Quest #4 (Chapters 13-15) - PSYC 001

What is someone's personality?

A person's characteristic thoughts, emotional responses, and behaviors — what makes each of us unique

Is personality dynamic?

Yes. It is impacted by both nature and nurture

Temperaments

Biologically based tendencies (this is nature) — can also be observed in infants by: activity level, emotionality (crying vs. not crying, etc.), and sociability

What is inhibited temperament in infants?

How withdrawn infants are, if they get overstimulated quickly, etc. — related to adult social anxiety

Trait theory

That every person has a low, average, or high amount of a trait — people's traits are measurable

What are the Big Five (OCEAN) traits?

Openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism — most common way personality traits are measured (ex. to figure out how introverted or extroverted someone is)

How do humanist psychologists describe personality?

As a reflection of self-actualization (related to Maslow's hierarchy of needs)

Person-centered psychology

In order to understand someone's personality, you must treat someone with... unconditional positive regard, subjective experiences

Internal vs. external locus of control

There are certain things in life you are in control of (internal) and certain things that are out of your control (external) — internal locus of control (things you can control) affects personality more

Reciprocal Determinism Theory of Personality (Bandura)

You need to know about someone's personal features, environment, and behavior in order to understand their personality (basically just nature X nurture)

Do you act the same in every situation? How is personality impacted by different situations? What are two examples?

Obviously not! Personality is impacted by the power of the situation. Examples are self-monitoring and interactionism

Self-monitoring

People who change how they act based on the situation (ex. being quiet in class vs. loud when going out)

Interactionism

People act generally consistent in a given situation over time — your personality will describe how you are in one situation (ex. a shy person might not be shy in every context, but a shy person might consistently avoid large gatherings (one specific situation))

What are the two general approaches to measuring personality?

(1) Idiographic: person-centered; studying an individual; uniqueness (ex. asking for individual qualities). (2) Nomothetic: how people vary on common characteristics (ex. Big Five); studying principles of personality that apply to large groups of people

What are projective measures? What are the names of the two main tests?

Goal is to "tap into the unconscious" (Freud) through abstract tests like the Rorschach inkblot test and the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT).

Rorschach inkblot test

An abstract and ambiguous photo/painting that can be one of many different shapes/figures. They "show your thoughts" based on what you see in the photo

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Showing someone a subjective photo and asking what they see is happening in the photo

What do self-report methods do and what are two examples?

They explicitly ask participants about their own traits. Examples: (1) Big Five. (2) Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) — 567+ items

Do self-report measures involve response bias?

Yes, all self-report measures do

How is life history data used to measure personality?

Looking through one's personal history to gather information on personality — life stories (ex. the person who predicted Hitler would commit suicide a while before he did)

How is behavioral data used to measure personality?

Looking through one's behaviors to assess personality (connection to Bandura's Reciprocal Determinism)

How are observer measures used to measure personality?

Having someone else rate your personality — accuracy depends on the trait being measured. Based on high/low observability and evaluativeness

Is it more likely for yourself or your friends to accurately know your trait if it is low observability and low evaluativeness (ex. anxiety)?

Yourself

Is it more likely for yourself or your friends to accurately know your trait if it is high observability and low evaluativeness (ex. talkative)?

Equal odds

Is it more likely for yourself or your friends to accurately know your trait if it is low observability and high evaluativeness (ex. creativeness)?

Your friends

What is our self-concept (or "self")

Our concept of who we are as a person, consisting of self-knowledge

Self-schema

Just like a regular schema, but all about the self (schema: a mental representation of a situation)

Definition of self-esteem

How we evaluate ourselves (as good or bad) — usually based on how we believe other people see us

What changes one's self esteem?

