PSYCH final

becoming an informed consumer "dieting and losing weight successfully"

-Although 60% of the people in the United States say they want to lose weight, it's a losing battle for most of them. Most people who diet eventually regain the weight they lost, so they try again and get caught in a seemingly endless cycle of weight loss and gain (Parker-Pope, 2003; Cachelin & Regan, 2006). PsychTech -Wireless monitoring systems that track what dieters eat and how much they exercise help them to increase self-monitoring, one of the keys to effective weight loss. -You should keep several things in mind when trying to lose weight (Heshka et al., 2003; Freedman & Waldrop, 2011): -There is no easy route to weight control. You will have to make permanent changes in your life to lose weight without gaining it back. The most obvious strategy—cutting down on the amount of food you eat—is just the first step toward a lifetime commitment to changing your eating habits. -Page 287Keep track of what you eat and what you weigh. Unless you keep careful records, you won't really know how much you are eating and whether any diet is working. -Eat "big" foods. Eat fiber and foods that are bulky and heavy but low in calories, such as grapes and soup. Such foods trick your body into thinking you've eaten more and thus decrease hunger. -Cut out television. One reason for the epidemic of obesity is the number of hours people in the United States spend viewing television. Not only does watching television preclude other activities that burn calories (even walking around the house is helpful), people often gorge on junk food while watching TV (Hu et al., 2003). -Exercise. Exercise at least 30 consecutive minutes three times each week. When you exercise, you use up fat stored in your body as fuel for muscles, which is measured in calories. As you use up this fat, you will probably lose weight. Almost any activity helps burn calories. -Decrease the influence of external social stimuli on your eating behavior. Serve yourself smaller portions of food, and leave the table before you see what is being served for dessert. Don't even buy snack foods such as nachos and potato chips; if they're not readily available in the kitchen cupboard, you're not apt to eat them. Wrap refrigerated foods in aluminum foil so that you cannot see the contents and be tempted every time you open the refrigerator. -Avoid fad diets. No matter how popular they are at a particular time, extreme diets, including liquid diets, usually don't work in the long run and can be dangerous to your health. -Avoid taking any of the numerous diet pills advertised on television that promise quick and easy results. They don't work. -Lose weight with others by joining a support group. Being part of a group that is working to lose weight will encourage you to keep to your diet. -Maintain good eating habits. When you have reached your desired weight, maintain the new habits you learned while dieting to avoid gaining back the weight you have lost. -Set reasonable goals. Know how much weight you want to lose before you start to diet. Don't try to lose too much weight too quickly, or you may doom yourself to failure. Even small changes in behavior—such as walking 15 minutes a day or eating a few less bites at each meal—can prevent weight gain

anorexia nervosa/bulimia

-Eating disorders are among the 10 most frequent causes of disability in young women. One devastating weight-related disorder is anorexia nervosa. In this severe eating disorder, people may refuse to eat while denying that their behavior and appearance—which can become skeletonlike—are unusual. Some 10% of people with anorexia literally starve themselves to death (Striegel-Moore & Bulik, 2007; Arcelus et al., 2011). -Anorexia nervosa mainly afflicts females between the ages of 12 and 40, although both men and women of any age may develop it. People with the disorder are often successful, attractive, and relatively affluent. The disorder often begins after serious dieting, which somehow gets out of control. Life begins to revolve around food: Although people with the disorder eat little, they may cook for others, go shopping for food frequently, or collect cookbooks (Polivy, Herman, & Boivin, 2005; Myers, 2007; Jacobs et al., 2009). -A related problem, bulimia, from which Lisa Arndt (described earlier) suffered, is a disorder in which people binge on large quantities of food. For instance, they may consume an entire gallon of ice cream and a whole pie in a single sitting. After such a binge, sufferers feel guilt and depression and often induce vomiting or take laxatives to rid themselves of the food—behavior known as purging. Constant binging-and-purging cycles and the use of drugs to induce vomiting or diarrhea can lead to heart failure. Often, though, the weight of a person with bulimia remains normal

need for affiliation

-Few of us choose to lead our lives as hermits. Why? -One main reason is that most people have a need for affiliation, an interest in establishing and maintaining relationships with other people. Individuals with a high Page 294need for affiliation write TAT stories that emphasize the desire to maintain or reinstate friendships and show concern over being rejected by friends. -People who have higher affiliation needs are particularly sensitive to relationships with others. They desire to be with their friends more of the time and alone less often, compared with people who are lower in the need for affiliation. However, gender is a greater determinant of how much time is actually spent with friends: Regardless of their affiliative orientation, female students spend significantly more time with their friends and less time alone than male students do

male/female, the need for power

-If your fantasies include becoming president of the United States or running Microsoft, your dreams may reflect a high need for power. The need for power, a tendency to seek impact, control, or influence over others and to be seen as a powerful individual, is an additional type of motivation (Winter, 2007; Zians, 2007; Pratto et al., 2011). -As you might expect, people with strong needs for power are more apt to belong to organizations and seek office than are those low in the need for power. They also tend to work in professions in which their power needs may be fulfilled, such as business management and—you may or may not be surprised—teaching (Jenkins, 1994). In addition, they seek to display the trappings of power. Even in college, they are more likely to collect prestigious possessions, such as electronic equipment and sports cars. -Some significant gender differences exist in the display of need for power. Men with high power needs tend to show unusually high levels of aggression, drink heavily, act in a sexually exploitative manner, and participate more frequently in competitive sports—behaviors that collectively represent somewhat extravagant, flamboyant behavior. In contrast, women display their power needs with more restraint; this is congruent with traditional societal constraints on women's behavior. Women with high power needs are more apt than men to channel those needs in a socially responsible manner, such as by showing concern for others or displaying highly nurturing behavior

functions of emotions

-Imagine what it would be like if we didn't experience emotion. We would have no depths of despair, no depression, and no remorse, but at the same time we would also have no happiness, joy, or love. Obviously, life would be considerably less satisfying and even dull if we lacked the capacity to sense and express emotion. -But do emotions serve any purpose beyond making life interesting? Indeed they do. Psychologists have identified several important functions that emotions play in our daily lives (Gross, 2006; Siemer, Mauss, & Gross, 2007; Rolls, 2011). Among the most important of those functions are the following: -Preparing us for action. Emotions act as a link between events in our environment and our responses to them. For example, if you saw an angry dog charging toward you, your emotional reaction (fear) would be associated with physiological arousal of the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system, the activation of the "fight-or-flight" response. -Shaping our future behavior. Emotions promote learning that will help us make appropriate responses in the future. For instance, your emotional response to unpleasant events teaches you to avoid similar circumstances in the future. -Helping us interact more effectively with others. We often communicate the emotions we experience through our verbal and nonverbal behaviors, making our emotions obvious to observers. These behaviors can act as signals to observers, allowing them to understand better what we are experiencing and to help them predict our future behavior.

explaining motivation, aron ralston

-In just a moment, 27-year-old Aron Ralston's life changed. An 800-pound boulder dislodged in a narrow canyon where Ralston was hiking in an isolated Utah canyon, pinning his lower arm to the ground. -For the next five days, Ralston lay trapped, unable to escape. An experienced climber who had search-and-rescue training, he had ample time to consider his options. He tried unsuccessfully to chip away at the rock, and he rigged up ropes and pulleys around the boulder in a vain effort to move it. -Finally, out of water and nearly dehydrated, Ralston reasoned there was only one option left short of dying. In acts of incredible bravery, Ralston broke two bones in his wrist, applied a tourniquet, and used a dull pen knife to amputate his arm beneath the elbow. -Freed from his entrapment, Ralston climbed out from where he had been pinned and then hiked five miles to safety (Cox, 2003; Lofholm, 2003). -What factors lay behind Ralston's resolve? -To answer this question, psychologists employ the concept of motivation, the factors that direct and energize the behavior of humans and other organisms. Motivation has biological, cognitive, and social aspects, and the complexity of the concept has led psychologists to develop a variety of approaches. All seek to explain the energy that guides people's behavior in specific directions.

maslow's model

-The basic needs are primary drives: needs for water, food, sleep, sex, and the like. To move up the hierarchy, a person must first meet these basic physiological needs. Safety needs come next in the hierarchy; Maslow suggests that people need a safe, secure environment in order to function effectively. Physiological and safety needs compose the lower-order needs. -Only after meeting the basic lower-order needs can a person consider fulfilling higher-order needs, such as the needs for love and a sense of belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Love and belongingness needs include the needs to obtain and give affection and to be a contributing member of some group or society. After fulfilling these needs, a person strives for esteem. In Maslow's thinking, esteem is the result of understanding that others recognize and value one's competence. -After these four sets of needs are fulfilled—no easy task—a person is able to strive for the highest-level need, self-actualization. Self-actualization is a state of self-fulfillment Page 277in which people realize their highest potentials in their own unique way.

exploring diversity "hucksters of death: promoting smoking throughout the world/world health organization statistics"

A Jeep decorated with the Camel logo pulls up to a high school in Buenos Aires. A woman begins handing out free cigarettes to 15- and 16-year-olds during their lunch recess. At a video arcade in Taipei, free American cigarettes are strewn atop each game. At a disco filled with high school students, free packs of Salems are on each table (Ecenbarger, 1993, p. 50). Page 416 In some countries, children as young as 6 smoke regularly. Source: © Reza/Webistan/Corbis Because the number of smokers has steadily declined in the United States, cigarette manufacturers have turned their sights to other parts of the world, where they see a fertile market for their product. Although they must often sell cigarettes more cheaply than they do in the United States, the huge number of potential smokers still makes it financially worthwhile for the tobacco companies. The United States is now the world's largest exporter of cigarettes (Bartecchi, MacKenzie, & Schrier, 1995; Brown, 2001). Clearly, the push into worldwide markets has been successful. In some Latin American cities, as many as 50% of teenagers smoke. Children as young as age 7 smoke in Hong Kong; 30% of children smoked their first whole cigarette before the age of 10 in India, Ghana, Jamaica, and Poland. The World Health Organization predicts that smoking will prematurely kill some 200 million of the world's children and that ultimately 10% of the world's population will die as a result of smoking. Of everyone alive today, 500 million will eventually die from tobacco use (Mackay & Eriksen, 2002). One reason for the increase in smoking in developing countries is that their governments make little effort to discourage it. In fact, many governments are in the tobacco business themselves and rely on revenues from tobacco. For example, the world's largest manufacturer of cigarettes is the China National Tobacco Corporation, which is owned by the Chinese government

b.f. skinner behaviorist approach

According to the most influential learning theorist, B. F. Skinner (who carried out pioneering work on operant conditioning), personality is a collection of learned behavior patterns (Skinner, 1975). Similarities in responses across different situations are caused by similar patterns of reinforcement that have been received in such situations Page 378in the past. If I am sociable both at parties and at meetings, it is because I have been reinforced for displaying social behaviors—not because I am fulfilling an unconscious wish based on experiences during my childhood or because I have an internal trait of sociability. Learning theorists such as Skinner are less interested in the consistencies in behavior across situations than in ways of modifying behavior. To a learning theorist who subscribes to Skinner's view, humans are infinitely changeable through the process of learning new behavior patterns. If we are able to control and modify the patterns of reinforcers in a situation, behavior that other theorists would view as stable and unyielding can be changed and ultimately improved. Learning theorists are optimistic in their attitudes about the potential for resolving personal and societal problems through treatment strategies based on learning theory.

altruism

After determining the nature of the assistance needed, the actual help must be implemented. A rewards-costs analysis suggests that we are most likely to use the least costly form of implementation. However, this is not always the case: In some situations, the help that is provided shows altruism. Altruism is behavior meant to help another without regard for self-interest. It is putting the welfare of others above oneself. For example, we can see altruism in soldiers who risk their own lives to save another soldier who is wounded; a woman who jumps into an icy pond to save a drowning stranger; and everyday people who put themselves at mortal risk to help strangers escape from the burning World Trade Center towers during the 9/11 terrorist attack

becoming an informed consumer "deciding when you need help"

After you've considered the range and variety of psychological disturbances that can afflict people, you may begin to feel that you suffer from one (or more) of the problems we have discussed. In fact, this perception has a name: medical student's disease. Although in this case it might more aptly be labeled "psychology student's disease," the basic symptoms are the same: feeling that you suffer from the same sorts of problems you are studying. Most often, of course, your concerns will be unwarranted. As we have discussed, the differences between normal and abnormal behavior are often so fuzzy that it is easy to jump to the conclusion that you might have the same symptoms that are involved in serious forms of mental disturbance. Before coming to such a conclusion, though, keep in mind that from time to time we all experience a wide range of emotions, and it is not unusual to feel deeply unhappy, fantasize about bizarre situations, or feel anxiety about life's circumstances. It is the persistence, depth, and consistency of such behavior that set normal reactions apart from abnormal ones. If you have not previously had serious doubts about the normality of your behavior, it is unlikely that reading about others' psychological disorders will prompt you to re-evaluate your earlier conclusion. On the other hand, many people do have problems that merit concern, and in such cases, it is important to consider the possibility that professional help is warranted. The following list of symptoms can serve as a guideline to help you determine whether outside intervention might be useful (Engler & Goleman, 1992): Long-term feelings of distress that interfere with your sense of well-being, competence, and ability to function effectively in daily activities Occasions in which you experience overwhelmingly high stress accompanied by feelings of inability to cope with the situation Prolonged depression or feelings of hopelessness, especially when they do not have any clear cause (such as the death of someone close) Withdrawal from other people Thoughts of inflicting harm on oneself or suicide A chronic physical problem for which no physical cause can be determined A fear or phobia that prevents you from engaging in everyday activities Feelings that other people are out to get you or are talking about and plotting against you Inability to interact effectively with others, preventing the development of friendships and loving relationships This list offers a rough set of guidelines for determining when the normal problems of everyday living have escalated beyond your ability to deal with them by yourself. In such situations, the least reasonable approach would be to pore over the psychological disorders we have discussed in an attempt at self-diagnosis. A more reasonable strategy is to consider seeking professional help.

applying psychology "are college student psychological disorders on the rise?"

