Psych 105 After Second Midterm

Personality

a person’s unique, fairly consistent pattern of feeling, behaving and thinking

around 50% of our personality in inherited

Three Structures of Personality Freud

Id (inborn biological drives)

ego (directs us to express biological drives in a socially acceptable way)

superego (moral guide)

battle between all of these results in our personality

Defense Mechanisms (DM)

distortions of reality that allows individuals to escape from feelings of anxiety

Regression

DM

reversion to immature behavior that have helped to alleviate feelings of anxiety in the past

Rationalization

providing socially acceptable reasons to justify inappropriate behavior

DM

Displacement

DM

expressing feelings towards a person who is less threatening in place of the more threatening target of those sentiments

Projection

taking your own undesirable feelings and attributing them to other people

Reaction Formation

acting in a manner that is opposite to what you are feeling

DM

Sublimation

using socially acceptable outlets for sexual or aggressive impulses

DM

Interiority Complex

motivates individuals to strive for superiority

Adler’s Individual psychology

Social Interest

when the striving focuses on helping others and oneself. Healthiest way to overcome the inferiority complex

Adler’s Individual Psychology

Personal Unconscious

the individuals unconscious mind which is the home to repressed memories

Collective Unconscious

the unconscious mind that is shared by everyone

archetypal images that have been passed down from ancestors

Archetypes

images that represent critical aspects shared by humanity

influence our dreams, art and religious symbols

Basic Anxiety

children develop this because of an emotional and physical dependance upon adults

Horney’s Feminine Psychology

Basic hostility

Children must suppress this emotional response in order to gain love from their parents

Horney’s Feminine Psychology:

3 Coping Styles of Children with Anxiety

Moving towards others,

moving against others

moving away from others

Rorschach test

individuals are asked to report what they see in the inkblots

Thematic Apperception Test

Henry Murray and Christina Morgan

19 cards with black and white pictures of people in ambiguous situations and 1 blank card

participants must tell stories about the 19 ambiguous pictures and create their own story about the blank card

Influence of Psychoanalytic approach

much of our behavior is controlled by motives that are not always in our awareness

childhood experiences are very important for later development

Trait

a fairly enduring personality characteristic that is inferred from a persons behavior

Allport’s trait theory

Gordon Allport argued that there are three kinds of traits

Cardinal

Central

Secondary

Cardinal Traits

affect every facet of a person’s life

Central Traits

affect many facets of a person’s life but not as pervasively as cardinal traits

Secondary Traits

affect only a few facets of a person’s life

Eysenecks three-factor theory

Dimensions of personality: Neuroticism, psychoticism, extraversion

Five Factor Model

Big Five Personality Traits

1. Openness to experience

2. conscientiousness

3. extraversion

4. agreeableness

5. neuroticism

predictive of procrastination, eating disorders, marital adjustment

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

variety of personality characteristics

person is presented with pairs of statements and chooses one that is closest to describing them

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

purpose is to diagnose psychological disorders

includes 10 clinical scales that measure personality traits

assesses job applicants for certain positions

Dispositional Approach for Personality

effective at describing personality differences but not explaining

Social-Cognitive Theory

Albert Bandura

Emphasizes the role of reinforcement and punishment in personality development

our interpretation of our personality and environment affects our behavior

Reciprocal Determinism

overt behavior, environmental factors and personality traits affect each other

Self-Efficacy

belief that a person holds that they can perform the behaviors that are required to bring about a particular outcome

Collective Efficacy

An individual perception that a group that they are a part of can bring about a particular outcome by working together

Experience-Sampling method

participant carries a beeper that is activated at random times, at these times the person will write down their experiences and behaviors

Locus of Control Scale

julian rotter

measures the degree to which you think you have control over the outcomes of your behavior

Self-Actualization

an individuals predisposition to fulfill their potential

related to psychological well-being

Abraham Maslow

when you are self actualized you are happier, healthier with your self and people, creative and autonomous

Self Theory

Argued that self-actualization requires the acceptance of the self-concept

carl rogers

self concept and personal experience may differ and lead us to feel anxious

anxiety can be reduced by altering self or reinterpreting the expirence

Personal Orientation Inventory

examines the extent to which an individual’s attitudes and values coincide with Maslow’s description of self-actualized people

Q-Sort

method to measure the congruence between the actual self and ideal self

cards that align with yourself rn or your ideal self

Temperaments

are very stable over time and have profound influence upon the emergence of personality traits

Jerome Kagan examined temperament in infancy to adolescents

Reactive Children

during mildly stressful tasks…

higher levels of cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine

higher heart rates

heightened neural activity

differ physiologically from non reactive infants

Health Psychology

the subfield of psychology that is focused on identifying how psychological factors impact the causes and the treatment of physical illness and the maintenance of health

Stressors

psychological or physical demands that induce a physiological adjustment

Stress

how the body physiologically responds to psychological and physical demands

eustress

pleasant stress

distress

unpleasant stress

Advantages of Stress

facilitate survival in a period of stress

increased availability of energy and superior distribution of energy

enhanced emotional learning

Disadvantages of Stress

can promote disease

autoimmune disorders, hypertension, heart disease

mental illness

impaired episodic memory

Perceived Control

the degree to which an individual believes that they are in control over the stressors in their life

