravelling Bolro: Progressive aphasia, transmodal creativity, and the right posterior neocortex." Brain. Volume 131. Number 1. 3949 Pages. 2. Miller, B. L., Boone, K., Cummings, J. L., Read, S. L., and Mishkin, F. (2000). "Functional correlates of musical and visual ability in frontotemporal dementia." Journal of Psychiatry. Volume 176. Number 5. 458463 Pages. 3. Aldhous, P. (2008). Bolro: Beautiful symptom of a terrible disease. Retrieved from http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13599-bolero-beautiful-symptom-of-a-terribledisease.html. 4. Amaducci, L., Grassi, E., and Boller, F. (2002). "Maurice Ravel and right-hemisphere musical creativity: Influence of disease on his last musical works?." European Journal of Neurology. Volume 9. Number 1. 7582 Page

Neurons Communicate Using Electrochemical Processes Learning Objectives

Identify what the myelin sheath is, where it is located, and what its role is within the nervous system.

The electrical signal moves through the neuron as a result of changes in the electrical charge of the axon. Normally, the axon remains in the resting potential, a state in which the interior of the neuron contains a greater number of negatively charged ions than does the area outside the cell. When the segment of the axon that is closest to the cell body is stimulated by an electrical signal from the dendrites, and if this electrical signal is strong enough that it passes a certain level or threshold, the cell membrane in this first segment opens its gates, allowing positively charged sodium ions that were previously kept out to enter. This change in electrical charge that occurs in a neuron when a nerve impulse is transmitted is known as the action potential. Once the action potential occurs, the number of positive ions exceeds the number of negative ions in this segment, and the segment temporarily becomes positively charged.

As you can see in the following figure, the axon is segmented by a series of breaks between the sausage-like segments of the myelin sheath. Each of these gaps is a node of Ranvier. The electrical charge moves down the axon from segment to segment, in a set of small jumps, moving from node to node. When the action potential occurs in the first segment of the axon, it quickly creates a similar change in the next segment, which then stimulates the next segment, and so forth, as the positive electrical impulse continues all the way down to the end of the axon. As each new segment becomes positive, the membrane in the prior segment closes up again, and the segment returns to its negative resting potential. In this way, the action potential is transmitted along the axon toward the terminal buttons. The entire response along the length of the axon is very fastit can happen up to 1,000 times each second.

The myelin sheath wraps around the axon but also leaves small gaps called the nodes of Ranvier. The action potential jumps from node to node as it travels down the axon. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0, CC-BY-NC-SA.

An important aspect of the action potential is that it operates in an all-or-nothing manner. What this means is that the neuron either fires completely, such that the action potential moves all the way down the axon, or it does not fire at all. Thus, neurons can provide more energy to the neurons down the line by firing faster but not by firing more strongly. Furthermore, the neuron is prevented from repeated firing by the presence of a refractory perioda brief time after the firing of the axon in which the axon cannot fire again because the neuron has not yet returned to its resting potential.
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Neurotransmitters: The Bodys Chemical Messengers Learning Objectives

Identify the functions of synapses.

Name the major neurotransmitters, identify what they do, and understand why they are important.

Not only do neural signals travel via electrical charges within the neuron, but they also travel via chemical transmission between the neurons. As we just learned, neurons are separated by junction areas known as synapses, areas where the terminal buttons at the end of the axon of one neuron nearly, but dont quite, touch the dendrites of another. The synapses provide a remarkable function because they allow each axon to communicate with many dendrites in neighboring cells. Because a neuron may have synaptic connections with thousands of other neurons, the communication links among the neurons in the nervous system allow for a highly sophisticated communication system. When the electrical impulse from the action potential reaches the end of the axon, it signals the terminal buttons to release neurotransmitters into the synapse. A neurotransmitter is a chemical that relays signals across the synapses between neurons. Neurotransmitters travel across the synaptic space between the terminal button of one neuron and the dendrites of other neurons, where they bind to the dendrites in the neighboring neurons. Furthermore, different terminal buttons release different neurotransmitters, and different dendrites are particularly sensitive to different neurotransmitters. The dendrites admit the neurotransmitters only if they are the right shape to fit in the receptor sites on the receiving neuron. For this reason, the receptor sites and neurotransmitters are often compared to a lock and key, as shown in the following figure. To explore the process of neurotransmission, watch this animation.

When the nerve impulse reaches the terminal button, it triggers the release of neurotransmitters into the synapse. The neurotransmitters fit into receptors on the receiving dendrites in the manner of a lock and key. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0, CC-BY-NCSA.

When neurotransmitters are accepted by the receptors on the receiving neurons, their effect may be either excitatory (i.e., they make the cell more likely to fire) or inhibitory (i.e., they make the cell less likely to fire). Furthermore, if the receiving neuron is able to accept more than one neurotransmitter, it is influenced by the excitatory and inhibitory processes of each. If the excitatory effects of the neurotransmitters are greater than the inhibitory

influences of the neurotransmitters, the neuron moves closer to its firing threshold, and if it reaches the threshold, the action potential and the process of transferring information through the neuron begins. Neurotransmitters that are not accepted by the receptor sites must be removed from the synapse in order for the next potential stimulation of the neuron to happen. This process occurs in part through the breaking down of the neurotransmitters by enzymes, and in part through reuptake, a process in which neurotransmitters that are in the synapse are reabsorbed into the transmitting terminal buttons, ready to again be released after the neuron fires.
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Watch the animation and then complete the following exercises. More than 100 chemical substances produced in the body have been identified as neurotransmitters, and these substances have a wide and profound effect on emotion, cognition, and behavior. Neurotransmitters regulate our appetite, our memory, our emotions, as well as our muscle action and movement. And as you can see in the following table, some neurotransmitters are also associated with psychological and physical diseases. Drugs that we might ingesteither for medical reasons or recreationallycan act like neurotransmitters to influence our thoughts, feelings, and behavior. An agonist is a drug that has chemical properties similar to a particular neurotransmitter and thus mimics the effects of the neurotransmitter. When an agonist is ingested, it binds to the receptor sites in the dendrites to excite the neuron, acting as if more of the neurotransmitter had been present. As an example, cocaine is an agonist for the neurotransmitter dopamine. Because dopamine produces feelings of pleasure when it is released by neurons, cocaine creates similar feelings when it is ingested. An antagonist is a drug that reduces or stops the normal effects of a neurotransmitter. When an antagonist is ingested, it binds to the receptor sites in the dendrite, thereby blocking the neurotransmitter. As an example, the poison curare is an antagonist for the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. When the poison enters the brain, it binds to the dendrites, stops communication among the neurons, and usually causes death. Still other drugs work by blocking the reuptake of the neurotransmitter itselfwhen reuptake is reduced by the drug, more neurotransmitter remains in the synapse, increasing its action.

Function of Neurotransmitters
This video clip shows the role of chemical molecules, called neurotransmitters, in transmitting messages between neurons. The Major Neurotransmitters and Their Functions From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0, CC-BY-NC-SA.

The Major Neurotransmitters and Their Functions Neurotransmitter Description and Function Notes

A common neurotransmitter used in the spinal cord and motor Alzheimers disease is associated with an neurons to stimulate muscle undersupply of acetylcholine. Nicotine is an Acetylcholine (ACh) contractions. Its also used in the agonist that acts like acetylcholine. brain to regulate memory, sleeping, and dreaming. Involved in movement, motivation, and emotion, dopamine produces feelings of pleasure when released by the brains reward system, and its also involved in learning.

Dopamine

Schizophrenia is linked to increases in dopamine, whereas Parkinson disease is linked to reductions in dopamine (and dopamine agonists may be used to treat it).

Endorphins

Endorphins are natural pain relievers. They are related to the compounds found in Released in response to behaviors drugs such as opium, morphine, and heroin. such as vigorous exercise, The release of endorphins creates the orgasm, and eating spicy foods. runners high that is experienced after intense physical exertion. A lack of GABA can lead to involuntary motor actions, including tremors and seizures. Alcohol stimulates the release of GABA, which inhibits the nervous system and makes us feel drunk. Low levels of GABA can produce anxiety, and GABA agonists (tranquilizers) are used to reduce anxiety.

GABA (gammaThe major inhibitory aminobutyric acid) neurotransmitter in the brain.

Glutamate

The most common neurotransmitter, its released in more than 90% of the brains Excess glutamate can cause synapses. Glutamate is found in overstimulation, migraines, and seizures. the food additive MSG (monosodium glutamate). Involved in many functions, Low levels of serotonin are associated with including mood, appetite, sleep, depression, and some drugs designed to

Serotonin

The Major Neurotransmitters and Their Functions and aggression. treat depression (known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs) serve to prevent serotonin reuptake.

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Brain Regions Learning Objectives

Identify and describe the structures and functions of the old brain and its influence on behavior. Identify and describe the structures and functions of the limbic system. Identify and describe the structures and functions of the cerebral cortex, including the four lobes and two hemispheres.

Explain and define the concepts brain neuroplasticity, neurogenesis, and brain lateralization.

30 The Old Brain: Wired for Survival

31 The Limbic System

32 The Cerebral Cortex

33

Neuroplasticity, Neurogenesis, and Brain Lateralization

The Old Brain: Wired for Survival Learning Objectives

Identify and describe the structures and functions of the old brain and its influence on behavior.

If you were someone who understood brain anatomy and were to look at the brain of an animal that you had never seen before, you would nevertheless be able to deduce the likely capacities of the animal because the brains of all animals are much alike in overall form. In each animal the brain is layered, and the basic structures of the brain are similar. The innermost structures of the brainthe parts nearest the spinal cordare the oldest part of the brain, and these areas carry out the same functions they did for our distant ancestors. The old brain regulates basic survival functions, such as breathing, moving, resting, and feeding, and creates our experiences of emotion. Mammals, including humans, have developed further brain layers that provide more advanced functionsfor instance, better memory, more sophisticated social interactions, and the ability to experience emotions. Humans have a large and highly developed outer layer known as the cerebral cortex, which makes us particularly adept at these processes. The brain stem is the oldest and innermost region of the brain. It controls the most basic functions of life, including breathing, attention, and motor responses. The brain stem begins where the spinal cord enters the skull and forms the medulla, the area of the brain stem that controls heart rate and breathing. In many cases, the medulla alone is sufficient to maintain lifeanimals that have their brains severed above the medulla are still able to eat, breathe, and even move. The spherical shape above the medulla is the pons, a structure in the brain stem that helps control the movements of the body, playing a particularly important role in balance and walking. The pons is also important in sleeping, waking, dreaming, and arousal. Running through the medulla and the pons is a long, narrow network of neurons known as the reticular formation. The job of the reticular formation is to filter out some of the stimuli that are coming into the brain from the spinal cord and to relay the remainder of the signals to other areas of the brain. The reticular formation also plays important roles in walking, eating, sexual activity, and sleeping. When electrical stimulation is applied to the reticular formation of an animal, it immediately becomes fully awake, and when the reticular formation is severed from the higher brain regions, the animal falls into a deep coma.

The Brain Stem

The brain stem is an extension of the spinal cord, including the medulla, the pons, the thalamus, and the reticular formation. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0, CC-BYNC-SA.

Two structures near the brain stem are also vital for basic survival functions. The thalamus is the egg-shaped structure sitting just above the brain stem that applies still more filtering to the sensory information coming from the spinal cord and through the reticular formation, and it relays some of these remaining signals to the higher brain levels. [1] The thalamus also receives some of the higher brains replies, forwarding them to the medulla and the cerebellum. The thalamus is also important in sleep because it shuts off incoming signals from the senses, allowing us to rest. The cerebellum (literally, little brain) consists of two wrinkled ovals behind the brain stem. It functions to coordinate voluntary movement. People who have damage to the cerebellum have difficulty walking, keeping their balance, and holding their hands steady. Consuming alcohol influences the cerebellum, which is why people who are drunk have difficulty walking in a straight line. Also, the cerebellum contributes to emotional responses, helps us discriminate between different sounds and textures, and is important in learning. [2]

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References
1. Sherman, S. M., and Guillery, R. W. (2006). Exploring the Thalamus and Its Role in Cortical Function. MIT Press. Cambridge, MA. Edition 2nd. 2. Bower, J. M., and Parsons, J. M. (2003). "Rethinking the lesser brain." Scientific American. Volume 289. Number 2. 5057 Pages.

The Limbic System Learning Objectives

Identify and describe the structures and functions of the limbic system.

Whereas the primary function of the brain stem is to regulate the most basic aspects of life, including motor functions, the limbic system is largely responsible for memory and emotions, including our responses to reward and punishment. The limbic system is a set of distinct and important brain structures located beneath and around the thalamus. Limbic system structures interact with the rest of the brain in complex ways, and they are extremely important for memory and control of emotional responses. They include the amygdala, the hypothalamus, and the hippocampus, among other structures.

The Limbic System

This diagram shows the major parts of the limbic system, as well as the pituitary gland, which is controlled by it. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0, CC-BY-NC-SA.

The amygdala consists of two almond-shaped clusters (amygdala comes from the Latin word for almond) and is primarily responsible for regulating our perceptions of and reactions to aggression and fear. The amygdala has connections to other bodily systems related to fear, including the sympathetic nervous system (which we will see later is important in fear responses), facial responses (which perceive and express emotions), the processing of smells, and the release of neurotransmitters related to stress and aggression. [1] In a 1939 study, Klver and Bucy [2] damaged the amygdala of an aggressive rhesus monkey. They found that the once angry animal immediately became passive and no longer responded to fearful situations with aggressive behavior. Electrical stimulation of the amygdala in other animals also influences aggression. In addition to helping us experience fear, the amygdala helps us learn from situations that create fear. When we experience events that are dangerous, the amygdala stimulates the brain to remember the details of the situation so that we learn to avoid it in the future. [3]

Located just under the thalamus (hence its name), the hypothalamus is a brain structure that contains a number of small areas that perform a variety of functions. Through its many interactions with other parts of the brain, the hypothalamus helps regulate body temperature, hunger, thirst, and sex drive and responds to the satisfaction of these needs by creating feelings of pleasure. The hippocampus consists of two horns that curve back from the amygdala. The hippocampus is important in storing information in long-term memory. If the hippocampus is seriously damaged on both sides of the brain, a person may be unable to store new longterm memories, living instead in a strange world where everything he or she experiences just fades away, even while older memories from the time before the damage are untouched.
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References
1. Best, B. (2008). "The amygdala and the emotions." In Anatomy of the Mind (chap. 9). Retrieved from Welcome to the World of Ben Best: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13599-bolero-beautiful-symptom-of-a-terribledisease.html. 2. Klver, H., and Bucy, P. C. (1939). "Preliminary analysis of functions of the temporal lobes in monkeys." Archives of Neurology & Psychiatry (Chicago). Volume 42. 9791000 Pages. 3. Sigurdsson, T., Doyre, V., Cain, C. K., and LeDoux, J. E. (2007). "Long-term potentiation in the amygdala: A cellular mechanism of fear learning and memory." Neuropharmacology. Volume 52. Number 1. 215227 Pages.

The Cerebral Cortex Learning Objectives

Identify and describe the structures and functions of the cerebral cortex, including the four lobes and two hemispheres.

All animals have adapted to their environments by developing abilities that help them survive. Some animals have hard shells, others run extremely fast, and some have acute hearing. Human beings do not have any of these particular characteristics, but we do have one big advantage over other animalswe are very, very smart. You might think we should be able to determine the intelligence of an animal by looking at the ratio of the animals brain weight to the weight of its entire body. But brain size is not a measure of intelligence. The elephants brain is one-thousandth of its body weight, but the whales brain is only one-ten-thousandth of its body weight. On the other hand, although the human brain is one-sixtieth of its body weight, the mouses brain represents one fortieth

of its body weight. Despite these comparisons, elephants do not seem 10 times smarter than whales, and humans definitely seem smarter than mice. The key to the advanced intelligence of humans is not found in the size of our brains. What sets humans apart from other animals is our larger cerebral cortexthe outer barklike layer of our brain that allows us to so successfully use language, acquire complex skills, create tools, and live in social groups. [1] In humans, the cerebral cortex is wrinkled and folded rather than smooth, as it is in most other animals. This creates a much greater surface area and size. and allows increased capacities for learning, remembering, and thinking. The folding of the cerebral cortex is called corticalization. Although the cortex is only about one tenth of an inch thick, it makes up more than 80% of the brains weight. The cortex contains about 20 billion nerve cells and 300 trillion synaptic connections. [2] Supporting all these neurons are billions more glial cells (glia), cells that surround and link to the neurons, protecting them, providing them with nutrients, and absorbing unused neurotransmitters. The glia come in different forms and have different functions. For instance, the myelin sheath surrounding the axon of many neurons is a type of glial cell. The glia are essential partners of neurons, without which the neurons could not survive or function. [3] The cerebral cortex is divided into two hemispheres, and each hemisphere is divided into four lobes, each separated by folds known as fissures. If we look at the cortex starting at the front of the brain and moving over the top, we see first the frontal lobe (behind the forehead), which is responsible primarily for thinking, planning, memory, and judgment. Following the frontal lobe is the parietal lobe, which extends from the middle to the back of the skull and is responsible primarily for processing information about touch. Then comes the occipital lobe, at the very back of the skull, which processes visual information. Finally, in front of the occipital lobe (pretty much between the ears) is the temporal lobe, responsible primarily for hearing and language.

Hemispheres and Lobes of the Cerebral Cortex

The brain's cerebral cortex is divided into two hemispheres (left and right), each of which has four lobes (temporal, frontal, occipital, and parietal). Complex processes such as planning, interpreting sensory input, and learning are controlled by specific cortical areas. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0, CC-BY-NC-SA.

Functions of the Cortex

When the German physicists Gustav Fritsch and Eduard Hitzig (1870/2009) applied mild electric stimulation to different parts of a dogs cortex, they discovered that they could make different parts of the dogs body move. [4] They also discovered an important and unexpected principle of brain activity. They found that stimulating the right side of the brain produced movement in the left side of the dogs body, and conversely, stimulating the left brain affected the right side of the body. This finding follows from a general principle about how the brain is structured, called contralateral control. The brain is wired such that in most cases the left hemisphere receives sensations from and controls the right side of the body, and vice versa. Fritsch and Hitzig also found that the movement that followed the brain stimulation occurred only when they stimulated a specific arch-shaped region that runs across the top of the brain from ear to ear, just at the front of the parietal lobe. Fritsch and Hitzig had discovered the motor cortex, the part of the cortex that controls and executes movements of the body by sending signals to the cerebellum and the spinal cord. More recently, researchers have mapped the motor cortex even more fully by providing mild electronic stimulation to different areas of the motor cortex in fully conscious participants while observing their bodily responses (because the brain has no sensory receptors, these participants feel no pain). As you can see in the following figure, this research has revealed

that the motor cortex is specialized for providing control over the body: The parts of the body that require more precise and finer movements, such as the face and hands, also are allotted the greatest amount of cortical space.
The Sensory and Motor Cortex

The portion of the sensory and motor cortex devoted to receiving messages that control specific regions of the body is determined by the amount of fine movement that area is capable of performing. Thus, the hand and fingers have as much area in the cerebral cortex as does the entire trunk of the body. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0, CC-BY-NC-SA.

Just as the motor cortex sends out messages to the specific parts of the body, the somatosensory cortex, an area just behind and parallel to the motor cortex at the back of the frontal lobe, receives information from the skins sensory receptors and the movements of different body parts. Again, the more sensitive the body region, the more area is dedicated to it in the sensory cortex. Our sensitive lips, for example, occupy a large area in the sensory cortex, as do our fingers and genitals. Other areas of the cortex process other types of sensory information. The visual cortex is the area located in the occipital lobe (at the very back of the brain) that processes visual information. If you were stimulated in the visual cortex, you would see flashes of light or

color, and perhaps you have had the experience of seeing stars when you were hit in or fell on the back of your head. The temporal lobe, located on the lower side of each hemisphere, contains the auditory cortex, which is responsible for hearing and language. The temporal lobe also processes some visual information, providing us with the ability to name the objects around us. [5] As you can see in the preceding figure, the motor and sensory areas of the cortex account for a relatively small part of the total cortex. The remainder of the cortex is made up of association areas in which sensory and motor information are combined and associated with our stored knowledge. These association areas are responsible for most of the things that make human beings seem humanthe higher mental functions, such as learning, thinking, planning, judging, moral reflecting, figuring, and spatial reasoning.
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References
1. Gibson, K. R. (2002). "Evolution of human intelligence: The roles of brain size and mental construction." Brain, Behavior and Evolution. Volume 59. Number 12. 1020 Pages. 2. de Courten-Myers, G. M. (1999). "The human cerebral cortex: Gender differences in structure and function." Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology. Volume 58. Number 3. 217226 Pages. 3. Miller, G. (2005). "Neuroscience: The dark side of glia." Science. Volume 308. Number 5723. 778781 Pages. 4. Fritsch, G., and Hitzig, E. (2009). "Electric excitability of the cerebrum (ber die Elektrische erregbarkeit des Grosshirns)." Epilepsy and Behavior. Volume 15. Number 2. 123130 Pages. (Original work published 1870). 5. Martin, A. (2007). "The representation of object concepts in the brain." Annual Review of Psychology. Volume 58. 2545 Pages.

Neuroplasticity, Neurogenesis, and Brain Lateralization Learning Objectives

Explain and define the concepts brain neuroplasticity, neurogenesis, and brain lateralization.

The control of some bodily functions, such as movement, vision, and hearing, is performed in specific areas of the cortex, and if an area is damaged, the individual will likely lose the

ability to perform the corresponding function. For instance, if an infant suffers damage to facial recognition areas in the temporal lobe, it is likely that he or she will never be able to recognize faces. [1] However, the brain is not divided in an entirely rigid way. The brains neurons have a remarkable capacity to reorganize and extend themselves to carry out particular functions in response to the needs of the organism and to repair damage. As a result, the brain constantly creates new neural communication routes and rewires existing ones. Neuroplasticity is the brains ability to change its structure and function in response to experience or damage. Neuroplasticity enables us to learn and remember new things and adjust to new experiences. Our brains are the most plastic when we are young children, as it is during this time that we learn the most about our environment. And neuroplasticity continues to be observed even in adults. [2] The principles of neuroplasticity help us understand how our brains develop to reflect our experiences. For instance, accomplished musicians have a larger auditory cortex compared with the general population [3] and also require less neural activity to play their instruments than do novices. [4] These observations reflect the changes in the brain that follow our experiences. Plasticity is also observed when damage occurs to the brain or to parts of the body that are represented in the motor and sensory cortexes. When a tumor in the left hemisphere of the brain impairs language, the right hemisphere begins to compensate to help the person recover the ability to speak. [5] And if a person loses a finger, the area of the sensory cortex that previously received information from the missing finger begins to receive input from adjacent fingers, causing the remaining digits to become more sensitive to touch. [6] Although neurons cannot repair or regenerate themselves as skin and blood vessels can, new evidence suggests that the brain can engage in neurogenesis, the forming of new neurons. [7] These new neurons originate deep in the brain and may then migrate to other brain areas where they form new connections with other neurons. [8] This leaves open the possibility that someday scientists might be able to rebuild damaged brains by creating drugs that help grow neurons.
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Unique Functions of the Left and Right Hemispheres Using Split-Brain Patients
We learned that the left hemisphere of the brain primarily senses and controls the motor movements on the right side of the body, and vice versa. This fact provides an interesting way to study brain lateralizationthe idea that the left and the right hemispheres of the brain are specialized to perform different functions. Gazzaniga, Bogen, and Sperry [9] studied a patient, known as W. J., who had undergone an operation to relieve severe seizures. In this surgery, the region that normally connects the two halves of the brain and supports communication between the hemispheres, known as the corpus callosum, is severed. As a result, the patient essentially becomes a person with two separate brains.

Because the left and right hemispheres are separated, each hemisphere develops a mind of its own, with its own sensations, concepts, and motivations. [10] In their research, Gazzaniga and his colleagues tested the ability of W. J. to recognize and respond to objects and written passages that were presented to only the left or to only the right brain hemispheres. The researchers had W. J. look straight ahead and then flashed, for a fraction of a second, a picture of a geometric shape to the left of where he was looking. By doing so, they assured thatbecause the two hemispheres had been separatedthe image of the shape was experienced only in the right brain hemisphere (remember that sensory input from the left side of the body is sent to the right side of the brain). Gazzaniga and his colleagues found that W. J. was able to identify what he had been shown when he was asked to pick the object from a series of shapes, using his left hand, but that he could not do so when the object was shown in the right visual field. Conversely, W. J. could easily read written material presented in the right visual field (and thus experienced in the left hemisphere) but not when it was presented in the left visual field.

Visual and Verbal Processing in the Split-Brain Patient

The information presented on the left side of our field of vision is transmitted to the right brain hemisphere, and vice versa. In split-brain patients, the severed corpus callosum does not permit information to be transferred between hemispheres, which allows researchers to learn about the functions of each hemisphere.

In the sample on the left, the split-brain patient could not choose which image had been presented because the left hemisphere cannot process visual information. In the sample on the

right, the patient could not read the passage because the right brain hemisphere cannot process language. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0, CC-BY-NC-SA.

This research, and many other studies following it, demonstrated that the two brain hemispheres specialize in different abilities. In most people, the ability to speak, write, and understand language is located in the left hemisphere. This is why W. J. could read passages that were presented on the right side and thus transmitted to the left hemisphere, but could not read passages that were only experienced in the right brain hemisphere. The left hemisphere is also better at math and at judging time and rhythm. It is also superior in coordinating the order of complex movementsfor example, lip movements needed for speech. The right hemisphere has only limited verbal abilities, and yet it excels in perceptual skills. The right hemisphere is able to recognize objects, including faces, patterns, and melodies, and it can put a puzzle together or draw a picture. This is why W. J. could pick out the image when he saw it on the left, but not the right, visual field. Although Gazzanigas research demonstrated that the brain is in fact lateralized, such that the two hemispheres specialize in different activities, this does not mean that when people behave in a certain way or perform a certain activity they are using only one hemisphere of their brains at a time. That would be drastically oversimplifying the concept of brain differences. We normally use both hemispheres at the same time, and the difference between the abilities of the two hemispheres is not absolute. [11]
did I get this

References
1. Farah, M. J., Rabinowitz, C., Quinn, G. E., and Liu, G. T. (2000). "Early commitment of neural substrates for face recognition." Cognitive Neuropsychology. Volume 17. Number 13. 117123 Pages. 2. Kolb, B., and Fantie, B. (1989). Handbook of Clinical Child Neuropsychology. Chapter Development of the childs brain and behavior. Plenum Press. New York. 1739 Pages. C. R. Reynolds and E. Fletcher-Janzen (Eds.). 3. Bengtsson, S. L., Nagy, Z., Skare, S., Forsman, L., Forssberg, H., and Ulln, F. (2005). "Extensive piano practicing has regionally specific effects on white matter development." Nature Neuroscience. Volume 8. Number 9. 11481150 Pages. 4. Mnte, T. F., Altenmller, E., and Jncke, L. (2002). "The musicians brain as a model of neuroplasticity." Nature Reviews Neuroscience. Volume 3. Number 6. 473478 Pages. 5. Thiel, A., Habedank, B., Herholz, K., Kessler, J., Winhuisen, L., Haupt, W. F., and Heiss, W. D. (2006). "From the left to the right: How the brain compensates progressive loss of language function." Brain and Language. Volume 98. Number 1. 5765 Pages. 6. Fox, J. L. (1984). "The brains dynamic way of keeping in touch." Science. Volume 225. Number 4664. 820821 Pages. 7. Van Praag, H., Zhao, X., Gage, F. H., and Gazzaniga, M. S. (2004). The Cognitive Neurosciences. Chapter Neurogenesis in the adult mammalian brain. MIT Press. Cambridge, MA. Edition 3. 127137 Pages. M. S. Gazzaniga (Ed.). 8. Gould, E. (2007). "How widespread is adult neurogenesis in mammals?." Nature Reviews Neuroscience. Volume 8. Number 6. 481488 Pages.

