First Half of Exam 4-Psych

Attachment

Enduring emotional tie between caregiver and child. All infants are attached to caregiver, but quality of attachment varies.

Signs of Attachment (Emerge by 6-12months)

-Separation anxiety

- stranger anxiety

- Greeting/Reunion behavior,

Secure Base Behavior- extend to which they use caregiver as a source of security and a base from which to explore

Assessing Attachment- Strange Situation (Mary Ainsworth)

the test puts the infant (12-18 months) through eight 3-minute episodes of increasing stress, consisting of separation and reunions with the caregiver.

Secure Attachment (65%)

Uses caregiver as a secure base, goes to parent upon return, not as responsive to stranger as parent

Anxious/Avoidant (20%)

Doesnt seem to care about parent

Anxious/Resistant (10%)

Very upset at separation, may show anger towards parent

Disorganized (5%)

Confused, contradictory behavior

Origin of Attachment

Psychoanalytic theory- Mother satisfies hunger drive/oral needs

Behaviorist theory- Mother reduces discomfort by reducing hunger

Harlow and Zimmerman Monkey Studies

Baby monkeys are separated from their mothers at birth. ½ are fed by wire ‘mom’, and ½ are fed by cloth ‘mom’.

ALL spent more time with cloth ‘mom’, and ran to cloth ‘mom’ when stressed.

Conclusion: Feeding is not the primary basis of attachment

Ethology

Scientific study of animal behavior, especially under natural conditions.

Evolutionary Function of Attachment

Protection from danger during long period of immaturity.

Secure attachment shows

The child trust that the caregiver will respond to his or her needs

Secure attachment is linked to

Higher self esteem, social competence, and cooperation in preschool

More positive peer relations in adolescence

More satisfying romantic relationships, and secure attachment to infant in adulthood

Dimension of Parenting- Warmth/Responsiveness

Acceptance of child, emotional involvement

Dimension of Parenting- Control/Demandingness

Extent to which rules are set forth and enforced

Authoritative parenting

-High responsiveness, and high demandingness.

-Acknowledges feelings, and enforces rules

-Children are often friendly, competent, and cooperative

Authoritarian Parenting

-Low Responsiveness, high demandingness

-Emotionally rejecting, disregards developmental level, enforces obedience

-Children are often dependent and anxious

Permissive Parenting

High responsiveness, low demandingness

Emotionally accepting, allows children to make decisions despite developmental level

Children are often impulsive, and disobedient

Uninvolved

Low responsiveness, low demandingness

Negligence

Children are often rebellious and aggressive

Ethnic Differences

Parenting styles are different across cultures.

African American and Chinese American parents tend to be more authoritarian, but it is not associated with negative child outcomes.

“No-nonsense parenting” may be adaptive for lower-class African Americans

Piaget’s Constructivist Theory

Focus on how children adapt to their environment

Children construct systems for understanding the world

Stage Theory

4 stages in total, Children undergo qualitative changes in how they see the world

Sensorimotor (0-2 yrs)

◆ Acquire knowledge through motor behavior

◆ Guided by sensory perception

◆ Acting on the world around them

Sensorimotor (0-2 yrs)- Limitations

According to Piaget: No Mental Representation

Object Permanence

Understanding that objects continue to exist when out of sight

According to Piaget, no object permanence before 8 months

Infants less than 8 months old fail to reach for toy under cloth

But 5-6 month old does reach for a toy phone ringing in the dark

Problems with mean-end sequences

Act on one object (mean) → access another object (end)

Example: reach for cloth to get the toy underneath

Infants are unable to think of the steps to get the toy.

Preoperational Stage (2-7yrs)

-Development of representational thought

-Delayed imitation

-Make-believe play

-Language

-Symbol based reasoning

Preoperational=

-child is not capable of mental representations of actions that obey logical rules

-Child is centered= cannot focus on two aspects simultaneously (tested via conservation task)

-Egocentrism=Tendency to view world from own perspective

The Concrete Operational Stage (7-12yrs)

Ability to preform mental operations

-Can mentally combine, order, transform objects that are present

Ability to plan actions

-Can think about the steps necessary to solve a specific goal

-Can think about the consequences of single actions

Systematic Thinking in Concrete Operational Stage

Is difficult for children in this stage.

When asked to determine the amount of time it takes for a pendulum to swing through a complete arc (length, weight, height etc.), the children experiment unsystematically.

e.g comparing swing of heavy weight and short string to swing of light weight on long string.

The formal operational stage (12+ years)

Ability to systematically solve problems

Can try different combinations of solutions to solve problems

Can consider alternative hypothesis and test them

Ability to think hypothetically

Metacognition- Ability to think about the thinking

Hypothetical-deductive reasoning= reasoning with logic

Fear of Heights- Visual Cliff Experiment (Campos)

All crossed shallow end

Beginning (7month) : 2/3 crossed deep end

Experienced (9month): NONE crossed deep end

Conclusion: Beginning crawlers have no fear of heights. Experience of crawling seems to activate fear (not falling).

