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Psychological Foundations of Mental Health > Attitudes > Flashcards

Attitudes Flashcards

1
Q

What are attitudes?

A

Functional psychological constructs that give us:

  • positive or negative evaluations on objects/subjects
  • fast answers to complex questions
  • overall impressions
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2
Q

How do attitudes differ from values?

A

> Attitudes:
- concrete and specific

> Values:
- abstracts and generalised

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3
Q

Why do people have attitudes?

A

> The helps us

  • make fast decisions
  • approach positive outcomes
  • avoid negative outcomes

> Tell us if something is good or bad for us

-> utilitarian

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4
Q

What are the two functions of attitudes?

A
  1. Utilitarian function

2. Symbolic function

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5
Q

What is the utilitarian function of attitudes?

A

They help us

  • approach positive outcomes
  • avoid negative outcomes
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6
Q

What is the three symbolic functions of attitudes?

A
  1. Affirm values
    - act in accordance and commit to them
  2. Express social identity
  3. Affirm general beliefs
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7
Q

What is a social identity?

A

It reflects the extent to which we feel that specific social groups are an important part of who we are

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8
Q

Where do attitudes come from?

A
  1. Mere exposure
  2. Learning
  3. Culture
  4. Stereotypes
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9
Q

How are attitudes influenced by ‘mere exposure’?

A

The more often people are exposed to an object/subject, the more likely they like it

-> the more familiar, the more we like it

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10
Q

What explains the effect of mere exposure on people’S attitudes?

A

When you perceive something repeatedly, it is easier for us to process the information

-> the more familiar (more exposure), the more we like it

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11
Q

What are the limitations of mere exposure?

A

It can lead to negative attitudes the same way as positive ones:

  • repeated exposure to an aversive objet/subject
  • > we dislike it
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12
Q

How are attitudes influenced by learning?

A

Operant learning

- situation/stimulus -> response -> effect - consequences

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13
Q

How are attitudes influenced by culture?

A

Cultural beliefs in terms of the way people view the self

> Independent self:

  • relatively independent of others
  • > may hold more positive attitudes towards autonomy

> Interdependent self:

  • more as part of larger social group
  • > may hold more positive attitudes towards family and community
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14
Q

What are stereotypes?

A

Beliefs about groups

  • positive
  • negative
  • accurate
  • inaccurate
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15
Q

How are attitudes influenced by stereotypes?

A

Direct influence:
- your attitude towards a group of people may be shaped by the stereotype(s) you have towards them

  • under cognitive load, people are more likely to use stereotypes
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16
Q

What is prejudice?

A

A negative prejudgment of a group and its individuals

- often relying on the knowledge on a group

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17
Q

How can attitudes form prejudiced judgements?

A

Stereotypes -> Attitudes -> helps us make efficient decisions -> reduced processing
-> prejudiced judgement (harmful or harmless)

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18
Q

How is mental health related to prejudice?

A

Stigma by association:
- people treated according to stereotypes, that devalue someone because of association

  • like or dislike someone because they are related to a stigmatised individual
  • > negative consequences for the person being judged
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19
Q

What is the traditional view of psychosis?

A

Psychosis is a distinct category

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20
Q

What does the psychosis continuum model propose?

A

Psychotic experiences are common and present in different degrees throughout the population
- they are on a continuum with normal experience

  • > continuum between health, normality, and psychosis
  • only extreme being the disorder = psychotic threshold
  • various unusual experiences happen in between
21
Q

What does the latest meta analysis show regarding psychotic experiences in the general population?

A

> 7% of general population have psychotic experiences (e.g. hallucinations)

> 20% of them have psychotic experiences that persist

> 7% develop psychotic disorder

22
Q

What does the basic cognitive model propose on the occurence of psychotic symptoms?

A

It’s the interpretation (appraisal) of events/experiences that cause problematic outcomes, clinical symptoms

23
Q

What did Peters and colleagues (2015, 2016) show regarding the similarity and difference of persistent anomalous experiences in general population to psychosis?

A

> Non-clinical group:

  • people who had psychotic experiences, and remained healthy
  • never diagnosed with mental health problems relating to their experiences:
  • somatic/tactile hallucinations
  • precognition/insight/elation

> Clinical group:

  • people who had psychotic experiences, and had been diagnosed with various psychotic disorders
  • in reception of mental health services
  • commenting/conversing voices
  • thought withdrawal/broadcast
  • delusions (esp persecutory)
  • cognitive difficulties (cognitive ‘grip’)
  • more severe

> Both group had:

  • voices, visions, thought insertion, mind reading/control/refence
  • dissociation

=> It’s not what you experience, it’s how much you experience it
- severity in particular

24
Q

What did Peters and colleagues (2015, 2016) show regarding the differences in appraisal between clinical subjects and non clinical subjects?

A

> Non clinical group group frequently finds the anomalous experiences “clearly helpful”

> Significant differences between non-clinical vs. clinical is based on the evaluated valence, danger, abnormality and controllability of the experiences

> Non-clinical group often found anomalous experiences as spiritual, supernatural and normalising
vs. clinical group who found biological or drug related explanations for their anomalous experiences

25
Q

What is a recurrent and robust finding on the difference of appraisal of anomalous experiences between clinical and non-clinical groups?

A

Clinical groups are more likely to blame other people, think others are involved in some way in causing their experiences
vs. not at all for non-clinical groups

26
Q

How can a symptom analogue be used to investigate appraisals?

