Midterm Flashcards
What is backward masking?
Masking is a technique that is used to present stimuli on a subconscious level. Similar to the concept of an attentional blink, two stimuli are presented within close succession of one another (less than 500 milliseconds), identification of the first stimulus is impaired
stimulus is followed by an interval of time and then a subsequent stimulus is presented
In schizophrenia, won’t report (or MASK) the initial stimulus; if increase amount of time between stimuli presentation, normalized responses (no masking)
What is the hypothesis of the Whalen Study?
amygdala activity would be modulated by the area of sclera shown in the eyes
What is the method of the Whalen Study?
backward masking was used to present stimulus subliminally; eye black were shown to determine if shape had an effect
What is the role of the amygdala in the Whalen Study?
Depending on the emotion, certain parts of the amygdala is activated; ventral amygdala lights up more for fearful eye whites
The responsivity to eye whites but not to eye blacks indicates that it is not the shape of the scleral field that activates the amygdala but the area of eye white shown
Define Epistemology
- study of how we know what we know
- metaphilosophy
- how is knowledge acquired
- analyzing the nature of knowledge and how it relates to notions such as truth, belief and justification
** study of how we know what we know. Takes the stance of questioning what you’re learning**
Define Hermaneutics
- study of theory and practice of interpretation
- texts (exegesis) in the areas of literature, religion, and law
- modern hermaneutics involves every aspect of the interpretive processes including affective communication, presuppositions and meaning of language
- a hermaneutic: one particular method of interpretation
- dogma: you come to believe the world is organized in a particular way, strong held belief
Define Reliability
you get the same consistent results every time
- ways to increase reliability: test/retest, inter-rater, split-half
Define Validity
is it measuring what it’s supposed to be measuring?
- BECK: Measures depression, not anxiety
Define Independent Variable
are aspects of an investigation that are individually manipulated or carefully regulated by the experimenter
Define Dependent Variable
are outcome responses, the values of which depend on how one or more
Define Ecological Validity
the degree to which particular finding in one environmental context may be considered relevant outside of that context. Case studies and naturalistic methods offer high ecological validity.
According to Libet, what is free will and determinism?
First, there should be no external control or cues to affect the occurrence or emergence of the voluntary act under study; i.e. it should be endogenous. Secondly, the subject should feel that he/she wanted to do it, on his/her own initiative, and feel she/he could control what is being done, when to do it or not to do it - p. 47
What is structuralism?
- WHAT IS IT MADE OF?
- Deconstruct cognition into its component parts
- Describes the mind in most basic and primitive elements of mental experience
Individual elements of consciousnesshow organized into more complex experiences how mental phenomena correlate with physical events - The mental elements (like physical elements of periodic table) structure themselves in such a way to allow conscious experience
broke cognition into separate components of analysis such as attention, memory, sensation, affect…primary method used was introspection
What is Voluntarism?
- connected with the notion of will and how it shapes and influences perception (unknowingly)
- apperception: our schemas organize what we see
- pre-packaged ideas
- happens before perception
things are built from small–> bigger pieces BUT not only way to construct perception
dont accept any dogmas, be a heuristic
What is Functionalism?
- HOW DOES IT WORK?
- Study the processes of what people do, why they do it, and what they do with it
- Mental life and behavior in terms of adaptation to the person’s environment (alternative to structuralism)
- Basis for developing theories not readily testable by controlled experiments
- Support research with ecological validity
- Functionalism arose in the 19th century as an alternative to structuralism and later led to behaviorism
we should focus on process of thoughts, not content; why people do things
What is Pragmatism?
- HOW DOES IT WORK?
- Study the processes of what people do, why they do it, and what they do with it
- Linking practice and theory: theory is extracted from practice and applied back to practice to form what is called intelligent practice
- Pragmatism and functionalism are theoretically and historically linked
knowledge is validated by usefulness and what we do with it
philosophical tradition centered on “linking practice and theory”
What is Associationism?
- how are things connected?
- Studying how what is known and thought about become associated
- The mind is composed of sensations and ideas that are organized by means of various associations
what is known and how they become associated with each other. Ebbinghaus law of forgetting/rehearsal. Thorndike had the law of effect
What are the 4 laws of association?
- Law of contiguity = events that occur close to each other in space or time are linked in the mind
- Law of frequency = the more often two things or events are linked the more powerful will be that association
- Law of similarity = if two things are similar, the thought of one will tend to trigger the thought of the other
- The law of contrast = seeing or recalling something can also trigger the recollection of something completely opposite
What is Gestalt Psychology?
(Wolfgang Kohler & Max Wertheimer)
- Cognition is organized into patterns and needs to be studied as a whole
- Brain as holistic
- Opposed to structuralism
- “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts”
- Brain actively participating in the organization of stimuli
cognition is organized into patterns and is more than the sum of its parts. A nice description of the RIGHT hemisphere
What is the Gestalt Effect?
visual recognition as figures and whole forms instead of collection of simple lines and curves
- all are scientific approaches on how to get to the truth
What is Behaviorism?
(Ivan Pavlov, John Watson, & B.F. Skinner)
what can we see?
