Psych 101 Final

Persistent anxiety not attributed to object, situation or activity. It seems to be free-floating. Symptoms: Autonomic nervous system over arousal. Feelings of dread and foreboding. Excessive vigilance.

Anxiety Disorders: Generalized Anxiety Disorder

-The persuaded audience: --People with high self-esteem and low social anxiety are more likely to resist social pressure. -Cognitive dissonance: --People seek consistence in behaviors and attitudes. --If two of our cherished ideas conflict, we are motivated to reduce the discrepancy through changing our idea or changing our behavior.

Changing Attitudes

-Individuals show striking impairment in motor activity. -Slowing of activity into a stupor that may suddenly change into an agitated phase. -Waxy flexibility in which the person maintains positions into which he or she has been -manipulated by others. May demonstrate mutism.

Catatonic Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia appears to be a brain disorder. Dysfunction in prefrontal cortex. Less gray matter (related to loose associations). Smaller brains. Smaller prefrontal region of the cortex. Lower levels of activity in prefrontal region of cortex. Larger ventricles (hollow spaces).

Origins of Schizophrenia: Biological View

Learning theorists explain schizophrenia in terms of conditioning and observational learning. Inner fantasies become more reinforcing than social realities. Patients learn expected behavior by watching others. Get more attention from staff for misbehavior.

Origins of Schizophrenia: Learning Theory

Psychodynamic perspective suggests that the ego is overwhelmed by sexual or aggressive impulses from the id. The person retreats (regresses) to an early phase of the oral stage. Fantasies confused with reality.

Origins of Schizophrenia: Psychodynamic

Rates of schizophrenia are twice as high in low SES. Poverty, poor parenting, discrimination and overcrowding are also related. Sociocultural theorists suggest alleviation of poverty and other social ills, rather than changing people whose behavior is deviant as way to treat schizophrenia.

Origins of Schizophrenia: Sociocultural Theory

Tendency to interpret other people's behavior as threatening or demeaning. Mistrustful of others. No signs of disorganized thinking as in paranoid schizophrenia.

Paranoid Personality Disorder

-Systematized delusions and frequently related auditory hallucinations. -Usually the delusions are of grandeur and persecution including jealousy.

Paranoid Schizophrenia

Ability to predict a stressor appears to moderate impact. Control and even the illusion of control can moderate impact. Internals: people who wish to exercise control over their situations. Externals: people who do not wish to exercise control over their situations

Predictability and Control

Psychoanalysts suggest that anger is turned inward. -MDD: Overly concerned bout hurting other people's feelings or losing their approval and holding in feelings of anger. -Bipolar disorder may be seen as the personality being dominated by the superego and then by the ego.

Psychoanalytic Explanation of Depression

Suggests that there are problems in the Oedipus complex. The superego does not develop.

Psychodynamic model on Personality Disorders

-Anxiety Disorders -Dissociative Disorders -Somatoform Disorders -Mood Disorders -Schizophrenia -Personality Disorders

Psychological Disorders

They are unusual. They suggest faulty perception or interpretation of reality. Hearing voices, seeing things, hallucinations, ideas of persecution. They suggest severe personal distress. They are self-defeating. They can be dangerous. The individual's behavior is socially unacceptable

Psychological Disorders: Characteristics

Characteristics include: High in commitment. High in challenge. High in perceived control. High in internal locus of control. More resistant to stress because they choose to face it. Interpret stress as interesting, challenging, not punishing.

Psychological Hardiness

Biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors are involved in health—and illness. Biological factors such as: Pathogens, inoculations, injuries, age, gender, and a family history of disease. Genes only create the predisposition toward the health problem.

Psychology & Health: Multifactorial approach

Attitudes, emotions, and behavior. stopping smoking, eating right, exercising and controlling alcohol use.

Psychology & Healthy: Psychological factors

A systematic interaction between a therapist and a client that applies psychological principles to affect the client's thoughts, feelings, or behavior in order to Help the client overcome psychological disorders, Adjust to problems in living, Or develop as an individual -Based on the thinking of Freud. -Assume that psychological disorders, issues, reflect early childhood experiences and internal conflicts.

