Behavioral Science GR 3

Stress Overview

-Trigger warnings do little to prevent
-Stressor: the object that creates the stress
-Stress reaction: Physical and emotional reaction to the stressor
-General definition: The process by which you react to a threat
-Stress is positive when short-lived and perceived as a challenge, builds resilience
Temporary stress is okay, but prolonged stress is damaging

Primary Appraisal

Determines whether an event is a stressor

Secondary Appraisal

Determine our ability to respond to the stress

Types of stressors

Catastrophes: Large scale disasters, significant damage to emotional and mental health, such as acculturative stress, from a new culture
Significant Life Changes: divorce, move, death, loosing a job
Daily hassle and social stress: Chronic household stress, personal stress, or work life balance

Approach-Avoidance Motives

Approach-approach conflict: two attractive but incompatible goals
Avoidance-Avoidance conflict: Two undesirable but incompatible goals
Approach-Avoidance conflict: Simultaneously attracting and repelling goals
stress occurs when we face many approach avoidance conflicts at the same time

Walter Cannon

Discovered fight or flight from the sympathetic nervous system

General Adaption Syndrome

Body's general one size fits all response to stress
-Phase 1: Alarm reaction, sympathetic nervous system activates, ready for fight
-Phase 2: Resistance, all vitals remain high, depletes your energy
-Phase 3: Exhaustion, no energy, vulnerable to illness, collapse, death

Tend and Befriend Response

under stress, people (especially women) often provide support to others (tend) and bond with and seek support from others (befriend)

Psychoneuroimmunology

the study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect the immune system and resulting health

Immune system responses

4 types of cells that are sent to search and destroy:
-B Lymphocytes: fights bacterial infections
-T Lymphocytes: fights cancer, viruses, foreign substances
-Macrophages: fights harmful invaders, cleans worn out cells
-Natural Killer Cells: Attack diseased cells

How does the Immune system err?

2 ways:
-Overreacting, attack the bodies own tissue, causing autoimmune diseases
-Underreacting, allows diseases to flare up

Coronary heart disease

leading cause of death in the US
-Stress increases risk of heart disease
-pessimistic inclinations also increase risk
-depression also increases risk
-chronic stress triggers blood vessel inflammation

Catharsis

Individualistic societies encourage catharsis, or a release of emotions, can temporarily calm you, but typically leads to more anger , acting angry makes us automatically feel angrier
-Collectivist societies usually encourage less expression of anger

How to manage anger

-Wait
-Find a healthy distraction, don't ruminate
-Distance yourself

Problem focused coping

Addressing stressors directly, typically used when we have a feeling of control over the situation

Emotion focused coping

When we believe we don't have control over a situation, use emotions to mask or ignore the stressor

Learned Helplessness

Perceived loss of personal control, tend to lead to poor health, such as in a nursing home or hospice
-Crowds and poverty both lead to perceived loss of control

External locus of control

control of your life is outside of yourself, thus you have no free will

Internal locus of control

Control of yourself is found inside, free will exists
-with internal locus of control comes the development of self control, which is the key to stress coping, and predicts success in life

Optimism vs pessimism

Optimism is better in almost every situation, helps us control and cope, optimism can be passed down generationally, but one can also learn to be optimistic

Relationships and health

Relationships build health, the closer the relationship the better for example marriage:
-Calms us, improves our sleep, lowers blood pressure
-stronger immune systems
-"open heart therapy", share painful feelings

Stress reducers

-Aerobic exercise, long and slow, reduces anxiety, depression, improves your lifespan, mood, and emotional state
-Relaxation and meditation, biofeedback is constant information about your physiology, meditation strengths brain connections and calms brain activation
-Faith factor, faith communities across the board promote health behaviors, provide social support, and nurture positive emotions

what is a disorder

a syndrome (or collection of symptoms) marked by a clinically significant disturbance in an individuals cognition, emotional regulation, or behavior, disorders tend to strike early

Phillip Pinel and Dorothea Dix

Opposed the cruel practices of the medieval ages, argued for normal treatment and diagnoses with a scientific basis, deinstitutionalization

The two worldwide disorders

major depressive disorder and schizophrenia, others are associated with specific cultures

vulnerability stress model

individual dispositions combine with environmental stressors to cause disorders, this is backed up by research on epigenetics

DSM-5

the APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition; a widely used system for classifying psychological disorders
-others use RDoC, Research Domain Criteria

Disorders and suicide

those with disorders are far more likely to harm themselves and others
-47k die from suicide each year in US, 800k worldwide, most common among the rich, unmarried, non-religious, older
To help, listen, connect them with resources, protect them from immediate danger

NSSI

non-suicidal self-injury, a way to attract attention, relieve guilt, doesn't typically lead to suicide

Immigrant paradox

Those who recently immigrated are less likely to have mental disorders, correlation between poverty and disorders

Anxiety related disorders

-OCD
-PTSD
-Somatic symptoms disorder
They are caused by distressing, persistent anxiety
-Generalized anxiety disorder: for no reason in continually tense and uneasy, excessive or uncontrollable worry that persists for 6 months or more
-Panic Disorder: intense anxiety that escalates to panic attack
-Specific phobia: persistent, irrational fear of specific object or action

