Session 1: Health psychology, development theories and behaviours Flashcards
Describe what health psychology is.
*study of the mind
*closely linked to other medical specialties instead of
psychiatry.
What does it mean to “substitute skills for pills”?
- increase in medical knowledge and high tech medicine
- people function as part of a system, thus should be treated accordingly
- diagnosis and treatment of a patient should depend on way more than anatomy and physiology.
How do the body and mind interact with each other?
- underlying physical factors have been linked to psychiatric disorders
- biological factors are significant in aetiology and treatment of psychiatric diseases
- psychosocial factors are impactful which leads to concern for biological phenomena in disease in clinical health psychology & clinical health psychology
- understanding disorders bio-psychosocially is NB
- psychological and physical care= inseparable
What is developmental psychology?
- Study of human development from conception to death
- It gives a clear and precise understanding of what development entails and its underlying processes
- Its aim is to systemize, interpret and explain development
What are the 4 domains of development?
- Personality
- Social
- Cognitive
- Physical
What does physical development entail?
- growth of organs and body
- changes in internal structure & physiology
- CNS and senses are linked w/ cognition and perception
- Endocrine glands are linked w/ development
What does cognitive development entail?
- acquiring info, transforming it, storing and retrieving it to direct behavior
- processes and products of the mind
What does personality development entail?
- attributes that contribute to a person’s behavior in interaction w/ the environment = personality
- personality development = perception of oneself and identification w/ others
What does social development entail?
-changes in social interactions & influence of society & people on an individual
What are the 7 developmental stages?
- Prenatal stage
* germinal period
* embryonic period
* foetal period - Neonatal stage and infancy
- Early childhood
- Middle childhood
- Adolscence
- Early and middle adulthood
- Late adulthood
What are the 4 determinants of development and what does each entail?
- Constitutional determinant
* condition, state of development and nature of total organism - Genetic determinant
* characteristics inherited from parents’ genes - Environmental determinant
* environmentalism > most individual differences are attributed to environmental factors - Personal determinant
* humans can influence their own development
* personal factors are seen as unique totality of a person’s characteristics at a given developmental stage
* codetermines further physical and social development
What does Freud’s psychosexual theory entail?
- Behaviour determined by drives and psyche
- psychic determinism leads to limited freedom of choice
- composed of:
1. development of the structure of the personality
2. changes in the sexual drive
What are the 3 elements of personality?
- Id
- Ego
- Superego
Discuss the concept of the id.
- Present @ birth
- Psychic energy is needed for psychic functioning
- Psychic = psychological
- It does’t include clairvoyence
- Psychic energy is produced constantly and must be used up to prevent building up and causing pain and discomfort
- When psychic energy is not used, it causes buildup and leads to neurosis and behavioural problems
- Psychic energy is linked to drives
What are the two drives of life?
- Life drive (Eros)
2. Death drive (Thanatos)
What are the two components of the life drive?
- Sexual drive
2. Ego drive
Explain the ego drive.
*Concern for individual's survival - incl. need for food, H20 and O2 *No serious guilt feelings *Few/no psychological problems * Not bound to strict moral rules
Explain the sexual drive.
- Society limits satisfaction of sexual and aggressive drives
- Associated w/ guilt feelings
- Causes psychological problems
- Focus of Freud’s theory which is a psychosexual theory
What does the death drive entail?
- Explains war, suicide, aggression and death
- Contained in the id
- Aim is self-destruction
- Desire to return to inorganic state
- Conflicts w/ life drive
- Energy is expressed as aggression and destruction
What are the Freudian 5 stages of the lifespan?
- Oral
- Anal
- Genital
- Phallic
- Latent
Discuss the Oral stage.
- From birth to 12 months
- Mouth is the erogenous zone
- Sucking mom’s breast gives nutrition and sexual satisfaction
- Thumb sucking, breasts sucking and dummy are precursors for future sexual gratification
- When unsatisfied, individual has prolonged thumb sucking, nail biting, overeating and smoking.
Discuss the Anal stage.
- From 12 months to 3 years
- Anus is the erogenous zone
- Control of excretions is learnt
- Sexual pleasure is derived from excretory functions
- Children realise get certain reactions from people
- Parents, which are society, have an influence in the child’s toilet training
- The child’s excretory functions is subject to society’s rules > erotic pleasure is restricted
- As child learns more society rules, the superego develops
- Toilet training influences neatness, punctuality, thrift, cleanliness and accuracy
Discuss the Phallic stage.
- From 3 to 6 years
- Sexual organs, esp. penis = erogenous zone
- Boys develop Oedipus’s complex
- mixture of fantasies & guilt
- Boys sexually desire mothers
- Jealous of father, hate him and wish to kill him
- Superego develops when boy starts to fear and respect father
- Copes w/ Oedipus’s complex by relating to dad
- Girls develop the Electra complex
Discuss the Latent stage.
- From 6-11 years
- No new erogenous zones
- Further development of superego
- Child identifies w/ same sex parent
- Associates w/ same sex kids and learns sex-appropriate behaviour though imitation
- Energy is channeled in school and social activities
Discuss the Genital stage.
- Adolscence period
- Sexual drives become NB
- Reliving of Phallic stage to a higher degree
- Ego and superego is well-developed
- Realistic thinking
- If pre-genital stages were successful, individual is led to mature sexuality, marriage and reproduction
- Heterosexual relationships are a repetition of unconscious phallic wishes
- Marriage/spouse are a substitute for opp. sex parent
List the 4 Piaget’s developmental stages.
