Unfinished Business
 There are TWO classes this week –
tonight
December 4 (to make up for Remembrance Day)
 Test #3
webCT exam dates: Dec 8 (10:00) - Dec 13 (5:00)
change in room: E610, E620 and E630
Review Question 1
You meet a 36 year old man who is a chainsmoker. What might Freud say about this
person?
A.
B.
C.
D.
He is fixated at the anal stage.
He is caught in an Oedipus complex.
He has an oral personality.
He has a phallic personality.
Answer: C
Review Question 2
Rotter’s theory of _____ focused on people’s
differing beliefs that their efforts will result in
positive outcomes.
A.
B.
C.
D.
Personal control
Personal constructs
The locus of control
The cognitive-affective personality system
Answer: C
Personal Control
Internal Locus of Control
You pretty much control your own destiny
External Locus of Control
Luck, fate and/or powerful others control your destiny
Methods of Study
• Correlate feelings of control with behavior
• Experiment by raising/lowering people’s sense of
control and noting effects
Review Question 3
How is the study of personality different from the
study of behaviour or biological processes?
A. One cannot use objective means to study
personality.
B. The study of personality does not lend itself to
explanation, only description.
C. Personality cannot be directly observed.
D. Personality is a false construct that has no place
in science.
Answer: C
Review Question 4
Which of the following is related to a higher
degree of consistency in behaviour?
A.
B.
C.
D.
High self-monitoring
Low self-monitoring
Extraversion
Neuroticism
Answer: B
Review Question 5
The personality traits of shyness, fearfulness
and anxiousness have been associated with
a.
b.
c.
d.
The frontal lobes
The amygdala
The pons
The reticular system
Answer: b
Self-Concept
Is a cognitive knowledge structure
schema (self-schema)
network of interconnected knowledge about
oneself
cognitive aspect of self-concept
integrated set of memories, beliefs and
generalizations about oneself
Self-Schema
Self-Concept
working self-concept
varies as function of:
 which memories you retrieve,
which situation you are in,
your role in that situation,
people you are with etc.
Inter/Independent Self-Concepts
some cultures place greater emphasis on
the collective self than on the personal
self
interdependent
view self inherently connected to other
people
self-concept defined more by social roles and
personal relationships
Inter/Independent Self-Concepts
some cultures place greater emphasis on
the personal self
Independent
view self fundamentally separate from others
sense of self based on feelings of being
distinct from others
Interdependent/Collective Self
Advantages
Disadvantages
Independent/Personal Self
Advantages
Disadvantages
Self-Esteem
Evaluative aspect of self-concept
emotional response as evaluate
different characteristics about
themselves
internalize values and beliefs
expressed by important people in
their lives (“reflected appraisals”)
Self-Esteem
Sociometer theory (Leary et al)
humans have need to belong
self-esteem monitors the likelihood
of social exclusion
acts as internal monitor of social
acceptance/rejection
is research support
low self-esteem highly correlated with
social anxiety
Sociometer Theory
Biological Basis of Self-Esteem
Twin studies - self-esteem moderately
inheritable
traits associated with self-esteem such as
extraversion and neuroticism have genetic
components
serotonin levels affect self-esteem
increased activity leads to increased selfesteem/confidence
Maintaining Self-Esteem
Strategies
self-evaluative maintenance
exaggerate or publicize connections to winners
minimize or hide relations to losers
distance self from someone who outperforms
them on task that is personally relevant
biased comparisons
evaluate self by contrasting actions, abilities and
beliefs with others to see where they stand
Biased Comparisons
downward comparison
contrast self with people who are “deficient”
on relevant dimentions
upward comparison
contrast self with people who are superior
Downward Comparison with Past Self
Maintaining Self-Esteem
Strategies
self-serving biases
high achievers
take credit for success
blame failure on outside factors
low achievers
attribute success on outside factors
blame failure on personal factors
Attitudes
“Evaluation of objects or ideas to
indicate like or dislike toward them”
Attitudes develop through:
direct experience/exposure
“mere exposure effect”
classical conditioning
advertising - pair positive image with
product
Attitudes develop through:
direct experience/exposure
“mere exposure effect”
classical conditioning
advertising - pair positive image with
product
operant conditioning
rewarded for behaviour
Attitudes develop through:
socialization
Would you eat a worm?
