Exam Flashcards
(223 cards)
1
Q
social Psychology branches into what 3 main areas of interest
A
- How others influence the individual
- How we think about others
- ->Person perception, stereotypes, prejudice discrimination - How we influence what others think.
- ->Persuasion, changing attitudes
2
Q
in order to understand social reality what do we need to study
A
- ->we need to study the interaction between the person and the situation
- -> horrific acts may not be a product of the social situation, not the individuals personality
3
Q
Mimicry
A
taking on for ourselves the behaviours, emotional displays the facial expressions of others
eg Chameleon effect
4
Q
Chameleon Effect
A
non-conscious mimicry of others that involves automatically copying others’ behaviours without realizing it
–> Yawning, arm folding, leg tapping, face rubbing, hand wringing, accents, grammar, vocabulary, mood
5
Q
Social Norms
A
the (usually unwritten) guidelines for how to behave in social contexts
6
Q
Social Loafing
A
- the tendency to expand less individual effort when working in a group than when working alone
- ->Caused by the belief that:
- the task is extremely difficult or complex
- one’s contribution to the group is not important
- others in the group aren’t trying
- one doesn’t care about the group
7
Q
Social Facilitation
A
the tendency to expand more individual effort when working in a group than when working in a group than when working alone
–>Can happen if effect group to fail and really care about group/task
8
Q
Group Think
A
-when individuals in a group have to focus on social harmony (and avoidance of open disagreement), and thus the group makes decisions without an open exchange of ideas
9
Q
Conformity
A
adjusting our behaviour or thinking to fit in with a group standard
–>Originally studied by Asch (1956)
10
Q
What are the two types of social influence affect conformity
A
Normative influence
Informational Influence
11
Q
Normative Influence
A
adopting a group perspective in order to be accepted and gain social approval by a group
12
Q
Informational influence
A
adopting a group perspective because their ideas and behaviour make sense, and the evidence in our social environment has changed our minds
13
Q
You are most likely to conform when (6 reasons)
A
- others conform first
- responses are made publicly
- the group is medium sized and unanimous
- you feel positive toward the group
- the task is unclear or ambiguous
- your culture encourages respect for norms
14
Q
The Bystander Effect
A
- the finding the that people are less likely to provide needed help when they are in groups than when they are alone
- Diffusion of responsibility
- pluralistic ignorance
15
Q
Diffusion of Responsibility
A
the decrease in responsibility felt by an individual as the number of bystanders increase
16
Q
Pluralistic Ignorance
A
rationalization about the fact that no one is helping
17
Q
Social Roles
A
specific sets of expectations for someone in a specific position should behave
- Can have powerful effects on behaviour
- Ex: STandford prision study
18
Q
Obedience
A
adjustment of individual behaviours, attitudes and beliefs to the orders of an authority figure
- could be good or bad
- -“eg Milgram (1974)-participants believe they administrating potentially fatal levels of shock to another person
19
Q
The results of Milgramès (1974) study
A
-65% obeyed to highest level of shock
20
Q
What factors increase obedience (5 reasons)
A
- remoteness of the victim
- closeness and legitimacy of authority figure
- Some else doing dirty work
- When all others participant obey and no one disobeys
- personal characteristics not important
- -“Political orientation, occupation, religious beliefs, gender, education, SES, etc….
21
Q
What is Abnormal
A
- a lot of grey area between what is normal and abnormal
- varies across individuals and cultures
- no single definition agreed upon by anyone
- most definitions refer to the three D’s.
22
Q
what should you keep in mind when discussing psychological disorders (3 points)
A
- How do we decide when a set of symptoms crosses the line and becomes a disorder that needs treatment
- how can the label of psychological diagnosis affect people
- Can we define specific disorders clearly enough so that we can know that we’re all referring to the same set of symptoms
23
Q
what are the three D’s
A
Danger
Distress
Dysfunction
24
Q
Danger
A
-Behaviour increases risk of injury or harm to slef or others
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Distress
-Intense negative emotional reaction that doesn't match the situation
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Dysfunction
-Behavior interferes with individual's daily functioning
27
what is one reason to diagnose a disorder
in order to make decisions about the treatment
| -in order to treat a disorder, it helps to understand the cause of the psychological symptoms
28
The medical model (3 points )
- psychological disorders can be seen as psychopathology, an illness of the mind
- Disorders can be diagnosed, labeled as a collection of symptoms that tend to go together
- people with disorders can be treated with a goal of restoring mental health
29
The biopsychosocial approach
```
Includes:
Biological influences
Psychological influences
Social-cultural Influences
mental disorders are thought to be caused by biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors
```
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Biological Influences
- evolution
- individual genes
- brain structure and chemistry
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Psychological Influences
- stress
- trauma
- learned helplessness
- mood-related perceptions and memories
32
Social-cultural Influences
- roles
- expectations
- definitions of normality and disorder
33
what is the textbook used to classify psychological disorder
the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual: DSM-V (may 2103)
34
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual: DSM-V (3 points)
- the most complete description of over 350 mental disorders and criteria for diagnosing each
- Assumes psychological disorders are no different from a physical illness
- ->symptoms, diagnosis, prognosis
- Diagnostic information is represented along 5 dimensions, or axes, that consider both the person and their life situation
35
What are the five 'axes' of the DSM-V
Axis I : Clinical symptoms
Axis II: Developmental and personality disorders
Axis III: Physical Conditions
Axis IV: Severity of psycho-social stressors
Axis V: Global assessment of functioning
36
Axis I
Clinical symptoms
| -Eg: depression, schizophrenia, phobia
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Axis II
Developmental and personality disorders
- ->Developmental disorder:
- Typically first evident in childhood
- Eg: autism, intellectual disability
- -> Personality disorder:
- Enduring and consistent ways of interacting with the world
- eg: paranoid, antisocial, borderline personality disorders
38
Axis III
Physical Conditions
| -eg: brain injury or HIV/AIDS that can result in symptoms of mental illness
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Axis IV
Severity of psycho-social stressors
| -Eg: death of a loved one, starting a new job, college, unemployment, marriage
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Axis V
Global assessment of functioning
| -level of functioning both at present time and highest level within previous year
41
Critiques of diagnosing with the DSM (4 reasons)
-The DSM calls too many people 'disordered'
The border between diagnoses, or between disorder and normal, seems arbitrary
-decisions about what is a disorder seem to include value judgments
->is depression necessarily deviant?