Development: start with high self esteem → through puberty we start to judge ourselves → have better self esteem in 50s and 60s → as you get older it starts to go down with physical/mental changes. Sex differences: men usually have more self esteem than women

Sociometer theory

We have evolved to feel self-esteem because it tells us how well/bad we are doing things. There are weak/inconsistent relationships between self-esteem and success — high self-esteem does not mean success; successful doesn't mean high self esteem

Self-favoritism

People tend to like themselves more than other people. Even the letters in our initials — when people are asked to rank all the letters in the alphabet, people usually rank their initials first

Better-than-average effect

For anything you want to have, you think of yourself as better than average (how attractive you are, how smart you are, etc.) — because we want to view ourselves like that

Self-serving biases

Anything that goes well for you, you think it is because of you; anything that goes bad for you, you think it is because of someone else (ex. when you do well on a test, it is because of you; when you do bad on a test, it is because of the teacher)

Define psychopathology

Study of psychological disorders and mental illnesses

What is etiology

The study of the factors that lead to psychopathology

Can we determine if someone exhibits psychopathology based on normal or abnormal behavior?

Not really because normal is different for every person — what is normal for one person is not normal for another person

How common is psychopathology?

1 in 4 US adults exhibit something (but remember not to overanalyze yourself!)

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V-TR)

A "dictionary" of psychological disorders — tells you possible mental disorders based on symptoms

What is the dimensional nature of diagnoses

Diagnoses are not just "yes or no," there is a spectrum. But the diagnosis itself is categorical — especially for insurance purposes

What is the ongoing process when it comes to treating patients?

Observations → assessment → diagnosis → treatment → ongoing assessment → back to diagnosis and treatment

What are four factors that lead to psychopathology?

Diathesis-stress model, sex, cultural syndromes, nature X nurture

Diathesis-stress model

A theory that states that disorders come from a mix of vulnerability (diathesis) and external stressors — more likely to have a disorder with genetic predisposition and childhood trauma (but not guaranteed)

How does psychopathology differ by sex?

Males have more external disorders (ex. ADHD). Females have more internal disorders (ex. stress, anxiety)

Cultural syndromes means...

Psychopathology differs by culture

What are three types of anxiety disorders?

Phobias, social anxiety disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder

Specific phobias

An intense fear of an object, situation, or activity (ex. fear of heights)

Social anxiety disorder

Anxious in social situations (ex. in big groups)

Generalized anxiety disorder

Extra anxious all the time (maladaptive)

Biased perceptions of threat

All anxiety disorders are associated with an overestimate of fear/tension (thinking something is worse than it is)

What are the two main types of depressive disorders?

Major depressive disorder and persistent depressive disorder

Major depressive disorder

Extra deep sad state, for shorter amount of time

Persistent depressive disorder

Less extreme sad state, but for longer amount of time

Bipolar disorder and type I vs. type II

Switch between very positive (mania) and very negative (depression) behaviors. Type I: mania heavy. Type II: depression heavy

Learned helplessness

A feeling that one's life won't change because they've tried it before but it didn't work

What is suicide risk associated with? What are the two key aspects of it?

Associated with depression and bipolar disorders — suicide ideation vs. suicide capability

Suicidal ideation

Think about committing suicide because lacks a sense of belonging and sense of competence — can change this

Suicidal capability

Is able to attempt suicide — can't change this, can only change if they are thinking about it

Schizophrenia

A disorder that emphasizes thought disturbances (alters perceptions of reality)

General causes of schizophrenia

Nature and nurture (it's complicated!). Diathesis-stress may still apply

When is schizophrenia diagnosed?

Usually around 20 — some mild symptoms can occur in childhood (ex. social and motor differences/disturbances)

What does OCD stand for?

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Obsessions (thoughts) that cause compulsions (actions). There is also a checking behavior (related to conditioning) in which you keep on checking that something is done correctly

Explain OCD through an example of washing hands constantly

Anxiety (forced to shake hands) → compulsion (run to bathroom) → relief (wash hands) → obsession (fear of contamination)

What are the three main types of eating disorders?

Anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder

Anorexia (nervosa)

Restriction of food intake

Bulimia (nervosa)

Binge eating and purging (forcing oneself to throw up)

Binge eating disorder

Binge eating episodes but no purging

Tolerance in terms of addiction

Needing more of a drug to get the desired outcome

Withdrawal in terms of addiction

Getting used to a drug and then having a negative reaction when it's taken away

Addiction potential

Related to several characteristics (why people take/try drugs): Sensation-seeking, risk-taking, and impulsivity (all personality traits) — subcortical region activity (reward, craving, etc.)

