Final Project
Psychology 101, Fall 2012
Kelly Creighton
www.coloden.com
•Psychosocial Dilemma
A conflict between personal impulses
and the social world.
Personality theorist Erik Erikson
suggested that we face a specific
crisis at each stage of life.
Adolescents aged 12-19 struggle
with personal identity, trying to
answer the question “Who am I?”
Many teenagers, like these
goblins, reject their parents’
culture in an attempt to forge
their own identity.
www.GiantITP.com
•Approach-Approach
conflict
Choosing between two positive or
desirable alternatives.
Nale’s evil plan backfires, and his
good brother Elan has a moral
dilemma. Nale tried to kill Elan,
and ordered an attack on Elan’s
group, betraying everyone’s trust.
Nale even destroyed the bridge
from which he is now dangling
precipitously. On one hand, Elan
feels that Nale deserves this
fate, calling it “Karma-rific” in
the previous strip. On the other
hand, Elan has only just
discovered that he has a twin
brother, and he feels obligated
to save him.
www.GiantITP.com
•Avoidance-avoidance
conflict
Choosing between two negative, undesirable alternatives.
As Riff prepares to summon a demon through his computer, Torg must
choose between several equally undesirable outcomes.
www.sluggy.com
•Approach-avoidance
conflict
Being attracted to and repelled by the same goal or activity.
Comic’s alt-text: I *do* hear that they're the most comfortable thing to wear on
your feet since sliced bread.
The victor portrayed here wants the power to avoid death, but doesn’t
want to wear shoes with “creepy individual toes”. He is thus simultaneously
attracted to and repulsed by the same activity.
xkcd.com/1065/
•Experiment
al Subjects
Humans (also
referred to as
participants), or
animals whose
behavior is being
investigated.
The participants
in this
experiment (the
people in the
box) appear to
have confirmed
the initial
hypothesis.
Comic’s alt-text: Our brains have just one scale, and we resize our experiences to fit.
xkcd.com/915/
•Logical Thought
Drawing conclusions on the basis of formal
principles of reasoning.
Comic’s alt-text: Not to be confused with
“making money selling this stuff to OTHER
people who think it works”, which corporate
accountants and actuaries have zero problems
with.
This comic attempts to use logic to
demonstrate why phenomena such as
Remote Viewing and Astrology can’t
possibly be accurate or effective.
The writer forms conclusions using
given information, and on the basis of
explicit rules. Unfortunately, most
people who believe in these
phenomena rarely do so because of
logic in the first place, and so logic is
unlikely to convince them otherwise.
xkcd.com/808/
Deficit/
Hyperactivity
Disorder
A behavioral problem
characterized by short
attention span, restless
movement, and impaired
learning capacity.
People with ADHD have
difficulty controlling
their attention and are
prone to displaying
hyperactive and impulsive
behavior, as
demonstrated in this
comic.
Comic’s alt-text: 20 balloons float away while I'm busy permanently tying one to a tree to
deal with it for good. Unfortunately, that one balloon was 'land a rocket on the moon in
Kerbal Space Program.’
xkcd.com/1106/
•Escape
Reducing discomfort by leaving frustrating situations or by psychologically
withdrawing from them.
Hazel decides to ignore the challenges in her life, rather than face them.
(She has several maladaptive behaviors.)
www.girlswithslingshots.com
•Companionate Love
Form of love characterized by intimacy and commitment but not passion.
Erin and Jamie love each other and enjoy each others’ company (and
cuddling), but Erin is asexual. Jamie admits she misses having “sex with
boys” and Erin explains that she doesn’t mind if Jamie seeks that form of
enjoyment. Jamie and Erin’s relationship is a prime example of
companionate love.
www.girlswithslingshots.com
•Cross-stimulation Effect
In group problem solving, the tendency of one person’s ideas to trigger ideas from
others.