-Diagnostic labels direct how we view and interpret, the world, telling us which behaviour and mental states to see as disordered
42
Personality Disorders
-Stable, ingrained inflexible and maladaptive ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving
43
What are the three clusters of disorders
- Dramatic and impulsive behaviours (the main focus)
- Anxiety and fearfulness
- Odd and eccentric behaviours
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Dramatic and impulsive behaviours (the main focus)
antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic personality disorders
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Anxiety and fearfulness
-aviodant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders
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-Odd and eccentric behaviours
-Paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal personality disorders
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Antisocial Personality Disorder
- 3:1 male-female ratio
- Lack a conscience and empathy
- Fail to respond to punishment
- Disregard for others' rights to preferences
- may be charming and manipulative
- Diagnosis -At least 18 years of age with antisocial behaviour before 15
48
What are the biological risk factors for antisocial personality disorder (5 factors)
- genetic predisposition
- lower levels of stress hormones and lower physiological arousal in stressful situations
- MRI findings of subtle differences in prefrontal lobes
- Weaker limbic input to frontal cortex
- Impaired functioning of amygdala
49
what are the Psychological factors of kids at risk for developing lifelong antisocial personality disorder:
- in perschool, those who were impulsive, uninhibited, unconcerned with social rewards, and low in anxiety
- those who endured who endured child abuse and/or inconsistent, unavailable caretaking
50
Antisocial personality disorder does not automatically mean criminality explain.
- many career criminals show empathy and selflessness with family and friends
- many people with APD do not commit crimes
51
Borderline Personality Disorder
- Intense extremes between positive and negative emotions
- unstable sense of self
- impulsivity
- difficulty with social relationships
52
What are the causes of borderline personality
- Early traumatic Experience
| - Impulsive and risky behaviour is a way to deal with negative emotions
53
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
- inflated sense of self-importance
- excessive need for attention and admiration
- intense self-doubt and fear of abandonment
54
Histrionic Personality Disorder
- excessive attention seeking and dramatic behaviour
| - very flamboyant and exhibitionistic
55
Dissociation
refers to separation of conscious awareness from thoughts, memory, bodily sensation, feelings, or even from identity
-it can serve as a psychological escape from an overwhelming stressful situation
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Dissociative Disorder
refers to dysfunction and distress caused by chronic and severe dissociation
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Dissociative Amnesia
loss of memory with known physical cause; inability to recall selected memories or any memories
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Dissociative Fugue
-"Running away" state; wandering away from one's life memory, and identify, with no memory of these
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Depersonalization Disorder
-A strong feeling of disconnection from one's regular identity and awareness
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Dissociative Identify Disorder (DID);
-development of separate personalities; formerly called 'multiple personality disorder'
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Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
- Each identity is unique
- ->Not in consciousness at the same time
- -> May or may not know about each other
- ->one identity may be protector, another a child
62
The explanation for the different perspectives of DID (4 reasons)
- Psychoanalytic perspective: diverting id
- Cognitive perspective: coping with abuse
- Learning Perspective: dissociation pays
- Social Influence: therapists encourage
63
DID is it real Evidence for and against
-Evidence for: different menstrual cycles, different allergies, different eyeglass prescriptions, different brain waves, different handedness
Evidence Against:
-unknown in some cultures
-role playing?