9. Gazzaniga, M. S., Bogen, J. E., and Sperry, R. W. (1965). "Observations on visual perception after disconnexion of the cerebral hemispheres in man." Brain. Volume 88. Number 2. 221236 Pages. 10. Gazzaniga, M. S. (2005). "Forty-five years of split-brain research and still going strong." Nature Reviews Neuroscience. Volume 6. Number 8. 653659 Pages. 11. Soroker, N., Kasher, A., Giora, R., Batori, G., Corn, C., Gil, M., and Zaidel, E. (2005). "Processing of basic speech acts following localized brain damage: A new light on the neuroanatomy of language." Brain and Cognition. Volume 57. Number 2. 214217 Pages.

Positive Emotions Learning Objectives

Explain optimism, self-efficacy, hardiness and describe their effects. Describe the role of relationships and social support in happiness. Define the relationship between money and happiness.

Describe affective forecasting.

The Power of Happiness Learning Objectives

Explain optimism, self-efficacy, hardiness and describe their effects.

The stress of the Monday through Friday grind can be offset by the fun that we can have on the weekend, and the concerns that we have about our upcoming chemistry exam can be offset by a positive attitude toward school, life, and other people. Put simply, the best antidote for stress is a happy one: Think positively, have fun, and enjoy the company of others. You have probably heard about the power of positive thinkingthe idea that thinking positively helps people meet their goals and keeps them healthy, happy, and able to effectively cope with the negative events that occur to them. It turns out that positive thinking really works. People who think positively about their future, who believe that they can control their outcomes, and who are willing to open up and share with others are healthier people. [1] A positive thinker doesnt ignore negative events that happen in their lives. They are just better able to cope by having a positive outlook. They are thinking this will get better. The power of positive thinking comes in different forms, but they are all helpful. Some researchers have focused on optimism, a general tendency to expect positive outcomes,

finding that optimists are happier and have less stress. [2] Others have focused self-efficacy, the belief in our ability to carry out actions that produce desired outcomes. Its a belief that we will be able to succeed in things we try. Our successes improve our self-efficacy. People with high self-efficacy respond to environmental and other threats in an active, constructive wayby getting information, talking to friends, and attempting to face and reduce the difficulties they are experiencing. These people too are better able to ward off their stresses in comparison to people with less self-efficacy. [3] Self-efficacy helps in part because it leads us to perceive that we can control the potential stressors that may affect us. Workers who have control over their work environment (e.g., by being able to move furniture and control distractions) experience less stress, as do patients in nursing homes who are able to choose their everyday activities. [4] Glass, Reim, and Singer [5] found that participants who believed that they could stop a loud noise experienced less stress than those who did not think that they could, even though the people who had the option never actually used it. The ability to control our outcomes may help explain why animals and people who have higher status live longer. [6] Suzanne Kobasa and her colleagues [7] have argued that the tendency to be less affected by lifes stressors can be characterized as an individual difference measure that has a relationship to both optimism and self-efficacy known as hardiness. Hardy individuals are those who are more positive overall about potentially stressful life events, who take more direct action to understand the causes of negative events, and who attempt to learn from them what may be of value for the future. Hardy individuals use effective coping strategies, and they take better care of themselves. Taken together, these various coping skills, including optimism, self-efficacy, and hardiness, have been shown to have a wide variety of positive effects on our health. Optimists make faster recoveries from illnesses and surgeries. [8] People with high selfefficacy have been found to be better able to quit smoking and lose weight and are more likely to exercise regularly. [9] And hardy individuals seem to cope better with stress and other negative life events. [10] The positive effects of positive thinking are particularly important when stress is high. Baker [11] found that in periods of low stress, positive thinking made little difference in responses to stress, but that during stressful periods, optimists were less likely to smoke on a day-to-day basis and more likely to respond to stress in more productive ways, such as by exercising. It is possible to learn to think more positively, and doing so can be beneficial. Antoni and colleagues [12] found that pessimistic cancer patients who were given training in optimism reported more optimistic outlooks after the training and were less fatigued after their treatments. And Maddi, Kahn, and Maddi [13] found that a hardiness training program that included focusing on ways to effectively cope with stress was effective in increasing satisfaction and decreasing self-reported stress. The benefits of taking positive approaches to stress can last a lifetime. Christopher Peterson and his colleagues [14] found that the level of optimism reported by people who had first been interviewed when they were in college during the years between 1936 and 1940 predicted their health over the next 50 years. Students who had a more positive outlook on

life in college were less likely to have died up to 50 years later of all causes, and they were particularly likely to have experienced fewer accidental and violent deaths, in comparison to students who were less optimistic. Similar findings were found for older adults. After controlling for loneliness, marital status, economic status, and other correlates of health, Levy and Myers found that older adults with positive attitudes and higher self-efficacy had better health and lived on average almost 8 years longer than their more negative peers. [15] [16] And Diener, Nickerson, Lucas, and Sandvik [17] found that people who had cheerier dispositions earlier in life had higher income levels and less unemployment when they were assessed 19 years later. learn by doing did I get this

References
1. Seligman, M. E. P., and Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). "Positive psychology: A introduction." American Psychologist. Volume 55. Number 1. 514 Pages. 2. Carver, C. S., and Scheier, M. F. (2009). Handbook of Individual Differences in Social Behavior. Chapter Optimism. Guilford Press. New York. 330342 Pages. M. R. Leary and R. H. Hoyle (Eds.). 3. Thompson, S. C. (2009). Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology. Chapter The role of personal control in adaptive functioning. Oxford University Press. New York. Edition 2. 271278 Pages. S. J. Lopez and C. R. Snyder (Eds.). 4. Rodin, J. (1986). "Aging and health: Effects of the sense of control." Science. Volume 233. Number 4770. 12711276 Pages. 5. Glass, D. C., Reim, B., and Singer, J. E. (1971). "Behavioral consequences of adaptation to controllable and uncontrollable noise." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Volume 7. Number 2. 244257 Pages. 6. Sapolsky, R. M. (2005). "The influence of social hierarchy on primate health." Science. Volume 308. Number 5722. 648652 Pages. 7. Kobasa, S. C., Maddi, S. R., and Kahn, S. (1982). "Hardiness and health: A prospective study." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 42. Number 1. 168177 Pages. 8. Carver, C. S., Smith, R. G., Antoni, M. H., Petronis, V. M., Weiss, S., and Derhagopian, R. P. (2005). "Optimistic personality and psychosocial well-being during treatment predict psychosocial well-being among long-term survivors of breast cancer." Health Psychology. Volume 24. Number 5. 508516 Pages. 9. Cohen, S., and Pressman, S. D. (2006). "Positive affect and health." Current Directions in Psychological Science. Volume 15. Number 3. 122125 Pages. 10. Dolbier, C. L., Smith, S. E., and Steinhardt, M. A. (2007). "Relationships of protective factors to stress and symptoms of illness." American Journal of Health Behavior. Volume 31. Number 4. 423433 Pages. 11. Baker, S. R. (2007). "Dispositional optimism and health status, symptoms, and behaviors: Assessing ideothetic relationships using a prospective daily diary approach." Psychology and Health. Volume 22. Number 4. 431455 Pages.

12. Antoni, M. H., Lehman, J. M., Klibourn, K. M., Boyers, A. E., Culver, J. L., Alferi, S. M., et al. (2001). "Cognitive-behavioral stress management intervention decreases the prevalence of depression and enhances benefit finding among women under treatment for early-stage breast cancer." Health Psychology. Volume 20. Number 1. 2032 Pages. 13. Maddi, S. R., Kahn, S., and Maddi, K. L. (1998). "The effectiveness of hardiness training." Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research. Volume 50. Number 2. 7886 Pages. 14. Peterson, C., Seligman, M. E. P., Yurko, K. H., Martin, L. R., and Friedman, H. S. (1998). "Catastrophizing and untimely death." Psychological Science. Volume 9. Number 2. 127130 Pages. 15. Levy, B., and Myers, L. (2005). "Relationship between respiratory mortality and self-perceptions of aging." Psychology and Health. Volume 20. Number 5. 553564 Pages. 16. Levy, B., Slade, M., and Kasl, S. (2002). "Longitudinal benefit of positive selfperceptions of aging on functional health." Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Science. Volume 57B. Number 5. P409P417 Pages. 17. Diener, E., Nickerson, C., Lucas, R., and Sandvik, E. (2002). "Dispositional affect and job outcomes." Social Indicators Research. Volume 59. Number 3. 229259 Pages.

Finding Happiness through Our Connections with Others Learning Objectives

Describe the role of relationships and social support in happiness.

Happiness is determined in part by genetic factors, such that some people are naturally happier than others, [1] [2] but also in part by the situations that we create for ourselves. Psychologists have studied hundreds of variables that influence happiness, but there is one that is by far the most important. People who report that they have positive social relationships with othersthe perception of social supportalso report being happier than those who report having less social support. [3] [4] Married people report being happier than unmarried people, [5] and people who are connected with and accepted by others suffer less depression, higher self-esteem, and less social anxiety and jealousy than those who feel more isolated and rejected. [6] Social support also helps us better cope with stressors. Koopman, Hermanson, Diamond, Angell, and Spiegel [7] found that women who reported higher social support experienced less depression when adjusting to a diagnosis of cancer, and Ashton and colleagues [8] found a similar buffering effect of social support for AIDS patients. People with social support are less depressed overall, recover faster from negative events, and are less likely to commit suicide. [9] [10] [11] [12]

Social support buffers us against stress in several ways. For one, having people we can trust and rely on helps us directly by allowing us to share favors when we need them. These are the direct effects of social support. But having people around us also makes us feel good about ourselves. These are the appreciation effects of social support. Genz and zlale found that students with more friends felt less stress and reported that their friends helped them, but they also reported that having friends made them feel better about themselves. [13] Taylor, Klein, Lewis, Gruenewald, Gurung, and Updegraff propose tend-andbefriend as a female alternative to the flight-or-fight response to stress more likely to be used by men. Taylor and her colleagues say that when women find themselves in stressful situations, they spend more time tending to their children and families and seek out the comfort of friends. [14] The tend-and-befriend response, so often used by women, is an important and effective way to reduce stress. learn by doing did I get this

References
1. Braungart, J. M., Plomin, R., DeFries, J. C., and Fulker, D. W. (1992). "Genetic influence on tester-rated infant temperament as assessed by Bayleys Infant Behavior Record: Nonadoptive and adoptive siblings and twins." Developmental Psychology. Volume 28. Number 1. 4047 Pages. 2. Lykken, D. T. (2000). Happiness: The Nature and Nurture of Joy and Contentment. St. Martins Press. New York. 3. Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. E., and Smith, H. L. (1999). "Subjective wellbeing: Three decades of progress." Psychological Bulletin. Volume 125. Number 2. 276302 Pages. 4. Diener, E., Tamir, M., and Scollon, C. N. (2006). Bridging Social Psychology: Benefits of Transdisciplinary Approaches. Chapter Happiness, life satisfaction, and fulfillment: The social psychology of subjective well-being. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Mahwah, NJ. 379324 Pages. P. A. M. VanLange (Ed.). 5. Pew Research Center. (2006, February 13). Are we happy yet?. Retrieved from http://pewresearch.org/pubs/301/are-we-happy-yet. 6. Leary, M. R. (1990). "Responses to social exclusion: Social anxiety, jealousy, loneliness, depression, and low self-esteem." Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. Volume 9. Number 2. 221229 Pages. 7. Koopman, C., Hermanson, K., Diamond, S., Angell, K., and Spiegel, D. (1998). "Social support, life stress, pain and emotional adjustment to advanced breast cancer." Psycho-Oncology. Volume 7. Number 2. 101110 Pages. 8. Ashton, E., Vosvick, M., Chesney, M., Gore-Felton, C., Koopman, C., OShea, K., et al. (2005). "Social support and maladaptive coping as predictors of the change in physical health symptoms among persons living with HIV/AIDS." AIDS Patient Care and STDs. Volume 19. Number 9. 587598 Pages.

9. Au, A., Lau, S., and Lee, M. (2009). "Suicide ideation and depression: The moderation effects of family cohesion and social self-concept." Adolescence. Volume 44. Number 176. 851868 Pages. 10. Bertera, E. (2007). "The role of positive and negative social exchanges between adolescents, their peers and family as predictors of suicide ideation." Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal. Volume 24. Number 6. 523538 Pages. 11. Compton, M., Thompson, N., and Kaslow, N. (2005). "Social environment factors associated with suicide attempt among low-income African Americans: The protective role of family relationships and social support." Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. Volume 40. Number 3. 175185 Pages. 12. Skrster, I., Langius, A., gren, H., Hggstrm, L., and Dencker, K. (2005). "Sense of coherence and social support in relation to recovery in first-episode patients with major depression: A one-year prospective study." International Journal of Mental Health Nursing. Volume 14. Number 4. 258264 Pages. 13. Genz, T., and zlale, Y. (2004). "Direct and indirect effects of social support on psychological well-being." Social Behavior and Personality. Volume 32. Number 5. 449458 Pages. 14. Taylor, S. E., Klein, L. C., Lewis, B. P., Gruenewald, T. L., Gurung, R. A. R., and Updegraff, J. A. (2000). "Biobehavioral responses to stress in females: Tend-andbefriend, not fight-or-flight." Psychological Review. Volume 107. Number 3. 411 429 Pages.

What Makes Us Happy? Learning Objectives

Define the relationship between money and happiness.

Historically, psychology has devoted much of its time to describing problems and helping people deal with them. Psychologists treat psychological disorders, so most of our efforts are aimed at trying to make them go away. We spend very little time talking about people without psychological disorders and how we might make their lives better. This realization is part of what gave birth to the positive psychology movement. In positive psychology, we are interested in how we might make peoples lives better even if, and perhaps especially if, they do not have a psychological disorder. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi [1] said people were happiest when in a state of flow. According to Csikszentmihalyi, people are in a state of flow when they are completely absorbed in what they are doing, so much so that they become one with the task. Their energy is completely focused on what they are doing to the exclusion of whats going on around them. [1] One difficulty that people face when trying to improve their happiness is that they may not always know what will make them happy. As one example, many of us think that if we just had more money we would be happier. While it is true that we do need money to afford food and adequate shelter for ourselves and our families, after this minimum level of wealth is reached, more money does not generally buy more happiness. [2] For instance, as you can see in the figure below, even though income and material success has improved

dramatically in many countries over the past decades, happiness has not. Despite tremendous economic growth in France, Japan, and the United States between 1946 and 1990, there was no increase in reports of well-being by the citizens of these countries. Americans today have about three times the buying power they had in the 1950s, and yet overall happiness has not increased. The problem seems to be that we never seem to have enough money to make us really happy. Csikszentmihalyi [3] reported that people who earned $30,000 per year felt that they would be happier if they made $50,000 per year, but that people who earned $100,000 per year said that they would need $250,000 per year to make them happy.
Income and Happiness

Although personal income keeps rising, happiness does not. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0. Source: Layard, R. (2005). Happiness: Lessons from a New Science. New York: Penguin.

learn by doing did I get this

References
1. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper and Row. New York. 2. Easterlin, R. (2005). "Feeding the illusion of growth and happiness: A reply to Hagerty and Veenhoven." Social Indicators Research. Volume 74. Number 3. 429443 Pages. 3. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1999). "If we are so rich, why arent we happy?." American Psychologist. Volume 54. Number 10. 821827 Pages.

Affective Forecasting Learning Objectives

Describe affective forecasting.

These findings might lead us to conclude that we dont always know what does or what might make us happy, and this seems to be at least partially true. For instance, Jean Twenge and her colleagues [1] found in several studies that although people with children frequently claim that having children makes them happy, couples who do not have children actually report being happier than those who do. Psychologists have found that peoples ability to predict their future emotional states is not very accurate. Wilson and Gilbert [2] call this affective forecasting. For one, people overestimate their emotional reactions to events. Although people think that positive and negative events that might occur to them will make a huge difference in their lives, and although these changes do make at least some difference in life satisfaction, they tend to be less influential than we think they are going to be. Positive events tend to make us feel good, but their effects wear off pretty quickly, and the same is true for negative events. For instance, Brickman, Coates, and Janoff-Bulman [3] interviewed people who had won more than $50,000 in a lottery and found that they were not happier than they had been in the past and were also not happier than a control group of similar people who had not won the lottery. On the other hand, the researchers found that individuals who were paralyzed as a result of accidents were not as unhappy as might be expected. How can this possibly be? There are several reasons. First, people are resilient: they bring their coping skills to play when negative events occur, and this makes them feel better. Second, most people do not continually experience very positive, or very negative, affect over a long period of time but rather adapt to their current circumstances. Just as we enjoy the second chocolate bar we eat less than we enjoy the first, as we experience more and more positive outcomes in our daily lives, we habituate to them and our life satisfaction returns to a more moderate level. [4]

Another reason we may mispredict our happiness is that our social comparisons change when our own status changes as a result of new events. People who are wealthy compare themselves to other wealthy people, people who are poor tend to compare with other poor people, and people who are ill tend to compare with other ill people. When our comparisons change, our happiness levels are correspondingly influenced. And when people are asked to predict their future emotions, they may focus only on the positive or negative event they are asked about, and forget about all the other things that wont change. Wilson, Wheatley, Meyers, Gilbert, and Axsom [5] found that when people were asked to focus on all the more regular things they will still be doing in the future (working, going to church, socializing with family and friends, and so forth), their predictions about how something really good or bad would influence them were less extreme. learn by doing did I get this

References
1. Twenge, J., Campbell, W., and Foster, C. (2003). "Parenthood and marital satisfaction: A meta-analytic review." Journal of Marriage and Family. Volume 65. Number 3. 574583 Pages. 2. Wilson, T. D., and Gilbert, D. T. (2005). "Affective forecasting: Knowing what to want." Current Directions in Psychological Science. Volume 14. Number 3. 131 134 Pages. 3. Brickman, P., Coates, D., and Janoff-Bulman, R. (1978). "Lottery winners and accident victims: Is happiness relative?." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 36. Number 8. 917927 Pages. 4. Small, D. M., Zatorre, R. J., Dagher, A., Evans, A. C., and Jones-Gotman, M. (2001). "Changes in brain activity related to eating chocolate: From pleasure to aversion." Brain. Volume 124. Number 9. 17201733 Pages. 5. Wilson, T. D., Wheatley, T., Meyers, J. M., Gilbert, D. T., and Axsom, D. (2000). "Focalism: A source of durability bias in affective forecasting." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 78. Number 5. 821836 Pages.

Human Motivation Learning Objectives

Distinguish the concepts of motivation: drives, goals, homeostasis, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Explain the physiology of hunger. Describe eating disorders.

Discuss arousal and attraction.

Describe the variations and origins of sexual behavior and orientation.

Types of Motivation Learning Objectives

Distinguish the concepts of motivation: drives, goals, homeostasis, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Motivations are often considered in psychology in terms of drives, which are internal states that are activated when the physiological characteristics of the body are out of balance, and goals, which are desired end states that we strive to attain. Motivation can thus be conceptualized as a series of behavioral responses that lead us to attempt to reduce drives and to attain goals by comparing our current state with a desired end state. [1] Like a thermostat on an air conditioner, the body tries to maintain homeostasis, the natural state of the bodys systems, with goals, drives, and arousal in balance. When a drive or goal is arousedfor instance, when we are hungrythe thermostat turns on and we start to behave in a way that attempts to reduce the drive or meet the goal (in this case to seek food). As the body works toward the desired end state, the thermostat continues to check whether or not the end state has been reached. Eventually, the need or goal is satisfied (we eat), and the relevant behaviors are turned off. The bodys thermostat continues to check for homeostasis and is always ready to react to future needs. One of the ways psychologists have looked at motivation is to discuss the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Someone who is intrinsically motivated works because they enjoy the task, they believe the task is important and they desire to do a good job. Intrinsic motivation resides within the individual. Earlier, we talked about a very good example of intrinsic motivation. People in a state of flow [2] are intrinsically motivated. They enjoy the task so much that they get lost in it. On the other hand, a person extrinsically motivated works because they are getting a reward such as money or praise. Extrinsic motivation exists outside the person. You learned that reinforcement and punishment can be used to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Someone who is intrinsically motivated works because they enjoy the task, they believe the task is important and they desire to do a good job. Intrinsic motivation resides within the individual. People in a state of flow are intrinsically motivated. They enjoy the task so much that they get lost in it. On the other hand, a person extrinsically motivated works because they are getting a reward such as money or praise. Extrinsic motivation exists outside the person. You learned in the unit on learning that reinforcement and punishment can be used to change behavior. They are both extrinsic motivators. When you are intrinsically motivated, you need no external reinforcers such as good grades. You study and learn because you like the subject material. You are more likely to continue a task if intrinsically motivated. One danger with extrinsic motivation is that once the reward such as praise or good grades stops, you may not continue with the behavior. Using rewards for a task that the person already enjoys doing may not have the intended effect. Oftentimes it makes the task less enjoyable. The person may lose their intrinsic

motivation and do the task only for rewards. For example, your child gets good grades in school because they enjoy learning. Then you start paying your child for every A or B they receive. You are running the risk that your child will lose their intrinsic motivation and continue to get good grades only if you pay them. Its generally not a good idea to reward a behavior that a person already enjoys doing. learn by doing did I get this

References
1. Lawrence, J. W., Carver, C. S., and Scheier, M. F. (2002). "Velocity toward goal attainment in immediate experience as a determinant of affect." Journal of Applied Social Psychology. Volume 32. Number 4. 788802 Pages. 2. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper and Row. New York.

Eating: Healthy Choices Make Healthy Lives Learning Objectives

Explain the physiology of hunger.

Along with the need to drink fresh water, which humans can normally attain in all except the most extreme situations, the need for food is the most fundamental and important human need. More than 1 in 10 U.S. households contain people who live without enough nourishing food, and this lack of proper nourishment has profound effects on their abilities to create effective lives. [1] When people are extremely hungry, their motivation to attain food completely changes their behavior. Hungry people become listless and apathetic to save energy and then become completely obsessed with food. Ancel Keys and his colleagues [2] found that volunteers who were placed on severely reduced-calorie diets lost all interest in sex and social activities, becoming preoccupied with food. Like most interesting psychological phenomena, the simple behavior of eating has both biological and social determinants as shown in the figure below. Biologically, hunger is controlled by the interactions among complex pathways in the nervous system and a variety of hormonal and chemical systems in the brain and body. The stomach is of course important. We feel more hungry when our stomach is empty than when it is full. But we can also feel hunger even without input from the stomach. Two areas of the hypothalamus are known to be particularly important in eating. The lateral part of the hypothalamus responds primarily to cues to start eating, whereas the ventromedial part of the hypothalamus primarily responds to cues to stop eating. If the lateral part of the hypothalamus is damaged, the animal will not eat even if food is present, whereas if the ventromedial part of the hypothalamus is damaged, the animal will eat until it is obese. [3] Hunger is also determined by hormone levels as depicted in the following figure. Glucose is the main sugar that the body uses for energy, and the brain monitors blood glucose levels

to determine hunger. Glucose levels in the bloodstream are regulated by insulin, a hormone secreted by the pancreas gland. When insulin is low, glucose is not taken up by body cells, and the body begins to use fat as an energy source. Eating and appetite are also influenced by other hormones, including orexin, ghrelin, and leptin. [4] [5]
Eating Is Influenced by the Appetite Hormones

Insulin, secreted by the pancreas, controls blood glucose; leptin, secreted by fat cells, monitors energy levels; orexin, secreted by the hypothalamus, triggers hunger; ghrelin, secreted by an

empty stomach, increases food intake. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0, CC-BY-NC-SA.

Normally the interaction of the various systems that determine hunger creates a balance, or homeostasis, in which we eat when we are hungry and stop eating when we feel full. But homeostasis varies among people; some people simply weigh more than others, and there is little they can do to change their fundamental weight. Weight is determined in large part by the basal metabolic rate, the amount of energy expended while at rest. Each persons basal metabolic rate is different, due to his or her unique physical makeup and physical behavior. A naturally occurring low metabolic rate, which is determined entirely by genetics, makes weight management a very difficult undertaking for many people. How we eat is also influenced by our environment. When researchers rigged clocks to move faster, people got hungrier and ate more, as if they thought they must be hungry again because so much time had passed since they last ate. [6] And if we forget that we have already eaten, we are likely to eat again even if we are not actually hungry. [7] Cultural norms about appropriate weights also influence eating behaviors. Current norms for women in Western societies are based on a very thin body ideal, emphasized by television and movie actresses, models, and even childrens dolls, such as the ever-popular Barbie. These norms for excessive thinness are very difficult for most women to attain: Barbies measurements, if translated to human proportions, would be about 36 in.18 in. 33 in. at bustwaisthips, measurements that are attained by less than 1 in 100,000 women. [8] Many women idealize being thin and yet are unable to reach the standard that they prefer. Cultural norms for men are represented by GI Joe and other action figures as well as the emphasis on lean bodies and six-pack abs. These images are just as unrepresentative of the average male as Barbie and other media images are of the average female. Men as well as women are affected by the cultural emphasis on being thin. The changing norms for men and women play a part too. Because men are no longer always the breadwinner or at the top of the corporate ladder, they seek other ways to prove their masculinity. Well-sculpted bodies are one way to do that.
learn by doing did I get this

References
1. Hunger Notes. (n.d.). How many children are hungry in the United States?. Retrieved from http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/04/editorials/hungry_us_children.htm. 2. Keys, A., Broek, J., Henschel, A., Mickelsen, O., and Taylor, H. L. (1950). The Biology of Human Starvation, Vols. 12. University of Minnesota Press. Minneapolis.

3. Wolf, G., and Miller, N. E. (1964). "Lateral hypothalamic lesions: Effects on drinking elicited by carbachol in preoptic area and posterior hypothalamus." Science. Volume 143. Number 3606. 585587 Pages. 4. Brennan, A. M., and Mantzoros, C. S. (2006). "Drug insight: The role of leptin in human physiology and pathophysiology-emerging clinical applications." Nature Clinical Practice Endocrinology Metabolism. Volume 2. Number 6. 318327 Pages. 5. Nakazato, M., Murakami, N., Date, Y., Kojima, M., Matsuo, H., Kangawa, K., and Matsukura S. (2001). "A role for ghrelin in the central regulation of feeding." Nature. Volume 409. Number 6817. 194198 Pages. 6. Schachter, S. (1968). "Obesity and eating." Science. Volume 161. Number 3843. 751756 Pages. 7. Rozin, P., Dow, S., Moscovitch, M., and Rajaram, S. (1998). "What causes humans to begin and end a meal? A role for memory for what has been eaten, as evidenced by a study of multiple meal eating in amnesic patients." Psychological Science. Volume 9. Number 5. 392396 Pages. 8. Norton, K. I., Olds, T. S., Olive, S., and Dank, S. (1996). "Ken and Barbie at life size." Sex Roles. Volume 34. Number 34. 287294 Pages.