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Frequent intrusive thoughts/flashbacks to past trauma (links to memory) — what happens when persistence becomes maladaptive

What are the two main types of dissociative disorders?

Dissociative amnesia (memory) vs. dissociative fugue (identity)

Dissociative identity disorder (MID)

Multiple identities in one person — formerly called "multiple personalities"

Borderline personality disorder

Unstable self — mood swings, unstable relationships, impulsive decisions, etc. (very different from bipolar disorder)

Antisocial personality disorder (APD)

The person typically doesn't care about other people — because of its extremity, a lifetime history of antisocial behavior is necessary to diagnose someone with ADP

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

People who have one or more of the following (dimensionality!): social impediments, communication difficulties, repetitive behavior, sensitivity to change and stimulation, motor difficulties, restricted interests (links to attention), etc.

Asperger's syndrome

The high-functioning version of autism (formerly known as autism)

Is there an overlap in ASD and ADHD? If so, why?

Yes, because they both change a person's attention skills

Do vaccines cause ASD? Who caused the controversy?

Obviously not. Wakefield published article linking MMR vaccine to cases of ASD — this has been discredited/debunked/retracted (there is no link). ASD symptoms just happen to occur at same time when children are supposed to get their vaccines (like growing adult teeth)

Why have more cases of ASD been diagnosed recently?

As our understanding of ASD symptoms has increased, more cases have been diagnosed (doesn't mean more people have it)

Some symptoms of ADHD

Impulsivity, restlessness, and inattention

Do boys or girls get diagnosed for ADHD more often?

Boys — probably mostly because of differences in maturation and socialization (not genetics)

Can people grow out of ADHD?

Not really, it often has long-term effects

Define comorbid

Medical conditions that exist simultaneously (but usually independently) of each other

Psychodynamic

Focusing on the unconscious; gaining insight; realizing what is unconscious and what you do not know (Neo-Freudian idea)

What does Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focused on? (HINT: think about the cognitive and behavioral aspects of this therapy)

Cognitive: restructuring/reappraisal — reframing situations in your daily life. Behavior: conditioning (learning!) — exposure (ex. used for phobias)

Client-centered therapy

Therapist gives patient empathy and unconditional support — lets the patient lead the session (humanist approach to motivation and personality (Carl Rogers))

Motivational interviewing

Asks the client questions to understand them — want to understand why they do what they do

What are three types of psychotropic (or psychoactive) medication?

Anti-anxiety drugs, anti-depressants, and anti-psychotics

Anti-anxiety drugs

Target GABA receptors (ex. Xanax) — deals with things like inhibition

Anti-depressants (ex. Prozac)

SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) — increases activation of serotonin receptors

Anti-psychotics

Target dopamine receptors — treat things like Schizophrenia

Surgery

Lobotomy — takes out the frontal lobe. No longer done because has irreversible effects (a last resort treatment)

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)

Theory is it can "restart the brain" — still can have side effects (a last resort treatment)

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)

Rub magnets on the brain — sometimes can reset enough neural connections to get them out of an anxiety state (a last resort treatment)

Deep brain stimulation (DBS)

Like a "brain pacemaker" to help activate the brain when it is supposed to be (a last resort treatment)

How is research used to determine the effectiveness of treatments?

Research using control (placebo) groups vs. treatment groups. The goal is to show that the treatment is stronger than just the placebo effect. These studies can also be done for therapy (control groups would get a therapist who just talks with them normally) — keep in mind, sometimes the drug companies are the ones who pay for this research

What is the most effective treatment for anxiety disorders (phobias, social anxiety disorder, etc.)?

CBT is generally more effective than medication (because of exposure, restructuring, etc.)

What is systematic desensitization treatment?

Gradually exposes a person to a fear-inducing stimulus while simultaneously teaching them to relax

What is the most effective treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)?

Antidepressants and CBT are both effective, but CBT is more effective

What is response prevention treatment (for OCD)?

Prevent someone from doing the impulsive response — breaking the link, showing them that nothing bad happens