Psychology Flashcards
What are the steps involved in the learning theory?
Antecedents
Behaviour
Consequences
What are the basic learning processes?
- Classical conditioning Learning what events signal - Operant conditioning Learning one thing leads to another - Observational learning Learning from others
What is an unconditioned stimulus?
I stimulus that elicits a reflexive or innate response (UCR) without prior learning
What is an unconditioned response?
A reflexive or innate response that is elicited by a stimulus (UCS) without prior learning
What is an conditioned stimulus?
A stimulus that, through association with a UCS, comes to elicit a conditioned response similar to the original UCR
What is an conditioned response?
A response elicited by a conditioned stimulus
When is classical conditioning strongest?
When:
- There are repeated CS-UCS pairings
- The UCS is more intense
- The sequence involves forward pairing (i.e. CS→UCS)
- The time interval between the CS and UCS is short
What is stimulus generalisation?
A tendency to respond to stimuli that are similar, but not identical, to a conditioned stimulus. e.g. responding to a buzzer or a hammer banging, when the conditioned stimulus was a bell
What is stimulus discrimination?
The ability to respond differently to various stimuli
- e.g. a child will respond differently to various bells (alarms, school, timer)
- A fear of dogs might only include certain breeds
Give an example of fear learning.
Traumatic injection → Pain/fear
Trauma (UCS and needle (CS)→ Fear response
Clinical setting (CS) → Fear response (CR)
What are the two factors that contribute to to fear learning?
1) Fear response
2) Reduced fear from avoiding the stimulus
What is Thorndike’s Law of Effect?
A response followed by a satisfying consequence will be more likely to occur
A response followed by an aversive consequence will become less likely to occur
What is operant conditioning?
Behaviour is learned and maintained by it’s consequences
What are primary and secondary reinforcers?
Primary Reinforcers- Those needed for survival e.g. food, water, sleep, sex
Secondary Reinforcers- Stimuli that acquire reinforcing properties through their association with primary reinforcers e.g. money, praise
What is negative reinforcement?
Occurs when a response is strengthened by the removal (or avoidance) of an aversive stimulus
What are “positive” and “negative” reinforcement?
Refers to the presentation or removal of a stimuli
What is positive punishment?
Occurs when a response is weakened by the presentation of a stimulus (e.g. squirting a cat with water when it jumps on dining table)
What is negative punishment?
Occurs when a response is weakened by the removal of a stimulus (e.g. phone confiscated)
What is more effective, reinforcement or punishment?
Reinforcement
What is operant extinction?
The weakening and eventual disappearance of a response because it is no longer reinforced
What is resistance to extinction (in relation to operant conditioning)?
The degree to which non-reinforced responses persist
What are the different types of reinforced schedules? Describe each one
1) Fixed interval schedule: reinforcement occurs after fixed time interval
2) Variable interval schedule: the time interval varies at random around an average
3) Fixed ratio schedule: reinforcement is given after a fixed number of responses
4) Variable ratio schedule: reinforcement is given after a variable number of responses, all centred around an average
What is the difference between continuous and partial reinforcement?
Continuous reinforcement produces more rapid learning as the association between a behaviour and it’s consequences is easier to understand
However continuously reinforced responses extinguish more rapidly as the shift to no reinforcement is sudden and easier to understand
What is Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory?
1) Observational (vicarious) learning- We observe the behaviour of others and the consequences of those behaviours
2) Vicarious reinforcement- If their behaviours are reinforced we tend to imitate the behaviours
What is modeling?
Observational Learning
Occurs by watching and imitating actions of another person, or by noting consequences of a person’s actions
- Occurs before direct practice is allowed
When are we more likely to model other individuals behaviour? (social learning)
- Seen to be rewarded
- High status (e.g. medical consultant)
- Similar to us (e.g. colleagues)
- Friendly (e.g. peers)
What is a health behaviour?
Any activity undertaken by an individual believing himself to be healthy, for the purpose of preventing disease or detecting it at an asymptomatic stage
What did the Alameda Study show?
