physch 201

Electroconvulsive Therapy

Treatment of disorders like major depression by passing an electric current (that causes a convulsion) through the head. Now used mainly for people with major depression who do not respond to antidepressants. Typically obtain one ECT treatment three times a week for up to 10 sessions. Side effects include memory problems.

Altruism

Unselfish concern for the welfare of others connected with some heroic behavior ex. Sacrificing oneself for their children

Conformity

We are said to conform when we change our behavior to adhere to social norms

Persuasive Communicator

Where people get the information they get. typically find information that agree with their own views rather than against

Systemic Desensitization

Wolpe's method for reducing fears by associating a hierarchy of images of fear-evoking stimuli with deep muscle relaxation. A gradual process in which the client learns to handle increasingly disturbing stimuli while anxiety to each one is being counter-conditioned. About 10 to 20 stimuli such as slides are arranged in a sequence in a hierarchy according to capacity to trigger anxiety; while being relaxed.

Risky shift

You would do better to place your money on movement toward the higher sum

Humanist Therapies

a form of psychotherapy that focuses on the client's subjective, conscious experience in the "here and now

Groupthink

a process in which group members are influenced by cohesiveness and a dynamic leader to ignore external realities as they make decisions. Associated with historic fiascos.

Ego analyst

a psychodynamically oriented therapist who focuses on the conscious, coping behavior of the ego instead of the hypothesized, unconscious function of the id.

Psychodynamic therapies

a type of psychotherapy that is based on Freud's thinking and that assumes that psychological problems reflect early childhood experiences and internal conflicts.

Attribution Theory

belief concerning why people behave in a certain way. • dispositional and situational attributions- • dispositional: an assumption that a person's behavior is determined by internal causes such as person traits. Ex. Assuming that one child mistreats another because she is "mean"

Specificity

can better predict behavior from specific attitudes. Ex: can better predict church attendance by knowing peoples attitude about church

Dream analysis

content of dreams is determined by unconscious processes as well as by the events of the day.

Socialization

despite the expressed American ideal of independence—> socialized to obey authority figures • Lack of Social Comparison-did not have the opportunity to compare their ideas and feelings with those of other people in the same situation Perception of legitimate authority-many people are willing to engage immorally reprehensible acts at the behest of a legitimate-looking authority figure. —>hitler • Foot-in-the-door technique-once they had begun the experiment found it difficult to stop • Inaccessibility of values-strong emotions impair clear thinking thus causing inaccessibility to the person. • Buffers between perpetrator and victim-Being separated from the person "suffering" allowed them to continue with the experiment.

Situational: an assumption that a persons behavior is

determined by external circumstances such as the social pressure found in a situation. Ex. Assuming that one child is mistreating the other because her parents have given her certain attitudes toward the other child.

Factors that Influence Conformity

elonging to a collectivist rather than an individualist society • Desire to be liked by other members of the group • Low self-esteem • Social shyness • Lack of familiarity with the task

Social Loafing

failure to make a signifiant effort because others have made or are making such an effort-when they believe they will not be found out and held accountable.

Majority Wins Scheme

guide decision making most often when there is no single objectively correct decision • Truth-Wins Scheme-more information is provided and opinions are discussed, group comes to recognize that one approach is objectively correct

couple therapy

helps couples enhance their relationship by improving their communication skills and helping them manage conflict. Form of group therapy. Main approach is cognitive-behavioral.

wish fulfillment

in dreams, the acting out of ideas and impulses that are repressed when one is conscious.

Catharsis

in psychoanalysis the expression of repressed feelings and impulses to allow the release of the psychic energy associated with them

Free association

in psychoanalysis, the uncensored uttering of all thoughts that come to mind

Central route Persuation

inspires through consideration of arguments and evidence

Two Thirds majority scheme

juries tend to convict defendants when two-thirds of the jury initially favors conviction • first-shift rule: group tends to adopt the decision that reflects the first shift in opinion expressed by any group member. when juries are deadlocked jury pool typically follows the first person who changes their decision.

type of treatment for biological disorders

medication

Mob Behavior and Deindividuation

n a mob people to forget self evaluation and fear of consequences. They may experience deindividuation, a state in which they are willing to follow a norm that emerges in a specific situation, even if it means ignoring their own values. Act more aggressively that they would as individuals. Factors that lead to this are: • Anonymity • Diffusion of responsibility • Arousal due to noise and crowding • Focus on emerging group norms rather than on one's own values

Milgram studies

on deception and truth-wondered how many people would resist immoral requests made by authority figures. Why did people obey?

Psychological principles

psychotherapy is based on theory and research in areas such as personality, learning, motivation, and emotion.

Unconditional positive regard

respect for clients as human beings with unique values and goals

Transference

responding to one person (such as a psychoanalyst) in a way similar to how one responded to another person (such as a parent) in childhood

Strength of Attitudes

strong attitudes are more likely to determine behavior than weak attitudes

Psychosurgery

surgery intended to promote psychological changes or to relieve disordered behavior. Wildly unpopular now. Best-known modern technique: prefrontal lobotomy: Intended to sever thought thought from emotion and enable severely disturbed patients to regain control.

