Final Exam Review
COMPONENTS OF PSYCHOLOGY
Mind: mental processes; thoughts, feelings, memories, decision making
Brain: biochemical processes from within the brain
Behavior: measurable, observable actions; body language, reactions
COGNITIVE BIASES
Confirmation bias: looking for information that confirms what we already believe, ignores opposing sources
Availability heuristic: if something is available in mind or easily pops into our head, we overestimate the frequency of which it occurs; ability to memorize things that fit within our expectations and discard the things that don’t
Heuristics: knowing how to already act in a situation or infer; “mental shortcuts” creating stereotypes
Dunning-Kruger effect: the less we know about a topic, the more likely we overestimate our abilities/skills in that topic
PHILOSOPHICAL ORIGINS OF PSYCH
Nature v. nurture: we are the function of our biology/genes (i.e. born the way we are) vs. we are shaped by our environment
ADVANCES IN PSYCH
WEIRD: psychology used to be Westernized in that it was Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic
Big data: more transparent and available to anyone
PYSCH SUBFIELDS
Clinical: mental illness, characterization, treatment
Cognitive: related to memory, learning, and thinking
Cultural: how culture factors into mental processes
Developmental: human growth during lifespan
Health: psychological processes influencing health & vice versa
Industrial/Organizational: how psychological processes play in the workplace
Relationship: how relationships affect psychological and physical health
Social: how we function in groups/social environments
INFANT REFLEXES
Grasping: infants holding onto finger
Rooting: turning & sucking when nipple is near their mouth
Sucking: helps infant nurse
ATTACHMENT STYLES
Secure attachment: child distressed when caregiver leaves but gets comforted when caregiver returns
Avoidant attachment: child IS NOT distressed when caregiver leaves and avoids/ignores when caregiver returns
Ambivalent: child distressed when caregiver leaves and is rejective when caregiver returns
PIAGET’S STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
Sensorimotor: when babies begin to learn/make sense of the world through what’s in their environment or their senses
Preoperational: formation of one perspective centered solely around the child, the world revolves around them
Concrete operational: ability to look at things from multiple perspectives via black and white lens
Formal operational: creative, abstract thinking based upon what is exposed to us
Schema: framework for knowledge, where you organize info; ex. recognizing that a car is a car
Assimilation: incorporating new information into existing frameworks for knowledge; ex. understanding not all vehicles look like cars but instead can be trucks or buses
Accommodation: creating new schemas or drastically alter existing ones to incorporate new info that otherwise would not fit
KOHLBERG’S MORAL DEV THEORY
Kohlberg’s theory of moral development: how something is reasoned
Preconventional: resolving conflict only out of self interest or to avoid punishment; reward and punishment
Conventional: response to conflict conforms to rules, laws or the want for approval and hate of disproval; the want to be considered a good kid or citizen
Post conventional: critical perspective of the rules based on abstract principle not all rules should be followed; ability to break the law if they deem it right
THEORIES OF EMOTION
James-Lange theory of emotion: our bodies react before emotion is felt; stimulus → arousal → emotion
Cannon-Bard theory of emotion: brain is activated once we perceive stimulus, leading to simultaneous feeling of physiological arousal and emotion; stimulus → arousal & emotion
Schachter-Singer 2 factor theory of emotion: stimulus leads to physiological arousal then the brain cognitively labels the reaction to which we then feel the emotion; stimulus → arousal → cognitive label → emotion
Primary emotion: not taught, universal understanding; happy, sad, angry, surprised, scared, disgusted, contempt
Secondary emotions: required to develop sense of self beforehand, blend of primary emotions; guilt, embarrassment, jealousy, pride
Goal Setting: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timebound
MOTIVATION
Homeostasis: achieving level of satisfaction
Optimal arousal: different levels of satisfaction according to what works best for you
Yerkes-Dodson law: curve of performance vs arousal
Incentives: extrinsic - external rewards, intrinsic - things that fulfill you internally
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: priority of meeting survival needs before attending to other ones; survival (food, water, shelter) → safety (security, freedom from threats) → belonging (friendship, support system) → esteem (accomplishments, reputation) → self actualization
HEALTH DISPARITIES
Immigrant Paradox: pattern in wich 1st or 2nd gen tend to have worse health outcomes compared to immigrants
Socioeconomic status: combination of income, education, and access to resources based on wealth; affects health
Stress: response/state from stimuli or experiences
Eustress: stress from positive life events; marriage, new relationship, vacation
Distress: stress from negative events; death, breakup, diagnosis of illness
Stressor: something in environment that we think is more demanding/threatening than what we think we’re capable of
BEHAVIORAL RESPONSES TO STRESS
Coping response: any attempt to avoid, escape or minimize stressors
Fight, flight, freeze: response to stress, induced by hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis
Tend-and-befriend: tendency to seek contact with others
General adaptation syndrome: alarm - immediate awareness to stress, resistant - reacting to stress, exhaustion - prolonged stress causing fatigue
