PSYC1024 - Clinical Perspectives on Anxiety Mood and Stress
What are the four main types of experiments/studies?
1. Case study 2. True experiment 3. Correlational study 4. Quasi-experimental study
What is a schema?
A conceptualization of something about the world
What is sleep hygiene?
Behaviours that improve the ability to get good sleep, often grounded in conditioning behaviours
Who came up with the Social Phobia Inventory?
Conner, in 2000
What is operationalizing a variable?
Creating a metric that allows the variable to be objectively measured
What is validity, with regards to science?
Extent that a concept/conclusion/measurement is well founded and fits the real world
How do emotions motivate us to survive?
Fear - avoid danger Anger - protection Happiness - ****ing, better social bonds Disgust - avoiding bacteria etc Sadness - ???
What category of drug is Weed?
Hallucinogens
What is a Case Study?
Investigation of a single case
What does a zero correlation mean?
No relationship between one event and another
Can taste be associated with pain?
No, but sound can be
What is a behavioural experiment?
Put your belief that it's gonna be unfun to the test
What experiments were performed to demonstrate attachment theory?
Rhesus monkeys (Harlow: food, but impersonal, vs no food and personal) Children (Ainsworth: have the caregiver leave the room)
Is meth use on the rise or the decline?
Rise (318% increase in incidents)
Who was Pavlov?
Russian psychologist 1849-1936. Discovered classical conditioning
What are the different attachment patterns?
Secure Avoidant Resistant Disorganized
What is the Darwinian theory of evolution?
See 'Spore'
What gene mutations are related to OCD?
Serotonin (5HTT & SS phenotype = higher rates of OCD)
What gene mutations are related to depression?
Serotonin disregulation
What is an allele?
The different forms of a gene
What is the mind?
The place where mental processes occur
What is the central hypothesis of cognitive science?
Thinking is best understood in terms of representational structures in the mind and the computational procedures on those structures
What are some measures to combat perfectionism?
Write down your values and review them Pro/con analysis Set rules/limits (i.e. for studying) Thought diaries
What are the three main components of dysfunctional perfectionism?
1. Relentlessly striving for extremely high standards and moving bar if they are met 2. Overvaluing performance success and undervaluing the self 3. Negative feelings and dysfunctional behaviours associated with 1 and 2
What are the steps of the scientific method?
1. Theory 2. Hypothesis 3. Experimentation 4. Analysis 5. Update theory 6. Repeat
What are the two perspectives of stress?
1. result of objective threats/challenges 2. result of subjective appraisal of events
How common is perfectionism?
1/5-1/3 of uni students display high levels of perfectionism (Boone)
Where does OCD stand on the WHO's list of causes of disability?
10th
What is the age bracket with the highest % of drug use?
18-29
What is a brief history of behavioural activation?
1970s, peter lewinshon (low mood + activity levels) 1973 lewinshon & grag (low mood = less pleasant activities engaged in) 1974 macphillamy & lewinshon (depression = fewer activities construed as pleasant) 1976 Lewinshon biglan and zeiss develop BA
If you have depression, what is the likelihood that your biological relatives also have depression?
2.1% as opposed to 0.6% for non-biological relatives
What % of Australians have used weed at least once in their life?
34%
What % of Australians 14+ have used illicit drugs at least once?
38%
How common is OCD?
4th most common psychiatric disorder in US (1-3% of pop, 1.9% in Aus)
What is binge drinking?
5+ standard drinks in one sitting for men, 4+ for women - drinking with the goal being getting drunk
If you have depression, what is the likelihood that your biological relatives also have alcoholism?
5.4% opposed to 1.7% for non-biological relatives
How much sleep does the average person require?
7-9hrs a night (study where they got some dudes to live in a cave for a while)
How many years of training does a clinical psychologist have to have?
8
What is the spreading attitude effect?
A bad/good thing being associated with another neutral thing which then becomes bad/good and so on and so on possibly forever
What is a safety behaviour?
A behaviour designed to reduce anxiety for a particular situation, for example avoiding eye contact or pregaming
What is a distal causal factor?
A causal factor that has influence in a more abstract way
What is mood?
