Philippine eLearning Society (PeLS) International Congress on eLearning (ICE) 2015

I'm almost done with my master's degree (hopefully by the end of 2015) and I have to start looking for employment that is tailored to what I am passionate about. 

E-learning. Instructional Design. Educational Technology. 

The people I have been in contact and communication with and who are in the same field are mostly outside of the Philippines. 

For a while, I figured, how come I'm not building contacts to where I actually live? 

I don't want to elaborate on what was stopping me, but I decided to google "E-learning Philippines" and discovered this.

Right now what's stopping me is, do I pay? or do I not. Last night, I was only willing to attend the pre-conference workshop. But today I got an e-mail encouraging me to attend the whole congress. 

A part of me thinks, are they sales talking me? or maybe it is a blessing in disguise. 

I came across a paper about e-learning in the Philippines published in 2007 that says:

"E-learning can be regarded as a relatively new concept in the Philippines and is still in its embryonic stage. Although open and distance learning has been documented to be introduced in the Philippines way back in 1952 through the Farmers’ School-on-the-Air program over a one kilowatt radio station in the province of Iloilo, the development of distance education, much so of the e-learning environment lags far behind more industrialized countries due to a relatively lack of infrastructure, investment, and a pedagogy applicable to many Filipinos."

source: http://www.sersc.org/journals/IJMUE/vol2_no4_2007/5.pdf

Actually, I thought it was a recent paper. 

Not much have changed... Although there has been, I guess, improvements? I probably don't have the right to say since I haven't explored or read much about this in the Philippines especially that my MOOC thesis got disapproved I went off tangent. Thanks for killing my passion.

But now that I'm on a full time student status again and I am almost done with graduate school, I know I have to start building contacts for me to find a job that supports e-learning or at the least allow me to use the skills that I have worked hard for years (i.e GRAD SCHOOL). 

Going back to the workshop/congress, YEY or NAY? 

Will it be worth my money? I don't have an institution to "refund" my registration. 

I guess what I'm hesitant about is that I have never paid for a workshop/congress! 

For some reason, I either just get lucky that I am part of the team or the workshop is free. 

I guess it's about time I start doing different. 

It's Php6,000.00 for early bird registration and the congress is on September.  

It also means classes have started during that time (thesis ehem).

I should just probably go for it. Hopefully it'll shed light for me to know the opportunities that e-learning industry has in the Philippines. 

Our School's University Registrar

Over 20,000++ students and hundred thousands of Alumni, we have the coolest University Registrar ever. God bless him. 

Linked In

So I decided to give LinkedIn another try by creating a new account (my second one). 

As with my other social networking profiles, I always end up having more than one account.

One Facebook for "almost all connections" and one Facebook "zero friends and only FB group connections".

One Twitter for "personal friends who are also connected with me on Facebook" and one Twitter for "mostly people I only meet online (mostly professionals talking about our field of interests).

One Blogspot for "personal sentiments" and one Blogspot for "professional and academic journey matters".

I also have two Instagram accounts but the public account is mostly just for contests... Haha

Anyway, so with LinkedIn, I had to try a different approach. My old LinkedIn account was barely touched and barely updated. I even forgot my password and it doesn't even have a profile photo in it. I didn't find the importance or relevance about getting a LinkedIn account because I never thought of it as being helpful in any way aside from showing of your career and accomplishments with friends. Uhm... No thanks. 

However, I also know how LinkedIn can be probably helpful to connect with REAL professionals that matter to the field I'm interested in. Just like how I approached my public Twitter account by only talking to people who I haven't met in person but are also talking about things I'm interested in. 

Since I deleted my Facebook application the other day (trying to regulate and lessen my Facebook usage), I decided to download the LinkedIn application. 

Interestingly, it does look resemble Facebook in a way that you get to upload a status and a photo on a random basis. I decided not to connect with my friends because, that's what Facebook is for. 

I'm excited to use the LinkedIn app as how I would have wasted my time in Facebook scrolling newsfeeds of #OOTD's and #FOODCOMA's that are actually irrelevant in my life. 

Atleast with LinkedIn, I'll be sure that there are higher chances that what I would scroll to and read are things that are relevant to the world and globally important (or at the least similar to my Twitter feed it will be filled with topics that are related to my professional track).

I wonder if LinkedIn will actually help me land in my dream job? A job that would be tailored to what I am great at and passionate about? 

However, for now, I have to get back to studying for the Psychometric Board exam. *gasp* STOP PROCRASTINATING TONI.

Recap: Things to do

Theories of Personality (Pause) - confidence level 80%
Industrial/Organizational Psychology (Pause) - confidence level 80%

Psychological Assessment (YES) + Statistics - confidence level 10%
Abnormal Psychology (YES) + DSM 5 - confidence level 10%

I have to put off Theories of Personality and Industrial/Organizational Psychology for a bit because even if I haven't really mastered all I need to know in these subjects yet, I need to review on the other two which I barely can recall anything about.

No idea where to start, I guess should start with going through the practice exams I answered and google stuff... Good night ... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The Flynn Effect

on intelligence tests...

James Flynn: Why our IQ levels are higher than our grandparents'

Wasn't able to finish the video... uhm.. lost my attention span to quickly. I'll probably watch it another time when I have more motivation and more time to spare. For now, need to read up on Psychological Assessments! and Statistics!

Practice Quizzes Black Well Publishing

Abnormal Psychology

http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/intropsych/students/Chapter15.htm

Students' Area

 Multiple Choice

How did you do?

Question:1

The correct answer was d
Defining abnormality is deceptively difficult. When asked to describe abnormal behaviour, people typically say that it occurs infrequently, is odd or strange, is characterized by suffering, or is dangerous. All of these are reasonable answers for some types of abnormal behaviour, but none of them is sufficient in itself, and making them all necessary results in too strict a definition. One parsimonious and practical way to define abnormal behaviour is to ask whether the behaviour causes impairment in the person’s life. The more a behaviour gets in the way of successful functioning in an important domain of life (including the psychological, interpersonal and achievement/performance domains), the more likely it is to be considered a sign of abnormality.

