Psychology 1001 Final

Chapter 12 - Social Psychology

Social Psychology
-​ How people and situations affect our behaviors
Attribution theory - Fritz Heider (1958)
-​ Considered how we explain the behavior of others, we make attributions
-​ Attributions - casual explanation of behaviors
-​ Dispositional attributions - internal factors
-​ Situational attributions - external factors
Fundamental attribution error (Lee Ross) - We are more likely to make dispositional than
situational attributions when explaining the behaviors of others
-​ Ex: Someone speeding is just reckless, more than the idea they could be going to the
emergency room
Fundamental attribution error and culture
Individualistic Cultures:
●​ Dispositional perspective
●​ Achievement oriented
●​ Focus on autonomy
●​ Independent
●​ Analytic thinking
Collectivist Cultures:
●​ Situational perspective
●​ Relationship oriented
●​ Focus on group harmony
●​ Interdependent
●​ Holistic thinking
Actor-Observer bias - explaining other people's behaviors due to dispositions, but our own as
situations
-​ Ex: They failed their exam because they aren’t smart, but I failed my exam because I
was just distracted
Self Serving Bias - We tend to make dispositional attributions for our success but situational
attributions for our failures
-​ Ex: I passed my driving test because I’m a good driver/I failed my driving test because
my instructor was bad
-​ Just World Hypothesis - People get what they deserve
Self-Presentation
Social Role - A set of morns ascribed to a person’s social position, setting, or group
-​ Positive effect: society functions smoothly
-​ Negative effect: people are often limited by their prescribed social roles
Social Norms
Norms - social rules about how members of a society are expected to act
Explicit Norms - openly stated
-​ Ex: stop signs
Implicit Norms - not openly stated
 -​ Ex: should you talk to people in an elevator?
Descriptive Norms - agreed on expectations about what group members do
-​ Ex: don’t spit gum on the floor inside
Injunctive Norms - Agreed on expectations about what group members are supposed to do
-​ Ex: don’t leave dishes in the sink
Script - Knowledge about sequence of events expected at specific setting
Attitudes and Persuasion
Attitudes - evaluations and response to objects, situations, idea, people or events.
ABC model of attitudes
-​ Affective component - how we feel towards something
-​ Behavioral component - how we behave toward it
-​ Cognitive component - what we believe about it
How do attitudes develop?
-​ Through positive reinforcement
-​ Ex: praise for adopting parents values; acceptance into social circles
-​ Through negative reinforcement
-​ Ex: Avoidance of being rejected in social circles
-​ Vicarious learning
-​ Watching other people be accepted into social circles so adapting to their
behavior
How do attitudes change?
-​ Our own thinking shapes attitude
-​ Mere thought effect - Merely thinking about something inflates its importance and
therefore strengthens our attitude toward it.
-​ Attitudes may determine our behaviors but much evidence shows that attitudes often
follow behavior
-​ Ex: you recycle so you develop an environmentally friendly attitude
Do attitudes influence behavior?
-​ Attitude specificity - the more specific an attitude, the more likely it is to predict behavior
-​ Ex: your attitude toward stimulant drugs may not predict how much coffee you
drink, but your attitude to coffee will.
-​ Attitude strength - stronger attitudes predict behavior more accurately than weak
attitudes
-​ Ex: your attitude towards breast cancer awareness may predict if you’ll
participate in a relay for life, compared to someone who believes cancer to be a
general human health issue
Are people honest about their attitude?
2 reasons people may hide their true attitude:
1)​ Social Desirability Factor - like personality assessments, people may not want to
disclose how they really feel
-​ Ex: would you tell the truth if your partner asked if you were attracted to other
people? Would you say the same thing if your friend were to ask?
