Major Learning Processes Flashcards
The Unconscious:
Mental contents that are censored, repressed, and not easily brought into conscious awareness
The Preconscious:
Mental contents that can easily be brought into conscious awareness by shifting one’s attention.
The Conscious:
Mental contents which an individual is generally aware of
Id:
Instinctual drives (sex or libido, aggression…). Limbic system
Ego:
The manager of mental life. Balances the influences of the Id, the Superego, and reality.
Superego:
Also known as one’s “conscience”. It begins with the word “No!” and becomes the source of shame and then guilt.
Frontal Cortex
Defense mechanisms are employed by:
not ONLY people with a DSM diagnoses, but EVERYONE EVERYDAY
Denial ‑
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.”
Repression
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
Splitting (Borderline Personality Disorder)
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.”
Projection
Putting one’s own affects (unacceptable impulses) on to another
“I’m not worried about this, you are.”
Dissociation (Dissociative Identity Disorder)
Disruption of identity, memory, consciousness, or perception
Disrupting one’s sense of continuity in areas of identity, memory, consciousness, or perception
Regression
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
Reaction Formation
Transforming an unacceptable wish or impulse into its opposite
Loving something you hate
Experiencing the opposite of what you initially feel
Rationalization
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.”
Isolation of Affect
Separating an idea from its associated affect state to avoid emotional turmoil
Calmly recounting details of a traumatic event
Sublimation
Transforming socially objectionable or internally unacceptable aims into socially acceptable ones
Redirecting unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable ones
Altruism
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.”
Suppression
Consciously deciding not to attend to a particular feeling, state, or impulse.
”Yeah I know. I’ll take care of it.”
Humor
Finding comic elements in difficult situations to reduce unpleasant affect or personal discomfort
“Well, at least chemo will help me lose weight!”
Transference and Countertransference
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
transference refers to_____, while countertranference refers to _______
the feelings of the patient towards the therapist; the feelings of the therapist towards the client
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.
Denial
A mother tells the pediatrician that her 11 year old daughter has started bedwetting shortly after their new baby was born.
Regression
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.
Reaction formation
classical conditioning: food alone, whistle alone, food with whistle, whistle alone after conditioned by food
unconditioned stiumuls-unconditioned response, neutral stimulus-no response, conditioning, conditioned stimulus-conditioned response
B.F. Skinner
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.
skinner box square
+R/-R
+P/-P
Shaping:
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
Extinction:
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
____________ is more effective for learning than _____________(This is why you should receive your grades shortly after completing the test)
Immediate reinforcement is more effective for learning than delayed reinforcement (This is why you should receive your grades shortly after completing the test)
__________ is slower following acquisition of a response to a partial reinforcement schedule than a continuous reinforcement schedule
Extinction is slower following acquisition of a response to a partial reinforcement schedule than a continuous reinforcement schedule
Variable reinforcement
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)
Punishment
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
What form of conditioning?: Spanking
positive punishment
What form of conditioning?: Nausea upon seeing their chemotherapy clinic
classical conditioning
What form of conditioning?: Time Out
negative punishment
What form of conditioning?: “If you lose weight then no more insulin shots!”
negative reinforcement
What form of conditioning?: “Doing your PT will get you back to work quickly.”
positive reinforcement
if it increases the likelihood of behavior being repeated:
prositive reinforcement/negative reinforcement (snooze bar on alarm)
if it decreases the likelihood of behavior being repeated
positive punishment/negative punishment (suspended from school)
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
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.
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
reaction formation
fake; phoney; acting love, feeling hate
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
reaction formation
fake; phoney; acting love, feeling hate
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
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.
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
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
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
intellectualization
rationalization would be making excuses and explanations for how and why everything happened
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
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