Residents of Alameda county completes a list of 7 health behaviours practiced regularly: - Not smoking - Eating breakfast - Not snacking - Regular exercise - 7-8 hours of sleep - Moderate alcohol - Moderate weight At 10 year follow up the mortality rate in individuals who practiced all seven behaviours was less than ¼ of that in individuals who practiced three or less
What is the role of education in changing behaviours?
Information does have an important role and is most effective for discrete behaviours (e.g. getting a child vaccinated) but often people need more than knowledge to change habitual lifestyle behaviours, particularly addictive behaviours
What did the Kegels et al study on positive reinforcement intervention show? Describe the study.
Children were given a talk on dental hygiene and then received one of the following types of follow up:
1) No further input
2) Discussion session
3) Reward for compliance with mouthwash
Greatest success with reward group, least success with the discussion group
What did Marteau’s study show?
Analysed evidence for using incentives to change health behaviour (five year review)
Incentives used in smoking cessation schemes were most effective; those aimed at weight loss were least effective
What are the limitations of reinforcement programmes?
1) Lack of generalisation (only affects behaviour regarding the specific trait that is being rewarded
2) Poor maintenance (rapid extinction of the desired behaviour once the reinforcer disappears
3) Impractical and expensive
Describe Janis & Fesbach’s study on fear arousal. What did they find?
High school students were given one of three different lectures on dental health designed to induce low, moderate or high fear. Effects on subsequent dental hygiene behaviour was measured with self-reported questionnaires one week later.
Biggest percentage change in behaviour seen in low fear group; lowest change seen in high fear group
What did Kobus study in 2003? What were the results of the study?
Peer influences on adolescent smoking (analysing social influences)
Substantial peer group homogeneity with respect to adolescent smoking
Best friends have the greatest influence on adolescent smoking, followed by peer group
What was the Waterloo Smoking Prevention Project?
High school students were allocated to a smoking prevention or control condition
6 sessions including rehearsal skills to build confidence in ability to resist peer pressure to smoke
Significant effect in reducing number of children starting smoking, especially among those with family members who smoked
What is the Expectancy-value principle?
The potential for a behaviour to occur in any specific situation is a function of the expectancy that the behaviour will lead to a particular outcome and the value of that outcome
e.g. young woman expects if she starts to jog she will lose weight which is desirable to enhance appearance
What are Bandura’s Efficacy beliefs?
1) Outcome efficacy
Individual’s expectation that the behaviour will lead to a particular outcome
2) Self efficacy
Belief that one can execute the behaviour required to produce the outcome
What are the factors influencing self efficacy?
1) Mastery experience
2) Social learning
3) Verbal persuasion or encouragement
4) Physiological arousal
What is the Transtheoretical Model?
Contempation Preparation Action Maintenance Relapse Contemplation...
What is sensation?
The stimulus detection system by which our sense organs respond to and translate environmental stimuli into nerve impulses that are sent to the brain
What is perception?
The active process of organising the stimulus output and giving it meaning
What is the process of perception?
Combination of top-down and bottom-up
Top-down: Processing in light of existing knowledge
- motives, expectations, experiences, culture
Bottom-up: Individual elements are combined to make a unified perception
What factors affect perception?
- Attention
- Past experiences
- Current drive state (e.g. arousal state)
- Emotions
(Anxiety increases threat perception) - Individual values
- Environment
- Cultural background
What are Gestalt Laws?
1) Figure-ground relations: tendency to organise stimuli into central/foreground and a background
2) Continuity: When the eye is compelled to move through one object and continue to another
3) Similarity: Similar things are perceived as being grouped together
4) Proximity: Objects near each other are grouped together
5) Closure: Things are grouped together if they seem to complete some entity
What is Visual Agnosia?
A condition where a person can see, but cannot recognise or interpret visual information
- Basic vision is spared
- Primary visual cortex can be mostly intact
- Knowledge about information from other senses
- Associated with bilateral lesions to the occipital, occipitotemporal or occipitoparietal lobes
What are the different types of Visual Agnosia?
