Personality final

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Chapter 1

Definitions of Personality

"An individual's characteristic patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior, together with the psychological mechanisms----hidden or not----behind those patterns."

An individual's unique and relatively consistent patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving

Individual differences: Refer to ways in which each person is like some other people

ex. extraverts, sensation-seekers, high self-esteem persons

Group differences: Refer to ways in which the people of one group differ from people in another group

ex. cultural differences, age differences

Individual uniqueness: Refers to the fact that every individual has personal and unique qualities not shared by any other person in the world

How we are "like no others"

Individuals can be studied nomothetical or ideographically

Root of personality:

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Chapter 2

Self report data advantages

Large amount of information

Access to thoughts, feelings, and intentions

Self esteem?

Causal force

Simple and easy

Self report data disadvantages

Maybe they can't tell you

Maybe they won't tell you

Too simple too easy

Informant data advantages

Large amount of information

Real world basis

Common sense

Likeability?

Causal force

Informant data disadvantages

Limited behavioral information

Lack of access to private experience

Error

Bias

Life outcome data: information that can be gleaned from events, activities, and outcomes in a person's life that is available for public scrutiny

ex. marriage, speeding tickets

questions may include: What clubs do you belong to? How many speeding tickets have you received? and what is your GPA?

Advantages:

Objective and verifiable

Intrinsic importance

Psychological relevance

Disadvantages:

Multi-determination

Possible lack of psychological relevance

Behavior observation data (natural):

Based on real life

Diary and experience- sampling methods

EAR: electronically activated recorder

Ambulatory assessment

Diary and experience- sampling: are compromises to following a person around all day, and the subject makes observations of herself rather than having a psychologist or trained observer make them

Ambulatory assessment: using computer assisted methods to assess behavior, thoughts, and feelings

Behavior observation data (experimental)

Make a situation happen and record behavior

Examine reactions to situations

Represent real-life contexts that are difficult to observe directly

^^^ all above considered EXPERIMENTS

Physiological measures

Physiological measures: blood pressure, galvanic skin response, heart rate etc

Overall behavior observation data advantages:

Wide range of contexts (both real and contrived)

Appearance of objectivity

Overall behavior observation data disadvantages:

Difficult and expensive

Uncertain interpretation

Reliability: measures a variables CONSISTENCY

Validity: "slippery concept"

Reliability is necessary but not sufficient for validity

Invokes the idea of "ultimate truth"

test measures or predicts what it claims to measure or predict

Construct validity: the extent to which a test truly measures a theoretical construct-construct validation

Face validity: the test appears to measure what it is supposed to measure

Generalizability: the degree to which the measure maintains its validity across contexts

Measurement error:

Error variance:

Experimental studies:

Correlational studies:

Random assignment: The procedure of assigning subjects to groups

Experimental group: Any condition of an experiment in which participants are exposed to an independent variable

Control group: The condition of an experiment in which participants are not exposed to the independent variable

Experience sampling:

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Chapter 3

Personality assessment:

Motives, intentions, goals, strategies, and how people perceive and construct the world

Assessment: measurement of relatively stable attributes of people

What types of questions would you ask to find out if someone is introverted?

Implicit Association Test (IAT):

Projective Tests:

Rorschach test

Draw-A-Person test

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Disadvantages:

Validity evidence is scarce

Expensive and time- consuming

A psychologist cannot be sure about what they mean

Other, less expensive test work well or better

Rorschach Inkblot Test:

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): measures implicit motivation- unconscious desires, aspirations, and needs

Tell stories about drawings of people and ambiguous events; measures implicit motives and reflects what people want

Factor analytic method: Identify which items group together by using the statistical technique analysis

Statistical significance: A result that would only occur by chance less than 5% of the time

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Chapter 4

Studying the trait approach:

Most research within the trait approach relies on correlational designs (traits should be able to predict behavior)

Focus is on individual differences ( how people compare to others in terms of being higher or lower on a trait)

Strength: assesses and attempts to understand how people differ

Weakness: neglects aspects of personality common to all people and how each person is unique

Correlational studies:

Individual differences:

people differ in amounts of traits, and difference can be accurately measured

according to trait psychologists, every personality is the product of a combination of a few basic primary traits

Personality consistency:

How a trait is manifested in behavior might change over time (example?

