Psychosocial Aspects of Speech Pathology – Lecture Series Review

A comprehensive set of Q&A flashcards covering key concepts from the Psychosocial Aspects of Speech Pathology lecture series, including lifespan development, learning theories, cognition, memory, stress, coping, health psychology, adherence, perception, personality and research principles.

What are the three interacting forces in the biopsychosocial model?

Biological factors, psychological factors and social factors.

According to Baltes, what are the three processes across the lifespan?

Growth, maintenance and loss regulation.

List the four factors that shape lifespan development identified by Baltes et al. (1998).

1) Age-related loss of biological resources, 2) Increased contribution of culture, 3) Decline in efficiency using cultural resources, 4) Fewer ‘older-age-friendly’ supports.

What is meant by a ‘life transition event’?

A predictable turning point that marks a permanent break from a previous mature self and reshapes psychological functioning.

Give two examples of predictable adult transition events.

Getting married / living together and birth of a first child (others: financial independence, completing child-bearing, ‘empty nest’).

Define ‘normative social clock’.

Socially shared beliefs about the culturally appropriate timing of life milestones (Neugarten, 1979).

What are two possible psychological outcomes of a delayed transition?

Feelings of personal inadequacy and reduced self-esteem.

Which Eriksonian crisis characterises young adulthood?

Intimacy vs. Isolation.

State the risk of unsuccessfully resolving Intimacy vs Isolation.

Psychological isolation or dependence on partner leading to loss of self.

Which Eriksonian stage aligns with middle adulthood?

Generativity vs. Stagnation.

What is ‘generativity’?

The need to achieve personally and create things of enduring value for future generations.

List White’s five ‘growth trends’ of young adulthood.

1) Stabilisation of ego identity, 2) Freeing of personal relationships, 3) Deepening of interests, 4) Humanising of values, 5) Expansion of caring.

During middle adulthood, adults rely more on which type of intelligence?

Crystallised intelligence (knowledge from experience).

Define ‘midlife transition’ according to Levinson.

A ~5-year period (~age 40) of self-evaluation, goal reformulation and possible career/life change.

What is Baltes’ ‘selective optimisation with compensation’?

Successful ageing strategy: select and optimise strengths while compensating for declines.

Name the three components of Kahneman’s capacity theory of attention.

Limited attentional resources, task demands, and flexible allocation of capacity.

Differentiate bottom-up and top-down processing.

Bottom-up is stimulus-driven from sensory elements to whole; top-down is observer-driven, using prior knowledge to interpret input.

What are the four possible outcomes in signal detection theory?

Hit, miss, false alarm, correct rejection.

Define ‘Gestalt’ principle.

Idea that the brain organises perceptual elements so ‘the whole is more than the sum of its parts’.

Give two Gestalt grouping laws.

Proximity and similarity (others: figure-ground, closure, continuity).

What is the Stroop effect evidence for?

Selective attention and interference from an automatic process (reading) on a controlled task (colour naming).

Differentiate automatic and controlled processes.

Automatic: little attention, minimal interference; Controlled: require alert awareness, high attentional load.

What is ‘habituation’?

Decreased response to a repeated, familiar stimulus.

State Aristotle’s four laws of association.

Contiguity, frequency, similarity and contrast.

Define classical conditioning.

Learning where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a conditioned response.

In Pavlov’s experiment, what became the conditioned stimulus?

The bell (or metronome) after pairing with food.

What is ‘stimulus generalisation’ in classical conditioning?

A CR occurs to stimuli similar to the original CS.

Define operant conditioning.

Learning where behaviour is controlled by its consequences (reinforcement or punishment).

Give an example of positive reinforcement.

Praising a child for completing homework, increasing likelihood of homework completion.

What is negative reinforcement?

Removing an unpleasant stimulus after a response to increase that response (e.g., fastening seatbelt stops buzzer).

Differentiate positive and negative punishment.

Positive: adding an aversive stimulus; Negative: removing a pleasant stimulus to reduce a behaviour.

Explain ‘shaping’ in behaviour modification.

Reinforcing successive approximations toward a desired complex behaviour.

What schedule of reinforcement is most resistant to extinction?

Variable ratio schedule.

State Bandura’s four processes for observational learning.

Attention, retention, reproduction and motivation.

Define self-efficacy.

Belief in one’s capability to perform behaviours necessary to produce desired outcomes.

According to Lazarus & Folkman, what are the two types of cognitive appraisal in stress?

Primary appraisal (is it a threat?) and secondary appraisal (resources to cope?).

Differentiate problem-focused and emotion-focused coping.

Problem-focused: attempts to change the stressor; Emotion-focused: regulate emotional response to stressor.

Give one example of a problem-focused coping strategy.

Planned problem-solving such as seeking information and practical support.

What is the Brief COPE used for?

Measuring a person’s coping strategies across 14 subscales.

Name two age trends in coping strategies.

Middle-aged adults: more problem-focused; Older adults: more emotion-focused coping.

How do men and women differ on average in coping style?

Men: more problem-focused, sometimes substance use; Women: more emotion-focused, venting, seeking social support.

Define ‘adherence’ in healthcare.

The degree to which a patient undertakes recommended behaviours and treatments.

List the four domains of adherence.

Preventive behaviours, appointment attendance, self-care behaviours and medication taking.

According to Ley’s model, what three factors promote adherence?

Understanding, memory and satisfaction with clinician/consultation.

Give one method to enhance patient adherence.

Use specific, concrete written instructions and encourage teach-back (patient repeats advice).

What does the Health Belief Model propose?

Health actions depend on perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers, cues to action and self-efficacy.

State the three perspectives on stress described in lectures.