Apperceptive agnosia
- A failure to integrate the perceptual elements of the stimulus
- Individual elements perceived normally
- May be able to indicate discrete awareness of parts of a printed word, but cannot organise into a whole
- Damage to lower level occipital regions
Associative agnosia
- A failure of retrieval of semantic information
- Shape, colour, texture can all be perceived normally
- Typically sensory specific
- Damage to higher order occipital regions
What is the process of object recognition?
Visual perceptual analysis ↓ Viewer centred repreentation ↓ Visual object recognition system ↓ Semantic system ↓ Name retrieval
What is attention? What are the processes involved?
The process of focusing conscious awareness, providing heightened sensitivity to a limited range of experiences requiring more intensive processing
2 Processes:
- Focus on a certain aspect
- Filter out other information
External stimuli → Sensory buffers → Limited capacity short-term memory → Long-term memory → Responses
What are the components of attention?
1) Focused attention
2) Divided attention
What stimulus factors affect attention?
- Intensity
- Novelty
- Movement
- Contrast
- Repetition
What personal factors affect attention?
- Motives
- Interests
- Threats
- Mood
- Arousal
What is the Cocktail Party Effect?
Attention can be focused on one person’s voice in spite of all the other conversations in a room
BUT we have an ability to hear someone say our name in another conversation relatively nearby
What causes someone to produce incorrect actions?
- Multitasking leads to competing processes and influences how each task is carried out
- Correct response is not most habitual or strongest
- Full attention not given to task
- High levels of stress of anxiety present
- The more automatic a task, the less conscious control available
What is Medical Student Syndrome?
A psychological condition amongst medical trainees that experience symptoms of the disease or diseases that they are studying
Exposure to medical knowledge affects symptom perception via expectations and beliefs that arise from it
This leads to selective attention to physical symptoms and misinterpretation leading to preoccupation
What is thought to cause chronic pain?
If the pain is there for 3 months or longer, it is possible that the original damage has healed but the pain pathways become oversensitized/dysregulated
Research- 3 months of stimulation to pain pathway causes molecular changes to RNA in neurons of the spinal cord as a result of maladaptive coping strategies
What effect does expectation have on acute pain?
Stimulus: vibrating piece of sandpaper Told it would be: - Painful - Pleasant - Nothing Conclusion: Expectation changes the response to the same stimulus
What is the multidimensional model of pain?
Tissue damage Pain sensation Thoughts Emotions Suffering Pain behaviour
What are the processes involved in acute pain?
1) INFLAMMATION- Damaged cells release sensitising chemicals
TRANSDUCTION- Noxious stimuli translated into electrical activity at sensory nerve ending
2) CONDUCTION- Passage of action potentials along neurons
3) TRANSMISSION- Synaptic transfer and modulation of input from one neuron to the next using chemical messengers
4) MODULATION- Anti-nociception neurons originating in brain stem descend to spinal cord and release chemical messengers that inhibit transmission of painful stimuli
5) PERCEPTION- Recognition and reaction in the brain: complex interactions involve thalamus (master switchboard), the sensory cortex, limbic system and reticular activating system
What is the process of chronic pain?
NEUROGENIC INFLAMMATION- Increased prostanoid production at site of pain produces allodynia and hyperalgesia and generates spontaneous pain
DAMAGED NERVE- Damaged sensory nerves may send constant pain signals like an alarm bell that won’t shut off
SENSITIZATION- Repeated pain signals produce changes in the nervous system. Pain becomes more painful
LOSS OF CONTROL- Normally innocuous stimuli become painful. Once activated, even small movements/deformity of tissues becomes painful
MENTAL OVERLOAD- Possible neurochemical link between pain and memory. High incidence of depression, anxiety. Suffering increases perceived pain
What is the Fear-Avoidance Model of chronic pain?