How can there be consistency in a trait if it is known to change with age (e.g. impulsivity)

Focus on the rank order differences between people

Personality inconsistency:

Aggregation:

Single behavior or occasion may be influenced by extenuating circumstances unrelated to personality

Implies that traits are only one influence on behavior

Also implies that traits refer to the person's average level

Thus, personality psychologists will never be good at predicting single acts or single occasions

Evocation: Certain personality traits may evoke specific responses from others

Why does everyone disappoint me?

Selection: Tendency to choose or select situations in which one finds oneself, as a function of personality

Situational specificity: Certain situations can provoke behavior that is out of character for an individual

Strong situation: situations in which nearly all people react in similar ways

Examples: funerals, religious services, crowded events

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Chapter 5

Convergent validation: the process of assembling diverse pieces of information that converge on a common conclusion

The duck test

Inter judge agreement

Behavioral prediction and predictive validity

Inter judge agreement: the degree to which two or more judges of the same person provide the same descriptions of personality; the more judges who agree, the more likely the judgment is to be correct

Predictive validity:

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Chapter 6

Single trait approach:

What do people with a certain personality trait do?

examine correlations between one trait and many behaviors

Self- monitoring

It's not necessarily better to be high or low

Actors scored high and mental patients scored low

Correlates with several behaviors

Many trait approach:

Essential trait approach:

Which traits are the most important? which traits really matter?

Theoretical approaches to reducing the many to a few

We then have to form an organized scheme of these traits -taxonomy

Typology approach:

Based on doubt about whether it is valid to compare people quantitatively on the same trait dimensions

Important differences between people may be qualitative

Challenges: find divisions that distinguish different types; show differences are qualitative

Esyneck

Extraversion: high scorers like partiers, have many friends, require people around to talk to, like playing practical jokes on others, display carefree, easy manner, and have a high activity level

Neuroticism: high scorers are worriers, anxious, depressed, have trouble sleeping, experience array of psychosomatic symptoms, and over-reactivity of negative emotions

Psychoticism: High scorers are solitary, lack of empathy, often cruel and inhumane, insensitivity to pain and suffering of others, aggressive, penchant for strange and unusual, impulsive, and has antisocial tendencies

Five Factor

Openness:

Most controversial trait

Viewed by others as creative, imaginative, artistic, openminded, and clever

Politically liberal

Less replicable across samples and cultures

Life outcomes: drug use, artistic interests

Ways to view this trait:

Approach to intellectual matters or basic intelligence

Value of cultural matters

Creativity and perceptiveness

Conscientiousness:

Competent, dutiful, achievement striving, self disciplines

Integrity tests

Used to select employees

Predict job performance and absenteeism

Predict job performance for one's spouse

More likely to feel guilty, less popular, less creative

Extraversion: Warm, gregarious, assertive, active, excitement seeking, dominant, optimistic, ambitious

React less to sensory stimuli

Sensitive to rewards and positive emotions

Advantages:

Higher status

Rated as more popular and physically attractive

More positive emotions

Disadvantages:

Mate poaching

Argumentative

Needs to be in control

Poor time management

Agreeableness:

Conformity, friendly compliance, likability, warmth, love, cooperative and easy to get along with

Rate others more positively

Smoke less

Women tend to be higher than men

Among children, related to less vulnerability of being bullied

Life outcomes:

Involved in religious activities

Psychologically well adjusted

Healthy heart

Recover quickly from accidents or illness

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Chapter 7

Personality development: Change in the mean level of a personality trait over time

Rank order stability: Maintenance of an individual position's within group

Mean level stability: Constancy of level in population

Consistency: of personality increases with age?

Personality - environment transactions: people tend to respond to, seek out, and create environments that are compatible with, and may magnify, their personality traits

Active

Seek out compatible environments and avoid incompatible ones

Reactive

People respond differently to the same situation

Evocative

The person changes the situation

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Chapter 8

Biological models of personality:

Dopamine:

Possible relation with bipolar disorder, extraversion, and impulsivity

Involved in responding to reward and approaching attractive objects and people

Activates the behavioral activation system (BAS)

Individual differences in development of nerve cells that produce and are responsive to dopamine

Related to the fundamental dimension of plasticity

Serotonin:

Role in inhibition of behavioral impulses

Prozac: a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI)

Physical effect: increases serotonin levels

Positive effects

changes in personality for people without diagnosed disorder

makes negative emotions less sever and doesn't affect positive emotions

Related to the fundamental dimension of stability

Epinephrine/ norepinephrine: also known as adrenaline throughout the body/ mostly in the brain , creates a fight or flight response