64
Anxiety Disorders
a category of disorders involving fear or nervousness that is out of proportion to the situation and is maladaptive
65
what are the four types of anxiety Disorders
- Generalized anxiety disorder
- panic disorder
- phobias
- obsessive-compulsive disorder
66
Generalized anxiety disorder symptoms
Emotional-cognitive symptoms:
-->worrying, having anxious feeling and thoughts about many subjects, ad sometimes 'free-floating' anxiety with no attachment to any subject
-->Anxious anticipation interferes with concentration
Physical symptoms:
-Autonomic arousal, trembling, sweating, fidgeting, agitation, sleep disruption, eating problems
67
Panic Disorder
- ->Anxiety response occurs suddenly, unpredictable is very intense
- many minutes of intense dread or terror
- chest pains, choking, numbness
- A feeling of a need to escape
- ->as a result, the person lives in fear of the next attack and changes their behaviour to avoid panic attacks
- Agoraphobia
68
Phobic Disorder (3 points)
- Strong, irrational fears of objects or situations
- ->most develop during childhood, adolescence or young adulthood
- Uncontrollable, irrational, intense desire to avoid the object of the phobia
- seldom go away on their own
- ->can intensify over time
69
Specific Phobia
an intense fear of a specific object, activity, or organism -most common specific phobias:
- Animals, (snakes, spiders, eyc...)
- Natural environment (heights, storms, water , etc...)
- Situations (small spaces, crowds, the densist etc...)
- Blood or bodily injury
- other specific objects
70
Social Phobia
an intense fear of being judged by others or being embarrassed or humiliated in public
-can make it difficult to lead a normal life
71
obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
an anxiety disorder in which individuals are plagued by unwanted repetitive thoughts and tend to engage in repetitive behaviours
Obessions
Compulsions
72
Obessions
- cognitive component
| - ->repetitive and unwelcome thoughts
73
Compusions
behavioural component
| repetitive behavioural response as an attempt to ease the anxiety from the bad thoughts
74
% of individual with OCD reporting obsessions and compulsions
```
Obsessions
58%-a fear of being contaminated
56%-persistent doubting
48%-need to arrange things in symmetrical pattern
45%-Aggressive thoughts
Compulsion
69%-checking
60%-cleaning
56%-repeating actions
```
75
what is the common pattern of OCD
RECHECKING Although you know that you've already made sure the door is locked, you feel you must check again. And Again
76
What are the 6 explanations of anxiety disorders
```
biological
operant conditioning
classical conditioning
observational learning
cognitive appraisals
Evolutionary
```
77
biological (explanations of anxiety disorders)
genetics
- people with anxiety are biologically predisposed to experience more fear than others
- -> they have problems with a gene associated with regulating levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter involved in regulating sleep and mood
- ->also have a gene that triggers high levels of glutamate, an excitatory neurotransmitter involved in the brains alarm centers
- Selective breeding in mice showed than an increased fear response is in part genetically determined
78
operant conditioning (explanations of anxiety disorders)
rewarding avoidance
- when we encounter the source of anxiety, we feel very uncomfortable
- This makes us decide to leave or avoid the source of anxiety
- this makes us feel more comfortable
- Thus, avoiding the source of anxiety was reinforced, and it will increase in the future
- ->this is negative reinforcement!
79
classical conditioning (explanations of anxiety disorders)
overgeneralizing a conditioned response
- Watson and Rayner (1920): Little Albert learned to feel fear around a rabbit because he had been conditioned to associate the rabbit with a loud, scary noise
- Sometimes such a conditioned response becomes overgeneralized
- ->feel fear to stimuli that resemble a rabbit
- -> Results in a phobia or generalized anxiety
80
observational learning(explanations of anxiety disorders)
worrying like mom
- if you see someone else avoiding or fearing some object or creature, you might pick up that fear and adopt it, even after the original scared person is not around
- in this way, fears get passed down in families
81
cognitive appraisals (explanations of anxiety disorders)
uncertainty is danger
- includes worried thoughts, as well as interpretations, appraisals, beliefs, predictions, and ruminations
- Also includes mental habits such as hyper-vigilance (persistently watching out for danger)
- In anxiety disorders, such cognitions appear repeatedly and make anxiety worse
82
Evolutionary (explanations of anxiety disorders)
surviving by avoiding danger
-humans are more likely to develop phobias toward certain objects
list #1: snakes, heights, closed spaces, darkness
-we are likely to become cautious, but not phobic, about other dangerous objects
list #2: guns, electrical wiring, cars
-This is because ancestors that easily developed fears to list #1 were less likely to die before reproducing
-Items in List #2 are too recent to spread in the population
83
Anxiety and the brain
- Traumatic experiences can burn fear circuits into the amygdala; these circuits are later triggered and activated
- Anxiety disorders include over arousal of brain areas involved in impulse control and habitual behaviours
84
What part of the brain shows extra activity with patients with OCD
shows extra activity in the ACC, which monitors our actions and checks for errors
85
what are some examples of cognitions that can worsen anxiety
cognitive errors
irrational beliefs
mistaken appraisals
misinterpretations
86
cognitive errors
such as believing that we can predict that bad events will happen
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Irrational Beliefs
such as "bad things don't happen to good people, so if I was hurt, I must be bad"
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Mistaken appraisals
such as seeing aches as diseases, noises as dangers, and strangers as threat
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Misinterpretations
of facial expressions and actions of others, such as thinking "they're talking about me"
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Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)