PAIN ⟷ Mood / Thoughts / Stress
↳ Day-to-day functioning ↵
(behaviour)
Pain breeds avoidance which perpetuates stress, low mood, anxiety etc.
What is a phoneme?
The smallest unit of speech sound in a language that can signal a difference in meaning
- Humans can produce just over 100 phonemes
- English language consists of 44 phonemes
- 112 in !Xóõ
What is a morpheme?
The smallest units of meaning in a language
- Typically consist of one syllable
- Morphemes are combined into words
What is the structure of language?
Discourse ↑ Sentence ↑ Phrases ↑ Words ↑ Morphemes ↑ Phonemes
What is syntax?
Rules are phrases which govern the way in which morphemes and words are combined to communicate meaning in a particular way
- An innate property of the brain results in this:
Children of speakers of pidgin laguages which lack basic grammatical structures develop languages which are fully grammatical
What are the speech characteristics of a 1-3 month old child?
Infant can distinguish speech from non-speech sounds and prefers speech sounds (phonemes). Undifferentiated crying gives way to cooing when happy
What are the speech characteristics of a 4-6 month old child?
Babbling sounds begin to occur. These contain sounds from virtually every language. Child vocalises in response to verbilizations of others
What are the speech characteristics of a 7-11 month old child?
Babbling sounds narrow to include only the phenomes heard in the language spoken by others in the environment. Child moves tongue with vocalizations. Child discriminates some words without understanding their meaning and begins to imitate word sounds heard from others
What are the speech characteristics of a 12 month old child?
First recognisable words typically spoken as one-word utterances to name familiar people or objects (e.g. da-da)
What are the speech characteristics of a 12-18 month old child?
Child increases knowledge of word meanings and begins to use single words to express whole phrases or requests (e.g. “out” to express desire to get out of the cot; primarily uses nouns)
What are the speech characteristics of a 18-24 month old child?
Vocabulary expands to between 50-100 words. First rudimentary sentences appear, usually consisting of two words (e.g. “more milk!”) with little or no use of articles (the, a), conjunctions (and) or auxilliary verbs (can, will). This condensed or telegraphic speech is characteristic of first sentences through-out the world
What are the speech characteristics of a 2-4 year old child?
Vocabulary expands rapidly at the rate of several hundred words every 6 months. Two-word sentences give way to longer sentences that, though often grammatically incorrect, exhibit basic language syntax. Child begins to express concepts with words and to use language to describe imaginary objects and ideas. Sentences become more correct syntactically
What are the speech characteristics of a 4-5 year old child?
Child has learned the basic grammatical rules for combining nouns, adjectives, articles, conjunctions and verbs into meaningful sentences
What is the ‘critical period’ in language acquisition? What does this mean?
As a person ages it becomes more difficult to learn a language. Easiest the younger you are, up to the age of 4. After this time it quickly becomes more difficult
When is it easiest to acquire a second language?
Before the age is 7; it then becomes increasingly difficult
A mutation in what gene is thought to be responsible for severe language problems?
FOXP2 gene
What is the involvement of brain structure underlying language?
Hemispheric specialisation for language:
- 95% of right-handed people have left-hemisphere dominance for language
- 18.8% of left handed people have right-hemisphere dominance for language function
- 19.8% of the left-handed have bilateral language function
What affect does Broca’s area have on speech?
A patient with a lesions on Broca’s area could only produce a single repetitive syllable ‘tan’ when trying to utter a phrase or respond to a single question
What are the characteristics of Broca’s aphasia?
- Non0fluent speech
- Impaired repitition
- Poor ability to produce syntactically correct sentences
- Intact comprehension
What is Wernicke’s aphasia?
Problems in comprehending speech (input or reception of language)
- Fluent meaningless speech
- Paraphasias: errors in producin specific words
- Semantic paraphasias: substituting words similar in meaning (“barn”→”house”)
- Phonemic paraphasias: substituting words similar in sound (“house”→”mouse”)
- Neologisms: non words (“galump”)
- Poor repetition
- Impairment in writing
What is the process of repeating a heard work?