Behavior therapy

systemic application of the principles of learning to the direct modification of a client's problem behaviors.

Polarization

taking an extreme position

A(attutudes)- B(behavior)problem

the issue of how well we can predict behavior on the basis of attitudes. Several factors affect the likelihood that we can predict behavior from attitudes

Actor-observe effect

the tendency to attribute our own behavior to situational factors but to attribute the behavior of others to dispositional factors. Ex. parents and children arguing about friends of the children

Bystander Effect

the tendency to avoid helping other people in emergencies when other people are also present and apparently capable of helping

Self Serving bias

the tendency to view one's successes as stemming from internal factors and one's failures as stemming from external factors. Ex. When athletes win they attribute skill but when they lose they attribute external events that caused them to lose.

System interaction

therapist's theoretical point of view interacts with the clients to determine how the therapist and client relate to each other

Type of treatment for Psychological disorders

therapy

mood stabilizers

used first by ancient Greeks and Romans were the first to use metal lithium as a mood stabilizer. Affects the functioning of neurotransmitters. Can also be used to strengthen the effects of antidepressant medication. Also used by people with bipolar disorder may have to use lithium as well as a person with type1 diabetes.

Context of Message

when we are in a good modo we are less likely to evaluate the situation carefully

Antipsychotic Drugs

: People with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are often given these. Reduce agitation, delusions, and hallucinations. Thought to act by blocking dopamine receptors in the brain. • Antidepressants: Used by people with major depression and are also helpful for some people with eating disorders, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and social phobia. Are believed to work by increasing levels these neurotransmitters, which can affect both depression and appetite

Social Skill Training

A behavior therapy method for helping people in their interpersonal relations that sues self-monitoring, behavior rehearsal, and feedback. Social skills training has been used to help formerly hospitalized mental patients maintain jobs and apartments in the community. Effective in groups

Aversive Conditioning

A behavior therapy technique in which undesired responses are inhibited by pairing repugnant or offensive stimuli with them. Used to break bad habits such as smoking, excessive drinking, nail biting and the like. Pair painful or aversive stimuli with unwanted impulses to make the impulse less appealing. Ex: to help control alcohol intake, tastes of different alcohol beverages can be paired with drug-induced nausea and vomiting or with electric shock.

Modeling

A behavior-therapy technique in which a client observes and imitates a person who approaches and copes with feared objects or situations. Relies on observational learning. Clients observe and then imitate people who approach and cope with the objects or situations that the client fears. Works as well as systemic desensitization and more rapidly in reducing fear of snakes. Modeling also increases self-efficacy expectations in coping with feared stimuli.

The Token Economy

A controlled environment in which people are reinforced for desired behaviors with tokens (such as poker chips) that may be exchanged for privileges. Tokens are dispensed as reinforces for productive activities. Increase patient activity and cooperation. Also used to modify the behavior of children with conduct disorders

Cognitive Therapies

A form of therapy that focuses on how clients; cognitions (e.g. expectations, attitudes, beliefs) lead to distress and may be modified to relieve distress and promote adaptive behavior

Psychotherapy

A systemic interaction between a therapist and a client that brings psychological principles to bear on influencing the clients thoughts, feelings, or behavior to help the client overcome psychological disorders,adjust, and develop

Ethnicity and Psychotherapy:

Americans from ethnic minority groups are less likely than European Americans to seek therapy. Reasons: • Lack of awareness that therapy would help • lack of info about availably of professional services, or inability to pay • distrust of professionals—> particularly European, and for females men • Language barrier • reluctance to open up to strangers • cultural inclinations toward other approaches to problem solving • Negative experiences with professionals and authority figures

Cognitive Behavior Theory

An approach to therapy that uses cognitive and behavioral techniques that have been validated by research.

Prejudice

An attitude toward a group that leads people to evaluate members of that group negatively. —>ATTITUDE Discrimination: hostile behavior that results is directed against groups toward whom one is prejudiced. —>ACTION one can be prejudice against someone without discriminating against them***

Definition of an attitude

An enduring mental representation of a person place or thing that typically evokes an emotional response and related behavior.. • Learned: not born with attitudes you learn them • Reluctantly malleable: can change but not easily

Peripheral route Persuation

Associates objects with positive or negative cues

Client centered thereapy

Carl Roger's Method of psychotherapy, which emphasizes the creation of a warm, therapeutic atmosphere that frees clients to engage in self-exploration and self-expression. Client-centered therapy is non-directive.

Drug Therapies

Clinicians prescribe valium and other drugs of people with various psychological disorders • anti-anxiety: usually prescribed for outpatients who complain of generalized anxiety or panic attacks, although many people also use sleeping pills. Depress the activity of the CNS—>decreases sympathetic activity—>reducing heart and respiration rate. Many people tolerate these drugs quickly and then dosage must be increased

Albert Ellis

Developed REBT: Rational, emotive behavior therapy: form of therapy that encourages clients to challenge and correct irrational expectations and maladaptive behaviors. Pointed out that our beliefs about events, not only the events themselves, shape our responses to them. Moreover, many of us harbor a number of irrational beliefs that can give rise to problems or magnify their impact.

