Test 3 Flashcards
Personality
A characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and
behaving that is unique to each individual, and remains relativelyconsistent over time and
situations
Trait
a characteristic of an individual, describing a habitual way of behaving, thinking, or feeling
Idiographic Approach
Creating detailed descriptions of a specific person’s unique personality characteristics in an attempt to understand that person better
Nomothetic Approach
Examining personality in large groups of people, with the aim of making generalizations about
personality structure
Psychodynamic theories of personality
Relate personality to the interplay of conflicting ‘energy dynamics’ within the individual
Why learn about Freud? legacy, famous, influential:
Started psychotherapy
Freud: some things we do have much evidence for
- Much of mental life is unconsciousness
- Some of his defense mechanisms have been empirically verified
How is the psychodynamic approach represented?
Iceberg metaphor
The mind consists of three structures:
the id, ego, and superego
Unconscious mind
- most of your mental life is unconscious
- A vast and powerful but inaccessible part of your consciousness, operating without your
conscious endorsement or will to influence and guide your behaviours
Conscious mind:
- Your current awareness, containing everything you are aware of right now
- We are not aware of the push-pull that we go through every day
Id
- Represents a collection of basic biological drives, including those directed toward sex and aggression
- operates on pleasure principle
What is id feuled by?
libido
Pleasure principle
do what feels good
Superego
- Comprised of our values and moral standards
- Internalized values telling us what we ought to do
If the ____ tells us to engage in acts of sex and aggression, but the _________ is telling us not to do things that are wrong, this produces a ________
id; superego; conflict
Ego
- The decision maker, frequently under tension,
trying to reconcile the opposing urges of the id
and superego - Do vs don’t
- must navigate reality
Reality principle
Can’t have everything you want because it’s
ultimately harmful for you
“personality”
emerges from the interplay of the id, superego, and ego
Anxiety
is produced when the components are
imbalanced (e.g., when the id and superego are in conflict)
Defense Mechanisms
Are unconscious strategies the Ego uses to keep the Id’s impulses out of conscious awareness and balance the competing demands of pleasure, reality, and morality
Process of defense mechanisms, wishes and desires:
- The Id wants its wishes to get into consciousness but the Ego is trying to keep them out
- When wishes threaten to pop into consciousness it creates anxiety
- Freud lists many defense mechanisms that the Ego uses against the Id’s wishes
- Defense mechanisms push those pesky wishes back into the unconscious where they
belong
Defense Mechanisms
- Denial
- Reaction formation
- Rationalization
- Repression
- Projection
- Displacement
- Identification
- Sublimation
Denial
- when people refuse to admit something unpleasant is happening, that they have a
problem, or that they are feeling a forbidden emotion - Protects self image and preserves illusion of
invulnerability
Reaction Formation
- Behaving in a way that is exactly the opposite
of one’s true feelings - Classic example: Expressing feelings of purity when experiencing unconscious feelings about sex
Rationalization
creating false but plausible excuses to justify
unacceptable feelings or
behaviours
Repression
Keeping distressing desires or wishes from
conscious awareness by burying it in the unconscious
Projection
seeing one’s own traits in other people, especially if seeing that threatening trait in
others helps the individual to avoid recognizing it in their self
Displacement
- Altering the target of one’s urges
- e.g. Angry at boss: come home and yell at children instead
from displacement comes the idea of ________
“catharisis”
* i.e., that one can reduce these anxieties by “working them out” on unrelated targets
* Not supported by research
Identification
- Alleviate concerns about self-worth by unconsciously assuming the characteristics of
another person - Can be good too!
- E.g., identification with one’s parents results in the formation of the superego
Sublimation
- Transforming unacceptable impulses into
socially acceptable or even pro-social alternatives - e.g., Aggressive impulses channeled into sports – or there are obvious careers like surgeon, butcher, dentist
Another example of sublimation
- Could have lustful feelings that are channeled into a work of art with subtle or not-so-subtle erotic or phallic undertones…
In a review, Baumeister, Dale &Sommer (1998) proposed a slightly modified idea:
- Suggest that defense mechanisms protect self-esteem – Keeps us feeling good about ourselves
- They don’t prevent aggressive or sexual urges that violate one’s standards
- The authors suggested that when viewed this way, there is empirical evidence for reaction formation and projection
- But NOT for displacement and sublimation
Projection
Attributing qualities you (or fear you) possess to others
False consensus effect
Overestimating how many people share your
traits, opinions, preferences, and motivations (similar to projection)
How does personality develop?
