Psych 101 Midterm 2 (3,4,5)

Chapter 3:

Sternberg's Triarchic Model of Intelligence

• Analytical Intelligence: The ability to reason logically

  • "Book Smarts"

• Practical Intelligence: The ability to solve real world problems, especially those involving other people

  • "Street smarts or problem solving"

• Creative Intelligence: the ability to develop novel and effective answers to questions

  • Pllies to novel expirences and problems. Writing, composing, artistic, creating new things, etc.

• These types of intelligences are connected, but not distinct. People can be high and low in these areas without any kind of correlation or baseline data.

• Strengths or intelligence levels of these categories are modifiable (they can be practiced and gotten better at)

• Evidence for a model like this

  • Sternberg has created measures for these types of intelligence. Cherry picked the evidence they wanted.

  • Can practical intelligence has not been distinguished from G

  • Practical intelligence as a predictor of workplace success. It may be measuring circularity/ work knowledge.

Biological bases of intelligence

• Brain Size: Brain size correlates with intelligence across species when corrected for body size.

  • With human species, brain size is weakly associated with intelligence.

• Cortical Density (Correlational. Assumed to be causal, but cannot be proven, therefore correlational)

  • Tighter packing neurons in the cerebral cortex and specific locations related to intelligence: Less time circulating and the more neurons you can pack

  • No Single location for intelligence: multiple pre-frontal cortex and paretial lobes

• Processing times and efficiency.

  • Intelligent brains process things quicker

  • Experimental tasks can measure how fast people respond when they are doing newly trained activities

  • Intelligent brains can display less activity for some tasks: efficiency in brain usage

• Working Memory

  • People hold some information in mind while doing some mental operations

  • Correlates with overall intelligence. 

• There could be various things that can cause lower intelligence such as FAS (Fetal alchoohl syndrtome)

Why would we need to test for Intelligence?

• Educational Placement

• Diagnosis and support for cognitive disorders

• Prediction of academic and occupational success

• Research on the nature of intelligence

People are not good at estimating their own intelligence

• People do not know what they do not know

Testing

• Stanford-Binet test: published in 1916

  • Based on Binet and Simons test developed for the French government

  • Test was used to develop norms: baseline for the general population (Norm: averages of populations based on age groups)

  • Adopted Wilhem sterns (1912) formula for IQ

• Intelligence quotient: Systematic means of quantifying differences among people in their intelligence

  • Sterns iq formula: IQ = (Mental age/Chronological age) x 100

  • Mental age is the average of the individuals performance on an intelligence test

• Deviation Iq: expression of a personas IQ relative to their same aged peers.

Misuses of IQ Testing

• IQ Testing in North America

  • Henry Goddard translated the Binet-Simon Intelligence Test into English

  • He was interesting in identifying intellectually inferior individuals and groups

• Problematic uses of intelligence tests

  • Tests developed for children were adapted to adults without enough rigor.

  • Misapplied to many people who were deemed as having low IQ and intellectual disabilities.

• Eugenics: movement in the early 20^th century to improve a population’s genetic stock by encouraging those with good genes to reproduce, discouraging those with bad genes from reproducing, or both. 

  • Immigration from low-intelligence countries was restricted

  • Sterilization of low-IQ individuals was practiced

Modern IQ Testing

• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

  • Consists of 15 subsets to assess different types of mental abilities

  • Most widely used measure of intelligence in adults; current version is the fifth version

  • Measures important scores such as

    • Overall IQ score

    • Domain Score for: verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory, and processing speed

    • Norms exist for the overall score and subscales

• Childhood IQ tests

  • Wechsler Primary and Preschool scale of Intelligence (WPPSI)

  • Weschler Intelligence scale for children

• Culture fair IQ tests

  • Abstract reasoning measures that doesn’t depend on language and is often believed to be less influenced by cultural factors than other IQ tests

Reliability and Validity of IQ Scores

• Reliability: The consistency of a measurement tool to measure

  • IQ scores are reliable in adulthood

    • Test Retest: Very high over the short term

    • Variability in scores comes when there are long intervals

  • IQ scores in very young children are not reliable across time

    • IQ measured at 6 months had near 0 correlation with adult intelligence

    • Early measurement of IQ is often based and motor abilities (bailey scale of early childhood development)

    • Habituation Paradigms are used: better prediction of IQ in later life

      • Habituation paradigms: expose the infant to stimuli, measure how long it takes the infant to become disinterested.

• Validity: The extent to which a measure assesses what it purports to measure

  • Criterion Validity

    • Addresses the relation between scores on a measure and an outcome

    • Sub types 1) Concurrent Validity 2) Predictive Validity

      • Concurrent Validity: The relation between scores on a measure and an outcome are assessed at the same time (i.e. concurrently)

        • Relationship between IQ and current academic performance

      • Predictive Validity: A measure taken at one time to predict a criterion that occurs In the future.