Question:2

The correct answer was c
Comorbidity refers to the occurrence of 2 or more disorders at the same time.

Question:3

The correct answer was a
Contemporary psychodynamic models (e.g., Kohut, 1977; Kernberg, 1976; Mitchell, 1988) suggest that the early parent–child relationship is the original source of mental illness, and that what goes on in the mind of the child (and the adult) is important.
But these models differ from Freud’s in that they focus more on interpersonal relationships than on intrapsychic conflict. Rather than focusing on what actually occurred in the parent–child relationship (e.g. whether parents were actually poor caregivers), Freud’s focus was on the unconscious internal desires and motivations of the child (e.g. sexual and aggressive impulses) and how the child negotiated them as s/he progressed through the early relationship with his/her parents.

Question:4

The correct answer was e
All of the answers given above refer to factors associated with mental illness according to the biological models of mental disorders.

Question:5

The correct answer was a
The diathesis-stress model suggests that some people possess an enduring vulnerability factor, which, when coupled with a proximal stressor, produces psychological disorders.

Question:6

The correct answer was b
It is likely that mental illness results only when particular combinations of factors are present. This notion is at the heart of the diathesis–stress model of mental illness. The diathesis–stress model suggests that some people possess an enduring vulnerability factor (a diathesis) which, when coupled with a proximal (recent) stressor, results in psychological disorder. Neither the diathesis nor the stressor alone is enough to lead to symptoms – both must be present. Diatheses and stressors can be defined broadly. For example, a genetic or biological predisposition to mental illness might be the diathesis, and a troubled parent–child relationship could be the stressor; or a dysfunctional pattern of thinking about the world can be the diathesis, and a major life event the stressor.

Question:7

The correct answer was d
The symptoms of schizophrenia are grouped into two categories: positive and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms indicate the presence of something unusual (such as hallucinations, delusions, odd speech and inappropriate affect) and negative symptoms indicate the absence of something normal (such as good social skills, appropriate affect, motivation and life skills).

Question:8

The correct answer was b
Causes of schizophrenia are likely to be genetic and biological factors – these account for our initial vulnerability to schizophrenia. It is clear that schizophrenia tends to be inherited. Moreover, several biological problems may cause schizophrenia, as various forms of brain dysfunction occur among sufferers, including enlarged ventricles, reduced blood flow to frontal brain regions and an excess of dopamine (Andreasen et al., 1992; Davis et al., 1991; Flaum et al., 1995). But we don’t know for sure whether these problems are a cause or a consequence of the disorder. An early hypothesis of the ‘schizophrenogenic mother’ suggested that inadequate parenting causes schizophrenia (e.g. Arieti, 1955). There is absolutely no evidence of this, nor that any psychosocial factors (factors incorporating psychological, environmental and social factors that may play a role in psychopathology) cause schizophrenia. The evidence overwhelmingly points to genetic and biological factors as providing the initial vulnerability to schizophrenia; there is evidence, consistent with a diathesis–stress model, that psychological and social factors influence the course of schizophrenia, such as the timing of onset and the likelihood of relapse.

Question:9

The correct answer was d
Social support is not a risk factor for suicide; however the alternative answers are risk factors for suicide.

Question:10

The correct answer was b
Schizophrenia is the psychological disorder characterized by hallucinations, delusions, using bizarre language and inappropriate affect. The alternative answers refer to mental disorders that are not characterized by these symptoms.

Question:11

The correct answer was c
The primary symptom of major depressive disorder is, not surprisingly, a depressed or sad mood. Almost everyone experiences a sad mood some time in their life, but major depressive disorder goes much further than simply feeling sad. Other symptoms include:
• Losing interest or pleasure in things that you usually enjoy – an experience called anhedonia.
• Changes in appetite – some find nothing appealing and have to force themselves to eat, resulting in significant weight loss, while others want to eat more and gain a lot of weight.
• Changes in sleep habits – depressed people may be unable to sleep or want to sleep all the time.
• A very low level of energy, extreme fatigue and poor concentration. Depressed people have no motivation to do anything, often find themselves unable to get out of bed and unable to complete school or work assignments.
• Feeling very bad about themselves – low self-esteem, feeling worthless and blaming themselves for all that has gone wrong in their lives and the world. Depressed people tend to feel hopeless about the future and don’t believe they will ever feel better.
An excessively euphoric mood (typically associated with a sense of grandiosity) is a symptom of bipolar disorder, while specific phobias are common to people with anxiety disorders.

Question:12

The correct answer was c
Major depressive disorder follows a recurrent course. Although some people have isolated episodes, most experience multiple episodes of depression that may become more severe over time (e.g. Lewinsohn, Zeiss & Duncan, 1989). Mild forms of depression with just a few symptoms rather than full-blown major depressive disorder can predict the onset of more serious depression later on (e.g. Pine et al., 1999). Although depression was once thought to be a disorder of adulthood, we now know that it affects people of all ages, including children. The age of onset of major depressive disorder is decreasing, and the rates of major depressive disorder in childhood and adolescence are increasing rapidly. Early onset predicts a worse course of depression over time (e.g. Lewinsohn et al., 1994), so depression in childhood and adolescence is a serious problem that can lead to ongoing difficulties throughout life.

Question:13

The correct answer was b
Social phobia tends to be more impairing because it often results in significant social isolation. You might think that people with social phobia are afraid of people or of social situations – but this isn’t the case. They are actually afraid of negative evaluation and rejection by others and will attempt to avoid it at all costs. Social phobia ranges from relatively mild (e.g. fearing and avoiding public speaking only) to extremely pervasive (e.g. fearing and avoiding all social interaction except with family members).

Question:14

The correct answer was d
The extent of heritability varies across disorders. People who are prone to anxiety disorders are born with something called behavioural inhibition (see Kagan & Snidman, 1991). Children who are behaviourally inhibited are shy, quiet, fearful, socially avoidant and have high levels of physiological arousal (i.e. they are aroused easily and are very reactive to stimulation and stress). These children are more likely to develop an anxiety disorder (e.g. Hirschfeld et al., 1992). Regarding biological factors, there a number of pathways in the limbic system that are hypothesized to produce various types of anxiety reactions (e.g. Gray, 1982). Although some forms of biological dysfunction may be associated with anxiety in general, each anxiety disorder may also have unique biological causes. Cognitive, behavioural and life stress factors all affect risk for anxiety disorders. In fact, stress is, by definition, the cause of PTSD.