Freud had the idea that many of the problems that people have with their personalities (e.g., the defense mechanisms they particularly like to employ) are due to unresolved issues from growing up
Stage Theory of Psychosexual Development
- Freud believed that childhood could be divided into a series of important stages that focused on sexual energy, which he called “libido”
- At each developmental stage, the libido manifests in particular areas of the body, characterized by certain psychological conflicts that need to be resolved
- The goal is to transition from one stage to the next, and in order to do so, you need to resolve the psychological conflict of that stage
Freud’s psychosexual stages
- A series of different forms of sexual energy into which personality develops as the child matures
- Stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital
- Conflict and anxiety at each stage that must be resolved or will become fixated at that level
A physical focus
where the child’s energy is concentrated and their gratification obtained
A psychological theme
- this is related to both the physical focus and the demands being made on the child by the outside world as he/she develops
- For each stage, there can be two extremes in psychological reaction: either doing too much or not enough of what is ideal
Am adult character type
in the first three stages this adult character type is one that is related to being fixated or stuck at that stage
Fixation
a pre-occupation with obtaining the pleasure associated with a particular stage
Oral Stage
- Timeframe: 0-18 months of age
- Physical pleasure focus: Actions of the mouth—Sucking, chewing, swallowing
- Psychological theme: basic dependence & trust
Oral Stage
- Timeframe: 0-18 months of age
- Physical pleasure focus: Actions of the mouth—Sucking, chewing, swallowing
- Psychological theme: basic dependence & trust
orally-fixated person
The infant who is neglected (insufficiently fed) or who is over- protected (over-fed) in the course of being nursed
Oral Sadistic
A neglected baby will be mistrustful of others
->
envy (wanting more), manipulation of others (using the mouth to hurt), and suspiciousness
Oral Dependent
While a coddled or over-fulfilled baby will find it hard to cope with a world that can’t meet all its demands
->
dependence, indulgence, entitlement, immaturity
Anal Stage
- Timeframe: 18-36 months of age
- Physical: Bowel elimination & control
- Psychological: sense of control & competence
Anal personality types
- is caused if the anal stage is improperly resolved
- Which type depends, in part, upon whether parents were too strict or too lenient with toilet
training and other issues of impulse control
Anal retentive
- need too much control “holding in”
- Creates rigidity, inflexibility, stinginess: An obsession with cleanliness, order and control
Anal Expulsive
Problem with “letting it out” - sloppiness and/or a general disregard for order
Phallic Stage
- Timeframe: 3-6 years of age
- Physical: curiosity about one’s own body and others bodies (parents, siblings peers)
- Psychological: Stage is necessary for moral identity and superego formation—identification with parents; internalization of parents values
Penis Envy
- Children learn differences between boys and girls, start to ask where babies come from
- for girls “That thing seems great, why don’t I have one?”
- Girls redirect their sexual interest to their fathers, and then to men in general, because having a child with a man provides the girl with a penis
Castration Anxiety
- Children learn differences between boys and girls, start to ask where babies come from
- for boys “she doesn’t have one? how did she
lose it? OMG.” - a big part of resolving the oedipus complex
- Boys are distressed that their mother doesn’t have a penis and assume that their father cut it off
- They fear that their father will cut off their penis too
Oedipus complex
- The critical psychological conflict in the phallic stage
- According to Freud, Children develop sexual feelings for the opposite sex parent at this stage and feel some hostility to the same-sex parent
Phallic character in men
someone who is vain or over-ambitious – they continue to be too focused on their self and
self-pleasure
Phallic character in women
someone who is overly dominant over men or unusually seductive – argued to be rooted in
continued penis envy
Latent Period
- Timeframe: From age 6 until puberty
- The sexual and aggressive drives are less active and there is little in the way of psychosexual conflict
- Period of relative calm
- Cooties!