Learned Helplessness

The belief that one has little or no control over the events in their life

depression

Flight-or-Fight Response

the activation of the sympathetic nervous system couples with the secretion of stress hormones by the adrenal glands

General Adaptation Syndrome

A physiological response to stress which involves

alarm, resistance and exhaustion

Psychosomatic

(of a physical illness or other condition) caused or aggravated by a mental factor such as internal conflict or stress:

Artherosclerosis

when the arteries are narrowed because of accumulation of cholesterol deposits

cause of coronary heart disease

Type A Behavior Pattern

an inclination towards impatience, hostility, time urgency and competitive achievement goals

study by friedman and rosenman in which Type A men were more likely to have heart attacks

like to control their environment

physiologically more reactive to both emotional and physical factors

have greater increases in stress hormones

Stress and Cancer

strong relationship between the development of cancer and the tendency to suppress emotions

suppression of emotions is associated with a suppression of immune responses

stress indirectly promotes cancer through smoking, consumption of high-fat foods, etc

Psychoneuroimmunology

The study of the relationship between physical illness and psychological factors

cells responsible for immune response: B and T lymphocytes

B-Lymphocytes

attack bacteria

T-Lymphocytes

Attack viruses, foreign tissues, and cancer cells

Repressive Coping

maintaining an artificially positive viewpoint by avoiding situations and/or thoughts that remind you of a stressor

Reframing

thinking about stressors in a new or creative way that tends to reduce its threat

Stress Innoculation training

a type of therapy that helps people to develop positive ways of thinking in order to cope with stressors

Relaxation Therapy

consciously relaxing muscles in the body in order to reduce tension

Relaxation Response

when there is a reduction in muscle tension, cortical activity, heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure

Edmund Jacobson relaxation

in 1932 he discovered the importance of muscle activity in relaxation using electromyography

Biofeedback

gaining information about a bodily function by using an external monitoring device

often the goal is for an individual to gain a better sense of control over that bodily function

EEG biofeedback

has been shown to be moderately successful in treating disorders which involve brain wave abnormalities

Aerobic exercise

exercise which increases the heart rate and oxygen intake for a sustained period of time

can have positive effect upon mood and reduce symptoms of depression

increases of serotonin and endorphins

Psychopathology

the study of psychological disorders

DSM-5-TR

classification system that describes the features used to diagnose each recognized mental disorder and indicates how the disorder can be distinguished from other similar problems

Areas for Improvement DSM-5-TR

high risk for false positives

concepts of risk vs disorder need to be clarified

symptoms should be understood within their context

David Rosenhan Study

Designed a study that investigated whether or not professionals can easily determine whether someone has a psychological disorder

demonstrated that the label of mentally ill guided observations of patients

Hippocrates

argued that psychological disorders had natural causes

Paracelsus

argued that unusual behavior can be attributed to the moon

Biopsychological viewpoint

brain disorders are inherited or acquired. They involve imbalanced levels of neurotransmitters or damage to brain structures

Psychoanalytic Viewpoint

Unconscious conflicts that originate in childhood that can pertain to issues such as sex and aggression

Behavioral Viewpoint

The extinction or punishment of appropriate behaviors and the reinforcement of inappropriate behaviors

Cognitive Viewpoint

Tendency to think irrationally and maladaptively about the self, autobiographical memories and the world more broadly

Humanistic Viewpoint

The existence of an incongruence between one’s actual self and their public self because they are trying desperately to live up to the demands of others

Social-Cultural Viewpoint

Social and cultural factors influence the prevalence of psychological disorders and psychological symptoms

Diathesis-Stress Viewpoint

Stressful life experiences interact with biological predispositions leading to psychological disorders

Anxiety Disorder

class of mental disorder in which anxiety is the predominant feature

normally more than one is experienced

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

A disorder that is characterized by chronic and excessive worry that is accompanied by three or more symptoms

eg fatigue, irritability, sleep disturbance etc

affects about 5% of north Americans at some point

twice as common in women

bio and psych factors contribute

Panic Disorder

characterized by the sudden occurrence of multiple symptoms (psych and physio) that contribute to a feeling of terror

can be accompanied by fear of dying,, dizziness, trembling, etc

only last a few min

approx 22% of individuals report having at least one

3-5% of people with have a panic disorder in their life

Phobic Disorders

disorders characterized by persistent and excessive avoidance and fear of specific objects, situations or activities

Specific Phobia

an anxiety disorder that is charcterized by an irrational and intense dear or a partiular object or situation

more common in women

Social Phobia

fear of any situation that might cause public scrutiny

Agoraphobia

fear of being in public usually because they are afraid of a panic attack or embarassment

Preparedness Theory

the idea that people are instinctively predisposed towards particular fears

proposed by martin Seligman

temperament may play a role

Obsessive-Compulsive disorder

a disorder in which repetitive and intrusive thoughts and ritualistic behaviors that are meant to alleviate those thoughts end up interfering significantly with how an individual functions

anxiety can play a role

more common with cleaning, checking, etc

activity in the caudate nucleus may be higher