- more than just feeling "down"
| - more than just feeling sad about something
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Bipolar Disorder
-More than 'mood swings'
-depression plus the problematic overly "up" mood called 'mania'
involves experiencing repeated periods of two polar opposite moods:depression and mania
-Typically pattern is 3-7 weeks of depression followed by 3-7 days of mania
92
Criteria of MDD(remember one or both of the first two symptoms PLUS three or more of the rest)
- Depressed mood most of the day and/or
- Markedly diminished interest or pleasure in activities
- significant increase or decrease in appetite or weight
- insomnia, sleeping too much, or disrupted sleep
- lethargy, or physical agitation
- fatigue or loss of energy nearly every day
- Worthlessness or excessive/inappropriate guilt
- Daily Problems in thinking, concentrating, and/or making decisions
- Recurring thoughts of death and suicide
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Depressed mood:
stuck feeling 'down' with
- exaggerated pessimism
- social withdrawal
- lack of felt pleasure
- inactivity and no initiative
- difficulty focusing
- fatigue and excessive desire to sleep
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Mania
euphoric, giddy, easily irritated with:
- exaggerated optimism
- hypersociality and sexuality
- delight in everything
- impulsive and over-activity
- racing thoughts; the mind won't settle down
- little desire for sleep
95
Mood Disorders (stats about depression)
- Per year, depressive episodes happen to about 6% of men and 9% of women
- over the course of a lifetime, 12 % of Canadians will experience depression
96
what is the cognitive explanation of mood disorders
-depression is associated with the depressive explanatory style
Internalizing
stabilizing
Globalizing
97
Internalizing
I'm so stupid! It's my fault; I'm a bad person; I am worthless
98
Stabilizing
It's always going to be this way; things will never change
99
Globalizing
and this applies to everything, not just the current situation
100
Understanding mood disorders (genetics)
- DNA linkage analysis reveals dressed gene areas
| - twin studies
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understanding mood disorders (the brain)
brain activity: is diminished in depression and increased in mania
Brain structure: smaller frontal lobe in depression and fewer axons in bipolar disorder
Brain Chemistry:
-more norepinephrine (arousing) in mania, less in depression
-reduced serotonin in depression
-
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suicide
3500 suicides every year in Canada, 100x more attempts
- ->women 3x more attempts than men
- ->men 3x more 'success' than women
- second more frequent cause of death among high school and college students
- Warning signs
- ->verbal or behavioural threat
- ->Detailed plan
- ->Previous attempts
103
what are the three distinct phases of schizophrenia
predromal phase
Active Phase
Residual Phase
104
Predromal Phase
people may become confused, withdraw from others, lose normal motivation, engrossed in own thought
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Active phase
people typically experience delusions, hallucations, or disorganized patterns of thoughts, emotions, and behaviour
106
Residual Phase
predominant symptoms lessen
107
what are the three most characteristic symptoms
Hallucinations
Delusions
Disorganized Behaviour
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Hallucinations
alterations in perception
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Delusions
beliefs that are not based on reality
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Disorganized behaviour
'all over the place' to the extent that completing a task is difficult (eg: basic hygiene, cooking, shopping, going places, etc....)
111
What are 5 sub-types of schizophrenia
```
Paranoid
Disorganized
Catatonic
Undifferentiated
Residual
```
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Paranoid
plagued by hallucinations, often with negative messages, and delusions, both grandiose and persecutory
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Disorganized
thoughts, speech, behaviour and emotion are poorly integrated and incoherent
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Catatonic
Rarely initiating or controlling movement; copies others' speech and actions
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Undifferentiated
Many varied symptoms and not easy to classify
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Residual
People who are in between phases and still show some symptoms
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What are the two ways of classifying schizophrenia
positive symptoms
| negative symptoms
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Positive symptoms of schizophrenia
presence of problem behaviours
| -->confused and paranoid thinking , inappropriate affect
119
Negative symptoms of schizophrenia
absence of healthy behaviours
| absent or flat affect, lack of motivation, social withdrawal
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Onset of Schizophrenia
typically, schizophrenic symptoms appear at the end of adolescence and in early adulthood, later for women than for men
121
Prevalence of Schizophrenia
roughly 4 to 8 people out of 1000 develop Schizophrenia, slightly more men than women
122
Understanding schizophrenia (genetics)
- the more genetic similarity an individual has to a person with schizophrenia the more likely that they will also develop the disorder
- likely a complex genetic combination, not a single gene
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Understand schizophrenia (the brain)
Cerebral Ventricles 20-30% larger in Schizophrenia
- Too many dopamine receptors help to explain paranoia and hallucinations
- Lower activity in the frontal brain
- less Glutamate in hippocampus and frontal cortex
124
Understanding Schizophrenia: Prenatal and Environmental factors
- Schizophrenia is somewhat more likely to develop when one or more of these factors is present
- Winter birthday 2nd trimester flu
- Emotional trauma during pregnancy
- Very rarely, marijuana use
- head injury prior to 10 years of age
- more psychosocial stressors (poverty, social isolation etc...)