Aaron Beck

Encouraged clients to see the irrationality of their ways of thinking. Noted cognitive errors that contribute to clients' miseries

Stereotyping

Erroneous assumptions that all members of a group share the same traits or characteristics

Evidence Based Practices

Experiments in which participants are assigned at random to a specific treatment or to a control treatment. the researchers in many of these studies also rely on treatment manuals that concretely outline the treatment methods. Argued that this favors cognitive-behavioral therapies because they are more readily standardized in treatment manuals and can be followed more accurately by practitioners in experiments

Family Therapy

Form of group therapy i which one or more families constitute the group. Systems approach: family interaction is studied and modified to enhance the growth of individual family members and of the family unit as a whole.

Gestalt therapy

Fritz Perls's form of psychotherapy, which attempts to integrate conflicting parts of the personality through directive methods, designed o help clients perceive their whole selves. Gestalt therapy assumes that people disown parts of themselves that might meet with social disapproval or rejection. Therapy aims to help individuals integrate conflicting parts of their personality. Gestalt means unified whole.

Group Behaviour

Groups help us satisfy our needs for affection, attention, and belonging. Empower us to do things we could not manage by ourselves. Can also pressure us into doing things we might not do if we were acting alone.

Truth Wins Scheme

Guide decision making most often when there is no single objectively correct decision • Truth-Wins Scheme-more information is provided and opinions are discussed, group comes to recognize that one approach is objectively correct

Fear Reduction Methods

Help that reduces peoples fears. Methods include: flooding, systematic desensitization, virtual therapy, and modeling

The attraction- similarity Hypothesis

Holds that people tend to develop romantic relationship with people who are similar to themselves in physical attractiveness and other traits.

Successive Approximations

In operant conditioning, a series of of behaviors that gradually become more similar to a target behavior. Example: You want to study for 3 hours but can only concentrate for 1.5. So every day you study for an extra five minutes. After every hour you can receive a five minute break. Thus causing you to gradually become more focused

Sternbergs Triangular model of love

Intimacy: close acquaintance and familiarity; a characteristic of a relationship in which partners share their innermost feelings. - Couples closeness, to their mutual concern and sharing of feelings and resources. —>more important in enduring relationships • Passion: strong romantic and sexual feelings —> Most crucial in short term relationship • Commitment: The decision to maintain a relationship. —>more important in enduring relationships

Self help and support Groups

Meet in person, online, or even by telephone. Best known is: AA.

Gender Differences in Selection of A Romantic Partner

Men: place greater emphasis on physical appearance, cooking ability, even thrift • Women: tend to place greater emphasis on traits such as professional status, consideration, dependability, kindness, and fondness for children.

Genuinenous therapy

Openness and honesty in responding to the client. Client-centered therapists must be able to tolerate differentness because they believe every client is different in important ways

Group Decision Making

Organizations use group such as committees or juries to make decisions in the belief that group decisions are more accurate than individual decisions

Vested interest

People are more likely to act on their attitudes when they have a vested interest in the outcome

Accessibility

People are more likely to behave in accord with their attitude when they are accessible-that is brought to mind.

Attitude formation

Political, religious, and other attitudes are learned or derived from cognitive processes. Tend to line up with people we grow up with; these beliefs however can change. Conditioning: through parents approval. Observational learning: learn things through observation.

Primacy and Recency Effects

Primacy: the tendency to evaluate others in terms of first impression. • Recency: the tendency to evaluate others in terms of the most recent impression

Group therapy

Pros: • Economical- Work with several people at once • Provides more info and life experiences for clients to draw on • Group support. Clients usually appreciate an outpouring of peer approval • Affiliating with people with similar problems is reassuring. • Members who show improvement provide hope for other members • Allows people the opportunity to practice social skills in a relatively nonthreatening atmosphere. • Cons: • Some clients fare better with individual treatment • Many prefer not to disclose problems to a group

Empathy

Recongnition of the clients experiences and feelings. therapists view the world through the client's frame of reference by setting aside their own values and listening closely

Fundamental Attribution Error

The assumption that others act predominately on the basis of their dispositions, even when there is evidence suggesting the importance of their situations. Ex. if a teenager gets into trouble with the law, individualistic societies are more likely to name the teenager than the social environment in which the teenager lives.

Persuaded Audience

The people who are asked or trying to be persuaded to do unreasonable things.

Social Facilitation

The process by which a person's performance is increased when other members of a group engage in similar behavior.

Biofeedback training

The systemic feeding back to an organism of information about a bodily function so that the organism can gain control of that function. Therapists help clients become more aware of, and gain control over, various bodily functions. Some people have overcome insomnia by learning to produce the kinds of brain waves associated with sleep.

changing Attitudes and Behavior by Means of Cognitive Dissonance

The view that we are motivated to make our cognitions or beliefs consisted with each other and with our behavior