Heritability
genetic predisposition
attitudes towards death penalty, jazz,
censorship and apartheid have high
heritability components but not coeduation
and straightjackets
inherit physiological characteristics that
lead to certain responses
Attitudes Predicting Behaviour
When
more personally relevant
the more specific the attitude is
formed through direct experience
in line with normative social values
when expression does not lead to
embarrassment
Attitudes Predicting Behaviour
implicit attitudes
influence behaviour and feelings at
unconscious level
Implicit Attitudes Test
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
People possess dual attitudes:
one automatic and unconscious
one explicit
Cognitive Dissonance
(Festinger)
Contradiction between two attitudes or
between an attitude and behaviour
creates anxiety and tension
shapes behaviour and perception to
maintain cognitive dissonance
ignore behaviour that refutes/contradicts our
beliefs
accept uncritically info that confirms them
Cognitive Dissonance: Cars
Should the government be allowed to
restrict car sales based on their gas use?
 P. 87 instructors manual
Cognitive Dissonance
(Festinger)
motivated to reduce anxiety and tension
change attitudes
change behaviours
rationalize or trivialize discrepancy
Which group experienced
more dissonance?
Which group rated the task
more highly?
Cognitive Dissonance Worksheet
Dissonance and Cars
Arguments for banning gas-guzzling cars
by those who agree with this position Arguments for allowing gas-guzzlding cars
by those who don’t agree with this
position -
Confirmation-Hypercriticality Effect
If logical, would evaluate the sensible
arguments from each side and discard
those that were ludicrous or just wrong
Cognitive Dissonance theory predicts:
will remember plausible arguments
supporting own position
will remember ridiculous arguments
supporting opposing position
Pattern supported theory.
Changing Attitudes
Elaboration likelihood model to explain
how persuasion leads to attitude change -
Persuasion in advertising
Advertising to children
Botox Cosmetics radio/magazine Ad
Forming Attitudes about Others
Impression formation
attributions
causal explanations for why events or actions
occur
basic need for order and predictability in lives
just world hypothesis
“blame the victim”
Attributional Dimensions
Personal attributions
internal or dispositional attributions
situational attributions
external attributions
other dimensions
stable vs variable
controllable vs uncontrollable etc.
Attributional Dimensions
Actor-observer discrepancy
biased towards situational explanations when
explaining own behaviour
the bus was early; my roommate took too long in
the shower; the traffic was backed up on Whoopup
biased towards dispositional/personal factors
when explaining behaviour of others
he’s lazy
Stereotypes can be Self-Fulfilling
Interpersonal Processes
Chap 14
Fundamental Need to Belong
Theory says need to belong is a
fundamental motive “that activates
behaviour and influences cognition and
emotion” (p. 452
supported by anxiety felt when exluded
social exclusion theory
anxiety warns individuals may be facing rejection
from group
Need to Belong
Social dilemna
need to belong - cooperate which maximizes
long-term interests
selfishness - maximizes short-term interests
“cheater detectors”
abilities in social relationships/situations
Impression Management
Self-presentation - how we exhibit our
personal characteristics before an
audience
differences in extent of self-presentation
high in self-monitoring
low in self-monitoring
Sycophant - groveling flatterer
Ingratiation
Groups Influencing Individuals
Social facilitation
Conformity
Two Influential Studies
Milgram’s obedience study
Prison Experiment
http://designweb.otago.ac.nz/grant/psyc/OBEDIANCE.HTML
http://home.swbell.net/revscat/perilsOfObedience.htm
http://www.prisonexp.org/
Bystander Apathy
Kitty Genovese
38 witnesses who watched it happen
none called police/tried to intervene
Lethbridge
Bystander Intervention Effect
Diffusion of responsibility
ambiguous situation (potential social
blunder)
anonymous vs identifiable
cost-benefit trade off
Relationships
Proximity
familiarity/mere exposure effect
similarity
admirable personality characteristics
physical attractiveness
EARLY STAGE INTENSE ROMANTIC LOVE ACTIVATES CORTICAL-BASAL-GANGLIA
REWARD/MOTIVATION, EMOTION AND ATTENTION SYSTEMS: AN FMRI STUDY OF A DYNAMIC
NETWORK THAT VARIES WITH RELATIONSHIP LENGTH, PASSION INTENSITY AND GENDER
H. Fisher1, A. Aron2, D. Mashek2, G. Strong2, H. Li3 and L.L. Brown4
1Department
of Anthropology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
of Psychology/3Department of Radiology, SUNY Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY, USA
4Department of Neurology & Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA
2Department
1
INTRODUCTION
Early-stage romantic love is a specific and
intensely orienting state, a cross-culturally
universal phenomenon, and possibly a
developed form of a mammalian drive to
pursue preferred mates.
