Psychology Exam

Test 3 Study Guide

Personality theories and measuring personality traits

– know Freud’s psychoanalytical theory well (all aspects of it, including the id, ego, and superego, psychosexual stages, fixation, all the defense mechanisms).

– know Maslow, Rogers, and Bandura’s personality perspectives and the vocabulary associated with them.

– Understand Bandura’s concept of reciprocal determinism and how our perceptions and self-fulfilling prophecies fit into this concept.

– know Rogers’ three therapeutic techniques for bringing the good and self-actualization tendencies out of people.

– be able to describe the following trait theory personality tests: MMPI, Big Five

Social Psychology

–  know the following vocabulary terms: conformity, compliance, obedience, mere exposure effect, halo effect, cognitive dissonance, fundamental attribution error, and actor-observer effect

– know the details of Asch’s experiment on compliance and Milgram’s experiment on obedience (e.g. what percentage of people conformed, the procedures of the experiments, what the dependent variables were).

– be able to list and/or recognize what factors increase conformity.

– be able to list and/or recognize what factors increase obedience.

– be able to tell the difference between normative social influence and informational social influence.

– know the mere exposure effect and how it increases liking for both objects and people.

– be able to discuss real world examples of conformity, compliance, obedience (esp. how these terms apply to the holocaust)

Psychological Disorders

–  know the definition of the following terms: psychological disorders, psychotic.

– know the diathesis stress model WELL.  You have to be able to reproduce and read the graph.

– know the different perspectives of the causes of psychological disorders (i.e. demon possession, medical model, etc.) and how this influenced their treatment.

– Know the symptoms and best treatments for all of the psychological disorders discussed on the Psychological Disorders PowerPoint (even if we didn’t get a chance to cover it in class)

– Be able to distinguish the personality disorders from each other.

– know which symptoms of schizophrenia are positive and negative.

– be able to recognize any of the psychological disorders discussed in class from vignettes.

– be able to discuss the 3 main reasons why the lifetime prevalence rates of a disorder can hugely increase in a short period of time and how they might explain the changing rates in Multiple Personality Disorder (now known as DID), ADHD, and PTSD.

Therapy

–  be able to recognize the following psychological therapies from vignettes: cognitive-behavioral therapy, client-centered therapy, psychosurgery, electroconvulsive therapy, drug therapy, psychoanalytic therapy, family therapy, systematic desensitization, flooding, exposure and response prevention.

– know what drugs are used to treat mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and schizophrenia.

– be able to classify treatments according to their psychotherapy category (e.g. know that a token economy is a behavioral therapy technique).

– be able to list and define all the types of alternative therapies listed in class (acupuncture, eye movement desensitization therapy, light exposure therapy, therapeutic touch, etc.)

– know the following classifications of drugs and some of their major side effects: antidepressants, antianxiety drugs, antipsychotics, and Lithium.

-know the disadvantages and advantages of different types of therapy; especially those (like dream analysis) that can lead to negative outcomes.

-know how the placebo effect can improve people’s mental health and why, therefore, mental health therapy should be judge against it.

Motivation and Hunger, Human Sexuality, and the Need to Belong

-be able to create Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (in order) and come up with research evidence and ideas that support AND go against it.

-know the terms associated with motivation theories (e.g. motivation, instincts, incentives, homeostasis, achievement motivation, grit, deindividuation, etc.).

– what happened when men were put on a semi-starvation diet for 6 months (Keyes study)?

– know hunger terms and concepts (set point, basal metabolic rate, anorexia nervosa, bulimia, obesity).

– be able to talk about different factors that influence hunger and divide them into the appropriate nature vs. nurture category (e.g. brain activity, hormones, cultural cues)

– why do some people starve themselves unhealthily and others overeat?

-what are the social consequences of obesity?

-what happened in Twenge’s studies in which participants were told that they would struggle with love and belonging all their lives (would have trouble forming lasting relationships)?