Eating Disorders Learning Objectives

Describe eating disorders.

In some cases, the desire to be thin can lead to eating disorders, which are estimated to affect about 1 million males and 10 million females the United States alone. [1] [2] Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by extremely low body weight, distorted body image, an obsession with exercise, and an obsessive fear of gaining weight. Nine out of 10 sufferers are women. Anorexia begins with a severe weight loss diet and develops into a preoccupation with food and dieting. Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by binge eating followed by purging. Bulimia nervosa begins after the dieter has broken a diet and gorged. Bulimia involves repeated episodes of overeating, followed by vomiting, laxative use, fasting, or excessive exercise. It is most common in women in their late teens or early 20s, and it is often accompanied by depression and anxiety, particularly around the time of the binging. The cycle in which the person eats to feel better, but then after eating becomes concerned about weight gain and purges, repeats itself over and over again, often with major psychological and physical results. Eating disorders are in part heritable, [3] and it is not impossible that at least some have been selected through their evolutionary significance in coping with food shortages. [4] Eating disorders are also related psychological causes, including low self-esteem, perfectionism, and the perception that ones body weight is too high, [5] as well as to cultural norms about body weight and eating. [6] Because eating disorders can create profound negative health outcomes, including death, people who suffer from them should seek treatment. This treatment is often quite effective.

These disorders in men are more common when they are participating in sports that require a low weight such as being a runner or a wrestler. Runners who weigh less are more likely to win races. For the wrestler there is advantage in losing a few pounds to be at the top of a lower weight class than keeping the weight and being near the bottom of a higher weight class. Many men with eating disorders were overweight at one time in their lives usually as children. Men are also less likely to come forward for help because eating disorders are seen as a female problem. Because of this, the 10% estimate is probably low. Although thin is in for both sexes, being too thin can be a problem for men. Often beginning in childhood, boys who are too skinny are teased constantly and may become adults with an obsession to bulk up. That sometimes leads to illegal steroid use. Steroids use is one of the ways men can look like the action figures described above. At least some sports figures such as professional wrestlers and bodybuilders use steroids to achieve that overly muscled look. Several of these cases have been widely publicized in recent times. Steroid use has many side effects, some of which are potentially very serious. They include such problems as acne, testicular atrophy, reduces sperm count, increased aggression, high blood pressure, liver damage, gynocomastia (breast development in men) and prostate problems. And this is just a partial list.

Eating disorders can lead people to be either too fat or too thin. Both are unhealthy. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0, CC-BY-NC-SA.

Obesity
Although some people eat too little, eating too much is also a major problem. Obesity is a medical condition in which so much excess body fat has accumulated in the body that it begins to have an adverse impact on health. In addition to causing people to be stereotyped and treated less positively by others, [7] uncontrolled obesity leads to health problems including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, sleep apnea, arthritis, Alzheimers disease, and some types of cancer. [8] Obesity also reduces life expectancy. [9] Obesity is determined by calculating the body mass index (BMI), a measurement that compares ones weight and height. People are defined as overweight when their BMI is greater than 25 kg/m2 and as obese when it is greater than 30 kg/m2. If you know your height and weight, you can calculate your BMI. Remember when using the BMI, it applies to excess body fat and not well developed muscles. People like body builders can have a high BMI and not be considered obese. Obesity is a leading cause of death worldwide. Its prevalence is rapidly increasing, and it is one of the most serious public health problems of the 21st century. Although obesity is caused in part by genetics, it is increased by overeating and a lack of physical activity. [10]
[11]

There are really only two approaches to controlling weight: eat less and exercise more. To be effective, both of these have to involve permanent lifestyle changes. Dieting is difficult for anyone, but it is particularly difficult for people with slow basal metabolic rates, who must cope with severe hunger to lose weight. Although most weight loss can be maintained for about a year, very few people are able to maintain substantial weight loss through dieting alone for more than three years. [12] Substantial weight loss of more than 50 pounds is typically seen only when weight loss surgery has been performed. [13] Weight loss surgery reduces stomach volume or bowel length, leading to earlier satiation and reduced ability to absorb nutrients from food. Although dieting alone does not produce a great deal of weight loss over time, its effects are substantially improved when it is accompanied by more physical activity. People who exercise regularly, and particularly those who combine exercise with dieting, are less likely to be obese. [14] Exercise not only improves our waistline but also makes us healthier overall. Exercise increases cardiovascular capacity, lowers blood pressure, and helps improve diabetes, joint flexibility, and muscle strength. [15] Exercise also slows the cognitive impairments that are associated with aging. [16] Again, changing ones eating habits (dieting) and/or increasing ones time spent exercising for a short time is not effective for long-term weight loss. The way to maintain long-term weight loss is to permanently change your eating habits (eat fewer calories) and exercise more (burn the same amount of calories or more than you take in). Because the costs of exercise are immediate but the benefits are long term, it may be difficult for people who do not exercise to get started. It is important to make a regular schedule, to work exercise into ones daily activities, and to view exercise not as a cost but

as an opportunity to improve oneself. [17] Exercising is more fun when it is done in groups, so team exercise is recommended. [18] A recent report found that only about one-half of Americans perform the 30 minutes of exercise 5 times a week that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests as the minimum healthy amount. [19] As for the other half of Americans, they most likely are listening to the guidelines, but they are unable to stick to the regimen. Almost half of the people who start an exercise regimen give it up by the 6-month mark. [15] This is a problem because exercise has long-term benefits only if it is continued.
learn by doing did I get this

References
1. Hoek, H. W., and van Hoeken, D. (2003). "Review of the prevalence and incidence of eating disorders." International Journal of Eating Disorders. Volume 34. Number 4. 383 396 Pages. 2. Patrick, L. (2002). "Eating disorders: A review of the literature with emphasis on medical complications and clinical nutrition." Alternative Medicine Review. Volume 7. Number 3. 184202 Pages. 3. Klump, K. L., Burt, S. A., McGue, M., and Iacono, W. G. (2007). "Changes in genetic and environmental influences on disordered eating across adolescence: A longitudinal twin study." Archives of General Psychiatry. Volume 64. Number 12. 14091415 Pages. 4. Guisinger, S. (2008). "Competing paradigms for anorexia nervosa." American Psychologist. Volume 63. Number 3. 199200 Pages. 5. Vohs, K. D., Voelz, Z. R., Pettit, J. W., Bardone, A. M., Katz, J., Abramson, L. Y., et al. (2001). "Perfectionism, body dissatisfaction, and self-esteem: An interactive model of bulimic symptom development." Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. Volume 20. Number 4. 476497 Pages. 6. Crandall, C. S. (1988). "Social contagion of binge eating." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 55. Number 4. 588598 Pages. 7. Crandall, C. S., Merman, A., and Hebl, M. (2009). Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination. Chapter Anti-fat prejudice. Psychology Press. New York. 469487 Pages. T. D. Nelson (Ed.). 8. Gustafson, D., Rothenberg, E., Blennow, K., Steen, B., and Skoog, I. (2003). "An 18-year follow-up of overweight and risk of Alzheimer disease." Archives of Internal Medicine. Volume 163. Number 13. 15241528 Pages. 9. Haslam, D. W., and James, W. P. (2005). "Obesity." Lancet. Volume 366. Number 9492. 197209 Pages. 10. Nestle, M., and Jacobson, M. F. (2000). "Halting the obesity epidemic: A public health policy approach." Public Health Reports. Volume 115. Number 1. 1224 Pages. 11. James, W. P. (2008). "The fundamental drivers of the obesity epidemic." Obesity Review. Volume 9. Number Suppl. 1. 613 Pages.

12. Miller, W. C. (1999). "How effective are traditional dietary and exercise interventions for weight loss?." Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. Volume 31. Number 8. 1129 1134 Pages. 13. Douketis, J. D., Macie C., Thabane, L., and Williamson, D. F. (2005). "Systematic review of long-term weight loss studies in obese adults: Clinical significance and applicability to clinical practice." International Journal of Obesity. Volume 29. Number 10. 11531167 Pages. 14. Borer, K. T. (2008). "How effective is exercise in producing fat loss?." Kinesiology. Volume 40. Number 2. 126137 Pages. 15. American Heart Association (1998). "Statement on exercise, benefits and recommendations for physical activity programs for all Americans." American Heart Association. Volume 94. Number 4. 857862 Pages. 16. Kramer, A. F., Erickson, K. I., and Colcombe, S. J. (2006). "Exercise, cognition, and the aging brain." Journal of Applied Physiology. Volume 101. Number 4. 12371242 Pages. 17. Schomer, H., and Drake, B. (2001). "Physical activity and mental health." International SportMed Journal. Volume 2. Number 3. 19 Pages. 18. Kirchhoff, A., Elliott, L., Schlichting, J., and Chin, M. (2008). "Strategies for physical activity maintenance in African American women." American Journal of Health Behavior. Volume 32. Number 5. 517524 Pages. 19. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2007). "Prevalence of regular physical activity among adultsUnited States, 20012005." Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Volume 56. Number 46. 12091212 Pages.

Sex: The Most Important Human Behavior Learning Objectives

Discuss arousal and attraction. Describe the variations and origins of sexual behavior and orientation.

Perhaps the most important aspect of human experience is the process of reproduction. Without it, none of us would be here. Successful reproduction in humans involves the coordination of a wide variety of behaviors, including courtship, sex, household arrangements, parenting, and child care. So one might ask, what motivates us to have sex with another? Or another way to say it, what arouses our sexual interest and attracts us to others? Sex hormones play a role in our arousal. For men its clear that the male sex hormone testosterone (an androgen) is the main hormone responsible for arousal. If you're a man and your testosterone levels are normal, youll be motivated to have sex. Interestingly enough, testosterone operates on an inverted U in the body. There is a maximum level of it necessary for normal arousal. Levels below that will interfere with arousal as will levels above that. Earlier we talked about steroid use. Steroids are artificial androgens and thus function in the body just like testosterone. Because they artificially increase testosterone, sex drive is likely to be decreased.

The picture with women is not as clear. We know that testosterone levels affect sex drive in women much as they do in men. In women its produced in the adrenals and the ovaries. The role of estrogens is not clear. Some postmenopausal women (estrogen levels drop dramatically with menopause) report a decrease in sex drive while others report an increase or no change. Oxytocin is another hormone that has received a lot of attention. Sometimes called the love hormone, it promotes closeness and bonding. Levels increase when we are engaging in sexual activity. Touching the skin is particularly likely to increase oxytocin levels as does having an orgasm. High levels of oxytocin are at least partially responsible for the closeness we feel towards our partners particularly following orgasm. In your brain, parts of the hypothalamus, several cortical areas, and the limbic system have been implicated in arousal The neurotransmitter dopamine is also involved in arousal and pleasure. Your brain generates sexual fantasies. Many if not most people are aroused by fantasizing about sexual acts or partners. Our senses are also involved with touch and vision playing the largest roles. Touch is the number one sense in arousal. The skin is the largest sense organ in the body and many parts are very sensitive to arousal. Some are biologically based such as the genitals, the mouth including the lips and tongue, the inner thighs, the breasts and the nape of the neck. We refer to these as primary erogenous zones. Others are learned through classical conditioning. Learned ones are called secondary erogenous zones. Any part of the body can become one if it is stimulated during a sexual act. For example, if you constantly stroke your partners eyebrows during sex, eventually youll be able to arouse your partner just by stroking the eyebrows. Both men and women are visually stimulated. The ability of men to be visually stimulated has never been in doubt. Most commercially available pornography is oriented towards a male audience. It hasnt always been so clear for women. However, when women are asked to view pornography and at the same time connected to physiological measures of arousal, it shows they are in fact aroused even if they say they arent. Visual arousal is affected by ones culture. For example, in American culture, a glimpse of female breasts is considered arousing; however, that is not true in all cultures. There are three other factors we should considerattractiveness, proximity, and similarity. Anothers attractiveness may be the first factor that draws us to them. Psychologists define attractiveness by facial symmetry and lack of any observable defects. Most humans regardless of culture will respond to these. Evolution plays a role here. Facial symmetry and lack of observable defects communicate a healthy person capable of successful breeding. Youth also conveys this message. Then culture takes over. What we consider attractive in terms of dress or adornments are cultural issues and learned. They also change with the times. For example, its fashionable to sport one or more tattoos in the early part of the 21st century. No so long before that, it was not considered attractive and probably will be that way again. Take a look at the couples around you. Most people are pretty evenly matched on the attractiveness scale. They look like they go together. Its not common to see a really attractive person with a much less attractive person.

We are also likely to be attracted to someone we come into regular contact with. Thats the proximity factor. Another way to say it is our partner choices are limited by where we live, work and play. And finally, we are more likely to be attracted to people with whom we have something in commonthe similarity factor. Contrary to popular opinion, opposites do not attract. It should make sense if you think about it for a minute. If you were truly opposites how would you spend your time? Common interests are what make relationships last. So what attracts us to another? Our brain and hormones, our senses, our attractiveness, similarity, and proximity. If these are in harmony, we are likely to be highly motivated to pursue sexual activity. Men and women vary in their interest in sex. Men show a more consistent interest in sex, whereas the sexual desires of women are more likely to vary over time. [1] Men fantasize about sex more often than do women, and their fantasies are more physical and less intimate. [2] Men are also more willing than women to have casual, and their standards for sex partners are lower. [3] [4] However, women are more likely to put the brakes on sexual behavior. When men are asked by a desirable partner if they are interested in having casual sex, they are more likely to say yes than when the roles are reversed. Sex differences in sexual interest probably occur in part as a result of the evolutionary predispositions of men and women, and this interpretation is bolstered by the finding that gender differences in sexual interest are observed cross-culturally. [5] Evolutionarily, women should be more selective than men in their choices of sex partners because they must invest more time in bearing and nurturing their children than do men (most men do help out, of course, but women simply do more. [6] Because they do not need to invest a lot of time in child rearing, men may be evolutionarily predisposed to be more willing and desiring of having sex with many different partners and may be less selective in their choice of mates. Women, on the other hand, because they must invest substantial effort in raising each child, should be more selective.
learn by doing did I get this

The Many Varieties of Sexual Behavior

Sex researchers have found that sexual behavior varies widely, not only between men and women but within each sex. [7] [8] About a quarter of women report having a low sexual desire, and about 1% of people report feeling no sexual attraction whatsoever. [9] [10] [11] There are also people who experience hyperactive sexual drives. For about 3% to 6% of the population (mainly men), the sex drive is so strong that it dominates life experience and may lead to hyperactive sexual desire disorder. [12] There is also variety in sexual orientation, which is the direction of our sexual desire toward people of the opposite sex, people of the same sex, or people of both sexes. The vast majority of human beings have a heterosexual orientationtheir sexual desire is focused

toward members of the opposite sex. A smaller minority is primarily homosexual (i.e., they have sexual desire for members of their own sex). Between 3% and 4% of men are gay, and between 1% and 2% of women are lesbian. Another 1% of the population reports being bisexual (having desires for both sexes). The love and sexual lives of homosexuals are not different from those of heterosexuals, except that they choose to have sex with someone that has the same set of sexual equipment. As with heterosexuals, some gays and lesbians are celibate, some are promiscuous, but most are in committed, long-term relationships. [13] Although homosexuality has been practiced as long as records of human behavior have been kept, and occurs in many animals at least as frequently as it does in humans, cultures nevertheless vary substantially in their attitudes toward it. In Western societies such as the United States and Europe, attitudes are becoming progressively more tolerant of homosexuality, but it remains unacceptable in many other parts of the world. The American Psychiatric Association does not consider homosexuality to be a mental illness, although it did so until 1973. Because prejudice against gays and lesbians can lead to experiences of ostracism, depression, and even suicide, [14] these improved attitudes can benefit the everyday lives of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. Historically sexologists looked at the three orientations as mutually exclusive. First it was about with whom you had sex. You could tell who was in which category by whom they had sex with. Then it was about with whom you fall in love. You could tell who was in which category by whom they fell in love with. Not all people neatly fit into one of these three and even those that do can change categories over time. Sexuality is more fluid than static. People can identify themselves as belonging to one category, say heterosexual, and still have sex with members of their own sex. Others can identify themselves as homosexual now but later can change to heterosexual or bisexual. Called sexual fluidity, it is more commonly seen in women but can be seen in both sexes. It is probably more common in women because there is a greater societal prohibition against men having sex with men than women having sex with women. Because there is less of a societal prohibition against women, they are more likely to freely explore their sexuality than men.

Kinsey Rating Scale of Sexual Orientation

This file, Kinsey Scale, made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication.

The idea of sexual fluidity closely matches the Kinsey scale of sexual orientation as depicted above. 0Exclusively heterosexual with no homosexual 1Predominantly heterosexual, only incidentally homosexual 2Predominantly heterosexual, but more than incidentally homosexual 3Equally heterosexual and homosexual 4Predominantly homosexual, but more than incidentally heterosexual 5Predominantly homosexual, only incidentally heterosexual 6Exclusively homosexual Whether sexual orientation is driven more by nature or by nurture has received a great deal of research attention, and research has found that sexual orientation is primarily biological. [15] Areas of the hypothalamus are different in homosexual men, as well as in animals with homosexual tendencies, than they are in heterosexual members of the species, and these differences are in directions such that gay men are more similar to women than are straight men. [16] [17] [18] Twin studies also support the idea that there is a genetic component to

sexual orientation. Among male identical twins, 52% of those with a gay brother also reported homosexuality, whereas the rate in fraternal twins was just 22%. [19] [20] There is also evidence that sexual orientation is influenced by exposure and responses to sex hormones. [21] [22]
learn by doing did I get this

References
1. Baumeister, R. F. (2000). "Gender differences in erotic plasticity: The female sex drive as socially flexible and responsive." Psychological Bulletin. Volume 126. Number 3. 347374 Pages. 2. Leitenberg, H., and Henning, K. (1995). "Sexual fantasy." Psychological Bulletin. Volume 117. Number 3. 469496 Pages. 3. Petersen, J. L., and Hyde, J. S. (2010). "A meta-analytic review of research on gender differences in sexuality, 19932007." Psychological Bulletin. Volume 136. Number 1. 21 38 Pages. 4. Saad, G., Eba, A., and Sejean, R. (2009). "Sex differences when searching for a mate: A process-tracing approach." Journal of Behavioral Decision Making. Volume 22. Number 2. 171190 Pages. 5. Buss, D. M. (1989). "Sex differences in human mate preferences: Evolutionary hypotheses tested in 37 cultures." Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Volume 12. Number 1. 149 Pages. 6. Buss, D., and Kenrick, D. (1998). Handbook of Social Psychology, Vol 2. Chapter Evolutionary social psychology. McGraw-Hill. Boston. Edition 4. 9821026 Pages. D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, and G. Lindzey (Eds.). 7. Kinsey, A. C., Pomeroy, W. B., and Martin, C. E. (1998). Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Indiana University Press. Bloomington. Original work published 1948. 8. Kinsey, A. C. (1998). Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. Indiana University Press. Bloomington. Original work published 1953. 9. Bogaert, A. (2004). "Asexuality: Prevalence and associated factors in a national probability sample." Journal of Sex Research. Volume 41. Number 3. 279287 Pages. 10. Feldhaus-Dahir, M. (2009). "The causes and prevalence of hypoactive sexual desire disorder: Part I." Urologic Nursing. Volume 29. Number 4. 259263 Pages. 11. West, S. L., DAloisio, A. A., Agans, R. P., Kalsbeek, W. D., Borisov, N. N., and Thorp, J. M. (2008). "Prevalence of low sexual desire and hypoactive sexual desire disorder in a nationally representative sample of US women." Archives of Internal Medicine. Volume 168. Number 13. 14411449 Pages. 12. Kingston, D. A., and Firestone, P. (2008). "Problematic hypersexuality: A review of conceptualization and diagnosis." Sexual Addictions and Compulsivity. Volume 15. Number 4. 284310 Pages. 13. Laumann, E. O., Gagnon, J. H., Michael, R. T., and Michaels, S. (1994). The Social Organization of Sexuality in the United States. University of Chicago Press. Chicago. 14. Kulkin, H. S., Chauvin, E. A., and Percle, G. A. (2000). "Suicide among gay and lesbian adolescents and young adults: A review of the literature." Journal of Homosexuality. Volume 40. Number 1. 129 Pages.

15. Mustanski, B. S., Chivers, M. L., and Bailey, J. M. (2002). "A critical review of recent biological research on human sexual orientation." Annual Review of Sex Research. Volume 13. 89140 Pages. 16. Gladue, B. A. (1994). "The biopsychology of sexual orientation." Current Directions in Psychological Science. Volume 3. Number 5. 150154 Pages. 17. Lasco, M., Jordan, T., Edgar, M., Petito, C., and Byne, W. (2002). "A lack of dimorphism of sex or sexual orientation in the human anterior commissure." Brain Research. Volume 936. Number 1/2. 9598 Pages. 18. Rahman, Q., and Wilson, G. D. (2003). "Born gay? The psychobiology of human sexual orientation." Personality and Individual Differences. Volume 34. Number 8. 13371382 Pages. 19. Bailey, J., Pillard, R., Dawood, K., Miller, M., Farrer, L., Shruti Trivedi, L., et al. (1999). "A family history study of male sexual orientation using three independent samples." Behavior Genetics. Volume 29. Number 2. 7986 Pages. 20. Pillard, R., and Bailey, J. (1998). "Human sexual orientation has a heritable component." Human Biology. Volume 70. Number 2. 347365 Pages. 21. Hershberger, S., and Segal, N. (2004). "The cognitive, behavioral, and personality profiles of a male monozygotic triplet set discordant for sexual orientation." Archives of Sexual Behavior. Volume 33. Number 5. 497514 Pages. 22. Williams, T., Pepitone, M., Christensen, S. E., Cooke, B. M., Huberman, A. D., Breedlove, N. J, et al. (2000). "Finger-length ratios and sexual orientation." Nature. Volume 404. Number 6777. 455514 Pages.

Personality and Behavior: Approaches and Measurement Learning Objectives

Distinguish and critique the early approaches to assessing personality. Describe the primary trait theories of personality and explain the strengths and limitations of the trait approach to understanding personality. Distinguish between self-report inventories and projective tests that have been used to assess personality and psychological disorders.

172 Early Approaches to Assessing Personality 173 Personality as Traits 174 The MMPI and Projective Tests 175 Psychology in Everyday Life: Leaders and Leadership

Early Approaches to Assessing Personality Learning Objectives

Distinguish and critique the early approaches to assessing personality.

Identical Twins Reunited after 35 Years

Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein were identical twins who were adopted into separate families immediately after their births in 1968. It was only at the age of 35 that the twins were reunited and discovered how similar they were to each other. Paula Bernstein grew up in a happy home in suburban New York. She loved her adopted parents and older brother and even wrote an article titled Why I Dont Want to Find My Birth Mother. Elyses childhood, also a happy one, was followed by college and then film school abroad. In 2003, 35 years after she was adopted, Elyse, acting on a whim, inquired about her biological family at the adoption agency. The response came back: You were born on October 9, 1968, at 12:51 p.m., the younger of twin girls. Youve got a twin sister, Paula, and shes looking for you. Oh my God, Im a twin! Can you believe this? Is this really happening? Elyse cried. Elyse dialed Paulas phone number: Its almost like Im hearing my own voice in a recorder back at me, she said. Its funny because I feel like in a way I was talking to an old, close friend I never knew I had. . . . We had an immediate intimacy, and yet, we didnt know each other at all, Paula said. The two women met for the first time at a caf for lunch and talked until the late evening. We had 35 years to catch up on, said Paula. How do you start asking somebody, What have you been up to since we shared a womb together? Where do you start? With each new detail revealed, the twins learned about their remarkable similarities. Theyd both gone to graduate school in film. They both loved to write, and they had both edited their high school yearbooks. They have similar taste in music. I think, you know, when we met it was undeniable that we were twins. Looking at this person, you are able to gaze into your own eyes and see yourself from the outside. This identical individual has the exact same DNA and is essentially your clone. We dont have to imagine, Paula said. Now they finally feel like sisters.

But its perhaps even closer than sisters, Elyse said, Because were also twins. The twins, who both now live in Brooklyn, combined their writing skills to write a book called Identical Strangers about their childhoods and their experience of discovering an identical twin in their mid-30s. [1] [2] You can learn more about the experiences of Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein by viewing the video below. One of the most fundamental tendencies of human beings is to size up other people. We say that Bill is fun, that Marian is adventurous, or that Frank is dishonest. When we make these statements, we mean that we believe that these people have stable individual characteristicstheir personalities. Personality is an individuals consistent patterns of feeling, thinking, and behaving. [3] The tendency to perceive personality is a fundamental part of human nature, and a most adaptive one. If we can draw accurate generalizations about what other people are normally like, we can predict how they will behave in the future, and this can help us determine how they are likely to respond in different situations. Understanding personality can also help us better understand psychological disorders and the negative behavioral outcomes they may produce. In short, personality matters because it guides behavior. In this module we will consider the wide variety of personality traits found in human beings. Well consider how and when personality influences our behavior, and how well we perceive the personalities of others. We will also consider how psychologists measure personality, and the extent to which personality is caused by nature versus nurture. The fundamental goal of personality psychologists is to understand what makes people different from each other (the study of individual differences), but they also find that people who share genes (as do Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein) have a remarkable similarity in personality. Early theories assumed that personality was expressed in peoples physical appearance. One early approach, developed by the German physician Franz Joseph Gall (17581828) and known as phrenology, was based on the idea that we could measure personality by assessing the patterns of bumps on peoples skulls (shown in the figure below). In the Victorian age, phrenology was taken seriously, and many people promoted its use as a source of psychological insight and self-knowledge. Machines were even developed for helping people analyze skulls. [4] However, because careful scientific research did not validate the predictions of the theory, phrenology has now been discredited in contemporary psychology.

Personality as Traits Learning Objectives

Describe the primary trait theories of personality and explain the strengths and limitations of the trait approach to understanding personality.

Personalities are characterized in terms of traits, which are relatively enduring characteristics that influence our behavior across many situations. Personality traits such as introversion, friendliness, conscientiousness, honesty, and helpfulness are important because they help explain consistencies in behavior. The most popular way of measuring traits is by administering personality tests on which people self-report about their own characteristics. Psychologists have investigated hundreds of traits using the self-report approach, and this research has found many personality traits that have important implications for behavior. You can see some examples of the personality dimensions that have been studied by psychologists and their implications for behavior in the following table.
Some Personality Traits That Predict Behavior From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, CC-BY-NC-SA. Trait Description Examples of Behaviors Exhibited by People Who Have the Trait

Authoritarianism

[1]

A cluster of traits including Authoritarians are more likely to be conventionalism, superstition, toughness, prejudiced, to conform to leaders, and exaggerated concerns with sexuality and to display rigid behaviors. Individualists prefer to engage in behaviors that make them stand out from others, whereas collectivists prefer to engage in behaviors that emphasize their similarity to others. People with higher internal locus of control are happier, less depressed, and healthier in comparison to those with an external locus of control. Those high in need for achievement select tasks that are not too difficult to be sure they will succeed in them.

Individualismcollectivism [2]

Individualism is the tendency to focus on oneself and ones personal goals; collectivism is the tendency to focus on ones relations with others.