Released in response to stress to create the fight or flight response

Females might respond differently to stress

tend and befriend

importance of oxytocin

Only the initial and automatic response to stress

Oxytocin: Promotes nurturant and sociable behaviors, relaxation and reduction of fear; decrease anxiety and increase attachment between mothers and children

Role in mother child bonding, romantic attachment, and sexual response

Decreases fearfulness

Facilitates approach behaviors

Experiencing emotion:

Hormones: biological substances that affect the body in locations different from where they were produced

Cortisol

Oxytocin

Behavioral activation system (BAS): rewards

Regulates our response to rewards

Overactive---> impulsivity

Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS): avoiding unknown situations

Provides the orienting response to novel situations and also responds to things that are punishing

Overactive---> anxiety

Sensation seeking: Zuckerman

High sensation seekers are less tolerant of sensory deprivation

require much stimulation to get to optimal level of arousal

Sensation seeking scale

Moderate positive correlation between extraversion and sensation seeking

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Chapter 9

Behavioral genetics: The degree to which individual differences in personality (for example) are caused by genetic and environmental differences

Determine the ways in which genes and environment interact and correlate with each other to produce individual differences

Determine precisely where in the "environment" environmental effects exist e.g. parental socialization, different teachers to which children are exposed

Evolutionary psychology:

Mating strategies in men:

place higher value on physical attractiveness and prefer younger mates

Mating strategies in women:

Place higher value on economic security and prefer older mates

Mating strategies both men and women:

want the highest likelihood of healthy offspring who will survive and reproduce

Phenotype: An organism's observable properties, physical and behavioral

Genotype: The underlying DNA sequence that an individual inherits

Sociometer theory: The degree to which a person is accepted by others

Value of sad/ depressed feelings:

Mildly sad moods increase accuracy of judgment and decision-making

Sexual selection:

Sex differences in jealousy: Predict that men and women should differ in the weight they give to cues which trigger jealousy.

Parental uncertainty:

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Chapter 10

Freud:

Austrian Neurologist; fascinated with studying hysteria

Lectures in US (Clark U.) had huge impact on field of psychology

Free association:

Freud encourgaged clients to talk about any thoughts or images that either their head

Assumption is that this kind of free-flowing uncensored talking will provide clues to unconscious material

Psychoanalysis: (talking therapy)

Id: Reservoir of psychic energy

Most primitive part of the mind, source of all DRIVES AND URGES

Operates according to the pleasure principle, desire for immediate gratification

Functions according to primary process thinking, thinking without logical rules of conscious thought or anchor in reality

WISH FULFILLMENT

Ego: Executive of personality

Contrains id to reality- reality principle

Develops within the first TWO or THREE years of life

Operates according to the reality principle: Ego understands that urges of id are often in conflict with social and physical reality

Operates according to the secondary process thinking, development and devising of strategies for problem solving and obtaining satisfaction

Superego: Upholder of societal values and ideals

Internalizes ideals, values, and moral of society

What some refer to as the "conscience"

Main tool of the superego in enforcing right and wrong is the emotion of guilt

Like id, superego is not bound by reality

Fixation: leaving lots of energy behind if a stage is not completely resolved

Psychosexual stages:

Oral:

Age: birth to 18 months

Mouth, lips, and tongue

Id

Dependence, passivity

As adult either dependent or overly independent

EX: While under stress Sarah bites her nails and her daughter Samantha sucks her thumb these are both examples from an oral stage of Freud's psychosexual stages

Anal:

18 months to 3 1/2 years

Anus and organs of elimination

Ego

Obedience and self control

As adult either obedient and obsessed with order, or anti-authority and chaotic

Anal retentive: (harsh potty training) hates mess, tidy, and punctual/ respectful of authority; they can be stubborn and tight fisted with their money and possessions

Anal expulsive: (liberal potty training) in adulthood is the person who wants to share things with you, they like giving things away, messy, disorganized, and rebellious

Phallic:

3 1/2 years to 7 years

Sexual organs

Superego

Gender identity and sexuality

As adult either over or under sexualized

-Child becomes aware of anatomical sex differences; process of identification involving child adopting characteristics of same sex parent

(Latency):

