Unit Seven: Psychological Disorders and Social Psychology

Psychological Disorders

Deviant, distressful, and dysfunctional patterns of thoughts, feelings, or behaviors - understanding has developed over time from evil spirits to madness - treatments developed as well from beatings, burnings, drownings, castration, and isolation

Medical Model of Psychological Disorders

Concept that diseases, like psychological disorders, have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and in many cases cured through treatment - mental health issues are diagnosed based on symptoms

Biopsychosocial Approach of Psychological Disorders

There are biological, psychological, and cultural influences on mental health disorders - some mental health disorders are more prominent in certain environments (ex. stress or eating disorders in America)

DSM-IV-TR

A system used by psychologists to classify disorders - describes various disorders without attributing - doesn’t presume causes

Labeling Disorders

Labels help give psychologists an idea of how and what they are treating - some disorders carry a stigmatizing power (stereotypes)

Types of Psychological Disorders

• Anxiety

• Somatoform Disorders

• Dissociative Disorders

• Mood Disorders

• Schizophrenia

• Personality Disorders

Anxiety Disorders

Characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety, or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety

• Generalized Anxiety Disorders

• Panic Disorder

• Phobia

• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Somatoform Disorders

Symptoms take a bodily form without apparent physical cause - the symptoms are real, but are unexplainable

• Conversion Disorder

• Hypochondriasis

Dissociative Disorders

Conscious awareness is separated from previous memories, thoughts, and feelings - extremely rare - ex. dissociative identity disorder

Mood Disorders

Characterized by emotional extremes

• Major Depressive Disorder

• Mania

• Bipolar Disorder

Schizophrenia

Characterized by disorganized and delusional thinking, disturbed perception, and inappropriate emotions and actions

Personality Disorders

Characterized by inflexible and enduring behavior patterns that impair social function (ex. Antisocial Personality Disorder)

Subtypes of Schizophrenia

• Paranoid

• Disorganized

• Catatonic

• Undifferentiated

• Residual

Two Perspectives for Understanding Anxiety Disorders

Learning Perspective:

• Fear conditioning

• Observational learning

Biological Perspective:

• Natural selection

• Genes

• The brain

Dissociative Identity Disorder

Skepticism where people doubt if it’s genuine, sometimes because of timing or location - some with DID experience a switch in handiness - people with DID exhibit heightened activity in brain areas associated with control and inhibition of traumatic memories - some psychologists believe DID fits better as an anxiety disorder

Facts about Mood Disorders

• Depression leads to behavioral and cognitive changes

• Depression is widespread

• Women are twice as vulnerable to major depression

• Most major depressive episodes lead to suicide attempts

• Stressful events typically trigger depression

• Each generation is getting hit earlier and earlier

Two Perspectives for Understanding Mood Disorders

Biological Perspective:

• Genetic influences

• Depressed brain is a slower brain

• Biochemical influences

Social-Cognitive Perspective:

• Negative thoughts and negative moods interact

• Depression’s vicious cycles

Causes of Schizophrenia

• Brain Abnormalities

  • Too much dopamine

  • Abnormal brain activity

  • Maternal virus during pregnancy

• Genetic Factors

• Psychological Factors

Antisocial Personality Disorder

Unemotional and fearless - there is genetic vulnerability - early signs include impulsivity, low anxiety, no concern for social rewards

Historical Treatment of Psychological Disorders

• Exorcism

• Lobotomy

• Shock Therapy

• Asylum

Psychoanalysis

Aims to pull repressed thoughts to the conscious mind - psychodynamic therapists view individuals as responding to unconscious forces and childhood experience and seek to enhance self-insight - free association, resistance, interpret, transferring

Resistance

Aspect of psychoanalysis that involves blocking anxiety-laden material from consciousness

Interpret

Aspect of psychoanalysis that involves finding meaning, exposing resistance, and opening other significant events to prompt insight

Transferring

Aspect of psychoanalysis that involves transferring to the analyst emotions liked with other relationships

Humanistic Therapies

• Insight Therapy

• Client-Centered Therapy

• Active Listening

Insight Therapies

Humanistic therapy that aims to improve psychological functioning by increasing the client’s awareness of underlying motives and defenses

Client-Centered Therapies

Humanistic therapy developed by Carl Rogers in which the therapist uses techniques to facilitate growth

Active Listening

A humanistic, client-centered therapy where the therapist engages in emphatic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies

Behavior Therapies

• Counterconditioning

• Exposure therapy

• Aversive conditioning

• Token Economics

Conterconditioning

Behavior therapy that involves classical conditioning applied to evoke new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behaviors

Exposure Therapy

Behavior therapy that involves treating anxieties by exposing people to the things they fear and avoid

Aversive Conditioning

Type of counterconditioning that associates unpleasant states with unwanted behavior - type of behavior therapy

Token Economics

Operant conditioning procedure where people earn a token for exhibiting desired behaviors (ex. AA tokens) - types of behavior therapy

Cognitive Therapies

• Beck’s Therapy for Depression

• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Beck’s Therapy for Depression

Type of cognitive therapy that attempts to reverse patient’s negative thoughts about themselves

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Popular therapy which combines the ideas of cognitive and behavior therapies - changing self-defeating thoughts and behaviors

Family Therapy

Aims to solve issues within stressful relationships by improving communication, exploring roles, and understanding dynamics