        • IQ at age 11 predicts future academic outcomes

  • Convergent Validity

    • Scores on a measure should correlate highly (converge) with scores on other measures of the same construct

Bell Curve

• Distribution of scores in which bulk cores fall toward the middle with progressively fewer scores towards the tails

  • 68-95-99 Rule

• Standard Deviation: Measure of variability that takes into account how far each data point is from the mean.

• Scores on the Bell Curve

  • Mean = ~100; SD=15.

  • 95% of the population falls within two standard deviation of the mean for intelligence. IQ of 70-130.

Intellectual Disability and High Intelligence

• Intellectual Disability

  • Condition characterized by an onset prior to adulthood, IQ below 70, and an inability to engage in adequate daily functioning.

  • Practical life skills, social skills, and conceptual understanding area assessed.

  • ~1% of individuals in North America are intellectually disabled

  • Four levels: Mild, Moderate, severe, profound

• High Intelligence

  • ~130 Intelligence is typically classified as superior or high intelligence

  • High IQ Professions: Medical Doctors, layers, engineers, professors. However there are high IQ people in all professions.

  • Success and production of good works is not determined by IQ

    • Being motivated, interested, and practicing things for 10000 hours to be an expert.

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Intelligence

Genetic Influences

• Results from family studies imply that intelligence runs in families. Heredity and genes play a part

  • Studying these things is hard because there cannot be random assignment or anything like that. So the problem is that family studies do not differentiate between environment and genes.

  • Galton gathered data on relatives and patterns of intellectual accomplishment

  • Newer evidence suggest higher correlations in IQ for kids of intact families (those with mothers, fathers, etc.) (~0.5) than cousins (0.15)

• Twin studies compares similarity in IQ between identical and fraternal

  • Identical twins display higher correlation in IQ than fraternal

  • Any kind of genetic estimates are done within a group.

  • Heritability estimates are typically 40-70%

  • These correlations are high, so they should be respected, however the enviroment plays a very important role too.

• Adoption studies: Compare adpoted children to the adoptive parents and the biological parents

  • This seems to support genetic influence on IQ

Environmental Influences

• Education: The connections are larger because the education is more well done. Correlation exists between education amount and amount of school

  • Early intervention: Early preschool programs can seem to have correlation to intelligence.

  • These two are so interconnected because education teaches basic skills of problem solving, as well as the more complex idea of how different skills are applied.

• Poverty and socioeconomic status

  • Nutritional factors and education can play into this

  • State of housing or how good your neighbourhood is.

  • Social connection has also been studied, but social connection is often a result of other things being good or bad such as money or well adjusted home.

• Overall evidence is mixed for most environmental factors. It is difficult to detangle from other variables.

Flynn Effect

• What is the Flynn effect?

  • The rise in IQ scores over time at a rate of approximately three point per decade

  • Norms become obsolete over time, meaning that IQ tests that use them need to remade constantly.

  • Considered to be environmentally caused

• Possible causes

  • Familiarity with testing and the ideas behind it.

  • The increased complexity of the modern world, even for those at a young age.

  • Better nutrition and health possibilities.

  • Changes in homes and schools and programs.

• Reverse of the Flynn effect?

  • Observed in some studies for Europeans countries

Group Differences in IQ

• Group differences in IQ

  • Highly contentious issue

  • Asking about group differences is wrong (Rose, 2009)

  • Inquiry needs to be free: we need to prepare for the possibility that group differences exist (Cofnas, 2020)

• Sex Differences

  • Similar overall intelligence; may differ by domain

  • Females perform better on some verbal tasks; facial emotion recognition; arithmetic

  • Men perform better on spatial ability tasks; abstract mathematical tasks

• Ethnic Differences

  • There are some differences in IQ performance across ethnic groups

  • Standard explanation: environmental differences, not genetic

  • Within-group heritability: extent to which the variability of a trait within a group is genetically influenced

  • Between-group heritability: extent to which the variability of a trait between groups is genetically influenced

    • Very difficult to measure

  • Within-group heritability does not necessarily imply between-group heritability

• Stereotype Threat

  • Fear that we may confirm a negative group stereotype, which can negatively impact performance

Chapter 4:

Foundations of Human Development

• Human Development

  • The scientific study of age-related changes across physical, cognitive, social and behavioural domains

  • Multidisciplinary: includes developmental psychology

  • Things such as social work can also fit into this kind of psychology work

• Developmental Psychology:

  • The study of how behaviour and mental processes change over the lifespan

  • E.g., language and self-control development

Considerations of Human Development

• Human development now includes the full human lifespan

  • Early work focused on development up to adulthood then stopped studying from there

  • Modern perspectives recognize change throughout adulthood.

• Lifespan perspective

  • Changes happen throughout entire human lifespan and must be interpreted in light of the culture and context in which they occur; interdisciplinary research is critical to understanding human development (Boyd et al., 2021).

    • Many different studies need to take place at many different stages of growth to be able to understand development. These studies also need to be done in many different ways from many different disciplines (Psychology, biology, biochemistry, etc.)

• Post-Hoc Fallacy

  • The false assumption that because one event occurred before another event, it must have caused that event.

