psych test 3

James-Lange

Emotions arise from our awareness of our specific bodily responses to emotion-arousing stimuli / We observe our heart racing after a threat and then feel afraid.

Cannon-Bard

Emotion-arousing stimuli trigger our bodily responses and simultaneous subjective experience. (fight-or-flight response) / Our heart races at the same time that we feel afraid

Schachter-Singer

Our experience of emotion depends on two factors: general arousal and a conscious cognitive label. / We may interpret our arousal as fear or excitement, depending on the context

Zajonc; LeDoux

Some embodied responses happen instantly, without conscious appraisal. / We automatically feel startled by a sound in the forest before labeling it as a threat.

Lazarus

Cognitive appraisal (“Is it dangerous or not?”)—sometimes without our awareness—defines emotion / The sound is “just the wind.”

simultaneously

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According to the Cannon-Bard theory, (a) our physiological response to a stimulus (for example, a pounding heart), and (b) the emotion we experience (for example, fear) occur ________ (simultaneously/sequentially).

sequentially

According to James-Lange theory, (a) our physiological response to a stimulus (for example, a pounding \n heart), and (b) the emotion we experience (for example, fear) occur ________ (simultaneously/sequentially).

According to Schachter and Singer, what two factors lead to our experience of emotion?

physiological arousal and cognitive appraisal

In the two-tracked brain, sensory input may be routed (a) to the cortex (via the thalamus) for analysis and then transmission to the amygdala; or (b) directly to the amygdala (via the thalamus) for an instant emotional reaction.

How do the two divisions of the autonomic nervous system affect \n our emotional response?

The sympathetic division of the ANS arouses us for more intense experiences of \n emotion, pumping out the stress hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine to \n prepare our body for fight or flight. The parasympathetic division of the ANS \n takes over when a crisis passes, restoring our body to a calm physiological and \n emotional state.

How does the autonomic nervous system control Physiological Arousal?

How is our DNA affected by stress?

The DNA pieces at the end of chromosomes (telomeres) deteriorate (shorten) \n when we experience persistent stress over a long period. Telomere shortening is \n a normal part of the aging process. Studies have shown that the cells of women \n who suffered prolonged periods of stress had cells that looked a decade older \n than their chronological age.

Facial Feedback Effect

the tendency of facial muscle states to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger, or happiness

Behavior Feedback Effect

the tendency of behavior to influence our own and others’ thoughts, feelings, and actions

Causes of anger

Sometimes anger is a response to someone’s perceived misdeeds, especially when the persons’ act seems willful, unjustified, and avoidable. \n Small hassles and blameless annoyances- foul odors, high temperatures, a traffic jam, aches, and pains- also have the power to make us angry.

Consequences of anger

Chronic hostility is linked to heart disease. Anger boosts our heart rate, causes our skin to sweat, and raises our testosterone levels.

catharsis

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In psychology, ___________ is the idea the “releasing” aggressive energy through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges.

Wait to manage anger

Doing so will reduce your physiological arousal. Any emotional arousal will simmer down if you just wait long enough.

Find a healthy Distraction or Support.

Calm yourself by exercising, playing an instrument, or talking things through with a friend. Brain scans show that ruminating inwardly about why you are angry serves only to increase amygdala blood flow.

Distance yourself

Try to move away from the situation mentally, as if you are watching it unfold from a distance. Self-distancing reduces rumination, anger, and aggression.

What is the feel-good, do-good phenomenon?

people’s tendency to be helpful when in a good mood

What is positive psychology?

The scientific study of human flourishing aims to discover and promote strengths and \n virtues that help individuals and communities thrive.

Positive Well-Being

satisfaction with the past, happiness with the present, and optimism about the future

Positive Character

focuses on exploring and enhancing creativity, courage, compassion, integrity, self-control, leadership, wisdom, and spirituality

Positive Groups, Communities, and Cultures

Seeks to foster a positive social ecology- this includes healthy families, communal neighborhoods, effective schools, socially responsible media, and civil dialogue.

Adaption-level phenomenon

Happiness is relative to our own experience. \\ Our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a neutral level is defined by our prior experience.

Relative deprivation

Happiness is relative to others’ success. / The perception that one is worse off relative to those to whom one compares \n oneself.

Researchers have found that happy people tend to

Have high self-esteem (individualist countries) \n Be optimistic, outgoing, and agreeable \n Have close, positive, and lasting relationships \n Have work and leisure that engage their skills \n Have an active religious faith (especially in more religious cultures) \n Sleep well and exercise

However, happiness seems not much related to other factors, such as

Age

Gender (women are more often depressed but also more often joyful)

Physical attractiveness

How does stress make us vulnerable to disease?

