1: Evolution of Psychology

History of Psychology

  • Philosophy (Descartes): Using the ability to reason
  • Physiology (Helmholtz): Using scientific method

Significant contributors

  • Wilhem Wundt (founder of psychology)
    • First psychology laboratory, in Europe, 1879
    • Reaction-time studies
  • Edward Titchener
    • Structuralism: various components to everything (cannot exist by itself)
  • William James
    • Functionalism: adaptiveness and evolution
    • Established 1st psyc textbook, Principles of Psychology
  • Stanley Hall
    • Functionalism
    • Established 1st psyc laboratory in US
  • Sigmund Freud
    • Psychoanalysis theory
    • Unconscious: knowledge gained from working with patients were significant, results of his experimental research not significant
  • John B Watson
    • Behaviorism
    • Overt behavior & environmental factors: behaviors can be taught
    • Facilitated an increase in using animals for research: researcher can exert more control over animals
  • B.F. Skinner
    • Behaviorism
    • Acknowledged biological factors & internal factors, but were considered to be unnecessary to understand/control behavior
    • Free will as an illusion
  • Carl Rogers & Abraham Maslow
    • Humanism: emphasize unique qualities of being human
    • Self-concept/ incongruence, pyramid of needs
  • Noam Chomsky (language)
  • George Miller (memory)
  • Herbert Simon (problem-solving)
  • Roger Sperry (biological bases of behavior)

2: Research Methods

What is Research

  • Process of gaining information in order to come to a conclusion
  • Goals
    • Measurement and description
    • Understanding and prediction
    • Application and control
  • Guiding principles
    • Rationalism
    • Empiricism: taking observations through senses and forming conclusions

Scientific Method

  1. Get to know topic
    • Observation (direct or indirect)
  2. Formulate a hypothesis
    • To be stated in terms of an operational definition
  3. Design the study
    • Quasi-experiment: looks like an experiment, but independent variable has not been manipulated by experimenter
    • Non-experiment: naturalistic observation, case studies, surveys
    • Experiment: can make causal conclusions
    • Ethics should be considered
  4. Collect the data
  5. Analyze the data: draw conclusions
    • Descriptive statistics
      • Central tendency (mean, median, mode)
      • Correlation (r = .2: negligible, .5: moderate, .8: very strong, 1: perfect)
      • Inferential statistics (chi-test, F-test), used to tell probability that results were due to chance
  6. Report the findings

Experiments

  • To determine causality
  • Manipulate a variable, hold all other variables steady
  • Random assignment: decreases chances that your groups differ from one another before the manipulation
  • Extraneous variables: variables which may influence results though you are not interested in the effects (factor has been "controlled for")
  • Confounding variables: variables that influences results and make them unclear

Research Challenges

  • Sampling bias (size)
  • Experimenter expectation/ bias
  • Participant expectation/ bias
  • Single-blind & double-blind studies

3: Biological Bases

Terms

  • Soma: body of the cell which contains all organelles
  • Oligo (small/ a few) + dendro (tree-like branches)
  • Myelin sheath: insulating layer, or sheath that forms around nerves; allows electrical impulses to transmit quickly along the nerve cells
  • Glia ("glue" of the brain)
    • Oligodendrocytes (CNS): one cell can create several segments of myelin sheath and cover more than one axon
    • Schwann cells (PNS): one cell creates only one segment of myelin sheath for only one axon
    • Astrocytes: synchronizes communication between neurons, nurtures cells, and removes waste products
    • Microglia: functions as part of immune system, removes waste products and invaders
    • Radial glia: guides migration and growth of immature neurons

Types of neural signals

  • Synapses
    • Axo-dendritic: connection formed between the axon of one neuron and the dendrite of another
    • Axo-somatic: axon-soma
    • Axo-axonic: axon-axon
  • Action potential (electric & chemical signal in axon)
    • "all or none"
    • Threshold of excitation must be met to fire an action potential
    • Refractory period - interval of time during which a second action potential can be initiated
      • Absolute: no matter how large stimulus is applied
      • Relative: depends on stimulus size
  • Excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) & inhibitory postsynaptive potential (IPSP)
    • Electrical and chemical signals
    • Only if EPSP > IPSP and reach threshold of excitation, then action potential in the 2nd neuron

Neurotransmitters

  • At terminal buttons, there are vesicles full of chemicals called neurotransmitters
  • When action potential reaches the terminal buttons, exocytosis is triggered to occur (where the neurotransmitter is released from the vesicle)
  • Neurotransmitter diffuses across synapse from presynaptic neuron to postsynaptic neuron
  • Neurotransmitter finds receptors that it matches and binds to "binding site" of receptor
  • Binding causes either an excitatory postsynaptic potential or inhibitory postsynaptic potential
  • Neurotransmitter unbinds from receptor and reuptake/ enzymatic degradation occurs

Common Neurotransmitters

  • Agonist (increases activity) vs. antagonist (decreases activity)
  • GABA (inhibitory) vs glutamate (excitatory)
  • Acetylcholine/ ach/ cholinergic
    • Binds with PNS: muscle contractions
    • Binds with CNS: arousal, attention, learning
  • Monoamine -> catecholamine
    • Dopamine/ DA
      • Binds with CNS: movmenets, addictions, mood
    • Norepinephrine/ NE
      • Binds with CNS: mood, arousal
    • Epinephrine/ Epi/ adrenergic (works on adrenaline)
      • Binds with PNS: cardiac contraction
      • Binds with CNS: mood
  • Monoamine -> indolamine
    • Serotonin/ 5-HT/ serotonergic
      • Binds with CNS: sleep/ arousal, mood, eating, aggression, impulsivity
  • Endorphins (endogenous + morphine)
    • Type of neuropeptide to modulate pain

Organization of Nervous System

organizationOfNervousSystem.png

  • CNS: central nervous system (spinal cord)
  • PNS: peripheral nervous system; lies outside brain and spinal cord
  • Afferent: "approaching" the brain
  • Efferent: "exiting" the brain

Methods to Study Brain

  • Lesioning (controlled damage)
    • Via knife cut, electrolytic lesion
  • Stimulation
    • Via electrical stimulation, transcranial magnetic stimulation, chemical stimulation
  • Brain imaging
    • Tools which give structural information: CT scan, MRI
    • Tools which give functional information: PET scan (measures blood flow)
    • Tools which give both: fMRI (measures blood flow and oxygen)

Development of Nervous System

  • Neural tube development (~24 days)
    • Neural tube defect: spina bifida, anecephaly
    • Advised to take folic acid which is in prenatal vitamins
  • Neural tube continues to swell and grow
    • Forebrain, mid brain, hindbrain and hollow center
    • Telencephalon, diencephalon, mesencephalon (midbrain), metencephalon, myelencephalon (medulla)
    • Telencephalon grows so much
  • Ventricles and central spinal fluid (CSF)
    • Hollow areas filled with fluid CSF
    • Cushions the brain inside and out

Brain Physiology and Anatomy

  • Medial and lower in the brain -> primitive/ vital functions
  • Higher and outer areas of brain -> highest level of brain functions
  • Hindbrain (very base of the brain)
    • medulla (connection between the brainstem and the spinal cord) - pons (relay signal below neck)
    • cerebellum (controls balance for walking and standing, and other complex motor functions)
    • reticular formation (major integration and relay center for many vital brain systems)
      • ascending fibers: wakefulness/sleep
      • descending fibers: motor movement
      • aka reticular activating system
  • Midbrain
    • visual information: superior colliculi
    • auditory information: inferior colliculi
    • DA-producing neurons: substantia nigra
    • periaqueductal gray: area of brain involved with modulation of pain perception. For example, opioids can be released in this area and this leads to decreased perception of pain.
    • periaqueductal gray: area of brain involved with modulation of pain perception
    • reticular formation
  • Forebrain
    • cerebral hemispheres
    • corpus callosum
      • split-brain research
    • thalamus
      • "sensory relay station" since all sensory information goes here before going to primary cortices, exception: olfactory
    • hypothalamus
      • controls pituitary in endocrine system which releases oxytocin to help women give birth and bond emotional
    • limbic system
      • network of different brain structures
    • cerebral cortex (known as gray matter)
      • higher mental functions are done
      • sulcus/ sulci: a groove
      • gyri: bump or ridge
      • fissure: deep groove
      • occipital lobe: houses primary visual cortex
      • temporal lobe: houses primary auditory cortex
      • parietal lobe: houses primary somatosensory cortex
      • frontal lobe: houses primary motor cortex + mirror neurons + prefrontal lobe (executive functions)

Hereditary studies

  • Three ways to estimate heritability:
    • Family studies
      • flaw: families do not share just genes, but also environment
    • Twin studies
      • flaw: the assumption that MZ and DZ twins only differ in terms of genes may be invalid; it’s possible that they experience different environments as well
    • Adoption studies
      • twin adoption study method: gather MZ & DZ twins who have been reared apart; compare concordance rate (of the target behavior) between the MZ & DZ twins
      • flaw: sample sizes tend to be too small (esp. with the twin adoption study method)
      • flaw: separating the twins does not ensure that they experience dissimilar environments (e.g., again, if they look alike, they may evoke the same social environment)
  • Epigenetics (heriditary changes in the characteristics of a cell or organism that result from altered gene expression or other effects not involving changes to the DNA sequence itself) marks can be passed down generations

The Evolutionary Bases of Behavior

  • Darwin: traits which provide either survival advantage or reproductive advantage are much more likely to be “selected” over time (via natural selection)
  • Behavioral traits are subject to natural selection as well
    • Population vs. individual organisms

4. Sensation and Perception

Visual System

  • Stimulus: electromagnetic radiation between 480nm - 760nm
    • Properties: wavelength, amplitude, purity (saturation)
  • Anatomy & physiology of the eye
    • Cornea -> pupil/ iris -> lens -> vitreous humor -> retina (bipolar cells -> ganglion cells -> photoreceptors, rods and cones)
  • Transduction: process by which a stimulus is represented neurally
  • Photoreceptors
    • Rods Cones
      Scotopic Photopic
      Perceives general form (not detail) Greater visual acuity
      More numerous than cones Less numerous than rods
      More in the periphery of the retina More in center of retina and there are only cones in the fovea
      More thoroughly adapts to the dark Quickly adapts to the dark, but is limited in how much it adapts
  • Receptive field: portion of the visual field which a neuron "monitors"

Visual Pathway

  • After light is transduced by cones/ rods, visual information processed:
    • Bipolar cells
    • Ganglion cells
    • Optic disk (has optic nerves to transfer signals to the brain)
  • Information received by the halves of the retina closer to the nose
    • crosses to the other side of the brain to form the optic chiasm (contralateral connection)
    • dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus
    • primary visual cortex (in occipital lobe) aka V1 aka striate cortex
  • Information received by the halves of the retina farthest from the nose
    • stays on the same side of the brain (ipsilateral connection)
    • dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus
    • primary visual cortex (in occipital lobe) aka V1 aka striate cortex
  • In the primary visual cortex
    • Simple cells: detect orientation of line and location of the line within its receptive field
    • Complex cells: detect orientation of line, movement of line
  • Visual information goes to the
    • WHAT pathway: lower part of temporal lobe, analyzes what the object is
    • WHERE pathway: parietal lobe, analyzes where the object is

Theories of Color

  • Trichromatic theory (proposed by Young, refined by Helmholtz)
    • Brain detects 3 main colors, and variations of them will give colors of the rainbow
  • Opponent process theory (proposed by Hering)
    • Neurons that can communicate to the brain that can see one color at one time (seeing one color takes opposing or opposite actions, cannot have two at the same time)
    • Explains complementary afterimages (rebound effect: staring at a waterfall will make things look like they are elevated)

Perceiving Form

  • Bottom-up processing (aka feature detection)
    • Basic visual information are compiled so that visual cortical cells
  • Top-down processing (information is taken as a "whole")
    • See structure and patterns in order for us to better understand the environment
    • Gestalt principles: similarity, continuation, closure, proximity, figure/ground, and symmetry & order
  • Stroop effect: naming color when spelt another color (interference of the processes)
  • Depth perception
    • Monocular cues: accomodation of one eye
    • Binocular cues: retinal disparaity used to calculate depth; slight difference in images received by each eye due to horizontal separation

Auditory System

  • Stimulus: sound (compression and decompression of molecules)
  • Properties: wavelength, amplitude, purity (timbre, quality of sound)
  • Anatomy of ear:
    • Outer ear (ear canal/ pinna) -> middle ear (ear drum/ tympanic membrane -> ossicles) -> inner eat (oval window of cochlea)
    • Cochlea
      • 3 canals: in the middle canal is the basiclar membrane (with auditory hair cells)
      • Vibration moves the fluid, and basilar membrane moves
      • Auditory hair cells fire action potential
  • Place theory
    • Different waveforms stimulate different areas of the basilar membrane
    • Higher frequencies stimulate basilar membrane areas closest to oval window, vice-versa
  • Frequency theory
    • Basilar membrane mimics the sound waveform
    • Neurons at the end of the basilar membrane fire in synchrony with waveform

Vestibular System

  • Sense of balance
  • Stimulus: gravitational pull
  • Anatomy of vestibular system
    • Located in inner ear near the cochlea
    • Has semiciruclar canals and vestibular sacs

Gustatory System

  • Stimulus: molecules dissolved in fluid
  • Anatomy of tongue:
    • Papillae = bumps
    • Taste buds (many on sides of papillae)
  • Primary cortex: insular cortex in frontal lobe

Olfactory System

  • Stimulus: molecules in air
  • Anatomy of nose:
    • Air -> mucous -> olfactory dedrites (transduction occurs)
  • Primary cortex: olfactory bulb (temporal lobe)

Somatosensory System

  • Stimulus: mechanical, thermal, chemical
  • Anatomical system involed: nerves in th ebody
    • Mechanoreceptors: ruffini endings, merkel’s discs, pacinian corpuscles, meissner’s corpuscle, hair shaft sensory receptor
    • Nociceptors: free nerve endings
    • Thermoreceptors
    • Proprioceptors
  • Pain
    • Stimulus: something noxious or damaging to tissues (exception: some forms of chronic pain)
    • Anatomy of pain system: noniceptors
      • C fibers: slow pathway (e.g., dull, aching)
      • A-delta fibers: fast pathway (e.g., sharp pain of a knife cut)
    • Gate control theory by Melzack and Wall (theory of how we modulate pain)
      • Triggers: central nervous system (brain can send stimulation to close pain gates)
      • Peripheral nervous system (rubbing area around an injury works, because other sematosensory nerves are stimulated in that area, synapses - pain & rubbing - compete to get to the spinal cord, stopping pain)

5. Variations in Consciousness

Behavioral/ Psychological Description of sleep

  • Alert/ Awake
    • Beta waves
    • 13 - 24 cycles per second
  • Relaxed, drowsy
    • Alpha waves
    • 8 - 12 cycles per second
  • Stage 1
    • Theta waves
    • 4 - 7 cycles per second
  • Stage 2
    • Theta waves
    • 4 - 7 cycles per second
  • Stage 3: slow wave sleep (SWS)
    • 0 - 49% delta waves
    • <4 cycles per second
  • Stage 4: slow wave sleep (SWS)
    • Above 50% delta waves
    • <4 cycles per second
  • REM
    • High frequency, low amplitude waves
    • Beta waves, some alpha waves

Sleep

  • What drives sleepiness
    • Metabolic processes (mostly active brain)
    • Circadian rhythm
  • Circadian rhythm
    • Regulated by suprachiasmatic nuclues (hypothalamus)
    • SCN -> pineal gland -> melatonin -> increase sleepiness
    • Can be entrained by light

Factors Correlated with Sleeping Pattern

  • Age
    • Infants: greater total sleep and amount of REM (50%, compared to 20% in adults)
    • More than 70: 50% decrease in SWS, slight decrease in REM
  • Genetics/ biology
  • Cultural variations

Effects of Sleep Deprivation

  • Complete deprivation: weariness, irritability, paranois, lapses in attention, memory deficits, hallucinations
  • Partial/ restricted deprivation: inconsistent effects, increased sleepiness, impairments of attention, reaction time, motor coordination, decision making, endocrine and immune system function
  • Correlated with increased accidents and higher rates of physical issues
  • Rebound effects of selective REM and SWS deprivation (brain will increasingly insist on sleep stage when deprived)
  • Mortality rate and sleep amounts correlated (greatest mortality when sleep is less than 7h and more than 9h)

Effects of Sleep

  • Cognitive: brain development
    • IQ
    • Memory consolidation
    • Insights during REM
  • Energy conservation
    • Marine mammals have the ability to sleep halfway
    • Restore bodily resources
  • Dreams
    • Adults: focused on self
      • Sex, aggression, misfortune
      • Content of waking life spill into dreams (Frued's "day residue")
    • Children: more static than storyline
    • Theories of purposes:
      • Frued: wish fulfillment
      • R. Cartwright: problem-solving/ mood-regulation view
      • Hobson: activation-synthesis model

Sleep Disorders

  • Hypersomnia: excessive sleepiness for at least 1 month
    • TX: stimulants
  • Insomnia: difficulty initiating or maintain sleep for at least 1 month
    • More common in women, increase with age, variety of negative health conditions correlated
    • TX: teach good sleep hygiene, relaxation training, benzodiazepines, non-benzodiazepines (e.g. Ambien, Sonata, Lunesta), melatonin
  • Narcolepsy: irresistable attacks of refreshing sleep that occur daily over at least 3 months
    • Presence of one or more of:
      • Cataplexy: brief loss of voluntary muscle tone triggered by strong emotions
      • Hypnogogic: Occur when you're falling asleep
      • Hypnopompic hallucinations: Occur when you're waking up
      • Sleep paralysis
    • TX: stimulants, SSRIs
  • Sleep apnea: breathing stops randomly ~10sec/ 10-15 min per hour of sleep
    • Associated to obesity and age
    • TX: CPAP, lifestyle modifications, upper airway and craniofacial surgery
  • Somnambulism: sleep walking
  • REM sleep behavior disorder:
    • Being chased or attacked in dreams
    • Deterioration of brain stem
    • May precede Parkinson's up to 10 years

Hypnosis

  • Systematic procedure that typically produces a heightened state of suggestibility
  • Associative features
    • Anesthesia
    • Sensory distortions/ hallucinations
    • Disinhibition
    • Post hypnotic suggestions and amnesia may occur
    • Hilgard's dissociative theory: hypnotic induction is said to split the functioning of the executive control system (ECS) into different streams
    • Highway hypnosis: altered mental state in which an automobile driver can drive lengthy distances and respond adequately to external events with no recollection of consciously having done so

Meditation

  • Practices that train attention to heighten awareness and bring mental processes under greater voluntary control
  • Transcendental meditation: focused attention
  • Mindfulness meditation: open monitoring
  • Associative features
    • EEG: increase in alpha and theta waves
    • Transcendant experience is not equal to relaxation
    • Correlated with: decrease stress, anxiety, BP; increase immune function, mood, self-esteem, overall health and well-being
    • Decreased parietal lobe activity (where somatosensory system resides)
    • Increased left prefrontal lobe activity

Drugs

  • Narcotics
    • E.g. morphine, heroin, oxycodone, codeine, methadone
    • Effects:
      • anxiety reduction, pain relief, drowsiness
      • impaired mental & motor functioning
      • constipation
    • withdrawal: severe diarrhea, increase in infectious diseases
    • used for: analgesic, cough, diarrhea
    • Sedatives: CNS depressants
      • E.g. barbiturates, benzodiazepines
      • Effects:
        • relaxation, anxiety, increased drowsiness
        • quick tolerance/medication backfires
        • impaired mental & physical functioning
        • increased risk of accidents
        • synergistic effect with alcohol
        • withdrawal can be potentially dangerous
        • used for anxiety, sleeping issues
    • Stimulants: increase CNS activity
      • E.g. caffeine, nicotine, cocaine/crack, amphetamines/crank/crystal meth, MDMA (low doses; in high doses, MDMA can have hallucinogenic effects)
      • Effects:
        • euphoria
        • increased energy, alertness, CV arousal and/or CV problems, panic, insomnia, sweating/urination
        • psychosis: when people lose some contact with reality (e.g., cocaine, amphetamines)
        • decreased appetite
        • (cocaine, for example): damaged nasal membranes, increased CV and respiratory problems
        • used for narcolepsy, ADHD (methylphenidate), local anesthetic (cocaine)
    • Hallucinogens: small amount alters sensory/perception
      • E.g. LSD, mescaline (peyote), psilocybin (mushroom), MDMA too (“ecstasy”), though in larger dose
      • Effects:
        • euphoria, distortions in sensory & perceptual experiences (e.g., mystical experiences)
        • anxiety, paranoia (“bad trip”)
        • kills 5-HT neurons
        • impaired judgment → ↑ risk of accidents
    • Cannabis
      • E.g. marijuana, hashish, THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol, a cannabinoid found in cannabis)
      • Effects:
        • mild euphoria, relaxation, sensory/perceptual distortions (e.g., “slowing of time,” vivid perceptions), increased hunger, esp. for sweets
        • short-term memory impairments, metabolizes slowly
        • decreased IQ in young users
        • persistent memory issues in middle aged users (even after stopping use)
        • increased accident risk
        • used for: TX of nausea & pain, e.g., cancer, glaucoma
    • (ethyl) Alcohol
      • Effects:
        • mild euphoria, relaxation, mood swings, quarrelsomeness
        • 90% student rapes, 95% on violent crimes on campus
        • impairments of cognitive & motor function
        • 21% unplanned sex, 50% fatal vehicle accidents (according to some sources) , ~40% fatal bicycle accidents
        • liver damage (cirrhosis, which is scarring), hypertension, stroke, other heart diseases, neurological issues (e.g., Korsakoff’s syndrome), Korsakoff symptoms include severe memory problems, apathy, walking problems, etc., cancers
        • increased risk of death in general - males: 2x increased mortality, females: 4x increased mortality
      • withdrawal could be fatal
        • delirium tremens—can be fatal in some cases
        • is characterized by “the shakes” as well as by symptoms of delirium, which include cognitive deficits, changes in CNS arousal, and psychotic features like hallucinations & delusions
      • a standard drink has 0.6 oz. of alcohol

6. Learning

  • Learning refers to the change in a person's behavior to a given situation brought about by repeated experiences in that situation, provided the behavior change cannot be explained on the basis of native response tendencies, maturation, or temporary states of the subject

Classical Conditioning (Pavlovian Conditioning)

History

  • Pavlov & psychic reflexes demonstration

Terms

  • Unconditioned stimulus (US or UCS)
    • naturally elicits a response
  • Unconditioned response (UR)
    • natural response to US
  • Conditioned stimulus (CS)
    • a previously neutral stimulus which, after pairings with a US, attains the ability to elicit the same response
  • Conditioned response (CR)
    • the response to the CS (which looks like the UR, at least on the surface, and not in all cases)

Acquisition

  • stimulus contiguity
    • simultaneous presentation (of UCS & CS)
      • tone & meat are presented and ended at same time
    • short-delayed presentation
      • tone begins shortly before meat
      • tone & meat end at same time
    • trace presentation
      • tone is presented & ended right before the meat is presented then ended
  • saliency of stimulus
    • stimulus which is most noticeable is more likely a good potential CS

Extinction

  • Weaking asociation by presenting CS without UCS
  • Spontaneous recovery (after a period of non-exposure to CS)
  • Renewal effect (after re-exposure to environment where learning ocurred)

Stimulus Generalization and Discrimination

  • Stimulus generalization: when a person generalizes what they have learned from a specific CS to other stimuli which are similar to the original CS
    • e.g., if you have been classically conditioned to be scared of Bozo and then are later scared of all clowns
  • Stimulus discrimination: when a person does NOT generalize what they have learned from a specific CS to other stimuli which are similar to the original CS
    • e.g., if you have been classically conditioned to be scared of Bozo but are not scared of other clowns (so you are discriminating between Bozo and the other clowns)

Higher-order Conditioning

  • When a CS functions as a UCS
  • Example: A makes you happy, B provides A so B makes you happy (1st order), C provides B provides A so C makes you happy (2nd order)

Biological Influence on Conditioning

  • Conditioned taste aversion
    • one trial
    • extended delay between CS & US presentation
    • food stimuli-nausea associations are likely
  • Evolutionarily adaptative
  • CS: ecologically relevant vs. arbitrary, neutral stimulus

Operant Conditioning (Instrumental Learning)

History

  • B.F. Skinner (1904 – 1990): demonstrated that organisms repeat those responses that are followed by favorable consequences and organisms tend not to repeat those responses that are followed by negative and/or neutral consequence
  • Skinner box
    • Reinforcement contingencies
    • Cumulative recorder

Terms

  • reinforcement: consequence that increases tendency to repeat preceding behavior
    • positive reinforcement: adding something into the situation that increases the tendency to repeat the preceding behavior
    • negative reinforcement: taking something away from the situation that increases the tendency to repeat the preceding behavior
  • punishment: consequence that ↓ tendency to repeat preceding behavior
    • (positive) punishment: adding something into the situation that decreases the tendency to repeat the preceding behavior
    • (negative) punishment: taking something out of the situation that decreases the tendency to repeat the preceding behavior

Acquisition

  • When the connection between the behavior and a consequence is "aquired"
  • Shaping: reinforcements fo closer and closer approximations of a desired response

Extinction

  • Process where the usual consequence does not follow the emitted behavior
  • Resistance to extinction
  • Renewal effect

Stimulus Generalization and Discrimination

  • stimulus generalization: hold onto the association between the stimulus (and alike) and consequence
  • stimulus discrimination: only associate the stimulus (specifically only that stimulus) and consequence

Reinforcements

  • Primary reinforcers are those which directly satisfy our biological needs
  • Secondary reinforcers are those which are associated with primary reinforcements (e.g. money)
  • Schedules of Reinforcements
    • continuous reinforcement
      • reinforcement after every single target behavior
    • intermittent reinforcement
      • fixed-ratio schedule
        • reinforcement is given based on a fixed number of responses (e.g., every third response)
      • variable-ratio schedule
        • reinforcement is given based on an average number of responses (e.g., reinforcement is given, on average, 4 responses)
      • fixed-interval schedule
        • reinforcement is given based on the first response given after a fixed amount of time has passed (e.g., reinforcement is given if a rat pulls a lever after 4 seconds have passed)
      • variable-interval schedule
        • reinforcement is given based on the first response given after an average amount of time has passed (e.g., reinforcement is given if a rat pulls a level, on average, after 3 seconds have passed)
  • Special issue concerning positive punishment
    • e.g., corporeal punishment
    • poor-quality parent-child relationship, e.g. increased aggression, delinquency, behavior problems. Long term effects: associated with slowed cognitive development, increased criminal behavior, range of mental health issues (cited in Weiten)
    • correlational data; however, strong evidence for a causal relationship

Biological Influence on Conditioning

  • Instinctive drift
    • Operant conditioning is not always successful
    • Operant conditioning which tries to go against natural instinct usually fails
  • Preparedness and Phobias
  • Classical conditioning and operant conditioning are often used together, e.g. phobias
    • classical conditioning establishes the phobia
    • operant conditioning maintains the phobia
  • behavior of avoiding = decreased anxiety = reinforcing = increased likelihood that person will avoid the object of anxiety

Cognition in Classical & Operant Conditioning

  • Latent Learning & Cognitive Maps (Edward Tolman, 1930s & 1940s)
    • 1st group: reinforcement was given after every trial (through a maze) -> steadily improved
    • 2nd group: no reinforcements were given -> little improvement
    • 3rd group: reinforcements were given after the 10th trial onward -> sharply improved behavior
    • => learning can take place without reinforcement
    • mental representation of a map is possible
  • Signal Relations - predictive value of conditioned stimulus (Robert Rescorla, 1970s & 1980s)
    • 1st group: a tone signaled a shock every single time -> strong response
    • 2nd group: a tone signaled a shock only half of the time -> weaker response
    • somewhere in the organism’s mind, the predictive value of the environmental cue is being calculated

Observational Learning (modeling)

History

  • Albert Bandura (1970s, 1980s): suggest that many different cognitive processes could be involved with learning including internal processes which allow one to learn vicariously (so vicarious classical and operant conditioning)

Terms

  • cognitive processes which may be involved with this type of learning (attention, retention, reproduction, motivation)

7. Memory

Encoding

  • Attention
    • Focusing awareness onto something
    • Divided attention = decreased memory encoding
    • Multi-tasking is really shifting attention between tasks
      • high on impulsivity
      • high on sensation-seeking
  • Levels of processing ("digesting" information)
    • Structural encoding (how it looks)
    • Phonemic encoding (how it sounds)
    • Semantic encoding (what it means)
  • Enriching encoding
    • Elaboration
      • Linking stimulus to other information
      • Examples given with a main indolamine
    • Imagery (Paivio's dual-coding theory)
      • Linking verbal and visual cues
      • Retrieval cues
    • Motivation to remember
      • Pay more attention to things that we believe are relevant to us
  • "Learning styles" do not exist; "right/ left brained" do not exist

Storage

  • Sensory memory
    • Duration: ~1/4 second
    • Capacity: large
  • Short-term/ working memory
    • Duration: 10 - 20 seconds/ unlimited with uninterrupted rehearsal
    • Capacity: 7 ± 2 items/ 4 ± 1 items
      • Chunking - creates more room in working memory
      • Capacity may be somewhat flexible (e.g. depending on familiarity/ complexity)
    • Phonological loop (is the speech and sound related component of working memory and holds verbal and auditory information)
    • Episodic buffer ("workbench")
    • Working memory capacity (WMC): stable trait, heriditary influence, correlated with IQ
  • Long-term memory
    • Duration: indefinite but not necessarily permanent
    • Capacity: unlimited
    • Recall is critical
      • Retrieval practice
      • Distributed studying
      • Illusions of Competence (e.g. recency effect - items that came last are remembered more easily)
    • Type of long term memory
      • Explicit (things you can talk about)
      • Implicit (procedural memory system: actions, skills, operations)
  • *Moving things from short-term to long-term memory
    • Neurons need time for synaptogenesis (and to build connections)

Amnesias

  • Henry Gustav Molaison (H.M.): epileptic patient
    • Could not remember new information (explicit) but could improve on mirror-drawing task (implicit)
  • Semantic dementia (cannot remember the meaning of things)
    • Neocortex of lateral temporal area
  • Types of amnesias
    • Retrograde (forget things before)
    • Anterograde (forget things after)

Knowledge & Memory

  • Categories and conceptual hierarchies
  • Schemas
    • Stereotypes are a type of schema
  • Semantic network

Retrieval

  • Usually automatic, without much effort/ take conscious effort (e.g. systematic search)
  • Encoding specificity principle
    • Better retrieval cue matches memory -> more likely successful retrieval
    • Reinstate the context: increase chances of retrieval cue to retrieve the memory needed
    • Tip-of-the-tongue phenomena: what comes to mind may be a clue as to the word you are searching for
  • Memory is a reconstruction
    • Loftus: misinformation effect (post-event infromation leads to an alteration of memory)
    • Source monitoring error (make incorrect guess about where the information came from)

Forgetting

  • Measuring forgetting = measuring retention
    • Recall: results in a more steep curve
      • Ebbinghaus' Forgetting Curve is particularly steep (b/c they are nonsense words)
    • Recognition: more shallow curve
      • E.g. MCQ questions that serve as a cue for remembering
    • Relearning: even more shallow curve
      • E.g. the less time it takes person to relearn words, the more it indicates the person remembers
  • Reasons for forgetting
    • Ineffective encoding (pseudoforgetting)
      • Never really learnt it
    • Decay
      • Memory traces fade with time
    • Interference
      • Additional information get in the way of remembering other information
      • Amount, complexity and type of information learned affect retention (difficult content = more interference)
      • Proactive: when previously learned information interferes with you learning new information
      • Retroactive: : when newly-learned information interferes with you remembering previous information
    • Retrieval failure
      • Motivated forgetting: Freud - “repressed memories” (where your mind—unconsciously—represses negative events in your unconscious)
      • Motivated forgetting is a controversial idea

Memory Trace: Physiology of Memory

  • Neural circuitry of memory
    • Physical changes leading to functional synaptic changes: presynaptic/ postsynaptic
    • Neurogenesis (in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus)

10. Human Development

Physical

Conception

  • Egg (23 chromosomes) + sperm (23 chromosomes)
  • Ovulation occurs 2 weeks before menstrual period
  • Ovum lives for 12-24 h
  • Sperm lives for 5-7 days
  • Pregnancy tests
    • Home pregnancy test (urine)
      • Detects human chorionic gonadotropic hormone (HCG)
    • In-clinic pregnancy test (blood)
      • Detects HCG
Stages of prenatal development
  • Germinal stage: 0-2 weeks (Zygote)
    • Within 36 hours → proliferation (refers to the rapid cell division and multiplication)
    • 1 week → implantation
  • Embryonic stage: 2-8 weeks (Embryo)
    • Recognizably human/ humanoid
    • Cephalocaudal (dev from head to toe) & proximodistal (dev from middle to extremities)
    • Sensitive period of development
      • vital organs are developing
      • most miscarriages happen around this time
      • when errors occur during this time, it can be deadly or very serious
    • 70-80% have "morning sickness"
  • Fetal stage: 8-38 weeks (Fetus)
    • 12 weeks: basic structures are completed (though they will continue maturing)
      • Fetus' first movements (called "quickening")
      • Placenta has basic parts in place
    • 23-25 weeks: threshold of viability; 24%-72% chance of survival
      • 20-24 weeks birth = 43% neurodevelopmental impairments + 19% sensory deficits at 18-22 months
    • Rest of the weeks: fat deposits/ growth
Teratogens (environmental agents which can cause developmental malformations)
  • Maternal malnutrition
    • Increased risk of birth complications & neurological deficits
  • Material stress and emotional
    • Lead to negative hormones which may impact development
    • Increased stillbirth to various disorders
  • Drug exposure
    • e.g. recreational drugs, prescribed drugs, OTC drugs, smoking, alcohol
  • Maternal illness
    • First half of pregnancy: 1-2% risk of birth defects, including scarring of skin, limb defects, eye problems, etc.
    • Second half of pregnancy: probably okay
    • 5 to 21 days before birth: fetus may develop the illness
  • Environmental toxins
    • e.g. radiation exposure, air pollution, flame-retardant materials
  • Fetal origins of adult diseases
    • Prenatal malnutrition & schizophrenia; low birth weight & height disease; bipolar disorder
    • Mental and physical conditions
Postnatal development
  • Physical growth is uneven
  • Motor Development
    • 3 mos.: lifts head, chest up with arm support
    • 2.75 mos.: rolls over
    • 5.5 mos.: sits without support
    • 5.75 mos.: stands holding on to something
    • 7.5 mos.: pulls self to stand
    • 9 mos.: cruises (walks holding on to something)
    • 12 mos: walks alone
  • Adolescent growth spurt: next rapid growth
  • Females Males
    Sometime before growth spurt: secondary sex characteristics Sometime before growth spurt: secondary sex characteristics
    9-10 yrs. old: growth spurt 10-12 yrs. old: growth spurt (more intense and longer-lasting than for females)
    12-13 yrs. old: puberty (menarche: 1st menstruation) and primary sex characteristics (puberty) 13-14 yrs. old: spermarche (1st ejaculation) and primary sex characteristics (puberty)
    14-15 yrs. old: full height 15-16 yrs. old: full height
    16 yrs. old: sexual maturation 18 yrs. old: sexual maturation
  • Adulthood:
    • graying hair, thinning/balding
    • decline in sensory/perceptual acuity (e.g. increased farsightedness, loss of hearing)
    • menopause (~51 yrs. old)
    • proportion of fat increases
    • psychological and behavioral factors may be involved with “aging well,” not just good genetics (e.g. intelligence, optimism, conscientious, high self-esteem, positive emotions, nutritious diet, exercise, avoiding smoking and substance abuse, regular medical checkups, SLEEP)

Emotional

  • Smiling & laughter (~4-6 weeks)
    • One of the first expressions of pleasure
  • Fear
    • ~3 months: wariness, sober stares
    • ~6 months: distress; whimpering; looking away
    • ~7 months: true fear, crying
    • ~14-18 months: separation anxiety peaks
  • Early attachment styles
    • attachment styles in the US
      • secure attachment (60-65%)
      • anxious/ambivalent aka resistant attachment (10-15%)
      • avoidant attachment (20%)
      • disorganized/disorientated attachment (5-10%)
      • Ainsworth Strange Situation: psychological experiment that measures the attachment between an infant and their primary caregiver
    • culture
      • separation anxiety
      • proportion of those who fall into the different types of attachment may vary; economic circumstances may be contributing factor
    • parental style
      • sensitive care → secure
      • insensitive care (e.g. feeding baby when baby is not hungry) → avoidant
      • inconsistent care → anxious/ambivalent aka resistant
      • severe neglect and/or abuse → disorganized/disoriented

Language

  • 1-5 mos.: reflexive communication; cooing
  • 6-18 mos.: babbling
  • 10-13 mos.: first words
  • 12-18 mos.: one word sentences
    • receptive vs. productive vocabulary (understanding more than you can say)
    • overextension (using the same word for different situations)
    • underextension
  • 18-24 mos.: vocabulary spurt & fast mapping
  • towards end of 2 yrs: telegraphic speech (not universal)
  • towards end of 3 yrs.: overregularizations
  • 5 yrs.+: well-developed and complex grammar

Personality

  • Biological: genetics & traits/predispositions
  • Psychoanalytic: personality arises as we resolve psychosexual conflicts
  • Neopsychoanalytic (proposed by those who followed Freud, then rejected some of his ideas, and developed their own): personality arises as we resolve psychosocial conflicts
  • Learning/behavioral: personality is a collection of behavioral tendencies/habits
  • Humanistic: people have innate drive to become who they were meant to be

Cognitive

  • Jean Piaget: cognitive development
    • inferred that certain cognitive skills were not present until a certain age
    • piagetCognitiveTheory.png
  • Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory
    • social interaction is very important for cognitive development
      • whereas Piaget felt cognitive development was due to maturation
    • language acquisition is vital for cognitive development
      • private speech
      • Piaget felt that language acquisition was just a part of cognitive development, not necessarily crucial for it (Williams Syndrome)
  • Teenage brain
    • increased myelination + increased synaptic pruning
    • later maturation of prefrontal cortex
    • early development of subcortical DA/reward system
    • leads to impulsive behavior with decreased inhibition
  • Adults
    • loss of neurons (mostly normal!) + shrinkage of active neurons (mostly after 60)
    • later adulthood: senility/dementia is not normal
      • 85 yrs. + = 33% with dementia
      • 70% = Alzheimer’s disease (memory problems > executive function problems > death in approximately 8-10 yrs.)
      • Genetics may account for 70% of variance? Chronic inflammation associated with increased risk.
      • exercise + cognitive activities, active social activities, decreased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, no history of smoking or diabetes, diet low in meats, sweets and high-fat dairy are correlated with ↓ risk of dementia
      • Nun study suggests high prevalence of positive emotions too
    • memory: fairly stable memory and/or cognition but research is mixed
      • ↓ episodic memory, in particular
      • problem-solving seems okay if adequate time is given (for the slower brain)
      • speed of processing slows down
      • people who have mentally demanding jobs and/or continue to engage in intellectually challenging activities seem to buffer against cognitive decline
      • programs to increase mental activity have met with mixed results

Moral

  • Kohlberg’s moral development theory
  • kohlbergMoralDevelopment.png

Major events

  • Search for identity (adolescence)
    • lifetime – research shows that the search for identity doesn’t just occur during adolescence but occurs throughout a lifetime, from time to time and this is healthy
    • Marcia’s theory of identity statuses:
    • marciaTheoryofIdentity.png
  • Jeffrey Arnett’s emerging adulthood (18 – 29 yrs.)
    • not adolescent/not adult, possibilities/optimism, self-focused time, continued identity search
  • Marriage:
    • delaying marriage (later 20’s, 30s) (careers, educational requirements, autonomy)
    • 90% still marry
    • 8-14% distressed when transitioning (balancing responsibilities, e.g. work and financial concerns)
    • cohabitation (66% now)
    • more common now, correlated with better outcomes now (unlike the past)
    • expectation of roles
      • men doing more housework/childcare but (44%) women still doing majority, even among highly-paid executive women
      • more equitable housework distribution corre. with greater sex and greater sexual satisfaction.
    • 50% end in divorce
  • Parenthood
    • Delaying parenthood (later 20’s, 30s)
    • Majority still have children
    • Marital satisfaction can suffer after having children (esp. as number of children increase)
    • However, factors such as chore distribution and relationship trust, responsiveness and gratitude can influence
    • Adolescents spend less time in family activities and may have increased conflicts, but the conflicts tend to be about everyday matters.
  • Empty Nest
    • Empty nest syndrome: parents get distressed when children leave the house: myth
  • Aging
    • subjective well-being matters!
    • rates of chronic illness increase
    • protective psychological factors:
      • higher intelligence (greater health, longevity)
      • personality traits like optimism, conscientiousness, high self-esteem, positive emotions
      • behavioral habits (e.g. diet and exercise, smoking & drinking, medical checkups)
      • 2/3 of cancers due to poor diet and/or lack of exercise

Death

  • Kübler –Ross
    • Denial
    • Anger
    • Bargaining
    • Depression
    • Acceptance
  • Recent research = no “stages” and these emotions may not be experienced by all
  • Bereavement
    • cultural differences
    • patterns: absent grief/resilient pattern (50%, most common – but results challenged by other studies), chronic grief, common grief, depressed-improved pattern, chronic depression

11. Personality

  • Unique collection of traits (distinctiveness)
    • Relatively stable across situations and time
  • Traits: internal dispositions or behavioral tendencies

Psychodynamic perspective

  • Freud's psychoanalytic theory
    • Structure of personality
      • Id (primary)
        • Reservoir of psychic energy
        • Pleasure principle
      • Ego (secondary)
        • Decision-making
        • Reality principle
      • Superego
        • Moral component, takes awhile to develop
    • Levels of awareness can vary for each of the different components of personality
      • Conscious
      • Preconscious
      • Unconscious
    • Parapraxes (aka Freudian slips): minor errors in speech, memory, or action that are thought to be caused by unconscious wishes, attitudes, or impulses
    • Internal conflict influences behavior
    • Freud's theory of personality development
Stage Age Range Focus of Libido Key Developmental Task Fixation Characteristics
Oral Stage Birth to 1 year Mouth Sucking, biting, chewing. Primary conflict: weaning. Dependency, smoking, overeating, nail-biting
Anal Stage 1 to 3 years Anus Toilet training. Primary conflict: control over bodily functions. Orderliness, stubbornness, messiness, expulsive behaviors
Phallic Stage 3 to 6 years Genitals Oedipus/Electra complex (desire for opposite-sex parent). Identification with same-sex parent. Vanity, recklessness, difficulty with authority
Latent Stage 6 to puberty None (dormant) Development of communication and intellectual skills, peer relationships. No major fixations, focus on social and cognitive development
Genital Stage Puberty onward Genitals Development of mature sexual relationships. Focus on reproduction and emotional intimacy. Healthy relationships, balanced personality

Neopsychodynamic views of personality development

  • Jung's analytical psychology
    • personal unconscious vs collective unconscious
  • Alfrd Adler's individual psychology
    • primary motivation = striving for superiority
  • Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development
    • erikEriksonPsychosocial.png

Behavioral perspective

  • Skinner's behavioral/ determinism ideas
    • Focus on environmental factors & observable behavior
    • Personality is therefore a collection of unique response tendencies
  • Bandura's contribution of "cognition" to this behavioral perspective
  • Mischel and Person-Situation Controversy
    • Personality traits have much less consistency across situations than people think

Humanistic perspective

  • Focus on healthy human quality
    • Freedom
    • Innate drive for personal growth
    • Not determined by primitive biological urges
    • Not dominated by unconscious, irrational urges/conflicts
  • Carl Roger’s Person-Centered Theory
    • Self (aka self-concept)
    • If there is incongruence between self-concept & reality → distress/anxiety
    • Conditional love = ↑ risk of incongruence
    • Distress/anxiety may lead people to deny/twist reality to protect their self-concept
  • Maslow’s Theory of Self-actualization
    • Unlike Freud, studied people who were thought to be psychological healthy maslowSelfActualization.png

Biological perspective

  • Hans Eysenck’s PEN theory
    • Genes + learning = personality
      • Heavy emphasis on genetics
      • Variations in conditionability (is one example)
    • Three higher-order traits:
      • Psychoticism
      • Extraversion-introversion (Big Five: sociable, lively, active, assertive, sensation-seeking)
      • Neuroticism
  • Research support for heritability of personality traits
    • Identical twins reared together > identical twins reared apart > fraternal twins reared together

12. Social Psychology

Person perception

  • Physical appearance
    • People who are taller, normal weight, make eye contact, have good posture, wear nice clothes are physically attractive
    • -> make more favorable impressions
  • Cognitive schemas
    • Humans evolved to use schemas/ stereotypes/ have biases and notice patterns
    • Society teaches stereotypes and biases -> systemic/ institutional bias
    • Persist in using stereotypes: confirmation bias, illusory correlation, difficult to identify and control them
    • Implicit biases affect an infinite variety of behaviors
    • Consequences of stereotypes
      • Could be wrong
      • Lead to biases/ attitudes/ prejudice
      • Which leads to discrimination
      • Which leads to large inequalities between groups of people
      • Out-group homogeneity effect: perception of out-group members as more similar to one another than are in-group members
      • Diversity vs equality vs equity
        • Diversity: makeup of the group
        • Equality: giving everyone same access to resources/opportunities, etc.
        • Equity: achieving equality by making reparations – in other words, treating people differently, based on need

Attribution

  • (Heider): judgment between external vs. internal cause of behavior
  • (Weiner): Internal-Unstable, Internal-Stable, External-Unstable, External-Stable
  • Attributions influence our behaviors:
    • Liberals on poverty: external attribution → public assistance
    • Conservatives on poverty: internal attribution → non-supportive of public assistance
  • Biases in the attribution process (actor vs. observer bias)
    • fundamental attribution error (actors favor external attributions; observers favor internal attributions)
    • self-serving bias (actor favor internal attributions for success and external attributions for failures): tendency increases with time

Interpersonal attraction

  • Factors influencing this
    • Physical attractiveness (matching hypothesis: married couples are similar)
    • Similarity (couples and friends)
  • Nature of romantic love
    • Hatfield & Berscheid, 1988:
      • passionate (DA may play a role), companionate
    • R. Sternberg, 1988:
      • passionate, commitment, intimacy
      • combination of the components = different types of love
      • consummate love = high on all components
      • level of each component of love changes over time (e.g. passion decreases over time but more gradually and much more modestly than once thought before)
  • Internet and close relationships
    • Virtual relationships can be intimate and evolve to face-to-face relationships
    • Evolutionary perspective - Physical attractiveness indicative of good health, genes, fertility - Facial symmetry: good external and internal developmental environments - Women's waist-to-hip ratio: reproductive potential - Gender differences: men look for youth; women look for ambition, social status - Peri-ovulation/ ovulation: women prefer more masculine features, dominance

Attitudes

  • Three components: cognitive, affective, behavioral
  • Three dimensions: strength, accessibility, ambivalence
  • Mediocre predictors of behavior: strength of attitude, situational constraints
  • Formed by learning
    • Classical conditioning: e.g. transferring affective component from an unconditioned stimulus to a conditioned stimulus
    • Operant conditioning: e.g. openly expressing attitude and being reinforced or punished for it
    • Observational learning: e.g. observing how others attitudes can be reinforced or punished
  • Change someone's attitude
    • Source factors: credibility
    • Message factors: using two-sided arguments, fear, repetition
    • Receiver factors: transient factors matter more than personality factors
    • Channel factors: in-person, TV, radio
  • How do attitudes change:
    • (Festinger): cognitive dissonance may lead to attitude change (but not always); e.g. effort justification
    • (Petty & Cacioppo): Elaboration Likelihood Model
      • central/high elaboration route
        • longer-lasting change
        • more resistant to changing
        • better predictor of behavior
      • peripheral/low elaboration route

Social influence on behavior

  • Conformity due to group pressure (e.g. Solomon Asch's studies)
    • normative influence (fear of negative social consequences, being liked)
    • information influence (information for ambiguous situations, being right)
    • replicated in other societies with higher numbers of conformity
    • reactance: hoarding toilet paper
  • Obedience: compliance due to direct command
    • Milgram’s Obedience Study: Yale study, over 65% still obedient

Behavior in groups

  • Bystander effect
    • Diffusion of responsibility
    • e.g. Kitty Genovese
  • Group productivity and social loafing
    • increased numbers -> decreased productivity
    • reduced efficiency due to loss of coordination AND ↓ effort due to diffusion of responsibility
    • smaller group size, new groups, non-anonymized contributions, collectivist society = ↓ social loafing
  • Group polarization
    • groups sometimes take extreme positions after discussion, esp. if there is a slight bias towards a position
    • (Myers & Bishop, 1970): had two groups divided into high- and low- prejudiced groups to discuss racial issues
  • (Janis) Groupthink
    • groups sometimes make poor decisions
    • heavy emphasis on cohesion, direct pressure to conform

14. Psychological Disorders

  • What are psychological disorders?
    • Psychopathology as an illness
    • Advantages:
      • Diagnosis
      • Etiology: factors which cause and/ or maintain the Psychopathology
      • Prognosis/ treatment
    • Criticisms:
      • Continued stigma
  • Criteria
    • 3 D's
      • Deviance
      • Dysfunction
      • Distress
    • DSM-V (American Psychiatric Association)
      • Normal vs Psychopathology
      • Increase in number of diagnoses

Sample of Disorders

  • Anxiety disorders
    • marked feelings of apprehension or anxiety
    • biological: neurotransmitters (GABA: anxiety, 5-HT: OCD)
    • modest heritability
    • acquired via classical conditioning, maintained via operant conditioning
    • biological preparedness: learning fears more readily than others
    • maladaptive cognitive patterns: misinterpret harmless situation as harmful
    • Generalized Anxiety Disorder
      • Fairly larger portion of population (2/3 sufferers are females)
    • Specific Phobia: irrational fear of a specific object or situation
    • Panic disorder: sudden, overwhelming anxiety
    • Agoraphobia: fear of going out in public
  • Obsessive-compulsive & related disorders
    • presence of obsessions and/ or compulsions (often about inflicing harm on others, suicide or sexual acts)
    • smaller portion of population
    • male : female = equitable
  • Trauma and stressor related disorders
    • disorders due to exposure to trauma
    • due to exposure to major traumatic event
  • Dissociative disorders
    • disorders due to separation of consciousness
    • Dissociative amnesia (loss of personal information)
    • Dissociative identity disorder (coexistence of two or more personalities)
  • Major depressive disorder
    • disorders marked by emotional disturbances
    • larger portion of population
    • average duration: 6 mos
    • women 2x greater than men
  • Bipolar disorders
    • at least one manic episode (expansive, irritable mood lasting at least 1 week)
    • inflated self-esteem/ grandiosity
    • small portion of population
    • women : men = equitable
  • **Suicide
    • 10th leading cause of death
    • Attempts (25) : Suicides (1)
    • Women (3 - 4x) : men
    • 90% likely have a type of psychological disorder
  • **Etiology of depressive and bipolar disorders
    • Genetic vulnerability (large concordance rate for MZ twins)
    • Neurochemical and neuroanatomical factors (NE & 5-HT)
    • Cognitive factors (learned helplessness, rumination)
  • Schizophrenia spectrum & other psychotic disorders
    • disorders marked by a break from reality
    • delusions (80% hostility), hallucinations (70% auditory), disorganized speech/ thought
    • affective flattening (emotional numbing), alogia (reduced speed), avolition (low motivation)
  • **Etiology of schizophrenia spectrum
    • Genetic vulnerability (large concordance rate for MZ twins) - Neurochemical factors (5-HT, GABA, glutamate also implicated)
    • Enlarged ventricles, decreased volune of both gray and white matters
    • Neurodevelopmental hypothesis: viral infection/ malnutrition/ obstetrical complications
  • Neural developmental disorders
    • conditions with onset in developmental period
    • autism spectrum disorder, asperger's syndrome
    • social communications and interaction deficits in multiple contexts
    • 30-40% may not develop speech
    • 1.5% prevalence in population
    • 80% are males, females may have more severe impairments
  • ** Etiology of neural development disorders
    • Genetic
    • Brain abnormality (brain enlargement by age 2 years, overgrowth in various areas of cortex)
  • Personality disorders
    • enduring maladaptive inner experience and behaviors
    • Antisocial Personality Disorder (reject widely accepted social norms)
    • Borderline Personality Disorder (instability in social relationships, fear abandonment, black and white thinking)
    • Narcissistic Personality Disorder (grandiose sense of self, sense of entitlement)
  • Feeding and eating disorders
    • disturbance of eating or eating-related behaviors
    • Anorexia Nervosa
      • 10-fold elevation in premature death
      • 90-95% females
    • Bulimia Nervosa
      • Correlated with increased risk of death
      • 90-95% females
    • Binge-Eating Disorder
      • Eating more rapidly, until uncomfortably full, large amounts when not physically hungry, feel disgusted/ depressed after
      • 60% females
  • Genetic overlap among major disorders
    • Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder genetic overlap = high
    • Schizophrenia and depression genetic overlap = moderate
    • Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder genetic overlap = moderate
    • Schizophrenia and autism genetic overlap = low

15. Treatments

Who provides treatments

  • Clinical Psychologist - PhD or PsyD
  • Psychiatrists - MD
  • Counseling Psychologist - PhD, PsyD, or EdD

Insight therapies

  • Psychoanalysis (Freud): psychopathology develop from unconscious, unresolved conflicts
    • Free association
    • Dream analysis
    • Analyzing resistance
    • Analyzing transference
  • Psychodynamic therapies: also considers drives and forces inside a person, but the treatments tend to be less intense and shorter in duration than psychoanalysis
    • Focus on emotional experience
    • Exploration of eforts to avoid distressing thoughts and feelings
  • Client-centered therapy (humanist perspective)
    • Roger: Psychopathology develops because of incongruence of self-concept vs reality
    • Create positive emotional climate

Behavior therapies

  • Psychopathology develops because person learned maladaptive behaviors in response to stimuli
  • To unlearn or suppress maladaptive behavioral responses and replace with adaptative behavioral responses
  • Systematic desensitization therapy
    • Build anxiety hierarchy
    • Teach relaxation techniques
    • Exposure therapy: exposing person to the feared stimulus
  • Social skills training
    • Modeling
    • Behavioral rehearsal
    • Shaping
  • Aversion therapy (combination of biomedical + learning principles)
    • Disulfiram & alcoholism: patients would take disulfiram (aka Antabuse) in the morning. If they drank alcohol later during the day, they would get extremely sick

Cognitive therapies

  • Psychopathology develops because maladaptive thinking such as having unreasonable global assumptions
  • To change maladaptive thinking
  • Help person to: a. identify maladaptive thoughts and b. challenge the unreasonable negative thoughts
  • Behavioral activation (identify which activities make clients feel pleasure and accomplishment)
  • Cognitive bias modification

Cognitive behavior therapies

  • Cognitive and behavioral therapies used together
  • Ellis' rational-emotive behavior therapy focuses on how “you think the way you feel” so his therapy is a combination of cognitive therapy and behavioral therapy
  • Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is another type of CBT which specifically targets managing intense emotions

Biomedical therapies

  • Drugs
    • Antianxiety drugs (aka anxiolytics aka sedatives aka tranquilizers)
      • short-lived effects
      • side effects (lightheadedness, cottonmouth, drowsiness)
      • withdrawal effects
    • Antipsychotic drugs (aka psychotropic drugs aka neuroleptics)
      • traditionally dopamine (DA) antagonist
      • 2 days to 1 week to take effect, improvement may continue for several months
      • side effects (Tardive dyskinesia: 15-25% on traditional antipsychotics)
    • Antidepressant drugs
      • side effects: increased suicidal thinking in Adolescents
      • 60% effects in the first 2 weeks
    • Mood stabilizers
      • Lithium, valproate
      • To prevent future episodes and bring out of current episode
  • Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
    • Electrical current which triggers seizure
    • Patient awakens in 1-2 hours
    • 2-3x per week for 2-7 weeks
    • • Mild, short-term cognitive impairments or more severe, permanent cognitive impairments
  • Increasing multicultural sensitivity in treatment
  • Minorities underutilize treatments (language, financial barier)
  • Efforts to improve may include:
    • Recruiting more minority therapists
    • Fostering cultural competence
    • Fostering cultural humility
  • Not enough clinicians/treatment centers for everyone, esp. among ethnic minorities
  • Technology can increase the reach: phone (e.g. elderly clients with anxiety), videoconferencing, internet (CBT adaptations) modules which educate and take people through exercises/homework. Some are partially automatized (with access to a therapist) while others are fully automatized

Mental institutions

  • Mentally ill used to be housed with families, then in mental hospitals
  • Mental institutions:
    • underfunded
    • isolation from social support
  • 1960s: community mental health movement
    • push for local care
    • less dependent on hospitalization
  • 1960s: deinsitutionalization
    • less costly option, can be near loved ones
    • "revolving door" for many of the most seriously ill and increased homeless mentally ill
  • Elevated rates of mental illness among the homeless
    • 1/3 mentally ill
    • 1/3 drug or alcohol dependence