Psych Final Exam Flashcards
Period between puberty and adulthood
(approx. 10-20 years)
Physical changes
Many takes place because of puberty
- prepare you you to reproduce
* 4-year process
Gender differences in puberty
females on average will mature 2 years earlier than males
Marked by increases in hormones
- primary sex characteristics
- secondary sex characteristics
Primary Sex Characteristics
changes that are necessary for reproduction to take place
Examples. Production of sperm: boys, maturing of eggs: girls
* must happen for successful reproduction
- Not visible to the naked eye
Secondary Sex Characteristics
can be seen and observed
All other physical changes that take place
Examples. deepening of voice, growth of body hair, etc.
Cognitive Changes
More complex and more abstract thinking -> formal operational stage
- Frontal lobe not fully developed
–> mid 20s it is fully developed
* knuckle head behavior
- Don’t fully think through decisions
Social Changes
Changes in the way you interact with people
Example. a teen will start to spend more time with friends than family
Relationship with parents
- Always believed that their relationship is rocky
- not nearly as bad as what it seems -> research based
- conflict tends to be over little stuff, mostly
- lots of agreement on important issues
Relationship With Peers
- Homophily
- Peer Pressure
Homophily
spend time with people with the same interests
Formation of Identity
A sense of who you are
- Do you believe the same as your family?
* What do we think, what do we want to do?
Erikson’s Psychosocial theory
how do our personalities develop over time
- personalities can change throughout a lifetime
Psychosocial theories
how our mind is influenced by others
- Social contacts influence our personality
examples, parents, friends, significant others
At 8 different points your personality changes
- Only 3 we have highlighted
- Trust vs. Mistrust
- Identity vs. Confusion
- Integrity vs. Despair
- Trust vs. Mistrust
-> Infants
If needs are dependably met, they will develop a trusting aspect of their personality
* children with bad parents will develop mistrust
- Identity vs. Confusion
-> Adolescents
Examples, religion, politics, occupation, etc.
- testing out some roles
- could become a single identity or be confused
* adds different things to your identity
- going to a church, quit, then going to a different one
- Integrity vs. Confusion
-> Old Adults
an old person is getting closer to death, they think about social interactions
- either satisfied or despair
- Integrity = you are not scared to die
- despair = you are scared to die
Psychological disorders (adolescents)
- females show higher rates of anxiety and depression
- could they have it or are they more likely to seek help?
- not specific to adolescence, all females of all ages usually do
- females have higher rates of depression
- all over the globe - some disorders show higher rates in adolescents
- specific phobias 3x higher in teens than children
Psychological disorders (adolescents)
- females show higher rates of anxiety and depression
- could they have it or are they more likely to seek help?
- not specific to adolescence, all females of all ages usually do
- it is not confirmed as to why it is this way (biological / social?)
- females have higher rates of depression
- all over the globe - Can develop into other types of disorders
- eating disorders (formation because of anxiety or did it cause anxiety?) - some disorders show higher rates in adolescents
- specific phobias 3x higher in teens than children
Moral Development
our sense of right and wrong and how it changes over time
- example, killing someone
- both a child and adult acknowledge that’s wrong but have different reasons as to why
Kohlberg’s theory on moral development
He would take a story and tell to people of different ages and see how they would respond
- example, “should___ have done what he did and why?”
* He would focus on the study of why
- he ended up developing three stages of moral development
* Preconventional Stage, Conventional Stage, Postconventional Stage
Preconventional level (children)
sense of right and wrong; comes from reward and punishment
Conventional level (adolescence)
Much of morality is based on conformity
(ex. what our friends and family do)
Golden rule
- Treat others how you want to be treated
Postconventional Level (Adulthood)
morale based on personal moral
*not based on friends or punishment/award just your code
(ex. Dr. Death; A physician who helped terminally ill patients kill themselves and would later go to prison)
When does someone become an adult?
