PSYC1030

Clinical psychology

Diagnosing and treating mental health conditions

Developmental psychology

Understanding how traits emerge and evolve throughout life

Social psychology

Predicting social interactions and relationships

Personality

A pattern of enduring, distinctive thoughts, emotions, and behaviours that characterise the way a person adapts to the world. Individuals differences (the variability in personality traits and behaviours across people) result from the interaction of genetic predispositions, life experiences, cultural influences.

Psychodynamic Perspective on Personality

• Unconscious

• Early childhood experiences

• Freud

• Id: Unconscious drive

• Superego: Conscious

• Ego: Reality principle

Humanistic Perspective on Personality

• Emphasise positive human qualities and the capacity for personal growth

• Personality is shaped by how we see ourselves, whether our needs are met, and our personal growth

• Too optimistic

Life Story Approach to Personality

• Our life story is our identity

• Personal narratives shape how individuals understand themselves and guide future behaviours

Social Cognitive Perspectives on Personality

• Emphasis on conscious awareness, beliefs, expectations and goals

• How traits interact with situations

• Too concerned with situational influences and ignores the role of biology

Trait Perspectives on Personality

Traits are the building blocks of personality

Biological Perspectives on Personality

Whether our personality is heritable

Nomothetic Approach

Research approach that focuses on identifying general laws that apply to all individuals (models etc.)

Idiographic Approach

Research approach that focuses on understanding the unique characteristics of an individual

Psychodynamic Model of Therapy

The source of distress is in the past therefore we need insight, catharsis and corrective emotional experiences. Brief, once a week.

1. Unconscious Processes

   • Behaviour, thoughts, and emotions are governed by unconscious drives and motivations

   • Goal of therapy is to bring these unconscious elements into conscious awareness

2. Early Childhood Experience

   • Past experiences influence present behaviour in ways that may not be immediately obvious

3. Internal Conflicts and Defence Mechanisms

   • Inner conflicts create psychological distress

   • Defence mechanisms (repression, denial, or projection) manage or hide these conflicts

   • Use therapy to see how defences operate and evaluate if still helpful or hindering

4. Transference and Countertransference

   • Projecting feelings and attitudes from past relationships onto therapist (father figure vibes)

   • Explore for insight into the client’s relationship patterns, emotional blind spots, and interpersonal difficulties

   • Countertransference: Therapist projecting onto client

5. The Therapeutic Relationship

   • The ways client and therapist interact

   • The emotions that come up are used to gain a deeper understanding of the client’s internal world

Psychodynamic techniques

Free Association:

• Clients are encouraged to verbalise all thoughts that come to mind without censorship or filtering

Interpretation:

• Offers insights into the meaning behind the client’s thoughts, feelings, or behaviours

Dream Analysis:

• Explores dreams to uncover hidden meanings

Transference Process:

• Examining and resolving feelings the client projects onto the therapist that originate from past relationships

Biological Model of Therapy

Suggests that mental disorders have physical causes and can therefore be remedied by medication (related to brain structure and function, genetic factors, biochemical imbalances).

Behavioural Model of Therapy

Uses analysis of behaviour and effects change via (classical or operant) conditioning. Focus on observable behaviours and the ways in which they are learned, rather than thoughts or feelings. Involves techniques like:

Classical Conditioning

Unconditioned Stimulus (US):

• Naturally and automatically triggers an unconditioned response (UR)

• Eg. food causes salivation

Conditioned Stimulus (CS):

• Previously neutral stimulus that after being paired with the US triggers a conditioned response (CR)

• Eg. bell causes salivation

Operant Conditioning

Based on Thorndike’s Law of Effect: behaviours followed by satisfying outcomes (reinforcers) are more likely to happen again, while behaviours followed by discomforting outcomes (punishers) are less likely to happen again