Stress can leave you less able to fight off disease because your nervous system and endocrine systems influence your immune \n system.

What five things affect how your immune system’s activity?

Age, nutrition, genetics, body temperature, and stress

Take control of your time.

Happy people feel in control of their lives: Set goals and divide them into daily aims. We all tend to overestimate how much we will accomplish on any given day, but the good news is that we generally underestimate how much we can accomplish in a year, \n given just a little daily progress

Act happy

Research shows that people who are manipulated into a smiling expression feel better. So put on a happy face. Talk as if you feel \n positive self-esteem, are optimistic, and are outgoing. We can often act our way into a happier state of mind.

Seek work and leisure that engage \n your skills.

Happy people often are in a zone called flow—absorbed in tasks that challenge but don’t overwhelm them. Passive forms of \n leisure (watching TV) often provide less flow experience than exercising, socializing, or expressing artistic interests.

Join the “movement” movement.

Aerobic exercise can relieve mild depression and anxiety as it promotes health and energy. Sound minds reside in sound bodies.

Give your body the sleep it wants.

Happy people live active lives yet reserve time for renewing sleep and solitude. Sleep debt results in fatigue, diminished \n alertness, and gloomy moods. If you sleep now, you’ll smile later.

Give priority to close relationships.

Compared with unhappy people, happy people engage in less superficial small talk and more meaningful conversations. Soresolve to nurture your closest relationships by not taking your loved ones for granted: Give them the sort of kindness and \n affirmation you give others. Relationships matter

Focus beyond self.

Perform acts of kindness. Happiness increases helpfulness, but doing good also makes us feel good.

Count your blessings and record \n your gratitude

Keeping a gratitude journal heightens well-being. Take time to savor positive experiences and achievements, and to appreciate \n why they occurred. Express your gratitude to others.

Nurture your spiritual self.

Faith provides a support community, a reason to focus beyond self, and a sense of purpose and hope for many people. That helps \n explain why people active in faith communities report greater-than-average happiness and often cope well with crises.

Describe the two ways in which your immune system can err when it doesn’t function properly.

1\. Responding too strongly, it may attack the body’s tissues, causing an allergic reaction or a self-attacking disease, such \n as lupus, multiple sclerosis, or some forms of arthritis. \n 2. Underreacting, the immune system may allow a bacterial infection to flare, a dormant virus to erupt, or cancer cells to \n multiply.

What were the three examples (from the textbook) of immune system suppression in humans?

1\. Surgical wounds heal more slowly in stressed people.

2\. Stressed people are more vulnerable to colds. \n 3. Stress can hasten the course of the disease.

psychoimmunology

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The field of _____________ studies the mind-body interactions, including the effects of psychological, neural, \n and endocrine functioning on the immune system and overall health.

What general effect does stress have on our health?

Stress tends to reduce our immune system’s ability to function properly so that higher stress generally leads to a greater risk of \n physical illness.

What does having a Type A personality mean? Type B? What is the health outcome linked to Type A personalities?

Type A personalities are more pessimistic, reactive, competitive, hard-driving, impatient, time-conscious, super-motivated,verbally aggressive, and easily angered, whereas Type B personalities are more easygoing. Coronary heart disease is linked to \n Type A personality.

What are the three main types of stressors?

(1) Catastrophes, (2) Significant life changes, (3) Daily hassles

What are three health outcomes associated with persistent stress?

1) Heart disease, (2) Inflammation of body tissues, (3) Cancer \n \*Depression and heart disease may result when chronic stress triggers blood vessel inflammation.

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

Selye’s concept of the body’s adaptive response to stress has three phases: \n 1. Phase 1 - you have an alarm reaction, as your sympathetic nervous \n system is suddenly activated. Your heart rate zooms. Blood is diverted \n to your skeletal muscles. You feel the fairness of shock. \n 2. Phase 2 - resistance, your tem\[perature, blood pressure, and respiration \n remain high. Your adrenal glands pump hormones into your \n bloodstream. \n 3. Phase 3 - exhaustion. With exhaustion, you become more vulnerable to \n illness or, in extreme cases, collapse and death.

Tend-and-befriend response

Under stress, people (especially women) often provide support to others (tend) and bond with \n and seek support from others (befriend).

Problem-focused coping

Attempting to alleviate stress directly - by changing the stressor or \n the way we interact with that stressor

Emotion-focused coping

Attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and \n attending to emotional needs related to our stress reaction

Describe three ways that social support promotes good health

1. Social support calms us and reduces blood pressure and stress hormones
2. Social support fosters stronger immune functioning.
3. Close relationships give us an opportunity for “open heart therapy” - a chance to confide painful feelings.