COPING STRATS
Problem-focused coping: doing something to change or minimize the stressor; ex. study 20 mins everyday to not fail the quiz
Emotion-focused coping: changing our emotional reaction to the stressor; ex. failed a quiz but will try to make myself feel better about it
Anticipatory coping: planning ways in advance to deal with stress (if it happens); ex. how to handle missing the train if i miss it
Social identity theory: being a member of a group becomes part of our identity and we experience pride through this group membership
Ingroup favoritism: prefer our own groups over others
Minimal group paradigm: we put an importance/bias towards group identity even though it doesn’t really matter; ex. my team is better than the other because i’m in that team
Group polarization: groups are against one another especially if they have conflicting beliefs, the initial attitudes of groups become more extreme over time
Group think: groups generally follow one decision even though there may be other thoughts individually, group leader assumes entire group will agree on one thing
Social facilitation: we become aroused around other people, depending on how supportive an environment is can lead to poor or good performance; ex. home game advantage
Social loafing: we work less hard in a group than we would if we were alone
Conformity: change what we do based on what other people are doing in the group
Normative influence: following others as to not stand out of the group
Informational influence: follow what everyone else is doing then copying it on your own
Attitude-behavior consistency: attitude does not always link with behaviors, attitudes that are most important to you (your values) will be more likely to influence your behavior
5 factor theory: Openness to experience (imaginative vs. down to earth), Conscientiousness (careful vs. careless), Extraversion (social vs. reserved), Agreeableness (trusting vs sus), Neuroticism (insecure vs. secure)
Reciprocal determinism: personality is explained by the interaction of environment, behavior and person factor; making decisions based on environment
Person-centered approach: client does majority of talking in therapy, think of therapist being behind you
Self-concept: shifting aspects of ourselves to best fit schema of ourselves into current situations
Self-esteem: gauge that measures extent to which people believe they’re included or excluded from social group
Self-schema: inner model of who we are, filters info to what’s important to us
Self-serving bias: people with high self esteem take credit for success but blame external factors for failures; ex. aced my exam because i’m smart or failed it because my teacher is bad
4 D’S
Deviance: does the behavior go out of social norms?
Distress: does the behavior cause the individual distress?
Dysfunction: does the behavior cause a dysfunction in everyday activities?
Danger: does the behavior endanger themselves or others?
Maladaptive behavior: hinders a person’s ability to properly function in work, school, relationships, or society
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
Psychopathology: study of abnormal behavior and social/environmental factors
Etiology: factors that contribute to the development or cause of the psychological disorder
Diathesis-stress model: some born with genetic predisposition that you’re more likely to have a psychology disorder, can derive from a trauma which then affects your biology/activates the diathesis; stress is not a cause but can help in its activation
DSM-5: diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorder
DSM’s categorical approach: implies person either does or doesn’t have psychology disorder by failing to capture differences in disorder severity
DSM’s dimensional approach: considers disorders along a continuum on which people vary in degree
Comorbidity: overlapping of 2+ disorders
Assessment: examination of person’s mental functions and to diagnose a psychological disorder; ex. self-report, observations, interviews
Evidence-based assessment: approach whereby in making a diagnosis, research guides the evaluation of psychopathology, selection of appropriate psychological tests & neuropsychological methods, and use of critical thinking
ANXIETY
Anxiety disorders: characterized by excessive fear and anxiety in the absence of true danger
Generalized anxiety disorder: fear and tension in all aspects of life, sees worse possible outcome for everything at all times; symptoms for at least 6 months (stomach ache, back tension, etc)
Panic disorder: requires panic attack but also afraid of having to experience it again, fight or flight imminent danger reaction; ex. having a panic attack in psych class then avoiding going to psych class ever again which further develops into avoiding all class, making it debilitating
Social anxiety disorder: fear of being viewed negatively that you avoid being in social situations altogether; ex. behaviors to be only done at home to avoid people perceiving you
Specific phobia: afraid of one specific object, fear response is out of proportion to the threat and is debilitating
Agoraphobia: anxiety that is super debilitating; ex. i avoid all public transportation, i can go out but my phone must always be 100% with an extra mobile battery
BIPOLAR DISORDERS
Bipolar disorders: disorders involving depression and mania, consistent risk factor of family history
Mania: abnormal & persistently elevated mood lasting at least a week, feeling like “being on top of the world”
Hypomania: less extreme mood elevations
BPD-I: having at least one manic episode but then drops down; manic episode → baseline/dip → manic → semi-baseline