Question:15

The correct answer was e
All of the answers given above describe both anorexia and bulimia.

Question:16

The correct answer was c
The tension-reduction hypothesis refers to the notion that people use substances in order to reduce tension and negative affect. The alternative answers given above refer to other mental disorders that are not explained by this hypothesis.

Question:17

The correct answer was c
Substance abuse is defined entirely on the criterion of impairment. If someone’s repeated use of a substance causes significant impairment in even one area of life, he can be described as a substance abuser. Common impairments include:
• failure to fulfil major role obligations – e.g. constantly late to or absent from work;
• recurrent use in dangerous situations – e.g. while driving;
• frequent substance-related legal problems – e.g. arrests for disorderly conduct; and
• social and interpersonal problems – e.g. conflict with partner or other family members.

Question:18

The correct answer was a
Personality disorders are the most resistant to change compared to other types of psychological disorders because they are disorders of people’s basic character – so there is no normal functioning to return to. Psychotherapeutic and pharmacological treatments are available to treat eating disorders, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia and affective disorders.

Question:19

The correct answer was b
Children who are behaviorally inhibited are most likely to develop anxiety disorders and not the other psychological disorders indicated by the alternative answers above.

Question:20

The correct answer was e
There is considerable evidence to indicate that bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are caused by biological factors, but there is no evidence to indicate that they are caused by psychosocial factors. Panic disorder and bulimia have both been associated with psychosocial factors.

Organizational Psychology

http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/intropsych/students/Chapter20.htm

Students' Area

 Multiple Choice

How did you do?

Question:1

The correct answer was c
Selection is based on the premise that there are stable individual differences between people, which can be identified, and that these differences have an impact on how effective people are in a particular job (Robertson, 1995). Not surprisingly, psychologists have been at the forefront of developing and using personnel selection methods for some time. One of the aims of selection is to ensure a fit, i.e. a good match, between the person and the organization. Failure to achieve this can not only result in poor job performance, but the well-being of the employee also suffers, and ultimately the employment relationship is likely to end.

Question:2

The correct answer was b
The process by which members of a society are taught how to behave and feel by influential members of that society is referred to as socialization. Social roles and normative influence are part of the socialization process. The Hawthorne effect refers to the improved performance of workers based on the attention and interest given to them regarding their work. Role ambiguity refers to employee uncertainty about their job functions and responsibilities.

Question:3

The correct answer was c
Socialization is the process by which members of a society (be it a country, organization or even a family) are taught how to behave and feel by influential members of that society. In the past, theory and research has concentrated on the development of children and adolescents. But more recently it has become clear that we are socialized and resocialized throughout our lives (Wanous, Reichers & Malik, 1984). When employees start work, they learn about their new jobs, the work environment and how they are required to behave – attending meetings on time, dressing according to certain standards, using particular styles of speech. When employees start work, they learn to align their work values with those of the organization. For example, army recruits are socialized, or indoctrinated, into the ‘army way’, learning not only the rules and regulations but also the values and behaviours that match the army’s distinctive culture. Many commercial organizations emphasize customer service as vital, and require employees to adopt the values, attitudes and behaviours that support such a service strategy.

Question:4

The correct answer was d
Work load tests are not an example of a common selection procedure used to make the best matches between people and jobs whereas each of the remaining choices are examples of common selection procedures.

Question:5

The correct answer was a
Training is a learning process structured in a systematic fashion and designed to raise the performance level of an employee (Goldstein, 1991; Tannenbaum & Yukl, 1992). With the marked change in work environments over the last quarter of the twentieth century has come an urgent need to develop and maintain staff skills through continuous training. Furthermore, with the expanded use of new technology (and information technology in particular) most people at work need continual training to update their skills (Ashton & Felstead, 1995; Pfeffer, 1998; Tharenou & Burke, 2002). Yet the approach to training in many organizations is often haphazard and reactive. Psychologists have much to offer organizations in relation to how training can best be used to achieve a fit between the individual and his job.

Question:6

The correct answer was a
Organizational psychologists have struggled with the concept of leadership since the mid-twentieth century, changing their focus from personality (‘leaders are born, not made’) to environmental factors (‘circumstances determine who emerges as the leader’) and back to personality again (Bass, 1990; Fiedler, 1967; House, 1977; see also chapter 18). Today, there is a lot of interest in charismatic or transformational leadership. Charismatic leadership represents a leadership style that enables the leader to exercise diffuse and intense influence over the beliefs, values, behaviour and performance of others (House, Spangler & Woyche, 1991). Charismatic leaders tend to be dominant and self-confident with a need to influence others while believing strongly in their own values. They communicate their goals and visions clearly, and have high expectations of their followers’ performance. The fascination with this kind of leadership is evidenced by the number of books by or about charismatic leaders. Some studies suggest that these leaders inspire effort and satisfaction amongst their employees, resulting in higher productivity.

Question:7

The correct answer was c
This is a real-world example of the negative influence of transformational leadership by which a dominant and self-confident leader can influence the behaviour of subordinates with clear communication, strong commitment to own goals and high expectations of subordinates. Transactional leadership refers to relationships with followers based on exchanges or bargains. Social roles describe normative attitudes and behaviours expected of people who belong to particular groups. The Hawthorne effect refers to the improved performance of workers based on the attention and interest given to them regarding their work. Formalization refers to written rules and regulations governing activities within an organization.

Question:8

The correct answer was a
Hackman and Oldham’s (1976) five contributors to job satisfaction are:• task identity – the extent to which the job represents a whole piece of work (e.g. running a restaurant compared with just washing the dishes);• task significance – how important the task is for society in general, and for the goals of the organization;• autonomy – the amount of freedom the person has to decide on how best to do their job;• feedback – receiving information about job performance (imagine writing essays and never receiving feedback on how well they were written); and• variety – varied tasks are important (compare the work of an organizational psychologist with that of a supermarket check-out worker), but too much variety can create conflicting and therefore stressful demands.