125
Understanding Schizophrenia: Social Factors
- The degree of emotional expressiveness in families affects how well the schizophrenic progresses with their disease
- ->Families high in emotional expressiveness tend to criticize and try to control the individual
- ->Families low in emotional expressiveness tend to be more supportive, accepting, and non-judgmental of the individual
126
Insights Therapies
a general term for 'talk therapy' between client and therapist with the goal of gaining awareness and understanding of psychological problems and conflicts
127
Psychoanalysis
refers to a set of techniques for releasing the tension of repression and resolving unconscious inner conflicts
-->Freud (1856-1939) noticed that symptoms of patients sometimes improved when repressed inner conflicts and feelings were brought into conscious awareness
128
what are the 4 psychoanalytic Techniques
- Free association
- Dream Analysis
- transference
- Pay attention to resistance
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Free association
-uncensored, verbal reports of thoughts, feelings, or images that enter awareness
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Dream Analysis
-Therapist helps client understand the symbolic meaning of their dreams
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Transference
client responds irrationally to the therapist like he/she was a significant figure from the client's past
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Pay attention to resistance
-Defensive maneuvers that hinder the process of therapy are signs that sensitive material is being approached
133
Interpretation
when the therapist suggests unconscious meanings and underlying wishes to help the client gain insight and release tension
time consuming as client must arrive at 'insight'
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humanistic Therapy
- Conscious control of behaviour
- Emphasizes the human potential for growth, self-actualization, and personal fulfillment
- Disordered behaviour
- ->Function of distorted perceptions, lack of awareness, negative self-image
- present and future, not past
135
Client-Centered Therapy
focus on therapeutic environment
Important therapist attributes:
-being non-directive
-->letting the inight and goals come from the client, rather than dictating interpretations
-Unconditional positive regard
-->therapist accepts client without judgement or evaluation
-Empathy
-->willingness and ability to view the world through client's eyes
-Genuineness
-Consistency between therapist's feelings and behaviours
136
Behavioural Therapies (Behaviour, Cogitive, and Group Therapies)
focus on behaviour
-Maladaptive behaviour is the problem, not a symptom
-->eg addiction, panic attacks
-Problem behaviours are learned
-Maladaptive behaviours can be unlearned through:
Classical conditioning
Operant Conditioning
137
What is the Exposure Approach
-Treat phobias through exposure to feared CS (stimulus) without being allowed to escape
-elminate anxiety through exteniction
two types
flooding
implosion
138
Flooding
-Exposed to real-life situation (eg: snakes)
139
Implosion
-Imagine scenes involving stimuli
140
systematic Desensitization
- learning -based treatment for anxiety disorders
- eliminate anxiety through counter conditioning steps:
- Train muscle relaxation skills
- -> Anxiety and relaxation cannot co-exist
- Stimulus hierarchy (real or imagined situations)
- -> Low-anxiety scenes to high-anxiety scenes
- Relaxation and progressive association with stimulus hierarchy
141
Aversive Conditioning
-a person learns to associate the stimulus that they desire (alcohol, drugs, source of sexual fetish, etc...) with something averive
142
cognitive-behavioural Therapy
Therapy that works on problem thoughts and beaviours
Behavioural: work on gaining skills that they may be lacking
Cognitive: Work on building more functional cognitive habits
eg get rid of automatic negative explanatory style
143
Mindfulness-based cognitive Therapy
involves combining mindfulness mediation with standard cognitive-behavioural therapy tools
- ->both approaches emphasize increased self-awareness
- ->CBT has a goal of "fixing oneself", mindfulness involves fully accepting oneself as is
144
Group and Family Therapies
when therapy sessions are conducted in groups, in hopes that clients benefit from hearing others' point of view
-system Approach
145
Systems Approach
views a client's symptoms as being influenced by multiple interacting systems
146
Biomedical Therapies
alter the brain's functioning by changing its chemistry with medications, or affecting its circuitry with electrical or magnetic impulses or surgery
-intervention in the brain and body can affect mood and behaviour
147
Psychopharmcotherapy
| Drug (medication) treatments
refers to the use of drugs to attempt to manage or reduce clients' symptoms
-->antipychotic, antianxiety, and antidepressants
148
Antidepressants
-designed to improve moodand reduce other symptoms of depression
-work by increasing levels of monoamine neurotransmitters
-->Serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopmine
-->Three types of antidepressants
MAO inhibitors, tricyclic antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)
149
what are 3 types of antidepressants
- selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)
- Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs)
- Tricyclic antidepressants
150
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)
increase the activity of serotonin at the postsynaptic cell by slowing the rate of reuptake of serotonin molecules into the presynaptic cell
151
Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs)
block the activity of the monoamine oxidase enzyme, which breaks down key neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin
152
-Tricyclic antidepressants
block reutake of serotonin and norepinephrine
153
Mood Stabilizers
drugs used to prevent or reduce the severity of mood swings in people with bipolar disorder
-Lithium = standard treatment for bipolar disorder from 1950s-1980s
154
Anti-anxiety drugs
- Designed to temporarily reduce worried thinking and physical agitation
- works by increasing activity of GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter
- side effects = drowsiness, impaired attention, memory impairments, depression
155
Antipsychotics
-reduces the symptoms of schizophrenia, especially 'positive' symptoms
-they work by blocking dopamine receptors
-side effects: obesity, diabetes, movement problems
tardive dyskinesia
156
tardive dyskinesia
odd facial, tongue and body movements
157
Drug (medication) treatments negatives
