Major Learning Processes

Question 1

The Unconscious:

Answer 1

Mental contents that are censored, repressed, and not easily brought into conscious awareness

Question 2

The Preconscious:

Answer 2

Mental contents that can easily be brought into conscious awareness by shifting one’s attention.

Question 3

The Conscious:

Answer 3

Mental contents which an individual is generally aware of

Question 4

Id:

Answer 4

Instinctual drives (sex or libido, aggression…). 
Limbic system

Question 5

Ego:

Answer 5

The manager of mental life. Balances the influences of the Id, the Superego, and reality.

Question 6

Superego:

Answer 6

Also known as one’s “conscience”. It begins with the word “No!” and becomes the source of shame and then guilt.
Frontal Cortex

Question 7

Defense mechanisms are employed by:

Answer 7

not ONLY people with a DSM diagnoses, but EVERYONE EVERYDAY

Question 8

Denial ‑

Answer 8

Normalizing the process of denial;
something that all of us do

Avoiding awareness of aspects of external reality that are difficult to face by disregarding sensory data.

“That spot doesn’t mean anything. Stop worrying so much.”
“Get tested? Seriously? I don’t need to do that.”

Question 9

Repression

Answer 9

Blocking unacceptable ideas or impulses from entering consciousness.

kids who are abused often do not even remember things happening to them (to protect themselves)

Blocking unacceptable ideas or impulses from entering consciousness

Question 10

Splitting (Borderline Personality Disorder)

Answer 10

child growing up in a disfunctional household; if they are faced with an abusive parent, they can’t reconcile a person they love hurting them; they create categories of people being either all good or all bad;

Compartmentalizing or seeing the self and/or others as all good or all bad. The major defense used in Borderline personalities. Extreme ideas about people

“I hate my nurse. She’s mean. My doctor is different. She’s the best ever.”

Question 11

Projection

Answer 11

Putting one’s own affects (unacceptable impulses) on to another
“I’m not worried about this, you are.”

Question 12

Dissociation (Dissociative Identity Disorder)

Answer 12

Disruption of identity, memory, consciousness, or perception

Disrupting one’s sense of continuity in areas of identity, memory, consciousness, or perception

Question 13

Regression

Answer 13

Return to an earlier level of maturational functioning to avoid conflicts or tensions at one’s present level of development

Returning to earlier levels of functioning to avoid conflicts
Tantrums, bedwetting

Question 14

Reaction Formation

Answer 14

Transforming an unacceptable wish or impulse into its opposite

Loving something you hate
Experiencing the opposite of what you initially feel

Question 15

Rationalization

Answer 15

Justification of unacceptable attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors to make them tolerable to oneself

“I didn’t like that job anyway. I was going to quit.”

Question 16

Isolation of Affect

Answer 16

Separating an idea from its associated affect state to avoid emotional turmoil

Calmly recounting details of a traumatic event

Question 17

Sublimation

Answer 17

Transforming socially objectionable or internally unacceptable aims into socially acceptable ones

Redirecting unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable ones

Question 18

Altruism

Answer 18

Committing oneself to the needs of others over and above one’s own needs, to resolve guilt.

“I’ll take care of him. Not sure how but I’ll figure out a way.”

Question 19

Suppression

Answer 19

Consciously deciding not to attend to a particular feeling, state, or impulse.

”Yeah I know. I’ll take care of it.”

Question 20

Humor

Answer 20

Finding comic elements in difficult situations to reduce unpleasant affect or personal discomfort

“Well, at least chemo will help me lose weight!”

Question 21

Transference and Countertransference

Answer 21

Feelings projected between patient and doctor based on important relationships in their respective pasts

Key ingrediant is for the therapist to be the blank slate, and not divulge any reactions so that patient never knows the thoughts or opinions of the therapist

Question 22

transference refers to_____, while countertranference refers to _______

Answer 22

the feelings of the patient towards the therapist; the feelings of the therapist towards the client

Question 23

A patient with multiple alcohol related arrests was recently fired for coming to work intoxicated. He tells you that he has everything under control and that he doesn’t understand why people won’t listen to him when he insists that he does not have an addiction.