- Sensori-motor stage
- Pre-operational stage
- Concrete operational stage
- Formal operational stage
Discuss the Sensori-motor stage.
- From 0-2 years
- Child gains motor mastery
- Understands world through perception and action
- Object permanence
Discuss the Pre-operational stage.
*From 2-6 years
*Child has mental representations of objects and
imagination-related actions of the object
*Uses symbols and language
*See the world as relating to them
*Animism- ascribe feelings and thoughts to lifeless
objects
Discuss the Concrete operational stage.
- From 7-11 years
- Thinks logically in concrete terms
- Less egocentric
- No absent thinking
Discuss the Formal operational stage.
- From 12 years onwards
- Abstract thinking
- Reasoning skills
Name the 8 stages of Erikson’s developmental theory and their syntheses.
1st stage (1st year) : Basic trust vs mistrust [Hope]
2nd stage (1-3 years) : Autonomy vs shame and doubt [Will power]
3rd stage (3-6 years) : Initiative vs guilt [Purpose]
4th stage (6 years-adolscence) : Industry vs inferiority [Competence]
5th stage (adolscence) : Identity vs role confusion [Reliability]
6th stage (early adulthood) : Intimacy vs isolation [Love]
7th stage (middle adulthood) : Generativity vs stagnation [Care]
8th stage (old age) : Integrity vs despair [Wisdom]
Discuss the 1st stage of Erikson’s developmental theory.
- Must develop trust and overcome mistrust
- New born is helpless
- Mom and society must care for and protect child
- First contact w/ the world is through the mouth
- Incorporation is NB!
- Relationship w/ mother is linked w/ development of
trust - Eng goal: child must perceive the world as good and
safe
Discuss the 2nd stage of Erikson’s developmental theory.
- Must develop autonomy and overcome shame and
doubt - Rapid physical maturation
- Greater self-control and movement before excretory
functions - End goal: One is independent and can make their
own decisions
Discuss the 3rd stage of Erikson’s developmental theory.
- Must show initiative and overcome guilt
- Difference between girls and boys’ social behavior
- Boy: tries to gain access to society by concentrating
on material world like tools and machinery - Girl: develops charm and her social relations are
based on this - End goal: willingness to try new things and handle
failure
Discuss the 4th stage of Erikson’s developmental theory.
- 3rd stage renewed w/ strength
- Mastering skills required for adult life
- Society aids by providing school
- Success is NB to avoid inferiority
- Child plays and competes w/ same sex friends
- End goal: competence (allows adults to work
together)
Discuss the 5th stage of Erikson’s developmental theory.
- Identity crisis
- Acquiring a feeling of identity
- Characteristics are determined
- Social identity is determined
- Values and ideals are determined
- End goal: develop a lasting, integrated self
Discuss the 6th stage of Erikson’s developmental theory.
- Must acquire feeling of intimacy and overcome
isolation - Develop common sense of identity w/ partner
- Isolation: people protect themselves and think of
themselves
Discuss the 7th stage of Erikson’s developmental theory.
- Acquire generativity and overcome stagnation and
self-preoccupation - Generativity: productivity, creativity and passing
culture on - enrichment of own and other’s lives
- Examples: educating kids, producing meaningful
work, creating cultural products
Discuss the 7th stage of Erikson’s developmental theory.
- Death is approached w/ peace of mind (equanimity) if
previous stages were successful - Achievement of such wisdom in old age = Ego-integrity
- People w/o ego-integrity fear death
- This is called despair
What does the Learning Theory approach to development entail?
- Behavior is learnt
- Genetics only influence emotional behavior and
instincts - Psychology must be limited to the study of
observable behavior & focus particularly on stimulus-
response relationships
Name the three ways of learning according to the Learning Theory.
- Classical conditioning
- Instrumental conditioning
- Observational learning
Describe classical conditioning.
- Response linked to a stimulus becomes associated
w/ other stimulus - Type S conditioning
- E.g salivation of a dog
Describe instrumental conditioning.
- Organism plays NB role
- Learns to repeat “instrumental” action
- New response is reinforced
- Learning of new responses
- E.g rat presses lever
- Operant conditioning
Describe observational learning.
- People can learn by observing
- E.g children observing adults
Name the 3 person-orientated approaches.
- Maslow
- Rogers
- Allport and Frankl
What are the views on optimal development?
- Only occurs under certain favourable conditions
- Can be achieved in spite of unfavourable
circumstances
Describe Maslow’s view on optimal development.
- Two levels of needs:
- lower: deficiency needs
- higher: growth needs
- Optimally developed person has the highest level of
need = self-actualization - Self-actualization is only met when deficiency needs
have been and always will be satisfied
(REFER TO DIAGRAM)
Describe Roger’s view on optimal development.
- Individual only optimally develops if unconditionally
accepted during childhood - Parents must accept child in all circumstances
Describe Allport and Frankl’s view on optimal development.
- Person can optimally develop despite need-satisfaction and acceptance
- Linked to propriate striving
- Individuals are free to formulate their own goals and
strive to perfection - Linked to Nazi [ ] camp where people still helped
each other despite low-need satisfaction - Humanity’s basic need: search for meaning in life