Question:9

The correct answer was c
Some of the most relevant factors governing how we react to potentially stressful situations are:• Knowledge – People who have considerable job knowledge and experience are more likely to be able to cope with stressful situations. This is because they are less likely to experience quantitative or qualitative work overload, and they are likely to have more control over a situation than someone with little experience or knowledge (see below).• Social support – While poor relationships at work can be a major source of stress, social support from colleagues and supervisors can buffer the impact of stress, mitigating the negative effects (e.g. Cummins, 1990; Manning, Jackson & Fusilier, 1996). Social support may also come from outside the job, from family and from friends.• Control – There is a widely held misperception that managers have more stressful jobs than others. While they do tend to have heavy workloads, deadlines, responsibility for complex decisions, and many relationships to manage, stress-related diseases are much less common in managers than in blue-collar workers (Fletcher, 1988; Karasek & Theorell, 1990). One important reason for this appears to be that managers have greater control (autonomy) over their work. Karasek (1979) showed that the most damaging jobs have a combination of high demands (volume and pace of work) with low control.• Personality characteristics – Neurotic people are more likely to see stimuli as threatening than are hardy characters. Hardiness encompasses three personality traits: (i) commitment, (ii) an internal locus of control (believing that you have control over your own life), and (iii) a sense of welcoming challenge (Maddi & Kobasa, 1984; see also chapters 14 and 19). Those who are high in hardiness tend to view events as less stressful than do others, and they are less likely to be overwhelmed by challenging situations.

Question:10

The correct answer was b
Organizations can also be described in terms of their cultures, including their values, attitudes and beliefs. Manifestations of culture include: hierarchy; pay levels; job descriptions; informal practices; espoused values and rituals; stories, jokes and jargon; physical environment. The meanings of all these aspects of the organization taken together tell us about its underlying culture (Schein, 1992). There has been particular interest in how to ‘manage’ organizational culture, and considerable resources have been spent trying to create ‘a service culture’ or ‘an open culture’ or ‘a people culture’, to name but three examples. Organizational psychologists have adopted three approaches to understanding culture (Martin, 1992): integration, differentiation and fragmentation. These differing dimensions suggest that organizational culture is complex and that we can best understand it by adopting a multi-dimensional perspective.

Question:11

The correct answer was b
Power, according to French and Raven (1959), derives from the following five sources:• Legitimate power comes from position in the hierarchy and is imposed by authority.• Expert power results from access to knowledge and information, so the computer wizard often gains considerable power in an organization.• Reward power is illustrated by the person who allocates offices, parking spaces, pay rises, equipment or stationery – such people may have considerable power without being in a senior position in the hierarchy.• Coercive power is the power to force others into action or inaction by the threat of punishment, such as delaying the payment of expenses claims.• Referent power is wielded by someone whose persuasiveness, popularity or charisma lead others to accede to his/her wishes or suggestions.

Question:12

The correct answer was a
Coercive power is the power to force others into action or inaction by way of threat or punishment. Legitimate power comes from actually being in a position in the hierarchy of imposed authority. Reward power comes from allocating extra tokens or bonuses. Referent power comes from being persuasive and popular. Expert power comes from having access to knowledge and information not available to others.

Question:13

The correct answer was b
One significant problem for women at work is stereotyping: 52 per cent of employed women work in occupational groups in which more than 60 per cent of their co-workers are women, such as clerical and secretarial work, service work and sales. Women are also vastly over-represented in part-time work and pregnancy is still (illegally) treated by some employers as a cause for dismissal. Perhaps most revealing of the pervasive discrimination against women in the workplace is the data on pay: in 2003, women’s average hourly pay was still only 82 per cent of men’s. Although women have increased their representation somewhat in the ranks of executives, they still account for less than 5 per cent of company directors (Equal Opportunities Commission, 2004) in the UK. One issue, which is much debated, is whether women have different managerial or leadership styles from men. The bulk of the research suggests there are large differences within genders as well as between them, but that women adopt a consistently more democratic and participative style of management than men do (Eagly & Johnson, 1990; Powell, 1993). Some researchers argue that women also have a more ‘transformational’ style, inspiring and encouraging their employees, whereas men tend to use a ‘transactional’ style, punishing and rewarding selectively to achieve the desired task-related behaviours (e.g. Rosener, 1990).

Question:14

The correct answer was e
All of the above continue to constitute significant problems for women in the workforce.

Question:15

The correct answer was d
Varied tasks and feedback contribute to how satisfied people are with their jobs whereas type of leadership is not a significant contributor to job satisfaction according to this theory.

Question:16

The correct answer was b
Psychological safety is the shared belief among members of a work team that it is safe to take interpersonal risks within work teams. Team process, team viability, groupthink and team beliefs are not terms used to refer to this type of shared belief within work teams.

Question:17

The correct answer was a
Egocentricity, group polarization and production-blocking are three examples of factors that contribute to poor group decision-making. The remaining terms are not used to refer to the consequences of egocentricity, group polarization and production-blocking.

Question:18

The correct answer was d
The differentiation perspective describes an organization with a culture that recognizes different interests, views, backgrounds and position of employees, and the different attitudes, working conditions and pay across the different levels of the organization. Integration refers to an organization-wide consensus about the values of the organization, and thus a unified organizational culture across levels of the organization. Fragmentation refers to an organization with an ambiguous culture because it lacks consensus about the meaning, attitudes and values of the organization. Pluralist refers to a view about how organizations should be as opposed to describing the way an organizational culture actually is.

Question:19

The correct answer was e
All of the negative psychological effects indicated above have been consistently associated with unemployment in individuals.