Psychotherapy

-Hypnosis: allowed clients to focus on repressed conflicts. -Free association: the client is made comfortable and asked to talk about anything that comes to mind. -Resistance: Clients may not talk about threatening ideas. These ideas are repressed. -Interpretation: The process of showing the client how revealed ideas illustrate deep seated feelings and conflicts. -Transference: Clients respond to the therapist with the attitudes and feelings they have toward other people in their lives. Often clients reenact their childhood conflicts.

Psychotherapy techniques

Paranoid Personality Disorder Schizotypal Personality Disorder Schizoid Personality Borderline Personality Disorder Antisocial Personality Disorder Avoidant Personality Disorder

Types of Personality Disorders

People without psychological disorders are said to be in good mental health. The disorders themselves are termed mental ILLNESSES or psychoPATHOLOGY. Disorders are DIAGNOSED according to the SYMPTOMS shown by mental PATIENTS. Most patients are OUTPATIENTS; that is, they remain out of the hospital and are seen as necessary; some are ADMITTED to mental HOSPITALS, where they become INPATIENTS. Patients may be PRESCRIBED medication and psychoTHERAPY.

Widespread use of medical terminology.

Ellis notes that our beliefs about events as well as the events themselves can be stressors. Ellis's A-B-C approach: A is the activating event. B is the belief mediating A and C. C is the consequence. If the belief of someone who loses a job is to catastrophize the extent of the loss, then anxiety and depression is more likely. Ellis proposes that many of us carry with us irrational beliefs; doorways to distress.

irrational beliefs

-Altruism: selfless concern for welfare of others. -Observers are more likely to help when: -In a good mood. -Empathic. -They believe it's an emergency. -They assume the responsibility to act. -They know what to do. -It's someone they know. -People are similar to themselves.

Altruism and the Bystander Effect

- Anxiety tends to run in families. -Twin studies show a higher concordance rate for anxiety disorders among identical twins than among fraternal twins. -Mineka (1991) suggest that humans are genetically predisposed to fear stimuli that may have posed a threat to their ancestors. -The brain may not be sensitive enough to GABA, a neurotransmitter that may help calm anxiety reactions

Anxiety Disorders: Origins: Biological Views

-Cognitive evaluations (approve/disapprove). -Feelings (like/dislike). -Behavioral tendencies (avoid/approach). -Attitudes are behavioral and cognitive tendencies that are expressed by evaluating particular people, places, or things with favor or disfavor. -Attitudes are learned, and they affect behavior. -Attitudes can change, but not easily.

Attitudes are comprised of:

The definition of attitude implies that our behavior is consistent with our cognitions. The links between attitudes (A) and behaviors (B) tend to be weak to moderate. We often live up to stereotypes of ourselves.

Attitudes: The A-B Problem

We conform when we change our behavior in order to adhere to social norms. Social norms are widely accepted expectations concerning social behavior. The Asch study: One subject and the rest are confederates. Does the subject conform to the group though they are obviously wrong? 75% agreed with the majority's wrong answer at least once.

Conformity & The Asch Study

an appropriate response to real threat.

Define Anxiety

Stress is the demand made on an organism to adapt, cope, or adjust. Some stress is healthful (eustress) (Hans Selye). Intense or prolonged stress can harm the body.

Define stress

-Negative behavior that results from prejudice. -Many groups in the United States have experienced discrimination: --Women, gays and lesbians, older people, and ethnic groups such as African Americans, Asian Americans, Latino and Latina Americans, Irish Americans, Jewish Americans, and Native Americans. -Discrimination includes denial of access to jobs, the voting booth, and housing.

Discrimination

-Social Facilitation: the effects on performance that result from the presence of others. --The presence of others increases our levels of arousal and motivation. --At high levels of arousal our performance of simple tasks is facilitated. --Our performance of complex responses may be impaired. -Evaluation apprehension: our performance is affected not only by the presence of others but also by concern that they are evaluating us

Group Behavior

(also known as collaborative decision-making) is a situation faced when individuals collectively make a choice from the alternatives before them. The decision is then no longer attributable to any single individual who is a member of the group.