Internal versus external locus of control [3]

In comparison to those with an external locus of control, people with an internal locus of control are more likely to believe that life events are due largely to their own efforts and personal characteristics. The desire to make significant accomplishments by mastering skills or meeting high standards

Need for achievement [4]

Some Personality Traits That Predict Behavior People high in the need for Need for cognition The extent to which people engage in and cognition pay more attention to [5] enjoy effortful cognitive activities arguments in ads. People with a promotion Refers to differences in the motivations orientation are more motivated by that energize behavior, varying from a goals of gaining money, whereas promotion orientation (seeking out new those with prevention orientation opportunities) to a prevention orientation are more concerned about losing (avoiding negative outcomes) money.

Regulatory focus [6]

People high in self-consciousness Self-consciousness The tendency to introspect and examine spend more time preparing their [7] hair and makeup before they leave ones inner self and feelings the house. High self-esteem means having a positive High self-esteem is associated with attitude toward oneself and ones a variety of positive psychological capabilities. and health outcomes.

Self-esteem

[8]

Sensation seekers are more likely to engage in risky behaviors such [9] The motivation to engage in extreme and as extreme and risky sports, Sensation seeking risky behaviors substance abuse, unsafe sex, and crime.

Example of a Trait Measure

As with intelligence tests, the utility of self-report measures of personality depends on their reliability and construct validity. Some popular measures of personality are not useful because they are unreliable or invalid. Perhaps you have heard of a personality test known as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). If so, you are not alone, because the MBTI is the most widely administered personality test in the world, given millions of times a year to employees in thousands of companies. The MBTI categorizes people into one of four categories on each of four dimensions: introversion versus extroversion, sensing versus intuiting, thinking versus feeling, and judging versus perceiving. Although completing the MBTI can be useful for helping people think about individual differences in personality, and for breaking the ice at meetings, the measure itself is not psychologically useful because it is not reliable or valid. Peoples classifications change over time, and scores on the MBTI do not relate to other measures of personality or to behavior. [10] Measures such as the MBTI remind us that it is important to scientifically and

empirically test the effectiveness of personality tests by assessing their stability over time and their ability to predict behavior. One of the challenges of the trait approach to personality is that there are so many of them: at least 18,000 English words can be used to describe people. [11] Thus a major goal of psychologists is to take this vast number of descriptors (many of which are similar to each other) and determine the underlying important or core traits among them. [12] The trait approach to personality was pioneered by early psychologists, including Gordon Allport (18971967), Raymond Cattell (19051998), and Hans Eysenck (19161997). Each of these psychologists believed in the idea of the trait as the stable unit of personality, and each attempted to provide a list or taxonomy of the most important trait dimensions. Their approach was to provide people with a self-report measure and then to use statistical analyses to look for the underlying factors or clusters of traits, according to the frequency and the co-occurrence of traits in the respondents. Allport [13] began his work by reducing the 18,000 traits to a set of about 4,500 traitlike words that he organized into three levels according to their importance. He called them cardinal traits (the most important traits), central traits (the basic and most useful traits), and secondary traits (the less obvious and less consistent ones). Cattell [14] used a statistical procedure known as factor analysis to analyze the correlations among traits and to identify the most important ones. On the basis of his research, he identified what he called source (more important) and surface (less important) traits, and he developed a measure that assesses 16 dimensions of traits based on personality adjectives taken from everyday language. Hans Eysenck was particularly interested in the biological and genetic origins of personality and made an important contribution to understanding the nature of a fundamental personality trait: extroversion versus introversion. [15] Eysenck proposed that people who are extroverted (i.e., who enjoy socializing with others) have lower levels of naturally occurring arousal than do introverts (who are less likely to enjoy being with others). Eysenck argued that extroverts have a greater desire to socialize with others to increase their arousal level, which is naturally too low, whereas introverts, who have naturally high arousal, do not desire to engage in social activities because they are overly stimulating. The fundamental work on trait dimensions conducted by Allport, Cattell, Eysenck, and many others has led to contemporary trait models, the most important and well-validated of which is the Five-Factor (Big Five) Model of Personality. According to this model, there are five fundamental underlying trait dimensions that are stable across time, crossculturally shared, and explain a substantial proportion of behavior. [16] [17] As you can see in the following table, the five dimensions (sometimes known as the Big Five) are agreeableness, conscientiousness, extroversion, neuroticism, and openness to experience. (You can remember them using the watery acronyms CANOE or OCEAN.)

The Five Factors of the Five-Factor Model of Personality From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, CC-BY-NC-SA. Dimension Sample items Description Examples of Behaviors Predicted by the Trait

Openness to experience

Individuals who are highly open to experience tend to I have a vivid A general appreciation for have distinctive and imagination; I art, emotion, adventure, unconventional decorations in have a rich unusual ideas, their home. They are also likely vocabulary; I have imagination, curiosity, and to have books on a wide variety of topics, a diverse excellent ideas. variety of experience music collection, and works of art on display. Individuals who are A tendency to show selfconscientious have a discipline, act dutifully, preference for planned rather and aim for achievement than spontaneous behavior.

I am always prepared; I am Conscientiousness exacting in my work; I follow a schedule.

Extroversion

I am the life of the The tendency to party; I feel experience positive comfortable around emotions and to seek out people; I talk to a stimulation and the lot of different company of others people at parties. A tendency to be compassionate and I am interested in cooperative rather than people; I feel suspicious and others emotions; antagonistic toward I make people feel others; reflects individual differences in general at ease. concern for social harmony

Extroverts enjoy being with people. In groups they like to talk, assert themselves, and draw attention to themselves.

Agreeableness

Agreeable individuals value getting along with others. They are generally considerate, friendly, generous, helpful, and willing to compromise their interests with those of others.

Neuroticism

I am not usually The tendency to Those who score high in relaxed; I get experience negative neuroticism are more likely to upset easily; I am emotions, such as anger, interpret ordinary situations as

The Five Factors of the Five-Factor Model of Personality easily disturbed anxiety, or depression; sometimes called emotional instability threatening and minor frustrations as hopelessly difficult. They may have trouble thinking clearly, making decisions, and coping effectively with stress.

A large body of research evidence has supported the five-factor model. The Big Five dimensions seem to be cross-cultural, because the same five factors have been identified in participants in China, Japan, Italy, Hungary, Turkey, and many other countries. [18] The Big Five dimensions also accurately predict behavior. For instance, a pattern of high conscientiousness, low neuroticism, and high agreeableness predicts successful job performance. [19] Scores on the Big Five dimensions also predict the performance of U.S. presidents; ratings of openness to experience are correlated positively with ratings of presidential success, whereas ratings of agreeableness are correlated negatively with success. [20] The Big Five factors are also increasingly being used in helping researchers understand the dimensions of psychological disorders such as anxiety and depression. [21]
[22]

An advantage of the five-factor approach is that it is parsimonious. Rather than studying hundreds of traits, researchers can focus on only five underlying dimensions. The Big Five may also capture other dimensions that have been of interest to psychologists. For instance, the trait dimension of need for achievement relates to the Big Five variable of conscientiousness, and self-esteem relates to low neuroticism. On the other hand, the Big Five factors do not seem to capture all the important dimensions of personality. For instance, the Big Five does not capture moral behavior, although this variable is important in many theories of personality. And there is evidence that the Big Five factors are not exactly the same across all cultures. [23]

Situational Influences on Personality

One challenge to the trait approach to personality is that traits may not be as stable as we think they are. When we say that Malik is friendly, we mean that Malik is friendly today and will be friendly tomorrow and even next week. And we mean that Malik is friendlier than average in all situations. But what if Malik were found to behave in a friendly way with his family members but to be unfriendly with his fellow classmates? This would clash with the idea that traits are stable across time and situation. The psychologist Walter Mischel [24] reviewed the existing literature on traits and found that there was only a relatively low correlation (about r = .30) between the traits that a person expressed in one situation and those that they expressed in other situations. In one relevant study, Hartshorne, May, Maller, and Shuttleworth [25] examined the correlations among

various behavioral indicators of honesty in children. They also enticed children to behave either honestly or dishonestly in different situations, for instance, by making it easy or difficult for them to steal and cheat. The correlations among childrens behavior was low, generally less than r = .30, showing that children who steal in one situation are not always the same children who steal in a different situation. And similar low correlations were found in adults on other measures, including dependency, friendliness, and conscientiousness. [26] Psychologists have proposed two possibilities for these low correlations. One possibility is that the natural tendency for people to see traits in others leads us to believe that people have stable personalities when they really do not. In short, perhaps traits are more in the heads of the people who are doing the judging than they are in the behaviors of the people being observed. The fact that people tend to use human personality traits, such as the Big Five, to judge animals in the same way that they use these traits to judge humans is consistent with this idea. [27] And this idea also fits with research showing that people use their knowledge representation (schemas) about people to help them interpret the world around them and that these schemas color their judgments of others personalities. [28] Research has also shown that people tend to see more traits in other people than they do in themselves. You might be able to get a feeling for this by taking the following short quiz. First, think about a person you knowyour mom, your roommate, or a classmateand choose which of the three responses on each of the four lines best describes him or her. Then answer the questions again, but this time about yourself.
From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, CC-BY-NC-SA. 1. Energetic Relaxed Depends on the situation 2. Skeptical Trusting Depends on the situation 3. Quiet Talkative Depends on the situation Depends on the situation

4. Intense Calm

Richard Nisbett and his colleagues [29] had college students complete this same task for themselves, for their best friend, for their father, and for the (at the time well-known) newscaster Walter Cronkite. As you can see in the following figure, the participants chose one of the two trait terms more often for other people than they did for themselves, and chose depends on the situation more frequently for themselves than they did for the other people. These results also suggest that people may perceive more consistent traits in others than they should.

We Tend to Overestimate the Traits of Others

Nisbett, Caputo, Legant, and Marecek found that participants checked off a trait term (such as energetic or talkative) rather than depends on the situation less often when asked to describe themselves than when asked to describe others. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0. Adapted from Nisbett, R. E., Caputo, C., Legant, P., and Marecek, J. (1973). Behavior as seen by the actor and as seen by the observer. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 27(2):154164.

The human tendency to perceive traits is so strong that it is very easy to convince people that trait descriptions of themselves are accurate. Imagine that you had completed a personality test and the psychologist administering the measure gave you this description of your personality: You have a great need for other people to like and admire you. You have a tendency to be critical of yourself. You have a great deal of unused capacity, which you have not turned to your advantage. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them. Disciplined and self-controlled outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. I would imagine that you might find that it described you. You probably do criticize yourself at least sometimes, and you probably do sometimes worry about things. The problem is that you would most likely have found some truth in a personality description that was the opposite. Could this description fit you too? You frequently stand up for your own opinions even if it means that others may judge you negatively. You have a tendency to find the positives in your own behavior. You work to the fullest extent of your capabilities. You have few personality weaknesses, but some may show up under stress. You sometimes confide in others that you are concerned or worried, but inside you maintain discipline and self-control. You generally believe that you have made the right decision and done the right thing.

The Barnum effect refers to the observation that people tend to believe in descriptions of their personality that supposedly are descriptive of them but could in fact describe almost anyone. The Barnum effect helps us understand why many people believe in astrology, horoscopes, fortune-telling, palm reading, tarot card reading, and even some personality tests. People are likely to accept descriptions of their personality if they think that they have been written for them, even though they cannot distinguish their own tarot card or horoscope readings from those of others at better than chance levels. [30] Again, people seem to believe in traits more than they should.

The popularity of tarot card reading, crystal ball reading, horoscopes, palm reading, and other techniques shows the human propensity to believe in traits. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0. Thinkstock.

A second way that psychologists responded to Mischels findings was by searching even more carefully for the existence of traits. One insight was that the relationship between a trait and a behavior is less than perfect because people can express their traits in different

ways. [31] People high in extroversion, for instance, may become teachers, salesmen, actors, or even criminals. Although the behaviors are very different, they nevertheless all fit with the meaning of the underlying trait. Psychologists also found that, because people do behave differently in different situations, personality will only predict behavior when the behaviors are aggregated or averaged across different situations. We might not be able to use the personality trait of openness to experience to determine what Saul will do on Friday night, but we can use it to predict what he will do over the next year in a variety of situations. When many measurements of behavior are combined, there is much clearer evidence for the stability of traits and for the effects of traits on behavior. [32] [33] Taken together, these findings make a very important point about personality, which is that it not only comes from inside us but is also shaped by the situations that we are exposed to. Personality is derived from our interactions with and observations of others, from our interpretations of those interactions and observations, and from our choices of which social situations we prefer to enter or avoid. [34] In fact, behaviorists such as B. F. Skinner explain personality entirely in terms of the environmental influences that the person has experienced. Because we are profoundly influenced by the situations that we are exposed to, our behavior does change from situation to situation, making personality less stable than we might expect. And yet personality does matterwe can, in many cases, use personality measures to predict behavior across situations.
learn by doing

You can try completing a self-report measure of personality (a short form of the FiveFactor Personality Test). There are 120 questions, and it should take you about 15 to 20 minutes to complete. You will receive feedback about your personality after you have finished the test.
did I get this

Ben is usually animated and talkative when he is with his girlfriend, but he is often quiet and reserved at home. He actively participates in many classroom discussions but frequently seems reluctant to talk with friends at the campus coffee shop. Most of Janets friends and co-workers would describe her as being quiet and reserved. Doug considers John to be a very honest person. In fact, in a psychology class in which the consistency of traits was being discussed, Doug cited his friend as an example of consistency. Gina was informed by a professional palm reader: You generally communicate openly with others, but you have certain dark secrets that even your closest friends could never guess.

References
1. Adorno, T. W., Frenkel-Brunswik, E., Levinson, D. J., and Sanford, R. N. (1950). The Authoritarian Personality. Harper. New York. 2. Triandis, H. (1989). "The self and social behavior in differing cultural contexts." Psychological Review. Volume 96. Number 3. 506520 Pages. 3. Rotter, J. (1966). "Generalized expectancies of internal versus external locus of control of reinforcement." Psychological Monographs. Volume 80. Number 1. 128 Pages. 4. McClelland, D. C. (1958). Motives in Fantasy, Action and Society. Chapter Methods of measuring human motivation. D. Van Nostrand. Princeton, NJ. 1213 Pages. J. W. Atkinson (Ed.). 5. Cacioppo, J. T., and Petty, R. E. (1982). "The need for cognition." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 42. Number 1. 116131 Pages. 6. Shah, J., Higgins, T., andand Friedman, R. S. (1998). "Performance incentives and means: How regulatory focus influences goal attainment." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 74. Number 2. 285293 Pages. 7. Fenigstein, A., Scheier, M. F., and Buss, A. H. (1975). "Public and private selfconsciousness: Assessment and theory." Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Volume 43. Number 4. 522527 Pages. 8. Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the Adolescent Self-Image. Princeton University Press. Princeton, NJ. 9. Zuckerman, M. (2007). Sensation Seeking and Risky Behavior. American Psychological Association. Washington, DC. 10. Hunsley, J., Lee, C. M., and Wood, J. M. (2003). Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology. Chapter Controversial and questionable assessment techniques. Guilford Press. New York. 3976 Pages. S. O. Lilienfeld, S. J. Lynn, and J. M. Lohr (Eds.). 11. Allport, G. W., and Odbert, H. (1936). Trait-Names: A Psycho-Lexical Study. No. 211. Psychological Review Monographs. Princeton, NJ. 12. John, O. P., Angleitner, A., and Ostendorf, F. (1988). "The lexical approach to personality: A historical review of trait taxonomic research." European Journal of Personality. Volume 2. Number 3. 171203 Pages. 13. Allport, G. W. (1937). Personality: A Psychological Interpretation. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. New York. 14. Cattell, R. B. (1990). Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research. Chapter Advances in Cattellian personality theory. Guilford Press. New York. 101110 Pages. L. A. Pervin (Ed.). 15. Eysenck, H. (1998). Dimensions of Personality. Transaction. Piscataway, NJ. 16. Costa, P. T., Jr., and McCrae, R. R. (1992). Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) Manual. Psychological Assessment Resources. Odessa, FL. 17. Goldberg, L. R. (1982). Advances in Personality Assessment, Vol. 1. Chapter From ace to zombie: Some explorations in the language of personality. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Hillsdale, NJ. 203234 Pages. C. D. Spielberger and J. N. Butcher (Eds.). 18. Triandis, H. C., and Suh, E. M. (2002). "Cultural influences on personality." Annual Review of Psychology. Volume 53. Number 1. 133160 Pages. 19. Tett, R. P., Jackson, D. N., and Rothstein, M. (1991). "Personality measures as predictors of job performance: A meta-analytic review." Personnel Psychology. Volume 44. Number 4. 703742 Pages.

20. Rubenzer, S. J., Faschingbauer, T. R., and Ones, D. S. (2000). "Assessing the U.S. presidents using the revised NEO Personality Inventory." Assessment. Volume 7. Number 4. 403420 Pages. 21. Rubenzer, S. J., Faschingbauer, T. R., and Ones, D. S. (2010). "Borderline personality disorder and DSM-5." Journal of Psychiatric Practice. Volume 16. Number 3. 143154 Pages. 22. Saulsman, L. M., and Page, A. C. (2004). "The five-factor model and personality disorder empirical literature: A meta-analytic review." Clinical Psychology Review. Volume 23. Number 8. 10551085 Pages. 23. Cheung, F. M., and Leung, K. (1998). "Indigenous personality measures: Chinese examples." Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. Volume 29. Number 1. 233248 Pages. 24. Mischel, W. (1968). Personality and Assessment. Wiley. New York. 25. Hartshorne, H., May, M. A., Maller, J. B., Shuttleworth, F. K. (1928). Studies in the Nature of Character. Macmillan. New York. 26. Bem, D. J., and Allen, A. (1974). "On predicting some of the people some of the time: The search for cross-situational consistencies in behavior." Psychological Review. Volume 81. Number 6. 506520 Pages. 27. Gosling, S. D. (2001). "From mice to men: What can we learn about personality from animal research." Psychological Bulletin. Volume 127. Number 1. 4586 Pages. 28. Fiske, S. T., and Taylor, S. E. (2007). Social Cognition, from Brains to Culture. McGraw-Hill. New York. 29. Nisbett, R. E., Caputo, C., Legant, P., and Marecek, J. (1973). "Behavior as seen by the actor and as seen by the observer." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 27. Number 2. 154164 Pages. 30. Hines, T. (2003). Pseudoscience and the Paranormal. Prometheus Books. Amherst, NY. 31. Mischel, W., and Shoda, Y. (2008). Handbook of Personality Psychology: Theory and Research. Chapter Toward a unified theory of personality: Integrating dispositions and processing dynamics within the cognitive-affective processing system. Guilford Press. New York. Edition 3. 208241 Pages. O. P. John, R. W. Robins, and L. A. Pervin (Eds.). 32. Roberts, B. W., and DelVecchio, W. F. (2000). "The rank-order consistency of personality traits from childhood to old age: A quantitative review of longitudinal studies." Psychological Bulletin. Volume 126. Number 1. 325 Pages. 33. Srivastava, S., John, O. P., Gosling, S. D., and Potter, J. (2003). "Development of personality in early and middle adulthood: Set like plaster or persistent change?." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 85. Number 5. 10411053 Pages. 34. Bandura, A. (1986). Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory. Prentice Hall. Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

The MMPI and Projective Tests Learning Objectives

Distinguish between self-report inventories and projective tests that have been used to assess personality and psychological disorders.

One of the most important measures of personality (which is used primarily to assess deviations from a normal or average personality) is the Minnesota Multiphasic

Personality Inventory (MMPI), a test used around the world to identify personality and psychological disorders. [1] The MMPI was developed by creating a list of more than 1,000 true-false questions and choosing those that best differentiated patients with different psychological disorders from other people. The current version (the MMPI-2) has more than 500 questions, and the items can be combined into a large number of different subscales. Some of the most important of these are shown in the table below, but there are also scales that represent family problems, work attitudes, and many other dimensions. The MMPI also has questions that are designed to detect the tendency of the respondents to lie, fake, or simply not answer the questions.
Some of the Major Subscales of the MMPI From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, CC-BY-NC-SA. Abbreviation Hs D Hy Pd Description Hypochondriasis Depression Hysteria Psychopathic deviate What Is Measured Concern with bodily symptoms Depressive symptoms Awareness of problems and vulnerabilities Conflict, struggle, anger, respect for societys rules Stereotypical masculine or feminine interests/behaviors Level of trust, suspiciousness, sensitivity Worry, anxiety, tension, doubts, obsessiveness Odd thinking and social alienation Level of excitability People orientation 32 57 60 50 No. of Items

MF Pa Pt Sc Ma Si

Masculinity/femininity Paranoia Psychasthenia Schizophrenia Hypomania Social introversion

56 40 48 78 46 69

To interpret the results, the clinician looks at the pattern of responses across the different subscales and makes a diagnosis about the potential psychological problems facing the patient. Although clinicians prefer to interpret the patterns themselves, a variety of research has demonstrated that computers can often interpret the results as well as can clinicians. [2] [3] Extensive research has found that the MMPI-2 can accurately predict which of many different psychological disorders a person suffers from. [4]

One potential problem with a measure like the MMPI is that it asks people to consciously report on their inner experiences. But much of our personality is determined by unconscious processes of which we are only vaguely or not at all aware. Projective measures are measures of personality in which unstructured stimuli, such as inkblots, drawings of social situations, or incomplete sentences, are shown to participants, who are asked to freely list what comes to mind as they think about the stimuli. Experts then score the responses for clues to personality. The proposed advantage of these tests is that they are more indirectthey allow the respondent to freely express whatever comes to mind, including perhaps the contents of their unconscious experiences. One commonly used projective test is the Rorschach Inkblot Test, developed by the Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach (18841922). The Rorschach Inkblot Test is a projective measure of personality in which the respondent indicates his or her thoughts about a series of 10 symmetrical inkblots (shown in the figure below). The Rorschach is administered millions of time every year. The participants are asked to respond to the inkblots, and their responses are systematically scored in terms of what, where, and why they saw what they saw. For example, people who focus on the details of the inkblots may have obsessivecompulsive tendencies, whereas those who talk about sex or aggression may have sexual or aggressive problems.

Psychology in Everyday Life: Leaders and Leadership

One trait that has been studied in thousands of studies is leadership, the ability to direct or inspire others to achieve goals. Trait theories of leadership are theories based on the idea that some people are simply natural leaders because they possess personality characteristics that make them effective. [1] Consider Steve Jobs, the founder of the Apple Inc., shown below. What characteristics do you think he possessed that allowed him to create such a strong company, even though many similar companies failed?

Varieties of Leaders

Which personality traits do you think characterize these leaders? From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0. Andrew Jackson portrait by Thomas Sully (Public Domain); Franklin D. Roosevelt photo courtesy of U.S. Library of Congress (Public Domain); John F. Kennedy photo courtesy of the White House Press Office (Public Domain); Barack Obama photo courtesy of James OMalley (CC-BY-2.0); Michael Bloomberg photo courtesy of U.S. Army (Public Domain); Steve Jobs photo courtesy of Matt Buchanan (CC-BY-2.0).

Research has found that being intelligent is an important characteristic of leaders as long as the leader communicates to others in a way that is easily understood by his or her followers. [2] [3] Other research has found that people with good social skills, such as the ability to accurately perceive the needs and goals of the group members and to communicate with others, also tend to make good leaders. [4]

Because so many characteristics seem to be related to leader skills, some researchers have attempted to account for leadership not in terms of individual traits, but rather in terms of a package of traits that successful leaders seem to have. Some have considered this in terms of charisma. [5] [6] Charismatic leaders are leaders who are enthusiastic, committed, and self-confident; who tend to talk about the importance of group goals at a broad level; and who make personal sacrifices for the group. Charismatic leaders express views that support and validate existing group norms but that also contain a vision of what the group could or should be. Charismatic leaders use their referent power to motivate, uplift, and inspire others. And research has found a positive relationship between a leaders charisma and effective leadership performance. [7] Another trait-based approach to leadership is based on the idea that leaders take either transactional or transformational leadership styles with their subordinates. [8] [9] Transactional leaders are the more regular leaders, who work with their subordinates to help them understand what is required of them and to get the job done. Transformational leaders, on the other hand, are more like charismatic leadersthey have a vision of where the group is going, and attempt to stimulate and inspire their workers to move beyond their present status and to create a new and better future. Despite the fact that there appear to be at least some personality traits that relate to leadership ability, the most important approaches to understanding leadership take into consideration both the personality characteristics of the leader as well as the situation in which the leader is operating. In some cases the situation itself is important. For instance, you might remember that President George W. Bushs ratings as a leader increased dramatically after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. This is a classic example of how a situation can influence the perceptions of a leaders skill. In still other cases, different types of leaders may perform differently in different situations. Leaders whose personalities lead them to be more focused on fostering harmonious social relationships among the members of the group, for instance, are particularly effective in situations in which the group is already functioning well and yet it is important to keep the group members engaged in the task and committed to the group outcomes. Leaders who are more task-oriented and directive, on the other hand, are more effective when the group is not functioning well and needs a firm hand to guide it. [10]

References
1. Zaccaro, S. J. (2007). "Trait-based perspectives of leadership." American Psychologist. Volume 62. Number 1. 616 Pages. 2. Simonton, D. K. (1994). Greatness: Who Makes History and Why. Guilford Press. New York. 3. Simonton, D. K. (1995). International Handbook of Personality and Intelligence. Perspectives on Individual Differences. Chapter Personality and intellectual predictors of leadership. Plenum. New York. 739757 Pages. D. H. Saklofske and M. Zeidner (Eds.). 4. Kenny, D. A., and Zaccaro, S. J. (1983). "An estimate of variance due to traits in leadership." Journal of Applied Psychology. Volume 68. Number 4. 678685 Pages. 5. Sternberg, R., and Lubart, T. (1995). Defying the Crowd: Cultivating Creativity in a Culture of Conformity. Free Press. New York.

6. Sternberg, R. J. (2002). Multiple Intelligences and Leadership. Chapter Successful intelligence: A new approach to leadership. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Mahwah, NJ. 9 28 Pages. R. E. Riggio, S. E. Murphy, and F. J. Pirozzolo (Eds.). 7. Simonton, D. K. (1988). "Presidential style: Personality, biography and performance." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 55. Number 6. 928936 Pages. 8. Bass, B. M. (1999). "Current developments in transformational leadership: Research and applications." Psychologist-Manager Journal. Volume 3. Number 1. 521 Pages. 9. Pieterse, A. N., Van Knippenberg, D., Schippers, M., and Stam, D. (2010). "Transformational and transactional leadership and innovative behavior: The moderating role of psychological empowerment." Journal of Organizational Behavior. Volume 31. Number 4. 609623 Pages. 10. Ayman, R., Chemers, M. M., and Fiedler, F. (1995). "The contingency model of leadership effectiveness: Its level of analysis." Leadership Quarterly. Volume 6. Number 2. 147167 Pages.

The Origins of Personality Learning Objectives

Describe the major concepts of the psychodynamic approach, as well as the strengths and limitations of this approach to explaining personality. Summarize the contributions of the neo-Freudians. Describe the major concepts of the humanistic approach, as well as the strengths and limitations of this approach to understanding personality.

177 Psychodynamic Theories of Personality 178 Freuds Followers: The Neo-Freudians 179 Focusing on the Self: Humanism and Self-Actualization

Rorschach Inkblots

The Rorschach Inkblot Test is a projective test designed to assess psychological disorders. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0, CC-BY-NC-SA.