Answer 23

Denial

Question 24

A mother tells the pediatrician that her 11 year old daughter has started bedwetting shortly after their new baby was born.

Answer 24

Regression

Question 25

A 6th grade boy starts to notice a girl in her class and realizes he kind of likes her. However, he also finds himself embarrassed by these feelings and is worried other people will find out. So instead of being nice to her he is mean.

Answer 25

Reaction formation

Question 26

classical conditioning: food alone, whistle alone, food with whistle, whistle alone after conditioned by food

Answer 26

unconditioned stiumuls-unconditioned response, neutral stimulus-no response, conditioning, conditioned stimulus-conditioned response

Question 27

B.F. Skinner

Answer 27

Control of action based on postcedent events

“Operant” conditioning because the organism “operates” on the environment in an active way.

Behavior changes as a function of reinforcement and punishment.

Question 28

skinner box square

Answer 28

+R/-R

+P/-P

Question 29

Shaping:

Answer 29

Producing a new behavior by rewarding successive approximations of the desired behavior.
breaking down each step of brusing teeth and reinforcing each step of the process

Question 30

Extinction:

Answer 30

Eliminating (or decreasing) a behavior by discontinuing the reinforcement that had been associated with that behavior

harassing kid, the kid puts on a big show, and the behavior goes up

Question 31

____________ is more effective for learning than _____________(This is why you should receive your grades shortly after completing the test)

Answer 31

Immediate reinforcement is more effective for learning than delayed reinforcement (This is why you should receive your grades shortly after completing the test)

Question 32

__________ is slower following acquisition of a response to a partial reinforcement schedule than a continuous reinforcement schedule

Answer 32

Extinction is slower following acquisition of a response to a partial reinforcement schedule than a continuous reinforcement schedule

Question 33

Variable reinforcement

Answer 33

Variable reinforcement
Highly reinforcing, i.e. it causes a high level of the reinforced behavior, and the behavior is slow to extinguish. Gambling is a variable ratio reinforcement schedule and can be quite addictive (difficult to extinguish)

Question 34

Punishment

Answer 34

Can be effective in extinguishing behavior in the short-term, less effective over time
Negative side-effects include unintended emotional reactions, escape or avoidance behavior, or aggression
Use sparingly and in conjunction with reinforcement

Question 35

What form of conditioning?: Spanking

Answer 35

positive punishment

Question 36

What form of conditioning?: Nausea upon seeing their chemotherapy clinic

Answer 36

classical conditioning

Question 37

What form of conditioning?: Time Out

Answer 37

negative punishment

Question 38

What form of conditioning?: “If you lose weight then no more insulin shots!”

Answer 38

negative reinforcement

Question 39

What form of conditioning?: “Doing your PT will get you back to work quickly.”

Answer 39

positive reinforcement

Question 40

if it increases the likelihood of behavior being repeated:

Answer 40

prositive reinforcement/negative reinforcement (snooze bar on alarm)

Question 41

if it decreases the likelihood of behavior being repeated

Answer 41

positive punishment/negative punishment (suspended from school)

Question 42

32 yo woman is given the news she has breast cancer and needs surgery, followed by chmo. She returns from the appointment and when her husband asks, she replies that "everything's fine." In fact, she appears to be in good spirits. 
denial
projection
sublimation
reaction formation
altruism

Answer 42

denial: the conscious awareness of a painful reality is abolished. This patient is not pretending that her doctor’s visit was uneventful; she actually consciously believes that her doctor’s visit was fine. Projection is the act of perceiving and acting as if unacceptable internal impulsis (which are unconscious) are coming from the external realm. For example, a patient with very aggressive impulses, which are unacceptable to him, begins acting as if the person in the room with him were being aggressive to him.