Group decision making

Presence of others impair performance because of the anonymous nature of the group. Goofing off. Diffusion of responsibility: each person may feel less obligated to help because others are present.

Group/Social Loafing

Members tend to be more influenced by group cohesiveness and a dynamic leader than by the realities of the situation. Groupthink is usually fueled by a dynamic group leader. Threat heightens the cohesiveness of the group and is a source of stress. Under stress, group members tend not to consider all their options carefully. Flaws: -Feelings of invulnerability. -The group's belief in its rightness. -Discrediting information contrary to group's decision. -Pressures on group members to conform. -Stereotyping of members of the out-group

Groupthink

Suggest that childhood experiences can contribute to maladaptive ways of relating to others in adulthood.

Learning theorists view on Personality Disorders

-Deindividuation: state of reduced self-awareness and concern for social evaluation. -Factors leading to deindividuation: -Anonymity. -Diffusion of responsibility. -Arousal due to noise and crowding. -Focus on emerging group norms rather than on one's own values. -Under these conditions crowd members behave more aggressively than they would as individuals.

Mob Behavior and Deindividuation

We tend to repeat behavior that is reinforced. Behavior that is not reinforced tends to become extinguished. The token economy: Individuals must use tokens to purchase things they like. Tokens are reinforcements for productive activities. Social skills training: Employ self monitoring, coaching, modeling, role playing, behavioral rehearsal and feedback.

Operant Conditioning

Attitudes are learned or derived from cognitive processes. Conditioning. Observing others. Cognitive appraisal. People evaluate information and form or change attitudes, including stereotypes, on the basis of new information. Initial attitudes act as cognitive anchors. We judge new ideas in terms of how much they deviate from our existing attitudes.

Origins of Attitudes

Characterized by enduring patterns of behavior that are inflexible, and maladaptive. These behaviors typically impair social or personal functioning and are a source of distress to the individual or to other people.

Personality Disorders characteristics

-Attitude toward a group that leads people to evaluate members of that group negatively-even though they have never met them. --Cognitively, prejudice is linked to expectations that members of the target group will behave poorly. --Emotionally, prejudice is associated with negative feelings such as fear, dislike, or hatred. --Behaviorally, prejudice is connected with avoidance, aggression, and discrimination.

Prejudice

-Social influence focuses on ways in which people alter the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of others. -Obedience to authority: the Milgram studies: --Subjects in the study were designated as the "teacher" and delivered shocks to the "learners" (there really were no shocks). --The study was designed to determine if the teachers would comply with the requests of the scientist. -Results indicate that of the 40 men in the project 65% complied with the scientist throughout the study.

Social Influence

-Dissimilarity: we are apt to like people who share our attitudes. -Social conflict: social and economic conflict between people of different races and religions -Social Learning: children tend to imitate their parents, and parents reinforce their children for doing so. Prejudices can be transmitted from generation to generation -Information Processing: one cognitive view is that prejudices act as cognitive filters through which we perceive the social world -Social Categorization: us and them; in group more favorable, and then being isolated from the outgroup perpetuates bias.

Sources of Prejudice

The immune system has several functions that combat disease. Production of white BLOOD CELLS (LEUKOCYTES): They recognize and eradicate foreign agents and unhealthy cells. Foreign substances are called ANTIGENS: The body generates specialized proteins or antibodies to fight antigens. Inflammation: This is increased blood supply which floods the region with white blood cells

The immune system has several functions that combat disease.

The ways in which the environment influences behavior and mental processes. Social psychology studies the nature and causes of behavior and mental processes in social situations. Topics include: attitudes, conformity, persuasion, social perception, interpersonal attraction, social influence, group conformity, and obedience.

What is Social Psychology?

Socialization: People are taught from a young age to obey authority figures. Lack of social comparison. Perception of legitimate authority. The foot-in-the-door technique. Inaccessibility of values. Buffers in the experiment.

Why did people in the Milgram study obey the experimenters?