  • Correlation does not equal causation

  • Example, Parent notices ADHD symptoms after several years of the kid playing video games.

  • Example: people often have this kind of thing for the "vaccines cause autism" argument

• Bidirectional Influence

  • Many relationship are bidirectional throughout development

  • Parents are influencing children, and children are influencing parents

  • Kids are yelling and throwing a temper tantrum, so the parent is yelling at them, which makes the tantrum worse.

• Influence of Early Experience

  • Early experience is very important

    • Critical Periods: specific periods in development when an organism is especially sensitive to the presence (or absence) of some particular kind of experience

    • Sensitive Period: a span of months or years during which a child may be particularly responsive to specific forms of experience or particularly influenced by their absence.

  • Myths about early experience

    • Infant Determinism: extremely early experiences (especially the first 3 years) are almost always more influential than later experiences in shaping human development

      • Reality: experience depends on the domain; later childhood and adult experiences are important

    • Childhood Fragility: children can be easily damaged by experience

      • Reality: young children are very resilient

• Clarifying the Nature-Nurture Debate

  • The relationship between genes and environment is complex

    • There are many different genetic and environmental factors

    • These factors interact in nuanced ways

    • Ex. People who talk a lot to their kids in the first few years of their life have larger vocabulary later in life.

  • Gene-Environment Interactions

    • Genetic susceptibilities interact with environmental experiences

  • Nature via Nurture

    • Biological dispositions can lead to the selection of particular environments à can lead to the assumption that the environment is responsible for the trait (when really genes are a major factor).

  • Gene Expression

    • Environment influences gene expression: Genes can turn “on and off” based on environmental experiences

    • Epigenome: the sum total of inherited and acquired molecular modifications to the genome that leads to changes in gene regulation without changing the DNA sequence of the genome

• Cohorts

  • Groups of individuals who are born within a particular span of years and share the same historical experiences at the same point in their development.  (Great depression effected those that went through it)

    • Cohort effect:

      • Effect observed in a sample of participants that results from individuals in the sample growing up at the same time

• Research on age related changes

  • Cross-sectional research design: Investigate people of different ages at a single point in time

    • Advantage) Convenient. Disadvantage) cannot disentangle cohort vs aging effects.

• Longitudinal Research design: Investigate development in the same group of people on multiple occasions over time

  • Advantage: Watch aging unfold, disadvantages: limited knowledge of other cohorts, time/resource intensive, and attrition.

• Cohort-Dequential research design: Several age cohorts are followed and tested longitdinally

  • Combine cross-sectional and longitudinal research

Conception and prenatal development

• Conception

  • Ovum is fertilized by sperm

  • Gametes contain 23 unpaired chromosomes- combine at conception to form zygote

  • That 23rd pair of chromosomes is what determines the sex of the baby.

  • Zygote starts dividing and becomes a blasocyst and it implants in the uterus

• Three Stages of Prenatal Development

  • Germinal Stage: conception to implantation

    • Zygote rapidly divides à blastocyst

    • Implantation and placental development

  • Embryonic Stage: implantation to end of week 8

    • Foundational structure building for all parts of the body; neural tube is formed

    • If something could go wrong during pregnancy, this is the time it would happen.

    • Neural tube: about three weeks after conception. Will eventually develop into the brain and the spinal cord.

  • Fetal Stage: week 9 to birth

    • Increases in size

    • Refinement of organ systems: brain and lungs

• Brain development

  • Begins in the embryonic stage

    • Neural tube forms and becomes the brain and spinal cord

  • Neuronal Proliferation: Neurons are generated very quickly because it needs to get to 85 billion by the time you are born

  • Migration: the movement of brain cells to the locations they will be permanently for the rest of your life.

Obstacles to normal fetal development

• Teratogens: environmental factors that can exert a negative impact on prenatal development

  • Viral infections, drugs, environmental chemicals, diet, age, chronic illness, mental health

  • E.g., Alcohol à FASD (Can disrupt migration)

  • Cigarette smoking, malnutrition

  • Teratogens can have differing effects depending on the timing of exposure; brain is particularly susceptible

• Genetic Disorders

  • Result from DNA mutations or wrong amount of genetic material

  • Autosomal or sex-linked (e.g., sickle-cell disease; Huntington’s disease)

  • Chromosomal errors (e.g., Trisomy-21)

• Preterm Infants: born live before 37 weeks

  • Babies born before 22 weeks rarely survive

  • Viability point: 23-25 weeks

• Health Issues associated with preterm birth:

  • Before 32 weeks: may lack adaptive reflexes

  • Digestion issues; Thermoregulation issues

  • Lung/breathing, cardiovascular, and  immune deficiencies

  • Neurological problems

  • Low-birth weight; higher overall mortality

Physical Development

• Changes in the brain and nervous system lead to changes in the physical abilities of children. 