Erin and Jamie discuss what to do while Erin looks for a job. Jamie thinks
Erin’s cookies are fantastic, and Jamie herself would like to be a
professional photographer. Here, they brainstorm ideas for a bake-sale,
where each idea sparks another.
www.girlswithslingshots.com
•Evaluation Fears
Fears of being inadequate, embarrassed, ridiculed, or rejected.
Maureen is shy and insecure despite the fact that she’s beautiful and intelligent. She feels that
people are evaluating her and finding her lacking.
(Hazel, in fact, has evaluated Maureen and found her lacking, but it’s because Hazel is jealous, foolish, and
immature.)
www.girlswithslingshots.com
•Uncritical Acceptance
The tendency to believe claims because they seem true or because it would be nice if
they were true.
Hazel knows the “astrological love quiz” has no basis in reality, but believes
the results because she wants them to be true.
www.girlswithslingshots.com
•Egocentric Thought
Thought that is self-centered and fails to consider the viewpoints of others.
Jim is being
egocentric
because he is not
trying to view the
world as other
people see it. He
thinks that by
“acting nice”,
people will be
obliged to like him.
The fact is, he’s
not actually a nice
person. His own
behavior makes
people not like
him, but he can’t
(or hasn’t tried to)
view his situation
www.girlswithslingshots.com from another
perspective.
[Student Note: I don’t know if there’s a technical term for “Nice Guy Syndrome” but if there is, Jim could be the poster-boy. And may I recommend heartlessbitchesinternational.com/rants/niceguys/ng.shtml ?]
•Alexithymia
A learned difficulty expressing emotions, more common in men.
Zach demonstrates a
common side-effect of
this cultural
expectancy: he has a
hard time discussing
his feelings.
Western culture
tends to emphasize
instrumental (or
action-oriented)
behaviors in men, so
some men are less
comfortable
exhibiting expressive
behaviors.
www.girlswithslingshots.com
•Emerging Adulthood
A socially tolerated period of extended adolescence now quite common in Western
societies.
Hazel got
evicted from
her apartment
and so moved
back in with
her mother.
Carol often
treats her
daughter as if
she were still a
young girl, and
Hazel tends to
act immaturely
and make poor
choices, so
perhaps the
two behaviors
reinforce each
other?
www.girlswithslingshots.com
•Binge Drinking
Consuming five or more drinks in a short time (four for women).
Hazel does
not know the
meaning of
“one beer”.
Hazel often
consumes
large amounts
of alcohol.
Binge-drinking
is something
of a hobby of
hers.
www.girlswithslingshots.com
•Emotion
A state characterized by physiological arousal, changes in facial expression, gestures,
posture, and subjective feelings.
Hazel’s boyfriend Zach recently broke up with her, and she’s been keeping
herself drunk so she wouldn’t have to think about it. She obviously
demonstrates the gestures, posture, and changes in facial expression
associated with emotion.
www.girlswithslingshots.com
•Sexual Script
An unspoken mental plan that defines a “plot,” dialogue, and actions expected to take
place in a sexual encounter.
Thea and Angel were following different sexual scripts. Thea thought the
two of them were monogamous girlfriends, whereas Angel thought they
were having casual sex.
www.girlswithslingshots.com
•Aversion Therapy
Suppressing an undesirable response by associating it with aversive stimuli.
Clarice punishes
Tucker’s
inappropriate
behavior by
hitting him with
a book. Tucker
will attempt to
avoid wrong
answers to avoid
the punishment.
www.girlswithslingshots.com
•Moral Development
The process through which we acquire
values, beliefs, and thinking patterns
that guide responsible behavior.
Digger attempts to explain the
concepts of “good” and “evil” to
the Shadow Child, a newlyhatched, apparently parentless
demon-thing.
She later laments failing to
mention anything about
forgiveness and redemption,
despite how thorough she tried
to be.
www.diggercomic.com
•Cultural Relativity
The idea that behavior must be judged
relative to the values if the culture in
which it occurs.
Digger, an herbivore, is horrified to
learn that the hyenas expect her to
eat hyena liver as part of a funeral
ritual.
The hyenas eat their honored dead
so that their strength returns to
the tribe.
www.diggercomic.com