A combination of emotional experiences
What is a maintaining factor?
A factor that keeps a situation occuring (e.g. safety behaviours)
What is depression?
A mental illness of chronic low mood
How does extinction work?
A new memory is generated and competes with control with the conditioning memory
What is a pleasant activity schedule?
A plan you make to increase the number of pleasant activities you undergo
What is behavioural activation?
A process designed to systematically increase the levels of behaviour a person engages in to improve mood over time and decrease the ones that result in bad mood
What is stress?
A psychological and biological response to a threat or pressure
What is a negative self-schema?
A schema about the self that is bad. May be dormant and not affect the person's life
What is psychosis?
A state where the subject has lost contact with reality
What is the War of the Ghosts?
A story that measured the impact of cultural background on the recounting of stories
What is rumination?
A thinking style focused on the past that is persisten, recyclic and depressive
What drug is most dangerous overall?
Alcohol
What drug is most dangerous to society?
Alcohol
What are the different types of thought errors?
All or nothing thinking Overgeneralization Selective Abstraction Disqualifying the positive Mind reading Fortune telling Catastrophizing Minimization Emotional reasoning "Should" statements
What is the prefrontal cortex?
An area of the brain very important for executive functioning such as decision making, personality expression, etc
What is a causal factor?
An event that causes something else to happen (factors that cause symptoms to occur)
What is a true experiment?
An experiment that tests a hypothesis using dependent and independent variables that have been controlled by the researcher(s)
What is a quasi-experimental study?
An experiment where people are selected based on pre-existing conditions and randomly allocated experimental conditions (e.g. studying twins)
What does a perfect positive correlation mean?
An increase in one event leads to an equal increase in the second event
What is Thorndike's law of effect?
Any behaviour followed by positive consequence tends to be repeated
What is behaviourism?
Approach to psychology - there's no point trying to study the mind, we should just study behaviour
How do BA and sunlight interact?
BA encourages greater exposure to sunlight and thus reduces the effects of low mood
Is depression a result of nature or nurture?
BOTH
How do schemas and appraisals influence our emotions
Based on the schemas we have, we may appraise a situation positively or negatively and that will influence our mood
What is evaluative conditioning?
Basically a neutral stimulus becoming good or bad in someone's mind after it is paired with something good or bad
Where in the world is meth used?
Basically everywhere, but injection is predominately in Australasia, North America and Europe
What is operant conditioning?
Behavioural responses are reinforced by consequences of behaviour
What are the main symptoms of OCD?
Being responsible for causing or failing to prevent harm to the self or others Worrying about whether cerain objects are in place or tasks have been fulfilled Thoughts about being contaminated Obsessions about symmetry Unwanted sexual, violent or otherwise morally unacceptable thoughts
What is fear?
Bodily response to clear and imminent threat
What is James-Lange's theory of emotion?
Bodily sensations/objective feelings of the emotion are the source, and subjective processing of emotions comes after.
What is the most effective therapy for social anxiety?
CBT
What is Mowrer's two stage learning theory?
CC = initial fear OC = maintained fear (bc people avoid the US bc of negative reinforcement)
What is extinction?
CS without US many times, eventually CS =/= CR
How is a clinical psychologist different to a psychiatrist?
Cannot prescribe medication, are not medical doctors
What is considered 'long term' sleep deprivation?
Chronically getting less than 6hrs of sleep per night
What are some of the main psychology disciplines?
Cognitive science Social psychology Cognitive neuroscience Behavioural neuroscience Abnormal psychology Perception Psychophysiology Translational psychology Evolutionary psychology Organisational psychology Forensic psychology Clinical psychology
How can we measure stress?
Cold pressure test (lovallo 75) - get people to put hand in bucket of ice water The undergraduate stress questionnaire (crandall 92)
What is motivational interviewing?
Common first step for substance abuse disorders; identifying things that are having a negative effect on someone's life and they want to change
What is a genotype?
Complete set of genes and alleles
How can we encourage determination to change?
Consider the benefits and disadvantages of not changing
What is conditioned taste aversion?
Create negative association with taste to feeling ill
What are the potential reasons for the differences in binge drinking for men and women?