Genital period
- Timeframe: From puberty onwards
- Physical focus is on the genitals and partnered intercourse
- Adult sexual experiences, focused on other people
The psychological theme
- maturity and creation of life
- Not just about reproduction, but also about intellectual and artistic creativity (the products of sublimated libido)
The psychological theme
- maturity and creation of life
- Not just about reproduction, but also about intellectual and artistic creativity (the products of sublimated libido)
The genital personality is not fixated at an earlier stage
- This is the person who has worked it all out
- This person is psychologically well-adjusted and balanced
- According to Freud to achieve this state you need to have a balance of both love and work
Phrenology
- Franz Joseph Gall thought bumps on the head = IQ
- Gall focused his attention upon the detailed configuration of the human head
- Gall slowly increased the number of areas he attributed to specific localizations of cerebral functions which he thought were indicative of the underlying attributes of the human personality
Based in Carl Jung’s writings
he argued that people have preferences about how they use their mental capacities
Jung suggested we are all different types of
- Introverts vs. Extroverts
- Perceivers vs. Sensors
- Thinkers vs. Feelers
- People who prefer judging or intuition
A test is reliable if:
it produces the same results from different
sources
Why are MBTI scores unreliable
- As many as three-quarters of test takers
get a different personality type when tested a second time - Partly because the test assigns you to one type or the other, but people don’t work that way; traits are normally distributed
A test is valid if:
it predicts outcomes that matter
is it really the case that you either like thinking or feeling
No. People engage in both thinking and feeling
The four scales used un MBTI do have some correlation with four of the Big personality traits, But….
the test is missing a major component of personality: Negative emotionality or neuroticism
What are the big five personality traits?
“OCEAN”
* Openness
* Conscientiousness
* Extroversion
* Agreeableness
* Neuroticism
Forer effect
- The tendency to see ourselves in vague or general statements
- sometimes called the Barnum effect
Why is Myers-Briggs popular?
- Offers simplistic answers (“you’re this type”)
- Descriptions are vague, hard to argue with
- Results are usually positive: People like being told they’re outgoing, idealistic, thinkers, feelers
Gordon Allport
one of the most influential psychologists in the empirical study of personality
* tailed nearly 18,000 english words that could be used to describe an individuals physical and physiological attributes
Personality trait
A person’s habitual patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving
* Example: Being Shy
Central traits
aspects of personality that reflect a characteristic way of behaving, dealing with others, and reacting to new situations
Secondary traits
changeable aspects of personality
How many of these traits are actually important?
- critical technique here is factor analysis
- statistical method for taking a number of wider characteristics turn it into one “core” concept
Factor Analysis
- often used to identify clusters of behaviours that are measured by a common underlying factor
- e.g., An agreeable person might be someone who is helpful, liked, and supportive
Superfactors
- Cattell had 16 factors but Eysenck narrowed it down to three: “PEN”
- Psychoticsim
- Extroversion
- Neuroticism
Psychoticisim
- Vulnerability to breaks from reality or for rule
breaking, and aggression - More drug-friendly, care less about cleanliness, and prefer to go their own way rather than follow society’s structures
Extroversion
Tendency to be out-going. Energized by social interaction
Neuroticism
- Negative emotionality
- tendency to be anxious, nervous, suspicious
Biological based PEN Model
Eysenck viewed the PEN model as being biologically based:
* Extraversion: level of arousal
* Neuroticism: activation thresholds in sympathetic NS (fight of flight)
* Psychoticism: testosterone Levels
What is the favoured framework of personality today?
The Big Five
Big five explained
- Openness to experience versus resistance to new experience
- Conscientiousness versus impulsiveness
- Extroversion versus introversion
- Agreeableness versus antagonism
- Neuroticism (-ve emotionality) versus emotional stability
Openness to experience
- Interested in trying new things, curiosity, imagination
- Associated with liberal (rather than conservative) political attitudes
Contentiousness
- Disciplined, well-organized, punctual, dependable
- Associated with positive health-related behaviours, longevity, and high levels of achievement (higher GPAs)
Extraversion
- linked with more happiness
- outgoing, sociable, upbeat, friendly, assertive, gregarious
Agreeableness
- associated with empathy
- sympathetic, trusting, cooperative, modest
Neuroticism
- aka emotional stability
- associated with divorce
- Anxious, self-conscious, moodiness
HEXACO
- basically the big five plus one
- Adds “Honest-Humility”
- High HH = sincere, honesty, faithful, and modest
- Low HH = deceitful, greedy and pompous
Walter Mischel
- (bobo doll guy)
- among others, noticed something very disturbing about personality
- argued that situations create states, which are much more powerful than personality
Problem with personality questions
- How many of you are really talkative with your best friend?