• Infants begin life with reflexes: automatic motor responses to stimuli

  • Sucking, rooting, eyeblink

• Motor Behaviours:

  • Bodily motions that occur as a result of self-initiated force that moves the bones and muscles

  • Depends on brain, nervous system, and physical (bodily systems) development

  • Experience and cultural factors also play a role in development

• Size changes more slowly than in infancy

  • Between 2-12 years of age, children add ~2-3 inches and 5-6 pounds per year

  • Changes occur in spurts

  • Body proportions become more adult-like

• Brain and Nervous System Development

  • Brain is at 75% of adult weight by age 3, and 95% by age 6

  • PFC develops: allows for increased capacity of self-control, attention, and reasoning

• Motor Skill Development

  • Children become very active

  • Both fine and gross motor skills improve

• Puberty:

  • Collective term for the changes, both seen and unseen, that result in sexual maturity

• Sexual Maturation

  • Primary sex characteristics: growth/development of sex organs

  • Secondary sex characteristics: other changes that signal sexual maturity

• Sexual Development in Girls

  • Secondary sex characteristics: pubic hair; breast development

  • Menarche: the beginning of the menstrual cycle; Secular Trend

• Sexual Development in Boys

  • Testes and penis enlarge and pubic hair emerges

  • Spermarche: first ejaculation

• Timing of Puberty:

  • Lots of variation

  • Lifestyle factors contribute; genetics may play a role

• Physiological Peak in Early Adulthood

  • Maximum athletic performance: muscles, bone density, cardiovascular and respiratory function peak

  • Eyesight, hearing, smell, fine motor skills, and immune function peak

• Declines in performance:

  • After early peak, performance gradually declines through adulthood

  • Strength and Speed Decrease

  • Reproductive capacities peak in mid-30s (women) and early 40s (men)

  • Immune function declines

  • Sensory abilities decline: presbyopia, presbycusis (Inner ear deteriation, causes needs for hearing aids), and tinnitus-

  • Motor abilities decline

  • Presbyopia: the decline of the eye and the ability to see things up-close (cataracts)

• Maintaining performance as we age:

  • Nutrition, physical activity (including load bearing), and practice

Cognitive development

• Cognitive Development: PAMLR (Perception, attention, Memory, Language, Reasoning)

  • How we acquire the ability to learn, think, communicate, and remember over time

• Differences in Theories of Cognition

  • Continuous vs. discontinuous (stage-like)

    • Unfolding over time without stops or goes

    • Having several different stages that once you hit you go through, then have to wait for the next stage.

  • Domain-general vs. domain specific

    • Things progress at relativity the same rate

    • Different aspects progress at different rates.

  • Source of learning: physical experience, social interaction, and biological maturation

• Piaget's Cognitive Development Theory

• Stage-based theory of cognitive development

  • All Children go through similar patterns or sequences as they develop their thinking. Not the same, but most children develop the same things at the same time.

  • Children actively learn, they are not passive observers.

  • Children are not just mini adults, they are children with completely different ways of thinking

Important Concepts:

• Schemes: internal cognitive structures (Knowledges structures) that provide an individual with procedures that can be followed in specific circumstances. 

  • Begin life with a small collection of schemes

  • Our development is collecting these schemes as we experiences so many more and different things.

  • Think muscle memory, but with our mind.

• Assimilation: the process of using schemes to interpret events or experiences.

  • If a baby grasps a toy, they have assimilated that toy with the grabbing scheme.

• Accommodation: change our schemes as a result of new information

  • A baby reaches out to grab a stuffed animal based on their assimilation, so when they reach out to grab a weirdly shaped block they need to accommodate the different variable.

• Equilibration: process of balancing assimilation and accommodation

  • Constantly being done. We are always making use of info we have and changing info based on how we experience the world.

• Piaget's Four stages

  • Sensorimotor Stage: (12-24 month ish)

    • Basic sensory and motor schemes; interaction with environment teaches children about how the physical world operates 

    • Lack object permanence 

      • This stage ends when something like object permanence has developed.

  • Preoperational Stage: (2-7 years)

    • Symbolic schemes are acquired (language); simple problem solving

      • Fantasy exists to them. A block can a phone, a stick can be a sword.

      • Socio-dramatic play

      • Basic problem solving such as sharing, removing, and understanding right and wrong

    • Cannot perform mental operations; limited by egocentrism; no conservation

      • Children do not have the capacity to take on other viewpoints

      • These children struggle to understand conservation, estimation, amounts, and equals.

  • Concrete Operational Stage: (7-11)

    • Logic/reasoning develops but is tied to the physical world; problem solving improves (e.g., conservation)

      • Can grasp problems such as conservation, reversibility,

    • Limitation: cannot think hypothetically or abstractly. See things strictly as logically rather than possibilities

  • Formal Operational Stage: (12-15, 12+)

    • Abstract logic develops; reason hypothetically

    • Think “scientifically” on the pendulum task

      • Thinking critically about the variables that effect something in order to estimate the outcome.

    • Can manipulate ideas and speech into things that benefit them.

    • Foresight exists, planning forward.

• Limitations of Piaget’s Theory

  • Development is more continuous than stage-like

    • People progress consistently across their various abilities.