Cultural norms (drinking is MANLY) Lower tolerance for alcohol for women (both because they're generally smaller and bc not as effective at breaking down ethanol) Potentially worried about fetal alcohol syndrome
Is binge drinking increasing or decreasing as a whole?
Decreasing
What category of drug is Alcohol?
Depressant
What are the DSM symptoms for depression?
Depressed mood Loss of interest Large weight loss/weight gain/change in appetite Insomnia/hypersomnia Psychomotor agitation/retardation Fatigue Feelings of worthlessness/guilt Diminished concentration Thoughts of death
What is the leading source of disability in adults in the US under 50?
Depression
What is the most common psychiatric disorder?
Depression
What are the most common mental health problems for drug users?
Depression (68%) and anxiety (38%)
What is dualism?
Descartes theory that the mind and the body are separate
What are the 6 basic emotions of discrete emotion theory?
Disgust Fear Anger Sadness Surprise Happiness
What is bipolar disorder?
Disorder comprised of manic and depressive episodes
What is perfectionism?
Disposition to have extremely high standards for oneself (can be good or bad)
What is a cognitive bias?
Disposition to think in a certain way, influenced by schema
What are maladaptive beliefs?
Dysfunctional attitudes that influence our beliefs and assumptions (e.g. I have to have lots of money to be happy)
When does slow wave sleep occur?
Early in the evening
What is the discrete emotion theory?
Every emotion is a combination of 6 basic emotions that have unique physiological patterns
How can we study the role of genetics on mood and anxiety?
Examine the symptoms of twins Examine the symptoms of related and non-related people Examine prevalence of symptoms amongst family members Examine association between symptoms and genes (RECENT)
What is realistic thinking?
Examining thoughts and seeing if they are supported by evidence
How do we measure fear in mice?
Freeze response
What is graded exposure?
Gradually building up the exposure from the idea of the fear object to the actual fear object
How can we improve exposure?
Guastella et al found that D-cycloserine improves extinction times, possible bc it makes a stronger extinction memory
What is the relationship between schizophrenia and cannabis use?
HUGE swedish study on military peeps (50k) - heavy cannabis use had a 6.7 adjusted odds ratio
What are the DSM criteria for GAD>
Heart pounding, dry mouth, upset stomach, increased respiration, scanning and vigilance, frequent urination, diarrhoea, fidgeting, apprehensive expectation
Is social anxiety a homogenous or heterogenous presentation?
Heterogenous
What is schizophrenia?
Heterogonous disorder, but generally involves hallucinations, delusions, and disorginisation (difficultly acting/thinking in planned and logical manner)
What are the statements used in the Social Phobia Inventory?
I am afraid of people in authority I am bothered by blushing in front of people Parties and social events scare me I avoid talking to people I don't know Being criticized scares me a lot I avoid doing things or speaking to people for fear of embarrassment Sweating in front of people causes me distress I avoid going to parties
What group conducted the study to determine the negative impacts of drugs?
ICSD - Independant Scientific Committee on Drugs
How are dysfunctional attitudes often represented?
If - then statements (if I don't have money then I am not worthwhile)
Where is the amygdala?
In a little blob by the brain stem
What are some of the theories for why we sleep?
Inactivity theory (we sleep so we don't move and predators don't see us) Energy conservation theory (humans use 5% less energy when asleep, and O2 HR and body temp all drop in first few hours of sleep) Restorative theory (repair the body - growth hormones are released during sleep, and are more effective in the evening, more bone growth in adolescents during sleep, more protein in the system bc low metabolism, memory reconsolidation)
How does rumination effect mood?
Increases negative emotions regardless of initial mood
What are the two types of loci of control?
Internal External
What is procrastination?
Irrational tendency to delay tasks that need to be done
How does procrastination relate to perfectionism?
It's a safety behaviour!
Can pigeons identify a picasso?
Kinda - they'll learn to identify images with similar art styles (picasso and matisse, and cezanne and monet)
What is one experiment that tested extinction?
LaBar 1998 - skin conductance measurements where users were conditioned for 1 stimulus to predict a shock and 1 stimulus that didn't predict a shock
What was the cognitive revolution?