Explain the difference between the Medical Model and the BioPsychoSocial Approach:

The medical model asserts that psychological disorders have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and cured. There are genetically influenced abnormalities in biochemistry and brain structure that contribute to many disorders. \n b. BioPsychoSocial Approach: Our biology, psychology, and socio-cultural influence our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. It is not JUST our biology (physical aspects of ourselves) that contributes to psychological disorders nor who we are as individuals. Everyone is different in the amount of stress they experience and how they handle that stress. Everyone is different depending on the culture they grew up in and the expectations/labels placed on them. This approach gave rise to the vulnerability-stress model that argues our individual characteristics combined with environmental stressors increases/decrease the chances of developing a psychological disorder.

How and why do clinicians classify psychological disorders, and why do some psychologists criticize the use of \n diagnostic labels?

The American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition) contains diagnostic labels and descriptions that provide a common language and shared concepts for communication and research. Critics of the DSM say it casts too wide a net, pathologizing normal behaviors. Any classification attempt produces diagnostic labels that may create preconceptions, which bias perceptions of the labeled person’s past and present behavior. Clinicians use the DSM5 because it can help them treat the patient, understand how the illness will progress, and aid in research that aims to figure out the cause of the illness. The use of labels can be harmful because they can cause bias and lead to the individual self-fulfilling

What makes behavior abnormal?

Violation of social norms, statistical rarity, personal distress, and maladaptive behavior. Maladaptive behavior interferes with normal functioning (ex. Canceling plans at the last minute because you think you’ll humiliate yourself, self-harm, substance abuse, etc.)

Social Anxiety Disorder

Extreme anxiety in everyday social interactions where they may \n feel judged by others. May avoid going out to not face the risk \n of doing something embarrassing or humiliating. \n Sam hates going to class because he is scared a classmate will \n talk to him or a teacher will call on him. He only goes to class \n to take exams, and his grades have suffered due to his poor \n attendance.

Generalized Anxiety \n disorder

Excessive and uncontrollable worry that lasts for 6+ months; \n jittery, agitated, sleep-deprived, tense, and uneasy. \n Felicia has not had any stressful events recently, but she feels \n overwhelmed by anxiety that leaves her trembling and \n sweating in fear of something she doesn’t even know about.

Panic disorder

Unpredictable panic attacks that can last for minutes are \n accompanied by chest pain, choking, and other sensations; \n oftentimes, the individual worries about having another attack. \n Amber thought that she was having a heart attack when all of a \n sudden, she experienced intense chest pain and fear.Phobias

Phobias

persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object, \n activity, or situation. \n Melissa did not know a dog would be at the house. When the \n door opened, she screamed and ran back to her car, crying in \n fear of a chihuahua.

Obsessive-compulsive \n disorder

Unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions), actions \n (compulsions), or both. \n Before leaving his house, Danny locks and unlocks the door 20 \n times.

Posttraumatic stress \n disorder

Haunting memories, nightmares, hypervigilance, social \n withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or \n insomnia that lingers for four weeks or more after a traumatic \n experience. \n After returning home from war, Tyler had nightmares every \n night that left him feeling on edge in public every day and \n ready for anything to go wrong.

What disorders cause an overarousal of brain areas? Which areas of the brain?

Anxiety disorders, OCD, and PTSD. Amygdala for PTSD and anterior cingulate cortex for OCD.

Daniel thinks that the floor is never clean enough, so he vacuums for hours. Which is the obsession, and which is \n the compulsion?

Obsession: “Dirty” floor Compulsion: Vacuum until it’s clean enough

While rumination is compulsive overthinking about problems and their causes, dissociation is:

The disconnect from conscious awareness of painful memories and feelings.

Provide an example of epigenetics occurring:

One twin faces a trauma that the other twin does not endure. While one twin lives a happy, healthy life, the traumatizedtwin begins to show symptoms of bipolar disorder. The traumatized twin’s gene expression was switched on by \n epigenetic marks.

What are the gender differences found surrounding mental illness?

Women are more vulnerable to anxiety/depression, while men are more vulnerable to external behaviors like drug \n abuse. Gender differences in depression are more noticeable among preadolescent children. After puberty, girls are \n more vulnerable than boys to eating disorders, self-injury, and anxiety. Women experience depression 1.7 times more \n often than men.

Major Depressive Disorder

Two or more weeks, five or more symptoms: Depressed mood, loss of \n interest or pleasure, challenges with sleep/appetite, feeling worthless, \n suicidal thoughts. \n Sarah is exhausted - she has not been able to eat, sleep or \n enjoy anything she used to love for five weeks now. She is \n considering suicide because she feels hopeless.