- We are not able to provide an exact age or mental age for when this occurs
- We have an idea of four categories that this can go into
* Young, Middle, Old, Elder
Young
-> 20-30s
Middle
-> 40-50s
Old
-> 60-70s
Elder
-> 80+
Cognitive Aging
- Fluid Intelligence
- Crystallized Intelligence
Fluid Intelligence
the ability to think quickly
(logical reasoning, reaction time, info processing)
- Decreases with age
Crystallized Intelligence
- Experience in life
- Increase with age
Recall and recognition
- Younger people will typically have a better time with recall
- Older people tend to have a better time with recognition tests
Processing
the ability to process decreases with age
Personality Changes
Personalities a persons, unique, thinking, feeling, and behaving styles
- almost as unique as a snowflake
The Big 5 (OCEAN)
- Openness, Conscientiousness, Extrovert, Agreeableness, Neuroticism
It used to be thought that these traits never changed with age, but it turns out that they can change significantly with major life events
*everyone has a certain quantity of these traits
Openness
our openness to new ideas
Conscientousness
dependability, hard-working, organized, punctual
Extrovert
Extroverted, outgoing
Agreeableness
Ability to go with the flow, or to agree with others
Neuroticism
Anxiety
Subjective Age
How old do you feel?
- Are you satisfied with your age?
- if positive -> healthier outcomes
* age is just a #
Global Subjective well-being
Perception of your life (satisfaction, etc.)
- Satisfaction of relationships throughout life
*highest in early/late adulthood and lower in midlife
Hedonic Well-being
emotional component (happiness, stress, etc.)
- Experience of negative emotions tend to decrease with age
- older adults more positive than younger/midlife
Dementia
Brain disorder where gyri (cortex) shrink and the ventricles (sulci) get bigger
- Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common
- Type of Dementia
- A person’s risk starts in their 60s, risk increases after every passing year/decade
* not everyone with dementia has Alzheimer’s, but everyone with Alzheimer’s has Dementia
- Those who study it say if everyone would life long enough, they would get it
- Very common, especially among the old
- From diagnosis to death is roughly 7 years
Dementia Symptoms
- Degeneration at the cellular and structural level
*lose brain tissue from the inside out and the outside in - memory lapse
- First starts as minor memory lapse
Social Psychology
The study of how other people influence our behavior
- True character shows when you are alone
- Influence can be explicit or implicit
Explicit Influence
Someone tells you to do something
(ex. Dr. Metzger telling you to raise your hand)
Implicit
A person doesn’t say anything but behavior changes
Conformity
Our behavior changes when no one asks
- behavior changes based on the environment
*two reasons; Normative Influence and Informational Influence
Normative Influence
what do others think of me?
- fitting in; talking/dressing differently
(Ashe Experiment)
Informational Influence
am I doing the correct behavior?
- following what someone else does to do the right thing
(Dr. Metzger in Germany)
Compliance
behavior changes because of request
- you don’t have to say yes
Foot-in-the-door technique
a small request is accepted, which is then followed by a larger request
*The key: what was wanted was the larger request
(ex. asking dad for $20, but then asking for $50)
Door-in-the-face technique
a big request is denied, which is followed by a smaller request
*the Key is the smaller request
(ex. asking dad for $50, then asking for $20)
Lowball technique
an agreement is made and later the details of the agreement change
*car dealers
(ex. $200, my manager only says $300, okay I’m in)
Obedience
change behavior because of an order to do so
*must be a person of authority
(ex. children must be obedient to their parents)
- Common in ‘typical’ societal situations
Stanley Millgram obedience experiments in the 1960s
- Most Unethical and well known
Wanted to understand behaviors seen in WWII
*especially the Holocaust - Everyday good people could do awful things
*followed the orders of authority figures
Results: - The percentage of people who went all the way up to 450: 65%
Procedure:
- participants had to give the other person a question if they got it wrong they were to give them a shock
Prosocial Behavior
any behavior that helps someone else
Altruism
engaging in a behavior with no expectations in return
Bystander Effect
- Kitty Genouese (1963)
- 38 people heard, none called or went to help
- number of bystanders up, level of help down
Diffusion of Responsibility
‘someone else will”
Attribution
exploring the behavior of self and others
- lazy, busy
- character vs. circumstance
Situational Attributions
Actions because of situations that you cannot help
(ex. late because of overlapping classes)
Dispositional Attributions
Actions because of personality/character
(ex. late because you’re lazy)
Ted Bundy
- Serial Killer
- was very charming, but did awful actions
Fundamental Attribution Error
Others -> dispositional causes
Self -> situationally
Prejudice (thought) vs. Discrimination (behavior)
- In-group
- group with which you identify - out-group
- everybody else/ not identifying with
Old-Fashioned Bias
(not openly common)
MOST think that all people should be equal
Have diminished
- not as common as they once were
Blatant Bias
conscious beliefs that are freely admitted
- hostile to out-group
Social Dominance Orientation
Belief that…
- group hierarchies are inevitable
- some groups are better than others
- those outside ‘your group’ are inferior
- there are limited resources that we compete for
*tend to do well in jobs in hierarchal structure (police, business, etc.)