2)​ Implicit attitudes - Unconscious attitudes people possess and which may quide behavior
 -​ Attitude can be measured through an Implicit Attitude Test (IAT) which measures your
reaction time to certain responses
Cognitive Dissonance - Festinger and Carlsmith
-​ Classic study showed that attitudes follow behavior especially when there is no other
justification for the behavior
-​ Ex: People making less money at a task enjoyed it more
-​ Cognitive Dissonance Theory - We experience discomfort when two of our thoughts are
inconsistent - emotional discomfort
Self Perception Alternative - Suggests that attitudes follow behavior because we infer our
attitudes by examining our own behavior
-​ Ex: how do you feel about your dad? Well I call him everyday so I must like him
Justification of effort - we value goals and achievements we put a lot of effort into
Persuasion - The process of act of causing people to do or believe something
2 Paths to persuasion
1)​ Central Route - relies on content, facts, and logic to change attitudes
2)​ Peripheral Route - focus on superficial features, association to positive emotion
Specific Persuassion Techniques
●​ Foot-in-the-door - get them ti agree to something small so they agree to something
larger later on
●​ Door-in-the-face - ask for something very big knowing you will get turned down, but then
ask for something smaller to get what you actually wanted
●​ Appeals to fear - ads make it seem like something bad will happen if you don’t comply
Barrier to persuasion techniques
●​ Forewarning - letting an audience know you’re trying to persuade them immediately
raises defenses
●​ Beginning Weak - not starting with a strong argument makes everything after appear
weaker
Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience
Conformity
Chameleon Effect - tendency to unconsciously mimic the expressions, gestures, and postures of
others
-​ Ex: Yawn, laugh
Conformity - the tendency to yield social pressure
-​ Ash effect - The influence of the group majority on the individual
Conformity reducing factors
●​ Unanimity - if even one other person goes against the group, others may not conform as
well
●​ Number of choices - fewer choices leads to increase in conformity
●​ Privacy - less compliant when a person's response is not known to the group
●​ Size - group size 4-7
Normative social influence - includes influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval
or avoid disapproval (fitting in feels good)
Informational social influence - I’ll follow them because they know what their doing
Obedience - The act of following direct commands, usually given by an authority figure
Group Behaviour - How membership of participation in a group influences our thoughts and
behaviors
-​ Group - an organized stable collection of individuals who share a common identity and in
which the members are aware of and influence one another
-​ Group members are interdependent - that is, behavior of one group member affects the
behavior of other members
Social facilitation - improvement in performance because others are present. Operates for both
physical and mental tasks
Social Loafing - tendency for people in a group to put in less effort when pooling their efforts
attaining a common goal when individually accountable
Group Polarization - intensification of initial attitudes following discussions within groups
Groupthink - faulty group decision making as a result of trying too hard to agree
Prejudice and Oppression
Stereotypes - generalized impressions based on social categories
-​ Ex: age, race, beliefs
Prejudice - negative and unjust feelings toward individuals based on their inclusion in a
particular group
-​ Ex: racism, sexism, ageism
Discrimination - negative action towards a person due to their group membership
Types of discrimination
-​ Racism - prejudice and discrimination based on one’s racial group
-​ Sexism - prejudice and discrimination based on one’s sex
-​ Ageism - prejudice and discrimination based on one’s age
-​ Homophobia - prejudice and discrimination based on one’s sexual orientation
Roots of prejudice
-​ Self fulfilling prophecy - expectation that alter behavior to be true
-​ Ex: people who are depressed are deemed as lazy, I’m depressed, therefore I
should be lazy
-​ Confirmation bias - seek out confirmatory information
-​ In group bias - groups you belong to are seen as superior to groups you don’t belong to
-​ Scapegoating - placing blame on out-group members when in-group frustrations occur
-​ Tajfel’s Social Identity Theory - in social situations people see themselves as a member
of the group rather than an individual
-​ Three processes
1)​ Social Catergorization - affiliation with a particular group in an effort to
figure out how to act
2)​ Social Identity - forming an identity within the group
3)​ Social comparison - sees the group as better than other groups and
derives a sense of well-being from being part of the superior group
-​ Mere categorization effect - we naturally form categories based on similarities. We say
good things are ourselves (in-group) and bad things are others (out-group)
-​ Evolutionary perspective - stereotypes and prejudice may have had some adaptive value
-​ Realistic conflict theory - amount of actual conflict between groups determines the
amount of prejudice between groups
Aggression
Aggression - Broad category of behaviors intended to harm others including physical and verbal
attacks
-​ Genetic component
-​ Associated with high levels of testosterone and low levels of serotonin
Aggression takes on 2 broad forms
1)​ Instrumental Aggression - motivated by achieving a goal
-​ Ex: a fist fight in a boxing ring
2)​ Hostile Aggression - motivated by anger with intent to cause pain
-​ Ex: a fist fight at a bar
Frustration-aggression hypothesis - states that we become aggressive in response to frustration
-​ Frustration results when goals are thwarted
Bullying - repeated negative treatment of another
Cyber-bullying - bullying in a cyberspace
The bystander effect - the tendency to refrain from helping someone in need of help due to the
presence of others
-​ Intervention requires
1)​ Notice event
2)​ Interpret the event as an emergency
3)​ Feel personally responsible for acting
-​ Diffusion of responsibility - the perception that we are less responsible
when there are others present
4)​ Consider what form of assistance is needed
5)​ Implement action
Prosocial Behaviour
Altruism - self-sacrificing behavior carried out for the benefit of others
-​ Ex: Taking the bullet for someone
Factors increasing altruistic behavior:
1)​ If can can identify with them (similarity)
2)​ If you have a close relationship with them
3)​ Taking the victims perspective
4)​ People who are generally more trusting of others
Forming Relationships - What makes us attracted to others?
Liking - fondness and affection of another person
1)​ Similarity
2)​ Proximity
3)​ Self-disclosure
4)​ Situational factors
5)​ Physical attraction
Interpersonal Attraction
Loving - more extreme affection, perhaps passionate attachment
Social Exchange Theory - We keep a tally of costs/benefits, we are motivated to maximize our
benefits
Chapter 13 - Stress and Illness
What is Stress?
Stress - a state brought on by a situation that threatens, or appears to threaten, one’s sense of
well being and ability to cope
2 main factors affect severity of stress
1)​ Perception of situation
2)​ Ability to cope
Cognitive-Mediational Theory (Lazarus)
-​ Perception of control greatly impacts appraisal and experience
-​ Primary appraisal - we assess the situation and determine its severity and implications
for us
-​ Ex: I have an exam next week and it's worth 20% of my grade. I have to do well
so I can major in psychology
-​ Secondary appraisal - we consider our ability to cope with the event
-​ Ex: That's ok, I've been reviewing material all along and did well on my first
exam, I have another week so I’ll be fine.
Benefits of Stress (Selye)
-​ Eustress - Stress from positive stressors
-​ Distress - Stress from unpleasant stressors
Health Psychology - understanding the connection between psychological well-being and
physical health
-​ How people cope
-​ Lifestyle and disease
-​ Effective interventions
-​ Risk assessment
2 main biological pathways are activated:
1)​ Sympathetic nervous system (SNS)
2)​ Hypothalamic-Pituitary Adrenal axis (HPA axis)
Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome (SNS)
-​ Stage 1 (Alarm Reaction) - body’s reaction to initial exposure to stressor as resources
are mobilized
-​ Stage 2 (Stage of resistance) - body’s attempt to stabilize if stressor continues to exert
energy to combat stressor
-​ Stage 3 (Exhaustion) - Organism is depleted of energy and can no longer offer
resistance
Physiological Basis (HPA axis)
-​ Stressors activate hypothalamus which stimulates the pituitary gland causing release of
adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) in blood stream
-​ ACTH stimulates adrenal glands to the release of cortisol (stress hormone)
Stressors
Stressor - anything that triggers a stress response
-​ Acute stressor - short term stress, has definite end point
-​ Chronic stressor - long term pain, often lacks definite end point
Traumatic Events - Unexpected, severe events that may even permanently change our
fundamental views of life.
Life changes - some research suggests that any shifts in life circumstances that require
“adjustments” are stressful
-​ Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)
-​ 43-item checklist of common life changing events
-​ Assigned “life change units” (LCUs) to each event
-​ Add together to measure overall stress
Daily Hassles - everyday minor irritations and annoyances
Job strain - Work situation consisting of excessive job demands and workload with little job
control
Job burnout - general sense of emotional exhaustion and cynicism regarding one’s job
1)​ Exhaustion - emotionally drained
2)​ Depersonalization - detached callous or cynical attitudes
3)​ Diminished personal accomplishment - negative evaluation of one’s work
Stress and Illness
Immune System - the body’s system or organs and cells that defend the body from foreign
invaders (viruses, bacteria) and abnormal cell growth (cancer cells)
Immunosuppression - decreased effectiveness of the immune system making a person
susceptible to infection, disease, and illness
Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) - Growing field which studies links between stress, the immune
system, and health
Cardiovascular Disorders
Hypertension - forces the heart to pump harder causing strain
Type A or B
-​ Type A - tense, stressed, little patience, time pressured, aggressive, easily provoked,
uptight
-​ Type B - patient, no sense of urgency, passive, laid back
Asthma - chronic disease obstructing the respiratory system leading to breathing difficulties
Headaches - Continuous pain in the head
Regulation of Stress
Coping Styles
-​ Coping - efforts we engage in to deal with stressful situations
-​ Problem-focused coping - focused on dealing directly with the stressor, such as
changing the stressor in some way
-​ Ex: talking to a roommate if you have an issue
-​ Emotion-focused coping - focused on managing one’s feelings about the stressor
-​ Thinking positive thoughts about your roommate
Control and Stress
-​ Perceived control - our belief in our ability to exert control over life’s outcomes
-​ Learned helplessness - a belief of being powerless
Social Support - the extent to which a person can rely on others during stressful times
-​ Sometimes friends can be a source of stress
Stress Reduction Techniques
-​ Herbet Benson’s transcendental meditation
1)​ Comfortably sit upright with feet on the ground
2)​ Be in a quiet environment with closed eyes
3)​ Repeat a word or mantra
4)​ Allow the mind to focus on pleasant thoughts
-​ Biofeedback - technique using electronic equipment to measure neuromuscular and
autonomic activity via visual or auditory signals
Pursuit of Happiness
Happiness - long-term state based on one’s subjective well-being
Happiness consists of 3 elements:
1)​ Pleasant life: Day-to-day pleasures
2)​ Good life: enrichment
3)​ Meaningful life: greater good
Factors connected to happiness
-​ Age - we tend to be more satisfied with life as we get older
-​ Family and social support - married and string social support
-​ Money - people in wealthier communities report greater happiness
Positive Affect and Optimism
-​ Positive Affect - Pleasurable engagement with the environment
-​ Optimism - General tendency to look on the bright side
Chapter 14 - Psychological Disorders
What are psychological disorders?
Psychological disorders - a condition of abnormal ABC’s (affects, behavior, cognition)
Abnormal psychology or psychopathology - scientific study of psychological disorders; includes
symptoms and etiology
Psychological disorders share four common factors, the 4 D’s
1)​ Deviance/Social nonconformity - behaviors differ from societal expectations
2)​ Distress/subjective discomfort - behaviors cause significant distress or unhappiness
3)​ Dysfunction/maladaptive - interfere with daily functioning
4)​ Danger - some disorders may lead to self-injurious behaviors or hostility towards others
-​ Presence of a single key features may not imply the disorder is present
Deaths and Hospitalizations
-​ Around 12 people die by suicide each day > Around 4,500 deaths by suicide per year
-​ Suicide rates are approx. 3x higher in men than women
-​ Suicide is the second highest cause of death amoung youth and young adults (15-34)
Diagnosing and Classifying
Psychological Disorders are classified based on clusters of specific symptoms ​
Symptoms - physical, behavioral, or mental feature associated with a disorder
Diagnosis - a clinician’s determination that a person’s cluster of symptoms represents a
particular disorder
DSM-5-TR
●​ American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, first published in 1952, 5th edition, text revision
 ●​ Represents widely used categorical approach used by physicians and mental health
workers to guide diagnosis and treatment
●​ Benefits:
○​ System helps mental health professionals communicate and is useful in research
●​ Risks:
○​ Antisocial personality disorder and generalized anxiety disorder did poorly on
field traits
○​ DSM-5-TR may contribute to pathologizing for everyday life
○​ Categorical labels can be subjective
[Link] Institute of Mental Health’s Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project
●​ Dimensional Approach argues that mental health problems are a common part of
day-to-day life
Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP)
●​ Dimensional approach, recognizes different numbers of symptoms and the connections
between disorders
Diagnostic Labels Benefits:
-​ Diagnostic labels help mental health professionals communicate about cases and
treatments of disorders
-​ Clients may feel relieved to learn that others experience similar symptoms
Diagnostic Labels Risks:
-​ Labels can be subjective or create value judgements
-​ Labels can be self-fulfilling, and if negative, they may convey a stigma
-​ Labels can have power outside the laboratory
Perspectives on Psychological Disorders
Supernatural Perspective - Mental health issues rise from gods showing their displeasure
The medical model (~1900) - Physical issues cause mental disorders
-​ Treated with therapy (search for new cure)
Biopsychosocial approach - Suggests varied disorders may share underlying dynamic while
differing in symptoms manifested in a particular culture
-​ Emphasizes that mind and body are inseparable
-​ Gave rise to vulnerability-stress model
Diathesis-Stress Model/Vulnerability-stress model
-​ Disorders likely arise from the interaction of internal genetic predispositions (diathesis)
and external stressful events (trigger)
Psychological Disorders:
Neurodevelopmental Disorders
ADHD - Constant pattern of inattentive impulsive behavior that interferes with normal functioning
-​ Lack of attention, forgetfulness, trouble with organization and following
instruction, impulsive
-​ 5% of children; m(3)>f(1)
-​ Less dopamine activation in frontal lobe regions of the brain

Autism - An inability to form close emotional ties, repetitive behaviors, speech and language
deficits
 -​ Autism spectrum - continuum of severity
-​ M(2.6%)>F(0.65%)
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia - A serious psychological disorder characterized by disorganized thinkinh
(delusions) and speech, disturbed perceptions (hallucinations), and inappropriate emotions and
actions (psychomotor symptoms)
-​ Affects 1 in 100 people
Positive Symptoms :
-​ Delusions
-​ Disorganized thinking and speech
-​ Hallucinations
-​ A sensory experience in the absence of a sensory stimulus
-​ Auditory - hearing voices that may harass or instruct
-​ Visual - seeing thing or people that aren't really there
Negative Symptoms:
-​ Deficits in behaviors:
-​ Alogia - poverty of speech; little to say and it’s coherent
-​ Flat Affect - monotone, expressionless, slack face
-​ Avolition - Drained of energy, lacks basic hygiene
-​ Asociality - impaired interpersonal relationships, poor social skills
-​ Anhedonia - failure to experience pleasure, lack of interest
Types of Delusional Disorder
-​ Erotomanic - Delusion of love by another person, especially someone famous or of
higher status, celebrity stalkers
-​ Grandiose - Delusion of great, unrecognized talent, knowledge, or insight; special
relationship with important person or God
-​ Jealous - All-consuming, but unfounded, belief that your spouse or lover is unfaithful
-​ Persecutory - Belief of being conspired against, cheated, spied on, followed, poisoned,
maligned, harassed; paranoid psychosis
Dopamine Hypothesis - Dysregulation or imbalance of dopamine
Abnormal Brain Structures - post mortem brain scans show differences in brain shrinkage and
enlargement of ventricles in schizophrenia patients vs non schizophrenics
Risks with pregnancy and cannabis
Mood Disorders
Major Depressive Disorder - A disorder characterized by depressed mood that is significantly
disabling and is not caused by such factors as drugs or a general medical condition
-​ W(2)>M(1)
-​ Subtypes include:
-​ Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) - winter blues, occurs in the fall/winter
months, lack of sunlight and vitamin D
-​ Peripartum (postpartum) - baby blues, anxiety and panic attacks, no desire to
hold or care for infant, severe cases results in peripartum psychosis
-​ Persistent Depressive Disorder - dysthymia, chronically sad but don’t meet formal
criteria
Bipolar Disorders - periods of mania that alternate with periods of depression
-​ M>W
-​ Unusually “high” and optimistic OR extremely irritable
Biological Basis
-​ Diathesis-stress model - negative events can prompt a depressive episode
-​ Cognitive theory - depression is triggered by negative thoughts or cognitive vulnerability
-​ Hopelessness theory - expectations
-​ Rumination - repetitive focus on negativity
Anxiety Disorders
Main Features - disabling levels of fear or anxiety that are frequent, severe, persistent, or easily
triggered
Types
-​ Specific phobias - irrational and intense fear of a specific thing or places
-​ 5 categories
1)​ Animals
2)​ Natural environments
3)​ Situations
4)​ Blood and injections
5)​ Other
-​ Social anxiety disorder - fears of social settings or performance situations
-​ Panic disorders - sudden and recurrent attacks of terror
-​ Generalized anxiety disorder - unexplained and persistent tension and uneasiness
Obsessive-Compulsive Related Disorders
-​ A class of disorders that is often misrepresented
-​ Involves intrusive, unpleasant thoughts, and repetitive behaviors
Obsessive-Compulsive DIsorder
-​ Obsessions - persistent unwanted thoughts, ideas, impulses wishes, or images that
overrun a person’s consciousness
-​ Ex: concern germs, exactness/order
-​ Person knows they’re irrational and unfounded
-​ Compulsions - repetitive, rigid behaviors or mental acts. Often responses to obsessive
thoughts, performed to reduce or prevent anxiety
-​ Ex: excessive washing, repeating rituals (up/down), checking doors
-​ Person knows the behavior has no direct connection to the thought
Body Dysmorphic Disorder
-​ Preoccupied with real or perceived flaw in physical appearance - often face, skin, or hair
-​ Repetitive behaviors like mirror checking, hiding the body part, cosmetic surgery
Hoarding Disorder
-​ Distress parting with possessions resulting in excessive accumulation
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Post-traumatic stress disorder - fear and arousal-related symptoms tied to a traumatic event
Symptoms Include:
1)​ Intrusion
2)​ Avoidance
 3)​ Negative alterations in mood and cognition
4)​ Alterations in arousal and reactivity
Complex PTSD - prolonged repeated trauma (ex: abuse)
Dissociative Disorders
-​ Split from self
-​ Major disruptions in memory or consciousness
Dissociative Amnesia - Partial or total forgetting of an experience
Depersonalization/Derealization - feel robotic or mechanical, not themselves, limbs may appear
non proportional to the body
Dissociative Identity disorder - two or more distinct personalities (sub personalities)
Personality Disorders
-​ Rigid inflexible pattern of inner experience and outward behavior
Borderline personality Disorder
-​ Great instability, major shifts in mood, unstable self-image, and impulsivity
-​ Experience depressive, anxious, and irritable states lasting from hours to days or more
Antisocial Personality Disorder
-​ Persistent and callous disregard for the feelings and right of others
-​ Display patterns of misbehaviors before age 15 and be 18 at diagnosis
Chapter 15 - Treatment of Psychological Disorders
Treatment of Psychological Disorders
Features of therapy or treatment:
1)​ A sufferer who seeks relief from a healer
2)​ A trained, socially accepted healer, whose expertise is accepted by the sufferer and the
social group
3)​ A series of contacts between the healer and the sufferer, through which the healer tries
to produce certain changes in the sufferers emotional state, attitudes, and behavior
What is involved in the healing process?
-​ Treatment/therapy - systematic procedures designed to change abnormal behavior
-​ Psychotherapy - a treatment system in which a client and therapist use words and acts
to overcome the client's psychological difficulties
-​ Biological therapy - the use of physical and chemical procedures to help people
overcome psychological difficulties
Psychotherapy and medication are often combined to treat psychological disorders
Psychoanalysis and Psychodynamic Therapies: Goals and Techniques
Psychoanalysis
-​ Techniques:
-​ Hypnosis, free association leads to resistance, interpretation, transference
Psychodynamic therapy - helps people understand current symptoms, gains perspective
-​ Techniques:
-​ Client centered face-to-face meetings, over phone, or online; exploration of past
relationship troubles to understand origins of current difficulties
Humanistic Therapies
-​ Psychodynamic and humanistic therapies are often referred to as insight therapies
 -​ Insight therapies - assume that self awareness and psychological well-being work
together
-​ Psychodynamic therapists - expect people’s problems to diminish as they gain
insight into their unresolved and unconscious tensions
-​ Humanistic therapists - expect problems to diminish as people get in touch with
their feelings
Humanistic perspective
-​ Emphasizes people’s potential for self-fulfillment; to give people new insights
-​ Focuses on reduction of inner conflicts that interfere with natural development and
growth
-​ Helps clients grow in self-awareness and self-acceptance, promoting personal growth
-​ Person-centered therapy uses client led talk therapy
Classical Conditioning Techniques:
-​ Counterconditioning
-​ Pairs trigger stimulus with a new response that is incompatible with fear
-​ Exposure therapies
-​ Treat anxieties by exposing people to the things they fear and avoid; with
repeated exposure a person will adapt
-​ Systematic desensitization
-​ Associates a pleasant, relaxed state with gradually increasing, anxiety-triggering
stimuli
Behavior Therapies:
-​ Virtual reality exposure therapy
-​ Treats anxiety by creative electronic simulations in which people can safely face
their greatest fears, such as flying in airplanes, spiders, or speaking in public
-​ Aversive conditioning
-​ Goals:
-​ Substitute a negative response for a positive response to a harmful
stimulus
-​ Condition an aversion to something the person should avoid
-​ Ability to discriminate between the therapy situation and all others can
limit aversive conditioning’s effectiveness
-​ Techniques:
-​ Unwanted behavior is associated with unpleasant feelings
-​ Ability to discriminate between aversive conditioning situation in therapy and
other situations can limit treatment effectiveness
-​ Operant conditioning therapies
-​ Consequences drive behavior; voluntary behaviors are strongly influenced by
their consequences
-​ Behavior modification
-​ Desired behavior is reinforced; undesired behavior is not reinforced and
sometimes punished
-​ Token economy
 -​ People earn a token for exhibiting a desired behavior and can later exchange the
tokens for privileges or treats
Cognitive Therapies
-​ Teach people new, more adaptive ways of thinking
-​ Based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional
reactions
-​ Help people change their mind with new more constructive ways of perceiving and
interpreting events
Aaron Becks cognitive therapy:
-​ Gentle questioning seeks to reveal irrational thinking and then to persuade people to
change their perceptions of their own and others actions as dark, negative, and
pessimistic
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
-​ Integrative therapy that combines cognitive therapy with behavior therapy
Formats/modalities of therapy
-​ Group therapy - involves the therapist meeting with several people at the same time with
all clients facing similar problems
-​ Self-help groups - a popular form of group therapy that does not involve a therapist
-​ Family therapy - members of the family meet with a therapist to discuss ongoing
problems with the family as a unit
-​ Family systems theory - each family has its own rules, structure, and communication
patterns that shape behavior
-​ Couple therapy - in marital therapy, the therapist works with two people in a long-term
relationship
-​ Community treatment - allows clients to receive treatment in a familiar environment
Psychotherapy
-​ Treatment involving psychological techniques
-​ Consists of intercations between a trained therapist and someone seeking to overcome
psychological difficulties or achieve personal growth
Three basic benefits for all psychotherapies
-​ Hope for discouraged people
-​ New perspective
-​ Empathic, trusting, caring relationship
Finding the right psychotherapist
1)​ Find someone you feel comfortable with
2)​ Set up preliminary sessions with two or three therapists
3)​ The emotional bond between therapists and client is perhaps the most important factor
in effective therapy

Type Description

Clinical Psychologists ●​ Psychologists with a Ph.D. or Psy.D. supplemented by a

supervised internship and, often, postdoctoral training
●​ About half work in agencies, and half in private practice
 Psychiatrists ●​ Physicians who specialize in the treatment of
psychological disorders.
●​ Can prescribe meds

Clinical or psychiatric ●​ Masters degree of social plus postgraduate supervision

social worker

Counselors ●​ Family and couples counselors specialize in problems

arising from family relations
●​ Abuse counselors deal with abusers and the abused
●​ Mental health and other counselors may be required to
have two-year masters degree
Biological Treatments
Biological Therapies - therapies designed to restore brain function through drugs or procedurres
including brain stimulation and psychosurgery
Drug therapy - involves the use of psychotropic drugs - drugs which act on the brain and affect
internal sstates and bahaviour
Modern area:
-​ 1920’s - barbituates used for anxiety and insomnia
-​ 1950’s - Antipsychotics, antidepressants, mood stabilizing drugs
-​ 1970s - safer anxiolytics introduces
Antipsychotics
-​ Chlorpromazine - introduced for treatment of schizophrenia, blocks neurotransmitters
Antidepressants
-​ Primarily targets serotomnin ans neoponephrine pathways
-​ Tricyclics - increase NE and serotonin by blocking reuptake at synapse
-​ MAO inhibitors - block MAO
-​ SSRIs- block reuptake of serotonin
Mood stabilizers - used to treat intense shifts in mood (lithium)
Anti-anxiety drugs- Act on GABA recptors (diazepam, alprazolam, lorazepam)
Brain Stimulation
Electroconvulsiven Therapy (ECT) - used to be used to treat psychological disorders, now only
for severe depression
Vagus Nerve Stimulation - implanted pulse generator sends electrical signals to the left vagus
nerve
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) - Electromagnetic coild placed on skull to stimulate
neurons in the prefrontal cortex
Psychosurgery - least used
Labotomy - servering frontal lobe from lower brain centers
Deep brain stimulation - electrode implanted into brain regions thought to mediate disorder