- do not 'cure' the disorder
- do not teach the client coping and problem solving skills to deal with stress
- can bring symptoms under control while other therapeutic techniques are incorporated
158
Surgical Methods
- Frontal lobotomy-destroys the connections between the frontal lobes and the rest of the brain
- Leucotomy -Surgical destruction of the brain tissues in the prefrontal cortex
- focal lesions-surgical destruction of small areas of the brain tissue
159
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
induces a mild seizure that disrupts severe depression for some people
-this might allow neural re-wiring and might boost neurogenesis
160
Trans-cranial Magnetic Stimulation
- exposes a focal area of the brain to a powerful magnetic field
- ->stimulating parts of the frontal lobes may reduce depressive symptoms
161
Deep Brain Stimulation
- electrical stimulation of specific regions of the brain using a thin electrode
- -> can produce miraculous effects with depression
162
Lifestyle changes
- we can indirectly affect the biological components of mental health problems
- ->Exercise can boost serotonin levels and reduce stress
- ->changing negative thoughts can improve mood and even rewire the brian
- ->mental health problems can also be reduced by meeting our basic needs for sleep, nutrition, light, meaningful activity and social connection
163
how to preventing psychological disorders
-prevention programs focus on decreasing the risk of mental health disorders
egs:
-->support programs for stressed families
-->community programs to provide healthy activities and hope for children
-->Relationship-building communication skills training
-->Working to reduce poverty and discrimination
164
amadau Diallo death
Shot multiple times when police officers (in an unmarked vehicle and not in uniform)
thought he was armed and trying to attack an apartment building even though he was a friendly, law-abiding man from West Africa trying to get into his own apartment. If he had been a white man, would the police have reacted the same way?
165
Social Cognitive Researchers
study the cognitions that people have about social situations, and how situations influence cognitive processes.
166
Explicit processes:
which correspond to roughly “conscious” thought, are deliberative, effortful, relatively slow, and generally under our intentional control. Explicit level of consciousness is our subjective inner awareness, our “mind” as we know it.
167
2) Implicit processes
comprise our “unconscious” thought; they are initiative, automatic, effortless, very fast, and operate largely outside of our intentional control. The implicit level of consciousness is the larger set of patterns that govern how our mind generally functions, all the “lower-level” processes that comprise the vast bulk of what our brains actually do.
168
What is important about these processes (implicit and Explicit )
two sets of processes work together to regulate our bodies, continually update our perceptions, infuse emotional evaluations and layers of personal meaning to our experiences, and affect how we think, make decisions, and self-reflect.
169
Dual-process models
models of behaviour that account for both implicit and explicit processes
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Person perception
the processes by which individuals categorize and form judgments about other people.
we rely on schemas to guide our impressions (first impression when you meet someone relies heavily on implicit processes, have very little personal knowledge of someone we have just met.)
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Thin slices of behaviour
we make very rapid, implicit judgments of people based on very small samples of a person’s behaviour. Our implicit processes, guiding our perceptions holistically and using well-practised heuristics, are able to perceive very small cues and subtle patterns shaping our judgments so fast, and sometimes so accurately, that our “thin slice” judgments are often helpful guides to navigating our social world.
--> demonstrates how quickly impressions are formed, and how surprisingly accurate they often can be.
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Self-fullfilling prophecies:
occur when a first impression (or an expectation) affects one’s behaviour, and then that affects other people’s behaviour, leading one to “confirm” the initial impression or expectation.
--> your beliefs affect your actions, which affect other people’s actions, which then reinforce your beliefs
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THE SELF IN THE SOCIAL WORLD
- we tend to think that the way we are is the way people should be, and t/f, people who are substantially different from us have something wrong with them.
- we have a strong tendency to split the world into Us and Them, and we are motivated to see Us more positively than how we seen Them.
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PROJECTION THE SELF ONTO OTHERS: FALSE CONSENSUS AND NAIVE REALISM
- If we are sports fans, we assume that sports are generally important for other people as well.
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False consensus effect
tendency to project the self-concept onto the social world
| - We also tend to assume that the way we see things is the way they are, that our perceptions of reality are accurate
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Naïve realism
means that people who differ from us are not only a little weird, they are wrong as well.
- Makes sense to some degree or else you would be so beset by doubts and uncertainty that life would be difficult and stressful.
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self-serving biases
We strive to maintain our positive self-feelings through a host of self-serving biases, which are biased ways of processing self-relevant information to enhance our positive self-evaluation.
Example: we tend to take credit for our successes, but blame our failures on other people, circumstances, or bad luck.
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better than average effect
- We tend to assume that we are better than average; this better than average effect is just another way we keep our self-esteem intact, and has ben shown in many different domains.
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Internal attribution(dispositional attribution):
the observer explains the behaviour of the actor in terms of some innate quality of that person (being an aggressive jerk). Example: driving down highway, someone swerves into your lane; you slam on brakes avoiding collision (assume driver is aggressive).