21st Century Biases
are more subtle
- Automatic Bias
Automatic Bias
unintended bias of liking other groups less than your own
- religion, race, gender, etc.
Implicit Association Test
link “good” with in-group- faster than “good” with out-groups
*faster at pairing your own group with good qualities
Social Cognitive Theory
we learn behaviors through modeling or watching others do it
- observation learning
*no one is born a racist, sexist, etc.
Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes
Jane Elliot, 1960s rural Iowa
- She taught her 3rd graders about discrimination by comparing different groups of children on different days
- Asked them how it felt
- Showed how basing beliefs on people based on what they look like is wrong
- Children’s thinking and behavior changed quickly towards the other group
- Did she go too far?
- lasting life lesson
*look up the video and watch it on youtube
Personality
*like a snowflake; all are similar but two are not the same
Unique thinking, acting, feeling throughout life
Psychodynamic Perspective (Freud)
- No evidence that proves theory
*iceberg - You are consciously aware of a fraction of your mind
-Influenced by unconscious processes
(Id, Superego, Ego)
*Freud believed when you couldn’t find a solution to a conflict it resulted in anxiety- conflict between the 3 (Id, Superego, and Ego)
Id
The only part of your personality you are born with
- Contains basic needs and drives
* hunger, thirst, sex drives, etc.
- Impulse and wants immediate satisfaction
Superego
develops around the age of 4 or 5
- sense of right or wrong
- parental influence
Ego
sits between the two
- decision maker
- make a decision that satisfy both superego and id
Behavioral Perspective
aspects of our personality are learned
* observationally of rewards and punishments
Humanistic Perspective
every person deep down is a good person
- Self Actualization
Self Actualization
the drive to be the best person you can be/to reach your potential
*personality is the expression of the drive
Genetic Perspective
-What degree does genetics play a role in your personality?
* twins
Identical vs. fraternal twins raised together vs. apart
*Identical should be more similar than fraternal
Fraternal -> more different
Identical -> more similar
Personality Traits
basic dimension on which people differ
* traits are continuous, but we look at a limited amount
-> anyone can fall anywhere on the line of traits
(ex. extroversion or introversion)
*most people fall around the mean (middle)
Characteristics of Personality Traits
- A lot of stability and consistency
-> many will stay the same - Lots of individual differences
-> from person to person
Five Factor Model (the big 5)
- 5 personality traits that are important to understand
- each are independent of each other
(OCEAN)
*if you score high on one, you don’t have to score high on all of them
Objective Tests
have a standard set of questions and you provide a response
- most widely used assessments
*no interpretation is necessary
- People are asked to describe themselves
* may be some bias, not everyone might not be honest
- Good validity
* measure what they are intended to measure, accurate
- Self- report issues
* may need to worry about the responses given
- employers, military, etc. might give these out
- Some may be designed for cheaters
(ex. one we did in class with the numbers)
Informant Ratings
answer questions about someone else that you know well
- may be used with children or cognitively impaired adults
- Switches the pronouns to her/him instead of you/I
MMPI-2 (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory -2nd)
- Objective test
- One of the most widely used
- has different subscales
- full version is over 500 questions
- Test is designed to catch cheaters : How?
- take similar questions and ask multiple times
* if answers are different, cheating, not truthful
Projective Tests
- Ambiguous stimuli
- no right or wrong answer
- Responses need to be interpreted
*stimuli is ambiguous, you will project your personality in your answers - Not as valid as objective assessments
- Inkblot test (Rohnshak)
* you are shown a blob of ink and you explain what you see
(ex. I see a bat)
-TAT
- ambiguity with the instructions
- story you tell is a projection of your personality based on character
- Draw a person test
* not a good assessment
Category of disorders
depression is under it
Mental Disorders
-Psychology is the science of mind and behavior
This is the study of abnormal behavior
What is abnormal?