BPD-II: alternating period of extremely depressed and highly elevated moods; hypomania → major depressive disorder
SCHIZOPHRENIA
Schizophrenia: alterations in thoughts, perceptions, or consciousness resulting in psychosis, caused by genetics, brain disorder & environmental factors; “splitting of the mind”
Positive symptoms: abnormal behaviors added onto the person, features present in schizo but not in typical behavior of person; delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, disorganized/catatonic behavior
Delusions: false beliefs based on incorrect interpretations of what reality is; ex. grandiosity - thinking that you’re important or special → interpreting everything you see to reinforce that idea, guilt - one committed terrible sin
Hallucinations: false sensory perceptions that are experienced without an external source, differentiates from delusions as the delusions relate to the mental processing/belief of the information given; ex. hearing something that’s not really there
Disorganized speech: incoherent speech patterns that involve frequently changing topics and saying strange or inappropriate things; ex. makeup of words to fill in the blanks
Disorganized/catatonic behavior: acting strangely by displaying unpredictable agitation or childish silliness
Negative symptoms: takes away the traits of a baseline person/marked by deficits in functioning; ex. apathy, lack of emotion, slowed speech and movement
PERSONALITY DISORDERS
Cluster A: weird; paranoid, schizoid
Cluster B: wild; antisocial, borderline, narcissistic
Cluster C: worried; avoidant, dependent, anxious, obsessive compulsive
NEURODEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS
Asperger’s syndrome: children with deficits in social interaction but less severe impairments in other domains
Autism spectrum disorder: developmental disorder characterized by impaired communication, restricted interest, and deficits in social interactions
Symptoms of ASD: not responding to vocalizations, rejection of physical contact & no established eye contact, severe impairments in verbal & nonverbal communication, restricted activities and interest, appear oblivious but are aware of surroundings
PSYCH TREATMENTS
Psychotherapy: formal psychological treatment involving interactions between practitioner and client, helping them understand symptoms/problems and provide solutions
Biological therapies: treatments of psychological disorders based on medical approaches to disease (what is wrong with the body) and to illness (what a person feels as a result)
Psychopharmacology: use of medication that affect the brain or body functions to treat psychological disorders, particularly effective for some disorders at least on short term basis
Behavior therapy: based on the premise that behavior is learned and therefore can be unlearned through the use of classical and operant conditioning
Exposure: technique that involves repeated and escalated exposure to an anxiety producing stimulus or situation
Cognitive therapy: idea that distorted thoughts produce maladaptive behaviors and emotions, treatment strategies attempt to modify these thought patterns
Cognitive restructuring: strives to help clients recognize maladaptive thought patterns and replace them with ways of viewing the world that are more in tune with reality; ex. date did not text me back → person just wasn’t right for me, I’ll find someone else instead of I’ll be forever alone
Rational emotive therapy: therapist acts as a teacher, explaining the client’s errors in thinking and demonstrating adaptive ways to think and behave
Cognitive behavioral therapy: incorporates techniques from cognitive therapy and behavior therapy to correct faulty thinking and change maladaptive behaviors
Interpersonal therapy: focuses on circumstances, specifically relationships the client attempts to avoid; uses cognitive techniques that help people gain more accurate insight into their social social relationships, helps clients explore their interpersonal experiences and express their emotions
Mindfulness based cognitive therapy: help clients become aware of their negative thoughts/feelings when they’re vulnerable and learn to disengage from ruminative thinking through meditation
Family therapy: system approach in that the individual is part of larger context
Expressed emotion: pattern of negative actions by a client’s family members
Group therapy: reflective of the client's relationships with others, can be centered around specific topics, demographics, or disorders
Applied behavioral analysis (ABA): intensive treatment for autism based on operant conditioning, behaviors that are reinforced should increase in frequency while behaviors that are not reinforced should diminish; teaching kids to engage in joint attention during ABA treatment (having the parent or teacher imitation the child’s action and work to maintain eye contact) improved language skills significantly
MEDICATION
Psychotropic medication: drugs affecting mental processes; antianxiety, antidepression, antipsychotic
Lithium: most effective treatment for BPD, neural mechanisms of how it works are unknown; stabilizer
Anticonvulsants: drugs that prevent seizures and can stabilize moods in BPD
Antianxiety (anxiolytics): used for the treatment of anxiety; ex. benzodiazepines, bupropion
Tricyclic depressants: inhibits the reuptake of mainly serotonin and norepinephrine, resulting in more of each neurotransmitter being available in the synapse
Selective Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs): inhibit the reuptake of serotonin, but act on other neurotransmitters to a significantly lesser extent; ex. lexapro, prozac
Antipsychotics (neuroleptics): for treatment of positive symptoms (delusions, hallucinations)
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