  • Development is less general than proposed

    • The massive leaps he proposed are not quite accurate.

    • Horizontal Decalage: Even ideas that are similar are not the same. Volume conservation and weight conservation might be understood differently by children. Things don't progress all at once, there is variability.

  • Task demands and measurement (The way things were measured)

    • Some tasks were too difficult, and people said that tasks were to abstract rather than straightforward.

  • Cultural Bias

• Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory

  • Suggests complex forms of thinking have their origins in social interactions rather than in an individuals private exploration.

  • Social interaction with those more knowledgeable than you is key.

    • Many cultures have Mentoring as a major part of their society.

  • Scaffolding: Learning is Guided by an adult or more knowledgeable child who structures learning according to a zone of proximal development.

    • ZPD: An environment that the child struggles to learn on their own, but can learn when aided someone else (A parent helping a kid read by sounding out different letters and words)

• Landmarks of Early Development

  • Understanding the physical world

    • Experience teaches infants and children how physical objects interact

  • Categorization and classification 

    • Categorizing information is a basic ability that functions early in development (in infancy)

    • Hierarchical classification begins in early to middle childhood

    • Concepts and classification help humans to more efficiently navigate the complex world

  • Memory

    • Increases steadily throughout childhood and levels off in adolescence

      • Makes sense cause academic learning increases throughout.

  • Self-Concept

    • Develop a sense that the self is different from others

    • Roots in infancy (preferential looking tasks) although this is argued.

    • Self-awareness is developing by 18 months (rouge task)

    • Self concept is Often measured by showing a picture of themselves and another baby to see if they can recognize that the other baby is not them.

    • Theory of Mind: the ability to reason about what other people think and believe and what their perspectives are.

      • False Belief Task

• Cognitive changes in Adolescence

  • Biological Foundations: Brain Maturation

    • Frontal lobes (especially PFC) do not mature until late adolescence or early adulthood

    • PFC plays an important role in planning, decision-making, self-regulation (e.g., impulse control)

  • Hypothetical and abstract reasoning are developing quickly

    • Generally good, but leads to problems in thinking, such as:

      • Naïve idealism: The real world is compared to an idealized, hypothetical world (mentally constructed) (Adolescent Egocentrism)

      • Personal Fable: feelings of profound uniqueness and of living out a story that others are watching; feelings of specialness and (at times) invincibility

  • Relativistic Thinking Develops

    • Answers are not always “either-or” or “black-and-white”

• Some cognitive abilities improve, others decline

  • Decreases in speed of processing, working memory, long-term memory

  • Less decline for practical material relevant to daily life

  • Better vocabulary (crystalized intelligence can increase through much of adulthood

• Early Social Development

  • Infants are born with social preferences

    • Preference for faces over other visual stimuli

    • Preference for voices over other sounds

    • Attachments to parents 9Mom first, then dad)

  • Social nuance appears: 

    • Infants prefer parents early on (Owed to the experience

    • Stranger anxiety: fear of strangers develops ~8-9 months; declines after 12-15 months

  • Temperament:

    • Basic emotional style that appears early in development and is genetic in origin

    • Types of Temperament (Thomas & Chess, 1977)

      • Easy children (40% of kids)

      • Difficult Children, irregular sleeping and eating patterns with an odd balance of moods

      • Slow-to-warm-up Children

      • Combination of types (~35%)

  • Attachment: 

    • An emotional connection we share with those to whom we feel closest

    • The emotional tie to a parent (or caregiver) that is experienced by an infant and from which the child derives a sense of security (Boyd et al., 2021)

    • Persists throughout childhood.

    • Parental Attachment

      • Physical contact is crucial

      • Women may engage in more routine caregiving; men more “rough-and-tumble” play

  • The Strange Situation Situation: Infant experiences 8 events and their responses are measured

    1. Researcher introduces parent and infant to playroom

    2. Parent is seated while infant plays with toys

    3. Stranger enters and talks to parent

    4. Parent leaves room. Stranger responds to infant/offers comfort

    5. Parent returns and greets baby; stranger leaves

    6. Parent leaves room; infant is alone

    7. Stranger enters and offers comfort

    8. Parent returns, greets baby, offers comfort and toys

  • Types of Attachment:

    • Secure: an infant readily separates from the parent, seeks proximity when stressed, and uses the parent as a safe base for exploration

    • Avoidant Attachment: an infant avoids contact with the parent and shows no preference for the parent over other people.

    • Ambivalent Attachment: an infant shows little exploratory behaviour, is greatly upset when separated from the parent, and is not reassured by the parent’s return or efforts to provide comfort.

