Psych100 Exam 3

Designed to measure differences between people

people would perform differently each time they take a test based on outside factors

Designed to measure differences in people's mental abilities

Measure how far advanced you are in a certain domain

Measure how good you are at something; used to predict how well someone with do in a particular area

Hypothesize, suppose people have certain characteristics; cannot directly observe, includes personality tests

Raw score has no significance; look at score in comparison to other scores to provide information

a well-designed test should get similar results on different days when the test is given in different circumstances (Test-Retest Reliability)

Does the test measure what it is supposed to measure?

For achievement tests
Does it test the information that was taught?

For aptitude tests
Does it do a good job predicting if you will do well in a specific domain?

For hypothetical constructs
Does it measure that aspect, and only that aspect?

measure general intelligence, but we do not really know what intelligence is.
Low construct validity
High criterion validity as predictor of academic peformance

The concept that humans can be bred like other organisms

Comparing identical twins and fraternal twins to each other

Looking at consequences of children living in a deprived environment; shows that there is an environmental basis for IQ

Estimate of variances in population, how much is explained by genetics

Methods used to treat ailments (body, behavior, and mind) either by relieving symptoms or remedying the cause

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual

Manual containing common psychological diagnoses containing 5 axes

Major Clinical Syndromes

Ex: Schizophrenia, Parkinson's

Some of Axis I is reliable/valid

Personality and Development Disorders

Smaller scale diagnoses

Physical Disorders

Stress in the Individual's Life

GAF - Global Assessment of Functioning
Relates present functional impairment and highest degree of impairment over the last year

Hypothetical construct; set of consistent behavioral traits displayed by an individual

Lasting disposition to behave in a consistent way across a variety of situations

Self-report, asked questions about your own personality related to certain underlying traits; high construct validity
Single-Trait inventories are more commonly used in a research setting
Multi-Trait inventories are used in a clinical setting

Present ambiguous stimuli to person and ask questions about it

Ex: Rorschach's Test (inkblot)

Show a picture and ask what's going on in the picture; based on Freud

Personality, motivation, and mental illness/disease result from a combination of interrelated factors - early childhood experience, unconscious motives and conflicts, coping with aggressive and sexual urges

Primitive component of personality; source of primary biological urges; desire to fulfill urges results in behavior; primary process thinking is illogical, irrational, fantasy-oriented

Demands immediate gratification (id)

Decision-making component; mediates between id's demands and social acceptability; realistic, rational, oriented toward problem-solving

Takes social norms into account (ego)

Moral component; internalizes social norms and turns them into standards of ethical behavior; right and wrong

What you are aware of at any given time

What you can remember and move to conscious

Thoughts, memories, and desires that are unavailable to consciousness but still influence behavior

Defense mechanism; keeping feelings/thoughts in subconscious

Defense mechanism; display the feeling in a different place

Defense mechanism; bolstering self-esteem through imaginary association with a group or person

Developmental periods with characteristic sexual focus that will affect adult personality

Stuck at stage; caused by excessive gratification or frustration of needs at that stage; generally leads to overemphasis of needs associated with that stage

mouth; infants; breastfeeding and weaning are key experiences

Fixation leads to excessive interest in mouth-related activity

Anus; ages 1-3; pleasure from expulsion or retention of feces, toilet training is key experience

Fixation leads to retaining things, hoarding, unwilling to share
Excessive punishment in toilet training leads to hostility towards women

Genitals; ages 3-6; self-stimulation of genitals

Fixation leads to a range of sexual problems (homosexuality, position preference); don't know how to be a man/woman

Associated with phallic stage; children develop deep erotic interest in opposite-sex parent, accompanied by hostility toward same-sex parent

Associated with phallic stage; when little girls realize the anatomical difference between girls and boys, they want to have a penis
Result: women have more mental disorders than men

Age 6-puberty; no erotic pleasure; establish contacts outside the family

Fixation leads to sexual repression

Puberty and onward; sexual experiences with other people

No fixation; need to have gotten through every other stage successfully

Studies to determine to what extent personality is hereditary; looked at identical twins reared together, identical twins reared apart, fraternal twins reared together, and fraternal twins reared apart

Extroverted, achievement-oriented, sense of well-being

Alienated, anxious, angry

Inhibited, cautious, deferential, conventional