7 years to puberty

Learning and cognitive

Much of child's energy is channeled into developing new skills and acquiring new knowledge and play becomes largely confined to other children of the same gender

Genital:

Puberty through adulthood

Sexuality in the context of a mature relationship

Id, ego, and superego are well balanced

Creation and enhancement of life

A mature adult (seldom achieved)

Defense mechanisms:

Repression:

Pushes threatening thoughts and ideas into the unconscious

As an explanation for:

Post traumatic stress disorder

Repressed memories

False memories

Denial:

Refusal to acknowledge anxiety-provoking stimuli

As an explanation for:

Not acknowledging the sudden death of a loved one

Interpreting a terrible with with a spouse as just a "lovers quarrel"

Self serving biases

Reaction Formation:

Hides threatening impulses by over emphasizing their opposite

As an explanation for:

Rabidly homophobic people turning out to be closeted gays

Inappropriate sexual clergymen who promote "family values"

Killing with kindness

Rationalization:

Creating logical, socially acceptable explanations for behaviors which were actually driven by unconscious impulses

Intellectualization:

Translates a threatening situation into cold, intellectual terms

Displacement:

Shifting one's unconscious aggression or fears to a safer target (hydraulic model)

Projection:

Attributing anxiety provoking impulse or thoughts to others

False consensus effect

As an explanation for:

Always being suspicious of others

Extreme political opinions

Sublimation:

Dangerous urges are transformed into positive, socially meaningful motivations

As an explanation for:

Artistic creativity

Community leadership

Football

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Chapter 11

Modern psychoanalytic theory:

Alder: (striving for superiority)

View that healthy people are motivated by goals related to others while neurotic personalities are self centered

Believes Oedipus complex represents a need to be better than the father

Wrote about adult strivings to overcome early childhood feelings of inferiority

Inferiority complex:

Carl Jung:

Shared Freud's emphasis on unconscious processes

Psychic elements common from generation to generation

The mind/psyche has three parts:

Conscious Ego

The personal Unconscious

The collective unconscious

Collective unconscious:

The part of the unconscious that is inherited and common to all members of a species

The inherited images common to all humans

Personal Unconscious:

That part of the unconscious mind continuing and individual's thoughts and feelings

ERIKSON'S EIGHT STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

Trust vs. Mistrust: (stage 1)

Learn whether needs will be met, ignored, or overindulged

Development of hope and confidence

Basic trust vs mistrust (0-2 years)

Corresponds to the oral stage

Autonomy vs Shame and Doubt: (stage 2)

Figuring out who is in charge (adults or the child him-herself?)

Autonomy vs shame and doubt (3-4 years)

Corresponds to anal stage

Intuitive vs Guilt: (stage 3)

Anticipating and fantasizing about life as an adult

Develop a sense of right and wrong

Industry vs Inferiority: (stage 4)

Develop skills and abilities to succeed in the world of work and contribute to society

Must being to control imagination and unfocused energy

Industry vs inferiority (8-12 years)

Corresponds to the latency period

Identity vs Identity Confusion: (stage 5)

Figure out who I am and what is important

Choose consistent, meaningful, and useful values and goals

Intimacy vs Isolation: (stage 6)

Find an intimate life partner

Intimacy vs isolation (young adulthood)

Generativity vs Stagnation: (stage 7)

Turn concerns to the next generation or become passive

Generativity vs stagnation (middle age)

Integrity vs despair: (stage 8)

Brought on by the prospect of death

Based on feelings about one's life

Integrity vs despair (old age)

Personal narrative:

Individuals form an identity by integrating their life experiences into an internalized, evolving story of the self, which provides sense of unity and purpose in life

Integrates one's reconstructed past, perceived present, and imagined future

Person may rearrange and reconstruct the plot; takes on importance as persons unique story

Attachment theory: (Bowlby)

Saw attachment as the basis of love

Based on evolutionary theory (people evolved in risky environment, feared being alone; motivated desire for protection from someone else interested in their well being; desire especially strong in infancy and early childhood)

Desire for protection leads to attachments

Based on childhood experiences (expectations about relationships; how the self will feel and behave, what the other person will do)

Children learn lessons from early experiences with adult caregivers (reliability)

Secure Attachment:

The baby is secure when the parent is present, distressed by separation, and delighted by reunion

Anxious - Ambivalent Attachment:

The baby clings to the parent, cries at separation, and reacts with anger and a desire to be close to the mother at reunion