- Statistical Deviance: frequency of behavior
- subjective discomfort or distress
- inability to function normally
- context must be taken into account
How do we diagnose mental illness?
- DSM-5 Book
- describes about 250 disorders
* 4% of disorders we will cover - Criteria of symptoms
- ex. depression: 5 out of 9 over 2 weeks
- does not determine ‘cause’
- describes about 250 disorders
- at any time, 25% of Americans suffer
- Comorbidity is common
Comorbidity
more than one disorder at a time
Major Depressive Disorder (unipolar) -> one emotional extreme
- Most commonly diagnosed
- Symptoms of behavior, emotion, and mood (anhedonia)
- Behavior: changes in sleep and eating behavior
- Emotion: feelings of worthlessness, guilt, changes in mood
- Not treated: worst part is getting out of bed
Anhedonia
a person does not find pleasure in activities they used to enjoy
Bipolar Mood Disorder
two emotional extremes
Bipolar 1 - manic episode (depressive episode not necessary)
- Manic state -> completely opposite of depressed
- enthusiasm, optimistic, racing thoughts, warm drug that runs through body
- no sleep
- enthusiasm, optimistic, racing thoughts, warm drug that runs through body
Bipolar 2
episodes from depressed to manic
- when untreated people spend more time in one of the ends
- tend to be depressed longer than manic
- takes less energy to be depressed
- Depressed for 2-3 weeks
- manic for 5-7 days
Depressive Disorders(Prevalence)
- Lifetime prevalence rate of 16.6%
- 17% of people will go through depression at some point in their life - Average age of onset in the mid 20s, women are more commonly diagnosed
- Rate of 2: 1, women vs. men - Those diagnosed once are more likely to experience it again
Bipolar Disorders (Prevalence)
- life time prevalence of 4.4%
- Often comorbid with other disorders
- diagnosed with another mood disorder
- many experience symptoms beginning in adolescence
Depressive Disorder (Treatments)
- Medications (SSRIs), Cognitive Therapy, etc.
*SSRIs do not work like Tylenol (takes 2-6 weeks to feel the effects)
- not intended for lifelong treatment- Cognitive therapy: designed to change the way you think
- depression: the way they think is not healthy for them
- Cognitive therapy: designed to change the way you think
Bipolar Disorders (Treatments)
- Typically treated with medications (ex. lithium)
- not a high powered drug, a salt
- tend to be taken over a life time
- People tend to stop taking them because they are doing so well, then the symptoms come back
- many benefit from the medication
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
Depression that results from changes in seasons
- technically, a type of depression (with a seasonal pattern)
- symptoms begin in the fall and worsen into the winter
- symptoms begin to lift in the late spring (if left untreated)
Causes:
- Disruption to biological clock (light= zeitgeber -> time giver)
- melatonin level fluctuation (regulated by sunlight
- lack of sunlight
- Alaska the most common
Treatments:
- light therapy
- the most cost effective
- medication/psychotherapy
Anxiety Disorders
- Nervous system arousal and a sense of dread
- sympathetic nervous system
- fear or anxiety that something is going to happen
- usually people know what they are upset about
Generalized Anxiety disorder (GAD)
- DSM-5: 6 months of excessive worry
- lifetime prevalence of 5.7%
Panic Disorder
Characterized by panic attacks
Panic Attacks
a bout of intense anxiety that lasts from a few seconds to a few hours
- unpredictable
- often comorbid with agoraphobia
Agoraphobia
fear of open spaces where escape may be difficult
* a fear of leaving your home
Phobias
irrational fears or objects or situations
Specific phobias
objects or situations
- lifetime prevalence of specific phobia is 12.5%
Social Phobias
of public embarrassment or humiliation
- in one sample, 92% were bullied as kids
- Lifetime prevalence of social phobia is 12.1%
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
experience arousal long after trauma has passed
- war veterans, rape victims, natural disaster survivors, etc.
