Exam 3 Flashcards
What was the Attentional Bias experiment by Mara Mather?
groups (18-35 yrs) vs Older (62-94) viewed pairs of faces neutral and happy neutral and sad neutral and angry -Faces disappear; then dot appears -measure how quickly they look at dot
Attention Bias:Findings for Younger subjects?
Reaction times of younger subjects didn’t differ
Attention Bias: Finding for Older Subjects?
Responded to dot quicker if under happiness pic
responded to dot quicker if under neutral vs sad
responded to dot quicker if under neutral vs angry
-older people pay attention to positive info> negative info
Does older age cause increased memory for positive emotional information?
Yes.
IAPS Pictures
Subjects shown positive, negative, neutral pics
-older subjects recall/recognize positive pics> negative, neutral
Emotion Attention and Memory in Older Age
Attention to Negative info decreased
- attention to positive info increases
- Memory for positive info increases
Emotional well being 70’s 80’s
Scheibe & Carstensen, 2010
most people experience high levels of well-being into 70’s and 80’s EXCEPT last years of life!
Why do people not experience high levels of well-being in last months, years of life?
- Increased motivation to regulate emotions
- increased competence to regulate
Define “Positivity Effect”
Carstensen & Mikels, 2005
The “positivity effect” refers to an age-related trend that favors positive over negative stimuli in cognitive processing. Relative to their younger counterparts, older people attend to and remember more positive than negative information.
What is Psychopathology?
- scientific study of psychological disorders
What is a Psychological disorder?
Psychological dysfunction
- breakdown in cognitive, emotional or behavioral functioning
- distress or impairment in functioning
- response that is atypical or not culturally expected
Etiology - what causes psychological disorders?
multiple influences- biological, environmental, social, behavioral
What is the Diathesis- Stress Model
behavioral predispositional vulnerability when paired with stress
Topics discussed when talking about disorders
- onset
- symptoms
- course
- treatment
- prevalence and incidence
Why is correct diagnosis important?
- Allows people who are experiencing a psychological disorder to be treated effectively
- IMPORTANT topic for clinicians. researchers, and people being diagnosed
Diagnostic Approach: Categorical What is it?
Presence/absence
Dimensional: What is it?
To what extent? or how much?
Categorical Approach: Strength
Strength: Ease of diagnosis
Utility/Quality of diagnosis
-presence/absence of condition makes diagnosing easier and helps in treatment decisions
Categorical Approach: Weakness
Lack of clear boundaries among disorders
- high rates of comorbidity
- issue of different etiology, pathology & treatment
- lack of clear boundaries- whats normal? whats not?
- treating variations of condition as equal
Dimensional Approach: Strength
More reflective of reality, more valid descriptions
-more than yes- no questions
catered to individuals specific disorder
-captures frequency and severity
Dimensional Approach: Weakness
Little ease in diagnosing
less utility of diagnosis
reifying still could be problem
DSM-5
- promotes dimensional aspects
- acknowledges weakness with categorical
DSM-5 approach: Categorical but…
“Although DSM-5 remains a categorical classification of separate disorders, we recognize that mental disorders do not always fit completely within the boundaries of a single disorder…In recognition of this reality, the disorders included in DSM-5 were reordered into a revised organizational structure meant to stimulate new clinical perspectives.”
The Secret Life of Pronouns: Jamie Pennebaker
Study on how words people use tell us about their emotion
The Secret Life of Pronouns: Jamie Pennebaker Findings
We- words for positive experience I- words when in pain Past Tense- Words for sadness Present tense- words for anger For sadness and anger: more cognitive words that indicate self-reflection
What is health? Biomedical model
Focus on illness
- all illness explained by biological factors
- psychological and social processes irrelevant
Biopsychosocial Model
-Health and illness are consequences of interwoven biological, psychological and social influences
emphasis on promoting health
Topics: Relationship between emotion and health
- bidirectional
- role of (negative or Positive) health behaviors
- •Diet •Exercise •Sleep •Smoking •Meditation- Spotlight on sleep
Sleep bi directional
focus on how sleep affects emotion
Typical Sleep needs: Infants
• Infants
–About 16 hours per day of sleep
Typical Sleep needs: Babies and toddlers
From 6months -3 years between 10 and 14 hours per day
Typical Sleep needs: Children
– Ages 3-6: between 10 and 12
–Ages 6 to 9: about 10 hours of sleep
–Ages 9 to 12: about 9 hours of sleep
Typical Sleep needs: Adults
7-8 hours a night
Typical Sleep needs: older adults
= or more than adults
Effects of Sleep deprivation
- Many negative consequences for personal well-being and health, relationships, and work
- Lower life-satisfaction •Greater irritability •Contributes to “aging” •Weakened immune system •Poor decision-making •Diminished productivity and creativity •Impaired attention •Worse at recalling positive emotional memories
Dangers of Sleep Deprivation
Driver fatigue causes 20% of auto accidents.
•Also, contributes to piloting errors and airplane crashes
•Many major disasters occur at night, when people in charge are sleep-deprived.
–Exxon Valdez
Dangers of Sleep Deprivation continued
Chronic SD- alters metabolic and hormonal functioning - mimics aging - obesity high blood pressure & memory impairment
Benefits of sleep
- Longevity
- People who sleep 7 to 8 hours per night tend to outlive those who are chronically sleep deprived
- Academic Performance
- Students who earn A’s and B’s in high school tend to sleep 25 minutes more per night than students earning C’s, D’s, and F’s
More Benefits of Sleep
- Sleep promotes emotion regulation.
- Partial sleep restriction (5 hours/night for a week) associated with more emotional complaints and disturbances.
- Greater emotional reactivity in brain of sleep-deprived people, especially in amygdala (Yoo et al., 2007)
- Sleep influences emotion recognition.
- In one study, people who took naps were more sensitive to perceiving happy faces. People who did not nap were more sensitive to perceiving fearful and angry faces.
Rem Sleep
• Big portion of emotion processing occurs here
• Also important for cognitive functioning, like memory consolidation
• Probably most critical stage for emotional functioning
• REM sleep can take sting out of emotional memories.
(Research by Matt Walker)
Effects of REM Sleep Deprivation
• Poorer emotion regulation • Poorer concentration • Greater anxiety • Greater irritability
Sleep Hygiene
- Exercise (but not late in evening) •Avoid caffeine after late afternoon
- Relax before bedtime and dim light
- Regular sleep-wake schedule •Bed just for sleep and sex
- If can’t sleep after 20 mins, get out of bed
- Turn on bright lights in morning •Melatonin and light
What is happiness ?
subjective well being
What is Seligman’s tripartite model
orientation towards achieving happiness through pleasure, meaning, engagement(flow)
Why study happiness?
To understand psychological health in addition to psychological dysfunction (Sheldon & King, 2001)
•Independence of positive and negative affect (Diener & Emmons,
1984)
• Universal goal (Ben-Shahar, 2007) • Implications for public policy
Interesting topics in the study of happiness
affective forcasting
hedonic treadmill
Broaden and build
Fredrickson- positive emotions, joy love contentment expand inventory and thoughts and action
-develop physical mental and social resources
What predicts happiness?
Education?
More education related to greater happiness (until a certain point)
What predicts happiness? Money
•Virtually no relationship after basic needs are met •But, how we spend money matters
What predicts happiness? Relationships
one of the most robust predictors
What boosts happiness?
• Gratitude (Lyubomirsky) • Flow (Cziksentmihalyi) • Sleep • Exercise • Mindfulness