Cognitive-Behavioural Model of Therapy

The way we think also affects the way we behave and the way we feel

1. Explain the rationale of thoughts influencing feelings

2. Identify negative thoughts

3. Challenge negative thoughts

4. Replace negative thoughts with more realistic thoughts (cognitive restructuring)

5. Behavioural activation

6. Exposure

Major Depressive Disorder

Persistent sad mood, loss of interest or pleasure, fatigue for more than two weeks in a persistent fashion (results from biological factors and environmental factors)

Anxiety Disorders

Excessive worry and anxiety caused by biology, experience (conditioning), instructional learning, vicarious learning

Phobias

Fear out of proportion to any danger

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Hypervigilance results in distractibility, fatigue, irritability and sleep problems

Panic Disorder

Panic attacks

How to evaluate the effectiveness of therapy

• 2 independent randomized control trials

• Treatment must be better than placebo or alternative treatment

Two Factor Theory of Intelligence

Psychometric approach.

• There is one single overarching factor of general intelligence: “g”

  • Influences our performance on all mental tasks

• Specific intellectual abilities: “s” factor

  • Unique individual abilities on a specific task

Thurstone’s 7 Factors of Intelligence

Psychometric approach.

• Verbal comprehension

• Perceptual speed

• Spatial visualisation

• Numerical facility

• Associative memory

• Word fluency

• Inductive reasoning

Horn and Cattell’s Multiple Intelligences

1940s psychometric approach

Fluid Intelligence:

• GF

• Ability to solve new problems, use logic in new situations, and identify patterns

• Relatively independent of formal education or past learning

Crystallised Intelligence:

• Accumulated knowledge and skills

• Influenced by one’s cultural and education opportunities

Information Processing Approach to Intelligence

Tries to understand the processes that underlie intelligent behaviour (speed of processing, knowledge base, and ability to acquire and apply mental strategies).

Horn-Cattell-Carroll Model of Intelligence

1990s. Most ideal model.

• General Ability (top stratum): Similar to ‘g’

• Broad Abilities (stratum II): Fluid reasoning, crystallised ability, visual processing

• Narrow Abilities (stratum I): Broad factors subdivided into specific skills

Standardization

Establishing uniform procedures for administering, scoring and interpreting assessments to ensure consistency, fairness and comparability

Reliability

The extent to which a measure gives you consistent measures and measures what you think you’re measuring

• Can use:

  • Alternate forms (evaluation of two different versions of the same text)

  • Split half tests (divides test into two equivalent (first and second half etc.)

  • Test-retest (getting the same group of people to complete the same test twice BUT be careful of repeated exposure or practice affects)

Predictive Validity

The extent to which scores on a test can predict other outcomes

Criterion Validity

The extent to which scores on one test align with sores on another similar test

Construct Validity

How well a test maps onto the underlying theory with regard to the thing we are measuring

Bias

The extent to which everyone has the same chance to succeed

Wechsler Scale

IQ. Verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory, and processing speed.

Triple P Program

Aims to prevent severe behavioural, emotional and developmental problems in children and teenagers by enhancing the knowledge, skills and confidence of parents

Primary Aging

Biological changes due to the passage of chronological time (inevitable). Eg vision and lung capacity

Secondary Aging

Biological changes due to disease, trauma or lifestyle choice. Eg. Alzheimer’s, depression.

Selection, Optimisation and Compensation Theory

Developed by the Baltes in the 1990s, suggests that individuals who age successfully identify goals and prioritise them, maximise performance to facilitate success, and adapt to limitations that interfere with goals

Socio-Emotional Selectivity Theory

Developed by Laura Carstensen in 1991, perceptions of time left serves as a motivational factor (limited FTP = focus on positive emotional experiences, more FTP = focus on gaining new information)

Episodic memory

The ability to experience again now, in a different situation and perhaps in a different form, happenings from the past, and know that the experience refers to an event that occurred in another time and in another place.

Dementia

A broad class of neurological disorders associated with cognition, personality and behavioural changes in later life.