-Prejudices about certain groups that lead people to view members of those groups in a biased fashion. -Some stereotypes are positive, not negative. --Attractiveness is positively correlated with popularity, social skills, and sexual experience. --Attractive people are more likely to be judged innocent of crimes in mock jury experiments. --When they are found guilty they are given less severe sentences.

stereotypes

Complications during mother's pregnancy. Birth during winter. Poor maternal nutrition. Atypical development of the central nervous system. Dopamine theory: suggests that people with schizophrenia overutilize dopamine. May have larger numbers of dopamine receptors. Multifactorial model suggests that genetic factors create a predisposition toward schizophrenia. Then other factors contribute to the cause of the disorder.

Biological Factors and Schizophrenia

-Depression is heritable. -Genetic factors appear to be involved. -Bipolar disorder may be connected with genetic material found on Chromosome 18. -Depression research focuses on the underutilization of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain. -Depressed individuals respond to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.

Biological Views on Depression

Personality traits are to some degree heritable. Evidence shows those with antisocial personality disorder have less gray matter in prefrontal cortex. Lower skin conduction in males more indicative of antisocial tendencies in boys. Including manipulativeness and deceitfullness.

Biological theorists views on Personality Disorders

Show instability in their relationships, self-image, and mood, and lack of control over impulses. Uncertain of their values, goals, loyalties, careers, choices of friends, sometimes even their sexual orientations. Unpredictable behavior is often self-destructive and linked to a risk of suicidal attempts and gestures. Spending sprees, gambling, drug abuse, engaging in unsafe sexual activity, reckless driving, binge eating, or shoplifting, self-mutilation.

Borderline Personality Disorder

-Cognitive factors contributing to depression include making irrational demands on themselves. -Depressed people tend to ruminate about feelings of depression. -Attribution styles include: -internal vs. external; -stable vs. unstable; and -global vs. specific. -people who are depressed tend to think of their situation as internal, stable, and global. -they are powerless to change. -Self-blame related to poor immune system functioning (Taylor, 2000a).

Cognitive Theory Perspective on Depression

Focuses on changing a client's: Beliefs, Attitudes and Automatic types of thinking that create and compound their client's problems. Heighten insight into current cognitions. Appraisals of unfortunate events can heighten our discomfort and impair our coping ability. -Self-defeating statements are changed. -Reduces anxiety and depression including severe depression.

Cognitive Therapy- Aaron Beck Focuses on..

First stage of GAS Triggered by perception of a stressor. The reaction mobilizes or arouses the body. This mobilization is basis for instinctive fight-or-flight reaction. Involves bodily changes: Initiated by the brain, Regulated by the endocrine system, And the sympathetic division of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)

Alarm Reaction

Characterized by persistently violating rights of others and being in conflict with the law. Individuals often show superficial charm. They lack guilt or anxiety about their misdeeds. They fail to learn from punishment. They fail to form meaningful bonds with other people. Women are more likely than men to have anxiety and depressive disorders. Men are more likely to have antisocial personality disorder.

Antisocial Personality Disorder

Obsessions: Recurrent, anxiety-provoking thoughts or images that seem irrational and disrupt daily life. Compulsions: Thoughts or behaviors that tend to reduce the anxiety connected with obsessions. Example: An individual obsessed with cleanliness may reduce his anxiety by repetitive washing.

Anxiety Disorders: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

-Anxiety: maintained by thinking that one is in a terrible situation and helpless to change it. -People's appraisals of the magnitude of threats help determine whether they are traumatic and can lead to PTSD (Koster et al., 2009). -People with panic attacks tend to misinterpret bodily cues and to view them as threats. -When anxieties are acquired at a young age, we may later interpret them as enduring traits and label ourselves.

Anxiety Disorders: Origins: Cognitive Theory

Phobias: conflicts originating in childhood. Generalized anxiety: difficulty in repressing primitive impulses. Obsessions: leakage of unconscious impulses. Compulsions: control those unconscious impulses

Anxiety Disorders: Origins: Psychological Views

Abrupt attack of acute anxiety not triggered by specific objects or situations. Symptoms, which may last for hours include: Shortness of breath. Heavy sweating. Tremors. Heart pounding. Fearing suffocation. Choking sensations. Nausea. Numbness. Fear of going crazy or losing control.