Almost all students find some aspects of college life stressful. Exams and assignments, making friends and building relationships, and learning to get along with your roommate are some of the classic struggles of college life. Beyond that, there are also the many big adjustments of learning to be independent, from managing a budget to dealing with a college bureaucracy and handling life's little emergencies on one's own. If college is an often stressful challenge for the average student, how well do students with mental disorders fare? It's an important question, as the number of college students dealing with mental health challenges has been increasing. An ongoing survey of many thousands of U.S. college students found that 10.2% reported being diagnosed or treated for depression and 10.4% for anxiety in 2008, and that those percentages grew to 13.2% and 15.8%, respectively, in 2015. Panic attacks also rose from 5.1% to 7.7% and ADHD from 3.6% to 5.6% among college students over that same period (American College Health Association, 2015). The specific reason for the rising rates of these mental disorders among college students is unclear, but one possibility is that improvements in mental health care, including more effective drugs, may be helping to make college accessible to more young people with mental disorders. So more people come to college with psychological disorders than did in the past. College counseling centers have seen a rise in the number of students with mental disorders, although the source of this increased usage is not clear. Source: © GIPhotoStock X/Alamy Another possibility explaining the uptick in psychological disorders is that efforts to increase awareness have lowered the stigma surrounding mental illness, and college students are less concerned about reporting a mental illness than they were in the past. Furthermore, colleges may be doing a better job of helping distressed young people recognize their need for mental health services and get treatment (Petersen, 2015). One concern is that even when a psychological disorder is being treated, relapse is a problem. For instance, a recent study found that nearly half of those who had been successfully treated for anxiety disorders ultimately experienced relapses. It may be that the additional stressors of college produced the relapses (Ginsburg et al., 2014). What can college students with psychological disorders do to help ensure a smooth transition to college life before they start college? One suggestion is to start practicing independence well ahead of the actual transition to college. For instance, they can acquire important life skills, such as making travel arrangements or taking their cars in for repairs without parental assistance. When independence feels familiar and students have acquired the skills and confidence for coping on their own, the transition to college is likely to be much less rocky

anti-anxiety drugs

As the name implies, antianxiety drugs reduce the level of anxiety a person experiences and increase feelings of well-being. They are prescribed not only to reduce general tension in people who are experiencing temporary difficulties, but also to aid in the treatment of more serious anxiety disorders (Zito, 1993). Antianxiety drugs such as alprazolam and Valium are among the medications physicians most frequently prescribe. In fact, more than half of all U.S. families have someone who has taken such a drug at one time or another. Although the popularity of antianxiety drugs suggests that they hold few risks, they can produce a number of potentially serious side effects. For instance, they can cause fatigue, and long-term use can lead to dependence. Moreover, when taken in combination with alcohol, some antianxiety drugs can be lethal. But a more important issue concerns their use to suppress anxiety. Almost every therapeutic approach to psychological disturbance views continuing anxiety as a signal of some other sort of problem. Thus, drugs that mask anxiety may simply be hiding other difficulties. Consequently, rather than confronting their underlying problems, people may be hiding from them through the use of antianxiety drugs.

antidepressant drugs

As their name suggests, antidepressant drugs are a class of medications used in cases of severe depression to improve a patient's mood and feeling of well-being. They are also sometimes used for other disorders, such as anxiety disorders and bulimia (Walsh et al., 2006; Hedges et al., 2007). Study Alert To help organize your study of different drugs used in therapy, review Figure 1, which classifies them according to the categories of antipsychotic, atypical antipsychotic, antidepressant, mood-stabilizing, and antianxiety drugs. Most antidepressant drugs work by changing the concentration of specific neurotransmitters in the brain. For example, tricyclic drugs increase the availability of norepinephrine at the synapses of neurons, whereas MAO inhibitors prevent the enzyme monoamine oxidase (MAO) from breaking down neurotransmitters. Newer antidepressants—such as Lexapro—are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). SSRIs target the neurotransmitter serotonin and permit it to linger at the synapse. Some antidepressants produce a combination of effects. For instance, nefazodone (Serzone) blocks serotonin at some receptor sites but not others, while bupropion (Wellbutrin and Zyban) affects the norepinephrine and dopamine systems (see Figure 2) (Lucki & O'Leary, 2004; Robinson, 2007; Dhillon, Yang, & Curran, 2008). FIGURE 2 In (a), selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) reduce depression by permitting the neurotransmitter serotonin to remain in the synapse. In (b), a newer antidepressant, nefazodone (Serzone), operates more selectively to block serotonin at some sites but not others, which helps to reduce the side effects of the drug. (Source: Adapted from Mischoulon, 2000.) Finally, there are some newer drugs on the horizon. For instance, scientists have found that the anesthetic ketamine blocks the neural receptor NMDA, which affects the neurotransmitter glutamate. Glutamate plays an important role in mood regulation and the ability to experience pleasure, and researchers believe that ketamine blockers may prove to be useful in the treatment of depression (Skolnick, Popik, & Trullas, 2009; Schwartzmant, Alexander, & Grothusen, 2011).Page 486 The drug fluoxetine, commonly known as Prozac, is a widely prescribed antidepressant. Source: © McGraw-Hill Education/Jill Braaten, photographer The overall success rates of antidepressant drugs are good. In fact, antidepressants can produce lasting, long-term recovery from depression. In many cases, even after patients stop taking the drugs, their depression does not return. On the other hand, antidepressant drugs may produce side effects such as drowsiness and faintness, and there is evidence that SSRI antidepressants can increase the risk of suicide in children and adolescents (Leckman & King, 2007; Olfson & Marcus, 2008; Prus et al., 2015). Consumers spend billions of dollars each year on antidepressant drugs. Ten percent of Americans now take antidepressants, and for women in their 40s and 50s, the figure is 25%. In particular, the antidepressant fluoxetine, sold under the trade name Prozac, has been highlighted on magazine covers and has been the topic of best-selling books (Rabin, 2013). Does Prozac deserve its acclaim? In some respects, yes. It is effective and has relatively few side effects. Furthermore, many people who do not respond to other types of antidepressants do well on Prozac. On the other hand, 20% to 30% of users report experiencing nausea and diarrhea, and a smaller number report sexual dysfunctions (Kramer, 1993; Brambilla et al., 2005; Fenter, 2006). Another substance that has received a great deal of publicity is St. John's wort, an herb that some have called a "natural" antidepressant. Although it is widely used in Europe for the treatment of depression, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers it a dietary supplement, and therefore the substance is available here without a prescription. Despite the popularity of St. John's wort, definitive clinical tests have found that the herb is ineffective in the treatment of depression. However, because some research shows that the herb successfully reduces certain psychological symptoms, some proponents argue that using it is reasonable. In any case, people should not use St. John's wort to medicate themselves without consulting a mental health-care professional

dealing effectively with anger/social psychology

At one time or another, almost everyone feels angry. The anger may result from a frustrating situation, or it may be due to another individual's behavior. The way we deal with anger may determine the difference between a promotion and a lost job or a broken relationship and one that mends itself. Social psychologists who have studied the topic suggest several good strategies to deal with anger that maximize the potential for positive consequences (Ellis, 2000; Nelson & Finch, 2000; Bernstein, 2011). Among the most useful strategies are the following: Calm down. Take a walk or engage in some other physical activity in order to cool down your emotional arousal. Look again at the anger-provoking situation from the perspective of others. By taking others' points of view, you may be able to understand the situation better, and with increased understanding you may become more tolerant of the apparent shortcomings of others. Minimize the importance of the situation. Does it really matter that someone is driving too slowly and that you'll be late to an appointment as a result? Reinterpret the situation in a way that is less bothersome. Use language effectively by saying "I," not "you." Don't say "You did _______ wrong." Instead, say "I felt hurt when you did _______ ." When you accuse people of being wrong, they are likely to feel the need to fight back. Fantasize about getting even—but don't act on it. Fantasy provides a safety valve. In your fantasies, you can yell at that unfair professor all you want and suffer no consequences at all. However, don't spend too much time brooding: Fantasize, but then move on. Relax. By teaching yourself the relaxation techniques used in systematic desensitization (discussed in the module on treatment of psychological disorders), you can help reduce your reactions to anger. In turn, your anger may dissipate. No matter which of these strategies you try, above all, don't ignore your anger. People who always try to suppress their anger may experience a variety of consequences, such as self-condemnation, frustration, and even physical illness

becoming an informed consumer "adjusting to death" dr. kubler-ross

At some time in our lives, we all face death—certainly our own as well as the deaths of friends, loved ones, and even strangers. Although there is nothing more inevitable in life, death remains a frightening, emotion-laden topic. Certainly, little is more stressful than the death of a loved one or the contemplation of our own imminent death, and preparing for death is one of our most crucial developmental tasks (Aiken, 2000). A few generations ago, talk of death was taboo. The topic was never mentioned to dying people, and gerontologists had little to say about it. That changed, however, with the pioneering work of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1969), who brought the subject of death into the open with her observation that those facing impending death tend to move through five broad stages: Denial. In this stage, people resist the idea that they are dying. Even if told that their chances for survival are small, they refuse to admit that they are facing death. Anger. After moving beyond the denial stage, dying people become angry—angry at people around them who are in good health, angry at medical professionals for being ineffective, angry at God. Bargaining. Anger leads to bargaining in which the dying try to think of ways to postpone death. They may decide to dedicate their lives to religion if God saves them. They may say, "If only I can live to see my son married, I will accept death then." Depression. When dying people come to feel that bargaining is no use, they move to the next stage: depression. They realize that their lives really are coming to an end, which leads to what Kübler-Ross calls "preparatory grief" for their own deaths. Acceptance. In this stage, people accept impending death. Usually they are unemotional and uncommunicative; it is as if they have made peace with themselves and are expecting death with no bitterness. Although Kübler-Ross believed that all people go through the stages in a similar fashion, research shows that not everyone experiences each of the stages in the same way. In fact, Kübler-Ross's stages are applicable only to people who are fully aware that they are dying and have the time to evaluate their impending death. Furthermore, vast differences occur in the way individuals react to impending death. The specific cause and duration of dying, as well as the person's sex, age, personality, and the type of support received from family and friends, all have an impact on how people respond to death (Carver & Scheier, 2002; Coyle, 2006). Few of us enjoy the contemplation of death. Yet awareness of its psychological aspects and consequences can make its inevitable arrival less anxiety producing and perhaps more understandable.

applying psychology "is there a new smoking epidemic in the making? how teenagers are turning to e-cigarettes"

At the same time cigarette smoking rates have been falling over the last decades in the U.S., a potential new health threat has exploded in popularity: the use of e-cigarettes. These electronic devices use a heating element to convert a nicotine-containing liquid, which often also contains a candy-like flavoring, into a vapor that is inhaled—a habit that is often called "vaping." The lack of smoke and its associated odor and other harmful properties, the variety of flavors, and the growing view that they are cool has made them particularly appealing to teenagers. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that e-cigarette use among middle- and high-school age youth tripled between 2013 and 2014, surpassing use of every other form of tobacco among those age groups (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015; Tavernise, 2015). The trend is worrisome because although e-cigarettes do not contain the tar and other toxic chemicals found in cigarette smoke, the nicotine itself is harmful to developing adolescent brains and is an addictive substance that can become a long-term habit. Ninety percent of all smokers began smoking as teenagers, and three-quarters of teen smokers continue the habit into adulthood (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). Researchers disagree as to whether e-cigarettes serve as a gateway to other kinds of tobacco use. Source: © Phanie/Alamy Because they are so new, little is known about the long-term effects of using e-cigarettes. Teenagers who have a clear understanding of the risks of cigarette smoking are often unsure about the risks of using e-cigarettes, and instead they point to benefits such as looking cool and being trendy, and the flavorings. Not surprisingly, teens who perceive e-cigarettes as being less harmful than are other forms of tobacco are more likely to use them, even if they have never tried any form of tobacco before. No clear consensus has emerged among researchers about whether e-cigarette use is acting as a gateway to other tobacco use or is in fact helping teens kick the cigarette habit. It will be some time before we fully understand the implications of the increasing use of e-cigarettes

attachment

Attachment, the positive emotional bond that develops between a child and a particular individual, is the most important form of social development that occurs during infancy. The earliest studies of attachment were carried out by animal ethologist Konrad Lorenz (1966). Lorenz focused on newborn goslings, which under normal circumstances instinctively follow their mother, the first moving object they perceive after birth. Lorenz found that goslings whose eggs were raised in an incubator and that viewed him immediately after hatching would follow his every movement as if he were their mother. He labeled this process imprinting, behavior that takes place during a critical period and involves attachment to the first moving object that is observed. Our understanding of attachment progressed when psychologist Harry Harlow, in a classic study, gave infant monkeys the choice of cuddling a wire "monkey" that provided milk or a soft, terry-cloth "monkey" that was warm but did not provide milk. Their choice was clear: They spent most of their time clinging to the warm cloth "monkey," although they made occasional forays to the wire monkey to nurse. Obviously, the cloth monkey provided greater comfort to the infants; milk alone was insufficient to create attachment

background stressors

Background stressors, or more informally, daily hassles, are the third major category of stressors. Exemplified by standing in a long line at a bank and getting stuck Page 400in a traffic jam, daily hassles are the minor irritations of life that we all face time and time again. Another type of background stressor is a long-term, chronic problem, such as experiencing dissatisfaction with school or a job, being in an unhappy relationship, or living in crowded quarters without privacy (Weinstein et al., 2004; McIntyre, Korn, & Matsuo, 2008; Barke, 2011). By themselves, daily hassles do not require much coping or even a response on the individual's part, although they certainly produce unpleasant emotions and moods. Yet, daily hassles add up—and ultimately they may take as great of a toll as a single, more stressful incident. In fact, the number of daily hassles people face is associated with psychological symptoms and health problems such as flu, sore throat, and backaches.