Lead by Chomsky, changed focus of psychology from behaviour to cognition
What are the effects of sleep deprivation on the brain?
Less activation in several areas - visual, motor and frontal cortex, resulting in poorer performance in a task where the subject had to tap fingers to a rhythm, and a tower of hanoi task
What is massed exposure?
Let's just chuck them headfirst into their fears, **** it.
What is the result of an external locus of control on mood?
Lower mood overall
What are some ways that negative behaviour such as binging can be reduced?
Make a commitment with friends Avoid friends who are triggers for the negative behaviour Become aware of the patterns of the negative behaviour Revisit the list of pros and cons regularly
What are some measures to combat procrastination?
Make a todo list and prioritize Break down large tasks into smaller ones
What is Miller's law?
Max # of things in brain at one time = 7 +- 2
Do more men or women binge drink?
Men, although women are catching up
How does fear conditioning play into anxiety disorders?
Meta analysis by Lissek found a) fear conditioning occurs faster, and b) extinction occurs slower
What drug is most dangerous to individual?
Meth/Crack/Heroin
What are some of the 13 principles of learning that Thorndike developed?
Most basic form of learning = trial and error Learning = incremental, not insightful All mammals learn the same way Law of readiness - people get pissed if you block them from goals Law of exercise - lean by doing Law of effect Belongingness - natural relationships cause more effective learning
What makes a good hypothesis?
Must be falsifiable, measurable, replicable, and finds a result in a specific direction
What is anxiety?
Negative mood state with symptoms of physical tension and apprehension about future
What is the cognitive models of depression theory?
Negative self-schema -> life stress -> now negative self-schema become problematic
What did Young theorise?
Negative self-schema develop as a result of eff'd up attachment and security (Early Maladaptive Schema)
What are the three main types of negative automatic thoughts?
Negative thoughts about the self Negative thoughts about the world Negative thoughts about the future
What are negative automatic thoughts?
Negative thoughts that occur as a result of activation of dsyfunctional beliefs after experiencing a stressor
Can sounds be associated with poison?
No, but taste can be
How can you **** up an experiment?
Not having enough constants Not having/controlling your control group Being biased
What are the effects of long term sleep deprivation?
Obesity Diabetes/impaired glucose tolerance Cardiovascular disease and hypertension Anxiety Depressed mood Alcohol use Increased mortality
What is OCD?
Obsessive compulsive disorder - intrusive thoughts alleviated by some ritualistic behaviour that the sufferer feels compelled to do
How is a trait determined?
One pair of genes from mum and one from dad, and they interact (some alleles may be recessive/dominant etc)
What category of drug is Heroin?
Opioid
What are some ways that negative self-schemas can develop during childhood?
Parental overcontrol -> dependency and self-criticism
Does VR help people with social anxiety?
People experience more fear in VR, even though face to face was more believable. Fear ratings are more important for exposure therapy
What types of things are cognitive scientists interested in understanding?
Perception Language Reasoning Emotions
What is social anxiety?
Persistent fear of negative evaluation by others in a social/performance settings, leading to avoidance/discomfort in social setting and impairing functioning
What are the three different types of bias?
Personal Measurement Sampling
What are some of the therapies available for treatment of mental illnesses?
Pharmacotherapy Electroconvulsive shock therapy Behavioural therapy Cognitive therapy CBT Psychodynamic therapy Interpersonal therapy Acceptance and commitment therapy Mindfullness based therapy Behavioural Activation Alternative therapies (eg naturopathy etc)
What types of rewards are there?
Physically stimulating Mentally stimulating Mastery/Accomplishment
What is arousal in the context of psychology?
Physiological strength of feeling, motivation and thoughts
What are the four types of reinforcement?
Positive reinforcement Negative reinforcement Punishment Negative punishment
How can we assess mood?
Positivity scale - Narvaez 06 Self report
What is the stages of change model?
Precontemplation Contemplation Determination Action Relapse Maintenance
What is the sympathetic nervous system responsible for?
Preparing the body for a fight or flight response
What is attachment theory?
Primary caregiver provides psychological comfort, drive to stay with caregiver
What are the advantages and disadvantages of a case study?
