final Flashcards
What are the different types of pervasive themes in developmental psychology
Continuous and discontinuous
What is the Continuous pervasive theme?
quantitative change (think pine tree)
What is the discontinuous pervasive theme?
qualitative change (think butterfly)
Stage theories are:
Discontinuous theories of development
examples of “continuous”
how fast or strong, growth in height or weight, cognitive development
example of discontinuous
crawling to walking, using concrete facts v abstract reasoning (counting vs algebra)
Was is Piaget’s theory?
children are active participants in their own cognitive development, their maturational development and their experiences
How did Piaget think of children?
He thought of them as scientists, they develop hypothesis of of world works and then test them
Throughout life, children are creating and refining cognitive structures called ________
Schemas
Schemas are formed through the processes of ________ and ____________
Assimilation and Accommodation
Assimilation
absorbing new info into existing mental categories (schema)
Accommodation
modifying existing mental categories (schemas) in response to new info
Schemas can be thought of as _________.
Mental folders
Examples of assimilation:
Child see porpoise swimming in water —> assimilation—-> associated with fish
Examples of accommodation:
Child sees porpoise breathing, pets one —–> accommodation—> animals that live in water, breathe air and like people
What was Piagets idea of deveelopment?
A theory based around four stages based on complexity of schemas that can be formed and used.
What are the four stages to Piagets’s theory of development?
Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational
What were some of the rules to Piaget’s theory?
stages always in the same order, age approximate, culturally universal,
Sensorimotor stage
First stage, birth to 2yr, characterized by behavioral schemas, infants learn through actions, “thinking” consists of coordinating sensory info w/ bodily movement
major accomplishment of the sensorimotor stage
object permanence
What is object permanence
understanding that an object continues to exist when you cannot see or touch it
preoperational stage
second stage, 2 to 7 years old, characterized by symbolic schemas, but child cannot perform operations
What is the first stage in Piagets theory?
Sensorimotor
approximate age for sensorimotor stage?
birth to 2 years
what are operations?
a train of thought that can run both backward and forward
In what stage are children egocentric?
Preoperational stage
What is egocentric?
unable to see what others see, thinking of oneself (think mountain example
In what stage are children unable to grasp the concept of conservation?
preoperational stage
What is the approximate age for the preoperational stage?
2 to 7 years
What is the second stage in Piagets theory?
preoperational
what is conservation?
knowing that a quantity doesn’t change if it’s been altered (think cups and liquid)
what are the limits of conservation?
centration and irreversibility
What is centration?
the focus on one aspect and neglecting others
What is irreversibility?
Cannot mentally reverse a set of steps
What is the third stage in Piagets theory?
Concrete operational
What is the approximate age for the concrete operational stage?
7 to 12
concrete operational stage
third stage, 7 to 12 years, characterized by operational schemas and commit errors of reasoning when asked about abstract ideas
in what stage do children start to understand conservation, reversibility, and cause and effect but only when they apply to concrete experiences and concepts?
concrete operational stage
What is the approximate age for the formal operational stage?
12 years +
What is the last stage in Piagets theory?
Formal operational
formal operational
teenagers and up are capable of abstract reasoning
what are examples of abstract thinking?
reasoning about situations not experienced first-hand, can think about future possibilities, ability to search systematically for solution w/o attempting solution, can use logical rules in the abstract
How is development more continuous than Piaget proposed?
Piaget collected primarily cross-sectional data
What is the cross-sectional approach?
people of differing ages all
studied at the same time; Can create the illusion of discontinuous, qualitative changes in thinking
(stages).
What is an alternative approach instead of collecting cross-sectional data?
longitudinal
data
What is the longitudinal approach?
Same participants studied
repeatedly at different ages; thinking seems to change more continuously (not stages)
What are things children can often do far earlier than Piaget thought?
Egocentrism and object permanence
Example of egocentrism happening earlier than Piaget thought:
Four-year-olds will simplify their speech when playing
with two-year-olds
Example of object permanence happening earlier than Piaget thought:
Violation of expectation method reveals object
permanence in 2.5-month-olds, piagets method takes advantage of fact infants look longer at surprising events compared to expectations
What are other faults of piaget theory?
Piaget considered his theory of cognitive
development to be species-typical, but – culture can also influence learning.
Examples on how culture influences learning
Children in nomadic hunting cultures are faster to develop spatial abilities; Children in farming cultures are faster to develop mathematical
abilities
Strengths of Piagets theory
Fantastic descriptions of how thinking and behavior
change during development
What made Piagets theory easy to falsify?
Operational definitions of stages made his theory easy
to falsify.
What is social psychology?