Avoidant Attachment:

The baby does not interact with the parent when the mother is present or when the mother returns

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Chapter 12

Humanistic Tradition: Philosophy that emphasized personal worth of individual and importance of human values

"Third force"- Emphasizes creativity, spontaneous, active nature of humans

After psychoanalysis and behaviorism

Non-deterministic: advocates free will

Introspective

Existential crisis:

“what is the nature of existence” “how does it feel” “what does it mean”

Angst:

Anguish: lead to good and bad outcomes because choices are never perfect

Forlornness: (sad, lonely) because each person makes his own choices

Despair: many outcomes are beyond control

Living in Bad Faith:

Ignoring the existential questions and ignoring our moral imperative

Moral imperative:

Face thrown-ness and angst directly and seek purpose for existence in spite of these

Requires existential courage or optimistic toughness

This can be avoided- don't worry about the meaning of life, don't try to think for yourself, don't examine your life; do what society, convention, peers, and so on tell you to do

Authentic Existence:

The alternative to bad faith

Coming to terms with existence; being honest, insightful, and morally correct

Will not relieve loneliness and unhappiness

Because every person is alone and doomed

Life has no meaning beyond what you give it

The essence of the human experience: understanding that you must die

Allows us to be aware of freedom and gives us identity

Challenge: Do all you can to better the human condition

Ask: what does life want from me? => strive to better human condition

Self actualization:

To become everything that one is capable of becoming

(morality, creativity, problem solving, more accepting, etc)

Self discrepancy:

self-esteem defined by match between how we see ourselves and how we want to see ourselves

Fully Functioning Person: according to carl rogers, a fully functioning person is one who is touch with their deepest and innermost feelings and desires

Perceive the world accurately without neurotic distortion

And if you take responsibility for your choices

Faces the world without fear, self-doubt, or neurotic defenses

Possible if received unconditional positive regard as a child

Positive regard:

Basic acceptance and support of a person regardless of what the person says or does

Conditions of worth:

conditions we must need to in order for people to accept us as worthy; must be satisfied to receive conditional positive regard

Client centered therapy:

Therapist= supportive, non directive, client oriented, unconditional positive regard, empathetic understanding of internal frame of reference

contributed therapeutic techniques (measurement of self perception, ideal self, and therapeutic effectiveness)

Happiness

satisfaction with life, optimism and hope, sources of energy and confidence

Hedonic treadmill:

People who had great fortune (lottery winners) or great tragedy returned to pre-existing levels of happiness within a year of the event

40% is not valid- happiness is in a person's control

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Chapter 17

Personality disorders: Configurations of traits considered "socially undesirable"

Maladaptive variations or combinations of normal personality traits

Involve maladaptive variations, especially power and intimacy

Building blocks:

Several disorders include distortion of cognition

Most include distortion of self- concept

Social relationships, especially interpersonal and sexual behavior, frequently disturbed or involve maladaptive patterns in personality disorders

Can provide insight into the normal workings of personality

Abnormal psychology: Whatever is rare, not frequent, and not statistically normal/ whatever society does not tolerate

Abnormality:

Psychopathy: an informal term without a strict definition, consists of components from three DSM-IV personality disorders

Categorical Approach to Classification:

Assumes that distinctions among members of different categories are qualitative

Quality not Quantity

Dimensional Approach to Classification:

Describes the objects of classification in terms of continuous dimensions

How much of a characteristic that object exhibits

Cluster A: Includes people who often appear odd or eccentric

Paranoid PD:

Pervasive tendency to be inappropriately suspicious of others' motive and behaviors

Have expectations of being harmed

Completely inflexible in their views and expectations

Schizoid PD:

Pervasive patterns of indifference to other people, coupled with a diminished range of emotional experience and expression

Schizotypal PD:

Centers around peculiar behaviors rather than emotional restriction and social withdrawal

Perceptual and cognitive disturbances

Not psychotic or out of touch with reality

Cluster B: Includes people who often appear dramatic, emotional, or erratic

Antisocial PD:

Persistent pattern of irresponsible and antisocial behavior that begins during childhood or adolescence

Impulsive and reckless

Lack of conscience

Borderline PD:

Pervasive pattern of instability in mood and interpersonal relationships

Find it very difficult to be alone

Rapid mood shifts

Anger, Identity disturbances

Histrionic PD:

Emotionally shallow

Tendency of inappropriate exaggeration

Pervasive pattern of emotionality and attention seeking behavior

Manipulative

Narcissistic PD:

Pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and inability to empathize with others

Greatly exaggerated sense of self-importance

Cluster C: Includes people who often appear anxious or fearful

Avoidant PD:

Pervasive pattern of social discomfort, fear of negative evaluation, and timidity

Wants to be liked, but easily hurt bye even minimal signs of disapproval

Dependent PD:

Pervasive pattern of submissive and clinging behaviors

Afraid of separating from other people on whom they are dependent

Obsessive Compulsive PD:

Pervasive pattern of orderliness, perfectionism, and mental and interpersonal inflexibility, at the expense of flexibility, openness, and efficiency

Preoccupied with details and rules

Marked need for control and lack of tolerance for uncertainty

Five- factor correlates of personality disorders

Traits pervasive, persistent, pathological, and a way of being rather than an illness

If someone cannot adapt his or her characteristic approach to the world when necessary and causes distress to person or others personality disorder-rigid and maladaptive

Dialectical behavioral therapy:

Is a cognitive behavioral treatment that was originally developed to treat chronically suicidal individuals diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD)

Treats other disorders as well; substance dependence, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and eating disorders.

Healthy personality:

Physical health:

Ability to do things one wants to do

Feel good

Supportive social relationships

Productivity

Good memory and ability to make decisions

Stay alive

Health psychology: A multidisciplinary field that includes both medical and mental health professionals who investigate psychological factors in the symptoms, cause, and treatment of physical illnesses

Health behaviors: Any action that promotes good health and following medical advice

Balanced diet, regular sleep, and exercise, as well as avoiding unhealthy activities like cigarette smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and drug use

Stress:

An event that requires physiological, cognitive, or behavioral adaption

Social readjustment rating scale

A response to perceived demands- how people respond

Varieties of stress:

Acute stress: Sudden onset of demands

Episodic acute stress: Repeated episodes of acute stress

Traumatic stress: ex. PTSD

Chronic stress: Stress that does not end

Addictive effects:

Stressors: Daily hassles

Concerns about weight

Health of a family member

Rising prices of common goods

Home maintenance

Too many things to do

Misplacing or losing things

Yard work or outside home maintenance

Property, investment, or taxes

Crime

Physical appearance

Major life events:

Identified both positive and negative events that are stressors

People who experienced most stress are more likely to have a serious illness over the next year

People under chronic stress delete bodily resources and become vulnerable to infections

Stress lowers the functioning of immune system, leading to lowered immunity to infection and resulting in illness

General Adaptation Syndrome: Hans Selye (consists of 3 stages)

Alarm stage:

Occurs first and involves the mobilization of the body in reaction to threat

Resistance stage:

Comes next and is a period of time during which the body is physiologically activated and prepared to respond to the threat

Exhaustion stage:

Is the final stage, and it occurs if the body's resources are depleted by chronic stress

According to Lazarus in order for stress to be evoked, two cognitive events must occur

Primary Appraisal:

Person perceives an event as a threat to goals

EX.

Secondary Appraisal:

Person concludes they do not have resources to cope with demands of threatening event

EX.

Broaden-and-build model/ hypothesis

Positive emotions broaden possible actions

Allows building greater social resources

Positive reappraisal:

Person focuses on the good in what is happening

Problem-Focused Coping:

Thoughts and behaviors that manage or solve an underlying cause of stress

Emotion focused Coping

Dealing with feelings about problems

Creative positive events:

Creating positive time- out from stress

Dispositional Optimism:

An expectation that more good and desirable things will happen then bad things in the future

Optimistic Bias:

Human tendency to be positive and hopeful rather than realistic

People tend to be overly confident about the future

Overestimate the chance of positive events

Underestimate the chance of negative events

Overconfidence can boost self esteem and ambition but can also lead to failed plans, financial difficulties, accidents, and other problems

Disclosure:

Pennebaker agrues not discussing traumatic, negative, upsetting events can lead to problems

Telling secrets can relieve stress/ increase health

Similar to therapy of PTSD?

Type A personality: independent risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease

Achievement motivation and competitiveness

Time urgency

Hostility and aggressiveness

Self healing personality:

Associated with being conscientious, emotionally secure, having enthusiasm for life, and strong social relationships

Characteristics lead to more healthful behaviors

EX. avoiding smoking