-->there may be other reasons for the driver’s behaviour (swerved into your lane b/c of debris on road)
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External attributions(situational attribution):
whereby the observer explains the actor’s behaviours as the result of the situation.
-->Generally not what first comes to mind, but rather, take time as we continue thinking about the situation and then realize that perhaps our snap judgment of the person’s character may not have been warranted b/c there are other possible explanations we did not initially consider.
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Fundamental attribution error (FAE):
tendency to over-emphasize internal attributions, and under-emphasize external factors.
--> influenced by culture. For example, after reading about recent mass murderers in the newspaper, subjects from China are more likely to emphasize situational explanations for murders (recent stressful events in the person’s life), whereas North American subjects are much more likely to emphasize dispositional explanations (such as the murderer being an evil person).
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Ingroups
groups we feel positively toward and identify with (family, home team, group of best friends)
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Outgroups:
“other” groups that we don’t identify with
--> dis-identify with outgroups
-->carve our social world into Us and Them, showing preference for Us over Them
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Ingroup bias
As positive biases toward the self get extended to include one’s ingroups, people become more motivated to see their ingroups as superior to their outgroups – engaging in ingroup bias.
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Minimal group paradigm
A set of studies describing just how easily people will form social categories, Us vs. Them, even when using criteria that are meaningless.
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Without the ability to attach ourselves to desired ingroups and distance ourselves from undesired outgroups what would happen
it would be hard to feel a sense of belonging, which is indispensable to our well-being and healthy identity.
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Stereotype
a cognitive structure, a set of beliefs about the characteristics that are held by members of a specific social group; these beliefs function as schemas, serving to guide how we process information about our social world.
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Prejudice
an affective, emotionally driven process, including negative attitudes toward and critical judgments of other groups. -->: emotional process but it in turn is reinforced by negative stereotypes
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Discrimination
behaviour that disfavours or disadvantages members of a certain social group in some way.
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Implicit Associations Test (IAT):
measures how fast people can respond to images or words flashed on a computer screen.
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Contact hypothesis:
predicts that social contact between members of different groups is extremely important to overcoming prejudice. Especially effective if that contact occurs in settings in which the groups have equal status and power, and ideally, in which group members are cooperating on tasks and pursuing common goals.
-->coming to see our fellow human beings as part of the same human family is an opportunity that recent advances in technology, economics, and ironically, global problems have made available to all of us.
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examples of discrimination and difficulty of research
police brutality, incarceration of Black men in the US (far more often than other groups)
- -> battle between implicit and explicit processes
- ->difficult for researchers attempting to study these processes, because of course simply asking subjects how they feel is only going to reveal their explicit processes, which may appear very egalitarian (equal).
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What are the four most common approaches taken to attempt to change the public's behaviour on a large scale and reasonings
echnological,
legal,
economic,
and raising awareness.
--> get the technology right and people will behave in the desired way
-->get the laws right and people will behave in the desired way
--> making the “right” thing to do cheaper, and the “wrong” thing to do more expensive
-->get the information right, educate everybody, and people will behave in the desired way
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PERSUASION:
CHANGING ATTITUDES THROUGH COMMUNICATION
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Elaboration likelihood model
predicts that when audiences are sufficiently motivated to pay attention to a message (i.e. they care about the issue) and the have the opportunity for careful processing (i.e. have the cognitive resources available to understand the message), they will be persuaded by the facts of the argument, the substance; when either of these two factors, motivation and opportunity, are missing, people will tend to be persuaded by other factors.
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Central route to persuasion:
occurs when people pay close attention to the content of a message, evaluate the evidence presented, and examine the logic of the arguments.
-->as a result, attitude or belief change that occurs through the central route tends to be strong and long-lasting.
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Peripheral route to persuasion
persuasion depends on other features that are not directly related to the message itself, such as the attractiveness of the person delivering the information.
--> typically, not as powerful through the peripheral route, it is nevertheless often a superior route through which to reach people, in part because it’s so much easier. Example: Justin Trudeau becoming PM (people elected him because they like the way he looks)
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Construal-level Theory
describes how information affects us differently depending on our psychological distance from the information.
--> Information that is specific, personal, and described in terms of concrete details feels more personal, or closer to us; whereas information that is more general, impersonal, and described in more abstract terms feels less personal, or more distant.
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Attitude inoculation:
strategy for strengthening attitudes and making them more resistant to change by first exposing people to a weak counter-argument and then refining that argument.
- ->Example: flu shot protects you from the flu. Get injected with weakened version of the flu virus so you can build up the antibodies to fight the real flu if it comes along.
- ->Expose audience to counter-arguments, showing them why they are incorrect, giving the audience necessary information to they will need to resist those counter-arguments when they hear them later.
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Processing fluency:
the ease with which information is processed
- ->biases the person’s processing of the information; thus, even insignificant aspects of a communication can, through triggering negative affect, influence the communication’s persuasive impact.