Symptoms: nightmares/flashbacks, avoidance of stimuli, arousal (don’t sleep)
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
- Obsession: a persistent upsetting thought
- Compulsion: a repetitive behavior that temporarily reduces anxiety
*vicious cycle of thoughts and behaviors
(cleaners, checkers, counters, hoarders) - creates disturbance in daily life
- The action that they do, they do not like to do
Treatments for Anxiety Disorders
- Behavioral (exposure) therapy
- great for phobias
- Medicinal therapy
Schizophrenia
disorder of distrubed thought, speech, emotion, and behavior
- 1%, equal in gender and race
- Symptoms begin in late teens to late 20s
- Males: teens
- Females: mid to late 20s
Positive Symptoms
made known by their presence
* person is doing something they shouldn’t be doing
- Delusions, Hallucinations, Speech and thought
*does not show all symptoms
Delusions
believing something that isn’t true
- persecution
- grandeur
Persecution
false belief that people are out to get or harm you in some way
Grandeur
a false belief you are better than others
Hallucinations
a false sensory experience
- hear voices, see images
Speech and thought
jump from topic to topic with no connection or bridge
Negative symptoms
made know from their absence
* person is not doing something that they should
- Flat Affect, Social withdrawal
* does not show all symptoms
Flat Affect
they are emotionless
- when they do show an emotion, but it is not appropriate
Social withdrawal
they almost live in their own little world
Types of Schizophrenia
Paranoid, Disorganized, Catatonic, Undifferentiated
Paranoid
- Primarily show delusions and hallucinations
- can show other symptoms
- if a person is lashing out and has schizophrenia, normally has paranoid
- believe that other people are out to get them
Disorganized
very easy to spot because they tend to show symptoms of speech and thought
Catatonic
disorder of movement; the way a person moves their body is disturbed
- wildly moving, flailing
- person will stand like a statue
Undifferentiated
- symptoms don’t place them in one of the three above
- mix of symptoms and the person has schizophrenia
Causes of Schizophrenia
Genetic Factors and Environmental Factors
Genetic Factors
- tends to run in families
- the more similar genetically to a person who has it, the higher the chance you have of getting it
- If genetics was the only factor, then identical twins would be 100%
Environmental Factors
- Pregnancy issues (stress, infection, etc.)
- fraternal twins share the womb
- Urban areas show higher rates of rural
- exposed to toxins, viruses, bacteria, etc.
Treatments of Schizophrenia
People typically have elevated levels of dopamine
- Anti-psychotic medications (block the dopamine)
* only work on the positive symptoms
People may have brain damage
- structural brain changes -> cause of negative symptoms?
* healthy people have a bigger, fuller brain
History of Treatment
- early asylums were more like prisons
- little treatment offered, used for more of containment
Types of Treatment
Insight, Action, Biomedical
Insight Treatment
understand why you are doing the things you are doing
Action therapy
goal is to change behavior
- works well with phobias
Biomedical therapy
drugs, surgery, etc.
Example of Insight Therapy
-Humanistic
- Focus of person’s sense of ‘self’ -> who you truly are
* Roger’s Client Centered Therapy
- Provide unconditional positive regard (unconditional love)
- nondirective: client figures out what is wrong not therapist
- therapist is empathetic and facilitates process
Examples of Action Therapy
- works well with people with phobias
- phobias are learned from classical conditioning
(Systematic Desensitization (extinction) and Aversion Therapy)
- phobias are learned from classical conditioning
Systematic Desensitization (extinction)
- first learn muscle relaxation techniques
- hierarchy of stimuli: a list of stimuli that they are more and more fearful of
Aversion Therapy
-used for addiction
- induce a taste aversion of a different stimuli
(ex. ‘rapid smoking’)
Examples of Biomedical Therapies
- medications
- impact brain and/or body
(Antipsychotic, Antianxiety, Antidepressants)
- impact brain and/or body
Antipsychotics
reducing hallucinations, delusions, etc.
Antianxiety
- works fairly quickly
- potential for abuse/misuse
Antidepressants
- SSRI
*may take 2-6 weeks to feel the effects
Electroconvulsive Therapy
- Treatment for depression
- 2 times a week for 2-6 weeks
- electrodes up to the head until they seize
- may experience memory loss, but little side effects
- depression tends to lift
- doctors do not know why - Usually done on patients when drugs or other therapies do not work
Psychotherapy
- used as a last resort
- Treatment is irreversible
- Lobotomy
Lobotomy
- First modern brain surgery
- done on people with anxiety, depression, etc.
- nothing is taken out
- would cut the frontal lobe from the back hemisphere
- drill a hole in skull and use a butter knife to cut brain
- Transorbital lobotomy: through the eye socket
- Walter Freeman