Social referencing- looking to caregiver for information

Quinn & Emmas (1996)

★ 3-4 month babies see pictures of cats

★ They’re then shown a picture of a dog and other cats

★ They look at the dog longer than the cat though

★ Conclusion: they categorized cats together but saw dogs as novel or new objects and

were more interested in the dog

DeLoach’ scale model (1987)

Researcher hides toy in a small scale model of a room. Then 2.5 and 3 year olds have to find the toy in the life size room after seeing toy placed on the scale model room.

★ 2.5 year olds couldn’t find the full sized toy in the full sized room

Conclusion: Young Children don’t understand symbolic representation

Incidence of Friendships

Age 4: ¾ of children have mutual friendships

Average boys- 1.7, Average girls- 0.9 friends

Middle childhood: 85% have mutual friends, average 3-5

Bases of Friendships

Shared activites and interest

Propinquity: Friendships can only be formed between people you meet and are around

Homophily: We choose friends that tend to be similar in age, gender, ethnicity, and peer status

Compared to other interaction partners, friends are more likely to

Interact more, cooperate better, enjoy each others company more, resolve conflicts better

Expectations of Friendships

All ages: Reciprocity and mutuality

Young children expect help mastering skills

In adolescence: closeness, intimacy, and commitment

Friendships are prototypical

Friendships help children develop skills and expectations for later close relationships. (Related to attachment styles)

Long term Correlations of friendships

Quality of romantic relationships, social competence, pro-social behavior, self-esteem, low aggression

Peer acceptance

The extent to which a person is liked by peers

Peer rejection

extent to which a person is disliked by peers

Popularity

A persons hierarchical position of status within the peer group, based on power and prominence.

Acceptance does not equal popularity

Pro-Social Behavior

Actions that benefit others such as helping, sharing, leadership, and cooperation

Overt Aggression

Physical or verbally harmful actions. Pushing, hitting, name-calling, insulting

Relational Aggresssion

Using relationships to harm others. Ignoring, excluding, spreading rumors, gossiping

Aggression is positively related to

Rejection across ages, and popularity by middle school

Relationship to acceptance is inconsistent

Acceptance and Popularity are positively linked to

Athleticism, physical attractiveness, secure attachment, pro-social behavior, authoritative parenting.

Popularity is linked to negative behaviors such as substance use and sexual behaviors

Peer rejection is associated with

Loneliness, substance use, dropping out of school, and depression (in school and later in life)

Being actively disliked is

worse than being ignored

Middle Ages: The Demonic Model

Odd behaviors (hearing voices, etc.) due to evil spirits, witchcraft

Renaissance: The Medical Model

Psychological disorders viewed as due to physical problems

Some treatments for mental illness included:

Bloodletting (in some cases, 40% of the patients blood.)

Throwing the patients into a pit of snakes to scare them out of their disease

Being held in an asylum

Psychological Disorder Defintion

A mental or bodily condition marked primarily by the sufficient disorganization of personality, mind, and emotions, to seriously impair the normal psychological functioning of the individual

Rarity:

Disorders are rare in the population but mild depression is common, genius is rare

Subjective Distress:

Disordered individuals feel worried or distressed BUT certain disorders are not associated with subjective worry (e.g manic episodes, conduct disorders)

Impairment:

Difficulty functioning in everyday life, but laziness impairs functioning and isn’t a disorder

Biological dysfunction

Physiological problems associated with some disorders, BUT no physiological problems associated with other disorders (e.g phobias)

Many modern reseraches look at disorders as

failures of adaption to the environment

Any aspects may

be present in many disorders, but none are necessary or suffiecent to idenfity disorders

Antisocial Personality Disorder associated with

theft and criminal behavior

Depression associated with

difficulty accomplishing daily task

Panic Disorder Associated with

inability to do “normal” activities

According to Robin & Guze (1970), a valid diagnosis…..

distinguishes the disorder from similar disorders, predicts performance on lab task, predicts family history of psychiatric disorders, predicts what happens to them over time

Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel of Mental Disorders (DSM) published by the American Psychiatric Association

1st Eddition

Currently 5th Edition (DSM-V)

Lists diagnostic criteria, along with decision rules to indicate how many criteria must be met for diagnoses

Features of the DSM

Warns about physical/medical conditions that can mimic psychological disorders

E.g (Hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid gland) can mimic depression)

Provides background info such as cultural information and prevalence (% of indivi. in pop.) about disorders

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Obsessions- Persistent intrusive thoughts of impulsive

AND/OR Compulsions

Repetitive behaviors or mental acts designed to reduce anxiety or feeling of guilt shame that last at least an hour

Individuals often realize that obsessions/compulsions are products of the individuals own mind

Body Dysmorphic Disorder

Pre-Occupation with perceived deficits or physical flaws that others consider minor

Individual responds with repetitive behaviors/thoughts in response

Trichotillomania

Hair pulling leading to hair loss. Repeated attempts to stop hair pulling

Hoarding Disorder

Difficulty discarding possessions (regardless of monetary value) and distress at parting with those possessions. Leads to clutter and distress