Intro To Psychology Flashcards
Roles of a psychologist
- Conduct research
- Counselling
- Assessing and treating people with mental disorders
Types of psychology
Community - works with individuals, community groups and organisations to help improve health and welfare of people in the community
Forensic - works with people in legal and criminal justice settings
Organisational - helps people in work places
How to become a psychologist
- complete VCE or equivalent
- complete 4 year bachelor degree
- masters degree (2 yrs) - PhD (3 yrs) OR probation: 2 years work supervised
- register with PRBV
Responsibilities of a psychologist
Competence - only deal with cases they are specialised in
Privacy & Confidentiality - respect the privacy of the client
Propriety - not aloud to exploit or take advantage of their client. That them with dignity
Sleep
A state of conscientious where the individual is unresponsive to external factors
Why we sleep
- Our body needs to rest to function properly
- Repair damaged brain cells
- Conserve our energy for the day
REM
- Rapid eye movement
- Fluctuated heart rate
- Fluctuated breathing rate
- High & fast brainwave activity
- Fully relaxed voluntary muscles
NREM
- Very little eye movement
- Slow & regular brainwave activity
- Regular heart rate
- Regular breathing rate
- Some movement of voluntary muscles
No sleep
Hallucinations
How much sleep do we need
Infants (0-2 weeks) : 16-18 Babies (14-15 weeks) : 14-15 Young children (3-5 years) : 10-12 Teenagers : 9-10 Adults : 7-8 Elderly : 6-7
Sleep talking
The sleeper talks in their sleep. Generally, they don’t make much sense.
Sleep walking
A sleep disturbance where people walk and carry out daily activities while they are asleep
Sleep eating
The sleeper binge eats during sleep. They have no recollection of it on waking
REM Behaviour Disorder
- Sleepers do not reach muscle atonia (paralysis)
- Generally act out dreams while lying done.
- Thrashing around of their limbs, can cause injury to person or sleep partner
Sleep paralysis
- Opposite to REM Behaviour Disorder to a certain extent.
- On waking from REM suddenly your muscles do not come out of atonia.
- Can be very scary.
What are dreams?
- Very personal and private experience.
- Everyone dreams and this occurs 4-5 times a night. However, not everyone remembers their dreams.
- Most dreams occur during REM sleep (90%)
What happens when we dream?
- We see vivid images, faces, laces and colours.
REM dreams
- Tend to follow a story line
- More likely to be remembered
- May include aspects of events in your life
Do dreams have meanings?
Some people say certain things can mean a certain thing (king/queen = parents) however a cigarette may just be a cigarette and nothing else.
Freuds Psychoanalytic Theory
- Do not wish to access our unconscious state of mind
- While awake negative emotions are blocked by our ego
- While asleep our ego drops
Problem Solving Theory
- Dreams have a purpose and help solve problems
- Studies show that people who are good dreamers overcome emotional difficulties
Activation - Synthesis Theory
- Biological approach
- Random firing of neutrons in our brain
- While asleep their is a lack of sensory information coming in so our brain draws on previously stored memories
Lucid dreams
- Able to control dreams once asleep
- Gradually realise you are dreaming, have the ability to change what is happening
Day dreams
- During normal state of consciousness
- Block out external world
Psychologist
A person who studies thoughts, feeling and behaviours of humans.
