Psychology Flashcards
Define attitude.
A positive or negative evaluative reaction towards a stimulus. Attitudes influence behaviour more strongly when situational factors what contradict our attitudes are weak.
Describe the theory of planned behaviour.
Belief about and evaluation of behaviour leads to one’s attitude towards the behaviour.
Belief about others’ attitudes towards behaviour leads to the ‘subjective norm’.
Internal and external control factors form perceived behaviour control.
These 3 factors influence intention, which causes behaviour.
How do people resolve cognitive dissonance? How are the characteristics of a messenger related to how persuasive they are?
They change their cognition to make their beliefs consistent.
Change their behaviour (e.g. quit - which is difficult)
Obtain new information
Reduce the importance of the cognitions.
More persuasive messengers are credible, trustworthy and appealing.
Describe the concept of framing.
Framing refers to whether a message emphasises the benefits or losses of that behaviour.
Loss-framed messages useful when we want people to take up behaviours,
Gain-framed messages useful when we want people to adopt prevention behaviours.
Define stereotype, prejudice and discrimination.
Stereotype = generalisations made about a group of people or members of that group. Prejudice = to judge, often negatively, without having relevant facts Discrimination = behaviours which follow from negative evaluations or attitudes.
What is social loafing?
The tendency for people to expend less individual effort when working in a group than when working alone.
When is social loafing more likely to occur?
More likely to occur in all-male groups, when people believe performance is not monitored, the task has little value or when people expect other members will display high effort.
What factors affect conformity?
Group size (conformity increases up to 5 people, then plateaus).
Presence of a dissenter - one person disagreeing greatly reduces conformity.
Culture - conformity is greater in collectivistic cultures.
Give the 5-step bystander decision process
Notice the event
Decide whether it is truly an emergency (social comparison - look to others).
Assuming responsibility to intervene (diffusion of responsibility - someone else will help)
Self-efficacy in dealing with the situation.
Decision to help (cost-benefit analysis).
Milgram’s study look at the obedience of a subject in delivering electric shocks. What factors affect obedience?
Remoteness of the victim
Closeness and legitimacy of the authority figure.
Diffusion of responsibility (obedience increases when someone else administers the shock)
NOT personal characteristics.
What is groupthink?
The tendency of group members to suspend critical thinking because they are striving to seek agreement.
What factors increase groupthink?
More likely when the group is under stress to reach a decision, the group is insulated from outside input, the group has a decisive leader or the group has high cohesiveness.
What is group polarisation?
The tendency of people to make decisions that are more extreme when they are in a group.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of an autocratic leadership style?
Quick decisions can be made, and there is a clear hierarchy.
However, this leadership style can be demotivating and can lead to errors.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of a democratic leadership style?
Wins cooperation and motivation. Improves quality.
It is, however, time-consuming and leads to disagreements.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of a laissez-faire leadership style?
Allows autonomous working and expertise to be utilised
However, there is lack of direction and lack of an ultimate responsibility holder.
Define (medical) error.
The failure of a planned action to be completed as intended (error of execution) or the use of a wrong plan to achieve an aim (error of planning).
What are heuristics?
“Rules of thumb”, “educated guesses”, “mental shortcuts” - usually rely on pattern recognition and a subconscious integration of patient data with prior experience.
Describe the 3 types of heuristics.
Anchoring: fixating too heavily on an initial piece of information leading to difficulty moving away from an idea - may lead to dismissal or excuses being made for conflicting information. Availability: a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to one's mind. Representativeness: subjective probability that a stimulus belongs to a particular class based on how 'typical' of that class it appears to be (regardless of base rate).
Describe Kahneman’s 2 systems for decision-making.
“Hot system (system 1) and cold system (system 2).
System 1 = emotional, “go”, simple, reflexive, fast.
System 2 = cognitive, “know”, complex, reflective, slow.
What is confirmation bias?
