Psychology Flashcards

Question

Undoing/Magical thinking

Answer 1

Primitive defence mechanism - people with OCD believe doing a certain thing will magically negate an unacceptable thought/wish.

Answer 2

Primitive defence mechanism - attempting to avoid a painful thought/feeling by objectifying and emotionally detaching oneself from it.

Answer 3

Primitive defence mechanism - adopting beliefs/attitudes/feelings contrary to what you really believe.

Answer 4

Primitive defence mechanism - common in childhood trauma. Person takes on abusive aspects of aggressor.

Answer 5

Primitive defence mechanism - channelling a thought/feeling from its actual source to someone/something more acceptable.

Answer 6

Primitive defence mechanism - justifying thoughts/feelings/actions using logically plausible explanations, even if unrelated.

Answer 7

Primitive defence mechanism - emotional distress converted into physical symptoms.

Answer 8

Patient appears to make a spontaneous recovery in therapy when facing addressing particular issues.

Answer 9

Primitive defence mechanism - person repeats a traumatic event over and over, motivated by a desire to return to an earlier state of things.

Answer 10

Mature defence mechanism - redirection of unacceptable instinctual drives into personally and socially acceptable channels.

Answer 11

Mature defence mechanism - selflessly acting for others, thereby avoiding the difficulty of attending to one's own needs.

Answer 12

Mature defence mechanism - realistic planning for future discomfort.

Answer 13

Mature defence mechanism

Answer 14

Mature defence mechanism - conscious decision to delay paying attention to a certain thought to cope with present reality.

Answer 15

Feelings/attitudes a patient has towards a significant person are redirected onto the therapist.

Answer 16

Redirection of the therapist's feelings toward the patient.

Answer 17

Escalating and destructive interaction in which both patient and therapist feel persecuted. Can occur due to rigid and authoritarian attitude by therapist.

Answer 18

A form of narcissistic transference, where patient experiences the therapist as having very similar characteristics to themself, which enhances their experience of being understood/valued.

Answer 19

Cognitive distortion - conclusions in absence of evidence.

Answer 20

Cognitive distortion - conclusion formed on basis of one incident.

Answer 21

Cognitive distortion - abstracts from whole situation and focuses on single incident.

Answer 22

Cognitive distortion - relating external events to oneself.

Answer 23

Cognitive distortion - errors in evaluation.

Answer 24

Cognitive distortion - all-or-nothing / black-or-white thinking.

Answer 25

Behavioural therapy concept. Exposing patient to phobic object in a non-graded manner with no attempt to reduce anxiety beforehand. Can be in vivo or in imagination. Studies show little difference between this and systematic desensitisation.

Answer 26

Behavioural therapy concept. Based on social learning principles. Three stages: 1. Progressive relaxation 2. Desensitisation hierarchy (progressive anxiety-inducing situations) 3. Graded exposure to phobic items while patient relaxes to inhibit anxiety Occurs through classical conditioning (new calm response to stimulus) and reciprocal inhibition.

Answer 27

Behavioural therapy concept. Combines modelling and guided participation. Teacher models desired behaviour and guides patient through. Based on extinction. Used in phobias.

Answer 28

Live modelling + gradual practice = participant modelling. Used in assertiveness and social skills training.

Answer 29

Behavioural therapy concept. Process of removing the reinforcers that normally follow a response to slowly change behaviour.

Answer 30

Allows comparison of stimulus with long-term memory to assign significance. Auditory or visual. Fade/loss time ~0.5s.

Answer 31

= primary/working memory. Item entering short-term memory is lost in ~18s unless rehersal/repetition. Conscious of store contents, capacity of 7 +/- 2 items but can increase by chunking. Affected by primacy, latency, serial position.

Answer 32

= secondary memory. Coding is mainly visual, semantic, acoustic. Includes: - Declarative memory (explicit) = lexical, episodic, semantic. - Procedural memory (implicit) = motor skills, perceptual skills, intuitive cognitive skills. - Perceptual representation system (PRS) = perceptual identification of objects and perceptual planning.

Answer 33

Reinforcer delivered every time a particular response occurs.

Answer 34

Reinforcement only occurs some of the time. There is a partial reinforcement extinction effect (behaviour learned through partial reinforcement, especially if variable, is very resistant to extinction). Involved in superstitions.

Answer 35

Form of partial reinforcement. Reinforcement follows fixed number of responses.

Answer 36

Form of partial reinforcement. Variable number of responses between responses. More likely to produce emotional outbursts during learning phase, less likely during the extinction phase.

Answer 37

Form of partial reinforcement. Reinforcement occurs after a fixed time period regardless of number of responses.

Answer 38

Form of partial reinforcement. Reinforcement occurs after a variable time period, regardless of number of responses.

Answer 39

Test of executive function. Involves rule detection and rule following task.

Answer 40

Test of executive function. Involves two parts - sentence completion, and response suppression.

