LPI T8

Question 1

What was crucial to Msetfi and colleagues’ replication of Alloy and Abramson’s method?

Answer 1

Varied intertrial interval

Question 2

What is at the centre of casual learning?

Answer 2

used a contingency judgment task, establishing the contingency between an action and an outcome, that is, the extent to which the action has a causal relationship to the outcome

Question 3

What were their results for the long intertrial interval?

Answer 3

No action and no outcome, so the table above cell -> increased contingency because they overlap

Question 4

What do Kripke, Putnam and Pinker argue about cases in which a definition is found to be incompatible with an item?

Answer 4

Even if it failed the definition, it would remain in a category or be defined by the term it referred to (cats from Mars, lions who are lions)

Question 5

What is depressive realism?

Answer 5

Being depressed makes for realistic inferences as compared to when you’re not

Question 6

What is coherent covariation? (p.318)

Answer 6

Consistent co-occurrence of a set of properties across different objects. The concept is distinct from simple correlation in that it generally refers to the co-occurrence of more than two properties. For example, having wings, having feathers, having hollow bones and being able to fly all consistently co-occur in birds.

Question 7

What is learned helplessness?

Answer 7

a person has learnt to attribute their failures in situations to internal, stable and global (will be there in every aspect of their life and in all situations) factors

Question 8

What are contingency judgment tasks?

Answer 8

a participant is trying to work out whether the presence of one stimulus or outcome is contingent on another stimulus or action → causal relationship?

Question 9

Why is contingency judgment important?

Answer 9

People who can accurately judge when outcomes are contingent on their actions can control the occurrence of outcomes or avoid inappropriate behaviour

Question 10

Optimism and pessimism are

Answer 10

Habits of thinking that reveal personal explanatory style

Question 11

The core of optimism is

Answer 11

The formation of new beliefs or attitudes

Question 12

What is explanatory style (Seligman, 1991)?

Answer 12

way that you explain your problems and setbacks to yourself and choose either a positive or negative way to solve them

Question 13

Learned helplessness

Answer 13

state of affairs where you feel there is nothing you can do to affect what happens to you, and life is uncontrollable is at learned

Question 14

What are the components to learn about optimism (Seligman, 1991; 1998)?

Answer 14

adversity (A): challenge
beliefs (B): forming beliefs about adversity
consequences (C): of those beliefs

Question 15

Pessimism

Answer 15

• When is optimism not an ideal way of thinking
• Unrealistic plays into biases and heuristics

Question 16

What is distraction there for, and what do they allow for?

Answer 16

• Distraction: putting aside the adversity and reevaluating the situation
• Avoid the emotional issues and rumina and disassociate these emotions from the issue

Question 17

What are the four unrealistic strategies in false hope syndrome?

Answer 17

1. Speed
2. Ease
3. Amount
4. Reward

Question 18

What are Seligman (1991) two specific tactics to combat pessimism (or what he terms learned helplessness)?

Answer 18

Distraction
Disputation

Question 19

What is disputation there for and what do they allow for?

Answer 19

After distraction: challenging the emotions previously experienced about the adversity that caused feelings of overwhelmed

Question 20

What is dispositional optimism (Scheier & Carver, 1985)?

Answer 20

as a person’s general predisposition to be optimistic in their mood or their temperament due to genes or personality and not due to learning

Question 21

What are the three key differences between dispositional and learned optimism?

Answer 21

• DO expect either favourable/unfavourable vs. LO is used to explain future events being either positive or negative due to opt/pes
• DO and DP, therefore, determine whether a person pursues their goals expecting either favourable or poor results and if they keep pursuing them or abandon them

Question 22

According to Scheier and Carver dispositional optimism affects

Answer 22

General mood or affective experience and are therefore stable traits that are displayed across periods of time

Question 23

How is dispositional optimism measured?

Answer 23

self-report questionnaire called the Life Orientation Test (LOT)
(Originally, four positively and negatively worded items
Later extended to filler items and three each)

Question 24

What are the two reactions we have to stress (Folkman, 1984; Lazarus et al., 1966)?

Answer 24

1. primary or stress appraisals: to assess whether the stress is harmful or useful to us.
2. secondary appraisals or coping strategies:assess whether the stress is harmful or useful to us.

Question 25

What are the three components of primary appraisals?

Answer 25

1. Threat – stressful situation = harm the individual. 2. Loss – stressful situation => loss for the person; for example, loss in friendships, health, self-esteem. 3. Challenge – refers to seeing the stressful situation as having the potential for growth or benefits for the individual. (potential benefit)

Question 26

Which primary components trigger secondary appraisals?

Answer 26

Threat and loss

Question 27

Which seven aspects influence the appraisal of threats or losses (Ferguson et al., 1999)?

Answer 27

* complexity * the individual’s values * commitments and goals * novelty of the situation * social support * intensity of the situation * perceived controllability of the potential threat or loss

Question 28

What are engaged and disengaged coping mechanisms, aka, emotion-focused and problem-focused coping mechanisms?

Answer 28

* problem-focused coping strategies (sometimes called adaptive or direct coping) are logical coping strategies directed at resolving the stress changing some aspects of the environment and of the self * emotion-focused coping involves coping attempts that are not directed at the stressful event and instead are directed at decreasing emotional distress caused by the stressful event (Rice, 2000).

Question 29

What are emotional coping strategies?

Answer 29

wishful thinking, venting and expressing emotions, and seeking social support

Question 30

What is Situational optimism?

Answer 30

expectations that an individual generates for a particular situation concerning whether good rather than bad things will happen

Question 31

What’s the difference between dispositional and situational optimists?

Answer 31

* dispositional optimists: more generalised positive beliefs about the future – they expect good things to happen within every aspect of their lives * situational optimists tend to have specific positive beliefs about certain events – they expect good things to happen within specific areas of their lives

Question 32

How is situational optimism measured?

Answer 32

assessing expectations about outcomes that are linked to particular contexts (or situations). - items vary from context to context

Question 33

How does Synder (1994) define hope?

Answer 33

an individual’s expectations that goals can be achieved.

Question 34

What are the two components of hope in addition to the goal?

Answer 34

Agency and pathways

Question 35

How are agency and pathways conceptualised in the context of hope?

Answer 35

* agency: an individual’s determination that goals can be achieved individual’s beliefs that successful plans * pathways: strategies can be generated to reach goals

Question 36

How are goals defined by Snyder?

Answer 36

mental targets to ourselves that we feel we can achieve that differ in length and importance without any certainty

Question 37

How do low-hope and high-hope individuals differ?

Answer 37

low-hope individuals usually tend to have only one goal, high-hope about six accompanied by more clarity as they’re better at finding alternative pathways

Question 38

What are the three qualifiers of a high-hope person?

Answer 38

1. many, clearly defined goals 2. ability to come up with routes to these goals and this usually involves generating several different routes to achieve the goal (pathways). 3. ability to motivate themselves in the pursuit of those goals (agency).

Question 39

The theory of hope is special because

Answer 39

It considers that people want to execute their goals

Question 40

What are the three forms of false hope?

Answer 40

1. Expectancies that are based on illusions instead of reality 2. Inappropriate goals 3. Poor strategies to reach the desired goals.