exam Flashcards
psychotropic drugs
medications designed to alter psychological functioning
In order to affect the brain in the desired way, psychotropic drugs must cross the blood-brain barrier, which is what?
a network of tightly packed cells that only allows specific types of substances to move from the bloodstream to the brain in order to protect delicate brain cells against harmful infections and other substances.
Antidepressant drugs
medications designed to reduce symptoms of depression
1st type of antidepressant: monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) (down sides?)
work by deactivating monoamine oxidase (MAO), an enzyme that breaks down serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine at the synaptic clefts of nerve cells. (Down sides: dangerous side effects when interacting w/ other meds & certain foods e.g., aged cheese, smoked meats, alcohol)
2nd type of antidepressant: tricyclic antidepressants (side effects?)
drugs that block the reuptake of serotonin and norepinephrine. (Side effects: nausea, weight gain, sexual dysfunction, & seizures)
3rd type of antidepressant: selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) (side effects?)
a class of antidepressant drugs that block the reuptake of serotonin – means more serotonin will remain in synapse, thus allowing it to continue to affect the postsynaptic neurons. (Side effects: changes in sleep pattern & sex drive)
what is the bystander effect
The presence of others decreases the likelihood of helping behaviour
what decreases the likelihood of helping behaviour
- Notice the event: other people can cause a distraction
- Interpret that event as an emergency: pluralistic ignorance meaning that we look to the external behaviours of others as an indication of how they feel internally which can affect how we think
- Assume responsibility: the more people that are around the more responsibility gets diffuses
- Know the appropriate form of assistance: feelings of lack oh knowledge of competence in social situations
- Decide to implement help: danger to self embarrassment especially if others are not acting
what is conformity
- Adjusting our behaviour or thinking to coincide with the group
○ “norm formation” (e.g., standing in an elevator, classroom behaviour)
what are reasons for conformity: normative social influence
○ We follow social norms (unwritten rules for behaviour) to avoid rejection and gain approval
○ We don’t want to “stand out” or be punished
what are reasons for conformity: informational social influence
○ Sometimes we assume the group knows something we don’t (look to others for information
○ Especially in new or ambiguous situations
asch’s line judgement study
- Which lines matches the target line
- When 7 others (confederates of the researcher) give the clearly wrong answer
○ 1/3 people conform on any given test trial
○ 70% of people give at least one wrong answer overall
what is obedience
- Complying with a direct request from an authority figure
who is stanley milgram
wanted to understand the atrocities of world war II
○ Nuremberg trials - just following orders?
○ Would people violate moral beliefs when ordered
milgram experiment
- Study of learning
○ Participant is the ‘teacher’, confederate is the ‘learner’
○ Electric shocks after each mistake, increase intensity
○ Learner protests, asks to leave study, screams, refuses to answer, falls silent - Experimenter says ‘the experiement requires that you continue’
- How many will continue to the highest voltage ~70% of people
- We’re more susceptible to social pressure & authority than we think
why do people obey
- Lack of personal responsibility
- Not wanting to be rude or disobey rules
- Initially obey easy commands and then feel trapped and compelled to obey increasingly difficult commands; entrapment
philip zimbardo
the Stanford prison experiment (1971)
- 24 young men randomly assigned to prisoner or guard
○ Guards: sleep deprivation, denied bathroom, stripped naked, solitary confinement, 1/3 sadistic by day 6
○ Prisoners: riots, passive acceptance, mental breakdown
- Criticisms
○ Unethical
○ Unscientific
§ No control group
§ Small, unrepresentative sample of 24
§ Selection bias
○ Participants behaved as they were expected to behave
§ No rules; told to create fear
§ Zimbardo was not a neutral observer; enabled bad behaviou
person perception: thin slicing
- Thin-sliced judgements: we form quick impressions of others based on “thin-sliced of behaviour
○ These first impressions are surprisingly accurate
explaining behaviours: attributions
- We describe others’ behaviours either in terms of their internal dispositions (stable) or their external situations (varying)
- When someone shows up late, is this because
○ They are irresponsible
○ Their bus was delayed
fundamental attribution error
- We overestimate the influence of internal dispositions and underestimate the influence of situations
○ When judging others
§ A jerk or a nice guy
○ When judging ourselves
§ We blame sitch for bad and ourselves for good
what is prejudice and what are its components
- An unjustifiable (usually negative) attitude toward a group and it’s members
○ Often cultural, ethnic, gender, or sexual orientation groups
○ A pre-judgement - Components of prejudice
○ Beliefs: stereotypes
○ Emotion: hostility, anger, fear, discomfort
○ Behaviour: discrimination
is prejudice unconscious or conscious
- Prejudice works at both the conscious and (especially) the unconscious level
○ Implicit/automatic negative associations
○ Like a knee-jerk response more than a conscious decision - Eg. Unconscious racial prejudice
○ 9/10 respondents were slow at responding to words like peace or paradise when they saw a black persons photo compared to a white persons photo (hugenberg & bodenhausen, 2003)
what are the social roots of prejudice
- Social inequalities
○ Influence of money, power, and prestige
○ Just world fallacy and system justification - Social divisions
○ In-groups: overestimate the diversity in our group
○ Out-group: underestimate the diversity within their group
○ In-group bias: tendency to favour one’s own group
what is the stereotype threat
- Fear of confirming a negative stereotype about one’s group, leading to underperformance
○ Anxiety, depression, suppression
how do we reduce prejudice
- “colourblind” strategies are not effective
- Contact (especially friendships)
- Changing social norms: expectations, media, attitudes
St. John’s wort (Hypericum performatum)
commonly used alternative to antidepressants. researchers found that it affects two neurotransmitters related to depression & anxiety: serotonin & epinephrine. However, it does interact w/ other meds, so users should consult physician before taking.
Mood stabilizers
drugs used to prevent or reduce the severity of mood swings experienced by ppl w/ bipolar disorder
Lithium (side effects?)
one of first mood stabilizers to be prescribed regularly in psychiatry, & from the 1950s to 1980s, was the standard drug treatment for depression & bipolar disorder; can be quite effective but also toxic to kidneys and endocrine system
Antianxiety drugs (examples?) (side effects?)
affect the activity of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), an inhibitory neurotransmitter that reduces neural activity; e.g., alprazolam (Xanax), diazepam (Valium), lorazepam (Ativan); side effects: drowsiness, tiredness, impaired attention
MDMA-assisted therapy
83% of patients in the MDMA group no longer met the criteria for PTSD, whereas only 25% of the placebo group showed improvement, and follow-up found recovery was long-lasting.
Antipsychotic drugs
generally used to treat symptoms of psychosis, including delusions, hallucinations, & severely disturbed or disorganized thought
1st gen. of antipsychotic drugs: Thorazine, Halodol (side effects?)
block dopamine receptors, b/c symptoms of schizophrenia are related to dopamine activity in the frontal lobes & basal ganglia; side effects: seizures, anxiety, nausea, impotence, & tardive dyskinesia
tardive dyskinesia
movement disorder involving involuntary movements & facial tics
2nd gen. of antipsychotic drugs: atypical antipsychotics or 2nd gen. antipsychotics (down sides?)
less likely to produce side effects, work by affecting dopamine & serotonin transmission; down sides: effects tend to weaken over time + risks – Clozapine (drug), compromises the body’s white blood cells.
Frontal lobotomy
surgically severing the connections between different regions of the brain
Who was Antonio Moniz and what did he do?
Portuguese surgeon who developed a technique to help ppl w/ severe psychoses & other disorders. The leucotomy - surgical destruction of brain tissues in the prefrontal cortex
Who were Dr. Walter Freeman & Dr. James Watts and what did they do?
Dr. Freeman was an American surgeon who w/ his collaborator Dr. Watts further refined the lobotomy, developing the trans-orbital lobotomy (icepick lobotomy) - insert a slender metal shaft in between the eyeball & the eyelid, then tap a hammer through the bony roof of the eye socket & into the brain, then move it around until frontal lobes were detached
Focal lesions
small areas of brain tissue which are surgically destroyed
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
involves passing an electrical current through the brain in order to induce a temporary seizure; reserved for severe cases of disorders such as depression & bipolar disorder
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS)
a therapeutic technique in which a focal area of the brain is exposed to a powerful magnetic field across several treatment sessions
Deep brain stimulation (DBS)
a technique that involves electrically stimulating specific regions of the brain (inserting thin electrode-tipped wires into the brain & carefully routing them to targeted brain regions, then a small battery connected to the wires is inserted just beneath the skin surface)