Specific group activations:
Reward, attention and
motivation (‘wanting’) systems
2
Activity correlated with facial
attractiveness (‘liking’) in the
left VTA
3
Activity correlated with
length of relationship
Random effects analyses
Question: Is romantic love an emotion or a
motivation? Bartels and Zeki (2000) did a
similar study, although of longer-term, lessintense romantic love. They regarded it as an
emotion. We hypothesized that it was a
motivation to acquire a goal, a specific mating
partner (Aron and Aron, 1991).
Question: Is romantic love associated with
dopaminergic systems (Fisher, 1998), as is
partner preference in prairie voles (Gingrich et
al., 2000)?
Men and women tended to A working model of
parallel systems
activation during
intense romantic
attraction
4 be different in a few areas
METHODS
Participants: Seventeen (7 Male / 10 Female) right- handed
neurologically normal volunteers who reported being intensely in
love.
Stimuli: Photograph of the beloved (Positive)
Photograph of a familiar acquaintance (Neutral)
Count-Back task (count back by 7 from…) (Counts)
Interviews: one week before and immediately after scan
Instructions: think about him/her, recall events related to the
beloved
Questionnaires: Passionate Love Scale (Hatfield and Sprecher,1986)
Affect Intensity Measure (Larsen and Diener, 1987)
Imaging: 1.5T Marconi (Phillips) Edge MRI system
C, posterior cingulate. CP,
caudate.
I, insula. OC, occipital. P, parietal.
PF, prefrontal. S/F, septum/fornix.
SP, superior parietal. T, temporal.
Contrasts:
Positive
Neutral
minus
Positive
Counts
8,421
minus Count
Back
By 7
Parallel cortical systems converge
on caudate (e.g. Brown, 1992,
1998) where activity is enhanced
by dopamine, thus attaching
behavioral significance to the
image of the beloved. Dark circles
show greatest convergence in
dorsal caudate and tail. (Diagram
after Saint-Cyr et al., 1990. Dotted lines=
caudate)
CONCLUSIONS
Voxels: 3.75 x 3.75 x 4.0 mm, 20 axial BOLD and T1 images
Design: Neutral (30 sec), Counts1(20 sec), Positive (30 sec),
Counts2 (40 sec); 6 repetitions, 12 minutes
Data analysis: SPM99 for individual, group and correlation
statistics.
725.27
C, caudate. VTA, ventral tegmental area.
mPFC, medial prefrontal cortex.
PC, posterior cingulate. p≤.002, uncorrected except VTA,
p=.01
The VTA response shown in the time
course resembles that of dopamine cell
firing to a familiar reward and
withdrawal of reward.
The nucleus accumbens was equally
activated by the Positive and Neutral
stimuli.
AC, anterior cingulate. PC, posterior
cingulate.
GP, globus pallidus. Inf fr, inferior frontal
cortex.
Our subjects in longer
relationships showed a common
effect with Bartels and Zeki (2000)
in the cingulate and insular cortex.
(Our study: mean 7.2 months;
Bartels & Zeki, 28.8 mos p <.001)
Our study and the Bartels and
Zeki study showed a common
regional effect in the dorsal
caudate (data not shown).
•Early-stage intense romantic attraction is best categorized as a motivation
system associated with varied emotions.
•Dopamine-rich regions play a major role.
• "Wanting" and "liking" may be mediated by different regions of the VTA,
and also lateralized.
•Women tend to show activation in regions associated with attention,
memory recall and emotion; men tend to show activation in regions
associated with integration of visual stimuli and sexual arousal.
•Romantic attraction is an excellent example of parallel system activation,
including convergence of corticostriatal and midbrain dopamine activity in
the dorsal caudate nucleus.
•This research may shed light on several medical and psychological
disorders, including stalking and other crimes of passion. Romantic love
may also be a useful tool in future studies of human reward mechanisms and
memory.
Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love
Love made up of three components:
passion
intimacy
commitment
 see p. 480