Question:20

The correct answer was c
Research from the 1930s to the present day has consistently shown that the unemployed have poorer mental health than comparable groups of employed people. Unemployed people have worse profiles on measures of anxiety, depression, life dissatisfaction, experienced stress, negative self-esteem and hopelessness about the future. They are also more likely to report social isolation and low levels of daily activity. Their physical health is poorer, and they are more likely to attempt and commit suicide (Fryer, 1992; Warr, 1987). Striking, too, is the fact that the psychological effects of unemployment extend to the whole family. In a classic study of a whole village affected by unemployment, the effects were shown to spread across the whole community, lowering its spirit and functioning (Jahoda, Lazarsfeld & Zeisel, 1972).

Personality

http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/intropsych/students/Chapter14.htm

Students' Area

 Multiple Choice

How did you do?

Question:1

The correct answer was a
Central to a psychoanalytic approach is the concept of unconscious mental processes – the idea that unconscious motivations and needs have a role in determining our behaviour. This approach also emphasizes the irrational aspects of human behaviour and portrays aggressive and sexual needs as having a major impact on personality. Freud developed a number of hypothetical models to show how the mind (or what he called the psyche) works:
• a topographic model of the psyche – or how the mind is organized;
• a structural model of the psyche – or how personality works; and
• a psychogenetic model of development – or how personality develops.

Question:2

The correct answer was d
At the beginning of the oral stage (birth to 18 months), children are highly dependent on their mothers and derive pleasure from sucking and swallowing. Freud suggested that children who become fixated at this early oral stage derive pleasure in adulthood from activities such as overeating, smoking, drinking and kissing. During the anal stage (18 months to 3 years), pleasure is gained from the expulsion and retention of faeces; this is also a stage at which children start to explore their environment but experience control and discipline from their parents. It is at the phallic stage (3 to 5 years) that children discover pleasure from touching their genitals. According to Freud, personality is formed by the end of the phallic stage, and sexual impulses are rechannelled during the latency period (6 to 12 years) into activities such as sport, learning and social activities. As young people approach the age of reproductive ability (the genital stage – 13 years to adult), they begin to focus their libido, or sexual energy, towards the opposite sex.

Question:3

The correct answer was a
Fixation at the oral stage, and not the other stages, may lead to adults who are sarcastic, critical, overeat and bite their nails.

Question:4

The correct answer was b
Humanistic, or phenomenological, theories of personality present a positive and optimistic view of human behaviour. In complete contrast to theories from the psychodynamic tradition, people are viewed as experiencing beings rather than victims of their unconscious motivations and conflicts. So the emphasis here is on individual experiences, relationships and ways of understanding the world. Fundamental to these theories are the beliefs that everyone’s experience is unique, and the individual’s perception of the world is critical to their understanding and behaviour. Humanistic theories have formed the basis of many therapeutic procedures on which modern counselling techniques are based.

Question:5

The correct answer was c
To examine how individuals view the world, George Kelly (1905–67) developed personal construct theory. In contrast to the psychoanalytic emphasis on the person as a victim of unconscious desires and impulses, this humanistic theory portrays people as active hypothesis-generators. Personal construct theory treats the individual as her own personal scientist, one who is actively aware of how her own psychological world is constructed and construed. By understanding how the individual perceives the world, we can anticipate how they will behave within it and understand their reactions to events. According to Kelly, trait theories try to locate the individual on the personality theorists’ dimensions, whereas personal construct theory looks at how people see and align events according to their own personal dimensions. Kelly basically took the view that we are all scientists – so each individual is continually categorizing, interpreting, labelling and judging himself and his world. Each of us generates constructs and hypotheses, which then help us to anticipate and control events in our lives.

Question:6

The correct answer was d
Raymond Cattell further developed Allport’s work to describe personality by traits and developed a model of 16 trait dimensions of personality. Rogers and Freud did not develop models of personality based on traits and Eysenck specified a model of personality that contained two super traits.

Question:7

The correct answer was a
Traits – or descriptors used to label personality – have their origins in the ways we describe personality in everyday language. In the early years of personality theory, many theorists used the term types to describe differences between people. Sheldon (1954), for example, categorized people according to three body types (ectomorphic, mesomorphic and endomorphic) and related these physical differences to differences in personality. It is unlikely that personality can be mapped to body type, but the idea that all people can be allocated to a small number of categories is challenged by modern trait theories. Modern theorists view traits as continuous rather than discrete entities. So, rather than being divided into categories, people are placed on a trait continuum representing how high or low each individual is on any particular dimension. According to trait theorists, categorizing people into separate groups of ‘sociable’ versus ‘unsociable’ is considered to be meaningless. Instead, it is considered more useful by trait theorists to determine the amount of sociability each person exhibits.

Question:8

The correct answer was b
Here are the 16 trait dimensions used in the 16PF:
Reserved – Outgoing
Less intelligent – More intelligent
Stable, ego strength – Emotionality/neuroticism
Humble – Assertive
Sober – Happy-go-lucky
Expedient – Conscientious
Shy – Venturesome
Tough-minded – Tender-minded
Trusting – Suspicious
Practical – Imaginative
Forthright – Shrewd
Placid – Apprehensive
Conservative – Experimenting
Group-dependent – Self-sufficient
Undisciplined – Controlled

Relaxed – Tense

Question:9

The correct answer was b
Anxiety is not one of the traits in the five-factor theory of personality.

Question:10

The correct answer was c
The nomothetic approach to study personality emphasizes that all people are similar and therefore can be compared to each other because all people are governed by the same basic behavioural principles. The idiographic approach to study personality emphasizes that all people are unique and therefore cannot be compared with one another.

