PSY 1001 STRESS chapter 12 Study Guide for lectures after the 3rd exam and the last four chapters of the text chapters 12 13 15 16 The Final will also include 60 concepts from exams 1 3 Use your study guides and the practice exams from exams 1 3 to review 1 What are Corticosteroids and what is their function Stress hormone that activates the body and prepares us to respond to stressful circumstances 2 Who is Hans Selye A Canadian physician who ignited stress research by his book The Stress of Life He argued to much stress leads to break downs What is the General Adaptation Syndrome Stress response pattern proposed by Selye that consists of three stages alarm resistance and exhaustion What happens at each stage Alarm excitation of the autonomic nervous system discharge of stress hormone adrenaline physical symptoms of anxiety Resistance Adapts to the stressors and finds ways to cope with it Exhaustion if our personal resources are limited and we lack good coping measures our resistance may ultimately break down causing our levels of activation to bottom out What is the Hypothalamus Pituitary Adrenal HPA Axis A link between the mind and body that delivers a stress signal 3 What is the Fight or Flight response Physical and psychological reaction that mobilizes people and animals to either defend themselves or escape a threatening situation Who first described this response Walter Cannon 4 What is a Type A personality Competitive driven hostile and ambitious What is a Type B personality A mellower and calmer type A Which traits are associated with coronary heart disease Hostility stubborn opinionated cynical controlling SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY lectures discussion section and chapter 13 1 What is in group bias People prefer their own group over other groups What are its consequences They give their own group more resources What are In groups and Out groups In group when you are inside the group Out group when you are outside the group 2 What is social facilitation In front of people you do better at simple or already learned tasks but worse at complicated tasks Describe the findings of Zajonc s cockroach study Cockroaches ran a maze and did better with other cockroaches watching How does social facilitation affect the performance of tasks that are simple or well practiced Increases performance How does the presence of others affect a task which is difficult or not well practiced Decreases performance 3 What are obedience and conformity Obedience adherence to instructions from those of higher authority Conformity tendency of people to alter their behavior as a result of group pressure What is the difference between them Conformity influence originates from our peers horizontal Obedience orders are from people who are above us vertical How did Asch study conformity Describe his findings He had a group of people estimate the length of lines 75 of people conformed to the wrong estimate at least once Bigger group more conformity What variables influence whether or not people conform Unanimity If all confederates gave the wrong answer participants are more likely to conform Difference in the wrong answer If someone else disagrees with the majority the person is more likely to state their own answer Size Bigger group more conformity up to 5 or 6 confederates How did Milgram study obedience Describe his findings Teacher and learner experiment made up you deliver a painful shock if the learner guesses the wrong answer What factors affect obedience More obey peer models obedience can t see or hear victim Less obey experimenter is a regular guy experimenter isn t in room peer rebels What percentage of participants administered at least some shocks All participants What percentage showed complete compliance 65 What is an authoritarian personality See world as a big hierarchy of power more likely to be obedient Describe the group bystander effect Bystanders in emergencies want to help but often find themselves frozen seemingly helpless to help What two factors explain the bystander effect Pluralistic ignorance and diffusion of responsibility What is pluralistic ignorance 4 5 6 Error of assuming no one in the group perceives things as we do What is diffusion of responsibility The presence of others makes each person feel less responsible for the outcome Under what conditions are people most likely to help When they are alone 7 What is the difference between situational factors and dispositional factors Situational factors outside of the person Dispositional factors aspects of the power who you re with what day of the week aspects of the situation 8 Why are situations and groups powerful Causes arousal leads to better performance of simple learned tasks Leads to worse performance of difficult new tasks can cause conformity can cause obedience they provide info about how you should behave what is going on about yourself when people are afraid they want to be with others to get info compare how they are handling it 9 What is an attitude Belief that includes an emotional component What is cognitive dissonance The self wants to be consistent behavior consistent with beliefs unpleasant feeling of inconsistency is dissonance When does it occur When we dislike the state of tension What are its real world consequences People are motivated to reduce dissonance change behavior or beliefs so they are consistent justify behavior or beliefs What is self perception theory You form your attitudes by observing yourself behave 10 What is an attribution Explanations for our own and other people s behavior What is an internal versus an external attribution Internal attribute your actions to something within you External attribute your actions to something outside yourself What are some real world consequences of attributions Example teachers were told certain kids were smarter by the end of the year those kids actually performed better because teachers expectations Rosenthal and Jacobson 11 What is the Fundamental Attribution Error Overweighing personality and under weighing the situation when explaining other people s behavior How does this affect how we explain other people s behavior our own behavior When explaining other people s behavior overestimate the impact of person factors When explaining own behavior overestimate the impact of situation factors 12 What is Social Psychology The study of how people s thoughts feelings and behaviors are influenced by the situation mainly the social situation 13 What is the Need