defining abnormality/various definitions

Because of the difficulty in distinguishing normal from abnormal behavior, psychologists have struggled to devise a precise, scientific definition of "abnormal behavior." For instance, consider the following definitions, each of which has advantages and disadvantages: Study Alert Remember the different definitions of abnormality (deviation from the average, deviation from the ideal, a sense of personal discomfort, inability to function effectively, and abnormality as a legal concept). Abnormality as deviation from the average. According to this definition, behaviors that are unusual or rare in a society or culture are considered abnormal. It is basically a statistical definition: If most people behave in a certain way, it is viewed as normal; if only a few people do it, it is considered abnormal. The difficulty with this definition is that some statistically unusual behaviors hardly seem abnormal. If most people eat meat, but you are a vegetarian, this deviation from the average hardly makes your behavior abnormal. Similarly, such a concept of abnormality would unreasonably label a person who has an unusually high IQ as abnormal simply because a high IQ is statistically rare. In short, a definition of abnormality that rests on deviation from the average is insufficient. Abnormality as deviation from the ideal. An alternative definition of abnormality considers behavior in relation to some kind of ideal or morally appropriate standard toward which most people are striving. This sort of definition considers behavior abnormal if it is different from what society considers ideal behavior or some moral standard. However, society has few ideals on which people universally agree. (For example, it would be hard to find agreement on whether the New Testament, the Koran, the Talmud, or the Book of Mormon provides the most appropriate ideal behavior.) Furthermore, standards that do arise change over time and vary across cultures. Thus, the deviation-from-the-ideal approach is also inadequate. Abnormality as a sense of personal discomfort. A more useful definition concentrates on the psychological consequences of the behavior for the individual. In this Page 428approach, behavior is considered abnormal if it produces a sense of personal distress, anxiety, or guilt in an individual—or if it is harmful to others in some way. However, even a definition that relies on personal discomfort has drawbacks. For example, in some especially severe forms of mental disturbance, people report feeling wonderful, even though their behavior seems bizarre to others. In such cases, a person feels fine, although most people would consider the behavior abnormal. Similarly, most of us would think that a woman who says she hears uplifting messages from Martians would be displaying abnormal behavior even though she may say that the messages make her feel happy. Abnormality as the inability to function effectively. Most people are able to feed themselves, hold a job, get along with others, and in general live as productive members of society. Yet there are those who are unable to adjust to the demands of society or function effectively. According to this view of abnormality, people who are unable to function effectively and to adapt to the demands of society are considered abnormal. For example, an unemployed, homeless woman living on the street may be considered unable to function effectively. Therefore, her behavior can be viewed as abnormal even if she has chosen to live this way. Her inability to adapt to the requirements of society is what makes her "abnormal," according to this approach. Abnormality as a legal concept. According to the jury that first heard her case, Andrea Yates, a woman who drowned her five children in a bathtub, was sane. She was sentenced to life in prison for her act. Although you might question this view (and a later appeals jury overturned the conviction), the initial verdict reflected the way in which the law defines abnormal behavior. To the judicial system, the distinction between normal and abnormal behavior rests on the definition of insanity, which is a legal but not a psychological term. The definition of insanity varies from one jurisdiction to another. In some states, insanity simply means that defendants cannot understand the difference between right and wrong at the time they commit a criminal act. Other states consider whether defendants are substantially incapable of understanding the criminality of their behavior or unable to control themselves. And in some jurisdictions, pleas of insanity are not allowed at all (Sokolove, 2003; Ferguson & Ogloff, 2011; Reisner, Piel, & Makey, 2013). Andrea Yates, who initially was found sane by a jury despite having drowned her five children in a bathtub, was later found innocent due to insanity. Source: © Brett Coomer, Pool/AP Images Clearly, none of the previous definitions is broad enough to cover all instances of abnormal behavior. Consequently, the distinction between normal and abnormal behavior often remains ambiguous even to trained professionals. Furthermore, to a large extent, cultural expectations for "normal" behavior in a particular society influence the understanding of "abnormal behavior" (Sanderson, 2007). Given the difficulties in precisely defining the construct, psychologists typically use a broad definition of abnormal behavior. Specifically, abnormal behavior is behavior that causes people to experience distress and prevents them from functioning in their daily lives

behavioral perspective

Both the medical and psychoanalytic perspectives look at abnormal behaviors as symptoms of an underlying problem. In contrast, the behavioral perspective looks at the rewards and punishments in the environment that determine abnormal behavior. It views the disordered behavior itself as the problem. Using the basic principles of learning, behavioral theorists see both normal and abnormal behaviors as responses to various stimuli—responses that have been learned through past experience and are guided in the present by stimuli in the individual's environment. To explain why abnormal behavior occurs, we must analyze how an individual has learned it and observe the circumstances in which it is displayed. The emphasis on observable behavior represents both the greatest strength and the greatest weakness of the behavioral approach to abnormal behavior. This perspective provides the most precise and objective approach for examining behavioral symptoms of specific disorders, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which we discuss in a later module. At the same time, though, critics charge that the perspective ignores the rich inner world of thoughts, attitudes, and emotions that may contribute to abnormal behavior.

exploring diversity "racial and ethnic factors in treatment" color blind

Consider the following case report written by a school counselor about Jimmy Jones, a 12-year-old student who was referred to a counselor because of his lack of interest in schoolwork: Jimmy does not pay attention, daydreams often, and frequently falls asleep during class. There is a strong possibility that Jimmy is harboring repressed rage that needs to be ventilated and dealt with. His inability to directly express his anger had led him to adopt passive-aggressive means of expressing hostility, i.e., inattentiveness, daydreaming, falling asleep. It is recommended that Jimmy be seen for intensive counseling to discover the basis of the anger. (Sue & Sue, 1990) The counselor was wrong, however. Rather than suffering from "repressed rage," Jimmy lived in a poverty-stricken and disorganized home. Because of overcrowding at his house, he did not get enough sleep and consequently was tired the next day. Frequently, he was also hungry. In short, the stresses arising from his environment and not any deep-seated psychological disturbances caused his problems. This incident underscores the importance of taking people's environmental and cultural backgrounds into account during treatment for psychological disorders. In particular, Page 482members of racial and ethnic minority groups, especially those who are also poor, may behave in ways that help them deal with a society that discriminates against them. As a consequence, behavior that may signal psychological disorder in middle-class and upper-class whites may simply be adaptive in people from other racial and socioeconomic groups. For instance, characteristically suspicious and distrustful people may be displaying a survival strategy to protect themselves from psychological and physical injury rather than suffering from a psychological disturbance (Paniagua, 2000; Tseng, 2003; Pottick et al., 2007). Therapists' interpretation of their clients' behavior is influenced by racial, ethnic, cultural, and social class backgrounds of the clients. Source: © Image Source/Alamy RF In fact, therapists must question some basic assumptions of psychotherapy when dealing with racial, ethnic, and cultural minority group members. For example, compared with the dominant culture, Asian and Latino cultures typically place much greater emphasis on the group, family, and society. When an Asian or Latino faces a critical decision, the family helps make it—a cultural practice suggesting that family members should also play a role in psychological treatment. Similarly, the traditional Chinese recommendation for dealing with depression or anxiety is to urge people who experience such problems to avoid thinking about whatever is upsetting them. Consider how this advice contrasts with treatment approaches that emphasize the value of insight (Ponterotto, Gretchen, & Chauhan, 2001; McCarthy, 2005; Leitner, 2007). Clearly, therapists cannot be "color blind." Instead, they must take into account the racial, ethnic, cultural, and social class backgrounds of their clients in determining the nature of a psychological disorder and the course of treatment

psychotherapy

Despite their diversity, approaches to treating psychological disorders fall into two main categories: psychologically based and biologically based therapies. Psychologically based therapy, or psychotherapy, is treatment in which a trained professional—a therapist—uses psychological techniques to help someone overcome psychological difficulties and disorders, resolve problems in living, or bring about personal growth. In psychotherapy, the goal is to produce psychological change in a person (called a "client" or "patient") through discussions and interactions with the therapist

prologue "still dashing at 100"

Don Pellman broke 27 seconds in the 100-meter dash at the San Diego Senior Olympics—a record for his age group. Not bad for a man who has lived 100 years. He also broke records in shot-put, discus, the long jump, and the high jump. His only disappointment came when he failed to break the pole vault record after three tries. His conclusion? He needs more practice. Although Pellman wears a hearing aid, he shows very little bone or muscle degeneration—certainly far less than most of his peer group. A gymnast and high jumper in college, Pellman cut short his athletic career to take a job during the Depression. When he retired in 1970, one of his children suggested he enter a masters track meet. He's been running ever since

ect - electroconvulsive therapy

First introduced in the 1930s, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a procedure used in the treatment of severe depression. In the procedure, an electric current of 70-150 volts is briefly administered to a patient's head, which causes a loss of consciousness and often causes seizures. Typically, health-care professionals sedate patients and give them muscle relaxants before administering the current; such preparations help reduce the intensity of muscle contractions produced during ECT. The typical patient receives about 10 ECT treatments in the course of a month, but some patients continue with maintenance treatments for months afterward (Greenberg & Kellner, 2005; Stevens & Harper, 2007). ECT is a controversial technique. Apart from the obvious distastefulness of a treatment that evokes images of electrocution, side effects occur frequently. For instance, after treatment patients often experience disorientation, confusion, and sometimes memory loss that may remain for months. Furthermore, ECT often does not produce long-term improvement; one study found that without follow-up medication, depression returned in most patients who had undergone ECT treatments. Finally, even when ECT does work, we do not know why, and some critics believe it may cause permanent brain damage (Gardner & O'Connor, 2008; Kato, 2009; Weiner & Falcone, 2011). Page 488In light of the drawbacks to ECT, why do therapists use it at all? Basically, they use it because in many severe cases of depression, it offers the only quickly effective treatment. For instance, it may prevent depressed, suicidal individuals from committing suicide, and it can act more quickly than antidepressive medications.

defense mechanisms

Freud's efforts to describe and theorize about the underlying dynamics of personality and its development were motivated by very practical problems that his patients faced in dealing with anxiety, an intense, negative emotional experience. According to Freud, Page 368anxiety is a danger signal to the ego. Although anxiety can arise from realistic fears—such as seeing a poisonous snake about to strike—it can also occur in the form of neurotic anxiety in which irrational impulses emanating from the id threaten to burst through and become uncontrollable. Because anxiety is obviously unpleasant, Freud believed that people develop a range of ways to deal with it, which he called defense mechanisms. Defense mechanisms are unconscious strategies that people use to reduce anxiety by distorting reality and concealing the source of the anxiety from themselves. The primary defense mechanism is repression. Repression occurs when the ego pushes unacceptable or unpleasant thoughts and impulses out of consciousness but maintains them in the unconscious. Repression is the most direct method of dealing with anxiety; instead of handling an anxiety-producing impulse on a conscious level, we simply ignore it. For example, a college student who feels hatred for his mother may repress those personally and socially unacceptable feelings. The feelings remain lodged within the unconscious because acknowledging them would provoke anxiety. Similarly, memories of childhood abuse may be repressed. Although such memories may not be consciously recalled, according to Freud they can affect later behavior, and they may be revealed through dreams or slips of the tongue or symbolically in some other fashion.

groupthink

Groupthink is a type of thinking in which group members share such a strong motivation to achieve consensus that they lose the ability to critically evaluate alternative points of view. Groupthink is most likely to occur when a popular or powerful leader is surrounded by people of lower status—which is obviously the case with any U.S. president and his advisers but is also true for leaders in a variety of other organizations

health psychology

Health psychology investigates the psychological factors related to wellness and illness, including the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of medical problems. Health psychologists investigate the effects of psychological factors such as stress on illness. They examine the psychological principles underlying treatments for disease and illness. They also study prevention: how healthier behavior can help people avoid and reduce health problems such as stress and heart disease. Health psychologists take a decisive stand on the enduring mind-body issue that philosophers, and later, psychologists, have debated since the time of the ancient Greeks. In their view, the mind and the body are clearly linked rather than representing two distinct systems (Sternberg, 2000a; Dalal & Misra, 2006; Grosso, 2015). Health psychologists recognize that good health and the ability to cope with illness are affected by psychological factors such as thoughts, emotions, and the ability to manage stress. They have paid particular attention to the immune system, the complex system of organs, glands, and cells that constitute our bodies' natural line of defense in fighting disease.

becoming an informed consumer "effective coping strategies"