Study of how people think about, influence,
and relate to others
Social Cognition
Explores how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information
Examples of social information
Person perception, Attribution, The self as a social object, Attitudes
Person Perception
Processes by which social stimuli, such as faces, are used to form impressions of others
Types of person perception
physical attractiveness, first impressions
Physical attractiveness
Being “average” as an essential component, “Beautiful is good” stereotype
First Impressions
primacy effect
primacy effect
remembering the first piece of information they encounter than the information they receive later on.
Attribution theory
People as motivated to discover underlying causes of behavior to make sense of behavior
Types of underlying causes of behavior
Internal/external causes, Stable/unstable causes, Controllable/uncontrollable causes
What is an actor?
Produces behavior
what is an observer?
Offers causal
explanation of the
actor’s behavior
What two people are required for attributions?
Actor and observer
Types of attributions
internal and external
internal attribution
explanation about personality, nature, or individual
example of internal attribution
“He’s such a careless driver. He never watches out for other cars.”
external attribution
explanation based on situation
Example of external attribution
“He probably got caught in some bad traffic, and then he was late for a meeting.”
Fundamental Attribution Error
When explaining other people’s behavior, there is a tendency for the observer to overestimate importance on internal (dispositional) traits and underestimate the
importance of external (situational) influence
What are the heuristics in social information processing and produce bias in how people think about themselves and others
False consensus effect, Positive Illusions, Self-Serving Bias
False consensus effect
Overestimation of degree to which everybody else thinks or acts as we do
Positive Illusions
The bias that we are better, smarter, and kinder than others
Self-Serving Bias
Tendency to take credit for our successes and deny responsibility for failures
Stereotype
generalizations about a group’s characteristics that does not consider any
variations from one individual to another
Stereotypes can….
Simplify the task of understanding people and can lead to errors
Which people are stereotypes more?
out-group members
Stereotype Threat
Fast-acting, self-fulfilling fear of being judged based on a negative stereotype
Attitudes
Opinions and beliefs about people, objects, ideas
Explicit attitudes
Attitudes that we are aware of, that shape our conscious decisions and actions, and that can be directly measured
Implicit attitudes
Attitudes about which we are unaware and that influence our behavior in ways we do not recognize, and that can be measured indirectly
Attitudes predict behavior when:
Attitudes are strong, We show awareness of attitudes and practice them, and We have a vested interest
Cognitive Dissonance
A state of discomfort that occurs when a person simultaneously holds two inconsistent thoughts or when a person’s attitude is incongruent with their behavior
Cognitive dissonance can lead to…
motivation to reduce the dissonance by changing attitudes or behaviors
Effort justification
Rationalizing the amount of
effort put into something
Example of cognitive dissonance
“I am a good loyal friend” “I repeated gossip about my friend Chris”
Cognitive dissonance is one mechanism by…..
which your behavior can effect your attitudes
Daryl Bem general theory relating to behavior and attitudes
Self perception theory
Self perception theory
we often infer our attitudes by perceiving our behavior, particularly true when attitudes are not completely clear
Persuasion
Trying to change someone’s
attitude
Elements of persuasion
Communicator (source), medium, target, message
Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion
central route and peripheral route
Central route of the elaboration likelihood model
engaging someone with sound, logical argument
peripheral route of elaboration likelihood model
involves non-message factors, effective when people not paying attention to communicator
Types of successful persuasion
Foot in door approach and door in face approach
Foot in door approach
Start small -> go big
Door in the Face
approach
Start big -> go small
altruism
Unselfish interest in helping another person.
Four factors that influence altruism
empathy, egoism, and emotions
empathy
feeling of oneness with emotional state of another
egoism
giving to gain self-esteem, for social perception, for reciprocity
Altruism: Bystander Effect
Tendency for observer
of emergency to help
less when others
present; Kitty Genovese case
What causes the bystander effect?
Diffusion of responsibility and the tendency to look to behavior of others for cues
How behavior is influenced by other individuals and groups
Conformity, Obedience, Group influence
Conformity
Change in behavior to coincide with group standard (think of Asch study)
Confederates
scientist accomplice posing as subjects
Why do people conform?
informational social influence and normative social influence
what is informational social influence?
When we want to be right, depends on how confident we are in judgment and how well-informed we perceive the group
what is normative social influence?
When we want to be liked
Madness of crowds causes
deindividuation and social contagion
deindividuation
In groups or crowds, the reduction of personal identity and erosion of personal responsibility, when part of a group
social contagion
Imitative behavior involving spread of behavior, emotions, and ideas
Group performance promotes
social facilitation or social loafing
What is social facilitation?
Improvement in individual performance due to the presence of others, due to effects of arousal
What is social loafing
Tendency to exert less effort in group due to less
accountability for individual effort
What is groupthink?