Anxiety Disorders: Panic Disorder

Arousal of the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system: Trembling. Sweating. Pounding heart. Elevated blood pressure. Faintness. Anxiety: an appropriate response to real threat.

Anxiety Disorders: Physical features

Worrying. Fear of the worst things happening. Fear of losing control. Nervousness. Inability to relax.

Anxiety Disorders: Psychological Features:

Characterized by anxiety and helplessness that are caused by a traumatic event. Occurs within a month of the event and lasts from 2 days to 4 weeks. Those having acute stress disorder may also develop PTSD in the future.

Anxiety Disorders: Stress Disorders: Acute Stress Disorder:

is characterized by a rapid heart rate, feelings of anxiety, and helplessness. -Caused by exposure to traumatic experience (natural or man-made disasters, threats, or assault, or witnessing a death). -The traumatic event is revisited in the form of intrusive memories, recurrent dreams, and flashbacks. -Other symptoms of PTSD include: Difficulty in enjoying life, Sleep problems, Irritable outbursts, Difficulty concentrating, Extreme vigilance, and An intensified "startle" response.

Anxiety Disorders: Stress Disorders: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

The least stressful type. Each of two goals is desirable and both are within reach.

Approach-approach conflict:

The same goal produces both approach and avoidance motives. Pluses and minuses, good points and bad points.

Approach-avoidance conflict:

More stressful. A person is motivated to avoid each of two negative goals. Avoiding one of them requires approaching the other.

Avoidance-avoidance conflict

Individuals are generally unwilling to enter a relationship without some assurance of acceptance because they fear rejection and criticism. They do have some feelings of warmth toward other people

Avoidant Personality Disorder

Applies the principles of learning to promote desired behavioral change. Use specific learning-based procedures. Procedures experimentally based. Rely on the principles of conditioning and observational learning.

Behavior Therapy (aka Behavior Modification)

-Flooding: exposure therapy in which client is exposed to the fear-evoking stimulus until the fear response is extinguished. -Systematic desensitization reduces phobic responses. Client learns to handle increasingly disturbing stimuli while anxiety is counterconditioned. -Counterconditioning: a response incompatible with anxiety is made to appear under conditions that usually elicit anxiety. --Muscle-relaxation incompatible with anxiety. --Clients perceive themselves to be in the fearful setting although they are safe -Modeling: Relies on observational learning. Clients observe and then imitate (model) individuals dealing with the feared objects. Works well with systematic desensitization. -Aversive Conditioning: Controversial procedure in which painful or aversive stimuli are paired with unwanted impulses. Goal is to remove unwanted to behaviors. Example: pairing alcohol with nausea The effectiveness of this approach is uncertain.

Behavior Therapy: Fear Reduction

Therapists need to challenge beliefs that are not supported by evidence. Clients need to become personal scientists and challenge beliefs that are not supported by evidence. Cognitive errors contribute to client's miseries because: Clients selectively perceive. Clients overgeneralize. Clients magnify. Clients engage in absolutist thinking.

Cognitive Therapy- Aaron Beck what therapists & clients need to do & errors

The feeling of being pulled in two or more directions by opposing motives. Conflict is frustrating and stressful. There are four types of conflicts: Approach-approach. Avoidance-avoidance. Approach-avoidance. Multiple approach-avoidance.

Conflict (Miller, 1994)

Regular occurrences, experiences that can threaten or harm our well-being. Include: Household hassles. Health hassles. Time-pressure hassles. Inner concern hassles. Environmental hassles. Financial responsibility hassles. Work hassles. Future security hassles. Hassles are linked to nervousness, worrying, inability to get started, feelings of sadness, and feelings of loneliness.

Daily hassles

Characterized by: Incoherence, -Loosening of associations, -Disorganized behavior, -Disorganized delusions, -Fragmentary delusions or hallucinations, -Flat or highly inappropriate emotional responses, -Neglect appearance, and -Extreme social impairment.