- Only study observable behaviors –avoid inferences
- In order for psychology to be a science must focus on what is observable, the environment and behavior and not what is only available in the individual
- Everything is the result of trial and error learning
- Reaction against subjectivity, Freud, etc
- Thoughts, feelings, emotions as immune to measurement and therefore cannot lead to objective science
Avoid inferences and function on observables
What is implicit memory?
non-declarative memory (remains active throughout the life span): is present before explicit memory and involves: behavioral, emotional and perceptual memory
What is explicit memory?
declarative memory: form of memory most commonly thought of as a memory
Explicit memory system requires the involvement of focal attention and the activation of the hippocampus for encoding and retrieval
Discuss mirror neurons.
- “Simulation theory” = mirror neurons are hypothesized to be involved in an intricate process creating resonance, sympathy, and “mirrored” states in the perceiver; what we experience as self states are highly influenced by the experiences of those around us
- Mirror neurons activated during the perception of another’s intentional acts stimulate neural networks that organize the same motor actions
- mirror neurons start firing right after a visual stimulus- so before we even have time to make sense of whats going on we may already be able to understand the expressions, emotions, and movements of the person we’re observing
What are Mental Models and Schemata?
- Organizing cognitive functions (definition)
- Unconscious, highly organized, structural processes derived from past experiences that guide in interpreting present stimuli and influence the direction of behavior
- When a situation activates a given mental model, that model, in turn guides subsequent information processing and behavior
- The inner objects of psychodynamic theory are examples of mental models
What is selective attention?
- paradigms present the person with a target stimulus and distracters
What is Broadbent’s conceptualization of selective attention?
- 3 dimensions: 1. filtering, focusing on specific attributes; 2. categorizing, based on stimulus class; 3. pigeonholding, reducing perceptual information needed to place a stimulus into a specified category
- Ie: Schizophrenic patients have greater difficulty with pigeonholding than filtering when they are symptomatic
- Pre-attentive processing (a parallel functioning) assess global, holistic patterns and appears to be an early component of the perceptual process
- Focal attention (a serial process) follows preattentive processing and involves a detailed analysis of stimuli characteristics
- Example of ongoing parallel process: The ability to hear one’s name called out by a nonattended voice in a crowded noisy room
Discuss PTSD and the explicit memory
- The part of the brain necessary for explicit memory processing, the hippocampus, has been shown to be abnormal in individuals experiencing chronic PTSD
- Activating Broca’s area and left cortical networks of explicit episodic memory may be essential in psychotherapy with patients experiencing PTSD and other anxiety-based disorders; helps us re-intergrate so its not an isolated traumatic event
Discuss PTSD and Delayed Recall (in regards to implicit memory)
- if focal attention is divided, the nonfocally attended (traumatic) material is only processed implicitly
- traumatic memory that has been only implicitly encoded affects behavior and emotions and possibly contains intrusive images and bodily sensations that are devoid of a sense of past, of self, or of something being recalled
What is at the heart of psychotherapy?
2 interwoven processess: 1. the way in which our brains and minds construct reality
2. our ability to modify these constructions to support mental health and well-being
Why do people come to therapy?
because one or more aspects of their lives are not how they’d like them to be
Where can the answers to your client’s questions be found?
In the architecture of the hidden layers of neural processing - those networks within the brain that construct our reality, guide our experience, and shape our identity
What is reality?
A construction of the mind, which we take to be an external truth
What should we take away from Maya?
The experience of the world and self are illusions.
The reality is a construction of the mind which we take to be an external truth.
- buddhism is related to dynamic psychotherapy in that both believe that our conscious experience is creative fiction to distortion
we don’t see things as they are, we see things as they are
Discuss the 3 illusions of the conscious.
- our conscious awareness comes together at some specific location within our heads and is presented to us on a screen
- our experience occurs in the present moment and that conscious thought and decision making precede feelings and actions our brains react to external and internal stimuli in as little as 50 milliseconds, yet it takes more than 500 milliseconds for conscious awareness to occur
- relies on the first two, is that our thoughts and behaviors are under conscious control
Cartesian Theatre Example
Define fundamental attribution error
our tendency to explain the behavior of others based on aspects of their character, while explaining out own behaviors as a result of external factors
Define blaming the victim
attributional bias leads to this phenomenon; where individuals victimized by crime or poverty are believed to have done something to create their misfortune
Define egocentric bias
leads us to reflexively believe that anyone who sees the world differently from ourselves is misguided or dull-witted
it is reflexive and self-evident, maintaining a balanced perspective requires sustained mindful effort
Define belief perseverance
tendency to attend to facts supportive of existing beliefs while ignoring others
What is the royal road to unconscious?
Dreams
Do our brains construct or convey reality?
Construct
What are the two central regions involved in awareness and change?
The prefrontal and parietal lobes
What parts of the brain are activated when social distress occurs?
Anterior Cingulate cortex; Dorsal ACC is the specific region for detection of pain; it lights up
right ventral prefrontal cortex (regulation or inhibition of pain distress); lights up but doesn’t report social distress, since its regulating that brain
dorsal ACC and RVPFC both light up when social distress is experienced
What does the cortex develop?