Impaired group decision making that occurs when maintaining harmony is more important than making the right decision.
What are the symptoms of group think?
Illusion of invulnerability, Pressure on dissenters to conform, Self-censorship, Illusion of unanimity
Groupthink can be reduced if:
- Avoid isolation
- Allow all sides of an argument to be aired
- Have an impartial leader
- Include outside experts
The Obedience Study (Milgram)
study that showed people would follow order even when violating their ethical standards, told subjects to give shock to a unknown fake subject every time error was made
factors leading to disobedience in the Milgrim study
Others disobeyed, Authority figure not legitimate, or not close by, Victim made to seem more human
Abnormal Behavior
Mental illness that affects or is manifested in the brain and can affect thinking, behavior, and interaction with others
Abnormal behavior may be defined by what three criteria that distinguished abnormal from normal behavior?
Deviant, maladaptive, and personally distressful
deviant
atypical and culturally unacceptable
maladaptive
Interferes with effective functioning or presents danger to self or others
What are the theoretical approaches to figure out what causes psychological disorders?
biological approach, psychological approach, sociocultural approach, and biopsychosocial approach
Biological approach
Attributes psychological disorders to organic, internal causes and the Medical model
what is the medical model
Describes psychological disorders as medical diseases and Mental illnesses of patients treated by doctors
Psychological approach
Emphasizes contributions of experiences, thoughts, emotions, and personality
Sociocultural approach
Emphasizes social contexts in which person lives, Stresses cultural influences on understanding and treatment of psychological disorders
Biopsychosocial approach
Unique combinations of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors
Classification for psychological disorders in U.S
DSM-V
DSM-V
Diagnostic & Statistical
Manual of Mental
Disorders Published by American
Psychiatric Association
Critics of DSM
Classifies individuals by symptoms rather than causes, consensus-based rather than science-based, overly based on the medical model
Supporters of the DSM
When used correctly and diagnoses are made with valid objective tests, the DSM improves reliability/agreement between clinicians.
Anxiety Disorders involve fears that are:
Uncontrollable, disproportionate to actual danger, and disruptive of ordinary life
Anxiety Disorders feature
motor tension, hyperactivity, apprehensive expectations and thoughts
Type of anxiety disorders include:
Generalized anxiety, panic, and phobic disorder
Type of anxiety-related disorders include:
Obsessive- compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Persistent anxiety for at least 6 months, unable to specify reasons for the anxiety
etiology
the cause, set of causes, or manner of causation of a disease or condition
Etiology for generalized anxiety
biological factors like genetic predisposition and GABA deficiency and psychological and sociocultural factors like history of uncontrollable stress and traumas, excessive high self-standards, and overly critical parents
Panic disorder
Recurrent, sudden onsets of intense apprehension or terror; Often occur without warning or a specific cause; Often accompanied by physiological symptoms such as rapid heart rate and dizziness.
Etiology of panic disorder
Biological factors: Genetic predisposition and excessive lactate in brain; Psychological factors: Classical conditioning; Sociocultural factors: Women 2X as likely as men
Phobias
A persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object or situation that disrupts normal functioning.
etiology of phobias
Psychological: Classical conditioning (think baby albert), Operant Conditioning, Observational learning; Biological: Genetics or biological preparedness
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
An anxiety-related disorder in which a person who has experienced a traumatic or life-threatening event has symptoms such as psychic numbing, reliving the trauma, and increased physiological arousal, has to be persist for one month or longer
DSM-V diagnosis of PTSD
Exposure to a traumatic event in which both of the following were present: Person experienced, or witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others and person’s response involved intense fear, helplessness or horror
etiology of PTSD
Trauma: actual cause, History of trauma = risk factor; Other factors: Low cortisol levels prior to trauma and in response to stress which allows norepinephrine and epinephrine response to persist longer; Genetic vulnerability: A lack of social and cognitive resources, having a smaller hippocampus than normal
Antianxiety Drugs
commonly known as tranquilizers, two types benzodiazepines and nonbenzodiazepines
Benzodiazepines
a type of antianxiety drug that enhances GABA, is fast acting, and includes side effects like drowsiness, loss of coordination, fatigue, and mental slowing, and can also be addictive
Nonbenzodiazepines
Generalized anxiety disorder sometimes treated with buspirone (Buspar) which mimics serotonin
Behavior Therapies
use principles of leaning to reduce or eliminate maladaptive behavior
principles or learning used in behavior therapies to reduce or eliminate maladaptive behavior.