Disorganized Schizophrenia

Characterized by persistent feelings that one is detached from one's own body, as if one is observing one's thought processes from the outside.

Dissociative Disorders: Depersonalization disorder

Characterized by a separation of mental processes such as thoughts, emotions, identity, memory, or consciousness. -Dissociative amnesia -Dissociative fugue -Dissociative identity disorder (formerly termed multiple personality disorder) -Depersonalization disorder

Dissociative Disorders: characteristics and types

Characterized by the person suddenly being unable to recall important personal information. Not attributed to injuries.

Dissociative amnesia

Characterized by the person abruptly leaving their home or place of work and traveling to another place, having lost all memory of their past. The new personality is often more outgoing than the less inhibited one.

Dissociative fugue

(formerly termed multiple personality disorder) Characterized by two or more identities or personalities, each with distinct traits and memories, occupying the same person. Each identity may or may not be aware of the others.

Dissociative identity disorder

Third stage of GAS. If the stressor isn't diminished we may enter the exhaustion stage. The body is depleted of the resources required for combating stress. Muscles become fatigued, heartbeat and respiration slow down. Resulting diseased of adaptation: Allergies. Hives. Coronary heart disease. Death.

Exhaustion Stage

Biological differences between individuals—diatheses—explain why some people develop certain psychological disorders under stress, whereas others do not (Belsky & Pluess, 2009; Eberhart & Hammen, 2010). Some people possess a genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia while others do not.

Explanation for psychological disorders: Diathesis-Stress Model

Explains psychological disorders in terms of a combination of... -Possible biological vulnerabilities; -Psychological factors such as conditioning, exposure to stress, and self-defeating thoughts about stressors; and -Sociocultural factors such as family relationships, unemployment, and cultural beliefs and expectations (Gilbert, 2009; Levine & Schmelkin, 2006).

Explanation for psychological disorders: The Biopsychosocial Model

Children with one parent having schizophrenia: 6% of being diagnosed. Monozygote twin has schizophrenia , 47%. Adopted children more likely to resemble biological parents. Individuals unrelated to people with schizophrenia will not develop schizophrenia despite the worst of environments

Heredity and Schizophrenia

It appears obvious that hassles and life changes should cause health problems. But some are not convinced of causal connections. Correlational evidence. Positive versus negative life changes. Personality differences. Cognitive appraisal. Optimism also helps people cope with the effects of stress.

How Are Daily Hassles and Life Changes Connected With Health Problems?

Multiple studies indicate people who have more self-efficacy are: Less prone to be disturbed by adverse events. More likely to lose weight and quit smoking. Less likely to relapse. More likely to function despite pain. Less likely to abuse alcohol.

If you have more self-efficacy..

-Learning theorists suggest that depressed people behave as though they cannot obtain reinforcement. -They have an external locus of control. -They cannot control events -Are inactive and apathetic -Researchers have found links between depression and learned helplessness

Learning Theory Explains Depression

Requires adjustment. Even positive changes can lead to headaches, high blood pressure, other health problems. Life changes differ from daily hassles: Many life changes are positive and desirable. Hassles are negative. Hassles occur regularly. Life changes occur at irregular intervals. Example of life change: death of a spouse is considered the most stressful life change

Life changes

Briefer and less intense. Focus on revealing unconscious material. Client and therapist usually sit face to face rather than having the client lie on a couch. The therapist is usually directive. Usually more focus on the ego and less emphasis on the id. Sometimes referred to as ego analysis.

Modern Psychodynamic Therapies

-Difficulty concentrating -Loss of interest in activities and other people -Pessimism -Crying -Thoughts of suicide -Poor appetite and serious weight loss -Psychomotor retardation -Faulty perceptions -Delusions of unworthiness -Guilt for imagined wrong doings -Possible hallucinations of strange bodily sensations

Mood Disorders : Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) Symptoms

-Characterized by disturbance in expressed emotions generally involving sadness or elation. -Affects 5-7% of population during any year. 1 out of 7 over our lifetimes

Mood Disorders : Major Depressive Disorder characteristics

-Formerly known as manic-depressive disorder. Characterized by mood swings from ecstatic elation to deep depression. -In the manic phase, the person may show: -Excessive excitement, -Silliness, show poor judgment, -Restlessness, -Oversexed behavior -Pressured speech, and -Rapid flight of ideas. -May also destroy property or give away expensive possessions.