How can we deal with the stress in our lives? Although there is no universal solution because effective coping depends on the nature of the stressor and the degree to which it can be controlled, here are some general guidelines (Aspinwall & Taylor, 1997; Folkman & Moskowitz, 2000): Turn a threat into a challenge. When a stressful situation might be controllable, the best coping strategy is to treat the situation as a challenge and focus on ways to control it. For instance, if you experience stress because your car is always breaking down, you might take a course in auto mechanics and learn to deal directly with the car's problems. Make a threatening situation less threatening. When a stressful situation seems to be uncontrollable, you need to take a different approach. It is possible to change your appraisal of the situation, view it in a different light, and modify your attitude toward it. Research supports the old truism, "Look for the silver lining in every cloud" (Smith & Lazarus, 2001; Cheng & Cheung, 2005). Change your goals. If you are faced with an uncontrollable situation, a reasonable strategy is to adopt new goals that are practical in view of the particular situation. For example, a dancer who has been in an automobile accident and has lost full use of her legs may no longer aspire to a career in dance but might modify her goals and try to become a choreographer. Take direct action to alter your physiological reactions to stress. Changing your physiological reaction to stress can help with coping. For example, biofeedback (in which a person learns to control internal physiological processes through conscious thought) can alter basic physiological reactions to stress and permit the person to reduce blood pressure, heart rate, and other consequences of heightened stress. Exercise can also be effective in reducing stress (Langreth, 2000; Spencer et al., 2003; Hamer, Taylor, & Steptoe, 2006). Alter the situations that are likely to cause stress. A final strategy for coping with stress is proactive coping, anticipating and trying to head off stress before it is encountered. For example, if you're expecting to go through a 1-week period in which you must take a number of major tests, you can try to arrange your schedule so you have more time to study

reducing the consequences of prejudice and discrimination

How can we diminish the effects of prejudice and discrimination? Psychologists have developed several strategies that have proved effective. Increasing contact between the target of stereotyping and the holder of the stereotype. Research consistently shows that increasing the amount of interaction between people can reduce negative stereotyping. But only certain kinds of contact are likely to reduce prejudice and discrimination. Situations in which contact is relatively intimate, the individuals are of equal status, or participants must cooperate with one another or are dependent on one another are more likely to reduce stereotyping. On the other hand, even virtual contact via social media may be sufficient to improve intergroup relations (Tropp & Pettigrew, 2005; Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006; White, Harvey, & Abu-Rayya, 2015). Making values and norms against prejudice more conspicuous. Sometimes just reminding people about the values they already hold regarding equality and fair treatment of others is enough to reduce discrimination. Similarly, people who hear others making strong, vehement antiracist statements are subsequently more likely to strongly condemn racism (Ponterotto, Utsey, & Pedersen, 2006; Tropp & Bianchi, 2006; Rutland & Killen, 2015). Providing information about the targets of stereotyping. Probably the most direct means of changing stereotypical and discriminatory attitudes is education: Page 518teaching people to be more aware of the positive characteristics of targets of stereotyping. For instance, when the meaning of puzzling behavior is explained to people who hold stereotypes, they may come to appreciate the actual significance of the behavior (Isbell & Tyler, 2003; Banks, 2006; Nagda, Tropp, & Paluck, 2006). Reducing stereotype threat. Social psychologist Claude Steele suggests that many African Americans suffer from stereotype vulnerability, obstacles to performance that stem from their awareness of society's stereotypes regarding minority group members. He argues that African American students too often receive instruction from teachers who doubt their students' abilities and who set up remedial programs to assist their students. As a result of their teachers' (as well as society's) low expectations for their performance, African-American students may come to accept society's stereotypes and come to believe that they are likely to fail (Aronson & Steele, 2005; Nussbaum & Steele, 2007; Aronson & Dee, 2012). Such beliefs can have devastating effects. When confronted with an academic task, African-American students may fear that their performance will simply confirm society's negative stereotypes. The immediate consequence of this fear is anxiety that hampers performance. But the long-term consequences may be even worse: Doubting their ability to perform successfully in academic environments, African Americans may decide that the risks of failure are so great it is not worth the effort even to attempt to do well. Ultimately, they may "disidentify" with academic success by minimizing the importance of academic endeavors (Steele, 1997; Stone, 2002). However, Steele's analysis suggests that African Americans may be able to overcome their predicament. Specifically, schools can design intervention programs to train minority group members about their vulnerability to stereotypes and provide them with self-affirmation that reinforces their confidence in their abilities and thereby inoculates them against the fear and doubt triggered by negative stereotypes (Cohen et al., 2006; Wilson, 2006; Shnabel et al., 2013). Increasing the sense of social belonging of ethnic minority students. Although almost every college student faces feelings of inadequacy and uncertainty about belonging at the start of college, such feelings are especially strong for members of groups who are underrepresented and have been the targets of prejudice and discrimination. However, research shows that a simple intervention in which members of minority groups are made to understand that feelings of inadequacy are not unique to them—and that such feelings usually diminish with time—can help minority students increase their sense of social belonging

nature/nurture issue

How many bald, six-foot-six, 250-pound volunteer firefighters in New Jersey wear droopy mustaches, aviator-style eyeglasses, and a key ring on the right side of the belt? The answer is two: Gerald Levey and Mark Newman. They are twins who were separated at birth. Neither twin even knew the other existed until they were reunited—in a fire station—by a fellow firefighter who knew Newman and was startled to see his double, Levey, at a firefighters' convention. The lives of the twins, although separate, took remarkably similar paths. Levey went to college and studied forestry; Newman planned to study forestry in college but instead took a job trimming trees. Both had jobs in supermarkets. One had a job installing sprinkler systems; the other installed fire alarms. Both men are unmarried and find the same kind of woman—"tall, slender, long hair"—attractive. They share similar hobbies and enjoy hunting, fishing, going to the beach, and watching old John Wayne movies and professional wrestling. Both like Chinese food and drink the same brand of beer. Their mannerisms are also similar—for example, each one throws his head back when he laughs. And, of course, there is one more thing: They share a passion for fighting fires. The similarities we see in twins Gerald Levey and Mark Newman vividly raise one of the fundamental questions posed by developmental psychology, the study of the patterns of growth and change that occur throughout life. The question is this: How can we distinguish between the environmental causes of behavior (the influence of parents, siblings, family, friends, schooling, nutrition, and all the other experiences to which a child is exposed) and hereditary causes (those based on an individual's genetic makeup that influence growth and development throughout life)? This question embodies the nature-nurture issue. In this context, nature refers to hereditary factors, and nurture refers to environmental influences.

humanistic approach

Humanistic therapy is based on the premise that people have control of their behavior, that they can make choices about their lives, and that it is up to them to solve their own problems. Humanistic therapies, which take a nondirective approach, include person-centered therapy

personality disorder

I had always wanted lots of things; as a child I can remember wanting a bullet that a friend of mine had brought in to show the class. I took it and put it into my school bag and when my friend noticed it was missing, I was the one who stayed after school with him and searched the room, and I was the one who sat with him and bitched about the other kids and how one of them took his bullet. I even went home with him to help him break the news to his uncle, who had brought it home from the war for him. But that was petty compared with the stuff I did later. I wanted a Ph.D. very badly, but I didn't want to work very hard—just enough to get by. I never did the experiments I reported; hell, I was smart enough to make up the results. I knew enough about statistics to make anything look plausible. I got my master's degree without even spending one hour in a laboratory. I mean, the professors believed anything. I'd stay out all night drinking and being with my friends, and the next day I'd get in just before them and tell 'em I'd been in the lab all night. They'd actually feel sorry for me. (Duke & Nowicki, 1979.) This excerpt provides a graphic first-person account of a person with a personality disorder. A personality disorder is characterized by a set of inflexible, maladaptive behavior patterns that keep a person from functioning appropriately in society. Personality disorders differ from the other disorders we have discussed in that those affected by them typically have little sense of personal distress associated with the psychological maladjustment. In fact, people with personality disorders frequently lead seemingly normal lives. However, just below the surface lies a set of inflexible, maladaptive personality traits that prevent them from functioning effectively as members of society (Clarkin & Lenzenweger, 2004; Friedman, Oltmanns, & Turkheimer, 2007; Anderson et al., 2015). The best-known type of personality disorder, illustrated by the case above, is the antisocial personality disorder (sometimes referred to as a sociopathic personality). Individuals with this disturbance show no regard for the moral and ethical rules of society or the rights of others. Although they can appear quite intelligent and likable Page 452(at least at first), upon closer examination they turn out to be manipulative and deceptive. Moreover, they lack any guilt or anxiety about their wrongdoing. When those with antisocial personality disorder behave in a way that injures someone else, they understand intellectually that they have caused harm but feel no remorse (Goodwin & Hamilton, 2003; Hilarski, 2007; Bateman, 2011). Study Alert Unlike most psychological disorders, personality disorders produce little or no personal distress. People with antisocial personality disorder are often impulsive and lack the ability to withstand frustration. They can be extremely manipulative. They also may have excellent social skills; they can be charming, engaging, and highly persuasive. Some of the best con artists have antisocial personalities. What causes such an unusual constellation of problem behaviors? A variety of factors have been suggested ranging from an inability to experience emotions appropriately to problems in family relationships. For example, in many cases of antisocial behavior, the individual has come from a home in which a parent has died or left or one in which there is a lack of affection, a lack of consistency in discipline, or outright rejection. Other explanations concentrate on sociocultural factors, because an unusually high proportion of people with antisocial personalities come from lower socioeconomic groups. Still, no one has been able to pinpoint the specific causes of antisocial personalities, and it is likely that some combination of factors is responsible (Rosenstein & Horowitz, 1996; Costa & Widiger, 2002; Chen et al., 2011). People with borderline personality disorder have problems regulating emotions and thoughts, display impulsive and reckless behavior, and have unstable relationships with others. They also have difficulty in developing a secure sense of who they are. As a consequence, they tend to rely on relationships with others to define their identity. The problem with this strategy is that rejections are devastating. Furthermore, people with this disorder distrust others and have difficulty controlling their anger. Their emotional volatility leads to impulsive and self-destructive behavior. Individuals with borderline personality disorder often feel empty and alone, and they have difficulty cooperating with others. They may form intense, sudden, one-sided relationships in which they demand the attention of another person and then feel angry when they don't receive it. One reason for this behavior is that they may have a background in which others discounted or criticized their emotional reactions, and they may not have learned to regulate their emotions effectively (King-Casas et al., 2008; Hopwood et al., 2009; Samuel et al., 2013). The narcissistic personality disorder is another type of personality disorder. The narcissistic personality disorder is characterized by an exaggerated sense of self-importance. Those with the disorder expect special treatment from others while at the same time disregarding others' feelings. In some ways, in fact, the main attribute of the narcissistic personality is an inability to experience empathy for other people. There are several other categories of personality disorder that range in severity from individuals who may simply be regarded by others as eccentric, obnoxious, or difficult to people who act in a manner that is criminal and dangerous to others. Although they are not out of touch with reality like people with schizophrenia, people with personality disorders lead lives that put them on the fringes of society

psychosurgery

If ECT strikes you as a questionable procedure, the use of psychosurgery—brain surgery in which the object is to reduce symptoms of mental disorder—probably appears even more dubious. A technique used only rarely today, psychosurgery was introduced as a "treatment of last resort" in the 1930s. The initial form of psychosurgery, a prefrontal lobotomy, consisted of surgically destroying or removing parts of a patient's frontal lobes, which surgeons thought controlled emotionality. In the 1930s and 1940s, surgeons performed the procedure on thousands of patients, often with little precision. For example, in one common technique, a surgeon literally would jab an ice pick under a patient's eyeball and swivel it back and forth (Ogren & Sandlund, 2007; Phillips, 2013; Chodakiewitz et al., 2015). Psychosurgery sometimes did improve a patient's behavior—but not without drastic side effects. Along with remission of the symptoms of the mental disorder, patients sometimes experienced personality changes and became bland, colorless, and unemotional. In other cases, patients became aggressive and unable to control their impulses. In the worst cases, treatment resulted in the patient's death. With the introduction of effective drug treatments—and the obvious ethical questions regarding the appropriateness of forever altering someone's personality—psychosurgery became nearly obsolete. However, it is still used in very rare cases when all other procedures have failed and the patient's behavior presents a high risk to the patient and others. For example, surgeons sometimes use a more precise form of psychosurgery called a cingulotomy in rare cases of obsessive-compulsive disorder in which they destroy tissue in the anterior cingulate area of the brain. In another technique, gamma knife surgery, beams of radiation are used to destroy areas of the brain related to obsessive-compulsive disorder (Lopes et al., 2009; Wilkinson, 2009; Eljamel, 2015). Occasionally, dying patients with severe, uncontrollable pain also receive psychosurgery. Still, even these cases raise important ethical issues, and psychosurgery remains a highly controversial treatment

becoming an informed consumer "choosing the right therapist"

If you decide to seek therapy, you're faced with a daunting task. Choosing a therapist is not a simple matter. One place to begin the process of identifying a therapist is at the "Help Center" of the American Psychological Association at http://www.apa.org/helpcenter. And, if you start therapy, several general guidelines can help you determine whether you've made the right choice: You and your therapist should agree on the goals for treatment. They should be clear, specific, and attainable. You should feel comfortable with your therapist. You should not be intimidated by or in awe of a therapist. Rather, you should trust the therapist and feel free to discuss the most personal issues without fearing a negative reaction. In sum, the "personal chemistry" should be right. Page 492Therapists should have appropriate training and credentials and should be licensed by appropriate state and local agencies. Check therapists' membership in national and state professional associations. In addition, the cost of therapy, billing practices, and other business matters should be clear. It is not a breach of etiquette to put these matters on the table during an initial consultation. You should feel that you are making progress after therapy has begun, despite occasional setbacks. If you have no sense of improvement after repeated visits, you and your therapist should discuss this issue frankly. Although there is no set timetable, the most obvious changes resulting from therapy tend to occur relatively early in the course of treatment. For instance, half of patients in psychotherapy improve by the 8th session, and three-fourths by the 26th session. The average number of sessions with college students is just 5 (Crits-Cristoph, 1992; Harvard Mental Health Letter, 1994; Lazarus, 1997). Be aware that you will have to put in a great deal of effort in therapy. Although our culture promises quick cures for any problem, in reality, solving difficult problems is not easy. You must be committed to making therapy work and should know that it is you, not the therapist, who must do most of the work to resolve your problems. The effort has the potential to pay off handsomely—as you experience a more positive, fulfilling, and meaningful life.

applying psychology "does money buy happiness?"