A

Create mild anomalous experience

  • computer or phone ‘reading your mind’
  • hearing voices experience
  • controlled and the same for everyone
  • > you can see the range of appraisals people make
27
Q

What is the card task and how does it work in the investigation of appraisals?

A

> First show of cards: “The card you have chosen will be selected and removed from the pile”

> All of the cards are different at the second viewing

> Trick relies on the fact that people will scan for their own card and not notice that the cards are all different

28
Q

What is the consistent finding on the card task for the clinical and the non-clinical group?

A

> Clinical group consistently make more maladaptive appraisals than non-clinical group

> Clinical group find the experience more striking, distressing, threatening, and relate it to their own experiences

-> Threatening, paranoid world-view in appraisals that mean psychotic experiences are leading to a disorder

29
Q

What are the maladaptive appraisals found in clinical group in the card task?

A

> Intentionalising
- malicious intent to make them look stupid

> Personalising
- there’s a person involved behind it all

> Internalising
- there’s something wrong with me

> Conspiracy theories
- part of a wider conspiracy

30
Q

What are the implications for therapy of how clinical groups perceive anomalous experiences, compared to non-clinical groups?

A

Implications for therapy:

  • we may not be able to get rid of people’s experiences
  • BUT we can help people to think about them differently, so that they become less distressing
  • coping to reduce the distress

-> It’s not necessarily the experience that is the problem, it’s the way people view the experience and what they do about it

31
Q

What did Kumar and colleagues (2011) show on the effect of CBT for psychosis?

A

Over 6-9 months:
- at the end, people’s brain responded differently to facial expressions

-> therapy can fundamentally alter how information is processed at a neural level

32
Q

What are the implications for therapy on the effect of attitudes and beliefs on mental health?

A

The mind can change the brain

  • Attitudes and beliefs are paramount in determining mental health problems
  • Shaping them can change your brain
33
Q

What doe the elaboration likelihood model of information processing propose?

A

Dual-processing model of information:

  1. Central route
    - deep processing
    - details, calculations
    - > enduring changes in attitude
  2. Peripheral route
    - shallow processing
    - easy-to-process information
    - > short term changes in attitude
34
Q

What is a dual-processing model?

A

A psychological framework that postulates 2 modes of information processing
- which differ in the extent to which individuals engage in an effortful thought about message content

  • there are several dual process models
35
Q

What determines wether the attitude change attempts are successful (long term) or not?

A
  • Type of information in the message content
  • Person’s motivation at the time
    e. g. high motivation -> central route
36
Q

What are the two types of attitudes?

A
  1. Explicit attitudes
    - nature of evaluations is known to the individual
    - explicit responses
  2. Implicit attitudes
    - nature of evaluations is unknown
    - implicit (unconscious) responses

-> We are not always aware of our attitudes

37
Q

What is a heuristic?

A

Simple rule that is used to form an attitude judgement with little cognitive effort

  • they do not guarantee success
  • they provide useful, immediate strategies
  • rapid decision, little information
38
Q

What kind of heuristics are used to form attitudes and beliefs?

A
  1. Representations
    - base attitudes on level of similarity between a target and a population
  2. Availability
    - an event that is easy to remember or imagine seems more likely
39
Q

How do heuristics that form attitudes and beliefs relate to mental health?

A

Addictions

- e.g. gambling

40
Q

What are the benefits and costs of heuristics?

A

> Benefits:
- quick decisions made on limited information

> Costs:
- does not always provide ideal answers

41
Q

What is the prevalence of gambling in the UK?

A

> 70% of population gambles once a year

> 2007: typical British family will spend 3.60£ each week

42
Q

What are problem gamblers?

A

Gamblers who have difficulty in controlling how much they gamble

43
Q

What did psychologists find on the types of cognition gamblers rely on (Steebergh et al., 2002; Raylu and Oei, 2004)?

A

> Cognitive distorsions:
- certain beliefs lead to an over saturation of one’s chances of winning

> Problem gamblers are more susceptible to these cognitive distortions

> Individuals with higher levels of these distortions respond less well to treatment

44
Q

What is the effect of cognitive therapy on gambler’s cognitive distortions?

A

Seems to help problem gamblers better control their behaviour

45
Q

How do gambling games lead to cognitive disorders?

A

> Near win or near miss
-> “almost winning” in gamblers’ minds

> Creates beliefs that you are more likely to succeed next time
- greater sensitivity to near misses

  • > Sense of control changes their perception
  • e.g. slot machines: turning the wheels themselves

> People are more likely to place larger bets when they throw dices themselves
People will pay a lot more money for lottery if they choose on the tickets

46
Q

What is the gamblers fallacy?

A

Tendency for people to believe that an outcome that hasn’t occurred for a while is somehow becoming more likely
-> heuristic of representativeness

47
Q

How does the roulette game used the gamblers fallacy?

A

> Roulette: red or black

> Gamblers fallacy -> heuristic of representativeness

-> Belief about probability: we expect a small sequence of outcomes to contain the same properties to be representative of a larger sequence
-> to a gambler, a run of red makes black more likely
(even though the wheel has no memory)

48
Q

What are the biological processes underpinning the cognitive distortions of gamblers?

A

> For a near big win: brain activation similar to that of a win

> People responded to near wins as if they were wins

> Amount of activation associated with a win is influenced by the length of the colour run before the bet

Psychological Foundations of Mental Health (18 decks)

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