1) Information about the sound is analysed by primary auditory cortex and transmitted to Wernicke’s area
2) Wernicke’s area analyses the sound information to determine the word that was said
3) This information from Wernicke’s area is transmitted through the arcuate fasciculus to Broca’s area
4) Broca’s area forms a motor plan to repeat the word and sends that information to the motor cortex
5) Motor cortex implements the plan, manipulating the larynx and related structures to say the word
A lesion where in the brain would still allow the patient to retain comprehension of spoken language, and speak spontaneously, but not repeat spoken words?
A lesion of the arcuate fasciculus
It would disrupt the transfer of information from Wernicke’s area to Broca’s area
A patient has intact comprehension, but non fluent expression. What is the diagnosis?
Broca’s Aphasia
A patient has fluent expression but impaired comprehension. What is the diagnosis?
Wernicke’s aphasia
A patient has impaired comprehension and non fluent expression. What is the diagnosis?
Global Aphasia
What can cause lesions to the dominant hemisphere?
- Stroke
- Traumatic brain injury
- Progressive neurodegenerative conditions (e.g. Alzheimer’s, fronto-temporal dementias, Parkinson’s)
What can cause transient aphasia?
- Transient Ischaemia Attack (TIA)
- Migraine
What is Dysexecutive Syndrome?
The disruption of executive function and is closely related to frontal lobe damage
- Executive functioning skills are the mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions and juggle multiple tasks successfully
- Encompasses cognitive, emotional and behavioural symptoms
- Can result from: head trauma, tumours, degenerative diseases and cerebrovascular disease as well as several psychiatric conditions
What are the behavioural and emotional characteristics of dysexecutive syndrome?
- Hypo/hyperactivity
- Lack of drive
- Apathetic
- Poor initiation of tasks
- Emotional bluntness
- Theory of mind difficulties
- Reduced empathy
- Impulsive
- Disinhibited
- Perseverative
- Emotional dysregulation
- Socially inappropriate
- Rude, crass, prone to swearing
What are the cognitive aspects of dysexecutive syndrome?
- Attentional and working memory difficulties
- Poor planning and organisation
- Difficulty coping with novel situations and unstructured tasks
- Difficulty switching from task to task
- Difficulty keeping track of multiple tasks
- Difficulty with complex/abstract thinking
What is predetermined in child development by nature?
- Gender
- Genetics
- Temperament
- Maturational stages
What influences shape a baby from their pre-determined course?
- Environment
- Parenting
- Stimulation
- Nutrition
When babies are delivered can they recognise her? Explain.
Yes A memory of her has been built up in utero via: - hearing - smell - taste
What hearing do babies have in the womb When does it develop?
Receptive hearing (16/40) Functional hearing (24/40)
What did DeCasper and Fifer discover in 1980 with regard to child development?
Babies prefer their mothers’ voices to the voices of other women when recorded voices were played back
What did Mehler et al discover about babies development in 1987?
Babies who overhear a particular language in the womb will prefer that language over another
What evidence is there to support the fact that babies learn very quickly about smell?
- Newborns can recognise the smell of their own amniotic fluid
(Varendi et al 1996) - Newborns recognise the smell of maternal breast odours
(Varendi and Porter 2002) - Newborns preferred the smell of their mother’s expressed breast milk compared to others’ EBM
(Mizuno et al 2004)
What is a newborn babies taste ability and preference?
- A newborn senses all tastes (sweet, bitter, sour and umami), except one: salt; they cannot taste this until about 4 months old (Beauchamp et al 1986)
- Newborns love sugar solutions- the sweeter, the better
- Newborns also seem to like the taste of glutamate, which is found in breast milk (Beauchamp and Pearson 1991)
What preference do new born babies have for faces?
- Babies 12-36 hours old shown video playbacks of women’s faces. Preference for watching their mother’s faces (rather than a strangers). (Bushnell et al 1989)
- Newborn infants have shown a preference for looking at faces and face-like stimuli. (Batki et al 2000; Turati et al 2002)
- Show a preference for faces with open eyes and look longer at happy face stimuli
What is reciprocal socialisation?