If you were to win the lottery, would you be happier? Probably not, at least in the long run. That's the implication of health psychologists' research on subjective well-being. That research shows that although winning the lottery brings an initial surge in happiness, a year later, winners' level of happiness returns to what it was before they won. A similar pattern, although in reverse, occurs for people who have had extremely serious injuries in accidents, like losing a limb or becoming paralyzed: Initially they decline in happiness after the accident. But in the long run, most victims return to their prior levels of happiness after the passage of time (Spinella & Lester, 2006; Priester & Petty, 2011; Weimann, Knabe & Schöb, 2015). Study Alert Remember the concept that individuals have a set point (a general, consistent level) relating to subjective well-being. Why is the level of subjective well-being so stable? One explanation is that people have a general set point for happiness, a marker that establishes the tone for one's life. Although specific events may temporarily elevate or depress one's mood (a surprise promotion or a job loss, for example), ultimately people return to their general level of happiness. Although it is not certain how people's happiness set points are initially established, some evidence suggests that the set point is determined at least in part by genetic factors. Specifically, identical twins who grow up in widely different circumstances turn out to have very similar levels of happiness (Kahneman, Diener, & Schwarz, 1998; Diener, Lucas, & Scollon, 2006; Weiss, Bates, & Luciano, 2008). Most people's well-being set point is relatively high. For example, some 30% of people in the United States rate themselves as "very happy," and only 1 in 10 rate themselves "not too happy." Most people declare themselves to be "pretty happy." Such feelings are graphically confirmed by people who are asked to place themselves on the measure of happiness illustrated in Figure 1. The scale clearly illustrates that most people view their lives quite positively. FIGURE 1 Most people in the United States rate themselves as happy, while only a small minority indicate they are "not too happy." (Source: Adapted from Andrews & Withey, 1976.) Similar results are found when people are asked to compare themselves with others. For example, when asked, "Who of the following people do you think is the happiest?" survey respondents answered "Oprah Winfrey" (23%), "Bill Gates" (7%), "the Pope" (12%), and "yourself" (49%), with 6% saying they didn't know (Black & McCafferty, 1998; Rosenthal, 2003).Page 422 Few differences exist between members of different demographic groups. Men and women report being equally happy, and African Americans are only slightly less likely than European Americans to rate themselves as "very happy." Furthermore, happiness is hardly unique to U.S. culture. Even countries that are not economically prosperous have, on the whole, happy residents (Diener & Clifton, 2002; Suh, 2002; Suhail & Chaudhry, 2004). The bottom line: Money does not seem to buy happiness. Despite the ups and downs of life, most people tend to be reasonably happy, and they adapt to the trials and tribulations—and joys and delights—of life by returning to a steady-state level of happiness. That habitual level of happiness can have profound—perhaps life-prolonging—implications

erikson's stages

In tracing the course of social development, some theorists have considered how the challenges of society and culture change as an individual matures. Following this path, psychoanalyst Erik Erikson developed one of the more comprehensive theories of social development. Erikson (1963) viewed the developmental changes that occur throughout life as a series of eight stages Page 330of psychosocial development; of these, four occur during childhood. Psychosocial development involves changes in our interactions and understanding of one another as well as in our knowledge and understanding of ourselves as members of society. Erikson suggests that passage through each of the stages necessitates the resolution of a crisis or conflict. Accordingly, Erikson represents each stage as a pairing of the most positive and most negative aspects of the crisis of that period. Although each crisis is never resolved entirely—life becomes increasingly complicated as we grow older—it has to be resolved sufficiently to equip us to deal with demands made during the following stage of development. In the first stage of psychosocial development, the trust-versus-mistrust stage (ages birth to 1½ years), infants develop feelings of trust if their physical requirements and psychological needs for attachment are consistently met and their interactions with the world are generally positive. In contrast, inconsistent care and unpleasant interactions with others can lead to mistrust and leave an infant unable to meet the challenges required in the next stage of development. In the second stage, the autonomy-versus-shame-and-doubt stage (ages 1½ to 3 years), toddlers develop independence and autonomy if exploration and freedom are encouraged, or they experience shame, self-doubt, and unhappiness if they are overly restricted and protected. According to Erikson, the key to the development of a sense of independence during this period is for the child's caregivers to provide a reasonable amount of control. If parents are overly controlling, children cannot assert themselves and develop their own sense of control over their world; if parents provide too little control, children can become demanding and dictatorial. Next, children face the crises of the initiative-versus-guilt stage (ages 3 to 6). In this stage, children's desire to act independently conflicts with the guilt that comes from the unintended and unexpected consequences of such behavior. Children in this period come to understand that they are persons in their own right, and they begin to make decisions about their behavior. If parents react positively to children's attempts at independence, their children will develop skills in accomplishing tasks and overcoming challenges. The fourth and last stage of childhood is the industry-versus-inferiority stage (ages 6 to 12). During this period, increasing competency in all areas, whether social interactions or academic skills, characterizes successful psychosocial development. In contrast, difficulties in this stage lead to feelings of failure and inadequacy. Erikson's theory suggests that psychosocial development continues throughout life, and he proposes four more crises that are faced after childhood (described in the next module). Although his theory has been criticized on several grounds—such as the imprecision of the concepts he employs and his greater emphasis on male development than female development—it remains influential and is one of the few theories that encompass the entire life span. Four of Erikson's stages of psychosocial development occur during childhood: trust-versus-mistrust, autonomy-versus-shame-and-doubt, initiative-versus-guilt, and industry-versus-inferiority.

prologue "coping with schizophrenia"

It was in the wee hours of the morning that Chris Coles first heard the voice. He was not alarmed. The voice was calm, even soothing. It directed him to go to the beach cove immediately and apologize to his friend for planning to date the man's girlfriend. Though he had never thought about deceiving his friend in such a way, Coles followed the instructions. The beach was deserted when he arrived, and he put the whole episode down to a sort of half dream between waking and sleeping. But he continued to hear voices, and he began having visions, as well. Sometimes, he spotted an incandescent, golden Buddha in the dunes near his beach house. Other times, he saw dolphins and whales swim right onto the sand. He began to think he could work magic—control nature. "Delusions of grandeur," Coles calls the feelings that made him believe he could direct the waves and the dolphins and the whales

which kind of therapy works best?

Most psychologists feel confident that psychotherapeutic treatment in general is more effective than no treatment at all. However, the question of whether any specific kind of treatment is superior to any other has not been answered definitively (Westen, Novotny, & Thompson-Brenner, 2004; Abboud, 2005; Tryer et al., 2015). For instance, one classic study comparing the effectiveness of various approaches found that although success rates vary somewhat by treatment form, most treatments show fairly equal success rates. As Figure 1 indicates, the rates ranged from about 70% to 85% greater success for treated compared with untreated individuals. Behavioral and cognitive approaches tended to be slightly more successful, but that result may have been due to differences in the severity of the cases treated (Smith, Glass, & Miller, 1980; Orwin & Condray, 1984). FIGURE 1 Estimates of the effectiveness of different types of treatment, in comparison to control groups of untreated people. The percentile score shows how much more effective a specific type of treatment is for the average patient rather than is no treatment. For example, people given psychodynamic treatment score, on average, more positively on outcome measures than do about three-quarters of untreated people. (Source: Adapted from Smith, Glass, & Miller, 1980.) Other research, which relies on meta-analysis in which data from a large number of studies are statistically combined, yields similar general conclusions. Furthermore, a large survey of 186,000 individuals found that respondents felt they had benefited substantially from psychotherapy. However, there was little difference in "consumer satisfaction" on the basis of the specific type of treatment they had received (Seligman, 1995; Cuijpers et al., 2008; Dakin & Areán, 2013). In short, converging evidence allows us to draw several conclusions about the effectiveness of psychotherapy: For most people, psychotherapy is effective. This conclusion holds over different lengths of treatment, specific kinds of psychological disorders, and various types of treatment. Thus, the question, "Does psychotherapy work?" appears to have been answered convincingly: It does (Westen, Novotny, & Thompson-Brenner, 2004; Payne & Marcus, 2008; Gaudiano & Miller, 2013). On the other hand, psychotherapy doesn't work for everyone. As many as 10% of people treated show no improvement—or actually deteriorated (Boisvert & Faust, 2003; Pretzer & Beck, 2005; Coffman et al., 2007; Lilienfeld, 2007). No single form of therapy works best for every problem, and certain specific types of treatment are better, although not invariably, for specific types of problems. For example, cognitive therapy works especially well for panic disorders, and flooding therapy relieves specific phobias effectively. However, there are exceptions to Page 481these generalizations, and often the differences in success rates for different types of treatment are not substantial (Miller & Magruder, 1999; Westen et al., 2004). Most therapies share several basic similar elements. Despite the fact that the specific methods used in different therapies are very different from one another, there are several common themes that lead them to be effective. These elements include the opportunity for a client to develop a positive relationship with a therapist, an explanation or interpretation of a client's symptoms, and confrontation of negative emotions. The fact that these common elements exist in most therapies makes it difficult to compare one treatment against another (Norcross, 2002; Norcross, Beutler, & Levant, 2006). PsychTech Internet-based therapy, in which clients and therapists consult online using teleconferencing software but do not meet in person, is still in the experimental stages, but is being viewed as a way to increase access to treatment for more people. Consequently, there is no single, definitive answer to the broad question, "Which therapy works best?" because of the complexity in sorting out the various factors that enter into successful therapy. Recently, however, clinicians and researchers have reframed the question by focusing on evidence-based psychotherapy practice. Evidence-based psychotherapy practice seeks to use research findings to determine the best practices for treating a specific disorder. To determine best practices, researchers use clinical interviews, client self-reports of improvement in quality of life, reductions in symptoms, observations of behavior, and other outcomes to compare different therapies. By using objective research findings, clinicians are increasingly able to determine the most effective treatment for a specific disorder (American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force, 2006; Kazdin, 2008; Gaudiano & Miller, 2013). Because no single type of psychotherapy is invariably effective for every individual, some therapists use an eclectic approach to therapy. In an eclectic approach to therapy, therapists use a variety of techniques, thus integrating several perspectives, to treat a person's problems. By employing more than one approach, therapists can choose the appropriate mix of evidence-based treatments to match the individual's specific needs. Furthermore, therapists with certain personal characteristics may work better with particular individuals and types of treatments, and—as we consider next—even racial and ethnic factors may be related to the success of treatment

the human genome project

Our understanding of genetics took a giant leap forward in 2001, when scientists were able to map the specific location and sequence of every human gene as part of the Page 315massive Human Genome Project. The accomplishment was one of the most important in the history of biology These remarkable photos of live fetuses display the degree of physical development at prenatal ages 4 and 15 weeks. The success of the Human Genome Project started a revolution in health care because scientists can identify the particular genes responsible for genetically caused disorders. It is already leading not only to the identification of risk factors in children, but also to the development of new treatments for physical and psychological disorders.

parenting styles

Parenting Styles and Social Development. Parents' child-rearing practices are critical in shaping their children's social competence. According to classic research by developmental psychologist Diana Baumrind, four main categories describe different parenting styles (Baumrind, 2005; Lagacé-Séguin & d'Entremont, 2006; Lewis & Lamb, 2011) (see Figure 7): Authoritarian parents are rigid and punitive, and they value unquestioning obedience from their children. They have strict standards and discourage expressions of disagreement. Permissive parents give their children relaxed or inconsistent direction and, although they are warm, require little of them. Authoritative parents are firm and set limits for their children. As the children get older, these parents try to reason and explain things to them. They also set clear goals and encourage their children's independence. Uninvolved parents show little interest in their children. Emotionally detached, they view parenting as nothing more than providing food, clothing, and shelter for children. At their most extreme, uninvolved parents are guilty of neglect, a form of child abuse.

developmental psychology

Pellman's continual striving to improve his performance and set new records gets to the heart of one of the broadest and most important areas of psychology: developmental psychology. Developmental psychology is the branch of psychology that studies the patterns of growth and change that occur throughout life. It deals with issues ranging from new ways of conceiving children, to learning how to raise children most sensibly, to understanding the milestones of life that we all face. Developmental psychologists study the interaction between the unfolding of biologically predetermined patterns of behavior and a constantly changing, dynamic environment. They ask how our genetic background affects our behavior throughout our lives and whether heredity limits our potential. Similarly, they seek to understand the ways in which the environment works with—or against—our genetic capabilities, how the world we live in affects our development, and how we can be encouraged to reach our full potential.

generalized anxiety disorder

People with generalized anxiety disorder experience long-term, persistent anxiety and uncontrollable worry. Sometimes their concerns are about identifiable issues involving family, money, work, or health. In other cases, though, people with the disorder feel that something dreadful is about to happen but can't identify the reason and thus experience "free-floating" anxiety. Acrophobia, the fear of heights, is not an uncommon phobia. What sort of behavior-modification approaches might be used to deal with acrophobia? Because of persistent anxiety, people with generalized anxiety disorder cannot concentrate or set their worry and fears aside; their lives become centered on their worry. Furthermore, their anxiety is often accompanied by physiological symptoms, such as muscle tension, headaches, dizziness, heart palpitations, or insomnia (Starcevic et al., 2007). Figure 2 shows the most common symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder.

applying psychology "is there a facebook personality type?"