Another frequently administered projective test is the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), developed by the psychologist Henry Murray (18931988). The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is a projective measure of personality in which the respondent is asked to create stories about sketches of ambiguous situations, most of them of people, either alone or with others (shown in the figure below). The sketches are shown to individuals, who are asked to tell a story about what is happening in the picture. The TAT assumes that people may be unwilling or unable to admit their true feelings when asked directly but that these feelings will show up in the stories about the pictures. Trained coders read the stories and use them to develop a personality profile of the respondent.

Sample Card From the TAT

This is one of the cards from the TAT. Note that the sex of the figure in the foreground is ambiguous, as is the emotional expression of the woman in the background. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0, CC-BY-NC-SA.

Other popular projective tests include those that ask the respondent to draw pictures, such as the Draw-A-Person test, [5] and free association tests in which the respondent quickly responds with the first word that comes to mind when the examiner says a test word. Another approach is the use of anatomically correct dolls that feature representations of the male and female genitals. Investigators allow children to play with the dolls and then try to determine on the basis of the play if the children may have been sexually abused. The advantage of projective tests is that they are less direct, allowing people to avoid using their defense mechanisms and therefore show their true personality. The idea is that when people view ambiguous stimuli, they will describe them according to the aspects of personality that are most important to them and therefore bypass some of the limitations of more conscious responding. Despite their widespread use, however, the empirical evidence supporting the use of projective tests is mixed. [3] [6] The reliability of the measures is low because people often produce very different responses on different occasions. The construct validity of the measures is also suspect because there are very few consistent associations between Rorschach scores or TAT scores and most personality traits. The projective tests often fail to distinguish between people with psychological disorders and those without or to correlate with other measures of personality or with behavior.

In sum, projective tests are more useful as icebreakers to get to know a person better, to make the person feel comfortable, and to get some ideas about topics that may be of importance to that person than for accurately diagnosing personality.
learn by doing

Instructions: For each of the following test items, indicate whether it is an example of a self-report personality inventory or a projective test of personality.
did I get this

References
1. Tellegen, A., Ben-Porath, Y. S., McNulty, J. L., Arbisi, P. A., Graham, J. R., and Kaemmer, B. (2003). The MMPI-2 Restructured Clinical Scales: Development, Validation, and Interpretation. University of Minnesota Press. Minneapolis. 2. Garb, H. N. (1998). Studying the Clinician: Judgment Research and Psychological Assessment. Chapter Computers and judgment. American Psychological Association. Washington, DC. 207229 Pages. H. N. Garb (Ed.). 3. Karon, B. P. (2000). "The clinical interpretation of the Thematic Apperception Test, Rorschach, and other clinical data: A reexamination of statistical versus clinical prediction." Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. Volume 31. Number 2. 230 233 Pages. 4. Graham, J. R. (2006). MMPI-2: Assessing Personality and Psychopathology. Oxford University Press. New York. Edition 4. 5. Machover, K. (1949). Personality Projection in the Drawing of the Human Figure: A Method of Personality Investigation. Chapter Personality projection in the drawing of the human figure (a method of personality investigation). Charles C. Thomas. Springfield, IL. 332 Pages. K. Machover (Ed.). 6. Wood, J. M., Nezworski, M. T., Lilienfeld, S. O., and Garb, H. N. (2003). Whats Wrong with the Rorschach? Science Confronts the Controversial Inkblot Test. Jossey-Bass. San Francisco.

Phrenology

This definition of phrenology with a chart of the skull appeared in Websters Academic Dictionary, circa 1895. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0. Layard, R. (2005). Photo courtesy of Websters Academic Dictionary

Another approach, known as somatology, championed by the psychologist William Herbert Sheldon (18981977), was based on the idea that we could determine personality from peoples body types (shown in the figure below). Sheldon argued that people with more body fat and a rounder physique (endomorphs) were more likely to be assertive and bold,

whereas thinner people (ectomorphs) were more likely to be introverted and intellectual. [5] As with phrenology, scientific research did not validate the predictions of the theory, and somatology has now been discredited in contemporary psychology.
Sheldons Body Types

William Sheldon erroneously believed that people with different body types had different personalities. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0, CC-BY-NC-SA.

Another approach to detecting personality is known as physiognomy, or the idea that it is possible to assess personality from facial characteristics. In contrast to phrenology and somatology, for which no research support has been found, contemporary research has found that people are able to detect some aspects of a persons characterfor instance, whether they are gay or straight and whether they are Democrats or Republicansat above-chance levels by looking only at his or her face. [6] [7] [8] Despite these results, the ability to detect personality from faces is not guaranteed. Olivola and Todorov [9] recently studied the ability of thousands of people to guess the personality characteristics of hundreds of thousands of faces on the website "What's My Image?" In contrast to the predictions of physiognomy, the researchers found that these people would have made more accurate judgments about the strangers if they had just guessed, using their expectations about what people in general are like, rather than trying to use the particular

facial features of individuals to help them. It seems then that the predictions of physiognomy may also, in the end, find little empirical support.
did I get this

References
1. Spilius, A. (2007, October 27). Identical twins reunited after 35 years. Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1567542/Identical-twins-reunitedafter-35-years.html. 2. Kuntzman, G. (2007, October 6). Separated twins Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein. The Brooklyn Paper. Retrieved from http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/30/39/30_39twins.html. 3. John, O. P., Robins, R. W., and Pervin, L. A. (2008). Handbook of Personality Psychology: Theory and Research. Guilford Press. New York. 4. Simpson, D. (2005). "Phrenology and the neurosciences: Contributions of F. J. Gall and J. G. Spurzheim." ANZ Journal of Surgery. Volume 75. Number 6. 475482 Pages. 5. Sheldon, W. (1940). The Varieties of Human Physique: An Introduction to Constitutional Psychology. Harper. New York. 6. Rule, N. O., and Ambady, N. (2010). "Democrats and Republicans can be differentiated from their faces." PLoS ONE. Volume 5. Number 1. e8733 Pages. 7. Rule, N. O., Ambady, N., Adams, R. B., Jr., and Macrae, C. N. (2008). "Accuracy and awareness in the perception and categorization of male sexual orientation." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 95. Number 5. 10191028 Pages. 8. Rule, N. O., Ambady, N., and Hallett, K. C. (2009). "Female sexual orientation is perceived accurately, rapidly, and automatically from the face and its features." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Volume 45. Number 6. 12451251 Pages. 9. Olivola, C. Y., and Todorov, A. (2010). "Fooled by first impressions? Reexamining the diagnostic value of appearance-based inferences." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Volume 46. Number 2. 315324 Pages.

Psychodynamic Theories of Personality Learning Objectives

Describe the major concepts of the psychodynamic approach, as well as the strengths and limitations of this approach to explaining personality.

Although measures such as the Big Five and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) are able to effectively assess personality, they do not say much about where personality comes from. In this section we will consider two major theories of the origin of personality: psychodynamic and humanistic approaches. One of the most important psychological approaches to understanding personality is based on the theorizing of the Austrian physician and psychologist Sigmund Freud (18561939), who founded what today is known as the psychodynamic approach to understanding personality. Many people know about Freud because his work has had a huge impact on our

everyday thinking about psychology, and the psychodynamic approach is one of the most important approaches to psychological therapy. [1] [2] Freud is probably the best known of all psychologists, in part because of his impressive observation and analyses of personality (there are 24 volumes of his writings). As is true of all theories, many of Freuds ingenious ideas have turned out to be at least partially incorrect, and yet other aspects of his theories are still influencing psychology. Freud was influenced by the work of the French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot (1825 1893), who had been interviewing patients (almost all women) who were experiencing what was at the time known as hysteria. Although it is no longer used to describe a psychological disorder, hysteria at the time referred to a set of personality and physical symptoms that included chronic pain, fainting, seizures, and paralysis. Charcot could find no biological reason for the symptoms. For instance, some women experienced a loss of feeling in their hands and yet not in their arms, and this seemed impossible given that the nerves in the arms are the same that are in the hands. Charcot was experimenting with the use of hypnosis, and he and Freud found that under hypnosis many of the hysterical patients reported having experienced a traumatic sexual experience, such as sexual abuse, as children. [3] Freud and Charcot also found that during hypnosis the remembering of the trauma was often accompanied by an outpouring of emotion, known as catharsis, and that following the catharsis the patients symptoms were frequently reduced in severity. These observations led Freud and Charcot to conclude that these disorders were caused by psychological rather than physiological factors. Freud used the observations that he and Charcot had made to develop his theory regarding the sources of personality and behavior, and his insights are central to the fundamental themes of psychology. In terms of free will, Freud did not believe that we were able to control our own behaviors. Rather, he believed that all behaviors are predetermined by motivations that lie outside our awareness, in the unconscious. These forces show themselves in our dreams, in neurotic symptoms such as obsessions, while we are under hypnosis, and in Freudian slips of the tongue in which people reveal their unconscious desires in language. Freud argued that we rarely understand why we do what we do, although we can make up explanations for our behaviors after the fact. For Freud the mind was like an iceberg, with the many motivations of the unconscious being much larger, but also out of sight, in comparison to the consciousness of which we are aware.

Mind as Iceberg

In Sigmund Freuds conceptualization of personality, the most important motivations are unconscious, just as the major part of an iceberg is under water. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0, CC-BY-NC-SA.

Id, Ego, and Superego

Freud proposed that the mind is divided into three components: id, ego, and superego, and that the interactions and conflicts among the components create personality. [4] According to Freudian theory, the id is the component of personality that forms the basis of our most primitive impulses. The id is entirely unconscious, and it drives our most important motivations, including the sexual drive (libido) and the aggressive or destructive drive (Thanatos). According to Freud, the id is driven by the pleasure principlethe desire for immediate gratification of our sexual and aggressive urges. The id is why we smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, view pornography, tell mean jokes about people, and engage in other fun or harmful behaviors, often at the cost of doing more productive activities. In stark contrast to the id, the superego represents our sense of morality and oughts. The superego tells us all the things that we shouldnt do, or the duties and obligations of society. The superego strives for perfection, and when we fail to live up to its demands we feel guilty. In contrast to the id, which is about the pleasure principle, the function of the ego is based on the reality principlethe idea that we must delay gratification of our basic motivations until the appropriate time with the appropriate outlet. The ego is the largely conscious controller or decision-maker of personality. The ego serves as the intermediary between the desires of the id and the constraints of society contained in the superego. We may wish to scream, yell, or hit, and yet our ego normally tells us to wait, reflect, and choose a more appropriate response.

Ego, Id, and Superego in Interaction

From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0, CC-BY-NC-SA. learn by doing did I get this

Freud believed that psychological disorders, and particularly the experience of anxiety, occur when there is conflict or imbalance among the motivations of the id, ego, and superego. When the ego finds that the id is pressing too hard for immediate pleasure, it attempts to correct for this problem, often through the use of defense mechanisms unconscious psychological strategies used to cope with anxiety and to maintain a positive self-image. Freud believed that the defense mechanisms were essential for effective coping with everyday life, but that any of them could be overused.
The Major Freudian Defense Mechanisms From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, CC-BY-NC-SA. Defense Mechanism Definition Possible Behavioral Example

The Major Freudian Defense Mechanisms Diverting threatening impulses away from the source of the anxiety and toward a more acceptable source A student who is angry at her professor for a low grade lashes out at her roommate, who is a safer target of her anger. A man with powerful unconscious sexual desires for women claims that women use him as a sex object.

Displacement

Projection

Disguising threatening impulses by attributing them to others

A drama student convinces herself that Generating self-justifying explanations getting the part in the play wasnt that Rationalization for our negative behaviors important after all. Reaction formation Making unacceptable motivations appear as their exact opposite Retreating to an earlier, more childlike, and safer stage of development Jane is sexually attracted to friend Jake, but she claims in public that she intensely dislikes him. A college student who is worried about an important test begins to suck on his finger.

Regression

Repression (or denial)

A person who witnesses his parents Pushing anxiety-arousing thoughts into having sex is later unable to remember the unconscious anything about the event. Channeling unacceptable sexual or aggressive desires into acceptable activities A person participates in sports to sublimate aggressive drives. A person creates music or art to sublimate sexual drives.

Sublimation

learn by doing

The most controversial, and least scientifically valid, part of Freudian theory is its explanations of personality development. Freud argued that personality is developed through a series of psychosexual stages, each focusing on pleasure from a different part of the body (shown in the table below). Freud believed that sexuality begins in infancy, and that the appropriate resolution of each stage has implications for later personality development.
Freuds Stages of Psychosexual Development

Freuds Stages of Psychosexual Development From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, CC-BY-NC-SA. Stage Approximate ages Oral Birth to 18 months 18 months to 3 years Description Pleasure comes from the mouth in the form of sucking, biting, and chewing. Pleasure comes from bowel and bladder elimination and the constraints of toilet training. Pleasure comes from the genitals, and the conflict is with sexual desires for the opposite-sex parent.

Anal

Phallic 3 years to 6 years

Latency 6 years to puberty Sexual feelings are less important. Genital Puberty and older If prior stages have been properly reached, mature sexual orientation develops.

In the first of Freuds proposed stages of psychosexual development, which begins at birth and lasts until about 18 months of age, the focus is on the mouth. During this oral stage, the infant obtains sexual pleasure by sucking and drinking. Infants who receive either too little or too much gratification become fixated or locked in the oral stage, and are likely to regress to these points of fixation under stress, even as adults. According to Freud, a child who receives too little oral gratification (e.g., who was underfed or neglected) will become orally dependent as an adult and be likely to manipulate others to fulfill his or her needs rather than becoming independent. On the other hand, the child who was overfed or overly gratified will resist growing up and try to return to the prior state of dependency by acting helpless, demanding satisfaction from others, and acting in a needy way. The anal stage, lasting from about 18 months to 3 years of age, is when children first experience psychological conflict. During this stage children desire to experience pleasure through bowel movements, but they are also being toilet trained to delay this gratification. Freud believed that if this toilet training was either too harsh or too lenient, children would become fixated in the anal stage and become likely to regress to this stage under stress as adults. If the child received too little anal gratification (i.e., if the parents had been very harsh about toilet training), the adult personality will be anal retentivestingy, with a compulsive seeking of order and tidiness. On the other hand, if the parents had been too lenient, the anal expulsive personality results, characterized by a lack of self-control and a tendency toward messiness and carelessness. The phallic stage, which lasts from age 3 to age 6 is when the penis (for boys) and clitoris (for girls) become the primary erogenous zone for sexual pleasure. During this stage, Freud believed that children develop a powerful but unconscious attraction for the opposite-sex

parent, as well as a desire to eliminate the same-sex parent as a rival. Freud based his theory of sexual development in boys (the Oedipus complex) on the Greek mythological character Oedipus, who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother, and then put his own eyes out when he learned what he had done. Freud argued that boys will normally eventually abandon their love of the mother, and instead identify with the father, also taking on the fathers personality characteristics, but that boys who do not successfully resolve the Oedipus complex will experience psychological problems later in life. Although it was not as important in Freuds theorizing, in girls the phallic stage is often termed the Electra complex, after the Greek character who avenged her fathers murder by killing her mother. Freud believed that girls frequently experienced penis envy, the sense of deprivation supposedly experienced by girls because they do not have a penis. The latency stage is a period of relative calm that lasts from about 6 years to 12 years. During this time, Freud believed that sexual impulses were repressed, leading boys and girls to have little or no interest in members of the opposite sex. The fifth and last stage, the genital stage, begins about 12 years of age and lasts into adulthood. According to Freud, sexual impulses return during this time frame, and if development has proceeded normally to this point, the child is able to move into the development of mature romantic relationships. But if earlier problems have not been appropriately resolved, difficulties with establishing intimate love attachments are likely.
learn by doing

References
1. Roudinesco, E. (2003). Why Psychoanalysis?. Columbia University Press. New York. 2. Taylor, E. (2009). The Mystery of Personality: A History of Psychodynamic Theories. Springer Science + Business Media. New York. 3. Dolnick, E. (1998). Madness on the Couch: Blaming the Victim in the Heyday of Psychoanalysis. Simon and Schuster. New York. 4. Freud, S. (1949). The Ego and the Id. Hogarth Press. London. (Original work published 1923).

Freuds Followers: The Neo-Freudians Learning Objectives

Summarize the contributions of the neo-Freudians.

Freudian theory was so popular that it led to a number of followers, including many of Freuds own students, who developed, modified, and expanded his theories. Taken together, these approaches are known as neo-Freudian theories. The neo-Freudian theories are theories based on Freudian principles that emphasize the role of the unconscious and early experience in shaping personality but place less evidence on sexuality as the primary

motivating force in personality and are more optimistic concerning the prospects for personality growth and change in personality in adults. Alfred Adler (18701937) was a follower of Freud who developed his own interpretation of Freudian theory. Adler proposed that the primary motivation in human personality was not sex or aggression, but rather the striving for superiority. According to Adler, we desire to be better than others and we accomplish this goal by creating a unique and valuable life. We may attempt to satisfy our need for superiority through our school or professional accomplishments, or by our enjoyment of music, athletics, or other activities that seem important to us. Adler believed that psychological disorders begin in early childhood. He argued that children who are either overly nurtured or overly neglected by their parents are later likely to develop an inferiority complexa psychological state in which people feel that they are not living up to expectations, leading them to have low self-esteem, with a tendency to try to overcompensate for the negative feelings. People with an inferiority complex often attempt to demonstrate their superiority to others at all costs, even if it means humiliating, dominating, or alienating them. According to Adler, most psychological disorders result from misguided attempts to compensate for the inferiority complex in order meet the goal of superiority. Carl Jung (18751961) was another student of Freud who developed his own theories about personality. Jung agreed with Freud about the power of the unconscious but felt that Freud overemphasized the importance of sexuality. Jung argued that in addition to the personal unconscious, there was also a collective unconscious, or a collection of shared ancestral memories. Jung believed that the collective unconscious contains a variety of archetypes, or cross-culturally universal symbols, which explain the similarities among people in their emotional reactions to many stimuli. Important archetypes include the mother, the goddess, the hero, and the mandala or circle, which Jung believed symbolized a desire for wholeness or unity. For Jung, the underlying motivation that guides successful personality is selfrealization, or learning about and developing the self to the fullest possible extent. Karen Horney (18551952; the final syllable of her last name rhymes with eye), was a German physician who applied Freudian theories to create a personality theory that she thought was more balanced between men and women. Horney believed that parts of Freudian theory, and particularly the ideas of the Oedipus complex and penis envy, were biased against women. Horney argued that womens sense of inferiority was not due to their lack of a penis but rather to their dependency on men, a condition from which culture made it difficult for them to break. For Horney, the underlying motivation that guides personality development is the desire for security, the ability to develop appropriate and supportive relationships with others. Another important neo-Freudian was Erich Fromm (19001980). Fromms focus was on the negative impact of technology, arguing that the increases in its use have led people to feel increasingly isolated from others. Fromm believed that the independence that technology brings us also creates the need escape from freedom, that is, to become closer to others.

Research Focus: How the Fear of Death Causes Aggressive Behavior

Fromm believed that the primary human motivation was to escape the fear of death, and contemporary research has shown how our concerns about dying can influence our behavior. In this research, people have been made to confront their death by writing about it or otherwise being reminded of it, and effects on their behavior are then observed. In one relevant study, McGregor and colleagues [1] demonstrated that people who are provoked may be particularly aggressive after they have been reminded of the possibility of their own death. The participants in the study had been selected, on the basis of prior reporting, to have either politically liberal or politically conservative views. When they arrived at the lab they were asked to write a short paragraph describing their opinion of politics in the United States. In addition, half of the participants (the mortality salient condition) were asked to briefly describe the emotions that the thought of your own death arouses in you and to jot down, as specifically as you can, what you think will happen to you as you physically die and once you are physically dead. Participants in the exam control condition also thought about a negative event, but not one associated with a fear of death. They were instructed to please briefly describe the emotions that the thought of your next important exam arouses in you and to jot down, as specifically as you can, what you think will happen to you as you physically take your next exam and once you are physically taking your next exam. Then the participants read the essay that had supposedly just been written by another person. (The other person did not exist, but the participants didnt know this until the end of the experiment.) The essay that they read had been prepared by the experimenters to be very negative toward politically liberal views or to be very negative toward politically conservative views. Thus one-half of the participants were provoked by the other person by reading a statement that strongly conflicted with their own political beliefs, whereas the other half read an essay in which the other persons views supported their own (liberal or conservative) beliefs. At this point the participants moved on to what they thought was a completely separate study in which they were to be tasting and giving their impression of some foods. Furthermore, they were told that it was necessary for the participants in the research to administer the food samples to each other. At this point, the participants found out that the food they were going to be sampling was spicy hot sauce and that they were going to be administering the sauce to the very person whose essay they had just read. In addition, the participants read some information about the other person that indicated that he very much disliked eating spicy food. Participants were given a taste of the hot sauce (it was really hot!) and then instructed to place a quantity of it into a cup for the other person to sample. Furthermore, they were told that the other person would have to eat all the sauce. As you can see in the figure below, McGregor et al. found that the participants who had not been reminded of their own death, even if they had been insulted by the partner, did not retaliate by giving him a lot of hot sauce to eat. On the other hand, the participants who were both provoked by the other person and who had also been reminded of their own death administered significantly more hot sauce than did the participants in the other three

conditions. McGregor and colleagues [1] argued that thinking about ones own death creates a strong concern with maintaining ones one cherished worldviews (in this case our political beliefs). When we are concerned about dying we become more motivated to defend these important beliefs from the challenges made by others, in this case by aggressing through the hot sauce.
Aggression as a Function of Mortality Salience and Provocation

Participants who had been provoked by a stranger who disagreed with them on important opinions, and who had also been reminded of their own death, administered significantly more unpleasant hot sauce to the partner than did the participants in the other three conditions. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0. Adapted from McGregor, H. A., Lieberman, J. D., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Arndt, J., Simon, L., et al. (1998). Terror management and aggression: Evidence that mortality salience motivates aggression against worldviewthreatening others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(3):590605.

Strengths and Limitations of Freudian and Neo-Freudian Approaches

Freud has probably exerted a greater impact on the publics understanding of personality than any other thinker, and he has also in large part defined the field of psychology. Although Freudian psychologists no longer talk about oral, anal, or genital fixations, they do continue to believe that our childhood experiences and unconscious motivations shape our personalities and our attachments with others, and they still make use of psychodynamic concepts when they conduct psychological therapy. Nevertheless, Freuds theories, as well as those of the neo-Freudians, have in many cases failed to pass the test of empiricism, and as a result they are less influential now than they have been in the past. [2] The problems are first, that it has proved to be difficult to rigorously test Freudian theory because the predictions that it makes (particularly those regarding defense mechanisms) are often vague and unfalsifiable, and second, that the aspects of the theory that can be tested often have not received much empirical support.

As examples, although Freud claimed that children exposed to overly harsh toilet training would become fixated in the anal stage and thus be prone to excessive neatness, stinginess, and stubbornness in adulthood, research has found few reliable associations between toilet training practices and adult personality. [3] And since the time of Freud, the need to repress sexual desires would seem to have become much less necessary as societies have tolerated a wider variety of sexual practices. And yet the psychological disorders that Freud thought we caused by this repression have not decreased. There is also little scientific support for most of the Freudian defense mechanisms. For example, studies have failed to yield evidence for the existence of repression. People who are exposed to traumatic experiences in war have been found to remember their traumas only too well. [4] Although we may attempt to push information that is anxiety-arousing into our unconscious, this often has the ironic effect of making us think about the information even more strongly than if we hadnt tried to repress it. [5] It is true that children remember little of their childhood experiences, but this seems to be true of both negative as well as positive experiences, is true for animals as well, and probably is better explained in terms of the brains inability to form long-term memories than in terms of repression. On the other hand, Freuds important idea that expressing or talking through ones difficulties can be psychologically helpful has been supported in current research [6] and has become a mainstay of psychological therapy. A particular problem for testing Freudian theories is that almost anything that conflicts with a prediction based in Freudian theory can be explained away in terms of the use of a defense mechanism. A man who expresses a lot of anger toward his father may be seen via Freudian theory to be experiencing the Oedipus complex, which includes conflict with the father. But a man who expresses no anger at all toward the father also may be seen as experiencing the Oedipus complex by repressing the anger. Because Freud hypothesized that either was possible, but did not specify when repression would or would not occur, the theory is difficult to falsify. In terms of the important role of the unconscious, Freud seems to have been at least in part correct. More and more research demonstrates that a large part of everyday behavior is driven by processes that are outside our conscious awareness. [7] And yet, although our unconscious motivations influence every aspect of our learning and behavior Freud probably overestimated the extent to which these unconscious motivations are primarily sexual and aggressive. Taken together, it is fair to say that Freudian theory, like most psychological theories, was not entirely correct and that it has had to be modified over time as the results of new studies have become available. But the fundamental ideas about personality that Freud proposed, as well as the use of talk therapy as an essential component of therapy, are nevertheless still a major part of psychology and are used by clinical psychologists every day.
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did I get this

References
1. McGregor, H. A., Lieberman, J. D., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Arndt, J., Simon, L., et al. (1998). "Terror management and aggression: Evidence that mortality salience motivates aggression against worldview-threatening others." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 74. Number 3. 590605 Pages. 2. Crews, F. C. (1998). Unauthorized Freud: Doubters Confront a Legend. Viking Press. New York. 3. Fisher, S., and Greenberg, R. P. (1996). Freud Scientifically Reappraised: Testing the Theories and Therapy. Wiley. Oxford, England. 4. Kihlstrom, J. F. (1997). "Memory, abuse, and science." American Psychologist. Volume 52. Number 9. 994995 Pages. 5. Newman, L. S., Duff, K. J., and Baumeister, R. F. (1997). "A new look at defensive projection: Thought suppression, accessibility, and biased person perception." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 72. Number 5. 9801001 Pages. 6. Baddeley, J. L., and Pennebaker, J. W. (2009). General Principles and Empirically Supported Techniques of Cognitive Behavior Therapy. Chapter Expressive writing. Wiley. Hoboken, NJ. 295299 Pages. W. T. ODonohue and J. E. Fisher (Eds.). 7. Kihlstrom, J. F. (1987). "The cognitive unconscious." Science. Volume 237. Number 4821. 14451452 Pages.

Focusing on the Self: Humanism and Self-Actualization Learning Objectives

Describe the major concepts of the humanistic approach, as well as the strengths and limitations of this approach to understanding personality.

Psychoanalytic models of personality were complemented during the 1950s and 1960s by the theories of humanistic psychologists. In contrast to the proponents of psychoanalysis, humanists embraced the notion of free will. Arguing that people are free to choose their own lives and make their own decisions, humanistic psychologists focused on the underlying motivations that they believed drove personality, focusing on the nature of the self-concept, the set of beliefs about who we are, and self-esteem, our positive feelings about the self. One of the most important humanists, Abraham Maslow (19081970), conceptualized personality in terms of a pyramid-shaped hierarchy of motives. At the base of the pyramid are the lowest-level motivations, including hunger and thirst, and safety and belongingness. Maslow argued that only when people are able to meet the lower-level needs are they able to move on to achieve the higher-level needs of self-esteem, and eventually selfactualization, which is the motivation to develop our innate potential to the fullest possible extent.