OCD

Obsessive compulsive disorder, symptoms are obsessive thoughts, compulsive behaviors, persistent interference, related disorders are:
-hoarding disorder
-body dysmorphia
-Trichotillomania, excessive hair pulling
-excoriation disorder, skin picking

PTSD

social withdrawal, attention to possible threats, jumpy anxiety
this disorder affects memory processing, and is increased by systematic racism or sexism

Somatic stress disorder

inexplicable physical symptoms under stress associated with significant distress or impaired functioning
-illness anxiety disorder: fear of symptoms being serious

How do anxiety disorders arise

Conditioning: stimulus generalization
Cognition: thoughts, memories, interpretations, expectations, observations, eg hyper vigilance
Biology: Genes matter, epigenetics, experience + genes

Major depressive disorder

No 1 reason for seeking mental health, leading cause of disability world wide, can be seasonal, with women at a greater risk

Bipolar disorder

-Bounce from one emotional extreme to the other, often week to week
-Bipolar I Disorder: When the depressive mood ends, mania begins, which is a euphoric, overly talkative, overly optimistic state
-Bipolar II disorder: moves between depression and a milder version of mania, hypomania
Genes associated with creativity increase the likelihood of bipolar disorder, equal risk for men and women

Understanding depressive disorders

behaviors and thoughts change with depression, expect the negative, men tend to show disorders externally, and women internally
-most depressive episodes end on their own, for half the depression returns, and for 20% it becomes chronic
-depression now compared to the past strikes earlier and more often

Biological perspective on depression

Depressive disorders and tied with genes and can run in a family, Major depressive disorder has a 40% heritability, but nurture matters as well
-Brain abnormalities are linked with depression during depression, the brain slows, during mania it speeds up, linked with norepinephrine and serotonin
-Nutrition, what's good for the heart is also good for the brain, alcohol consumption leads to depression as well

Social-cognitive perspective on depression

life experiences play a major part in the disorders
-self defeating beliefs and a negative explanatory style, negative explanatory blames failures globally, internally, and for a long term (stable), positive blames on temporary, specific, and external
-state dependent memory: mood influences memories, judgements, and expectations

Depressive cycle

-stressful experience leads to...
-negative explanatory style which leads to...
-depressive mood which leads to...
-cognitive + behavioral changes

psychotherapy

psychological techniques by a trained therapist to help overcome difficulties in achieving personal growth, build client relationships

biomedical therapy

Treatment biologically, via medication

Humanistic Therapies

-Emphasize peoples innate potential for self-fulfillment
-reduce inner conflict
-help people discover new insights, sometimes called insight therapy
-focuses on growth, the present, and the conscious mind

Person centered therapy

-nondirective, client leads discussion
-therapist should be active listeners echoing and restating, acknowledging , be a mirror, provide unconditional positive regard, most important contribution is to accept and understand the client

Behavior therapies

Instead of looking for inner causes, behavior therapists believe that behavior is the problem, therefore must change behavior through classical conditioning
-Counterconditioning: or exposure therapy puts trigger stimulus with a new response
-systematic desensitation: someone can't be both relaxed and anxious at the same time, therefore repeated relax the patient when faced with triggering stimuli
-progressive relaxation: moving up items on your anxiety hierarchy, progressively relaxing each time
-VR exposure therapy if fear is too expensive or embarrassing to replicate
-Aversive conditioning: Teaches you what not to do, putting yourself in a harmful situation associates unwanted behavior with unpleasant things
-Operant conditioning: creates behavior medication , can be used to shape the behavior with great effect, a token economy, a fiat system of rewards
Objections to behavior therapy:
-How durable are the learned behaviors
-Is it right for one human to control another's behavior

Cognitive therapies

assume that our thinking colors our feelings, therefore aims to change the way we think
-Uses guided questions to reveal irrational thinking
-Change what we typically say and how we say it
-stress inoculation training: Teaches people to restructure their thinking in stressful situations
-reveal, change, and test beliefs
-Encourages self-talk

Cognitive-Behavioral therapy

Alter the way people both think and act, combines a change in mindset and a change in behavior

Dialectical behavior therapy

helps change harmful patterns, create an accepting and encouraging environment

Biomedical therapies

aim to change the brains chemistry
-electrical stimulations
-magnetic impulses
-psychosurgury
-drugs
-lifestyle changes

Drug therapies

Psychopharmacology
-Antipsychotic drugs: calm hallucinations and delusions, reduce schizophrenia, has intense side effects
-Antianxiety drug: xanax, etc
-Antidepressants: increase serotonin and norepinephrine, SSRIs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, now developing fast acting SSRIs like ketamine, exercise is an antidepressant
-Mood stabilizing drugs: for bipolar disorders, lithium

Positive psychology

The study of human flourishing
-first pillar: positive well-being
-second pillar: positive traits
-third pillar: positive groups, communities and cultures
psychology is typically focused on the alleviation of negative states, positive psychology is the opposite

feel-good, do-good phenomenon

people's tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood, vice versa is also true

What determines happiness

-different days of the week
-throughout the day, rise over middle of day, drop off at the end
-severe trauma and life-events can have long lasting effects
-national wealth matters
-personal income up to a satiation point matters
-relative to other peoples success, relative deprivation is the belief that others are happier
-higher self esteem, optimism, outgoing, close relationships, active faith, sleep and exercise
-happiness is also heritable
-over time, the rising tide of economic growth has not produced increased happiness however

adaption level phenomenon

our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience