Exam 3 Flashcards
Social Behavior is Adaptive
- Cooperation – coordination of efforts to achieve common goals and sharing of resources
- Kin selection, reciprocity, helping, protection, shared care for young
- Personal and inclusive fitness
Functions of Social Emotions
- Intrapersonal – support health, cognitive functioning and well-being; social isolation/exclusion disrupts these
- Interpersonal – emotional responses help regulate relationships, fostering
interdependence and group functioning
What is Attachment?
lasting emotional bond between individual and significant others
Critical Period
Optimal period life when experience produces normal development
Imprinting
Certain animals form strong attachments early in life
Open Behavior Program
Program (potential for behavior) is innate but must be completed through environmental input
Functions of Food: Food or Emotional Security
F. Skinner: attachment = food
2. John Bowlby: attachment = security
3. Harry Harlow (1958)
a. Wire-food versus cloth “mothers”
b. Spent most time with cloth “mother” even if wire mother held food
c. High anxiety/panic into adulthood
d. Helped start animal rights movement
The Deprivation of Attachment
- Problem caused by high birthrate encouraged by government
- Children outnumber caregivers in orphanages – left on their own
- Multitude of problems – anxiety, impulse control, social withdrawal, emotional regulation, low self-esteem, poor intellectual functioning low academic achievement
(Weir, 2014)
D. Infant Attachment to Parents
Infant Attachment to Parents: Proximity Seeking
Desire to be near the figure
Infant Attachment to Parents: Safe Haven
Turn to figure when threatened/hurt
Infant Attachment to Parents: Secure Base
Sense of security, confidence exploring away from parents
Infant Attachment to Parents: Function
Balances needs to explore independently with the need to stay near protective caregivers
Disorganized Attachment
he infant displays intense anxiety even when the caregiver is
present; frightened, yet unable to turn to the caregiver for comfort
Infant Attachment to Parents: The Strange Situation
Infant & parent enter unfamiliar toy-filled room; infant allowed to play
b. Stranger enters, talks with the parent and infant (3 min)
c. Parent leaves, stranger remains (3 min), parent returns (3 min)
d. Both stranger and parent leave the room.
e. Stranger returns alone, tries to comfort & play with infant.
f. Parent returns
What Causes Attachment Styles?
Temperament (Nature) & Caregiving Style (Nurture)
Temperament (Nature)
Style linked to serotonin receptor gene (Fraley et al., 2013; Gillath et al., 2008)
b. Style is moderately consistent over time (into adulthood) and across caregivers
Caregiving Styles: Secure
responsive to baby’s signals – allows independent exploration but
responds quickly to danger, distress
Caregiving Styles: Anxious-Ambivalent
intrusive, ignoring need for independence
Caregiving Styles: Avoidant
distant, unresponsive to infant cues
Adult Attachment Hazan & Shaver (1987)
- Local newspaper: “which paragraph best describes you?” Followed by a survey about
relationships:
a. Secure – I find it relatively easy to get close to others and am comfortable depending on them and having them depend on me. I don’t often worry about being abandoned or about someone getting too close to me.
b. Avoidant – I am somewhat uncomfortable being close to others; I find it difficult to trust them completely and difficult to allow myself to depend on them. I am nervous when anyone gets too close, and often love partners want me to be more intimate than I feel comfortable being.
c. Anxious – I find that others are reluctant to get as close as I would like. I often worry that my partner doesn’t really love me or won’t want to stay with me. I want to merge completely with another person, and this desire sometimes scares
people away
Hazan & Shaver (1987) Results
a. Secure (56%)
− Longest relationships, least likely to have been divorced
− Describe most important love as happy, friendly, trusting
− Believe ups & downs are normal in relationships
b. Avoidant (25%)
− Report fear of closeness, inability to accept imperfections
− Most likely to agree romantic love does not last forever
− Most likely to describe selves as independent
c. Anxious (19%)
− Obsessively preoccupied with partners; intense highs & lows
− Most likely to report ”love at first sight”
− Most likely to say they fall in love easily, often
− Most likely to feel misunderstood, unappreciated, self-doubting
Familiarity
Liking increases with familiarity
Familiarity: Function & Examples
Familiarity signals safety – uncertainty is associated with danger
Examples
a. Mere Exposure (Zajonc, 1968) – Conscious and subliminal exposure to stimuli
increases liking
b. Proximity – decreases actual or functional distance increases liking
Similarity: Function & Examples
Function – Similarity linked to kinship cognitions (Park & Schaller 2005) and we favor family
2. Can lead from liking to attraction
- Examples
a. Demographics, attitudes, attractiveness, subjective experiences
b. Matching Hypothesis – relationships with others of similar desirability
What are the two reproductive strategies for gene replication?
- Numbers
- Investment
Reproductive Strategy: Numbers
Lots of offspring, little investment, some survive
**Human males can take the numbers option, females can not
Reproductive Strategy: Investment
Few offspring, lots of investment, nurture increases survival
Mating Preferences Shaped by Evolution
Gender differences = competing goals for quantity vs viability of offspring
(parental investment)
2. Babies are easy to make but difficult to raise
3. Evolution + gender differences = controversy
What do men want in short-term partners?
a. Many partners, low commitment, high fertility
b. Men more interested in short-term than women (numbers)
What do men want in long-term partners?
a. reproductive value (youth = greater number of offspring)
b. paternity confidence (chastity, sexual fidelity)
c. gene quality (attractiveness = good genes) and parenting skills
What do women want in short-term partners?
a. Commitment potential (potential long-term)
b. Immediate resources, fend off competitors
What do women want in long-term partners?
a. resource acquisition (older, more financially stable)
b. parental investment (long-term commitment, emotional fidelity), parenting skills
c. Gene quality (attractiveness) important, but not comparable to men)
Research Results for the Evolution of Desire
- Men report greater levels of seeking short-term relationships but no gender differences in seeking long-term relationships
- Men desire a greater number of lifetime sexual partners
- Men more interested in sex early in relationship
- Men prioritize attractiveness (gene quality) more than women
- Men prioritize sexual fidelity more than women (paternal confidence)
- Women prioritize career and financial prospects more than men
- Research supports that women respond more negatively to emotional infidelity while men respond more negatively to sexual infidelity (commitment vs chastity)
- Attractiveness and wealth don’t top lists; personality traits such as kindness, dependability, sense of humor, etc
Cross-culturally
a. Men value attractiveness more than women
b. Men value chastity more than women in most cultures
c. Men looking for younger women (reproductive value) and women looking for older men (resources)
d. Women value financial prospects more than men
Sociocultural Perspective / Objections: Culture
a. Sex roles emphasize female attractiveness and male wealth
b. Societies with poor financial opportunities for women produce more focus on resource acquisition and less on attractiveness
c. Both men and women concerned with commitment, but males more likely to assume the infidelity will result in the end of the relationship
Evolutionary in Theory and in Practice
a. Finkel & Eastwick (2008) surveyed participants about desired traits before speed dating and actual partner ratings after speed dating
b. For hypothetical partners attractiveness was more important for men and earning prospects more important for women
c. For actual partners (after meeting people), there were no gender differences
Falling in Love: Passionate Love
A stage of love marked by frequent thoughts about the other person,
intense desire to be together, and excitement from the partner’s attention
a. Passionate love is rewarding; seeing the loved one’s face activates dopmaminergic reward circuit (Bartels & Zeki, 2000).
Falling in Love: Self-expansion
Partners begin to identify more strongly with each other’s personality, activities, and attitudes (Aron, Paris & Aron, 1995).
a. Couples may begin to overestimate their similarity, predict each other’s attitudes, behavior more confidently without greater accuracy (Murray et al., 2002; Swann & Gill, 1997)
Triangle Theory: Passionate Love (Falling in Love)
a. Frequent thoughts about person, intense desire to be together, excitement from partner’s attention
b. High arousal, intense attraction, fear rejection
c. Arousal, even without distress, intensifies emotional reactions, positive or negative (excitation transfer) – drama!
Triangle Theory: Compassionate (Staying in Love)
a. Slow-building, secure, trusting, and stable partnership
b. Compared to the passionate love, less intense but may be deeper and more enduring
c. Increasing self-disclosure
d. Revelations about self a person makes to others
e. High emotional involvement increases self-disclosure
f. Know each other “true selves” and continue to love each other despite “flaws”
Companionate love
strong attachment with an emphasis on security, mutual care, affection, and shared fun
What Helps Marriages Succeed?
- New activities together: Combat boredom by doing new, exciting activities together, allowing partners to see new sides of each other (Aron et al., 2000)
- See the whole partner: More satisfied when they perceive partner’s flaws as situational, not dispositional (Murray & Holmes, 1999).
- Equity, not scorekeeping: Contributions of skills, effort, and resources are balanced;
don’t expect instant repayment (Van Yperen & Buunk, 1990). - Communicate openly: happy relationships have high levels of self-disclosure (Hendrick, Hendrick, & Adler, 1988; Sanderson & Cantor, 2001).
The Four Horsemen
John Gottman (1994) found four behaviors (The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse) displayed during conflict conversations predicted higher likelihood of divorce.
Criticism, defensiveness, contempt, stonewalling
The Four Horsemen: Criticism
Attacking, blaming, complaining about partner’s flaws
The Four Horsemen: Defensiveness
Denying partner’s concerns are valid, making excuses, countercriticizing
The Four Horsemen: Contempt
Sarcasm, rolling one’s eyes, insulting the spouse
The Four Horsemen: Stonewalling
Ignoring, shutting out one’s spouse rather than listening
Social Support Definition
The perception or experience that one is loved and cared for by
others, esteemed and valued, and part of a social network of mutual assistance and obligations (Taylor, 2014, p. 189)
***People with strong social relationships are at lower risk of stress, disease, and death
Stress Definition
Relationship between the person and the environment that is appraised
by the person as relevant to his or her well-being and in which the person’s resources
are taxed or exceeded (Folkman & Lazarus, 1985. p. 152)
Types of Stressors
- Cataclysmic Events – Catastrophes, disasters
- Major Life Events – Transitions, change in relationship, job loss
- Daily Hassles – Recurring events cause frustration/tension
- Ambient Stressors – Enduring noxious environmental conditions
Systemic (Physiological) Stress – General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS; Selye, 1956)
- Alarm Reaction – Activation of sympathetic nervous system
- Resistance – Body copes with stressor (e.g., shiver for cold, sweat for heat)
- Exhaustion – Recovery after short stress; pathology after long stress
Psychological Stress: Primary Appraisal
Is there a problem?
a. Harm/Loss Appraisal – What damage has been done?
b. Threat Appraisal – What dangers am I likely to encounter?
c. Challenge Appraisal – Is this harmful or just a challenge?
Psychological Stress: Secondary Appraisal
Can I cope with the problem?
a. Problem-Focused Coping – How can I change the situation?
b. Emotion-Focused Coping – How can I feel better?
Types of Functional Support
Emotional, belonging, tangible/instrumental, informational
Emotional Support
Comfort, caring, and concern from others (a shoulder to cry on,
sharing feelings)
Belonging Support
Shared experiences and goals, feelings of belonging (hanging
out, working with others, group identity)
Tangible/Instrumental Support
Direct aid or resources provided by others (borrowing money, a ride to the store, babysitting)
Informational Support
Advice or guidance (finding a new MD, how to cook rice, should I wear this?)
Social Support & Physical Health
a. Extends life-span (mortality)
b. Boosts immune functioning and reduces incidence of chronic and infectious diseases
c. Helps promote and maintain healthy behaviors (e.g., weight watchers, AA)
d. Supports medical compliance
Social Support & Psychological Health
a. Relieves distress from depression or anxiety
b. Aids in coping with chronic health conditions
c. Helps recover from traumatic events like disasters
d. Protects against cognitive decline in older adults
Stress Prevention Model
Social networks may prevent stressors from occurring
(e.g., shared resources, protection, etc.)
Stress Buffering Model
Support reduces perceived stressfulness of events (primary
appraisal) and facilitates coping (secondary appraisal
Direct Effect Model
Social support improves health independently of stress by
influencing life-meaning, sense of control, social identity, etc
Object Permanence
The understanding that objects continue to exist even when we do not see or hear them
Empathic Accuracy
Ability to figure out what another person is thinking and feeling
Mirror neurons
motor neurons that show similar patterns of activity when we observe others’ movements and when we make those movements ourselves
Data on Gender Stereotypes and the Emotional Experience
- In nationally representative sample of US adults (Simon & Nash, 2004),
a. men reported more positive emotion, women more fear, sadness.
b. Men and women reported equal amounts of anger, embarrassment/shame.
c. No gender difference was observed for overall frequency of emotion. - More fear and sadness for women observed in data from 37 countries worldwide
(Fischer et al., 2004). - Do differences reflect differences in status, power? (Brody & Hall, 2008).
a. Status/power = access to rewards = positive emotion (Simon & Nath, 2004)
b. Fear and sadness related to low perceived control (Scherer, 1997). - Women in more gender-equal countries do not report lower levels of fear/sadness
BUT men do; gender equality reduces men’s negative emotions
Men & Expression of Emotion
a. Worldwide, report expressing anger openly more often than women (Fischer et
al., 2004)
b. In US, men are more aggressive when insulted and feel better after aggression
(Bushman, 2002)
Women & Expression of Emotion
a. Worldwide, report crying more often than men (Fischer et al., 2004)
b. Women express anger less than men but more frequently in more gender-equal countries
c. Women smile more often than men (Brody & Hall, 2008)
Gender and Emotion Regulation – Survey on emotion regulation strategies (Nolen-Hoeksema & Aldao, 2011)
- Women: more acceptance of emotions, cognitive reappraisal, emotional support-seeking, rumination (thinking about problems repetitively and negatively)
- Younger men: more active coping (problem solving) than younger women
- Older women: more active coping than older men
Gender and Nonverbal Sensitivity
- In US and cross-culturally consistently shows women are better at reading nonverbal
emotional cues (Hall et al., 2016)
a. Faster, More accurate, Greater memory, Better at reading personality - No better than men at lie detection
Gender and Emotional Empathy
- Do women empathize more? Singer et al. (2006)
a. Prisoner’s dilemma partner cooperates or defects
b. fMRI scans watching videos partner receiving shocks
c. Both men and women showed pain-related neural activity during video of cooperator receiving shocks; only women during video of defector - Are women more empathically accurate? Klein & Hodges (2001)
a. Video of woman discussing a failure; guess thoughts and feelings
b. (1) Just do task; (2) practice task with feedback first; (3) paid more for greater accuracy
c. Did much better than men in #1, but not in #2 or #3; so men can be empathetic, but need motivation
Personality
Stable and enduring individual differences (traits)
Emotional Dispositions
Traits related to emotions people typically feel
Temperament
Stable differences in reaction to environment, staring in infancy
Behavioral Genetics
Attempts to determine proportion of traits attributable to genetics (Heritability 20-60% - broad range)
Subjective Well-being
An overall evaluation of one’s life as pleasant, interesting, and satisfying (trait happiness)
Components of subjective well-being
Cognitive component: how is my life compared to my expectations? (usually measured with life satisfaction scales)
Emotional component: how do I generally most of the time? (positive affectivity
(PA) and negative affectivity (NA))
Future outlook: how will things be in the future? (optimism-pessimism)
d. Well-being = life satisfaction + high PA + low NA + optimism
Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS)
measures positive and negative affect within a particular time frame
b. “High PA is a state of high energy, full concentration, and pleasurable engagement… low PA is characterized by sadness and lethargy.”
− Related to social activity/satisfaction, frequency of reported experience of
pleasant events, boosted immunity
c. High NA “is a general dimension of subjective distress and unpleasurable
engagement…with low NA being a state of calmness and serenity.”
− Related to stress, poor coping, health complaints, frequency of reported
experience of unpleasant events
Optimism-Pessimism – Revised Life Orientation Test (LOT-R)
measures trait optimism-pessimism
b. Optimists believe the future holds positive life events; pessimists do not
c. Physical health
− Lower coronary disease; better immune system function
− Health behavior contingent on believing that action will lead to positive outcomes
− Optimists are happier and experience less stress (stress = disease)
d. Mental health
− Lower anxiety and depression, higher self-esteem, recouperate from trauma faster
− Unrealistic Optimism = negative affect when things don’t turn out
The Big Five Personality Traits Study Methods
a. Lexical Approach
− Important personality traits encoded within natural language
− Major traits = higher frequently
− Major traits represented cross-culturally (universality)
− Analysis of words and meanings will identify important traits
b. Factor Analysis
− Statistical procedure identifies clusters of items (factors) that relate to each
other but not to items in other factors
− Factors represent underlying dimension (trait)
− Research utilizes structured self-report scales (e.g., Likert scale)
Big Five Traits
a. Goldberg (1990) had US participants self-rate on 1700 English trait adjectives;
results replicated in variety of studies in other languages
b. Agreeableness: amiable, warm, generous, tolerant, courteous, honest
c. Conscientiousness: consistent, reliable, formal, mature, disciplined
d. Extraversion: talkative, sociable, spontaneous, boisterous, energetic
e. Emotional Stability: less prone to neuroticism (the alternate name for the factor) –
self-pity, anxiety, insecurity, timidity, passivity
f. Openness to Experience: intellectual, original, objective, reflective, creative,
nonconventional
Extraversion
− Dozens of studies have linked extraversion to high positive emotionality
− Extraverts react more strongly to positive stimuli (Gross, Sutton, & Ketelaar, 1998)
− Extraverts and introverts show same association of social interaction with positive affect, but extraverts interact more (Srivastava, Tamir, McGonigal, John, & Gross, 2008)
Emotional Stability/Neuroticism
− Low stability is defined by frequent experience of negative emotion
− Participants instructed to behave neurotically in a conversation reported more
distress, regard-less of trait neuroticism (McNiel & Fleeson, 2006)
− Low stability individuals rely more on wishful thinking, withdrawal, and less
on problem-solving, reappraisal for emotion regulation (Connor-Smith & Flachsbart, 2007)
Agreeableness
− Agreeableness predicts trait PA, above and beyond Extraversion (McCrae & Costa, 1991)
− Agreeableness predicts stronger experience of love, compassion, forgiveness, and lower anger (Berry et al., 2005; Kuppens, 2005; Shiota, Keltner, & John, 2006)
− High-agreeableness individuals show greater prefrontal cortex activation while viewing unpleasant pictures, suggesting stronger emotion regulation
(Haas, Omura, Constable, & Canli, 2007)
Conscientiousness
− Highly conscientious individuals report feeling more joy, contentment, and pride (Shiota et al., 2006)
− Conscientious individuals are less likely to retaliate against a confederate who insults them, suggesting stronger emotion regulation and self-control (Jensen-Campbell, Knack, Waldrip, & Campbell, 2007)
Openness
− Openness to experience predicts high dispositional PA even when controlling
for the other four factors (McCrae & Costa, 1991)
− Openness predicts stronger experience of love, compassion, awe (Shiota et al., 2006)
Emotional Intelligence
The ability to perceive, understand, and manage one’s own and other people’s
emotions accurately and effectively
Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue)
concerns our perceptions of our emotional abilities, that is, how good we believe we are in terms of understanding, regulating, and expressing emotions in order to adapt to our environment and
maintain well-being
b. comprises 153 items, yielding scores on 15 facets, 4 factors, and global trait EI. The short form includes 30 items
C. Global EI, Emotionality, Self-Control, Sociability, Well-being
Global EI
all factors and facets, general emotional functioning, perceived
ability to understand, process, and utilize emotion-related information in your everyday life
Emotionality
in touch with own and other’s feelings, can perceive and
express emotions and develop and sustain close relationships with significant others
Self-Control
healthy degree of control over urges and desires, good at
regulating external pressures and stress, neither repressed nor overly expressive
Sociability
better at social interaction, good listeners, can communicate
clearly and confidently with people from diverse backgrounds
Well-being
reflect a generalized sense of wellbeing, extending from past
achievements to future expectations, feel positive, happy, and fulfilled
Rumination
thinking repetitively and negatively about one’s problems
Moderator
a variable that alters or changes the relationship between some predictor and an
outcome
Behavioral Genetics
a research technique used to determine what proportion of individual differences in temperament and personality can be accounted for by genes, shared environment,
and nonshared environment
Factor Analysis
a statistical technique that examines patterns of intercorrelation among item
ratings to see how many dimensions or factors are needed to account for most of the variability in the items
Behavioral Approach
a tendency to seek out rewarding experiences and engage with the world
Behavioral Avoidance
a tendency to withdraw from potential threats
Consensus Scoring
defining the correct answer to some question as the answer given by the
largest number of people
Expert Scoring
procedure of determining the correct answer by relying on the answers chosen
by experts in the field
Mental Illness
Health conditions involving changes in emotion, thinking or behavior (or a combination of these). Mental illnesses are associated with distress and/or problems functioning in social, work or family activities.
Mental Disorder
Conditions characterized by cognitive and emotional disturbances, abnormal behaviors, impaired functioning, or any combination of these. Such disorders cannot be accounted for solely by environmental circumstances and may involve
physiological, genetic, chemical, social, and other factors.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th Edition: What is It & benefits
- Lists disorders, criteria for diagnosis, and estimates occurrence
- DSM-5 diagnosis generally required for insurance coverage
Helps mental health professionals communicate and is useful in research
Criticisms of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th Edition
a. Symptom profiles, not tests for underlying causes of disorder
b. Two people with same diagnosis can have very different symptom profiles
c. Lack of specificity – typical client meets criteria for multiple disorders
d. Labels allow professionals and society to make quick value judgments
Process Model of Affect Regulation
a. Affect regulation problems may account for emotional aspects of mental illness
b. Emotional regulation – the ability to control emotional states
c. Unhealthy affect – when the frequency, duration, and/or intensity of emotion
threatens the mental health of the individual
Maladaptive affect Generation
generating unhealthy affect (e.g., fear, sadness, etc.)
Affect Regulation Failure
Failure to control maladaptive affect generation (e.g., there is a spider, I can’t calm myself)
Affect Misregulation
regulation exacerbates problem by changing affect in a
maladaptive direction (e.g., trying to calm myself, realizing it isn’t working, panicking because I can’t calm myself)
Affect Decision Points
a. Identification stage – what, if anything, should change about affect
b. Selection stage – which affect regulation strategy should I use?
c. Implementation stage – which actions should I take as part of my chosen strategy
d. Monitoring stage – periodic checks on other stages; deciding if efforts should be maintained, switched or stopped
Affect Generation Stages
Situation – something that can be experienced or imagined (I’m in the attic)
b. Attention – shapes how the situation is perceived (spiders live in attics)
c. Appraisal – of the situation in light of motivational concerns (approach or avoidance) (this attic is a frightening place)
d. Response – to the appraisal in terms of experience, physiology, and behavior (I want to get out of here)
Regulation Strategies
a. Situational – change affect by selecting or altering situation (depressed – ask a Friend over)
b. Attentional – shift attention to modify emotion (depressed – play a video game)
c. Cognitive – modify how the situation is viewed in light of goals, values, or motivation (being alone in my room isn’t so bad – I have time to relax and read)
d. Response Modulation – counteract the experience by changing experience, physiology, and behavior (I’m going to make a cup of tea to energize myself)
Mental Illness and Regulation Stages & Examples
Identification Difficulties: decision about what should change is maladaptive
− Alexithymia – difficulties in identifying and expressing emotions (also common in autism spectrum disorder and eating disorders)
Selection Difficulties: choice of regulation strategy is maladaptive
− Alcohol use disorder – limited options for coping or poor decisions = self-medicate
c. Implementation Difficulties: maladaptive choices for implementing strategy
− Major depressive disorder – may fail to see alternative versions of strategy – e.g., leave the room instead of turning on the television
d. Monitoring Difficulties: impaired decisions to maintain, switch or stop
− Major depressive disorder – continue to use maladaptive strategies like
rumination even though it makes matters worse
Emotion in Depression & Anxiety
Defining emotional features
Emotions in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Excessive Guilt
Emotions in Conduct Disorder
Lack of guilt after hurting others
Emotions in Schizophrenia
Diminished or inappropriate emotional expression; impaired
understanding of others’ expressions
Emotion in Borderline Personality Disorder
Extreme emotional volatility, impulsivity; poor emotion regulation
Emotion in Autism
Deficits in recognizing others’ emotional expressions
Major Depressive Disorder
Depressed mood and/or loss of interest & pleasure every day
b. Some combination of feelings of worthlessness, agitation or inactivity, impaired
sleep (too much or too little), increased or decreased appetite, and impaired concentration
- First episode typically triggered by stressful event, but later episodes may be
spontaneous
Causes of Major Depressive Disorder
Genetics: Vulnerability to depression runs in families with drug/alcohol abuse, bulimia, panic disorder, migraine headaches, ADHD, binge eating, and other
problems
b. Experience: Childhood experience of abuse, neglect predicts later depression
c. Lack of Pleasure: Depressed individuals respond less to pleasant, rewarding
stimuli
d. Learned Helplessness – a psychological state where someone believes they are
unable to control or change a situation after experiencing it repeatedly
Attribution and Depression
Explanatory style: One’s characteristic way of explaining their failures, especially
when the explanation is not obvious
b. Explanatory styles for negative outcomes that are internal, stable, and global tend
to promote depression
Treating Depression
a. Most antidepressant drugs increase activity at synapses using serotonin, norepinephrine, and/or dopamine.
b. Cognitive Therapy seeks to identify, alter dysfunctional explanatory styles, other
cognitive biases.
c. About 50% of patients improve in a few months with either treatment, compared
to about 1/3 with placebo
Activities to Manage Depression
Any activity that gets people out of the house, socializing, engaged with life is helpful
b. Consistent exercise, 30+ minutes a few times/week
c. Consistent sleep schedule, at least 7-8 hours/night
d. Eating seafood high in omega-3 fatty acids
Bipolar Disorder
Episodes of depression alternate with mania or hypomania
Mania
Period of increased energy; goal-directed activity; rapid, pressured thoughts and speech; impulsive, risky, reward-seeking behavior
Hypomania
An episode with manic symptoms not severe enough to cause problems
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
Almost constant worry, anxiety; not specific to a particular concern
Panic Disorder (Anxiety Disorder)
Repeated panic attacks of intense SNS activation and chest pain;
frequent apprehension about the prospect of having another panic attack. May result in agoraphobia (excessive fear of public situations, linked to difficulty
escaping in the event of an attack)
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD (Anxiety Disorder)
Flashbacks and nightmares about a traumatic event, avoidance of reminders, and exaggerated startle reflex
Specific Phobia (Anxiety Disorder)
Excessive fear of a particular object or situation, strong enough
to interfere with normal life
Causes of Anxiety Disorders
Most common phobias (including of other humans) were threats to human ancestors, although not necessarily the most common sources of injury today
b. Anxiety disorders run in families in general, though no specific gene is consistently implicated.