    • Disorganized/Disoriented Attachment: infant seems confused or apprehensive and shows contradictory behaviour

  • Caregiver Characteristics:

    • Happy, emotionally and physically responsive parents produce more securely attached infants

    • Insecure attachment is more likely if parents are emotionally unavailable, unmarried/separated, and experience poor mental health 

  • Attachment Quality and Outcomes

    • Securely attached infants have better cognitive, social, emotional, and behavioural outcomes

    • Tend to raise securely attached children of their own

  • Attachment can change depending on circumstances

    • Secure to insecure: negative life events/changes

  • Attachment

    • Attachment style generalizes to other relationships

    • Securely attached children have better social relationships, and better cognitive and behavioural outcomes

  • Parenting Styles

    • Authoritarian: high demands and control, but little warmth or communication

    • Permissive: high warmth, low control, demands, and communication

    • Uninvolved: low demands, warmth, control, and communication

    • Authoritative: high demands, control, warmth, and communication

• Relationships

  • Peer relationships in childhood:

    • Allow children to develop social skills

      • Related to cognitive development

    • Increase in importance as children get older

    • ”Best friend” relationships often emerge in school-aged children

    • Friendships are often gender segregated

  • Peer relationships in adolescence

    • Seek autonomy and challenge parental authority: conflict is normal

    • May be more significant in adolescence than at any other time in the lifespan

    • Identity formation and validation through peer group

    • Romantic relationships emerge

  • Relationships in adulthood

    • Marriage

      • Marital stability and satisfaction increase

      • Maturation; child-rearing declines

      • Divorce: those that remain are better relationships

    • Family Relationships and Care

      • “Sandwich generation”: middle-adults often have to help their children and parents

    • Children

      • Empty-nest

      • Failure-to-launch and revolving door

        • Cluttered-nest

    • Grandparents

      • Most people have positive experiences as grandparents

      • Often welcomed by parents into their children’s lives

    • Friends

      • Smaller social circles

      • Relationships can be of high quality

      • Larger social network is associated with better physical and psychological outcomes

• Erikson's Psychosocial Theory

  • Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory

    • Development of personality results from the interaction between internal drives and cultural demands across eight stages or crises

    • Psychosocial crisis at each stage of development

    • Development continues throughout the lifespan

  • Normal development must be understood in relation to each culture’s life situation

Eight Psychosocial Stages (age):

1. Trust vs. mistrust (birth to 1): 

   • Hope; trust in primary caregiver is developed through warm, responsive care

2. Autonomy vs. shame and doubt (1-3): 

   • Will; physical/motor abilities, self-care, and basic personal responsibility

3. Initiative vs. guilt (3-6):

   • Purpose; goal-oriented behaviour; learn assertiveness/aggressiveness

4. Industry vs. inferiority (6-12):

   • Competence; learn school-based skills, social/cultural skills, and tool use

5. Identity vs. role confusion (12-18):

   • Fidelity; sexual, social, and occupational identities develop

6. Intimacy vs. isolation (18-30):

   • Love; develop intimate relationships with others

7. Generativity vs. stagnation (30-late adulthood):

   • Care; raise children, care for others, and productive work

8. Integrity vs. despair (Late adulthood):

   • Wisdom; reflect on life, self-acceptance, and integration of earlier stages

Chapter 5:

• Stress:

  • The tension, discomfort, or physical symptoms that arise when a situation called a stressor – a type of stimulus – strains our ability to cope effectively 

  • Stress is not the same as trauma

  • Situations are stressful when we lack resources to cope. Often times this is a new situation that you have not coped with before.

  • Human Beings are built to deal with stress, we have evolved to do so. Stress builds us and shapes us, and so the modern theory of happiness all the time is so wrong because stress is necessary.

• Stress is very common and natural

  • Most individuals experience stress, including serious stressors, at some point in their lives

  • Clinicians allusion: Those clinicians that work with people who are stressed are saying that there is more stress and mental health issues related to stress than ever. This does not necessarily match up to the research about stress.

• Three perspectives on Stress

  • Stressors as Stimuli

    • Stimuli or environmental experiences that cause stress and negative experiences

      • Researchers investigate different “types” or categories of stressors

        • Acute stressors: short term things like an exam

        • Chronic stressors: Persistent stressors such as an ongoing financial difficulty, crunch at work, etc.

    • Problem: not all people respond to stressors in the same way

      • Individuals vary (variability)

        • Things like preparedness, experience, and more can all change the way you react to a stressor.

      • Complexity in responses: e.g., unity (and stress) after a natural disaster

  • Stress as a Transaction

    • Stress is subjective, there are different dynamics between the individual and the environment.

    • Interaction between individual and environment

    • Primary appraisal: initial decision regarding whether an event is harmful, different for everyone but could often be the same for people. (Stressful or not)

    • Secondary appraisal: perceptions regarding ability to cope with an event that follows a primary appraisal (Okay so it is stressful, what now? What is my response?)

      • Problem-focused coping (feel like we can face the challenge by doing something that addresses the literal problem (studying for the stressful exam)) versus emotion-focused coping (Using your emotions to justify something: Saying something is unreasonable when it doesn’t go your way)

  • Stress as a Response

    • Physiological and psychological responses to stressful events or experiences

• Measuring Stress

Self-Report Measures

• Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)

  • Participants rate anticipated difficulty (readjustment) of 43 events (Measures how hard/easy it will be for the participants to recover from stress)

  • Focus is on significant events (such as transitional events in life)

• Hassles Scale

  • Hassle: minor annoyance or nuisance that strains our ability to cope (Serving annoying customers, annoying unexpected costs, etc.)