Phases of Aging

1. Midlife Re-Evaluation Phase (40-60 years): People reflect on experiences in the past and have a new desire to create meaning in their life

2. Liberation Phase (60-70 years): New energy and personal freedom that develops both from within and from external circumstances

3. Summing Up Phase (70+ years): Want to find a larger meaning in life and give acquired wisdom

4. Encore Phase (80+ years): Desire to make a lasting contribution, to affirm life, to take care of anything unfinished and to celebrate personal contribution

Impression formation

The process where people combine information about others to form an overall judgement about them.

Algebraic model of impression

• Impressions are formed on the basis of the mechanical combination of information we know about a person

  • Summative (sum of your ratings)

  • Averaging (total/number of ratings)

  • Weighted Averaging (each attribute has a weight based on how important it is to you)

Configuration model of impression

• Combines information into an overall, dynamic impression

• People’s traits are not all used in the same way to form an impression

Schemas

Cognitive structures representing our knowledge about a concept, formed on the basis of past experience

Event schemas

Cognitive structures associated with an event or situation (tells us what to expect in a situation)

Role schemas

Cognitive structures associated with the parts people play in a setting

Person schemas

Our individualised knowledge about specific types and groups of people and individuals

Heuristics

A quick mental shortcut strategy to make judgements and decisions

Availability heuristic

The likelihood of an event occurring based on how easily examples of an event come to mind (eg. sharks vs rips)

Representativeness heuristic

People judge likelihood of group membership by comparing features of the particular case to the prototype

Attribution theory

Attribution is how we infer the cause of others and our own behaviour (eg. our boss did that because they’re a bad person)

Kelley’s Covariation Model

• We attribute a behaviour to the cause that it covaries with over time

• Notice a person’s behaviour over time and what other factors seem to relate to that behaviour

Examples of attribution errors

Fundamental Attribution Error:

• The tendency to attribute another person’s behaviour to their own dispositional qualities, rather than to the situation that the behaviour is performed in

Actor-Observer Bias:

• What people see as the cause of their own behaviour compared to others

• More likely to attribute your own actions to internal causes

• The better you know someone, the less likely you are to fall into the trap

Self-Serving Bias:

• The tendency to attribute successes to stable, internal factors and failures to temporary, external factors

• Eg. taking credit for good outcomes and deflecting blame for bad ones

Attitudes

An association between an act or object and an evaluation.

Communicator factors

Credibility + attractiveness

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Inconsistency between cognitions results in an aversive psychological state called dissonance (knowing something is wrong but doing it anyway).

Compliance

Agreeing to a request from someone who does not have the authority to make you obey (eg. car salesman, telemarketers).

Cialdini’s Six Principles of Compliance

6 principles that explain how people are persuaded to comply without attitude change.

1. Reciprocity

2. Consistency

3. Authority

4. Social proof

5. Liking

6. Scarcity

Reciprocity

Humans feel obligated to return favours to build trust, cooperation and social stability without needing simultaneous exchange.

Door-in-the-face technique

A person makes a ridiculously large request, then follows it up with a smaller, more reasonable request. The person then feels obligated to fulfill the smaller concession.

Consistency

Humans have a desire to be consistent with our past behaviour and commitments. Humans don’t want to be seen or see themselves as changing all the time.

Foot-in-the-door technique

A person first makes a small request, then makes a larger related request.

Low-balling technique

A person makes what seems to be a reasonable request, and then reveals a hidden cost afterwards.

Authority

Humans tend to obey those we see as knowledgeable or in charge.

Social proof

We look to what others are doing when we are unsure.

Liking

We are more likely to say yes to people we like.

Scarcity

We value things more when they seem limited or rare.

Aggression

Behaviour intended to harm another who does not wish to be harmed. Can include both physical and relational. Caused by a combination of biological, psychological, and environmental factors.