The tendency to search for, seek, interpret and recall information in a way that confirms one’s preexisting beliefs of hypotheses, often leading to errors.
What is the sunk cost fallacy?
The more time/ resources already invested the more we are prepared to invest in a problem in the future.
Rationally, the only factor affecting future action should be the future cost/benefits ratio.
How can decision-making be improved?
Education and training, feedback (more autopsies), accountability, generating alternatives and consultation (seeking second opinions).
What is an algorithm and when is it most useful?
A procedure which, if followed exactly, will provide the most likely answer based on the evidence.
Most useful in situations where the problem is well-defined, excluding many everyday situations.
Define learning.
A process by which experience produces a relatively enduring change in an organism’s behaviours or capabilities.
Describe non-associative learning.
Response to repeated stimuli.
Habituation is a decrease in the strength of a response to a repeated stimulus.
Sensitisation is an increase in the strength of a response to a repeated stimulus.
Describe classical conditioning.
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS): A stimulus that elicits a reflexive or innate response (UCR) without prior learning.
Unconditioned response (UCR) - a reflexive or innate response that is elicited by a stimulus (UCS) without prior learning.
Conditioned stimulus: a stimulus that, through association with a UCS, comes to elicit a conditioned response similar to the original UCR.
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 time interval between CS and UCS is short and the sequence involves forward pairing (CS–> UCS).
How does Pavlov’s dogs highlight classical conditioning?
The dogs began to salivate in response to a tone which they associated with meal time (CS)- not the food itself (UCS).
What is meant by “extinction of the conditioned response”?
Once pairings are dropped, response quickly drops.
What is stimulus generalisation?
A tendency to respond to stimuli which are similar (but not identical) to a conditioned stimulus. Similar CR - but a weaked form.
Give an example of classical conditioning with chemotherapy patients.
Chemotherapy (UCS) leads to nausea (UCR) Related cues (e.g. sight of the chemo unit) (CS) lead to anticipatory nausea (CR).
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?
Operant conditioning is based on Thorndike’s Law of Effect and involves behaviour being learnt and maintained by its consequences.
What is positive reinforcement? Define primary and secondary reinforcers.
Occurs when a response is strengthened by subsequent presentation of a reinforcer.
Primary reinforcers are those needed for survival, e.g. food, water, sleep, sex.
Secondary reinforcers are stimuli that acquire reinforcing properties though association with primary reinforcers e.g. money, praise.
What is negative reinforcement?
Occurs when a response is strengthened by the removal of an aversive stimulus (painkillers relieve pain).
Contrast positive and negative punishment.
Positive punishment = presentation (e.g. squirt a cat with water).
Negative punishment = removal (e.g. phone confiscated).
Which is a more potent behavioural influence, punishment or reinforcement?
Reinforcement is a more potent influence than punishment. Punishment can’t teach new behaviour.
Continuous reinforcement produces more rapid learning than partial reinforcement. However, continuously reinforced responses extinguish rapidly.
Describe how operant conditioning can affect back pain.
Limping, grimacing and medication requests reinforced by being overly sympathetic, enocuring rest, increasing medication. This behaviour, itself, is reinforced by gratitude signals from the patient.
A cycle is created in which the patient receives positive consequences, so back pain frequency increases.
What is observational (vicarious) learning and reinforcement?
We observe others’ behaviour and the consequences of those behaviours.
Vicarious reinforcement is where if their behaviour is reinforced, we tend to imitate it.
According to social learning theory, whose behaviour are we more likely to model?
Someone who is seen to be rewarded, has high status, is similar to us (e.g. colleagues) and/or is friendly.
Define 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.
Describe the transtheoretical model of behaviour change.
Precontemplation (outside cycle) leads to contemplation, progressing to preparation and then action. Maintenance is required, which may lead to a permanent exit (leaves cycle) or relapse. After a relapse, the person contemplates the behaviour change again, and the cycle continues.
Explain how reinforcement and punishment may lead to unhealthy diets.