Maslow studied how successful people, including Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Helen Keller, and Mahatma Gandhi had been able to lead such successful and productive lives. Maslow [1] believed that self-actualized people are creative, spontaneous, and loving of themselves and others. They tend to have a few deep friendships rather than many superficial ones, and are generally private. He felt that these individuals do not need to conform to the opinions of others because they are very confident and thus free to express unpopular opinions. Self-actualized people are also likely to have peak experiences, or transcendent moments of tranquility accompanied by a strong sense of connection with others.
learn by doing

Perhaps the best-known humanistic theorist is Carl Rogers (19021987). Rogers was positive about human nature, viewing people as primarily moral and helpful to others, and he believed that we can achieve our full potential for emotional fulfillment if the selfconcept is characterized by unconditional positive regarda set of behaviors including being genuine, open to experience, transparent, able to listen to others, and self-disclosing and empathic. When we treat ourselves or others with unconditional positive regard, we express understanding and support, even while we may acknowledge failings. Unconditional positive regard allows us to admit our fears and failures, to drop our pretenses, and yet at the same time to feel completely accepted for what we are. The principle of unconditional positive regard has become a foundation of psychological therapy; therapists who use it in their practice are more effective than those who do not. [2]
[3]

Although there are critiques of the humanistic psychologists (e.g., that Maslow focused on historically productive rather than destructive personalities in his research and thus drew overly optimistic conclusions about the capacity of people to do good), the ideas of humanism are so powerful and optimistic that they have continued to influence both everyday experiences as well as psychology. Today the positive psychology movement argues for many of these ideas, and research has documented the extent to which thinking positively and openly has important positive consequences for our relationships, our life satisfaction, and our psychological and physical health. [4]

Research Focus: Self-Discrepancies, Anxiety, and Depression

Tory Higgins and his colleagues [5] [6] studied how different aspects of the self-concept relate to personality characteristics. These researchers focused on the types of emotional distress that we might experience as a result of how we are currently evaluating our selfconcept. Higgins proposes that the emotions we experience are determined both by our perceptions of how well our own behaviors meet up to the standards and goals we have provided ourselves (our internal standards) and by our perceptions of how others think about us (our external standards). Furthermore, Higgins argues that different types of selfdiscrepancies lead to different types of negative emotions.

In one of Higginss experiments, [5] participants were first asked to describe themselves using a self-report measure. The participants listed 10 thoughts they believed described the kind of person they actually are; this is the actual self-concept. Then, participants listed 10 thoughts they believed described the type of person they would ideally like to be (the ideal self-concept) as well as 10 thoughts describing the way someone elsefor instance, a parentthinks they ought to be (the ought self-concept). Higgins then divided his participants into two groups. Those with low self-concept discrepancies were those who listed similar traits on all three lists. Their ideal, ought, and actual self-concepts were all pretty similar and so they were not considered to be vulnerable to threats to their self-concept. The other half of the participants, those with high selfconcept discrepancies, were those for whom the traits listed on the ideal and ought lists were very different from those listed on the actual self list. These participants were expected to be vulnerable to threats to the self-concept. Then, at a later research session, Higgins first asked people to express their current emotions, including those related to sadness and anxiety. After obtaining this baseline measure Higgins activated either ideal or ought discrepancies for the participants. Participants in the ideal self-discrepancy priming condition were asked to think about and discuss their own and their parents hopes and goals for them. Participants in the ought selfpriming condition listed their own and their parents beliefs concerning their duty and obligations. Then all participants again indicated their current emotions. As you can see in the figure below, for low self-concept discrepancy participants, thinking about their ideal or ought selves did not much change their emotions. For high self-concept discrepancy participants, however, priming the ideal self-concept increased their sadness and dejection, whereas priming the ought self-concept increased their anxiety and agitation. These results are consistent with the idea that discrepancies between the ideal and the actual self lead us to experience sadness, dissatisfaction, and other depression-related emotions, whereas discrepancies between the actual and ought self are more likely to lead to fear, worry, tension, and other anxiety-related emotions.

Results from Higgins, Bond, Klein, and Strauman

Higgins and his colleagues documented the impact of self-concept discrepancies on emotion. For participants with low self-concept discrepancies (right bars), seeing words that related to the self had little influence on emotions. For those with high self-concept discrepancies (left bars), priming the ideal self increased dejection whereas priming the ought self increased agitation. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0. Adapted from Higgins, E. T., Bond, R. N., Klein, R., and Strauman, T. (1986). Self-discrepancies and emotional vulnerability: How magnitude, accessibility, and type of discrepancy influence affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 51(1):515.

One of the critical aspects of Higginss approach is that, as is our personality, our feelings are also influenced both by our own behavior and by our expectations of how other people view us. This makes it clear that even though you might not care much about achieving in school, your failure to do well may still produce negative emotions because you realize your parents do think it is important.
did I get this

Watch the following video of Carl Rogers discussing his beliefs and approach to the therapeutic relationship:

References
1. Maslow, A. (1970). Motivation and Personality. Harper. New York. Edition 2. 2. Prochaska, J. O., and Norcross, J. C. (2007). Systems of Psychotherapy: A Transtheoretical Analysis. Brookes/Cole. Pacific Grove, CA. Edition 6. 3. Yalom, I. (1995). A Way of Being. Chapter Introduction. Houghton Mifflin. New York. C. Rogers (Ed.). 4. Seligman, M. E. P., and Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). "Positive psychology: A introduction." American Psychologist. Volume 55. Number 1. 514 Pages. 5. Higgins, E. T., Bond, R. N., Klein, R., and Strauman, T. (1986). "Self-discrepancies and emotional vulnerability: How magnitude, accessibility, and type of discrepancy influence affect." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 51. Number 1. 515 Pages. 6. Strauman, T. J., and Higgins, E. T. (1988). "Self-discrepancies as predictors of vulnerability to distinct syndromes of chronic emotional distress." Journal of Personality. Volume 56. Number 4. 685707 Pages.

Is Personality More Nature or More Nurture? Behavioral and Molecular Genetics Learning Objectives

Describe the methods of behavioral genetics studies and the conclusions that we can draw from them about the determinants of personality. Explain how molecular genetics research helps us understand the role of genetics in personality.

181 Studying Personality Using Behavioral Genetics 182 Studying Personality Using Molecular Genetics

Studying Personality Using Behavioral Genetics

Learning Objectives

Describe the methods of behavioral genetics studies and the conclusions that we can draw from them about the determinants of personality.

One question that is exceedingly important for the study of personality concerns the extent to which it is the result of nature or nurture. If nature is more important, then our personalities will form early in our lives and will be difficult to change later. If nurture is more important, however, then our experiences are likely to be particularly important, and we may be able to flexibly alter our personalities over time. In this section we will see that the personality traits of humans and animals are determined in large part by their genetic makeup, and thus it is no surprise that identical twins Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein turned out to be very similar even though they had been raised separately. But we will also see that genetics does not determine everything. In the nucleus of each cell in your body are 23 pairs of chromosomes. One of each pair comes from your father, and the other comes from your mother. The chromosomes are made up of strands of the molecule DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), and the DNA is grouped into segments known as genes. A gene is the basic biological unit that transmits characteristics from one generation to the next. Human cells have about 25,000 genes. The genes of different members of the same species are almost identical. The DNA in your genes, for instance, is about 99.9% the same as the DNA in my genes and in the DNA of every other human being. These common genetic structures lead members of the same species to be born with a variety of behaviors that come naturally to them and that define the characteristics of the species. These abilities and characteristics are known as instinctscomplex inborn patterns of behaviors that help ensure survival and reproduction. [1] Different animals have different instincts. Birds naturally build nests, dogs are naturally loyal to their human caretakers, and humans instinctively learn to walk and to speak and understand language. But the strength of different traits and behaviors also varies within species. Rabbits are naturally fearful, but some are more fearful than others; some dogs are more loyal than others to their caretakers; and some humans learn to speak and write better than others do. These differences are determined in part by the small amount (in humans, the 0.1%) of the differences in genes among the members of the species. Personality is not determined by any single gene, but rather by the actions of many genes working together. There is no IQ gene that determines intelligence, and there is no good marriage partner gene that makes a person a particularly good marriage bet. Furthermore, even working together, genes are not so powerful that they can control or create our personality. Some genes tend to increase a given characteristic and others work to decrease that same characteristicthe complex relationship among the various genes, as well as a variety of random factors, produces the final outcome. Furthermore, genetic factors always work with environmental factors to create personality. Having a given pattern of genes doesnt necessarily mean that a particular trait will develop, because some traits might

occur only in some environments. For example, a person may have a genetic variant that is known to increase his or her risk for developing emphysema from smoking. But if that person never smokes, then emphysema most likely will not develop. Perhaps the most direct way to study the role of genetics in personality is to selectively breed animals for the trait of interest. In this approach the scientist chooses the animals that most strongly express the personality characteristics of interest and breeds these animals with each other. If the selective breeding creates offspring with even stronger traits, then we can assume that the trait has genetic origins. In this manner, scientists have studied the role of genetics in how worms respond to stimuli, how fish develop courtship rituals, how rats differ in play, and how pigs differ in their responses to stress. Although selective breeding studies can be informative, they are clearly not useful for studying humans. For this psychologists rely on behavioral geneticsa variety of research techniques that scientists use to learn about the genetic and environmental influences on human behavior by comparing the traits of biologically and nonbiologically related family members. [2] Behavioral genetics is based on the results of family studies, twin studies, and adoptive studies. A family study starts with one person who has a trait of interestfor instance, a developmental disorder such as autismand examines the individuals family tree to determine the extent to which other members of the family also have the trait. The presence of the trait in first-degree relatives (parents, siblings, and children) is compared to the prevalence of the trait in second-degree relatives (aunts, uncles, grandchildren, grandparents, and nephews or nieces) and in more distant family members. The scientists then analyze the patterns of the trait in the family members to see the extent to which it is shared by closer and more distant relatives. Although family studies can reveal whether a trait runs in a family, it cannot explain why. In a twin study, researchers study the personality characteristics of twins. Twin studies rely on the fact that identical (or monozygotic) twins have essentially the same set of genes, while fraternal (or dizygotic) twins have, on average, a half-identical set. The idea is that if the twins are raised in the same household, then the twins will be influenced by their environments to an equal degree, and this influence will be pretty much equal for identical and fraternal twins. In other words, if environmental factors are the same, then the only factor that can make identical twins more similar than fraternal twins is their greater genetic similarity. In a twin study, the data from many pairs of twins are collected and the rates of similarity for identical and fraternal pairs are compared. A correlation coefficient is calculated that assesses the extent to which the trait for one twin is associated with the trait in the other twin. Twin studies divide the influence of nature and nurture into three parts:

Heritability (i.e., genetic influence) is indicated when the correlation coefficient for identical twins exceeds that for fraternal twins, indicating that shared DNA is an important determinant of personality.

Shared environment determinants are indicated when the correlation coefficients for identical and fraternal twins are greater than zero and also very similar. These correlations indicate that both twins are having experiences in the family that make them alike. Nonshared environment is indicated when identical twins do not have similar traits. These influences refer to experiences that are not accounted for either by heritability or by shared environmental factors. Nonshared environmental factors are the experiences that make individuals within the same family less alike. If a parent treats one child more affectionately than another, and as a consequence this child ends up with higher selfesteem, the parenting in this case is a nonshared environmental factor.

In the typical twin study, all three sources of influence are operating simultaneously, and it is possible to determine the relative importance of each type. An adoption study compares biologically related people, including twins, who have been reared either separately or apart. Evidence for genetic influence on a trait is found when children who have been adopted show traits that are more similar to those of their biological parents than to those of their adoptive parents. Evidence for environmental influence is found when the adoptee is more like his or her adoptive parents than the biological parents. The results of family, twin, and adoption studies are combined to get a better idea of the influence of genetics and environment on traits of interest. The table below presents data on the correlations and heritability estimates for a variety of traits based on the results of behavioral genetics studies. [3]

Data from Twin and Adoption Studies on the Heritability of Various Characteristics

From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0. Sources: Lngstrm, N., Rahman, Q., Carlstrm, E., and Lichtenstein, P. (2008). Genetic and environmental effects on same-sex sexual behavior: A population study of twins in Sweden. Archives of Sexual Behavior 39(1):7580; Loehlin, J. C. (1992). Genes and Environment in Personality Development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; McGue, M., and Lykken, D. T. (1992). Genetic influence on risk of divorce. Psychological Science 3(6):368373; Plomin, R., Fulker, D. W., Corley, R., and DeFries, J. C. (1997). Nature, nurture, and cognitive development from 1 to 16 years: A parent-offspring adoption study. Psychological Science 8(6):442447; Tellegen, A., Lykken, D. T., Bouchard, T. J., Wilcox, K. J., Segal, N. L., and Rich, S. (1988). Personality similarity in twins reared apart and together. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 54(6):10311039.

If you look in the second column, you will see the observed correlations for the traits between identical twins who have been raised together in the same house by the same parents. This column represents the pure effects of genetics, in the sense that environmental differences have been controlled to be a small as possible. You can see that these correlations are higher for some traits than for others. Fingerprint patterns are very highly determined by our genetics (r = .96), whereas the Big Five trait dimensions have a heritability of 40% to 50%. You can also see from the table that, overall, there is more influence of nature than of parents. Identical twins, even when they are raised in separate households by different parents (column 4), turn out to be quite similar in personality, and are more similar than

fraternal twins who are raised in separate households (column 5). These results show that genetics has a strong influence on personality, and helps explain why Elyse and Paula were so similar when they finally met. Despite the overall role of genetics, you can see from the table that the correlations between identical twins (column 2) and heritability estimates for most traits (column 6) are substantially less than 1.00, showing that the environment also plays an important role in personality. [4] For instance, for sexual orientation, the estimates of heritability vary from 18% to 39% of the total across studies, suggesting that 61% to 82% of the total influence is due to environment. You might at first think that parents would have a strong influence on the personalities of their children, but this would be incorrect. As you can see by looking in column 7 of the table, research finds that the influence of shared environment (i.e., the effects of parents or other caretakers) plays little or no role in adult personality. [5] Shared environment does influence the personality and behavior of young children, but this influence decreases rapidly as the child grows older. By the time we reach adulthood, the impact of shared environment on our personalities is weak at best. [6] What this means is that, although parents must provide a nourishing and stimulating environment for children, no matter how hard they try they are not likely to be able to turn their children into geniuses or into professional athletes, nor will they be able to turn them into criminals. If parents are not providing the environmental influences on the child, then what is? The last column in the table above, the influence of nonshared environment, represents whatever is left over after removing the effects of genetics and parents. You can see that these factorsthe largely unknown things that happen to us that make us different from other peopleoften have the largest influence on personality.
learn by doing

Identical twins Gerald Levey and Mark Newman were separated at birth and raised in different homes. When reunited at age 31, they discovered, among many other similarities, that they both volunteered as firefighters. Because Gerry and Mark are identical twins and share nearly 100% of their genes, their fingerprints are almost identical, as genetic factors contribute about 96% to the development of ridges on fingertips. In comparison, Gerrys and Marks scores on the Big Five personality traits should be less similar. Researchers have broken down the contributions to personality development into the following four factors:

Heritability Nonshared environmental factors Shared environmental factors Error

Note: Error refers to the influence on personality development that cannot as yet be identified and is attributed to errors in testing and measurement procedures. This error percentage should decrease and other factors should increase as methodology improves. Nonshared influences can occur because individual children tend to elicit different responses from their parents for a variety of reasonstheir temperament, gender, or birth order, or accidents and illnesses they may have had. This explains why, despite Gerrys and Marks remarkable similarities in personality, they also display some unique differences.
did I get this did I get this

References
1. Tinbergen, N. (1951). The Study of Instinct. Clarendon Press. Oxford, England. Edition 1. 2. Baker, C. (2004 ). Behavioral genetics: An introduction to how genes and environments interact through development to shape differences in mood, personality, and intelligence. Retrieved from http://www.aaas.org/spp/bgenes/Intro.pdf. 3. Bouchard, T. J., Lykken, D. T., McGue, M., Segal, N. L., and Tellegen, A. (1990). "Sources of human psychological differences: The Minnesota study of twins reared apart." Science. Volume 250. Number 4978. 223228 Pages. 4. Turkheimer, E., and Waldron, M. (2000). "Nonshared environment: A theoretical, methodological, and quantitative review." Psychological Bulletin. Volume 126. Number 1. 78108 Pages. 5. Harris, J. R. (2006). No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality. Norton. New York. 6. Roberts, B. W., and DelVecchio, W. F. (2000). "The rank-order consistency of personality traits from childhood to old age: A quantitative review of longitudinal studies." Psychological Bulletin. Volume 126. Number 1. 325 Pages.

Studying Personality Using Molecular Genetics Learning Objectives

Explain how molecular genetics research helps us understand the role of genetics in personality.

In addition to the use of behavioral genetics, our understanding of the role of biology in personality recently has been dramatically increased through the use of molecular genetics, which is the study of which genes are associated with which personality traits. [1] [2] These advances have occurred as a result of new knowledge about the structure of human DNA made possible through the Human Genome Project and related work that has identified the genes in the human body. [3] Molecular genetics researchers have also developed new techniques that allow them to find the locations of genes within chromosomes and to identify the effects those genes have when activated or deactivated.

One approach that can be used in animals, usually in laboratory mice, is the knockout study. In this approach the researchers use specialized techniques to remove or modify the influence of a gene in a line of knockout mice. [4] The researchers harvest embryonic stem cells from mouse embryos and then modify the DNA of the cells. The DNA is created such that the action of certain genes will be eliminated or knocked out. The cells are then injected into the embryos of other mice that are implanted into the uteruses of living female mice. When these animals are born, they are studied to see whether their behavior differs from a control group of normal animals. Research has found that removing or changing genes in mice can affect their anxiety, aggression, learning, and socialization patterns.

These knockout mice are participating in studies in which some of their genes have been deactivated to determine the influence of the genes on behavior. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0. Thinkstock.

In humans, a molecular genetics study normally begins with the collection of a DNA sample from the participants in the study, usually by taking some cells from the inner surface of the cheek. In the lab, the DNA is extracted from the sampled cells and is combined with a solution containing a marker for the particular genes of interest as well as a fluorescent dye. If the gene is present in the DNA of the individual, then the solution will bind to that gene and activate the dye. The more the gene is expressed, the stronger the reaction.

Researchers use dyes, such as these in a sample of stem cells, to determine the action of genes from DNA samples. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0. Thinkstock.

In one common approach, DNA is collected from people who have a particular personality characteristic and also from people who do not. The DNA of the two groups is compared to see which genes differ between them. These studies are now able to compare thousands of genes at the same time. Research using molecular genetics has found genes associated with a variety of personality traits including novelty-seeking, [5] attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, [6] and smoking behavior. [7]

Reviewing the Literature: Is Our Genetics Our Destiny?

Over the past two decades scientists have made substantial progress in understanding the important role of genetics in behavior. Behavioral genetics studies have found that, for most traits, genetics is more important than parental influence. And molecular genetics studies have begun to pinpoint the particular genes that are causing these differences. The results of these studies might lead you to believe that your destiny is determined by your genes, but this would be a mistaken assumption. For one, the results of all research must be interpreted carefully. Over time we will learn even more about the role of genetics, and our conclusions about its influence will likely change. Current research in the area of behavioral genetics is often criticized for making

assumptions about how researchers categorize identical and fraternal twins, about whether twins are in fact treated in the same way by their parents, about whether twins are representative of children more generally, and about many other issues. Although these critiques may not change the overall conclusions, it must be kept in mind that these findings are relatively new and will certainly be updated with time. [8] Furthermore, it is important to reiterate that although genetics is important, and although we are learning more every day about its role in many personality variables, genetics does not determine everything. In fact, the major influence on personality is nonshared environmental influences, which include all the things that occur to us that make us unique individuals. These differences include variability in brain structure, nutrition, education, upbringing, and even interactions among the genes themselves. The genetic differences that exist at birth may be either amplified or diminished over time through environmental factors. The brains and bodies of identical twins are not exactly the same, and they become even more different as they grow up. As a result, even genetically identical twins have distinct personalities, resulting in large part from environmental effects. Because these nonshared environmental differences are nonsystematic and largely accidental or random, it will be difficult to ever determine exactly what will happen to a child as he or she grows up. Although we do inherit our genes, we do not inherit personality in any fixed sense. The effect of our genes on our behavior is entirely dependent on the context of our life as it unfolds day to day. No one can say, on the basis of our genes, what kind of human being we will turn out to be or what we will do in life.
did I get this

References
1. Goldsmith, H., Gernsbacher, M. A., Crabbe, J., Dawson, G., Gottesman, I. I., Hewitt, J., et al. (2003). "Research psychologists roles in the genetic revolution." American Psychologist. Volume 58. Number 4. 318319 Pages. 2. Strachan, T., and Read, A. P. (1999). Human Molecular Genetics. Wiley-Liss. New York. Edition 2. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7569/. 3. U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, Human Genome Program. (2010 ). Human Genome Project information. Retrieved from http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/home.shtml. 4. Crusio, W. E., Goldowitz, D., Holmes, A., and Wolfer, D. (2009). "Standards for the publication of mouse mutant studies." Genes, Brain and Behavior. Volume 8. Number 1. 14 Pages. 5. Ekelund, J., Lichtermann, D., Jrvelin, M. R., and Peltonen, L. (1999). "Association between novelty seeking and the type 4 dopamine receptor gene in a large Finnish cohort sample." American Journal of Psychiatry. Volume 156. Number 9. 14531455 Pages. 6. Waldman, I. D., and Gizer, I. R. (2006). "The genetics of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder." Clinical Psychology Review. Volume 26. Number 4. 396432 Pages.

7. Thorgeirsson, T. E., Geller, F., Sulem, P., Rafnar, T., Wiste, A., Magnusson, K. P., et al. (2008). "A variant associated with nicotine dependence, lung cancer and peripheral arterial disease." Nature. Volume 452. Number 7178. 638641 Pages. 8. Plomin, R. (2000). "Behavioural genetics in the 21st century." International Journal of Behavioral Development. Volume 24. Number 1. 3034 Pages.

Social Cognition: Making Sense of Ourselves and Others Learning Objectives

Distinguish between the concepts of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Define self-fulfilling prophecy and describe how the process occurs. Define the key factors involved in our initial attraction to other people and in the quality of close relationships.

Describe the process of causal attribution and the dangers of the fundamental attribution error. Define the concept of attitude and identify the conditions under which attitudes have a strong impact on actions. Explain how behaviors can influence attitudes through the process of selfperception and cognitive dissonance.

184 Perceiving Others 185 Forming Judgments on the Basis of Appearance 186 Close Relationships 187 Forming Judgments by Observing Behavior 188 Attitudes and Behavior

Perceiving Others Learning Objectives

Distinguish between the concepts of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Define self-fulfilling prophecy and describe how the process occurs.

Binge Drinking and the Death of a Homecoming Queen

Sam Spady, a 19-year-old student at Colorado State University, had been a homecoming queen, a class president, a captain of the cheerleading team, and an honor student in high school. But despite her outstanding credentials and her hopes and plans for the future, Sam Spady died on September 5, 2004, after a night of binge drinking with her friends. Sam had attended a number of different parties on the Saturday night that she died, celebrating the CSU football game against the University of ColoradoBoulder. When she passed out, after consuming 30 to 40 beers and shots over the evening, her friends left her alone in an empty room in a fraternity house to sleep it off. The next morning a member of the fraternity found her dead. [1] Sam is one of an estimated 1,700 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 who die from alcohol-related injuries each year. These deaths come from motor vehicle crashes, assaults, and overdosing as a result of binge drinking. [2] Nobody is immune, said Sams father. She was a smart kid, and she was a good kid. And if it could happen to her, it could happen to anybody. Despite efforts at alcohol education, Pastor Reza Zadeh, a former CSU student, says little has changed in the drinking culture since Sams death: People still feel invincible. The bars still have 25-cent shot night and two-for-ones and no cover for girls. [1] Sams parents have created a foundation in her memory, dedicated to informing people, particularly college students, about the dangers of binge drinking and to helping them resist the peer pressure that brings it on. You can learn about the signs of alcohol poisoning at the Sam Spady Foundation. The subdiscipline of psychology discussed in this unit reflects the highest level of explanation that we will consider. This topic, known as social psychology, is defined as the scientific study of how we feel about, think about, and behave toward the other people around us, and how those people influence our thoughts, feelings, and behavior. The subject matter of social psychology is our everyday interactions with people, including the social groups to which we belong. Social-psychological questions include why we are often helpful to other people but at other times are unfriendly or aggressive; why we sometimes conform to the behaviors of others but at other times we assert our independence; and what factors help groups work together in effective and productive ways. A fundamental principle of social psychology is that, although we may not always be aware of it, our cognitions, emotions, and behaviors are substantially influenced by the social situation, or the people with whom we are interacting.

In this module we introduce the principles of social cognitionthe part of human thinking that helps us understand and predict the behavior of ourselves and othersand consider the ways that our judgments about other people guide our behaviors toward them. We explore how we form impressions of other people, and what makes us like or dislike them. We also see how our attitudesour enduring evaluations of people or thingsinfluence, and are influenced by, our behavior. Then we consider the social psychology of interpersonal relationships, including the behaviors of altruism, aggression, and conformity. We will see that humans have a natural tendency to help each other but that we may also become aggressive if we feel we are being threatened. And we will see how social norms, the accepted beliefs about what we do or what we should do in particular social situations (such as the norm of binge drinking common on many college campuses) influence our behavior. Finally, we consider the social psychology of social groups, with a particular focus on the conditions that limit and potentially increase productive group performance and decision-making. The principles of social psychology can help us understand tragic events such as the death of Sam Spady. Many people might blame the tragedy on Sam herself, asking, for instance, Why did she drink so much? or Why didnt she say no? As we will see in this unit, research conducted by social psychologists shows that the poor decisions Sam made on the night she died may have been due less to her own personal weaknesses or deficits than to her desires to fit in with and be accepted by the others around herdesires that in her case led to a disastrous outcome. One important aspect of social cognition involves forming impressions of other people. Making these judgments quickly and accurately helps us guide our behavior to interact appropriately with the people we know. If we can figure out why our roommate is angry at us, we can react to resolve the problem; if we can determine how to motivate the people in our group to work harder on a project, then the project might be better. Our initial judgments of others are based in large part on what we see. The physical features of other people, particularly their gender, race, age, and physical attractiveness, are very salient, and we often focus our attention on these dimensions. [3] [4] Although it may seem inappropriate or shallow to admit it, many people are often strongly influenced by the physical attractiveness of others, and in some situations, physical attractiveness is the most important determinant of our initial liking for others. [5] Infants who are only a year old prefer to look at faces that adults consider to be attractive than at unattractive faces. [6] Evolutionary psychologists have argued that our belief that what is beautiful is also good may be because we use attractiveness as a cue for health; people whom we find more attractive may also, evolutionarily, have been healthier. [7]

Can you read a book by its cover? Which of these people do you think is more fun and friendly? Who is smarter or more competent? Do you think your judgments are accurate? From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0. Thinkstock.

One indicator of health is youth. Leslie Zebrowitz and her colleagues [8] [9] extensively studied the tendency for both men and women to prefer people whose faces have characteristics similar to those of babies. These features include large, round, and widely spaced eyes, a small nose and chin, prominent cheekbones, and a large forehead. People who have baby faces (both men and women) are seen as more attractive than people who do not.

People with baby faces are perceived as attractive. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0. Efron photo courtesy of Johan Ferreira; Bilson photo courtesy of Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images.

Another indicator of health is symmetry. People are more attracted to faces that are more symmetrical and this may be due in part to the perception that people with symmetrical faces are healthier. [10] Although you might think that we would prefer faces that are unusual or unique, the opposite is true. Langlois and Roggman [11] showed college students the faces of men and women. They were composites of the average of 2, 4, 8, 16, or 32 faces. The researchers found that the more faces that were averaged into the stimulus, the more attractive it was judged. Again, our liking for average faces may be because they appear healthier. Although preferences for youthful, symmetrical, and average faces have been observed cross-culturally, and thus appear to be common human preferences, different cultures may also have unique beliefs about what is attractive. In modern Western cultures, thin is in, and people prefer those who have little excess fat. [12] The need to be thin to be attractive is particularly strong for women in contemporary society, and the desire to maintain a low body weight can lead to low self-esteem, eating disorders, and other unhealthy behaviors. However, the norm of thinness has not always been in place; the preference for women with slender, masculine, and athletic looks has become stronger over the past 50 years. In contrast to the relatively universal preferences for youth, symmetry, and averageness, other cultures do not show such a strong propensity for thinness. [13]

learn by doing

The what is beautiful is good stereotype refers to the common belief that attractive people possess other desirable characteristics such as being more friendly, likable, and fun to be around compared to less attractive individuals. Snyder, Tanke, and Berscheid [14] conducted a study on the behavioral confirmation of this stereotype involving physical attractiveness. In the study, male subjects participated in a getting-acquainted session with females over the telephone. Prior to the conversation, the male subjects were shown a photograph of either a physically attractive or physically unattractive femalenot the photograph of the actual person they talked to. This was the experimental manipulation intended to create different beliefs and expectations on the part of the male subjects about their interaction partner. The conversations were tape recorded, and each participants conversational behavior was analyzed by naive observer judges for evidence of behavioral confirmation. Specifically, the judges rated how friendly, likable, and sociable the male and female interaction partners were during the conversation. The results revealed evidence of behavioral confirmation, indicating that a self-fulfilling prophecy had occurred.

References
1. Sidman, J. (2006, June 26). A college students death may help save lives. USA Today. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-06-26-spady -bingedrinking_x.htm. 2. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. (2010). Statistical snapshot of college drinking. Retrieved from http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/AboutNIAAA/NIAAASponsoredPrograms/StatisticalSnapshotCol legeDrinking.htm. 3. Schneider, D. J. (2004). The Psychology of Stereotyping. Guilford Press. New York. 4. Zebrowitz, L. A., and Montepare, J. (2006). Evolution and Social Psychology. Chapter The ecological approach to person perception: Evolutionary roots and contemporary offshoots. Psychosocial Press. Madison, CT. 81113 Pages. M. Schaller, J. A. Simpson, and D. T. Kenrick (Eds.). 5. Walster, E., Aronson, V., Abrahams, D., and Rottmann, L. (1966). "Importance of physical attractiveness in dating behavior." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 4. Number 5. 508516 Pages. 6. Langlois, J. H., Ritter, J. M., Roggman, L. A., and Vaughn, L. S. (1991). "Facial diversity and infant preferences for attractive faces." Developmental Psychology. Volume 27. Number 1. 7984 Pages. 7. Zebrowitz, L. A., Fellous, J.-M., Mignault, A., and Andreoletti, C. (2003). "Trait impressions as overgeneralized responses to adaptively significant facial qualities: Evidence from connectionist modeling." Personality and Social Psychology Review. Volume 7. Number 3. 194215 Pages. 8. Zebrowitz, L. A. (1996). Stereotypes and Stereotyping. Chapter Physical appearance as a basis of stereotyping. Guilford Press. New York. 79120 Pages. C. N. Macrae, C. Stangor, and M. Hewstone (Eds.).

9. Zebrowitz, L. A., Luevano, V. X., Bronstad, P. M., and Aharon, I. (2009). "Neural activation to babyfaced men matches activation to babies." Social Neuroscience. Volume 4. Number 1. 110 Pages. 10. Rhodes, G., Zebrowitz, L. A., Clark, A., Kalick, S. M., Hightower, A., and McKay, R. (2001). "Do facial averageness and symmetry signal health?." Evolution and Human Behavior. Volume 22. Number 1. 3146 Pages. 11. Langlois, J. H., and Roggman, L. A. (1990). "Attractive faces are only average." Psychological Science. Volume 1. Number 2. 115121 Pages. 12. Crandall, C. S., Merman, A., and Hebl, M. (2009). Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination. Chapter Anti-fat prejudice. Psychology Press. New York. 469487 Pages. T. D. Nelson (Ed.). 13. Sugiyama, L. S. (2005). The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology. Chapter Physical attractiveness in adaptationist perspective. Wiley. Hoboken, NJ. 292343 Pages. D. M. Buss (Ed.). 14. Snyder, M., Tanke, E. D., and Berscheid, E. (1977). "Social perception and interpersonal behavior: On the self-fulfilling nature of social stereotypes." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 35. Number 9. 656666 Pages.

Forming Judgments on the Basis of Appearance Learning Objectives

Distinguish between the concepts of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Define self-fulfilling prophecy and describe how the process occurs.

We frequently use peoples appearances to form our judgments about them and to determine our responses to them. The tendency to attribute personality characteristics to people on the basis of their external appearance or their social group memberships is known as stereotyping. Our stereotypes about physically attractive people lead us to see them as more dominant, sexually warm, mentally healthy, intelligent, and socially skilled than we perceive physically unattractive people. [1] And our stereotypes lead us to treat people differentlythe physically attractive are given better grades on essay exams, are more successful on job interviews, and receive lighter sentences in court judgments than their less attractive counterparts. [2] [3] In addition to physical attractiveness, we also regularly stereotype people on the basis of their gender, race, age, religion, and many other characteristics, and these stereotypes are frequently negative. [4] This is unfair because stereotypes are based on our preconceptions and negative emotional responses to members of the group. Stereotyping is closely related to prejudice, the tendency to dislike people because of their appearance or group memberships, and discrimination, negative behaviors toward others based on prejudice. Stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination work together. For example, we may not vote for a gay person because of our negative stereotypes about gays, and we may avoid people from other religions or those with mental illness because of our prejudices.

Some stereotypes may be accurateat least in part. Research has found, for instance, that attractive people are actually more sociable, more popular, and less lonely than less attractive individuals. [1] And, consistent with the stereotype that they are emotional, women are, on average, more empathic and attuned to the emotions of others than are men. [5] Group differences in personality traits may occur in part because people act toward others on the basis of their stereotypes. This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy, which is when our expectations about the personality characteristics of others lead us to behave in ways that make those beliefs come true. If I have a stereotype that attractive people are friendly, then I may act in a friendly way toward them. This friendly behavior may be reciprocated by the attractive person, and if many other people also engage in the same positive behaviors he or she may actually become friendlier. But even if attractive people are on average friendlier than unattractive people, not all attractive people are friendlier than all unattractive people. And even if women are, on average, more emotional than men, not all men are less emotional than all women. Social psychologists believe that it is better to treat people as individuals rather than rely on our stereotypes and prejudices, because stereotyping and prejudice are always unfair and often inaccurate. [6] [7] Furthermore, many of our stereotypes and prejudices exert influence out of our awareness, such that we do not even know that we are using them.
learn by doing did I get this

Implicit Association Test

You might want to test your own stereotypes and prejudices by completing the Implicit Association Test, a measure of unconscious stereotyping. We use our stereotypes and prejudices in part because they are easy: if we can quickly size up people on the basis of their physical appearance, that can save us a lot of time and effort. We may be evolutionarily disposed to stereotyping. Because our primitive ancestors needed to accurately separate members of their own kin group from those of others, categorizing people into us (the ingroup) and them (the outgroup) was useful and even necessary. [8] And the positive emotions that we experience as a result of our group memberships known as social identitycan be an important and beneficial part of our everyday experiences. [9] We may gain social identity as members of our university, our sports teams, our religious and racial groups, and many other groups.

Social identity is the positive emotions that we experience as a member of an important social group. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0. Photo courtesy of Caitlin Regan.

But the fact that we may use our stereotypes does not mean that we should use them. Stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination, whether they are consciously or unconsciously applied, make it difficult for some people to effectively contribute to society and may create both mental and physical health problems for them. [10] In certain situations, people are concerned that they will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype. For example, research has shown that the academic performance of women and African Americans can be affected by concerns about confirming the expectation that they will not do well relative to individuals who belong to stereotypically high-performing groups. This is known as stereotype threat. In addition, European American students may feel stereotype threat on the basketball court when competing with African Americans. For further discussion of stereotype threat, watch the video below. In some cases getting beyond our prejudices is required by law, as detailed in the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Opportunity Employment Act of 1972, and the Fair Housing Act of 1978. There are individual differences in the degree to which prejudice influences behavior. For example, some people are more likely to try to control and confront their stereotypes and prejudices whereas others apply them more freely. [11] [12] In addition, some people believe that some groups are naturally better than otherswhereas other people are more egalitarian and hold fewer prejudices. [13] [14]

The tendency to endorse stereotypes and prejudices and to act on them can be reduced, for instance, through positive interactions and friendships with members of other groups, through practice in avoiding using them, and through education. [15]

Research Focus: Forming Judgments of People in Seconds

Research has demonstrated that people can draw very accurate conclusions about others on the basis of very limited data. Ambady and Rosenthal [16] made videotapes of six female and seven male graduate students while they were teaching an undergraduate course. The courses covered diverse areas of the college curriculum, including humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. For each teacher, three 10-second video clips were taken: 10 seconds from the first 10 minutes of the class, 10 seconds from the middle of the class, and 10 seconds from the last 10 minutes of the class. The researchers then asked nine female undergraduates to rate the clips of the teachers on 15 dimensions including optimistic, confident, active, enthusiastic, dominant, likable, warm, competent, and supportive. Ambady and her colleagues then compared the ratings of the participants who had seen the teacher for only 30 seconds with the ratings of the same instructors that had been made by students who had spent a whole semester with the teacher, and who had rated her at the end of the semester on scales such as Rate the quality of the section overall and Rate section leaders performance overall. As you can see in the following table, the ratings of the participants and the ratings of the students were highly positively correlated.
Accurate Perceptions in 30 Seconds This table shows the Pearson correlation coefficients between the impressions that a group of students made after they had seen a video of instructors teaching for only 30 seconds and the teaching ratings of the same instructors made by students who had spent a whole semester in the class. You can see that the correlations are all positive, and that many of them are quite large. The conclusion is that people are sometimes able to draw accurate impressions about other people very quickly. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0. Source: Ambady and Rosenthal. [16] Variable Accepting Active Attentive Competent Pearson Correlation Coefficient (r) 0.50 0.77 0.48 0.56

Accurate Perceptions in 30 Seconds Confident Dominant Empathic Enthusiatic Honest Likable (Not) anxious Optimistic Professional Supportive Warm 0.82 0.79 0.45 0.76 0.32 0.73 0.26 0.84 0.53 0.55 0.67

Overall, across all traits 0.76

If the finding that judgments made about people in 30 seconds correlate highly with judgments made about the same people after a whole semester surprises you, then perhaps you may be even more surprised to hear that we do not even need that much time. Indeed, Willis and Todorov [17] found that even a tenth of a second was enough to make judgments that correlated highly with those same judgments made by other people who were given several minutes to make the judgments. Other research has found that we can make accurate judgments, for instance, about salespersons [18] and about the sexual orientation of other people, [19] in just a few seconds. Todorov, Mandisodza, Goren, and Hall [20] found that people voted for political candidates in large part on the basis of whether or not their faces, seen only for one second, looked like faces of competent people. Taken together, this research shows that we are well able to form initial impressions of others quickly and often quite accurately.
did I get this

References
1. Langlois, J. H., Kalakanis, L., Rubenstein, A. J., Larson, A., Hallam, M., and Smoot, M. (2000). "Maxims or myths of beauty? A meta-analytic and theoretical review." Psychological Bulletin. Volume 126. Number 3. 390423 Pages.

2. Hosoda, M., Stone-Romero, E. F., and Coats, G. (2003). "The effects of physical attractiveness on job-related outcomes: A meta-analysis of experimental studies." Personnel Psychology. Volume 56. Number 2. 431462 Pages. 3. Zebrowitz, L. A., and McDonald, S. M. (1991). "The impact of litigants baby-facedness and attractiveness on adjudications in small claims courts." Law and Human Behavior. Volume 15. Number 6. 603623 Pages. 4. Schneider, D. J. (2004). The Psychology of Stereotyping. Guilford Press. New York. 5. Hall, J. A., and Schmid Mast, M. (2008). "Are women always more interpersonally sensitive than men? Impact of goals and content domain." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Volume 34. Number 1. 144155 Pages. 6. Fiske, S. T. (1989). Unintended Thought. Chapter Examining the role of intent: Toward understanding its role in stereotyping and prejudice. Guilford Press. New York. 253286 Pages. J. S. Uleman and J. A. Bargh (Eds.). 7. Stangor, C. (1995). Stereotype Accuracy: Toward Appreciating Group Differences. Chapter Content and application inaccuracy in social stereotyping. American Psychological Association. Washington, DC. 275292 Pages. Y. T. Lee, L. J. Jussim, and C. R. McCauley (Eds.). 8. Neuberg, S. L., Kenrick, D. T., and Schaller, M. (2010). Handbook of Social Psychology, Vol. 2. Chapter Evolutionary social psychology. Wiley. Hoboken, NJ. Edition 5. 761796 Pages. S. T. Fiske, D. T. Gilbert, and G. Lindzey (Eds.). 9. Hogg, M. A. (2003). Handbook of Self and Identity. Chapter Social identity. Guilford Press. New York. 462479 Pages. M. R. Leary and J. P. Tangney (Eds.). 10. Swim, J. T., and Stangor, C. (1998). Prejudice: The Targets Perspective. Academic Press. Santa Barbara, CA. 11. Czopp, A. M., Monteith, M. J., and Mark, A. Y. (2006). "Standing up for a change: Reducing bias through interpersonal confrontation." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 90. Number 5. 784803 Pages. 12. Plant, E. A., and Devine, P. G. (1998). "Internal and external motivation to respond without prejudice." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 75. Number 3. 811832 Pages. 13. Sidanius, J., and Pratto, F. (1998). Social Dominance: An Intergroup Theory of Social Hierarchy and Oppression. Cambridge University Press. New York. 14. Stangor, C., and Leary, S. (2006). "Intergroup beliefs: Investigations from the social side." Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. Volume 38. 243283 Pages. 15. Hewstone, M. (1996). Stereotypes and Stereotyping. Chapter Contact and categorization: Social psychological interventions to change intergroup relations. Guilford Press. New York. 323368 Pages. C. N. Macrae, C. Stangor, and M. Hewstone (Eds.). 16. Ambady, N., and Rosenthal, R. (1993). "Half a minute: Predicting teacher evaluations from thin slices of nonverbal behavior and physical attractiveness." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 64. Number 3. 431441 Pages. 17. Willis, J., and Todorov, A. (2006). "First impressions: Making up your mind after a 100-ms exposure to a face." Psychological Science. Volume 17. Number 7. 592598 Pages. 18. Ambady, N., Krabbenhoft, M. A., and Hogan, D. (2006). "The 30-sec sale: Using thin-slice judgments to evaluate sales effectiveness." Journal of Consumer Psychology. Volume 16. Number 1. 413 Pages. 19. Ambady, N., Hallahan, M., and Conner, B. (1999). "Accuracy of judgments of sexual orientation from thin slices of behavior." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 77. Number 3. 538547 Pages.

20. Todorov, A., Mandisodza, A. N., Goren, A., and Hall, C. C. (2005). "Inferences of competence from faces predict election outcomes." Science. Volume 308. Number 5728. 16231626 Pages.

Close Relationships Learning Objectives

Define the key factors involved in our initial attraction to other people and in the quality of close relationships.

One of the most important tasks faced by humans is to develop successful relationships with others. These include acquaintanceships and friendships but also the more important close relationships, which are the long-term intimate and romantic relationships that we develop with another personfor instance, in a marriage . [1] Because most of us will want to enter into a close relationship at some point, and because close relationships are evolutionarily important as they form the basis for effective child rearing, it is useful to know what psychologists have learned about the principles of liking and loving within them. A major interest of social psychologists is the study of interpersonal attraction, or what makes people like, and even love, each other. One important factor is a perceived similarity in values and beliefs between the partners. [2] Similarity is important for relationships because it is more convenient (its easier if both partners like to ski or go to the movies), but also because similarity supports our valuesI can feel better about myself and my choice of activities if I see that you also enjoy doing the same things that I do.

Close relationships are characterized by responsiveness, disclosure, intimacy, equity, and passion.

From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0. Photo at left courtesy of Scarleth White. Other photos Thinkstock.

Liking is also enhanced by self-disclosure, the tendency to communicate frequently, without fear of reprisal, and in an accepting and empathetic manner. Friends are friends because we can talk to them openly about our needs and goals, and because they listen to and respond to our needs. [3] But self-disclosure must be balanced. If I open up to you about the concerns that are important to me, I expect you to do the same in return. When selfdisclosure is not reciprocal, the relationship is less likely to last. Another important determinant of liking is proximity, or the extent to which people are physically near us. Research has found that we are more likely to develop friendships with people who are nearby, for instance, those who live in the same dorm that we do, and even with people who just happen to sit nearer to us in our classes. [4] Proximity has its effect on liking through the principle of mere exposure, which is the tendency to prefer stimuli (including but not limited to people) that we have seen more frequently. Moreland and Beach [5] studied mere exposure by having female confederates attend a large lecture class either 0, 5, 10, or 15 times during a semester. At the end of the term, students were shown pictures of the confederates and asked to indicate both if they recognized them and also how much they liked them. The number of times the confederates had attended class didnt influence the other students ability to recognize them, but it did influence their liking for them. As predicted by the mere exposure hypothesis, students who had attended class more often were liked more as shown in the following table.
Mere Exposure in the Classroom

Richard Moreland and Scott Beach had female confederates visit classrooms 0, 5, 10, or 15 times over the course of a semester. Then the students rated their liking of the confederates. As predicted by the principles of mere exposure, confederates who had attended class more often

were also liked more. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0. Adapted from Moreland and Beach (1992). [5]

The effect of mere exposure is powerful and occurs in a wide variety of situations. Infants tend to smile at a photograph of someone they have seen already more than they smile at a photograph of someone they are seeing for the first time. [6] People prefer side-to-side reversed images of their own faces over their normal (nonreversed) face, whereas their friends prefer their normal face over the reversed one. [7] This is expected on the basis of mere exposure, since people see their own faces primarily in mirrors and thus are exposed to the reversed face more often. Mere exposure may well have an evolutionary basis. We have an initial fear of the unknown, but as things become more familiar they seem more similar and safe, and thus produce more positive feelings and seem less threatening and dangerous. [8] In fact, research has found that stimuli tend to produce more positive affect as they become more familiar. [9] When the stimuli are people, there may well be an added effect. Familiar people become more likely to be seen as part of the ingroup rather than the outgroup, and this may lead us to like them more. Leslie Zebrowitz and her colleagues found that we like people of our own race in part because they are perceived as similar to us. [10] In the most successful relationships the two people begin to see themselves as a single unit. Arthur Aron and his colleagues [11] assessed the role of closeness in relationships using the Inclusion of Other in the Self Scale as shown in figure below. You might try completing the measure yourself for some different people that you knowfor instance, your family members, friends, spouse, or girlfriend or boyfriend. The measure is simple to use and to interpret; if people see the circles representing the self and the other as more overlapping, this means that the relationship is close. But if they choose the circles that are less overlapping, then the relationship is less so.
The Inclusion of Other in the Self Scale

This scale is used to determine how close two partners feel to each other. The respondent simply circles which of the seven figures he or she feels best characterizes the relationship. From Flat

World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0. Adapted from Aron, Aron, and Smollan (1992).
[11]

Although the closeness measure is very simple, it has been found to be strongly correlated with peoples satisfaction with their close relationships, and of the tendency for couples to stay together. [12] [13] When the partners in a relationship feel that they are close, and when they indicate that the relationship is based on caring, warmth, acceptance and social support, we can say that the relationship is intimate. [3] When a couple begins to take care of a household together, has children, and perhaps has to care for elderly parents, the requirements of the relationship will grow. As a result, partners in close relationships increasingly turn to each other for help in coordinating activities, remembering dates and appointments, and accomplishing tasks. Relationships are close in part because the couple becomes highly interdependent, relying on each other to meet important goals. [14] In relationships in which a positive rapport between the partners is developed and maintained over a period of time, the partners are naturally happy with the relationship and they become committed to it. Commitment refers to the feelings and actions that keep partners working together to maintain the relationship [15] and is characterized by mutual expectations that the self and the partner will be responsive to each others needs. [16] Partners who are committed to the relationship see their mates as more attractive, are less able to imagine themselves with another partner, express less interest in other potential mates, and are less likely to break up. [17] People also find relationships more satisfactory, and stay in them longer, when they feel that the relationships are rewarding. When the needs of either or both of the partners are not being met, the relationship is in trouble. This is not to say that people only think about the benefits they are getting; they will also consider the needs of the other. But over the long term, both partners must benefit from the relationship. Although sexual arousal and excitement are more important early on in relationships, intimacy is also determined by sexual and romantic attraction. Indeed, intimacy is also dependent on passion the partners must display positive affect toward each other. Happy couples are in positive moods when they are around each other; they laugh with each other, express approval rather than criticism of each others behaviors, and enjoy physical contact. People are happier in their relationships when they view the other person in a positive or even an idealized sense, rather than a more realistic and perhaps more negative one. [18] Margaret Clark and Edward Lemay [19] recently reviewed the literature on close relationships and argued that their most important characteristic is a sense of responsiveness. People are happy, healthy, and likely to stay in relationships in which they are sure that they can trust the other person to understand, validate, and care for them. It is this unconditional giving and receiving of love that promotes the welfare of both partners and provides the secure base that allows both partners to thrive.

learn by doing did I get this

References
1. Hendrick, C., and Hendrick, S. S. (2000). Close Relationships: A Sourcebook. Sage. Thousand Oaks, CA. 2. Davis, J. L., and Rusbult, C. E. (2001). "Attitude alignment in close relationships." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 81. Number 1. 6584 Pages. 3. Reis, H. T., and Aron, A. (2008). "Love: What is it, why does it matter, and how does it operate?." Perspectives on Psychological Science. Volume 3. Number 1. 8086 Pages. 4. Back, M. D., Schmukle, S. C., and Egloff, B. (2008). "Becoming friends by chance." Psychological Science. Volume 19. Number 5. 439440 Pages. 5. Moreland, R. L., and Beach, S. R. (1992). "Exposure effects in the classroom: The development of affinity among students." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Volume 28. Number 3. 255276 Pages. 6. Brooks-Gunn, J., and Lewis, M. (1981). "Infant social perception: Responses to pictures of parents and strangers." Developmental Psychology . Volume 17. Number 5. 647649 Pages. 7. Mita, T. H., Dermer, M., and Knight, J. (1977). "Reversed facial images and the mereexposure hypothesis." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology . Volume 35. Number 8. 591601 Pages. 8. Freitas, A. L., Azizian, A., Travers, S., and Berry, S. A. (2005). "The evaluative connotation of processing fluency: Inherently positive or moderated by motivational context?." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Volume 41. Number 6. 636644 Pages. 9. Harmon-Jones, E., and Allen, J. J. B. (2001). "The role of affect in the mere exposure effect: Evidence from psychophysiological and individual differences approaches." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Volume 27. Number 7. 889898 Pages. 10. Zebrowitz, L. A., Bronstad, P. M., and Lee, H. K. (2007). "The contribution of face familiarity to ingroup favoritism and stereotyping." Social Cognition. Volume 25. Number 2. 306338 Pages. 11. Aron, A., Aron, E. N., and Smollan, D. (1992). "Inclusion of other in the self scale and the structure of interpersonal closeness." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 63. Number 4. 596612 Pages. 12. Aron, A., Aron, E. N., Tudor, M., and Nelson, G. (1991). "Close relationships as including other in the self." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 60. Number 2. 241253 Pages. 13. Aron, A., Paris, M., and Aron, E. N. (1995). "Falling in love: Prospective studies of selfconcept change." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 69. Number 6. 11021112 Pages. 14. Berscheid, E., and Reis, H. T. (1998). The Handbook of Social Psychology, Vol. 12. Chapter Attraction and close relationships. McGraw-Hill. New York. Edition 4. 323368 Pages. D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, and G. Lindzey (Eds.). 15. Rusbult, C. E., Olsen, N., Davis, J. L., and Hannon, P. A. (2001). Close Romantic Relationships: Maintenance and Enhancement. Chapter Commitment and relationship maintenance mechanisms. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Mahwah, NJ. 87113 Pages. J. Harvey and A. Wenzel (Eds.).

16. Clark, M. S., and Mills, J. (2004). Close Relationships: Key Readings. Chapter Interpersonal attraction in exchange and communal relationships. Taylor and Francis. Philadelphia. 245 256 Pages. H. T. Reis and C. E. Rusbult (Eds.). 17. Simpson, J. A., and Harris, B. A. (1994). Perspectives on Close Relationships. Chapter Interpersonal attraction. Allyn and Bacon. Boston. 4566 Pages. A. L. Weber and J. H. Harvey (Eds.). 18. Murray, S. L., Holmes, J. G., and Griffin, D. W. (1996). "The benefits of positive illusions: Idealization and the construction of satisfaction in close relationships." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 70. Number 1. 7998 Pages. 19. Clark, M. S., and Lemay, E. P., Jr. (1994). Handbook of Social Psychology, Vol. 2. Chapter Close relationships. Wiley. Hoboken, NJ. Edition 5. 898940 Pages. S. T. Fiske, D. T. Gilbert, and G. Lindzey (Eds.).

Forming Judgments by Observing Behavior Learning Objectives

Describe the process of causal attribution and the dangers of the fundamental attribution error.

When we observe peoples behavior, we may attempt to determine if the behavior really reflects their underlying personality. If Frank hits Joe, we might wonder if Frank is naturally aggressive or if perhaps Joe had provoked him. If Leslie leaves a big tip for the waitress, we might wonder if she is a generous person or if the service was particularly excellent. The process of trying to determine the causes of peoples behavior, with the goal of learning about their personalities, is known as causal attribution. [1] Making causal attributions is a bit like conducting a research study. We carefully observe the people we are interested in and note how they behave in different social situations. After we have made our observations, we draw our conclusions. Sometimes we may decide that the source or cause of the behavior was due to characteristics that reside within the individual; this is referred to as a dispositional attribution. At other times, we may determine that the behavior was caused primarily by the situation; this is called making a situational attribution. And at other times we may decide that the behavior was caused by both the person and the situation. It is easier to make personal attributions when behavior is more unusual or unexpected. Imagine that you go to a party and you are introduced to Tess. Tess shakes your hand and says Nice to meet you! Would you readily conclude, on the basis of this behavior, that Tess is a friendly person? Probably not. Because the social situation demands that people act in a friendly way (shaking your hand and saying nice to meet you), it is difficult to know whether Tess was friendly because of the situation or because she is really friendly. Imagine, however, that instead of shaking your hand, Tess sticks out her tongue at you and walks away. I think you would agree that it is easier in this case to infer that Tess is unfriendly because her behavior is so contrary to what one would expect. [2]

Although people are reasonably accurate in their attributions (we could say, perhaps, that they are good enough), [3] they are far from perfect. One error that we frequently make when making judgments about ourselves is to make self-serving attributions by judging the causes of our own behaviors in overly positive ways. If you did well on a test, you will probably attribute that success to dispositional attributions (Im smart, I studied really hard), but if you do poorly on the test you are more likely to make situational attributions (The test was hard, I had bad luck). Although making causal attributions is expected to be logical and scientific, our emotions are not irrelevant. Another way that our attributions are often inaccurate is that we are, by and large, too quick to attribute the behavior of other people to something about them rather than to something about their situation. We are more likely to say, Leslie left a big tip, so she must be generous than Leslie left a big tip, but perhaps that was because the service was really excellent. The common tendency to overestimate the role of dispositional factors and overlook the impact of situations in judging others is known as the fundamental attribution error (or correspondence bias). The fundamental attribution error occurs in part because other people are so salient in our social environments. When I look at you, I see you as my focus, and so I am likely to make personal attributions about you. If the situation is reversed such that people see situations from the perspectives of others, the fundamental attribution error is reduced. [4] And when we judge people, we often see them in only one situation. Its easy for you to think that your math professor is picky and detail-oriented because that describes her behavior in class, but you dont know how she acts with her friends and family, which might be completely different. And we also tend to make person attributions because they are easy. We are more likely to commit the fundamental attribution errorquickly jumping to the conclusion that behavior is caused by underlying personalitywhen we are tired, distracted, or busy doing other things. [5]

The tendency to make person attributions (such as poor people are lazy) for the behaviors of others, even where situational factors such as poor education and growing up in poverty might be better explanations, is caused by the fundamental attribution error. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0. Thinkstock. An important moral about perceiving others applies here: We should not be too quick to judge other people. It is easy to think that poor people are lazy, that people who say something harsh are rude or unfriendly, and that all terrorists are insane madmen. But these attributions may frequently overemphasize the role of the person, resulting in an inappropriate and inaccurate tendency to blame the victim. [6] [7] Sometimes people are lazy and rude, and some terrorists are possibly insane, but these people may also be influenced by the situation in which they find themselves. Poor people may find it more difficult to get work and education because of the environment they grow up in, people may say rude things because they are feeling threatened or are in pain, and terrorists may have learned in their family and school that committing violence in the service of their beliefs is justified. When you find yourself making strong person attributions for the behaviors of others, I hope you will stop and think more carefully. Would you want other people to make person attributions for your behavior in the same situation, or would you prefer that they more fully consider the situation surrounding your behavior? Are you perhaps making the fundamental attribution error? learn by doing did I get this

References

1. Jones, E. E., Kanouse, D. E., Kelley, H. H., Nisbett, R. E., Valins, S., and Weiner, B. (Eds.). (1987). Attribution: Perceiving the Causes of Behavior. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Hillsdale, NJ. 2. Jones, E. E., Davis, K. E., and Gergen, K. J. (1961). "Role playing variations and their informational value for person perception." Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. Volume 63. Number 2. 302310 Pages. 3. Fiske, S. T. (2003). Social Beings. Wiley. Hoboken, NJ. 4. Storms, M. D. (1973). "Videotape and the attribution process: Reversing actors and observers points of view." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 27. Number 2. 165175 Pages. 5. Trope, Y., and Alfieri, T. (1997). "Effortfulness and flexibility of dispositional judgment processes." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 73. Number 4. 662674 Pages. 6. Lerner, M. (1980). The Belief in a Just World: A Fundamental Delusion. Plenum. New York. 7. Tennen, H., and Affleck, G. (1990). "Blaming others for threatening events." Psychological Bulletin. Volume 108. Number 2. 209232 Pages.

Attitudes and Behavior Learning Objectives

Define the concept of attitude and identify the conditions under which attitudes have a strong impact on actions. Explain how behaviors can influence attitudes through the process of selfperception and cognitive dissonance.

Attitude refers to our relatively enduring evaluations of people and things. [1] We each hold many thousands of attitudes, including those about family and friends, political parties and political figures, abortion rights, preferences for music, and much more. Some of our attitudes, including those about sports, roller coaster rides, and capital punishment, are at least in part heritable, which explains why we are similar to our parents on many dimensions. [2] Other attitudes are learned through direct and indirect experiences with the attitude objects. [3] Attitudes are important because they frequently (but not always) predict behavior. If we know that a person has a more positive attitude toward Frosted Flakes than toward Cheerios, then we will naturally predict that she will buy more of the former when she gets to the market. If we know that Charlie is in love with Charlene, then we will not be surprised when he proposes marriage. Because attitudes often predict behavior, people who wish to change behavior frequently try to change attitudes through the use of persuasive communications. The following table presents some of the many techniques that can be used to change peoples attitudes. [4] Techniques That Can Be Effective in Persuading Others

Techniques That Can Be Effective in Persuading Others From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, CC-BY-NC-SA. Technique Examples Choose effective Communicators who are attractive, expert, trustworthy, and communicators. similar to the listener are most persuasive. If the listener wants to be entertained, then it is better to use a Consider the goals of the humorous ad; if the listener is processing the ad more listener. carefully, use a more thoughtful one. People are more easily persuaded when they are in a good Use humor. mood. Try to associate your product with positive stimuli such as Use classical conditioning. funny jokes or attractive models. Make use of the listener's Humorous and fear-arousing ads can be effective because emotions. they arouse the listeners emotions. One approach is the foot-in-the-door technique. First ask for a Use the listener's behavior to minor request, and then ask for a larger request after the modify his or her attitude. smaller request has been accepted. Attitudes predict behavior better for some people than for others. People who are high in self-monitoringthe tendency to regulate behavior to meet the demands of social situationstend to change their behaviors to match the social situation and thus do not always act on their attitudes. [5] High self-monitors agree with statements such as, In different situations and with different people, I often act like very different persons and I guess I put on a show to impress or entertain people. Attitudes are more likely to predict behavior for low self-monitors, who are more likely to act on their own attitudes even when the social situation suggests that they should behave otherwise. Low self-monitors are more likely to agree with statements such as At parties and social gatherings, I do not attempt to do or say things that others will like and I can only argue for ideas that I already believe. The match between the social situations in which the attitudes are expressed and the behaviors are engaged in also matters, such that there is a greater attitude-behavior correlation when the social situations match. Imagine for a minute the case of Magritte, a 16-year-old high school student. Magritte tells her parents that she hates the idea of smoking cigarettes. But how sure are you that Magrittes attitude will predict her behavior? Would you be willing to bet that shed never try smoking when shes out with her friends? The problem here is that Magrittes attitude is being expressed in one social situation (when she is with her parents) whereas the behavior (trying a cigarette) is going to occur in a very different social situation (when she is out with her friends). The relevant social norms are, of course, much different in the two situations. Magrittes friends might be able to convince her to try smoking, despite her initial negative attitude, by enticing her with peer pressure. Behaviors are more likely to be consistent with attitudes when the social situation in which the behavior occurs is similar to the situation in which the attitude is expressed. [6]

Although it might not have surprised you to hear that our attitudes predict our behaviors, you might be more surprised to learn that our behaviors also have an influence on our attitudes. It makes sense that if I like Frosted Flakes Ill buy them, because my positive attitude toward the product influences my behavior. But my attitudes toward Frosted Flakes may also become more positive if I decidefor whatever reasonto buy some. It makes sense that Charlies love for Charlene will lead him to propose marriage, but it is also the case that he will likely love Charlene even more after he does so. Behaviors influence attitudes in part through the process of self-perception. Self-perception occurs when we use our own behavior as a guide to help us determine our own thoughts and feelings. [7] [8] In one demonstration of the power of self-perception, Wells and Petty [9] assigned their research participants to shake their heads either up and down or side to side as they read newspaper editorials. The participants who had shaken their heads up and down later agreed with the content of the editorials more than the people who had shaken them side to side. Wells and Petty argued that this occurred because the participants used their own head-shaking behaviors to determine their attitudes about the editorials. Persuaders may use the principles of self-perception to change attitudes. The foot-in-thedoor technique is a method of persuasion in which the person is first persuaded to accept a rather minor request and then asked for a larger one after that. In one demonstration, Guguen and Jacob [10] found that students in a computer discussion group were more likely to volunteer to complete a 40-question survey on their food habits (which required 15 to 20 minutes of their time) if they had already, a few minutes earlier, agreed to help the same requestor with a simple computer-related question (about how to convert a file type) than if they had not first been given the smaller opportunity to help. The idea is that when asked the second time, the people looked at their past behavior (having agreed to the small request) and inferred that they are helpful people. Behavior also influences our attitudes through a more emotional process known as cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance refers to the discomfort we experience when we choose to behave in ways that we see as inappropriate. [11] [12] If we feel that we have wasted our time or acted against our own moral principles, we experience negative emotions (dissonance) and may change our attitudes about the behavior to reduce the negative feelings. Elliot Aronson and Judson Mills [13] studied whether the cognitive dissonance created by an initiation process could explain how much commitment students felt to a group that they were part of. In their experiment, female college students volunteered to join a group that would be meeting regularly to discuss various aspects of the psychology of sex. According to random assignment, some of the women were told that they would be required to perform an embarrassing procedure (they were asked to read some obscene words and some sexually oriented passages from a novel in public) before they could join the group, whereas other women did not have to go through this initiation. Then all the women got a chance to listen to the groups conversation, which turned out to be very boring. Aronson and Mills found that the women who had gone through the embarrassing experience subsequently reported more liking for the group than those who had not. They

argued that the more effort an individual expends to become a member of the group (e.g., a severe initiation), the more they will become committed to the group, to justify the effort they have put in during the initiation. The idea is that the effort creates dissonant cognitions (I did all this work to join the group), which are then justified by creating more consonant ones (OK, this group is really pretty fun). Thus the women who spent little effort to get into the group were able to see the group as the dull and boring conversation that it was. The women who went through the more severe initiation, however, succeeded in convincing themselves that the same discussion was a worthwhile experience. When we put in effort for somethingan initiation, a big purchase price, or even some of our precious timewe will likely end up liking the activity more than we would have if the effort had been less; not doing so would lead us to experience the unpleasant feelings of dissonance. After we buy a product, we convince ourselves that we made the right choice because the product is excellent. If we fail to lose the weight we wanted to, we decide that we look good anyway. If we hurt someone elses feelings, we may even decide that he or she is a bad person who deserves our negative behavior. To escape from feeling poorly about themselves, people will engage in quite extraordinary rationalizing. No wonder that most of us believe that If I had it all to do over again, I would not change anything important. learn by doing Social psychologists generally define an attitude as an evaluation of a person, object, or idea. The evaluation can be positive, negative, or even ambivalent. To elaborate further on the definition of an attitude, consider its three parts: an affective component, consisting of our emotional reactions toward the attitude object (e.g., another person or a social issue); a cognitive component, consisting of our thoughts and beliefs about the attitude object, and a behavioral component, consisting of our actions or observable behaviors toward the attitude object. did I get this learn by doing As we have seen, not only do our attitudes often predict our behaviors, but our behaviors often have a substantial effect on our attitudes. Self-perception theory and cognitive dissonance theory provide different explanations of how our behavior can influence our attitudes. In this activity, you will see ten scenarios. Each is an example of self-perception, cognitive dissonance or some other concept. For each of the following scenarios, indicate which theory best applies. did I get this

References
1. Albarracn, D., Johnson, B. T., and Zanna, M. P. (Eds.). (2005). The Handbook of Attitudes. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Mahwah, NJ.

2. Olson, J. M., Vernon, P. A., Harris, J. A., and Jang, K. L. (2001). "The heritability of attitudes: A study of twins." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 80. Number 6. 845860 Pages. 3. De Houwer, J., Thomas, S., and Baeyens, F. (2001). "Association learning of likes and dislikes: A review of 25 years of research on human evaluative conditioning." Psychological Bulletin. Volume 127. Number 6. 853869 Pages. 4. Cialdini, R. B. (2001). Influence: Science and Practice. Allyn and Bacon. Boston. 5. Gangestad, S. W., and Snyder, M. (2000). "Self-monitoring: Appraisal and reappraisal." Psychological Bulletin. Volume 126. Number 4. 530555 Pages. 6. Ajzen, I. (1991). "The theory of planned behavior." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. Volume 50. Number 2. 179211 Pages. 7. Bem, D. J. (1972). Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 6. Chapter Self-perception theory. Academic Press. New York. 162 Pages. L. Berkowitz (Ed.). 8. Olson, J. M., and Stone, J. (2005). The Handbook of Attitudes. Chapter The influence of behavior on attitudes. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Mahwah, NJ. 223271 Pages. D. Albarracn, B. T. Johnson, and M. P. Zanna (Eds.). 9. Wells, G. L., and Petty, R. E. (1980). "The effects of overt head movements on persuasion: Compatibility and incompatibility of responses." Basic and Applied Social Psychology. Volume 1. Number 3. 219230 Pages. 10. Guguen, N., and Jacob, C. (2002). "Solicitation by e-mail and solicitors status: A field study of social influence on the web." CyberPsychology and Behavior. Volume 5. Number 4. 377383 Pages. 11. Festinger, L. (1957). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Row, Peterson. Evanston, IL. 12. Harmon-Jones, E., and Mills, J. (1999). Cognitive Dissonance: Progress on a Pivotal Theory in Social Psychology. American Psychological Association. Washington, DC. 13. Aronson, E., and Mills, J. (1959). "The effect of severity of initiation on liking for a group." Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. Volume 59. Number 2. 171 181 Pages.

Working With Others: The Costs and Benefits of Social Groups Learning Objectives

Describe conditions in which the presence of others is likely to result in social facilitation, social inhibition, and social loafing. Explain the concept of groupthink and the conditions that contribute to its occurrence.

194 Individual Performance in Groups 195

Individual Performance in Groups Learning Objectives

Describe conditions in which the presence of others is likely to result in social facilitation, social inhibition, and social loafing.

Just as our primitive ancestors lived together in small social groups, including families, tribes, and clans, people today still spend a great deal of time in groups. We study together in study groups, we work together on production lines, and we decide the fates of others in courtroom juries. We work in groups because groups can be beneficial. A rock band that is writing a new song or a surgical team in the middle of a complex operation may coordinate their efforts so well that it is clear that the same outcome could never have occurred if the individuals had worked alone. But group performance will only be better than individual performance to the extent that the group members are motivated to meet the group goals, effectively share information, and efficiently coordinate their efforts. Because these things do not always happen, group performance is almost never as good as we would expect, given the number of individuals in the group, and may even in some cases be inferior to that which could have been made by one or more members of the group working alone.

Working groups are used to perform tasks and make decisions, but are they effective? From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0. Thinkstock.

In an early social psychological study, Norman Triplett [1] found that bicycle racers who were competing with other bicyclers on the same track rode significantly faster than bicyclers who were racing alone, against the clock. This led Triplett to hypothesize that people perform tasks better when there are other people present than they do when they are alone. Subsequent findings validated Tripletts results, and experiments have shown that the presence of others can increase performance on many types of tasks, including jogging, shooting pool, lifting weights, and solving problems. [2] The tendency to perform tasks better or faster in the presence of others is known as social facilitation.

However, although people sometimes perform better when they are in groups than they do alone, the situation is not that simple. Perhaps you remember an experience when you performed a task (playing the piano, shooting basketball free throws, giving a public presentation) very well alone but poorly with, or in front of, others. Thus it seems that the conclusion that being with others increases performance cannot be entirely true. The tendency to perform tasks more poorly or more slowly in the presence of others is known as social inhibition. Robert Zajonc [3] explained the observed influence of others on task performance using the concept of physiological arousal. According to Zajonc, when we are with others we experience more arousal than we do when we are alone, and this arousal increases the likelihood that we will perform the dominant response, the action that we are most likely to emit in any given situation.

Drive-Arousal Model of Social Facilitation

From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0, CC-BY-NC-SA.

The most important aspect of Zajoncs theory was that the experience of arousal and the resulting increase in the occurrence of the dominant response could be used to predict whether the presence of others would produce social facilitation or social inhibition. Zajonc argued that when the task to be performed was relatively easy, or if the individual had learned to perform the task very well (a task such as pedaling a bicycle), the dominant

response was likely to be the correct response, and the increase in arousal caused by the presence of others would create social facilitation. On the other hand, when the task was difficult or not well learned (a task such as giving a speech in front of others), the dominant response is likely to be the incorrect one, and thus, because the increase in arousal increases the occurrence of the (incorrect) dominant response, performance is hindered. A great deal of experimental research has now confirmed these predictions. A metaanalysis by Bond and Titus, [2] which looked at the results of over 200 studies using over 20,000 research participants, found that the presence of others significantly increased the rate of performing on simple tasks, and also decreased both rate and quality of performance on complex tasks. Although the arousal model proposed by Zajonc is perhaps the most elegant, other explanations have also been proposed to account for social facilitation and social inhibition. One modification argues that we are particularly influenced by others when we perceive that the others are evaluating us or competing with us. [4] In one study supporting this idea, Strube, Miles, and Finch [5] found that the presence of spectators increased joggers speed only when the spectators were facing the joggers, so that the spectators could see the joggers and assess their performance. The presence of others did not influence joggers performance when the joggers were facing in the other direction and thus could not see them. The ability of a group to perform well is determined by the characteristics of the group members (e.g., are they knowledgeable and skilled?) as well as by the group processthat is, the events that occur while the group is working on the task. When the outcome of group performance is better than we would expect given the individuals who form the group, we call the outcome a group process gain, and when the group outcome is worse than we would have expected given the individuals who form the group, we call the outcome a group process loss. One group process loss that may occur in groups is that the group members may engage in social loafing, a group process loss that occurs when people do not work as hard in a group as they do when they are working alone. In one of the earliest social psychology experiments, in 1913, Maximilien Ringelmann had individual men, as well as groups of various numbers of men, pull as hard as they could on ropes while he measured the maximum amount that they were able to pull. [6] As you can see in the figure below, although larger groups pulled harder than any one individual, Ringelmann also found a substantial process loss. In fact, the loss was so large that groups of three men pulled at only 85% of their expected capability, whereas groups of eight pulled at only 37% of their expected capability. This type of process loss, in which group productivity decreases as the size of the group increases, has been found to occur on a wide variety of tasks.

Group Process Loss

Ringlemann found that although more men pulled harder on a rope than fewer men did, there was a substantial process loss in comparison to what would have been expected on the basis of their individual performances. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0, CCBY-NC-SA. learn by doing

Robert Zajonc [3] proposed a theory that would explain both the social facilitation and the social inhibition study results. For this activity, take a look at the figure above, titled "Drive-Arousal Model of Social Facilitation." Zajoncs theory has three components.
did I get this

References
1. Triplett, N. (1898). "The dynamogenic factors in pacemaking and competition." American Journal of Psychology. Volume 9. Number 4. 507533 Pages. 2. Bond, C. F., and Titus, L. J. (1983). "Social facilitation: A meta-analysis of 241 studies." Psychological Bulletin. Volume 94. Number 2. 265292 Pages. 3. Zajonc, R. B. (1965). "Social facilitation." Science. Volume 149. Number 3681. 269274 Pages. 4. Baron, R. (1986). Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 19. Chapter Distraction/conflict theory: Progress and problem. Academic Press. New York. 140 Pages. L. Berkowitz (Ed.). 5. Strube, M. J., Miles, M. E., and Finch, W. H. (1981). "The social facilitation of a simple task: Field tests of alternative explanations." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Volume 7. Number 4. 701707 Pages. 6. Kravitz, D. A., and Martin, B. (1986). "Ringelmann rediscovered: The original article." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 50. Number 5. 936941 Pages.

The Effects of Groupthink

Learning Objectives

Explain the concept of groupthink and the conditions that contribute to its occurrence.

Group process losses can also occur when group members conform to each other rather than expressing their own divergent ideas. Groupthink is a phenomenon that occurs when a group made up of members who may be very competent and thus quite capable of making excellent decisions nevertheless ends up, as a result of a flawed group process and strong conformity pressures, making a poor decision. [1] [2] Groupthink is more likely to occur in groups whose members feel a strong group identity, when there is a strong and directive leader, and when the group needs to make an important decision quickly. The problem is that groups suffering from groupthink become unwilling to seek out or discuss discrepant or unsettling information about the topic at hand, and the group members do not express contradictory opinions. Because the group members are afraid to express opinions that contradict those of the leader, or to bring in outsiders who have other information, the group is prevented from making a fully informed decision. The figure below summarizes the basic causes and outcomes of groupthink.

Causes and Outcomes of Groupthink

From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0, CC-BY-NC-SA.

It has been suggested that groupthink was involved in a number of well-known and important, but very poor, decisions made by government and business groups, including the decision to invade Iraq made by President Bush and his advisors in 2002, the crashes of two Space Shuttle missions in 1986 and 2003, and the decision of President John Kennedy and his advisors to commit U.S. forces to help invade Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro in 1962. Analyses of the decision-making processes in these cases have documented the role of conformity pressures.

As a result of the high levels of conformity in these groups, the group begins to see itself as extremely valuable and important, highly capable of making high-quality decisions, and invulnerable. The group members begin to feel that they are superior and do not need to seek outside information. Such a situation is conducive to terrible decision-making and resulting fiascoes.

Psychology in Everyday Life: Do Juries Make Good Decisions?

Although many other countries rely on judges to make judgments in civil and criminal trials, the jury is the foundation of the legal system in the United States. The notion of a trial by ones peers is based on the assumption that average individuals can make informed and fair decisions when they work together in groups. But given the potential for group process losses, are juries really the best way to approach these important decisions? As a small working group, juries have the potential to produce either good or poor decisions, depending on the outcome of the characteristics of the individual members as well as the group process. In terms of individual group characteristics, people who have already served on juries are more likely to be seen as experts, are more likely to be chosen to be the jury foreman, and give more input during the deliberation. It has also been found that status matters; jury members with higher status occupations and education, males rather than females, and those who talk first are more likely be chosen as the foreman, and these individuals also contribute more to the jury discussion . [3] However, although at least some member characteristics have an influence on jury decision making, group process plays a more important role in the outcome of jury decisions than do member characteristics. Like any group, juries develop their own individual norms, and these norms can have a profound impact on how they reach their decision. Analysis of group process within juries shows that different juries take very different approaches to reaching a verdict. Some spend a lot of time in initial planning, whereas others immediately jump into the deliberation. Some juries base their discussion around a review and reorganization of the evidence, waiting to make a vote until it has all been considered, whereas other juries first determine which decision is preferred in the group by taking a poll and then (if the first vote does not lead to a final verdict) organize their discussion around these opinions. These two approaches are used quite equally but may in some cases lead to different decisions. [4] Perhaps most importantly, conformity pressures have a strong impact on jury decision making. As you can see in the figure below, when there are a greater number of jury members who hold the majority position, it becomes more and more certain that their opinion will prevail during the discussion. This does not mean that minorities can never be persuasive, but it is very difficult for them to do so. The strong influence of the majority is probably due to both informational conformity (i.e., that there are more arguments supporting the favored position) and normative conformity (the people on the majority side have greater social influence).

Results From Stasser, Kerr, and Bray

This figure shows the decisions of 6-member mock juries that made majority rules decisions. When the majority of the 6initially favored voting guilty, the jury almost always voted guilty; when the majority of the 6initially favored voting innocent, the jury almost always voted innocent. The juries were frequently hung (could not make a decision) when the initial split was 33. From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, v1.0. Adapted from Stasser, G., Kerr, N. L., and Bray, R. M. (1982). The social psychology of jury deliberations: Structure, process and product. In N. L. Kerr and R. M. Bray (Eds.), The Psychology of the Courtroom (pp. 221256). New York: Academic Press.

Given the potential difficulties that groups face in making good decisions, you might be worried that the verdicts rendered by juries may not be particularly effective, accurate, or fair. However, despite these concerns, the evidence suggests that juries may not do as badly as we would expect. The deliberation process seems to cancel out many individual juror biases, and the importance of the decision leads the jury members to carefully consider the evidence itself.

Using Groups Effectively

Taken together, working in groups has both positive and negative outcomes. On the positive side, it makes sense to use groups to make decisions because people can create outcomes working together that any one individual could not hope to accomplish alone. In addition, once a group makes a decision, the group will normally find it easier to get other people to implement it, because many people feel that decisions made by groups are fairer than are those made by individuals. Yet groups frequently succumb to process losses, leading them to be less effective than they should be. Furthermore, group members often dont realize that the process losses are occurring around them. For instance, people who participate in brainstorming groups report that they have been more productive than those who work alone, even if the group has actually not done that well. [5] [6] The tendency for group members to overvalue the productivity of the groups they work in is known as the illusion of group productivity, and it

seems to occur for several reasons. For one, the productivity of the group as a whole is highly accessible, and this productivity generally seems quite good, at least in comparison to the contributions of single individuals. The group members hear many ideas expressed by themselves and the other group members, and this gives the impression that the group is doing very well, even if objectively it is not. And, on the affective side, group members receive a lot of positive social identity from their group memberships. These positive feelings naturally lead them to believe that the group is strong and performing well. What we need to do, then, is to recognize both the strengths and limitations of group performance and use whatever techniques we can to increase process gains and reduce process losses. The table below presents some of the techniques that are known to help groups achieve their goals.
Techniques That Can Be Used to Improve Group Performance From Flat World Knowledge, Introduction to Psychology, CC-BY-NC-SA. Technique Example

Rewarding employees and team members with bonuses will increase their Provide rewards for effort toward the group goal. People will also work harder in groups when they feel that they are contributing to the group goal than when they feel performance. that their contributions are not important. Group members will work harder if they feel that their contributions to the Keep group member group are known and potentially seen positively by the other group contributions members than they will if their contributions are summed into the group identifiable. total and thus unknown. [7] Workers who feel that their rewards are proportional to their efforts in the Maintain distributive group will be happier and work harder than will workers who feel that they justice (equity). are underpaid. [8] Larger groups are more likely to suffer from coordination problems and social loafing. The most effective working groups are of relatively small sizeabout four or five members. Group performance is increased when the group members care about the ability of the group to do a good job (e.g., a cohesive sports or military team). On the other hand, some groups develop norms that prohibit members from working to their full potential and thus encourage loafing.

Keep groups small.

Create positive group norms.

Improve information Leaders must work to be sure that each member of the group is encouraged sharing. to present the information that he or she has in group discussions. One

Techniques That Can Be Used to Improve Group Performance approach to increasing full discussion of the issues is to have the group break up into smaller subgroups for discussion. Groups take longer to reach consensus, and allowing plenty of time will help keep the group from coming to premature consensus and making an unwise Allow plenty of time. choice. Time to consider the issues fully also allows the group to gain new knowledge by seeking information and analysis from outside experts. Set specific and attainable goals. did I get this learn by doing did I get this Groups that set specific, difficult, yet attainable goals (e.g., improve sales by 10% over the next 6 months) are more effective than groups that are given goals that are not very clear (e.g., lets sell as much as we can!). [9]

References
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9. Locke, E. A., and Latham, G. P. (2006). "New directions in goal-setting theory." Current Directions in Psychological Science. Volume 15. Number 5. 265268 Pages.