- How many of you are really talkative during parties?
- How many of you are really talkative during my lectures?
Problem with personality questions
- How many of you are really talkative with your best friend?
- How many of you are really talkative during parties?
- How many of you are really talkative during my lectures?
The assumption was that personality
dispositions have strong generalized, causal effects on behaviour. BUT…
our behaviour is very different depending on the situation!
Social-Cognitive Theories
real consistency comes from people’s personalities shaping and being shaped by the
situations they encounter
Situation and social learning
- People display different behaviours in different contexts
- Central personality traits are acquired from learning history and expectations/beliefs
- Acknowledgement that people can have a core set of traits and their behaviour can vary across situations
State
A temporary physical or psychological engagement that influences behaviour
Stable parts of ourselves are called ________ or __________ and the parts of ourselves that change are called _________
Traits; dispositions; states
Trait Self-Esteem
- a more stable quality that describes people’s general self-evaluations
- You wouldn’t expect this to change much over time
State Self-Esteem
- refers to how people feel in the moment, how they feel right now
- This may fluctuate over the period of the day or even shorter time periods
State Self-Esteem
- refers to how people feel in the moment, how they feel right now
- This may fluctuate over the period of the day or even shorter time periods
Four aspects of situations that influence how personality traits are expressed:
- Locations (e.g., being at work, school, or home)
- Associations (e.g., being with friends, alone, or with family)
- Activities (e.g., awake, rushed, studying)
- Subjective states (e.g., mad, sick, happy)
Reciprocal determination
Describes the interaction and mutual
influence of behaviour, internal personal factors, and environmental factors; “personalities” are based on these interactions
Interaction of individuals and environments: internal personal factors
- Different people choose different environments
- Personalities shape how people interpret and react to events
- Personalities help create situations to which people react
Biological influences
- genetically determined temperament
- autonomic nervous system reactively
- brain activity
Psychological influences
*learned responses
* unconscious thought processes
* expectations and interpretations
Social-cultural influences
- childhood experiences
- situational factors
- cultural expectations
- social support
Trepanation (Medieval Era)
Drilling hole in the head on order to release the demons causing ‘abnormal behaviour’
Medieval treatments of psychological disorders
Starved, Flogged, Immersion in boiling water or oil, Exorcism
Asylums
Residential facilities fro the mentally ill, tough often applying brutal “treatments”
When did concern for the mentally ill begin?
18th and 19th century
The developed medical model of mental illness
Treating psychological conditions as sets of symptoms, causes, and outcomes, with
treatments aimed at changing physiological processes in order to alleviate symptoms
Philippe Pinel
- french physician in the late 18th century
- Thought the mentally ill were still human, treatments involve kindness, sunny rooms, exercise, baths
Dorothea Dix
- American activist in the 19th century
- Raised money for hospitals for mentally ill, advocated for humane treatment
History of Mental Illness in the 20th century
overcrowding and desintitutionalization of
mental hospitals
How do we define mental illness?
Medical model says “yes” it is partially a disease e.g. schizophrenia - strong biological basis
How do we diagnose mental illness? (problems)
- Subjective reports of distress?
- Behaviour that puts a person in danger?
- Statistically uncommon behaviours?
Downsides of diagnosis
It pins labels on people that potentially cause stigma
Downsides of viewing mental illness as a disease
- Mentally ill people can be viewed as inferior or dangerous
- Mentally ill people can have difficulty finding places to live, getting jobs, making friends… because of the stigma
What did Thomas Szasz argue?
- That mental illness is a social construction
- apart of “Anti-psychiatry” movement
Drapetomania
- early 19th century term reflecting idea that slaves were suffering from this disorder which was an urge to escape slavery
- drapetes: runaway slave
- mania: mad or crazy
What are some consequences of being labelled mentally ill?
- “On being sane in insane places”
- “Once a person is designated abnormal, all of his other behaviours are coloured by that label”
Three Misconceptions of mental illness
- Disorders are incurable (in reality, the majority get better)
- Mentally ill are violent and dangerous (the vast majority are not)
- The mentally ill are bizarre and different (vast majority, not true)
What do Biological, Psychological, and social influences on illness apply to?