Perhaps you're one of the millions of people who use Facebook every day to keep in touch with your social circle by sharing Internet links, photographs, and regular status updates. And if so, perhaps you've noticed that different people use Facebook in very different ways. In fact, researchers have found that what you say in your Facebook status updates says something meaningful about your personality. Here's what the research shows (Ross et al., 2009; Murray et al., 2015; Marshall, Lefringhausen, & Ferenczi, 2015): Extraverts like to use Facebook. People who use Facebook as a communication medium, and people who are inclined to post frequent status updates about social activities and daily life, tended to score high on measures of extraversion. In contrast, people who more frequently use Facebook for social validation (that is, they agreed with statements such as "I use Facebook to show off" or "I use Facebook to feel loved") tend to score high on measures of neuroticism. People high in neuroticism may be particularly likely to turn to Facebook for the attention and support that they aren't getting in their day-to-day lives. Facebook users who post frequent updates about intellectual information and who use Facebook to seek out information are more inclined to score high on measures of openness to new experiences. Unlike extraverts, people who are high in openness seem to be using Facebook more to share information than to socialize. People with low self-esteem are more likely to post status updates about their current romantic partners, which may be a way to help reduce feelings of insecurity that low-self-esteem people often have regarding their relationships. People who brag a lot about their achievements in their Facebook posts and those whose updates frequently detail their dietary and exercise habits (which for some may be a way to express their own physical fitness and attractiveness) were likely to score high on a measure of narcissism. Their strategy seems to work, too—posts about achievements tended to bring about more likes and comments, giving the narcissists the attention they were seeking. Although these results are preliminary, they do suggest that one day we might be able to glean important information about people's personalities from their posts on Facebook. Given the scope of Facebook use across the globe, it could prove to be a significant source of data for future research

personality

Personality is the pattern of enduring characteristics that produce consistency and individuality in a given person. Personality encompasses the behaviors that make each of us unique and that differentiate us from others. Personality also leads us to act consistently in different situations and over extended periods of time

projective personality test/rorschach test

Projective personality tests are personality tests in which a person is shown an ambiguous, vague stimulus and asked to describe it or to tell a story about it. The responses, which are scored and interpreted using a standardized scoring method, are considered to be "projections" of the individual's personality. The best-known projective test is the Rorschach test. Devised by Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach (1924), the test involves showing a series of symmetrical stimuli similar to the one in Figure 3 to people who are then asked what the figures represent to them. Their responses are recorded, and people are classified into personality types requiring a complex set of judgments on the part of the examiner. For instance, individuals who see a bear in one particular Rorschach inkblot are thought to have a strong degree of emotional control, according to the scoring guidelines Rorschach developed

humanistic perspective

Psychologists who subscribe to the humanistic perspective emphasize the responsibility people have for their own behavior even when their behavior is considered abnormal. The humanistic perspective—growing out of the work of Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow—concentrates on what is uniquely human—that is, it views people as basically rational, oriented toward a social world, and motivated to seek self-actualization (Rogers, 1995). Humanistic approaches focus on the relationship of the individual to society; it considers the ways in which people view themselves in relation to others and see their place in the world. The humanistic perspective views people as having an awareness of life and of themselves that leads them to search for meaning and self-worth. Rather than assuming that individuals require a "cure," the humanistic perspective suggests that they can, by and large, set their own limits of what is acceptable behavior. As long as they are not hurting others and do not feel personal distress, people should be free to choose the behaviors in which they engage. Although the humanistic perspective has been criticized for its reliance on unscientific, unverifiable information and its vague, almost philosophical formulations, it offers a distinctive view of abnormal behavior. It stresses the unique aspects of being human and provides a number of important suggestions for helping those with psychological problems.

characteristics of happy people

Research on the subject of well-being shows that happy people share several characteristics (Myers, 2000; Diener & Seligman, 2002; Otake, Shimai, & Tanaka-Matsumi, 2006; Nisbet, Zelenski, & Murphy, 2011): Happy people have high self-esteem. People who are happy like themselves. This is particularly true in Western cultures, which emphasize the importance of individuality. Furthermore, people who are happy see themselves as more intelligent and better able to get along with others than the average person is. In fact, they may hold positive illusions in which they hold moderately inflated views of themselves, believing that they are good, competent, and desirable (Taylor et al., 2000; Boyd-Wilson, McClure, & Walkey, 2004; McLeod, 2015). Happy people have a firm sense of control. They feel more in control of events in their lives, unlike those who feel they are the pawns of others and who experience learned helplessness. Happy individuals are optimistic. Their optimism permits them to persevere at tasks and ultimately to achieve more. In addition, their health is better (Peterson, 2000; Efklides & Moraitou, 2013). Men and women generally are made happy by the same sorts of activities—but not always. Most of the time, adult men and women achieve the same level of happiness from the same things, such as hanging out with friends. But there are some differences: For example, women get less pleasure from being with their parents than men do. The explanation? For women, time spent with their parents more closely resembles work, such as helping them cook or pay the bills. For men, it's more likely to involve recreational activities, such as watching a football game with their fathers. The result is that men report being slightly happier than women (Kreuger, 2007). Happy people like to be around other people. They tend to be extroverted and have a supportive network of close relationships. Page 421 Perhaps most important, most people are at least moderately happy most of the time. In national as well as international surveys, people living in a wide variety of circumstances report being happy. Furthermore, life-altering events that one might expect would produce long-term spikes in happiness, such as winning the lottery, probably won't make you much happier than you already are, as we discuss next.

piaget/object permanence

Sensorimotor Stage: Birth to 2 Years. During the sensorimotor stage, children base their understanding of the world primarily on touching, sucking, chewing, shaking, and manipulating objects. In the initial part of the stage, children have relatively little competence in representing the environment by using images, language, or other kinds of symbols. Consequently, infants lack what Piaget calls object permanence, the awareness that objects—and people—continue to exist even if they are out of sight. How can we know that children lack object permanence? Although we cannot ask infants, we can observe their reactions when a toy they are playing with is hidden under a blanket. Until the age of about 9 months, children will make no attempt to locate the hidden toy. However, soon after that age they will begin an active search for the missing object, indicating that they have developed a mental representation of the toy. Object permanence, then, is a critical development during the sensorimotor stage.

freud's psychoanalytic theory/id, ego, se

Sigmund Freud, an Austrian physician, developed psychoanalytic theory in the early 1900s. According to Freud's theory, conscious experience is only a small part of our psychological makeup and experience. He argued that much of our behavior is motivated by the unconscious, a part of the personality that contains the memories, knowledge, beliefs, feelings, urges, drives, and instincts of which the individual is not aware. Like the unseen mass of a floating iceberg, the contents of the unconscious far surpass in quantity the information in our conscious awareness. Freud maintained that to understand personality, it is necessary to expose what is in the unconscious. But because the unconscious disguises the meaning of the material it holds, the content of the unconscious cannot be observed directly. It is therefore necessary to interpret clues to the unconscious—slips of the tongue, fantasies, and dreams—to understand the unconscious processes that direct behavior. A slip of the tongue such as the one quoted earlier (sometimes termed a Freudian slip) may be interpreted as revealing the speaker's unconscious sexual desires. To Freud, much of our personality is determined by our unconscious. Some of the unconscious is made up of the preconscious, which contains material that is not threatening and is easily brought to mind, such as the knowledge that 2 + 2 = 4. But deeper in the unconscious are instinctual drives—the wishes, desires, demands, and needs that are hidden from conscious awareness because of the conflicts and pain they would cause if they were part of our everyday lives. The unconscious provides a "safe haven" for our recollections of threatening events. If personality consisted only of primitive, instinctual cravings and longings, it would have just one component: the id. The id is the instinctual and unorganized part of personality. From the time of birth, the id attempts to reduce tension created by primitive drives related to hunger, sex, aggression, and irrational impulses. Those drives are fueled by "psychic energy," which we can think of as a limitless energy source constantly putting pressure on the various parts of the personality. The id operates according to the pleasure principle in which the goal is the immediate reduction of tension and the maximization of satisfaction. However, in most cases, reality prevents the fulfillment of the demands of the pleasure principle: We cannot always eat when we are hungry, and we can discharge our sexual drives only when the time and place are appropriate. To account for this fact of life, Freud suggested a second component of personality, which he called the ego. The ego is the part of personality that attempts to balance the desires of the id and the realities of the objective, outside world. It starts to develop soon after birth. In contrast to the pleasure-seeking id, the ego operates according to the reality principle in which instinctual energy is restrained to maintain the individual's safety and to help integrate the person into society. In a sense, then, the ego is the "executive" of personality: It makes decisions, controls actions, and allows thinking and problem solving of a higher order than the id's capabilities permit. Freud suggests that the superego, the part of the personality that represents the rights and wrongs of society, develops from direct teaching from parents, teachers, and other significant individuals.Source: © David R. Frazier Photolibrary, Inc. RF The superego is the final personality structure to develop in childhood. According to Freud, the superego is the part of personality that harshly judges the morality of our behavior. It represents the rights and wrong of society as taught and modeled by a person's parents, teachers, and other significant individuals.

somatic symptom disorders

Somatic symptom disorders are psychological difficulties that take on a physical (somatic) form but for which there is no medical cause. Even though an individual with a somatic symptom disorder reports physical symptoms, no biological cause exists, or if there is a medical problem, the person's reaction is greatly exaggerated. One relatively common type of somatic symptom disorder is illness anxiety disorder. In illness anxiety disorder, people have a constant fear of illness and a preoccupation with their health. These individuals believe that everyday aches and pains are symptoms of a dread disease. The "symptoms" are not faked; rather, they are misinterpreted as evidence of some serious illness—often in the face of inarguable medical evidence to the contrary (Abramowitz, Olatunji, & Deacon, 2007; Olatunji, 2008; Weck et al., 2011). Conversion disorder is another somatic symptom disorder. Unlike illness anxiety disorder, in which there is no physical problem, conversion disorders involve an apparent physical disturbance, such as the inability to see or hear or to move an arm or leg. However, the cause of the physical disturbance is purely psychological; there is no biological reason for the problem. Some of Freud's classic cases involved conversion disorders. For instance, one of Freud's patients suddenly became unable to use her arm without any apparent physiological cause. Later, just as abruptly, the problem disappeared. Conversion disorders often begin suddenly. Previously normal people wake up one day blind or deaf, or they experience numbness that is restricted to a certain part of the body. A hand, for example, may become entirely numb, while an area above the wrist, controlled by the same nerves, remains sensitive to touch—something that is physiologically implausible. Mental health professionals refer to such a condition as "glove anesthesia" because the numb area is the part of the hand covered by a glove and not a region related to pathways of the nervous system (see Figure 3).Page 442 FIGURE 3 Conversion disorders sometimes produce numbness in specific and isolated areas of the body (indicated by the shaded areas in the figure). For instance, in glove anesthesia, the area of the body covered by a glove feels numb. However, the condition is biologically implausible because of the nerves involved, which suggests that the problem results from a psychological disorder rather than from actual nerve damage. Surprisingly, people who experience conversion disorders frequently remain unconcerned about symptoms that most of us would expect to be highly anxiety producing. For instance, a person in good health who wakes up blind may react in a bland, matter-of-fact way. Considering how most of us would feel if we woke up unable to see, this unemotional reaction hardly seems appropriate (

prologue "good guy or good fella?"

The 60-something man called himself "Tom," and his girlfriend, "Helen." He said they were from New York, and they would spend months at a time visiting the Louisiana resort town of Grand Isle. During his visits, Tom would drive around Grand Isle, offering biscuits to stray dogs. He wept when a dying puppy had to be shot to end its suffering. When he went fishing, he would toss back the small fish. He told a family he befriended how bad it was to permit children to watch violence on television. He bought eyeglasses for a child whose vision required correction. He also bought a needy family a refrigerator and stove. But to criminal investigators at the FBI, he was not so lovable. They said he was Whitey Bulger, a mobster who had run a crime empire that included drug sales and gambling. He was a reputed murderer and bank robber, a man who had held a knife to a banker's throat while extorting $50,000. To the FBI, his pleasant personality was just a front, motivated only by self-interest

diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fifth edition

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) is the most widely used system to classify and define psychological disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The DSM-5, most recently revised in 2013, provides comprehensive and relatively precise definitions for more than 200 disorders. By following the criteria presented in the DSM-5 classification system, diagnosticians use clients' reported symptoms to identify the specific problem the clients are experiencing. Figure 2 provides a brief outline of the major diagnostic categories (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). FIGURE 2 This list of disorders represents the major categories from the DSM-5. It is only a partial list of the scores of disorders included in the diagnostic manual. Source: © H.S. Photos/Alamy; Adapted from American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). Washington, DC: Author. The manual takes an atheoretical approach to identifying psychological disorders, meaning it does not rely on any particular theoretical perspective. However, some practitioners have argued that this diagnostic approach is too heavily based on a medical model. The authors of the newest update of DSM suggest that the manual should be viewed as the "DSM-5.0." The "5.0" name emphasizes that the DSM-5 is a work in progress, subject to revision based on users' feedback. (The next revision will be called DSM-5.1.) Among the major changes to DSM-5 are the following (Kupfer, Kuhl, & Regier, 2013; Wakefield, 2013): A lifespan development focus. Disorders have been arranged in terms of what age they are likely to first appear. In addition, the DSM-5 is more specific about how the same disorder may change over the course of a person's lifetime. Childhood and late-life conditions have been renamed. Along with removing the outdated term "mental retardation" in favor of intellectual disability, the DSM-5 renames childhood conditions as neurodevelopmental disorders, and "dementia and amnestic disorders" as neurocognitive disorders. Autism disorder has been reclassified. Different forms of autism are now grouped together and called Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), which focuses on the degree of severity of autism. Page 433 Sexually based disorders have been reconceptualized and renamed. "Gender identity disorder" has been reclassified as gender dysphoria. This distinction makes it clear that having a gender identity that is in conflict with one's biological sex does not imply a psychological disorder. Additionally, "paraphilia" has been renamed paraphilic disorders, emphasizing the presence of some atypical sexual interests that do not necessarily indicate a psychological disorder. Criteria for some disorders have been made less restrictive. In particular, the conditions that need to be met for an adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis are broader—meaning that more people are likely to be classified with adult ADHD. Additionally, bereaved clients are no longer diagnosed with depression if symptoms arose within a few months of the death of a loved one. The "five axes model" is eliminated. In the previous version of DSM, disorders were categorized along one of five axes (Axis I, Clinical Disorders; Axis II, Personality Disorders and Mental Retardation; Axis III, General Medical Conditions; Axis IV, Psychosocial and Environmental Problems; and Axis V, Global Assessment of Functioning). These axes have been eliminated from the new version of DSM-5. In many other respects, the DSM remains unchanged in the newest revision. Like its predecessors, DSM-5 is primarily descriptive and avoids suggesting an underlying cause for an individual's behavior and problems. For instance, the term neurotic—a label that Page 434is commonly used by people in their everyday descriptions of abnormal behavior—is not listed as a DSM-5 category. Because the term neurosis refers to problems associated with a specific cause based in Freud's theory of personality, it is not included in DSM-5. DSM-5 has the advantage, then, of providing a descriptive system that does not specify the cause of or reason for a problem. Rather, it paints a picture of the behavior that is being displayed. Why should this approach be important? For one thing, it allows communication between mental health professionals of diverse backgrounds and theoretical approaches. In addition, precise classification enables researchers to explore the causes of a problem. Without reliable descriptions of abnormal behavior, researchers would be hard pressed to find ways to investigate the disorder. Finally, DSM-5 provides a kind of conceptual shorthand through which professionals can describe the behaviors that tend to occur together in an individual