Reinforcement for producing a high-fat meal –> (+ve) dopamine release, praise from family, (-ve) avoid painful emotions by comfort eating.
Punishment e.g. criticism from family for preparing a low-fat meal.
Also, limited/delayed positive reinforcement for healthy eating (efforts at dietary change/ weight go unnoticed by others, avoiding future health problems is too remote).
Give limitations of reinforcement programmes.
Lack of generalisation, poor maintenance, impracticality, expense.
Describe the role of fear in behaviour change.
Low fear arousal most effective to engage change in behaviour: high fear arousal causes people to “switch off”.
Describe the health belief model.
Action influenced by susceptibility, seriousness, benefits (motivation), perceived costs/ barriers and cues.
Define self efficacy. What factors affect self efficacy?
A personal judgment of how well one can execute courses of action required to deal with prospective situations.
Sources include mastery experience, social learning, verbal persuasion or encouragement and physiological arousal.
Define compliance.
The extent to which patients follow doctors’ prescriptions about taking medications (most paternalistics).
Define adherence.
Refers to the extent to which patients follow through decisions about medicine taking.
It is a wide spectrum of behaviour ranging from under-adherence to over-adherence.
Define concordance.
Refers to the extent to which patients are successfully supported both in decision-making partnerships about medicines and their medicine taking.
Most patient-centred.
What is unintentional non-adherence?
Where non-adherence is due to patient ability or resources (practical barriers) such as information and finances,
What is intentional non-adherence?
Where non-adherence is due to patient beliefs and motivations (perceptual barriers).
N.B. there is overlap with unintentional non-adherence.
Describe the COM-B model of behaviour.
The performance of a behaviour is caused by the interaction between capability (physical and psychological), opportunity and motivation.
N.B. B stands for behaviour.
Explain how treatment beliefs affect patient adherence.
Doubts about necessity + concerns about potential side effects (necessity + concerns) lead to low adherence.
Non-adherence is often a hidden problem, undisclosed by patients and unrecognised by providers. How can we measure non-adherence?
Directly: directly observed therapy, measurement of level of medicine/metabolite in the blood.
Indirectly: patient questionnaire, self-report, pill counts rate of prescription refills, electronic medication monitors, patient diaries.
How can we improve non-adherence?
Interventions: improve understanding, help to plan and organise medication taking.
Consultation: check understanding (provide clear rationale for the necessity of treatment, elicit and address concerns, identify possible barriers, agree practical plans).
What is a behaviour change technique (BCT)?
A systematic strategy used in an attempt to change behaviour.
E.g. giving information on consequences, prompting specific goal setting, prompting barrier identification, modelling the behaviour, planning social support.
Describe self-monitoring as a BCT.
Shown to be effective (but most effective BCT is based on health behaviour you wish to target).
An individual keeps a record of target behaviours. Additional information recorded can help to identify barriers (e.g. mood, weather).
Time-consuming over the long term.
Role in increasing physical activity and healthy eating well-studied.
Describe motivational interviewing as a BCT.
A person-centred counselling style for addressing the common problem of ambivalence about change.
Clinician embodies “motivational interviewer spirit” - non-judgemental, non-lecturing.
Recognise change in talk/emotion, stage of change (readiness), co-operation, engagement or disclosure, resistance to change, self-confidence.
Describe implementation intentions (action plans).
Request an individual to think about critical situations to act and appropriate responses within these situations.
“IF - THEN”
By planning in advance the situation in which an individual will act, cues become particularly available.
Strengthens connection between good situation to act and a suitable action.
Describe the positives and negatives of using incentives as a BCT.
Cost-effective, raises awareness, brings individuals into contact with health services allowing earlier screening and treatment of illness. Can be effective in changing behaviours - preventing disease - reducing costs associated with disease.
Limits: lack of generalisation, poor maintenance (rapid extinction), impractical and expensive.
Define 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.
Define perception
The active process of organising the stimulus output and giving it meaning.