  • Potential hassles become hassles when we appraise them as such (Context)

• Major life events and hassles are associated with poor general health

  • Frequency and perceived severity of minor issues are better predictors of psychological health

  • Negative responses to minor stressful events predict anxiety and depression 

  • Major life events are also important: may “set us off”

Physiological Measures

• Heart rate and blood pressure

• EEG (brain activity)

• Hormonal Testing (cortisol and adrenaline)

• General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS):

  • Stress response pattern that consists of three stages: alarm reaction, resistance, and exhaustion

  • Proposed by Hans Selye

  • Important because it tells us how the body reacts to stress: specifically in the physiological mechanisms. \

  • Problems: This is a physiological response, but we can cope psychologically and emotionally, which it does not measure.

  • Alarm Reaction

    • Fight-or-Flight Response: physical and psychological reaction that mobilizes people and animals to either defend themselves or escape a frightening situation

  • Resistance

    • Adapt to stressor; physiological responses are lessened (but continue to be higher than baseline) (hopefully coping, possibly just temporarily)

  • Exhaustion

    • No longer able to adapt to stressor

    • Body becomes depleted: illness, disease, damage to body, death

    • Negative psychological effects: fatigue, depression, anxiety

• Good and Bad Stress

  • Stress can be good: “Eustress” vs. “Distress”

    • Stress is used as Motivation. We are much more likely to take action.

  • Examples:

    • Stress related to an upcoming exam

    • Pre-game stress for athletes

    • Lab research on memory (mild stressors). When a good amount of stress is present, it makes our memories more efficiently to internalize information.

• Physiological Basis of stress

  • Sympathetic Nervous System:

    • Fight or flight functions: adrenaline is released, and our response is determined by our previous experiences.

    • Parasympathetic nervous system activates to reduce stress response (balances sympathetic responses) (after response tries to return to homeostasis)

  • HPA Axis

    • Hypothalamus: Gets activated to release hormones which causes the Pituitary Gland

    • Pituitary Gland: when stimulated, contacts the adrenal glands

    • Adrenal Glands: Releases cortisol.

    • Chain reaction of hormonal response lead to release of cortisol

      • Cortisol: Maintain physical energy or arousal.

  • HPA Axis functions to keep us alert and motivated to deal with or avoid danger

    • Chronic levels of hormones has negative effects on the body

• Variation In stress response

  • Individual Differences

    • Perception/interpretation (my fault or their fault)

      • Hardiness: set of attitudes marked by a sense of control over events, commitment to life and work, and courage and motivation to confront stressful circumstances

      • Optimism: a tendency to view life’s events more positively

      • Hostility and Competitiveness are associated with worse health outcomes

      • Spirituality and Religious Involvement

      • Rumination: excessive, repetitive thoughts that interfere with other forms of mental activity (APA, 2023)

    • Coping strategy (Healthy or unhealthy)

    • Type and degree of stress: acute or chronic (Big or small)

  • Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

    • Mental health condition caused by highly stressful or frightening event

    • Symptoms: vivid memories, images, emotions pertaining to traumatic experience à commonly called “flashbacks”

  • Gender Differences

    • Men exhibit more “fight or flight”

    • Women “tend and befriend” more than men

      • Fight or flight is not absent in women (e.g., physical threats)

  • Social Support:

    • Relationships with people and groups that can provide us with emotional comfort and personal and financial resources

    • May “buffer” against negative effects of stress

  • Coping Strategies

    • Problem-focused coping: actively address the stressor by trying to solve the issue at hand

    • Emotion-focused coping: this involves regulating our emotions that come with stress, rather than trying to change the stressor

      • May involve “avoidance-coping”

    • Match between stressor and either problem- or emotion-focused coping can be important

  • Control: Belief that a situation or stressor can be controlled

    • Behavioural control: control behaviours (e.g., coping strategies)

    • Cognitive control: controlling our thoughts; “cognitive restructuring”

    • Informational control: seek out information to manage a stressful event

      • Can lead to proactive coping

    • Decisional control: can choose among alternative courses of action

    • Emotional control: can choose to suppress and express emotions (and the manner of doing so).

      • Catharsis: expressing anger or other intense negative emotions à expressing anger tends to increase anger

      • Merely talking about problems may not be helpful à constructive action is needed

  • Individual Differences: People vary in how they are able to cope with stress. The following are different variables that contribute to this:

    • Hardiness: set of attitudes marked by a sense of control over events, commitment to life and work, and courage and motivation to confront stressful circumstances (people are able to resist the circumstances that life brings their way.)

    • Optimism: a tendency to view life’s events more positively (Even when they run into problems, they are viewed simply as challenges)

    • Hostility and Competitiveness are associated with worse health outcomes (Competitiveness can cause good stress, but holding onto it can cause the bad stress)

    • Spirituality and Religious Involvement (Leaning on God really is the way) (Scientifically, it is difficult to measure "religiousness" in any way that isolates religion over just social enjoyment)

    • Rumination: excessive, repetitive thoughts that interfere with other forms of mental activity (Dwelling on the negative, which prevents you from doing the positive things well). (APA, 2023)

  • Victor Frankel: "Mans search for meaning" is a book about how people cope with stress.