Environmental (life events), psychological (appraisal) and biological (physiological arousal).

Briefly describe Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome stages.

Alarm reaction, stage of resistance and stage of exhaustion.

What is psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)?

Study of how stress-related psychological factors influence immune functioning and health.

Define ‘crystallised’ vs ‘fluid’ intelligence.

Crystallised: accumulated knowledge; Fluid: reasoning and problem-solving of novel tasks.

What memory system has unlimited capacity and stores information indefinitely?

Long-term memory (LTM).

What effect describes better recall for items at the beginning of a list?

Primacy effect.

State the three components of Baddeley’s working-memory model.

Phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad and central executive.

What is ‘encoding specificity’?

Retrieval is most effective when cues match the original encoding context.

Differentiate episodic and semantic memory.

Episodic: personal experiences linked to time/place; Semantic: general facts not tied to time learned.

What type of memory was preserved in patient H.M.?

Procedural (implicit) memory for motor skills.

Name three effective mnemonic strategies.

Rehearsal, organisation (chunking/semantic clusters) and imagery (method of loci, acronyms).

What is Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development?

Gap between what a child can do alone and what they can do with guidance/scaffolding.

Define ‘scaffolding’.

Support by an expert that is gradually removed as the learner becomes competent.

List Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development in order.

Sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, formal operational.

At what Piagetian stage does conservation of volume typically emerge?

Concrete operational (~11–12 yrs).

What are the three invariant cognitive functions in Piaget’s theory?

Assimilation, accommodation and equilibration.

According to Piaget, what is object permanence and when does it develop?

Understanding objects continue to exist when out of sight; develops ~8 months (sensorimotor stage).

Define ‘schema’ in cognitive development.

Basic mental framework for organising and interpreting information.

What is the core idea of constructivism in learning?

Learners actively construct knowledge through experience and reflection.

Which learning theory emphasises networks and technology for knowledge acquisition?

Connectivism.

Name the ‘Big Five’ personality traits.

Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism.

Differentiate internal vs external locus of control.

Internal: outcomes due to one’s own actions; External: outcomes due to luck, fate, or others.

State one advantage and one criticism of cognitivism.

Advantage: emphasises active mental processes; Criticism: may overlook social/cultural context.

What is ‘schema theory’ in cognitivism?

Knowledge is organised into frameworks (schemata) that guide perception and memory.

Explain the Premack principle.

A preferred activity can reinforce a less-preferred activity (e.g., ‘If you finish homework, you can play video games’).

Identify two disadvantages of punishment as a behaviour change method.

May suppress other behaviours without teaching desirable ones and can trigger strong emotional/aggressive responses.

Which reinforcement schedule is used by gambling machines?

Variable ratio schedule (unpredictable number of responses).

What is ‘spontaneous recovery’ in conditioning?

Reappearance of an extinguished response after a rest period with no further conditioning.

Give an example of observational learning in everyday life.

A child learns to tie shoes by watching an older sibling.

What are ‘primary’ vs ‘secondary’ reinforcers?

Primary: inherently satisfying (food, warmth); Secondary: acquire value through association (money, tokens).

Define ‘attention’ as a cognitive filter.

Process that selects certain stimuli for conscious processing while screening out others.

Describe the ‘cocktail party effect’.

Ability to focus on one conversation while still noticing personally relevant information (e.g., your name) from unattended channels.

Why is adherence important in clinical practice?

Best management plan is only effective if the patient follows it; non-adherence worsens outcomes and increases costs.

State two treatment characteristics that reduce adherence.

Complex regimens and long treatment duration with slow benefits.

What is the difference between compliance and concordance?

Compliance: outward behaviour change without belief change; Concordance: mutual agreement between patient and clinician about treatment.

List three social determinants that influence health behaviour adoption.

Income, education and cultural norms (others: social networks, occupation).

What is meant by ‘theory of planned behaviour’ (not detailed but implicit)?

Behaviour is predicted by intention, which is influenced by attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control.

Give a clinical implication of perception research for health practitioners.

Recognise that patients may perceive clinical situations uniquely; tailor communication to their perceptions.

Define ‘phi phenomenon’.

Optical illusion of perceiving continuous motion between separate stationary images shown rapidly.

What does the term ‘psychosocial’ highlight in SP practice?

Integration of psychological and social influences on communication disorders and therapy outcomes.

Why is personality assessment useful for speech pathologists?

Self-awareness of communication style, stress management and adapting therapy to diverse client personalities.

What is Connectivism’s primary educational application?

Use of online networks, MOOCs and digital tools for distributed learning.

List two main types of attention.

Focused (selective) attention and divided attention.

What does ‘objectivity’ mean in behavioural measurement?

Data based on observable/measurable actions rather than inference or opinion.

Describe quantitative vs qualitative data in research.

Quantitative: numerical; Qualitative: descriptive words/themes.

What are the three elements of an operational behavioural definition?

Observable, measurable and specific description of the behaviour.

Explain the difference between overt and covert behaviour.

Overt: visible actions; Covert: internal processes like thoughts and emotions.

Which type of memory shows greatest age-related decline?

Episodic (especially retrieval of new events).

What is ‘chunking’ and how does it aid STM?

Grouping items into meaningful units to increase short-term memory capacity.

Define ‘motivated forgetting’.

Intentional or unconscious repression of distressing memories.

What is ‘dual-coding’ theory?

Memory improves when information is encoded both verbally and visually.

Name one implication of social learning theory for media violence.

Viewing rewarded aggression can increase aggressive behaviour in observers, especially children.

What is the major critique of the biomedical model addressed in lectures?

It overlooks psychosocial factors and interindividual differences in illness experience.