Focus Areas For Exam Flashcards
Strengths of GAS model
- measures a predictable pattern that can be measured in individuals
- tracks a biological pattern that can be observed in different types of stress
Limitations of GAS model
- research was conducted on rats, difficult to generalise
- doesn’t account for individual differences or psychological factors
Strengths of Transactional Model
- emphasises active role individuals have in stress
- emphasises persona, and individual nature of cognitive appraisal, helping explain different responses by individuals to same stressor
Limitations of Transactional model
- subjective, variability and complexity of individual responses means less reliable
- primary and secondary appraisal can occur simultaneously.
Problem Focused Coping
Looks at the causes of the stressor from a practical perspective and works ways to manage or change the stressful situation
- used when we perceive some control over the stressor
- examples: seeking information, pros vs cons
Emotion Focused Coping
Trying to reduce the negative emotional feelings associated with the stressor
- used when we perceive little or no control over stressor
- examples: meditation, physical exercise, relaxation
Brain Surgery - Henry Molaison
- Suffered from severe epilepsy and traditional treatment failed
- underwent brain surgery, removing amygdala, hippocampus and cortical tissue
- now suffered from anterograde amnesia
What is Alzeihmers
- neurodegenerative disease characterised by gradual widespread degeneration of brain neurons
- causes decline in memory of cognitive and social skills
- often starts at the hippocampus
Causes of Alzeihmers
- Amyloid Plaques: proteins that form among the axon terminals and interfere with neural communication
- Neurofibrillary Tangles: abnormal build up of protein inside neurons
- Reduced Acetylcholine: in areas of the brain associated with learning, memory and intellectual functioning
- Cortical Shrinkage: Damages areas involved, in thinking, planning and memory
Effect of glutamate in synaptic plasticity
- promotes growth and strengthening of synaptic connections
- more often glutamate can excite and adjacent Neuron, more LTP
- LTP is an enduring form of synaptic plasticity
Effect of adrenaline in the consolidation of emotionally arousing memories
- adrenaline helps stimulate the amygdala
- amygdala regulates emotions such as fear and aggression
- amygdala signals the hippocampus that long term storage of event should be strengthened
Explicit Memories
Require conscious effort
- information can be consciously or unintentionally retrieved and stated
- Declarative Memories: store for factual information
- > semantic: knowledge of facts and concepts
- > episodic: information about specific events or personal experience
Implicit Memories
Form unconsciously
- remembering involves unconscious/unintentional retrieval without awareness
- > procedural: knowing how to do something
- > classically conditioned: learned memory in which stimuli is associated with outcome
Cerebral Cortex
- Processing STM
- Memories are linked to other memories
- Storage of memories
Amygdala
- processing emotional memories
- retrieval of explicit (declarative) memories