Mood Disorders: Bipolar Disorder Characteristics

In the depressed phase symptoms include: -Sleeping more than usual, -Being lethargic, -Withdrawal from activities, and -Experiencing irritability. -May attempt suicide.

Mood Disorders: Bipolar Disorder Symptoms when in depressed phase

-Clinicians need to be sensitive to clients' heritage, language, and values. -African Americans May withhold information due to U.S. history of prejudice and discrimination. May assume people should manage own problems. Are more suspicious of therapists. -Asian Americans Tend to stigmatize people with psychological disorders. Often deny problem, failing to ask for help. Western therapy of disclosure inconsistent with Asian tradition of public restraint. Prefer to receive concrete advice. May experience psychological problems as physical symptoms. -Latino and Latin Americans Value the interdependency in the family. Therapists need to use methods that are consistent with the client's values. -Native Americans May feel a loss of cultural identity Experience social disorganization. Therapy should focus on strengthening cultural identity, pride and cohesion.

Multicultural Competence

Each of several alternative courses of action has pluses and minuses. Decision making can also be stressful especially when there is no clear correct choice.

Multiple approach-avoidance conflict:

Focuses on beliefs about events as well as the events. Many harbor irrational beliefs such as: We must have the love and approval of people who are important to us. We must prove ourselves to be thoroughly competent, adequate, and achieving. The methods are directive and active. Ellis suggested we need less misery, less blaming and more action. -Helps people with anxiety and depression.

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) -Albert Ellis

Assumes that illnesses have identifiable physical or biological causes. People with such illnesses are cured through treatment or therapy.

Recognizing psychological disorder: The Medical Model

In the past people believed that psychological disorders were caused by possession by the Devil. People attributed unusual behavior and psychological disorders to demons. The Hammer of Witches: A document authorized by Pope Innocent VIII proposed to diagnose those who were possessed.

Recognizing psychological disorders: The Demonological Model

Second Stage of GAS Entered if stressor isn't removed Levels of endocrine and sympathetic activity lower than in alarm reaction but still higher than normal. The body attempts to restore lost energy and repair bodily damage.

Resistance Stage

Characterized by: Indifference to relationships and flat emotional response. "Loner" behavior. Lack of warm, tender feelings for others. Few friends and fewer long-term relationships. No hallucinations or delusions

Schizoid Personality Disorder

Severe psychological disorder that touches every aspect of a person's life. Characterized by disturbances in: -Thought and language. -Perception and attention. -Motor activity and mood. -Withdrawal in daydreams or fantasy. -Jumbled speech. -Delusions. -Hallucinations. -Stupors: slow motor activity. -Emotional responses that may be flat.

Schizophrenia characteristics

-Positive symptoms are inappropriate behaviors we find present in afflicted people. Agitated behavior, hallucinations, delusions, etc. -Negative symptoms are those that reflect the absence of appropriate behaviors. Blank faces, rigid, motionless bodies, mutism

Schizophrenia symptoms

-Grandeur: Person thinks he/she is famous. -Persecution: Person thinks others are out to get him/her. -Reference: Person thinks others are talking about or referring to him/her.

Schizophrenia: Ways of thinking

Characterized by: Peculiarities of thought, perception, or behavior such as excessive fantasy and suspiciousness. Feelings of being unreal, or odd usage of words. No complex delusions, no hallucinations, and no unusual motor activities, so this disorder is schizotypal, not schizophrenic.

Schizotypal Personality Disorder

The perceived ability to make things happen. Expectations affect our ability to withstand stress. Bandura and colleagues (1985): High self-efficacy expectations are accompanied by relatively lower levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline in the bloodstream.

Self-Efficacy

Functional analysis of behavior: Helps clients change behavior by determining what stimuli trigger behaviors and reinforcers that maintain them. Clients are taught to manipulate the antecedents and consequences of their behavior. Ex. Nail biting

Self-control methods: Operant Conditioning:

Feelings of happiness may have beneficial effects on the immune system. Humor can moderate the effects of stress. Laughter stimulates the output of endorphins. Laughter contributes to positive cognitive shifts positive emotions that accompany them. Humor also appears to be associated with social support and self-efficacy.

Sense of humor

Seems to act as a buffer against the effects of stress. Sources of social support include: Emotional concern. Instrumental aid. Information. Appraisal. Socializing.

Social Support

-A major change in, or loss of, physical functioning although there are no medical findings to explain the loss of functioning. -The person is not faking as they seem to be converting a source of stress into a physical difficulty. -Some people with this disorder show indifference to their symptoms.

Somatoform Disorders: Conversion Disorder

-Characterized by people insisting that they are suffering with a serious physical illness. -No medical evidence of illness can be found. -They become preoccupied with minor physical sensations and continue to believe that they are ill despite the reassurance of physicians that they are healthy.

Somatoform Disorders: Hypochondriasis

Characterized by physical problems in people, such as paralysis, pain, or a persistent belief that they have a serious disease. Yet no evidence of a physical abnormality can be found. Types: Conversion Disorder Hypochondriasis

Somatoform Disorders: characteristics and types

One of the reasons stress exhausts us is that it stimulates the production of steroids. Steroids suppress the functioning of the immune system. Persistent secretion of steroids decreases inflammation and interferes with the formation of antibodies. We become more vulnerable to various illnesses. Example: Epstein-Barr virus

Stress and the Immune System

The syndrome is a cluster of bodily changes that occur in three stages: Alarm. Resistance. Exhaustion.

The General Adaptation Syndrome (Selye): GAS

Suggest that people have learned not to think about bad memories or disturbing impulses in order to avoid feelings of anxiety, guilt or shame. -Both Psychodynamic and learning theories suggest dissociative disorders help people keep disturbing memories/ideas out of mind. -Many cases involve memories of abuse during childhood, usually by a relative or caretaker.

Theoretical Explanations for Dissociative Disorders: Learning theorists

Explains this as massive repression. Both Psychodynamic and learning theories suggest dissociative disorders help people keep disturbing memories/ideas out of mind. -Many cases involve memories of abuse during childhood, usually by a relative or caretaker.

Theoretical Explanations for Dissociative Disorders: Psychodynamic theory

-A form of self-hypnosis in which people focus so intently on an imaginary physical problem that they exclude conflicting information. -Evidence suggests people who develop hypochondriasis are particularly sensitive to bodily sensations and tend to ruminate about them.

Theoretical Views of Somatoform Disorders

Assumes people disown parts of themselves and don social masks. Goal is to integrate conflicting parts of their personality. Gestalt therapy is highly directive. Exercises include: The dialogue. Playing the projection. I take responsibility.

Therapeutic Process: Gestalt-Fritz Perls

The focus is on quality of the client's subjective, conscious experience. Focus on the present rather than the past. "Here and Now"

Therapeutic Process: Humanistic

Get in touch with genuine feelings and pursue own interests, regardless of other people's wishes. Free to make choices and control destinies. Psychological problems arise from roadblocks in path of self-actualization. Non-directive and focuses on helping the person feel whole. Therapist has the following qualities: Unconditional positive regard. Empathic understanding. Genuineness.

Therapeutic Process: Humanistic-Carl Rogers

Psychoanalysis can extend for months, even years. The aim is to provide insight into the conflicts that are the cause of the person's problems. Catharsis is a spilling forth of repressed conflicts and guilt.

Traditional psychoanalysis

Highly driven. Competitive. Impatient. Aggressive. Feel rushed and under pressure. Find it difficult to give up control or power. Held to irrational belief that they must be perfectly competent and achieving in everything they undertake.

Type A behavior pattern