Classical conditioning techniques in behavior therapies are based on
extinction of conditioned fear and use
Flooding and Systematic desensitization
Mood Disorders
Primary disturbance of mood, or prolonged emotion that colors emotional state that can include cognitive, behavioral, and somatic (physical) symptoms
Examples of mood disorders
major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder
Depressive Disorders
depression and major depressive disorder
depression
unrelenting lack of pleasure in life
major depressive disorder
Significant depressive episode (five of nine symptoms) and depressed characteristics for at least two weeks, impaired daily functioning
Depressive Disorders: Etiology
Biological factors: Genetic influences, Brain structures-Low frontal lobe activity, Neurotransmitters-Serotonin and norepinephrine, Hormones- High cortisol; Psychological factors: Learned helplessness, Violence, Cognitive explanations; Sociocultural factors: Socioeconomic status (SES), Gender differences
Cognitive explanations
emphasize habits of thinking and ways of interpreting events
Cognitive habits of depressed people
Believe their situation is permanent and uncontrollable, make internal
attributions for negative events; rumination
Rumination
Brooding about negative aspects of one’s life, More common in women
Vulnerability-Stress Models
Approaches that emphasize how individual vulnerabilities interact with external stresses or circumstances to produce specific mental disorders, such as depression
Antidepressant Drugs
Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI’s), tricyclic antidepressants, and selective serotonin reuptake (SSRI’s)
Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI’s)
antidepressant drug that elevate norepinephrine and serotonin in brain by blocking an enzyme that deactivates these neurotransmitters
Tricyclic antidepressants
antidepressant drug that boost norepinephrine and serotonin by preventing reuptake
selective serotonin reuptake (SSRI’s)
antidepressant drug that boosts serotonin by preventing reuptake
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) (shock therapy)
goal is to set seizure off in brain while patient receives anesthesia and muscle relaxants and is used to treat depression
Cognitive Therapies
Emphasize thoughts as main source of psychological problems, Attempt to change feelings and behaviors by changing cognitions, Cognitive restructuring
Cognitive restructuring
Changing pattern of thought presumed to be causing maladaptive behavior or emotion
Beck’s Cognitive Therapy
Problems, such as depression, as result of illogical thoughts about self, world, future, Emotions as product of cognitions, Goal of bringing automatic thoughts to awareness so they can be changed, Challenging accuracy of automatic thoughts, More open-ended dialogue with therapist
Cognitive-Behavior Therapy
combination of cognitive therapy (reducing self-defeating thoughts) and behavior therapy (changing behavior)
Bipolar Disorder
mood disorder in which episodes of depression and mania (excessive euphoria) occur
Bipolar disorder is associated with:
high levels of norepinephrine and low levels of serotonin and also High levels of glutamate
Lithium Carbonate
Used to treat bipolar disorder (not an antidepressant, rather a mood stabilizer). Moderates levels of
norepinephrine and serotonin. Must be given in right dose, and bloodstream levels have to be monitored. Other medications for bipolar disorder include Tegretol and Depakote (valproate).
Schizophrenia
Characterized by highly disordered thought processes; Psychotic or far removed from reality
positive symptoms of schizophrenia
Marked by distortion or excess of normal function including hallucinations, delusions, thought disorder, and disorders of movement
negative symptoms of schizophrenia
Reflect social withdrawal, behavioral deficits, and loss or decrease of normal functions including flat affect, lacking the ability to read emotions of others and cognitive impairments
Schizophrenia etiology
Biological factors: Heredity, Structural brain, abnormalities, Excess dopamine; Psychological factors: Diathesis(vulnerability) -stress model; Sociocultural factors
Antipsychotic Drugs
Neuroleptics and atypical antipsychotic medications
Neuroleptics
an antipsychotic drug that blocks dopamine’s action in brain; side effects include dysphoria and tardive dyskinesia
Atypical antipsychotic medications
Lower risk of side effects and Influence dopamine and serotonin
Personality Disorders
Chronic, maladaptive cognitive-behavioral patterns integrate into personality
Antisocial personality disorder
a mental health condition in which a person consistently shows no regard for right and wrong and ignores the rights and feelings of others. People with antisocial personality disorder tend to purposely make others angry or upset and manipulate or treat others harshly or with cruel indifference. They lack remorse or do not regret their behavior.
Borderline personality disorder
a mental illness that severely impacts a person’s ability to manage their emotions. This loss of emotional control can increase impulsivity, affect how a person feels about themselves, and negatively impact their relationships with others.
Therapeutic alliance
The bond of confidence and mutual understanding established between therapist and client, which allows them to work together to solve the client’s problems
Which therapy to choose for depression?
cognitive therapy
Which therapy to choose for anxiety disorders?
behavioral therapy
which therapy to choose for anger and impulsive violence
cognitive therapy
which therapy to choose for Health problems
Cognitive and behavior therapies
which therapy to choose for Childhood and adolescent behavior problems
Behavior therapy