Question 43

23 yo impulsively steals gum at a store, has never stolen anything previously and almost immediately begins feeling extremely guilty. Which of the following concepts is responsilbe for the man's emotional response to his theft?
id
ego
superegopreconscious function
conscious function

Answer 43

superego

id: instinctual drives
ego: equilibrium between gratification and rule of society
superego: the agency that internalized parental and societal rules and dictates to the ego what is not to be done

guilt is the consequence of transgressing the superego’s prohibitions. Preconscious and conscious functinos are dimensions of the ego, and this is where abstract thinking as well as verbal expression come from these functions

Question 44

a 25 yo woman sees a psychiatrist for having a depressed mood for her "entire life." She begins psychotherapy and sees the physician once per week. After 3 months of therapy, she tells the psychiatrist that she is afraid of him bc he is "so angry all the time." She behaves as if this is true and that the psychiatrist will explode with rage at any minute. The psychiatrist is not usually an angry person nor is he aware of any anger toward the patient:
distortion
blocing
isolation
projection
dissociation

Answer 44

projection

reacts to an unacceptable inner impulse as if the impulse were comiong from the external environment. In this case, the patient, likely with a huge amount of internal anger that she finds dangerous and unacceptable, projects this anger onto the therapist and reacts as if the therapist is angry at her.

Question 45

a woman has a verbal altercation with her boss at work. She meekly accepts his harsh words. That night, she picks a fight with her husband. Which defense mechanism is this?
displacement
acting out
reaction formation
projection
sublimation

Answer 45

displacement.
an unacceptable impulse or emotion is shifted from one object to another. This permits the release of the impulse or emotion onto someone or something that is less dangerous. In this case, although the woman is angry at her boss, it is too dangerous to release this anger at him (she might get fired). She waits until she gets home and displaces this anger onto her huband

Question 46

24 yo woman lives with her mother whom she intensely dislikes. She feels embarassed by this, and compensates by hovering over her mother, attending to her every need. 
displacement
acting out
reaction formation
rationalization 
sublimation

Answer 46

reaction formation

fake; phoney; acting love, feeling hate

Question 47

a woman who is really angry at her neighbor begins to bring her flowers and cookies, while maintaining a "saccharine sweet" demeanor toward the neighbor
displacement
acting out
reaction formation
rationalization 
sublimation

Answer 47

reaction formation

fake; phoney; acting love, feeling hate

Question 48

a writer of mystery novels, who has never had any legal problems, jokes about his "dark side" and his hidden fantasies about leading an exciting life of crime. 
anticipation
sublimation
identification with the agressor
introjection
distortion

Answer 48

sublimation

through sublimation, satisfaction of an objectionable impulse is obtained by using socially acceptable means. The writer derives a vicarious satisfaction of his antisocial impulses through the criminal activities of the characters of his storiesa.

Question 49

a 35 yo is being seen by his psychiatrist for depression. The patient is irritated bc the therapist pushed him on several issues last session. The hpatient does not show up or call for his next session
anticipation
sublimation
identification with the agressor
acting out
distortion

Answer 49

acting out

avoiding of personally unaccetable feelings by behaving in a socially inappropriate manner that is often attention-seeking as well. Acting out implies the expression of an impulse through action to avoid experiencing the accompanying emotion related to that impulse at a conscious level

Question 50

a 45 yo accidentally crashes his car into another vehicle. He feels extremely guilty and so he explains in meticulous detail to anyone listening all the steps leading up to the accident
anticipation
sublimation
identification with the agressor
lintellectualization 
distortion

Answer 50

intellectualization

rationalization would be making excuses and explanations for how and why everything happened

Question 51

a woman with ocd describes an impulse to murder her three children by blowing out the pilot light on her home's heater and blowing up the house. As a result, she checks the pilot light at least 30 times a day, and carries a book of matches with her so if she finds the light out, she can lift it. 
anticipation
undoing
identification with the agressor
introjection
denial 
altruism
distortion

Answer 51

undoing
a compulsive act that is performed in an attempt to negate or avoid the consequences of a fantasized action that is the result of an obsessional impulse. Although the fear is irrational, bc the impulse is a thought or fear and not an actual action, the compulsive nature of the act causes the person to perform it repeatedly.
the three defense systems used in ocd are undoing, isolation, and reaction formation