Frustration-aggression hypothesis

Blocked goals (important and likely) always lead to frustration which always leads to aggression, which is cathartic.

Neo-associationist model

Any aversive stimuli can trigger aggression

Social learning theory of aggression

Bandura 1961 with the Bobo doll. We learn to be violent from our social environment (eg. home, movies, video games, neighbourhood) and social reinforcement.

The General Aggression Model (GAM)

Carnagey and Anderson 2004. Describes a cyclical pattern of interaction between the person and the environment.

Input: Person variables (trait aggression, personality) + situational variables (provocation, heat, alcohol)

Routes: Internal states (cognition, affect, arousal)

Output: Thoughtful action or impulsive action

Alcohol myopia

Alcohol makes you more sensitive to your immediate environment, increasing your reactivity to what’s happening to you now, and reducing ability to think of the future.

De-individuation theory

In a strong group, personal identity submerges into collective identity. Humans are normally aggressive but it’s suppressed because we’re afraid of being judged.

How to reduce aggression

1. Develop empathy

2. Improve communication skills

3. Environmental design

Prosocial behaviour

Voluntary action intended to benefit or help another person or group (eg. sharing resources, offering emotional support, volunteering, stepping in to help someone in distress).

Kin Selection Theory

Altruistic behaviours evolve when individuals help relatives survive and reproduce, even at personal cost, because they share genes.

Reciprocal altruism

An organism will act in a manner that will temporarily reduce its own fitness to increase another's, with the expectation of repayment in the future.

Cialdini’s Negative State Relief Model

We want to regulate our own negative states triggered by watching someone in need (make ourselves feel better)

Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis

Baston. We help not to reduce our own distress, but because we are genuinely oriented to their welfare.

Bystander effect

Individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present because they expect someone else to act or have a fear of acting inappropriately.

Common sense view of emotions

1. Event occurs (stimuli; eg. seeing a snake)

2. Experienced emotion (eg. fear)

3. Physiological arousal and associated behaviour (eg. adrenaline rush → running away)

James-Lange theory of emotions

1. Physiological responses come first (body reacts to stimuli prior to feeling any emotion)

2. The emotion itself is the perception of those bodily changes

3. Different emotions correspond to distinct patterns of physiological arousal

Appraisal theory of emotions

Emotions depend on how we interpret the situation in line with our past experiences and goals

Dimensional theory of emotions

Emotions are made up of continuous underlying dimensions: valence (pleasant/unpleasant) and arousal (activation)

Socio-cultural theory of emotions

Emotions depend on social interactions (which vary with culture). You learn the appropriate response based on your social environment (not nativist)

Basic emotions theory (face-ism)

• Emotions depend on the face

• There are 7 basic emotions: happiness, anger, surprise, disgust, sadness, fear, contempt

• Each emotion has a distinct, innate facial expression (reflex)

• Proved to be universal by showing pictures of emotions to tribes and they are able to correctly identify the emotions

Proxemics

How people use and perceive physical space as a form of non verbal communication.

Emblem gestures

Gestures that have a direct verbal translation and can be used independently of speech (thumbs up)

Illustrator gestures

Gestures that accompany speech to illustrate or emphasize what is being said (eg. finger stab to convey emphasis)

Regulator gestures

Gestures that maintain conversational turn-taking and smooth out social interactions (eg. raising hand slightly to indicate you want to speak, nodding to show you’re listening)

Adaptor gestures

Unconscious gestures that serve a personal need or reflect internal states like nervousness or boredom (eg. fidgeting, tapping)

Ekman’s emotional approach to deception

Deception triggers genuine emotional arousal that can leak nonverbally (particularly through micro-expressions and vocal changes)

Cognitive approach to deception

Fabricating a believable lie demands significant mental effort that may produce slower speech, longer pauses, and reduced gesturing

Self-presentation approach to deception

Liars consciously manage their behaviour, resulting in unnaturally rigid or over-controlled body language