Bipolar Disorder

Alternating between hopelessness and lethargy from depression to an \n overexcited state of mania. \n After barely making it out of bed the last two weeks, Kim \n is now full of energy. She begins speaking loudly and fast, \n planning vacations she can’t afford, and tries to finish \n writing her book again.

Biological perspective:

genetic predispositions and biochemical imbalances

Social-cognitive perspective:

There are biological influences, but nature-nurture plays a role. People perceive \n things differently through their assumptions and expectations.

Psychoanalytic perspective:

Mental illness arises when impulses are too strong but are being repressed.

Beth not only shows _________ after her attack but is experiencing _________, so she is \\n functioning now better than ever.

Survivor Resiliency,

Post-Traumatic Growth

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List the characteristics of schizophrenia and describe a person that may have it:

Delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and/or diminished inappropriate emotional expression. Ex. Phil \n believes that his neighbors are out to get him and have been spreading lies about him to the whole neighborhood. He \n has delusions that they lock their car doors three times when they get home just to make him mad. The next time it \n happens, he walks outside to yell at his neighbors and tells them to leave him alone.

Chronic schizophrenia:

symptoms appear in late adolescence or early adulthood. Episodes last longer, and \n recovery periods are shorter as people age.

Acute schizophrenia

can begin at any age, frequently occurs in response to an emotionally traumatic event, \n has extended recovery periods.

What are brain abnormalities associated with schizophrenia?

Dopamine overactivity can create hallucinations and paranoia. Low activity in the frontal lobes helps us reason, plan,and solve problems. Increased activity in the amygdala where fear is produced. Enlarged fluid-filled ventricles. Smaller \n than normal cortex, hippocampus, thalamus, and corpus callosum.

What prenatal events are associated with an increased risk of developing schizophrenia?

Low birth weight, maternal diabetes, older paternal age, and oxygen deprivation during delivery. Famine and fetal virus \n infections also contribute to the development of schizophrenia.

Positive schizophrenia symptoms

inappropriate behaviors are present. Ex. Hallucinations, word salad, inappropriate laughter, tears, or rage.

Negative schizophrenia symptoms

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appropriate behaviors are absent. Ex. Toneless voice, expressionless face, mute/rigid bodies.

Dissociative Identity \n Disorder

Rare dissociative disorder is in which a person exhibits two or more distinct \n and alternating personalities that control a person’s behavior at different \n times. \n Shirley was loud and flirtatious, but her other personality \n Megan was timid and quiet.

Antisocial \n Personality Disorder

A person exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even toward friends \n and family members; maybe aggressive and ruthless or a clever con artist. \n Lucas cheated on his girlfriend, stole money from his mother, \n and let his pet starve for a week but did not feel guilty.

List the biological characteristics of antisocial personality disorder:

The hyper-reactive dopamine reward system, deficits in the frontal lobe, and low autonomic nervous system arousal \n level.

Avoidant personality disorder:

fearful sensitivity to rejection

Schizotypal personality disorder

eccentric or odd behaviors, such as emotionless disengagement

Borderline personality disorder:

dramatic or impulsive behaviors for attention

Narcissistic personality disorder:

self-focused and self-inflating

Describe attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder:

Extreme inattention and/or hyperactivity and impulsivity. Genetic causes and co-exists with a learning disorder or \n defiant and temper-prone behavior.

Anorexia nervosa:

an eating disorder in which a person maintains a starvation diet despite being \n significantly underweight, sometimes accompanied by excessive exercise.

Bulimia nervosa

a person’s binge eating (usually of high-calorie food) is followed by inappropriate weight \n loss promoting behavior, such as vomiting, laxative use, fasting, or excessive exercise

Binge-eating disorder:

binge eating episodes followed by distress, disgust, or guilt but without \n compensatory behavior that marks bulimia nervosa.

What is sensation? What is perception?

Sensation is the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energiesfrom our environment. Perception is the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to \n recognize meaningful objects and events.

Bottom-down processing

Starts at sensory receptors and works up to higher levels of processing Detect lines, angles, and forms on a canvas

Top-down processing

Constructs perceptions from this sensory input by drawing on your \n experience and expectations \n Interpret what the shapes mean and form a \n mental picture

Receive

Receive sensory information, often using specialized receptor cells

Transform

Transform stimulation into neural impulses

Deliver

Deliver the neural information to our brain

transduction

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Conversion of one form of energy into another is also known as ________. In sensation, this refers to \n transforming stimulus energies into sights, sounds, and smells that can be interpreted.

Psychophysics

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____________ is the study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity and \n our psychological experience of them.

Absolute Threshold

The minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time

Difference Threshold

The minimum difference needed between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time (the just noticeable difference)