Language, problem-solving and abstract abilities
Brains are _____
social organs, connected to other brains via the social synapse
Social interactions affect____
Affect everything from our biology to our intellectual abilities
Define Apoptosis
neurons wither and die because of no mutually stimulating interaction
Define Anaclitic Depression
people wither and dies because of no mutually stimulating interaction
What does understanding the brain require?
knowledge of the person embedded within a community of others
What is the difference between a synapse and a social synapse?
synapse: small gaps which separate the individual neurons
synapses are inhabited by a variety of chemical substances engaged in complex interactions, which result in neural transmission
social synapse: spaces between people
What do physical and emotional interactions between mother and child result in?
In a cascade of biochemical processes enhancing the growth and connectivity of neural networks through the brain
What does higher levels of activation correlate with?
Increased production and availability of norepinephrine, endorphins and dopamine, enhancing the child’s pleasure during positive connections
What is a sensitive period?
A window of time when exuberant growth and connectivity occur in specific neural networks
What does attunement and reciprocity of the attachment process reflect?
Mutual awareness, turn taking and emotional resonance
Building of the social brain during the first 2 years is driven by?
the attunement between the right hemisphere of the parent and child
Endorphins are also
Natural Analgesics (bring down pain)
What is a naltrexone?
A drug that blocks the effects of endogenous opioids
What is a social referencing?
Use of eyes and facial expressions to encourage or inhibit toddler activities
Neurons activated specifically by faces have also been detected in the?
Amygdala
What way do we link up across the social synapse?
Through mirror neurons
What is the primary maternal preoccupation?
Early and intense focus on the baby
What is mirroring?
A process by which a mother attunes to her child’s inner world and gives form to his or her formless fantasies, thoughts and needs
- it takes the disorganized processes within the child, name them and make them a part of the relationship
Define impingement
the impact on the child of maternal misattunements
- minor impingements are learning-enhancing experiences, whereas major impingements result in decreased neural integration and hamper the child’s development
What’s Winnicott’s view on therapy?
process of controlled regression to a childhood state with the purpose of succeeding in developing a true self in the present which was thwarted in early life
Shame is both?
A powerful inhibitory emotion and a mechanism of social control
What is the difference between shame and guilt?
guilt “i did something bad”
shame “i am bad”
What is formless quiescence?
moments of safety and calm that teach the child the world can be a safe place (too many impingements can prevent the infant from experiencing this)
How are each of us born twice?
- from our mother’s body over a few hours 2. again from our parents’ psyche over a lifetime
What occurs as a child’s brain continues to form?
Self-awareness and self-identity gradually coalesce
Per chapter 15, trauma victims can have?
Out of body experiences
What is the perception of the self vulnerable to?
alteration and distortion
Which Axis II disorder is related to the reversal of the mirroring process during childhood?
Narcism
When caretaking is reinforced what does it evolve into?
A form of affect regulation, as well as a way of connecting to others via a false self
What are interpretations sometimes referred to as?
the therapist’s scalpel
When an interpretation is accurate what occurs?
- client generally becomes quiet
- change in facial expressions, posture, tone of voice
- shift from fluent reflexive language to speaking in a slower and more self-reflective manner
- confused or disoriented
- physiological symptoms of panic or grief
What does bringing a defense to consciousness activate?
Both the cortical networks that organize the defense and the subcortical networks that contain the negative memories and associated affect
- this disinhibition results in the emotional and physiological arousal seen in therapy as the amygdala becomes reactivated and alerts the body to the old danger
What is a shift in hemispheric bias from left to right do?
correlated with the breakthrough of negative emotions
- this shift may account for the cessation of reflexive social language of the left hemisphere interpreter and a shift to greater self-awareness
Interpretations need to undergo what process?
Working through - they need to be stated, restated, and applied to multiple situations and circumstances (parallel to relapse prevention in cognitive therapies)
What is narcissism characterized by?
A two-sided existence: one reflecting an inflated sense of self-importance, the other mired in emptiness and despair
- origin of this formation of the self occurs when a child looking for love and attunement instead discovers the mother’s own predicament
- the child, robbed under the possibility of self-discovery, compensates by caring for the parent under a real or imagined thereat of abandonment
What is pathological caretaking?
A manifestation of the false self
What does caretaking of others substitute?
Self-soothing abilities and inner emotional organization
What is double amnesia?
Describes the process by which these children have had to first forget certain parts of themselves that could not be accepted or tolerated in their family
- the second layer of forgetting is to forget that these feelings have been forgotten
- these two layers of forgetting is ensured that such children would not slip back into wanting what could not be
Is double amnesia grounded in implicit or explicit memory?
Grounded in both the disconnected between systems of implicit and explicit memory, and constructing a self-narrative that excludes reference to personal needs
What is compulsive compliance?
initially adaptive in response to narcissistic or abusive caretakers - becomes maladaptive in relationships with others, and in the development of the self
What does caretaking and compulsive perfectionism reflect?
the ongoing attempt to compensate for the certainty of unworthiness and anticipation of abandonment