obedience study

The compliance techniques that we've been discussing share a common thread: They are used to gently lead people toward agreement with a request. In some cases, however, requests are made in a strong manner. In fact, they're hardly requests at all, but rather commands, aimed at producing obedience. Obedience is a change in behavior in response to the commands of others. Although obedience is considerably less common than conformity and compliance, it does occur in several specific kinds of relationships. For example, we may show obedience to our bosses, teachers, or parents merely because of the power they hold to reward or punish us. To acquire an understanding of obedience, consider for a moment how you might respond if a stranger said to you: I've devised a new way of improving memory. All I need is for you to teach people a list of words and then give them a test. The test procedure requires only that you give learners a shock each time they make a mistake on the test. To administer the shocks, you will use a "shock generator" that gives shocks ranging from 15 to 450 volts. You can see that the switches are labeled from "slight shock" through "danger: severe shock" at the top level, where there are three red Xs. But don't worry; although the shocks may be painful, they will cause no permanent damage. Presented with this situation, you would be likely to think that neither you nor anyone else would go along with the stranger's unusual request. Clearly, it lies outside the bounds of what we consider good sense. Or does it? Suppose the stranger asking for your help was a psychologist conducting an experiment. Or suppose the request came from your teacher, your employer, or your military commander—all people in authority with a seemingly legitimate reason for the request. If you still believe it's unlikely that you would comply—think again. The situation presented above describes a classic experiment conducted by social psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s. In the study, an experimenter told participants to give increasingly stronger shocks to another person as part of a study on learning (see Figure 2). In reality, the experiment had nothing to do with learning; the real issue under consideration was the degree to which participants would comply with the experimenter's requests. In fact, the "learner" supposedly receiving the shocks was a confederate who never really received any punishment (Milgram, 2005; Maher, 2015). FIGURE 2 This fearsome "shock generator" led participants to believe they were administering electric shocks to another person, who was connected to the generator by electrodes that were attached to the skin. Source: From the film OBEDIENCE © 1968 by Stanley Milgram, © renewed 1993 by Alexandra Milgram. Permission granted by Alexandra Milgram. Most people who hear a description of Milgram's experiment feel it is unlikely that any participant would give the maximum level of shock—or, for that matter, any shock at all. Even a group of psychiatrists to whom the situation was described predicted that fewer than 2% of the participants would fully comply and administer the strongest shocks. However, the actual results contradicted both experts' and nonexperts' predictions. Some 65% of the participants eventually used the highest setting on the shock generator—450 volts—to shock the learner. This obedience occurred even though the learner, who had mentioned at the start of the experiment that he had a heart condition, demanded to be released, screaming, "Let me out of here! Let me out of here! My Page 512heart's bothering me. Let me out of here!" Despite the learner's pleas, most participants continued to administer the shocks. Why did so many individuals comply with the experimenter's demands? The participants, who were extensively interviewed after the experiment, said they obeyed primarily because they believed that the experimenter would be responsible for any potential ill effects that befell the learner. The participants accepted the experimenter's orders, then, because they thought that they personally could not be held accountable for their actions—they could always blame the experimenter

general adaptation syndrome/stages

The effects of long-term stress are illustrated in a series of stages proposed by Hans Selye (pronounced "sell-yay"), a pioneering stress theorist (Selye, 1976, 1993). This model, the general adaptation syndrome (GAS), suggests that the physiological response to stress follows the same set pattern regardless of the cause of stress. As shown in Figure 4, the GAS has three phases. The first stage—alarm and mobilization—occurs when people become aware of the presence of a stressor. On a biological level, the sympathetic nervous system becomes energized, which helps a person cope initially with the stressor. FIGURE 4 According to the general adaptation syndrome (GAS) model there are three major stages to stress responses: alarm and mobilization; resistance; and exhaustion. The graph below the illustration shows the degree of effort expended to cope with stressors at each of the three stages. However, if the stressor persists, people move into the second response stage: resistance. During this stage, the body is actively fighting the stressor on a biological level. During resistance, people use a variety of means to cope with the stressor—sometimes successfully but at a cost of some degree of physical or psychological well-being. For example, a student who faces the stress of failing several courses might spend long hours studying seeking to cope with the stress. Study Alert Remember the three stages of the General Adaptation Syndrome with the abbreviation ARE (Alarm and mobilization; Resistance; and Exhaustion)

cognitive perspective

The medical, psychoanalytic, and behavioral perspectives view people's behavior as the result of factors largely beyond their control. To many critics of these views, however, people's thoughts cannot be ignored. In response to such concerns, some psychologists employ a cognitive perspective. Rather than considering only external behavior, as in traditional behavioral approaches, the cognitive approach assumes that cognitions (people's thoughts and beliefs) are central to a person's abnormal behavior. A primary goal of treatment using the cognitive perspective is to explicitly teach new, more adaptive ways of thinking. For instance, suppose that you develop the erroneous belief that "doing well on this exam is crucial to my entire future" whenever you take an exam. Through therapy, you might learn to hold the more realistic and less anxiety-producing thought, "my entire future is not dependent on this one exam." By changing cognitions in this way, psychologists working within a cognitive framework help people free themselves from thoughts and behaviors that are potentially maladaptive (Clark, 2004; Everly & Lating, 2007; Ray et al., 2015). The cognitive perspective also has its critics. For example, it is possible that instead of maladaptive cognitions being the cause of a psychological disorder, they are just another symptom of the disorder. Furthermore, there are circumstances in which negative beliefs may not be irrational at all but simply reflect accurately the unpleasant circumstances in people's lives. Still, cognitive theorists would argue that there are adaptive ways of framing beliefs even in the most negative circumstances.

schizophrenia

Things that relate, the town of Antelope, Oregon, Jonestown, Charlie Manson, the Hillside Strangler, the Zodiac Killer, Watergate, King's trial in L.A., and many more. In the last 7 years alone, over 23 Star Wars scientists committed suicide for no apparent reason. The AIDS cover-up, the conference in South America in 87 had over 1,000 doctors claim that insects can transmit it. To be able to read one's thoughts and place thoughts in one's mind without the person knowing it's being done. Realization is a reality of bioelectromagnetic control, which is thought transfer and emotional control, recording individual brainwave frequencies of thought, sensation, and emotions. (Nolen-Hoeksema, 2007.) This excerpt illustrates the efforts of a person with schizophrenia, one of the more severe forms of mental disturbance, to communicate. People with schizophrenia account for by far the largest percentage of those hospitalized for psychological disorders. They are also in many respects the least likely to recover from their difficulties. Schizophrenia refers to a class of disorders in which severe distortion of reality occurs. Thinking, perception, and emotion may deteriorate; the individual may withdraw from social interaction; and the person may display bizarre behavior. The symptoms displayed by persons with schizophrenia may vary considerably over time. Nonetheless, a number of characteristics reliably distinguish schizophrenia from other disorders. They include the following: Decline from a previous level of functioning. An individual can no longer carry out activities he or she was once able to do. Disturbances of thought and speech. People with schizophrenia use logic and language in a peculiar way. Their thinking often does not make sense, and their logic is frequently faulty, which is referred to as a formal thought disorder. They also do not follow conventional linguistic rules (Penn et al., 1997). Consider, for example, the following response to the question "Why do you think people believe in God? Uh, let's, I don't know why, let's see, balloon travel. He holds it up for you, the balloon. He don't let you fall out, your little legs sticking down through the clouds. He's down to the smokestack, looking through the smoke trying to get the balloon gassed up you know. Way they're flying on top that way, legs sticking out. I don't know, looking down on the ground, heck, that'd make you so dizzy you just stay and sleep you know, hold down and sleep there. I used to be sleep outdoors, you know, sleep outdoors instead of going home. (Chapman & Chapman, 1973, p. 3.) As this selection illustrates, although the basic grammatical structure may be intact, the substance of thinking that is characteristic of schizophrenia is often illogical, garbled, and lacking in meaningful content (Holden, 2003; Heinrichs, 2005). Delusions. People with schizophrenia often have delusions—firmly held, unshakable beliefs with no basis in reality. Among the common delusions people with schizophrenia experience are the beliefs that they are being controlled by someone else, they are being persecuted by others, and their thoughts are being broadcast so that others know what they are thinking (Coltheart, Langdon, & McKay, 2007; Startup, Bucci, & Langdon, 2009). Hallucinations and perceptual disorders. People with schizophrenia sometimes do not perceive the world as most other people do. For example, they may have hallucinations, the experience of perceiving things that do not actually exist. Furthermore, they may see, hear, or smell things differently from others (see Figure 6). In fact, they may not even have a sense of their bodies in the way that others do, having difficulty determining where their bodies stop and the rest of the world begins (Botvinick, 2004; Thomas et al., 2007; Bauer et al., 2011).Page 448 Inappropriate emotional displays. People with schizophrenia sometimes show a lack of emotion in which even the most dramatic events produce little or no emotional response. Alternately, they may display strong bursts of emotion that is inappropriate to a situation. For example, a person with schizophrenia may laugh uproariously at a funeral or react with anger when being helped by someone. Withdrawal. People with schizophrenia tend to have little interest in others. They tend not to socialize or hold real conversations with others, although they may talk at another person. In the most extreme cases, they do not even acknowledge the presence of other people and appear to be in their own isolated worlds. FIGURE 6 This unusual art was created by an individual suffering from a severe psychological disorder. Source: © Science Source Usually, the onset of schizophrenia occurs in early adulthood, and the symptoms follow one of two primary courses. In process schizophrenia, the symptoms develop slowly and subtly. There may be a gradual withdrawal from the world, excessive daydreaming, and a blunting of emotion until eventually the disorder reaches the point where others cannot overlook it. In other cases, known as reactive schizophrenia, the onset of symptoms is sudden and conspicuous. The treatment outlook for reactive schizophrenia is relatively favorable, but process schizophrenia has proved more difficult to treat. DSM-5 classifies the symptoms of schizophrenia into two types. Positive-symptom schizophrenia is indicated by the presence of disordered behavior such as hallucinations, delusions, and emotional extremes. Those with positive-symptom schizophrenia clearly lose touch with reality. In contrast, those with negative-symptom schizophrenia show disruptions to normal emotions and behaviors. For example, there may be an absence or loss of normal functioning, such as social withdrawal or blunted emotions (Levine & Rabinowitz, 2007; Tandon et al., 2013; Lauriello & Rahman, 2015). The distinction between positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia is important because it suggests that two different kinds of causes might trigger schizophrenia. Furthermore, it has implications for predicting treatment outcomes.