Answer 41

Developed in response to structuralism. The Gestalt psychologists recognised that individual items/thoughts need to be examined together. This was because they understood that individual items interact and add complexity to the overall picture. Important figures: Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Köhler. Laws: symmetry and order, similarity, proximity, continuity, closure, common fate.

Answer 42

Founded by Wundt. Followers of structuralism thought that the best way to understand the mind was to break thoughts down into their most basic components and then create laws regarding how they are connected.

Answer 43

= rapid sequences of perceptual events, such as rows of flashing lights, create the illusion of motion even when there is none, eg, motion pictures. Created by Wurtheimer (of Gestalt theory).

Answer 44

Created by Allport Level 1: Cardinal traits - so pervasive that most of the persons behaviour and activities can be traced to this particular trait. Only few people possess a cardinal trait but for the ones who do, this trait may be the ruling of their personality. Such traits are usually evident to most people who know the individual. Level 2: Central traits - easily detected characteristics within a person, traits that all people have a certain number of, five to ten on average. Level 3: Secondary traits - less evident and only manifest in select circumstances.

Answer 45

In classical conditioning we are looking at responses to stimuli, whereas in operant conditioning we are interested in responses to behaviour. In classical conditioning, the animal behaves as if it has learned to associate a stimulus with a significant event. In operant conditioning, the animal behaves as if it has learned to associate a behaviour with a significant event.

Answer 46

- Psychodynamic (Freud) - aggression arises from a primary instinct called thanatos (death instinct), which aims to cause total destruction and death. There is an opposing instinct called eros (the life instinct). Catharsis occurs when we watch an aggressive act or are involved in a mildly aggressive act. - Sociobiological / Drive (Lorenz) - Following his study of birds, Lorenz proposed a theory of aggression which shared many of the ideas of evolution. He suggested that aggression is instinctual and occurs in response to biological stimuli and follows predictable rules. He suggested that the aggressive instinct was necessary for survival. His major work (completed in 1963) is titled 'On Aggression'. - Cognitive and Learning (Berkowitz / Rotter, Bandura / Anderson)

Answer 47

1. Pre-attachment - Birth to 6 weeks 2. Attachment in the making - 6 weeks to 6-8 months 3. Clear cut attachment -6-8 months to 18-24 months (separation anxiety) 4. Formation of reciprocal attachment - 18-24 months onwards

Answer 48

The Id is the area that contains the instinctive drives. It operates under 'primary process thinking', acts according to the 'pleasure principle', and is without a sense of time.

Answer 49

The ego attempts to modify the drives from the Id with external reality. It operates on the 'reality principle'. It has aspects that are conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. It is home to the defence mechanisms.

Answer 50

The super ego constantly observes a person and acts as critical agency. Freud claimed it developed from internalised values of a child's main carers. The 'ego ideal' is part of the super ego and represents ideal attitudes and behaviour. It is useful to think of the super ego as the conscience.

Answer 51

Abraham Maslow introduced this in 1943. It consisted of 5 levels. A person would only become concerned with the needs of a particular level when all the needs of the lower levels had been satisfied. -Level 5 (most advanced) - Self-actualisation (quest to achieve full potential, e.g. needs for truth and meaning) -Level 4 - Esteem needs (e.g. Social recognition, personal worth) -Level 3 - Social needs (e.g. Feelings of love and belonging) -Level 2 - Safety needs (e.g. Roof over your head, financial security) -Level 1 (most basic) - Physiological needs (e.g. Air, water)

Answer 52

- Secure attachment (70%), associated with sensitive and responsive carers. Leads to autonomous attachment in adult. - Resistant attachment (15%) = intense distress when mother leaves, fears stranger, resists contact on reunion with mum. Associated with inconsistent carers. Leads to preoccupied attachment as adult. - Avoidant attachment (15%) = no distress, ok with stranger, ignores mum on reunion. Associated with unresponsive carers. Leads to dismissing attachment as adult. - Disorganised. Leads to unresolved attachment as adult.

Answer 53

Stranger anxiety → begins around 8 months. Separation anxiety → begins around 10 - 18 months and usually diminishes by year three. Critical period → 6-36 months

Answer 54

Designed to assess unconscious material. They present subjects with ambiguous pictures or phrases in an attempt to elicit an unconscious response. These are qualitative tests. Examples include:- * Rorschach Inkblot * Thematic Apperception Test * Draw-A-Person test * Sentence completion tests

Answer 55

Very structured and clear questions and aims. These are quantitative tests. Examples include:- * Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory * Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) * NEO Personality Inventory * Esyenck personality test (EPQ)

Answer 56

Repression Displacement

Answer 57

Isolation Undoing Reaction formation

Answer 58

Projection Splitting

Answer 59

Displacement

Answer 60

"Sally puts a marble in a basket and leaves the room. While she is gone, Anne removes the marble from the basket and puts it in a box. Sally comes back into the room, and the child is asked, 'Where will Sally look for her marble?'" Autistic children name the box, while non-autistic children identified the basket.

Answer 61

Malan's work focused on the formulation of the client's difficulties through two 'triangles' - the triangle of person and the triangle of conflict.