Baby: cries, moves, grimaces, smiles, calms, looks
↓ ↑
Parent: mirrors, repeats, interprets, responds
What did Tronick study in 1975 with regard to child development?
Experiment which shows how a 1-year old child will react to a suddenly unresponsive parent.
Newborns are more likely to change their behaviour, look away and show signs of distress (Nagy 2008)
Why is environment important for child development?
Scaffolding, reciprocal socialisation, provision of a stimulating and enriching environment (physiologically and psychologically) give babies the resources to thrive and develop
- An “internal working model” is established through this social process; the baby doesn’t do this on his own but coordinates his systems with those of the people around him
What is the theory of attachment? How does it affect psychological development?
- Theory of attachment was defined by Bowlby as a biological instinct that seeks proximity to an attachment figure (carer) when threat is perceived or discomfort is experienced
- This sense of safety the child experiences provides a secure base from which they can explore their environment thus promoting development through learning whilst being protected in the environment
What is “mind-mindedness”?
Parents with mind-mindedness treat their children as individuals with minds; they respond as if their children’s acts are meaningful - motivated by feelings, thoughts or intentions (an attempt to communicate); this ultimately helps the child to understand others’ emotions and actions
What is the development of attachment of a childs 1st year?
Birth-3 months: prefers people to inanimate objects, indiscriminate proximity seeking (e.g. clinging)
3-8 months: smiles discriminately to main caregivers
8-12 months: selectively approaches main caregivers, uses social referencing / familiar adults as “secure base” to explore new situations; shows fear of strangers and separation anxiety
From 12 months (corrected age); the attachment behaviour can be measured reliably
What is The Strange Situation Test (Ainsworth et al 1978)?
Designed to present children with an unusual, but not overwhelmingly frightening experience.
It tests how babies or young children respond to the temporary absence of their mothers. Researchers are interested in two things:
1. How much the child explores the room on his own, and
2. How the child responds to the return of his mother
What is the difference between secure vs insecure attachment style?
Securely-attached children:
- free exploration and happiness upon mother’s return
Insecurely attached children:
- little exploration and little emotional response to mother
Resistant-insecure children:
- little exploration, great separation anxiety and ambivalent response to mother upon return
Disorganised-insecure children:
- little exploration and confused response to mother
What are the benefits of secure attachment in children?
Promotes: - Independence - Emotional availability - Better moods - Better emotional coping Associated with - Fewer behavioural problems - Higher IQ and academic performance Contributes to a child's moral development Reduces child distress
What are the benefits of secure attachment in adolescence and adulthood?
Associated with:
- Social competence
- Loyal friendships
- More secure parenting of offspring
- Greater leadership qualities
- Greater resistance to stress
- Less mental health problems such as anxiety and depression
- Less psychopathology e.g. schizophrenia
What is the effect of play on child development?
Has important positive effects on the brain and on child’s ability to learn
- Rats had bigger and smarter brains in an enriched environment, plus more BDNF essential for growth and maintenance of brain cells (Greenough and Black 1992; Huber et al 2007)
What are the benefits of play?
- Engage and interact with world
- Create and explore own world
- Experience mastery and control
- Practice decision-making, planning
- Practice adult roles
- Promotes language development
- Promotes creative problem solving
- Overcome fears
- Develop new competencies
- Learn how to work in groups
- Develop own interests
- Extend positive emotions
- Maintain healthy activity levels
What types of play do children engage in at different ages?
0-2 years
Solitary: Plays alone. There is limited interaction with other children
2-2½ years
Spectator: Observe other children playing around them but will not play with them
2½-3 years
Parallel Play: alongside others but will not play together with them
3-4 years
Associate: Starts to interact with others in their play and there may be fleeting co-operation between play. Develops friendships and the preferences for playing with some but not all other children. Play is normally in mixed sex groups
4-6 years
Co-operative: Plays together with shared aims of play with others. Play may be quite difficult and they are supportive of other children in their play. As they reach primary school age, play is normally in single sex groups
6+ years
Competitive: Play often involves rules and has a clear “winner”
What is Piaget’s Stage Model?