• Health psychology examines the relationship between psychology and physical health.

  • Interdisciplinary (doctors, psychologists, etc.)

  • Utilizes the biopsychosocial model

• Biopsychosocial Model: illnesses or medical conditions are often the result of the interplay of biological, psychological, and social factors

  • Includes psychosomatic (Mind-body) disorders

  • Replaces the strictly medical POV.

• Skin Health

  • Suggestibility in contracting a rash (Ikemi & Nakagawa, 1962) (Touched with poison Ivy while blindfolded but not told it was poison ivy, and then touched with a harmless leaf but told it was poison ivy)

    • Nocebo Effect

  • Skin and Psychosomatics: many skin issues are impacted by various biological, psychological, and social factors (Gieler et al., 2020)

• Immune System: our body’s defence against bacteria, viruses, and other potentially illness-producing organisms and substances. 

• Immune system includes organs, barriers, proteins and chemicals that protect us from pathogens

  • Antibodies: proteins that bind to foreign substances 

  • Phagocytes (Engulf and dismantle bad things) and lymphocytes  (T cells and B cells that make antibodies)

    • Killer T-cells are signaled by cytokines to attack viruses and cancer cells

  • Also includes: Lymph nodes, bone marrow, spleen, tonsils, thymus, skin and mucosa 

• Psychoneuroimmunology: the study of the relationship between the immune system and the central nervous system

  • Beware of extraordinary or pseudoscientific claims

• Stress and colds

  • More stress is associated with more colds (Immune system lowered)

  • Persistent stressors are particularly important à inflammation may be a causal mechanism

  • Other research suggests indirect effects: nutrition, sleep, and other lifestyle factors contribute to it.

• Stress and Immune Function

  • Stress depresses the immune system

  • Cortisol limits inflammation at first à can lead to more inflammation over time (persistent exposure)

  • Positive emotions and social support can support immune function

• Cardiovascular Disease

  • #2 killer in Canada à 57,357 deaths in 2022 (Statistics Canada, 2024)

  • Research is correlational, but implies a link between stress and CVD

  • Hormones and inflammation are implicated as mechanisms

  • Personality factors: “Type A” personality à anger/hostility

Promoting Good health by reducing stressors

• Health Psychologists seek to promote good health through:

  • Stress reduction: eliminate or reduce stressors; reframe thinking; nature; sleep

  • Informational health interventions

  • Psychological and behavioural interventions

• Health psychologists have the goal of breaking unhealthy habits or forming healthy behavioural patterns

  • Hedonic outlets can reduce stress in the short term à may create long-term problems

  • E.g., quitting smoking, drinking, overeating

  • E.g., Exercising more, eating healthy, relaxation techniques

• The Basics

  • Stop Smoking

    • Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death: just under 15% of the Canadian population (aged 12+) reported some smoking habits in 2019

      • Many want to quit

      • Toxin exposure, inflammation, and other effects

    • High priority item for health psychologists (and public health)

      • Education (informational approach) is needed, but is insufficient

      • Implementation intentions can be useful

  • Reduce or Abstain from Alcohol

    • 76.5% of Canadians 15 years+ reported drinking some alcohol (Statistics Canada, 2019)

    • Impaired driving results in many accidents and deaths

    • Heavy Episodic Drinking: 5+ drinks on one occasion for males and 4+ for women

      • Associated with increased risk of cancer, liver problems, cardiovascular problems and more

  • Diet and Healthy Weight

    • 26.8% of Canadians are obese; 36.3% are overweight (based on BMI)

    • Body Mass Index (BMI): (weight/height in inches² ) x 703

      • Applies to populations; limited use for individuals

    • Overweight/Obesity is associated with many health problems

      • Heart disease, stroke, some cancers, diabetes, sexual disfunction, mental health

    • Nutrition is important too (independent of weight): e.g., inflammation

  • Exercise

    • Strength training/physical load

    • Cardiovascular exercise

    • Flexibility

    • Not all exercise has to be done in the gym: gardening, walking, playing sports, taking stairs – move!

• Changing Behaviour

• Behaviour change is hard

  • Habits: Established behavioural patterns; non-conscious cues and lack of reasoning

  • Personal inertia: self-harming habits are pleasurable and may relieve stress in the short term; many do not produce immediate harm

  • Misestimation of risk: humans are biased by experience (not intuitive statisticians)

  • Frustration and feelings of powerlessness

  • Prevention and intervention programs: often demonstrate proof of concept; sometimes have little practical benefit

• Changing Behaviour:

  • Implementation Intentions: clear plan of what we will do in specific circumstances

    • Make change a gradual process, especially for complex behaviours (e.g., diet)

  • Major changes in life circumstances: heart attack, family death, big move