Pros: Lots of info, both qualitative and quantitative Cons: Can't generalise it, can't say it's statistically significant
What are some of the fields of cognitive science?
Psychology AI philosophy neuroscience learning sciences linguistics anthropology sociology education
What is the 3rd most common fear after insects and heights/depths?
Public speaking
What did Edward Thorndike do?
Put cats in boxes to learn about learning
What did Skinner do?
Put rats in boxes and expanded the ideas on reinforcement
What are the different kinds of sleep?
REM sleep slow wave sleep
How can we study cognition?
Reaction times (with T/F qs)
What are the treatments for social anxiety?
Reduce/get rid of safety behaviours Challenge self Avoid avoiding
What is exposure?
Repeated engagement with thing causing fear until it no longer causes fear
What is a correlational study?
Researchers observe to try and figure out the effect of dependent variables on other dependent variables.
What is the parasympathetic nervous system responsible for?
Returning the body to homeostatis
Why might heritability of psychopathology not be limited to depression?
Shared neurobiology of symptoms Some genes correspond to multiple disorders Maybe we're shit at categorising disorders
What were Weschler's findings in broad strokes?
Significantly higher OR for binge drinking if people: Were under 24, were not married, weren't white, were male, binged in high school and had parents who drank, liked parties, weren't religious, were athletic, had smoked weed, used cigarettes, had a lot of sexual partners and spent more than 2hrs/day socialising
What things can low mood influence?
Sleep, appetite, libido, irritability, concentration, reactions to others, motivation
How common is procrastination?
Solomon and Rothblum 84 said that 30-50% of students procrastinated on uni work & 50% of students regularly have problems because they procrastinate
What are the symptoms of sleep deprivation?
Stage 1 Irritability, moodiness, disinhibition Stage 2 Apathy, slowed speech, impaired memory, impaired novel-ness, and multitasking Stage 3 Microsleeps Stage 4 Hypnagogic hallucinations
What category of drug is Meth?
Stimulant
What are the four classes of drugs?
Stimulants Depressants Hallucinogens Opioids
Are there different genetic and environmental contributions to depression for men and women?
Study by Bierat found that female twins had higher rates of them both having depression than male twins -> genetic influence on depression higher for women
What did Watson do?
That real ****ed up experiment with little Albert
What is learning?
The acquisition of knowledge or skills - a permanent change in behaviour due to experience
What area of the brain controls the fear response?
The amygdala
Who was William James?
The bloke who wrote Principles of Psychology
What is epigenetics?
The branch of science examining the relationships between genetics and environment
What lead to the cognitive revolution?
The discovery that principles of language are universal - a behaviourist cannot reconcile knowing in the absence of learning
What is the Lamarkian theory of evolution?
The evolution of traits are driven by needs of the organism and these traits are passed on to children (i.e. if I am super swole my baby will be super swole)
What is the locus of control?
The generalised expectation that outcomes are contingent upon what one does
What does it mean to be heterozygous?
The genes for a specific trait are different
What does it mean to be homozygous?
The genes for a specific trait are the same
What is the implication of Darwinian evolution for psychology?
The human brain is designed to survive Some genes for anxiety etc must be passed down and considered by evolution to be 'adaptive'
What is a proximal causal factor?
The immediate causal factor before the symptoms occur
What is psychology?
The study of brain, mind and behaviour
What is genetics?
The study of genes and how they are passed down to us by our parents
What is the relationship between the AKT1 gene, cannabis use and schizophrenia?
The users with the AKT1 (C/C) phenotype were the only group where the odds ratio for developing psychosis went above 1 - went up to 7
What part of the brain is active during REM sleep?
The visual cortex
What is an appaisal?
The way you think about a thing based on a schema
What is the trace memory theory?
Theory that memories exist as 'traces' within our brain and can be altered by changing the trace
What is Beck's cognitive model of depression?
There are three things that cause depression: 1. depressive self-schemas 2. maladaptive beliefs/assumptions 3. negative automatic thoughts
What is the dimensional emotion theory?
There are two motivational systems that emotion is organised around - appetitive and defensive
How do we reduce negative automatic thoughts?
Thought monitoring forms Cognitive challenging
What are the different types of mental processes?
Thoughts Decisions Leaning/memory Motivations
What has been found about stress levels and procrastination?
Tice and Baumeister 1997 found that procrastination leads to less stress early in the semester and more stress earlier in the semester
Is OCD heritable?
Twin studies suggest heritability up to 80% for monozygotic twins and 40% for dizygotic 37% of parents and 31% of siblings Much higher risk of OCD if first degree rel with it
What types of bipolar are there?
Type 1 (primarily mania) Type 2 (primarily depression) Cyclothermic disorder (always cycling, doesn't meet diagnostic standard for bipolar disorder
What is classical conditioning?
US + CS -> US many times, CS now = CR/UR
What is clinical psychology?
Understanding how to reduce impairment in people's lives through interventions
What are the different types of learning?
Vicarious (observing others) Experiential (doing) Didactic (being told)
What is video feedback?
Videotaping and watching back performance in a social situation to reduce distorted views
What is the bio-psychosocial approach?
View of health as interaction between pscyhological, biological and social factors
What is self-focused attention?
Viewing yourself in 3rd person perspective, resulting in enhanced self-awareness
What is the main difference between operant and classical conditioning?
Voluntary responses vs automatic reactions
How did the spreading attitude effect get tested?
Walther - test with pics of hot/scary dude and various pegs and the sky. Worked for both good and bad things
How can we learn about mental processes?
We can infer them from behaviour We can study physiological variables (eg skin conductance)
What is learned helplessness?
When a subject is conditioned to believe that they should not try to affect change in their environment even though they are still able to
What is a positive correlation?
When one event increases, the other event also increases
What is a negative correlation?
When one event increases, the other event decreases
How does perception of arousal play into social anxiety?
Wild and Clark told some participants a vibrating chest monitor was giving them feedback about how nervous they are and others that it didn't mean anything. The ones with false feedback felt worse
Are conduct problems in children a predictive factor in psychopathy?
Yes
Are there physiologial profiles for low mood?
Yes
Do animals make use of mental models?
Yes - Tollman in 48 discovered that they learn more quickly that way
Is exposure effective for anxiety disorders?
Yes - considered the 'gold standard'
Does sunlight have a relationship with low mood?
Yes - peak in depression during winter in US, and does not respond to light therapy so it's not vit D that's the problem
Can CC override natural predispositions?
Yes - study with fruit flies found you can condition them to prefer light by associating it with poison, when their natural predisposition is for darkness
Is there an overlap between perfectionism and mood?
Yes, study found that female students with high levels of perfectionism were more likely to be depressed
What is the main group that participates in binge drinking?
Young people, spike upon entering university (50% of all US college students qualify)
If you are a woman with SS polymorphism of the 5HHT gene, how much more likely are you to develop depression after undergoing a stressful life event than a man without that polymorphism without a SLE?
about 8x more likely
What is the difference between chronic and acute stress?
acute = short, chronic = long
What does BA look like today?
clinical psychologist with min 6 years in psych and 4yrs training as clinical psychologist acts as a coach to improve motivation and adjust behaviours
What are the cognitive factors leading to these negative thoughts?
core belief -> intermediate beliefs -> coping strategies -> activation of the self-schema -> automatic thoughts
How was BA improved?
incorporated into cognitive therapy to make cognitive behavioural therapy in late 1970s
How does the cognitive model of social phobia work?
social situation | activates assumption | percieved social danger | increased self-focused attention /\ safety behaviours | somatic/cognitive symptoms
Does BA work on its own?
yes, equally as effective as cognitive therapy and antidepressent medications
How much does the average person sleep?
~1/3 of their life
What is a brief history of clinical psych?
~6000BC, Egypt: Mental illness = physical illness, caused by evil spirits, etc ~500BC-400AD: Humours, more scientific approach, hippocrates ~400AD-1400AD: mental illness = devil, treat with exorcisms, beatings, etc ~1400AD-1700AD: renaissance period 1700s-1800s: Moral Treatment Movement - let's treat people good and make them read the bible lots 1800s to now: getting better at things, trying to reduce stigma