Self-Help and Group Therapy

Aims to solve issues by group discussion with others who are also afflicted

Types of Treatment for Psychological Disorders

• Psychoanalysis

• Humanistic Therapies

• Behavior Therapies

• Cognitive Therapies

• Group and Family Therapy

Social Psychology

The study of how individuals think, feel, and behave in social situations - includes social thinking, social influence, and interpersonal behavior

Social Thinking

How we perceive others and how we attribute causes to their behavior

• Attribution Therapy

• Fundamental Attribution Error

• Self-Serving Bias

• Attitudes and Behavior

Attribution Theory

Explains how people assign causes to others’ behavior - dispositional attribution and situational attribution

Dispositional Attribution

Explaining behavior based on personality - ex. “she is rude because she’s a rude person”

Situational Attribution

Explaining behavior based on external factors - ex. “she is rude because she had a bad day”

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to overestimate dispositional factors and underestimate situational factors when explaining others’ behaviors - we tend to focus on what we see (the person’s actions) rather than the context - ex. if someone cuts you off in traffic, you might think “they’re a terrible driver” (dispositional) and not that they’re in a rush (situational)

Self-Serving Bias

The tendency to attribute our successes to internal factors and our failures to external factors - ex. “I did well on the test because I studied hard” vs. “I did poorly because the test was unfair”

Attitude

A belief or opinion about something which can influence our behavior

Cognitive Dissonance

The discomfort we feel when our attitudes and behaviors are inconsistent - ex. you believe smoking is bad for your health but continue to smoke

Conformity

The act of adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to match those of others, typically to fit with a group

Types of Conformity

• Normative Social Influence

• Informational Social Influence

Normative Social Influence

Conforming to be liked or accepted by others - we act in ways that will make us popular or avoid rejection

Informational Social Influence

Conforming because we believe others have accurate information or better knowledge, especially in uncertain situations

Solomon Asch’s Conformity Experiments

Participants were asked to identify which of three lines was the same length as the standard line - they were placed in a group with confederates who purposefully gave wrong answers - about 75% of participants conformed at least once by choosing the incorrect line, despite knowing the right answer - people often conform to group opinions even when they know the group is wrong, due to pressure to fit in (normative influence)

Factors Affecting Conformity

• Group Size: conformity increases as the size of the group increases, but only up to a point

• Unanimity: if just one person disagrees with the group, conformity decreases significantly

• Cohesion: if a group feels united (ex. friends), conformity is stronger

• Status: higher-status individuals (ex. experts, authorities) influence conformity more than lower-status individuals

• Public vs. Private Response: people are more lively to conform when they must publicly respond, rather than privately

Obedience

The act of following direct commands or instructions from an authority figure

Factors Influencing Obedience

• Proximity to Authority: obedience is higher when the authority figure is physically closer

• Proximity to Victim: obedience decreases when the person being harmed is closer

• Legitimacy of Authority: if the authority figure is seen as legitimate and reputable obedience increases

• Presence of Disobedient Role Models: if others refuse to obey, individuals are more likely to resist obedience as well (this can reduce conformity and obedience)

Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Experiment

Participants were instructed to administer increasingly severe electric shocks to a “learner” when they answered questions incorrectly - the shocks were not real but the participant believed they were - 65% of the participants continued to give shocks up to the max voltage despite hearing screams - people tend to obey authority figures, even when it goes against their moral beliefs, due to the perceived legitimacy of authority and situational pressures

Groupthink

A phenomenon in which the desire for group harmony and consensus overrides realistic appraisal of alternatives, leading to poor decisions

• Illusion of invulnerability (overconfidence in decisions)

• Collective rationalization (discounting warnings or negative feedback

• Pressure on dissenters to conform

• Self-censorship (withholding doubts to avoid conflict)

• Illusion of unanimity (belief that everyone agrees)

Social Learning

The tendency for individuals to exert less effort when working in a group compared to working alone

Social Facilitation

The improvement of performance when working in the presence of others, especially on tasks that are well-practiced or easy

Group Behavior

Refers to how individuals behave in groups or social settings - our behaviors and attitudes can change when we are part of a group due to group dynamics - conformity, groupthink, social roles, group influence - in Stanford Prison Experiment, the behavior of both the guards and the prisoners was influenced by the group

The Stanford Prison Experience Setup

Conducted by Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University - 24 male college students volunteered and were randomly assigned to play either guard or prisoner - guards were given uniforms, sunglasses, or authority and prisoners were stripped of their identities (given numbers and uniforms) - the study was setup to simulate a prison environment

The Stanford Prison Experiment Goal

To understand how social roles, power dynamics, and authority affect behavior - the hypothesis was that participants would adopt their assigned roles so strongly that their behavior would change dramatically

The Stanford Prison Experiment Resutls

The guards quickly became abusive, exercising extreme power over the prisoners - prisoners became passive, submissive, and emotionally distressed - the experiment, originally planned for two weeks, was terminated after only six days due to the harmful psychological effects on participants - key findings of deindividuation, group behavior, obedience and authority, and social roles

Deindividuation

The loss of individuality and personal responsibility can occur when in a group - the guards’ anonymity helped with this (uniforms, sunglasses)

Social Roles

Expected behavior, based on a person’s status - roles of “guard” and “prisoner” influenced behavior, changing their personalities - conformity played a role in this

Real-World Applications of Stanford Prison Experiment

• Prison Systems: understanding how power dynamics and the environment influence behavior in prisons and other institutional settings

• Abuse of Power: insights into how authority figures can exploit power, leading to abuse and mistreatment

• Group Dynamics in Other Contexts: insights can be applied to military, frats, schools, workplaces, or anywhere group behaviors and roles are present