c. Epigenetics: Different gene expression elicited by environmental conditions
d. Short alleles for the serotonin transporter gene predict stronger amygdala reactivity, fear conditioning, and susceptibility to anxiety disorders
e. Behavioral genetics studies also indicate strong influence of the environment
Traumatic Learning in PTSD
Traumatic experience necessary, but not sufficient for PTSD; not all
individuals develop PTSD after trauma
− Individuals with smaller than average hippocampi may be more vulnerable to PTSD
− Soldiers who had stronger anxiety symptoms prior to deployment were more
likely to develop PTSD after exposure to war
Treating Anxiety Disorders
a. Cognitive-behavioral therapy: Focus on reinterpreting/ reappraising situations,
solving problems, and relaxation
b. Exposure therapy: Client is exposed to increasingly intense doses of phobic target,
after learning to relax with each prior dose.
c. Anxiolytics: Drugs that reduce anxiety by inhibiting overall brain activity (also
called tranquilizers)
What makes up OCD?
- Obsessions: Recurrent, persistent thoughts, impulses, and intrusive images that cause
distress - Compulsions: repetitive behaviors, mental acts a person feels internal pressure to
perform - By definition, obsessions and compulsions are inappropriate to the situation.
- Individuals with OCD tend to be highly disgust-, shame-, and guilt-prone
Antisocial Personality Disorder
- A pattern of deceitful, impulsive, aggressive, irresponsible behavior; reckless
disregard for their own and others’ safety; lack of remorse for harm caused to others - Psychopathy and sociopathy are not DSM-5 diagnoses, but associated psychological
constructs - Can be very charming, high on empathic accuracy, but low on emotional empathy
Dysthymia
condition in which someone feels sad almost constantly for years at a time
(synonym: persistent depressive disorder)
External Attribution
explanation of behavior or its outcome in terms of forces outside the individual
Global Attribution
explanation of behavior or its outcome in terms of something that is true of the person at nearly all times and situations
Internal Attribution
explanation of behavior or its outcome in terms of forces within the individual
Specific Attribution
explanation of behavior or its outcome in terms of something that applies in a limited number of situations
Stable Attribution
explanation of behavior or its outcome in terms of a permanent characteristic of the individual
Unstable Attribution
explanation of behavior or its outcome in terms of a temporary
characteristic of the individual or the situation
Ego Defense Mechanisms
psychological regulation strategies that, according to Sigmund Freud,
serve to resolve the tension between the id and the superego and keep disturbing wishes and
desires hidden from consciousness
Cognition Focused Stategies
electively attending to certain aspects of the situation, or
changing the way you think about the situation, in order to encourage some emotions and/ or deter others
Response Focused Strategies
Trying to change aspects of emotional responding once the emotion has already occurred
Situation Focused Strategies
Controlling the situation we are in, either by choosing to be in one
situation rather than another or by changing the situation
Situation Modification
Taking steps to change a situation, typically to improve it (p. 446)
Situation Selection
deciding whether to enter a situation that is likely to elicit a particular emotion
psychological inoculation
dealing with a stressor by exposing yourself to milder versions of the
stressful events
Attentional Control
directing one’s attention away from stimuli and thoughts likely to elicit unwanted emotions
Cognitive Reappraisal
changing the way we think about a particular situation to deter a negative emotion and/ or encourage a positive one
Cognitive Restructuring
changing the way one thinks about a major emotional issue or
frequently occurring situation a frequent goal in therapies for mood disorders like depression and anxiety
Catharsis
The release of strong emotions by experiencing and expressing them fully
Executive Control
effortful control over cognitive processes such as attention, working memory, and planning
Emotional Social Support
seeking and receiving compassion and encouragement from others
when distressed
Instrumental Social Support
seeking and receiving practical support from other people in a
time of stress