Question:11

The correct answer was c
In 1976 Loehlin and Nicholls examined the scores on self-report personality questionnaires of 800 pairs of twins. Nearly all traits showed moderate genetic influence, with monozygotic (identical) twins being much more similar than dizygotic (fraternal or non-identical) twins. A more extensive study (Loehlin, 1992) of 24,000 twin pairs in many different countries confirmed that monozygotic twins are much more similar than dizygotic twins on the Big Five personality dimensions. Riemann, Angleitner and Strelau (1997) found the same results when twins were rated by their friends on the same factors. Studies of genetically unrelated family members (parents and their adopted children) show no similarity in personality traits such as extraversion and neuroticism (Loehlin, 1992). Thus both adoption studies and twin studies are consistent with a genetic influence on personality.
Until researchers began to look at genetic components in personality, psychologists had generally assumed that familial similarities are caused by similar environments. However, it is a mistake to view familial environments as shared between family members. Children growing up in the same family can experience very different lives, and even common family experiences such as death or divorce are experienced differently by different siblings (Dunn & Plomin, 1990). Therefore, it is perhaps not surprising that recent studies have tended to downplay the role of the ‘shared environment’, because often it is not fully shared between family members.
Recent research also suggests that parenting behaviour may be influenced by genetic components of the child’s personality. Plomin, DeFries and Fulker (1988) found that adoptive parents were more responsive to their adopted children whose natural mother had been high on activity and impulsivity. It is therefore possible that children who are genetically more active and impulsive cause their parents to be more responsive to their needs than other children.

Question:12

The correct answer was a
Differences in attributional style lead us to explain events in a characteristic way. Distinctions are made between particular dimensions of attribution:
• internal–external – the extent to which events are seen as caused by the self, rather than factors external to the self;
• stable–unstable – the extent to which causes are seen to persist across time; and
• global–specific – the extent to which the cause is something that affects many things in our life, rather than just specific situations.

Question:13

The correct answer was e
Encodings is the category of this model that refers to the units or constructs used for categorizing and interpreting events, people and the self. The alternative answers refer to different categories within this model of personality.

Question:14

The correct answer was d
The way we feel can be determined by stable individual differences in personality as well as by immediate responses to situations as they occur. Both types of emotional reaction can have an important impact on the way we behave. Mischel and Shoda (1995) describe this interplay in terms of ‘hot’ emotions having an impact on ‘cool’ cognitions. Feeling angry, anxious or happy might impact on any of the other types of cognition, changing the way we respond. So while a person who is already feeling happy may react very positively to meeting a friend in the street, someone who is already feeling angry may lose their temper when their car is scraped in the car park. A dispositionally calm person may still become anxious when the elevator they are travelling in becomes stuck between floors.

Question:15

The correct answer was a
A stable, global attributional style indicates that people view causes of events as persisting over time and affecting many aspects of our lives. This type of attributional style would best explain the persistent depressed mood of a student who failed an exam. The other types of attributional styles given do not explain a persistent depressed mood after failing an exam.

Question:16

The correct answer was c
Self-efficacy is the term that refers to the extent to which people believe that they can bring about an outcome. The alternative answers given do not refer to this type of belief.

Question:17

The correct answer was e
The dimension of extraversion-introversion has been shown to predict differences in people’s preferences for work-related preferences and behaviors. Extraverts prefer open study areas, take more breaks and perform worse on long vigilance tasks compared to introverts. The alternative answers given do not predict these differences.

Question:18

The correct answer was e
All of the answers given above refer to the individual motivations assumed in Higgins’ self-discrepancy theory.

Question:19

The correct answer was e
According to research, optimists and defensive pessimists perform similarly in terms of academic performance because they both cope with life in adaptive ways, just very differently.

Question:20

The correct answer was b
Carver and Scheier’s (1981, 1990) control theory of human functioning states that there are stable individual differences in the extent to which we attend to aspects of the self. Control theory uses a metaphorical thermostat system to model the ways in which people set standards for their own behaviour and how they monitor their behaviour in order to meet these standards. If we perceive ourselves to have reached too high a standard, the personality system will reduce the discrepancy between the standard and the perceived level. If we are not meeting the standard we have set for ourselves, motivation and effort will be set in motion to reduce the discrepancy.
People differ in the levels and kinds of controls included in their self-regulatory system. The extent to which we attend to aspects of the self has been defined as a personality variable called self-consciousness. Fenigstein, Scheier and Buss (1975) developed a self-consciousness scale to measure what they considered to be stable individual difference in private and public self-consciousness. Private self-consciousness is attention to our own inner feelings, desires and standards, whereas public self-consciousness is attention to what others think and observe about us.

Intelligence

http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/intropsych/students/Chapter13.htm

Students' Area

 Multiple Choice

How did you do?

Question:1

The correct answer was c
One of Galton’s contributions was to bring statistical understandings from the physical sciences to the study of psychology – particularly, the notion of normal distribution (see chapter 2). Galton noted that for any of our ‘natural gifts’ (physical, temperamental or intellectual) there will be an ‘average’ amount of that feature, to which most people approximate. Then, as we consider scores increasingly higher or increasingly lower than that ‘average score’, there will be fewer and fewer people registering those scores. Those higher than the norm are those with more intelligence.

Question:2

The correct answer was b
Together, the notions of normal distribution and correlation allow us to consider how our abilities vary in relation to each other and in relation to the abilities of others in the population, and hence how well we can use scores on one variable to predict scores on another.

Question:3

The correct answer was d
General intelligence or the g factor was proposed by Spearman to explain the underlying feature that contributes to differences in performance across a variety of tasks. Perceptual speed and inductive reasoning are types of intelligence. Individual IQ is a measure of specific types of intelligence. Crystallized intelligence refers to the diverse skills and knowledge acquired across the life span and was identified by Horn and Cattell.

Question:4

The correct answer was c
Binet and his associate Théodore Simon used a range of tasks in their first intelligence tests. These included around 30 items of increasing difficulty, from simple items that even intellectually disabled children were able to complete (such as following a lighted match with your eyes and shaking hands with the examiner). More complex tasks included pointing to body parts and defining words such as ‘house’ or ‘wheel’, and tasks that were harder still, such as repeating back strings of digits and constructing sentences involving several specified words.Interestingly, vocabulary and digit recall tasks are still used in our most advanced intelligence tests today. Binet was also the first psychologist to specify that such tests must be:1 administered and scored in a careful and standardized manner if comparisons between children’s performance are to be valid and reliable;2 presented in the same order to all children and in order of increasing difficulty so that each child can pass as many tests as possible; and3 administered in a one-to-one setting and only where the examiner has first established a friendly rapport with the child.Psychologists still adhere to these very important principles of testing today.

Question:5

The correct answer was b
While all the other answers are estimates of intelligence, the actual calculation for IQ is the classical formula, IQ = MA/CA × 100 (where MA = Mental age, and CA = chronological age).

Question:6

The correct answer was c
The higher the IQ score, the more intelligent the person. The average IQ is 90–110, with university students usually having an IQ of at least 115.

Question:7

The correct answer was a
The research mentioned in the question above has been used to support the hypothesis that general intelligence has a biological basis. The alternative answers have not been suggested by the accumulation of the research mentioned in the question above.

Question:8

The correct answer was d
Spearman’s finding of a general feature that underlies performance in many areas was so radical that it became the hallmark of his work. Spearman likened g to mental energy – a limited resource available to all intellectual tasks. So the idea was that individuals differ in general intelligence because they have different amounts of this mental energy.

Question:9

The correct answer was b
Cultural is not one of the intelligences identified by Gardner whereas the alternative answers each refer to one of the types of intelligence.

Question:10

The correct answer was e
All of the answers given above refer to characteristics associated with mental retardation.

Question:11

The correct answer was c
Anderson’s minimal cognitive architecture model assumes that the savant syndrome represents selective brain damage in which some modules were spared whereas others were not. The alternative answers all refer to theories or models of normal intelligence.

Question:12

The correct answer was d
IQ test scores represent phenotypic measures of intelligence. Phenotypic refers to the expression of our genes in behavioural traits that we can measure. Genotypic refers to the DNA we inherited from our parents. Environmental, modular and general are not standard terms used to refer to the genetics of IQ.

Question:13

The correct answer was b
Identical twins reared together have genetic traits and a shared environment in common. Therefore, any differences observed can be attributed to their experiences in non-shared environments (birth-order, friends, teachers).

Question:14

The correct answer was a
Such a difference has to be the result of an environmental change, because gene frequencies in populations could not change so quickly. If there can be shifts of one standard deviation in IQ between generations that are environmental in origin, despite the high heritability of IQ differences, why could there not be similar environmentally mediated differences between populations within the current generation?

Question:15

The correct answer was a
Detterman argues that the performance of any complex task, including intelligence tests, requires a number of basic abilities. In this scheme, general intelligence represents an average of the processing of several independent components that contribute to the performance of any complex task.

Question:16

The correct answer was b
Anderson suggests that the first route to knowledge is through thought (central processes) and is related to differences in IQ. Thoughtful problem-solving can be done either by verbalizing a problem (using language-like propositions to think) or by visualizing it (using visuo-spatial representations to think). For this to happen, we need two different kinds of knowledge acquisition routines, each generated by one of two specific processors. It is proposed that these processors are the source of individual differences in specific abilities, which, in turn, are constrained by the speed of a basic processing mechanism. So, at a slow processing speed, only the simplest kinds of thoughts of either kind can occur. (It is argued that the speed of the basic processing mechanism can be measured using tasks such as inspection time and reaction time.) It is suggested by Anderson that this constraint is the basis of individual differences in general intelligence and the reason for manifest specific abilities being correlated (giving rise to the g factor).

Question:17

The correct answer was c
For evidence that environmental or cultural differences cause such a large difference, consider the ‘Flynn effect’. Flynn (1987) has shown that there has been a standard deviation increase, per generation, in the mean level of intelligence test performance for most of this century in Western society, which equates to about three IQ points per decade. Such a difference has to be the result of an environmental change, because gene frequencies in populations could not change so quickly. If there can be shifts of one standard deviation in IQ between generations that are environmental in origin, despite the high heritability of IQ differences, why could there not be similar environmentally mediated differences between populations within the current generation?

Question:18

The correct answer was d
Many researchers and other professionals have challenged the claims of a race-IQ link by emphasizing the environmental influences that can lead to observed differences, which include the disadvantaged status and treatment of minority groups, socio-economic differences and biased IQ tests.

Question:19

The correct answer was c
Estimates of heritability for intelligence vary between 50% and 80%.

Question:20

The correct answer was a
Wechsler tests are the most widely used individual tests of intelligence.

Methodology (Research)

http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/intropsych/students/Chapter2.htm

Students' Area

 Multiple Choice

How did you do?

Question:1

The correct answer was d
Imagine that your employer requires you to sit an intelligence test before you can be considered for higher duties in your organization. Your immediate future may depend on how you perform, but you can only properly understand the findings if you know something about intelligence testing (see chapter 13) and standard scores. Indeed, newspapers and other sources are full of reports relating to research on psychological issues. Many draw alarming conclusions – often because they mistakenly assume that correlation is the same as causation. For example, when researchers found that there was a high correlation between the presence of ‘spongy tar’ in children’s playgrounds and the incidence of polio, they misguidedly inferred that ‘spongy tar’ caused polio. As a result, some schools went to great expense to get rid of it. In fact, both spongy tar and polio were both caused by a third factor: excessively high temperature. Similarly, just because the number of storks nesting on the roofs of Scandinavian houses may increase 9 months before there is a bulge in the number of newborn babies, this does not necessarily mean that the storks directly caused the conception of the babies! A good knowledge of psychological research methods allows you to avoid making the mistakes that journalists, politicians and many others make because they lack the necessary scientific understanding. Another consideration is that, in most countries, in order to become a psychologist you need to be not just an informed consumer of psychological research but also a producer of it. In other words, you need to conduct a piece (or several pieces) of research.

Question:2

The correct answer was b
Psychology relies on the scientific method whereas related disciplines that address similar types of questions do not. The other answers can apply to related disciplines as well.

Question:3

The correct answer was a
As well as being valid and reliable, psychological research needs to be public, cumulative and parsimonious. To become public, research must be published in a reputable scholarly journal. Cumulative research builds on and extends existing knowledge and theory. Parsimonious research develops explanations of findings that are as simple, economical and efficient as possible. Good psychological research should never be subjective; instead, it should always be impartial and objective.

Question:4

The correct answer was c
Five qualities of good research include the extent to which the research is demonstrated to be valid, reliable, available in the public domain, extends existing knowledge, and offers parsimonious explanations for the observations. The other answers do not include all five of these qualities. Ethical and scientific are important qualities for good research, but correlational and experimental are not necessary qualities.