Proposed that children’s thinking changes qualitatively with age
- The result of an interaction of the brain’s biological maturation and personal experiences
- Process of assimilation and accommodation which leads to adaptation
What is Piaget’s sensorimotor stage?
Birth - age 2
Infants understand their world primarily through sensory experiences and physical (motor) interactions with objects
- Object Permanence: the understanding that an object continues to exist even when it cannot be seen
- Gradually increasing use of words to represent objects, needs and actions
- Learning is based on trial and error (although errors do not become assimilated)
What is Piaget’s Preoperational Stage?
Age 2-7
The world is represented symbolically through words and mental images; no inderstanding of basic mental operations or rules
- Rapid language development
- Understanding of the past and future
- No understanding of Principle of Conversation: basic properties of objects stay the same even though their outward appearance may change
- Irreversibility: cannot mentally reverse actions
- Animism: attributing lifelike qualities to physical objects and natural events
- Egocentrism: difficulty in viewing the world from someone else’s perspective
What is Piaget’s Operational Stage?
Age 7-12
Children can perform basic mental operations concerning problems that involve tangible (“concrete”) objects and situations
- Understand the concept of reversibility
- Display less egocentrism
- Easily solve conversation problems
- Trouble with hypothetical and abstract reasoning
What are the criticisms of Piaget’s Stage Model?
- Outcomes have been replicated in populations around the world
- Some researchers query whether children respond as they do to please the adult asking the question
- SOme argue the (repeated) question is odd as the answer is obvious. The child thinks the adult wants or expects you to change the original answer - when more naturalistic ways of asking the questions were developed children performed much better (Goswami and Pauen 2005)
What is the development of children’s concept of death?
Under 5s: Do not understand that death is final, universal, will take euphasmisms concretely, may think they have caused death
5-10 years: Gradually develop the idea of death as irreversible, all functions ended, universal/unavoidable, more empathic to another’s loss; may be preoccupied with justice
10-adolescence: Understand more of long-term consequences, able to think hypothetically, draw parallels, review inconsistencies
Dependent on cognitive development and experience (pets, extended family members)
What development occurs in adolescence?
The transitional stage of physical and psychological human development that generally occurs from puberty to legal adulthood
- Involves cognitive development and physical growth, as distinct from puberty, which can extend into the early twenties
- Chronological age only provides a rough marker of adolescence
- Transition to Formal Operational Stage; where abstract thought emerges. Begin to think more about moral, philosophical, ethical, social and political issues that require theoretical and abstract reasoning
- Begin to use deductive logic, or reasoning from a general principle to specific information
What are the characteristics of the Adaptive Adolescent Brain?
12-25 years extensive brain remodelling (myelinisation, synaptic pruning- reason for so much sleeping)
- Cognitive changes may help journey from the secure world parents provide to fitting into world created by peers
- Thrill seeking
- Openness to new experiences
- Risk taking
- Social rewards are very strong
- Prefer own age company
- Emotionally becomes less positive through early adolescence (but levels off and becomes more stable by late adolescence)
- Storms and stress more likely during adolescence than the rest of the lifespan but not characteristic of all adolescents
What are the psychological impacts of long-term conditions?
One LTC: 2-3 times more likely to develop depression than the rest of the population
3+ LTC: 7 times more likely to have depression
Having a mental health problem increases the risk of physical ill health. Co-morbid depression doubles the risk of CHD in adults and increases the risk of mortality by 50%
Adults with both physical and mental health problems are much less likely to be in employment
People with mental health problems (e.g schizophrenia or bipolar disorder) die 16-25 years younger than the general population
What is the Self Regulatory Model?
Stage 1: Interpretation
Stage 2: Coping
Stage 3: Appraisal