- -> political strategists attempt to influence the public’s emotions for similar reasons using negative political advertising
- ->if your arguments are overly technical, complex, convoluted, this can also activate negative emotion for people, biasing them against your message. People lose interest in messages they don’t understand
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reciprocity:
you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours
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Door-in-the-face technique:
involves asking for something relatively big, the following with a request for something relatively small.
-->once someone has scaled back their request, you are obligated to meet them part way. The one-two punch is very effective, both because it makes the person feel obligated to say yes after you have “backed down,” and because the second request doesn’t seem as onerous, after being presented with the first, bigger request.
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Foot-in-the-door technique
involves making a simple request followed by a more substantial request.
- -> once you get the person to agree to a small request, it’s harder for them to say no to a subsequent request.
- -> powerful because it makes the use of a very strong motivation held by many people – the need for psychological consistency.
- ->studies show that written commitments are even more effective than verbal commitments, and commitments that can be made public are the most effective of all.
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Cognitive Dissonance Theory
when we hold inconsistent beliefs, this creates a kind of aversive inner tension, or “dissonance”; we are then motivated to reduce this tension in whatever way we can, often by simply changing the beliefs that created the dissonance in the first place.
cognitive dissonance is based on the need for self-consistency
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Climate change example
climate change communications have traditionally faired poorly because they have struggled in making climate change personally relevant. People tend to see climate change as “psychologically distant” rather than personally relevant.
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USING THE CENTRAL ROUTE EFFECTIVELY
desire to get information is directly related to how personally relevant it is. Making a message self-relevant is crucially important to motivating people to care and pay attention
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social validation
because humans are such a social species, we use the behaviour of others as a guide to inform us what we should do.
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USING THE PERIPHERAL ROUTE EFFECTIVELY
the use of experts and authority figures to deliver a message can often enhance the impact of the message. Even people who look like experts but have no real authority on a subject can be used effectively
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Clinical psychologists
have received Ph.D. level of training, and are able to formally diagnose and treat mental health issues ranging from the everyday and mild to the chronic and severe.
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Counselling psychologists
mental health professionals who typically work with people needing help with more common problems such as stress, coping, and mild forms of anxiety and depression, rather than severe mental disorders.
-->may have either a Master’s or Ph.D. level of training
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Psychiatrists:
medical doctors who specialize in mental health and who are allowed to diagnose and treat mental disorders through prescribing medications.
--> frequently found in hospitals and other institutional settings, treating people with relatively severe psychological disorders
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Deinstitutionalization:
mental health patients were released back into their communities, generally after having their symptoms alleviated through medication.
--> after it began, homelessness and substance abuse became a major problem for the severely mentally ill, who were not able to reintegrate into society or were not cared for by their families.
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Residential treatment centres
housing facilities in which residents receive psychological therapy and life skills training, with the explicit goal of helping residents become re-integrated into society as well as they can.
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Community psychology
an area of psychology that focuses on identifying how individuals’ mental health is influenced by the neighbourhood, economics and community resources, social groups, and other community-based variables
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Seeking help and help provided for mental disorders
- -> Many people with a disorder do not receive help, given that approx. one in five people will experience a psychological disorder in their lifetime.
- ->Even when people do seek therapy, about half of them significantly delay doing so after first becoming aware of their mental health issues, often for years.
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Whats are the barriers that prevent or delay people from seeking phychological treatment
1) disorders themselves are inherently ambiguous; there is no objective, easily definable line between “mentally healthy” and “mentally ill” and no litmus test that can tell a person with a high degree of certainty that they need to seek help.
2) people very commonly are motivated to not see themselves as mentally ill, so much so that they minimalize their symptoms, basically tricking themselves and others to think that they are healthier than they really are.
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men and treatment
extra pressures on men to avoid treatment, because “needing help” and going to therapy seem incompatible with the idea of being “strong” and independent, key aspects of the male gender role.
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Mental health treatment compared to physical
still have a long way to go before mental illnesses are viewed in the same way as physical ailments
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Two main barriers to mental illness treatment are about access
whether people can afford the money and the time.
- ->government health-care coverage in Canada generally only includes treatment by psychiatrists, leaving counsellors, psychologists, and many types of therapists less able to reach many people who can’t afford their services.
- ->Most money flows toward the pharmaceutical industries and hospitals, and medically-based treatments retain their dominance over the field.
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Involuntary treatment:
people are required (that is, forced) to enter the mental health system against their free will.
-->supporters of involuntary treatment continue to point to its apparent benefits for some people, whereas opponents point to its apparent cost for others
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what does the type of treatment depend on
- -> type of treatment people receive depends on several factors, including their age, the type and severity of the disorder, and the existence of any legal issues and concerns that coincide with the need for treatment.
- -> different types of care tend to be delivered by professionals with different training and skill sets
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Empirically supported treatments:
treatments that have been tested and evaluated
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Evaluating Treatment
- ->most rigorous way of testing whether a certain therapy works is through an experiment
- -> double-blind so that neither the patient nor the individual evaluating the patient is aware of which treatment the patient is receiving.
- ->very difficult to adequately test the effectiveness of many therapeutic approaches to the rigorous extent required for empirical support.