Question:5

The correct answer was c
Science does not progress simply through the accumulation of independent facts. These facts have to be integrated in terms of theoretical explanations (theories). Theories are statements of why, not just what. They are capable of: accounting for multiple facts and predicting what might happen in novel situations. Theories generally precede experimentation, not vice versa. For example, the statement that absence makes the heart grow fonder is not a theory, but the following statement is: ‘separation from an object causes us to exaggerate an object’s qualities (whether good or bad) because memory distorts reality’. This is because this statement attempts to explain and not just describe the relationship between separation and emotion.

Question:6

The correct answer was d
The three main types of measures developed and used by psychologists include behavioural observations, self-report responses, and physiological measures. Experimental is a method. Theories, hypotheses and tests are not types of measures.

Question:7

The correct answer was c
One very common research method is the (true) experimental method, in which the experimenter manipulates one or more variables and examines the effect of this manipulation on an outcome variable. In quasi-experimental studies, the independent variable is not (or cannot be) manipulated as such, and so assignment to experimental groups cannot be random. To investigate questions where only a very small number of people may be affected, researchers often resort to the case study method, which involves intensive analysis of a very small sample. By contrast, the introspective method (although used widely in the nineteenth century) is no longer very widely used in contemporary experimental psychology.

Question:8

The correct answer was a
Outcome variables can be manipulated by changing the conditions for these different types of groups using an experimental method. Correlate is a statistical term, Validate and Generalise refer to validity of the research overall, and Attract is not a term used to refer to the manipulation of groups.

Question:9

The correct answer was e
Triangulation refers to studying the same issue using multiple research methods. Experimentation is one of the methods used, Measurement is the method for assessing outcomes, Manipulation Check is related to experiments and Revision is not related to the process of multiple methods.

Question:10

The correct answer was d
Experiments also involve at least one dependent variable (or DV). This is an outcome or measurement variable, and it is this variable that the experimenter is interested in observing and which provides them with data. Control is the basis of experimental design. It involves making different conditions identical in every respect except the treatment (i.e. the independent variable). In a between-subjects experiment, this is achieved by a process of random assignment of participants to the different conditions. In a properly designed study, if there is a difference in results obtained from measuring the dependent variable for each experimental condition, and we have equated the conditions in all respects except the manipulation of the independent variable, then we can infer that the independent variable must be the source of this difference.

Question:11

The correct answer was d
When researchers report and comment on behaviour, without attempting to quantify it, they are using a qualitative research method. This approach involves attempts to understand behaviour by doing more than merely converting evidence into numbers. Qualitative methods can include coding, grouping and collecting observations without assigning actual numbers to the observation. To take an example of human behaviour, you probably take a qualitative approach to the friendliness of the people you meet. In other words, you probably judge people as relatively friendly or unfriendly, but you would be unlikely to come up with a number that expresses their friendliness quotient.

Question:12

The correct answer was b
This is a very complex issue and depends on many factors, not least practical ones – including the amount of time, money and expertise that a researcher has. However, as a general principle, it is worth emphasising that no one method is universally superior. Part of any research psychologist’s role is to make judgements about the appropriateness of a method for investigating the issues at hand. Being a good researcher is not a question of whether you do experiments or surveys: it is more a matter of when and how you do them.

Question:13

The correct answer was c
The four measurement types are nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio. Internal and external are types of validity. Quasi and survey are types of methods.

Question:14

The correct answer was a
A study has a high level of external validity when there are no reasons to doubt that the effects obtained would occur again outside the research setting. We might, for example, question a study’s external validity if participants responded in a particular way because they knew that they were taking part in a psychological experiment. They might inadvertently behave in a way that either confirms or undermines what they believe to be the researcher’s hypothesis. So we usually try to deal with these potential problems by: (a) not telling experimental participants about the hypotheses that we are investigating until after the experiment has finished; (b) informing participants that they are not being ‘tested’ as such; (c) telling them that the data they produce is confidential and will not be discussed with any third party; and (d) saying that they can withdraw from the experiment at any time (and they can ask that the data they generate be deleted at any time).

Question:15

The correct answer was d
Mean, median and mode represent the three types of central tendency that give us different values for our data. Motivation, cognition and behaviour are topics studied within psychology. Descriptive is the term for the types of statistics represented by the measures of central tendency and inferential is another type of statistic that allows us to make inferences. Numerical, evaluation, quantity and quality are distracter terms. Dispersion is the typical distance of responses from one another.

Question:16

The correct answer was d
When we use inferential statistics, we might be in a position to make exact probability statements (as in the coin tossing example), but more usually we have to use a test statistic. Two things influence our judgement about whether a given observation is in any sense remarkable: (1) the information that something is ‘going on’; and (2) the amount of random error in our observations. For this reason, the statistics we normally use in psychology contain both an information term and an error term, and express one as a ratio of the other. So the test statistic will yield a high value (suggesting that something remarkable is going on) when there is relatively more information than error, and a low value (suggesting that nothing remarkable is going on) when there is more error than information.

Question:17

The correct answer was c
We might also want describe the typical distance of responses from one another – that is, how tightly they are clustered around the central point. This is typically established using one of two measures. The first and probably most obvious is the range of responses – the difference between the maximum and minimum values. But in fact the most commonly used measure of dispersion is standard deviation (SD). This is equal to the square root of the sum of the squares of all the differences (deviations) between each score and the mean, divided by the number of scores (in fact, the number of scores minus one if we want a population estimate, as we usually do). The square of the standard deviation is called the variance.

Question:18

The correct answer was a
Correlation does not imply causation. Correlational analyses are based on inferential statistics, but that is not why we cannot infer causal relationships from correlations.

Question:19

The correct answer was e
All of the actions above would be appropriate to interpret and confirm results.

Question:20

The correct answer was b
Research ethics bind psychologists to a set of rules or code that delineates appropriate treatment of animal and human subjects. Research ethics do not provide statistical procedures, testable hypotheses or standards for variable selection.