type "a" and "b" behavior

Tim knew it wasn't going to be his day when he got stuck in traffic behind a slow-moving farm truck. How could the driver dawdle like that? Didn't he have anything of any importance to do? Things didn't get any better when Tim arrived on campus and discovered the library didn't have the books he needed. He could almost feel the tension rising. "I need that material to finish my paper," he thought to himself. He knew that meant he wouldn't be able to get his paper done early, and that meant he wouldn't have the time he wanted to revise the paper. He wanted it to be a first-class paper. This time Tim wanted to get a better grade than his roommate, Luis. Although Luis didn't know it, Tim felt they were in competition and that Luis was always trying to better him whether academically or just playing cards. "In fact," Tim mused to himself, "I feel like I'm in competition with everyone, no matter what I'm doing." Have you, like Tim, ever seethed impatiently at being caught behind a slow-moving vehicle, felt anger and frustration at not finding material you needed at the library, or experienced a sense of competitiveness with your classmates? Many of us experience these sorts of feelings at one time or another, but for some people they represent a pervasive, characteristic set of personality traits known as the Type A behavior pattern. The Type A behavior pattern is a cluster of behaviors involving hostility, competitiveness, time urgency, and feeling driven. In contrast, the Type B behavior pattern is characterized by a patient, cooperative, noncompetitive, and nonaggressive manner. It's important to keep in mind that Type A and Type B represent the ends of a continuum, and most people fall somewhere in between the two endpoints. Few people are purely a Type A or a Type B. The importance of the Type A behavior pattern lies in its links to coronary heart disease. Men who display the Type A pattern develop coronary heart disease twice as often and suffer significantly more fatal heart attacks than do those classified as having the Type B pattern. Moreover, the Type A pattern predicts who is going to develop Page 412heart disease at least as well as—and independently of—any other single factor, including age, blood pressure, smoking habits, and cholesterol levels in the body (Wielgosz & Nolan, 2000; Beresnevaité, Taylor, & Bagby, 2007; Korotkov et al., 2011). Hostility is the key component of the Type A behavior pattern that is related to heart disease. Although competition, time urgency, and feelings of being driven may produce stress and potentially other health and emotional problems, they aren't linked to coronary heart disease the way that hostility is (Williams, et al., 2000; Boyle et al., 2005; Ohira et al., 2007). Why is hostility so toxic? The key reason is that hostility produces excessive physiological arousal in stressful situations. That arousal, in turn, results in increased production of the hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine as well as increases in heart rate and blood pressure. Such an exaggerated physiological response ultimately produces an increased incidence of coronary heart disease (Demaree & Everhart, 2004; Eaker et al., 2004; Myrtek, 2007). Study Alert It's important to distinguish among Type A (hostility, competitiveness), Type B (patience, cooperativeness), and Type D (distressed) behaviors. It's important to keep in mind that not everyone who displays Type A behaviors is destined to have coronary heart disease. For one thing, a firm association between Type A behaviors and coronary heart disease has not been established for women; most findings pertain to males partly because until recently most research was done on men. In addition, other types of negative emotions besides the hostility found in Type A behavior appear to be related to heart attacks. For example, psychologist Johan Denollet has found evidence that what he calls Type D—for "distressed"—behavior is linked to coronary heart disease. In this view, insecurity, anxiety, and the negative outlook Type Ds display put them at risk for repeated heart attacks

social psychology

We can fully answer these questions only by taking into account findings from the field of social psychology, the branch of psychology that focuses on the aspects of human behavior that unite—and separate—us from one another. Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and actions are affected by others. Social psychologists consider the kinds and causes of the individual's behavior in social situations. They examine how the nature of situations in which we find ourselves influences our behavior in important ways. The broad scope of social psychology is conveyed by the kinds of questions social psychologists ask, such as: How can we convince people to change their attitudes or adopt new ideas and values? In what ways do we come to understand what others are like? How are we influenced by what others do and think? Why do some people display so much violence, aggression, and cruelty toward others that people throughout the world live in fear of annihilation at their hands? And why, in comparison, do some people place their own lives at risk to help others? In exploring these and other questions, we also discuss strategies for confronting and solving a variety of problems and issues that all of us face—ranging from achieving a better understanding of persuasive tactics to forming more accurate impressions of others. We begin with a look at how our attitudes shape our behavior and how we form judgments about others. We'll discuss how we are influenced by others, and we will consider prejudice and discrimination by focusing on their roots and the ways we can reduce them. After examining what social psychologists have learned about the ways people form friendships and relationships, we'll conclude with a look at the determinants of aggression and helping—two opposing sides of human behavior.

determining the cause of sexual orientation

What determines whether people become homosexual or heterosexual? Although there are a number of theories, none has proved completely satisfactory. Some explanations for sexual orientation are biological, suggesting that there are genetic causes. Studies of identical twins provide evidence for a genetic cause of sexual orientation. Studies find that when one twin identified himself or herself as homosexual, the occurrence of homosexuality in the other twin was higher than it was in the general population. Such results occur even for twins who have been separated early in life and who therefore are not necessarily raised in similar social environments (Gooren, 2006; LeVay, 2011; Servick, 2014). Hormones also may play a role in determining sexual orientation. For example, research shows that women exposed before birth to DES (diethylstilbestrol), a drug their mothers took to avoid miscarriage, were more likely to be gay or bisexual (Meyer-Bahlburg, 1997). Some evidence suggests that differences in brain structures may be related to sexual orientation. For instance, the structure of the anterior hypothalamus, an area of the brain that governs sexual behavior, differs in male homosexuals and heterosexuals. Similarly, other research shows that, compared with heterosexual men or women, gay men have a larger anterior commissure, which is a bundle of neurons connecting the right and left hemispheres of the brain (LeVay, 1993; Byne, 1996; Witelson et al., 2008; Rahman & Yusuf, 2015). However, research suggesting that biological causes are at the root of homosexuality is not conclusive. Still, it seems increasingly likely that some inherited or biological factor exists that predisposes people toward homosexuality (Teodorov et al., 2002; Rahman, Kumari, & Wilson, 2003; Burri, Spector, & Qazi, 2015). Little evidence suggests that sexual orientation is brought about by child-rearing practices or family dynamics. Although proponents of psychoanalytic theories once argued that the nature of the parent-child relationship can produce homosexuality (e.g., Freud, 1922/1959), research evidence does not support such explanations (Isay, 1994; Roughton, 2002). Another explanation for sexual orientation rests on learning theory (Masters & Johnson, 1979). According to this view, sexual orientation is learned through rewards and punishments in much the same way that we may learn to prefer swimming over tennis. For example, a young adolescent who had an unpleasant heterosexual experience might develop disagreeable associations with the other sex. If the same person had a rewarding, pleasant gay or lesbian experience, homosexuality might be incorporated into his or her sexual fantasies. If such fantasies are used during later sexual activities—such as masturbation—they may be positively reinforced through orgasm, and the association of homosexual behavior and sexual pleasure eventually may cause homosexuality to become the preferred form of sexual behavior. Although the learning-theory explanation is plausible, several difficulties rule it out as a definitive explanation. Because our society has traditionally held homosexuality in low esteem, one ought to expect that the negative treatment of homosexual behavior would outweigh the rewards attached to it. Furthermore, children growing up with a gay or lesbian parent are statistically unlikely to become homosexual, which thus contradicts the notion that homosexual behavior may be learned from others (Golombok et al., 1995; Victor & Fish, 1995; Tasker, 2005). Because of the difficulty in finding a consistent explanation for sexual orientation, we can't definitively answer the question of what determines it. It seems unlikely that any single factor orients a person toward homosexuality or heterosexuality. Instead, it seems reasonable to assume that a combination of biological and environmental factors is involved (Hyde, Mezulis, & Abramson, 2008). Although we don't know exactly why people develop a certain sexual orientation, one thing is clear: Despite increasingly positive attitudes toward homosexuality, many gays and lesbians face antigay attitudes and discrimination, and it can take a toll. Lesbians Page 292and gays have higher rates of depression and suicide than their straight counterparts do. There are even physical health disparities due to prejudice that gays and lesbians may experience. Because of this, the American Psychological Association and other major mental health organizations have endorsed efforts to eliminate discrimination against gays and lesbians (Ashley, 2013; Lick, Durso, & Johnson, 2013; Kwon, 2013). Extensive research has found that bisexuals and homosexuals enjoy the same overall degree of mental and physical health as heterosexuals do. Source: © Rachel Epstein/The Image Works Study Alert The determinants of sexual orientation have proven difficult to pinpoint. It is important to know the variety of explanations that have been put forward. Furthermore, attitudes toward homosexuality have changed dramatically in the last two decades, with younger generations in particular becoming more positive. For example, 64% of those under 30 support same-sex marriage. Overall, tolerance for gays and lesbians has grown substantially in the United States

medical perspective

When people display the symptoms of tuberculosis, medical professionals can generally find tubercular bacteria in their body tissue. Similarly, the medical perspective suggests that when an individual displays symptoms of a psychological disorder, the fundamental cause will be found through a physical examination of the individual, which may reveal a hormonal imbalance, a chemical deficiency, or a brain injury. Indeed, when we speak of mental "illness," "symptoms" of psychological disorders, and mental "hospitals," we are using terminology associated with the medical perspective. Because a growing body of research shows that many forms of abnormal behavior are linked to biological causes, the medical perspective provides at least part of the explanation for psychological disorders. Yet serious criticisms have been leveled against it. For one thing, many types of abnormal behavior have no apparent biological cause. In addition, some critics have argued that the use of the term mental illness implies that people who display abnormal behavior have no responsibility for or control over their actions (Yang et al., 2013). Still, recent advances in our understanding of the biological bases of behavior underscore the importance of considering physiological factors in abnormal behavior. For instance, some of the more severe forms of psychological disturbance, such as major depression and schizophrenia, are influenced in important ways by genetic factors and malfunctions in neurotransmitter signals

mood disorder - bipolar disorder

While depression leads to the depths of despair, mania leads to emotional heights. Mania is an extended state of intense, wild elation. People experiencing mania feel intense happiness, power, invulnerability, and energy. Believing they will succeed at anything they attempt, they may become involved in wild schemes. Consider, for example, the following description of an individual who experienced a manic episode: Mr. O'Reilly took a leave of absence from his civil service job. He purchased a large number of cuckoo clocks and then an expensive car, which he planned to use as a mobile showroom for his wares, anticipating that he would make a great deal of money. He proceeded to "tear around town" buying and selling clocks and other Page 445merchandise, and when he was not out, he was continuously on the phone making "deals." ... He was $3,000 in debt and had driven his family to exhaustion with his excessive activity and talkativeness. He said, however, that he felt "on top of the world." (Spitzer et al., 1983.) Some people sequentially experience periods of mania and depression. This alternation of mania and depression is called bipolar disorder (a condition previously known as manic-depressive disorder). The swings between highs and lows may occur a few days apart or may alternate over a period of years. In addition, in bipolar disorder, periods of depression are usually longer than periods of mania. Ironically, some of society's most creative individuals may have suffered from bipolar disorder. The imagination, drive, excitement, and energy that they display during manic stages allow them to make unusually creative contributions. For instance, historical analysis of the composer Robert Schumann's music shows that he was most prolific during periods of mania. In contrast, his output dropped off drastically during periods of depression (see Figure 5). On the other hand, the high output associated with mania does not necessarily lead to higher quality: Some of Schumann's greatest works were created outside his periods of mania (Szegedy Maszak, 2003; Kyaga et al., 2013). FIGURE 5 The number of pieces written by composer Robert Schumann in a given year is related to his periods of depression and mania (Slater & Meyer, 1959; reprinted in Jamison, 1995). Why do you think mania might be associated with creative productivity in some people? Although creativity may be increased when someone is experiencing mania, persons who experience this disorder often show a recklessness that produces emotional and sometimes physical self-injury. They may alienate people with their talkativeness, inflated self-esteem, and indifference to the needs of others Because they represent a major mental health problem, mood disorders—and, in particular, depression—have received a good deal of study. Several approaches have been used to explain the disorders. Genetic and biological factors. Some mood disorders clearly have genetic and biological roots. In fact, most evidence suggests that bipolar disorders are caused primarily by biological factors. For instance, bipolar disorder (and some forms of major depression) clearly runs in some families, pointing to a genetic cause. Furthermore, researchers have found that several neurotransmitters play a role in depression. For example, alterations in the functioning of serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain are related to the disorder.Page 446 Finally, research on neuroimaging suggests that a brain structure called area 25 is related to depression: When area 25 is smaller than normal, it is associated with a higher risk of depression. Furthermore, the right anterior insula, a region of the brain related to self-awareness and interpersonal experience, also appears to be related to depression (Popa et al., 2008; Insel, 2010; Cisler et al., 2013). Psychological forces as a cause of depression. Other explanations for depression have focused on psychological issues. For instance, supporters of psychoanalytic perspectives see depression as the result of feelings of loss (real or potential) or of anger directed inwardly at oneself. One psychoanalytic approach, for example, suggests that depression is produced by the loss or threatened loss of a parent early in life (Vanheule et al., 2006; Sa, 2015). Environmental factors. Some explanations of depression take a behavioral approach, looking to influences outside the person. For example, behavioral theories of depression argue that the stresses of life produce a reduction in positive reinforcers. As a result, people begin to withdraw, which only reduces positive reinforcers further. In addition, people receive attention for their depressive behavior, which further reinforces the depression (Lewinsohn & Essau, 2002; Lewinsohn et al., 2003; Domschke, 2013). Cognitive and emotional factors. Some explanations for mood disorders attribute them to cognitive factors. For example, psychologist Martin Seligman suggests that depression is largely a response to learned helplessness. Learned helplessness is a learned expectation that events in one's life are uncontrollable and that one cannot escape from the situation. As a consequence, people simply give up fighting aversive events and submit to them, which thereby produces depression. Other theorists go a step further and suggest that depression results from hopelessness, a combination of learned helplessness and an expectation that negative outcomes in one's life are inevitable (Kwon & Laurenceau, 2002; Bjornstad, 2006; Li, B., 2011). Clinical psychologist Aaron Beck has proposed that faulty cognitions underlie people's depressed feelings. Specifically, his cognitive theory of depression suggests that depressed individuals typically view themselves as life's losers and blame themselves whenever anything goes wrong. By focusing on the negative side of situations, they feel inept and unable to act constructively to change their environment. In sum, their negative cognitions lead to feelings of depression (Newman et al., 2002). Brain imaging studies suggest that people with depression experience a general blunting of emotional reactions. For example, one study found that the brains of people with depression showed significantly less activation when they viewed photos of human faces displaying strong emotions than did those without the disorder From the time I woke up in the morning until the time I went to bed at night, I was unbearably miserable and seemingly incapable of any kind of joy or enthusiasm. Everything—every thought, word, movement—was an effort. Everything that once was sparkling now was flat. I seemed to myself to be dull, boring, inadequate, thick brained, unlit, unresponsive, chill skinned, bloodless, and sparrow drab. I doubted, completely, my ability to do anything well. It seemed as though my mind had slowed down and burned out to the point of being virtually useless. (Jamison, 1995.) We all experience mood swings. Sometimes we are happy, perhaps even euphoric; at other times we feel upset, saddened, or depressed. Such changes in mood are a normal part of everyday life. In some people, however, moods are so pronounced and lingering—like the feelings described above by writer (and psychiatrist) Kay Jamison—that they interfere with the ability to function effectively. Mood disorders are disturbances in emotional experience that are strong enough to intrude on everyday living. In extreme cases, a mood may become life threatening; in other cases, it may cause the person to lose touch with reality.

motivation

the factors that direct and energize the behavior of humans and other organisms