Both physical and mental health issues
Taijin Kyofusho
- social phobia in a Japanese context
- Do something that will embarrass or offend others
- E.g., blushing, emitting offensive odour, staring inappropriately, physical defects
Where is the line between “normal” and “abnormal”?
- What should be classified as illness, versus somewhere within the typical range of human behaviour?
- e.g., quirky
Three criteria that one could use (none are perfect on their own):
- Deviance
- personal distress
- maladaptive behaviour
Deviance
Is this really unusual/atypical?
Personal Distress
Is the individual upset/concerned?
Maladaptive behaviour
Is this hurting the person (or others?)
Mental disorder
“Any behaviour or emotional state that causes an individual great suffering, is self-destructive,
seriously impairs the persons ability to work or get along with others, or endangers others or the community”
According to psychologists and psychiatrists, psychological disorders are…
- marked by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behaviour
- Disturbed or dysfunctional thoughts, emotions, or behaviours are maladaptive
what is important when determining what is deviant, distressing, or maladaptive?
importance of reliable and valid criteria for mental illness
Where are disorders typically classified under?
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
What is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)?
- A standardized manual to aid in the diagnosis of disorders; it lists diagnostic criteria and etiologies (causes) for different conditions
- goal is to provide clear diagnostic categories
Homosexuality and the DSM
- DSM I: “Paraphilia”
- DSM II: “Sexual Orientation Disturbance”
- DSM III: “Ego-dystonic homosexuality”
** Illustrates how diagnoses can vary as a function of APA’s current opinion
How does therapy compare to medication?
Therapy is just as affective ad medication
Each DSM contains three pieces of information
- A set of symptoms and the number of symptoms that must be met in order to have the disorder
- The etiology of symptoms (i.e., the best current evidence for what causes it)
- A prognosis or prediction of how these symptoms will persist or change over time
Advantages of the DSM
- Reliability (decent reliability for some disorders, poor for others)
- Attention to culture-bound syndromes
- Attention to genetic and biological factors
Concerns of the DSM
- Diagnoses based on consensus on
arbitrary clusters of symptoms, not on actual research - Unclear rationale for the number of symptoms necessary for diagnosis
- Potential stigma of labels
- Over-diagnosis of conditions (e.g., ADHD)
- The illusion of objectivity and universality
What are economic reasons?
diagnoses are needed for insurance reasons so therapists will be compensated
Mental Disorder is not the same as insanity:
Legal term only involving mental illness and whether person is aware of consequences and can control their behaviour
Therapy is not…
neutral, it can do more harm then good
(diagnosis and the law) Not Criminally Responsible on account of Mental Disorder (NCRMD):
“No person is criminally responsible for an act committed or an omission made while suffering from a mental disorder that rendered the person incapable of appreciating the nature and quality of the act or omission or of knowing that it was wrong.”
The insanity defense…
- is often used
- when used, is often successful
- often results in release when successful
- is used by extremely dangerous individuals
Anxiety
- A general state of apprehension or psychological tension
- Can be adaptive as it energizes us to cope with danger
- In most people’s experience, anxiety occurs as a natural part of the fight or flight response – racing heart, sweating, knot in your stomach
Anxiety Disorders
- A category of disorders involving fear or nervousness that is excessive, irrational, and
maladaptive - Set apart by the strong intensity and long duration of the response
Teen Mental Illness Epidemic Summary
- Mental illness in Gen X (age 15-25) has dramatically increased in all regions of the world since 2012 (creation of social media)
- 55.9% (males) 74.4% (females) - 328.9% (both) range of increase
What is the genetic component in anxiety disorders?
identical twins are more likely to both have one compared to fraternal twins
Types of Anxiety disorders
- Generalized anxiety disorder
- Panic disorder
- Phobias
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
- A disorder involving frequently elevated levels of anxiety, generally from the normal challenges and stresses of everyday life
- A person with generalized anxiety disorder fears disaster everywhere
Symptoms of Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
- Feeling tense, nervous
- Racing heart, shaking,vtense (physically)
- Bias for negative information, lack of focus
- Associated with unstable, irritable moods, experience difficulty concentrating, and sleep problems
Panic Disorder
- a person experiences recurring panic attacks, feelings of impending doom or death, accompanied by physiological symptoms such as rapid breathing and dizziness
- Interpretation of bodily reactions key in development of disorder
Key feature of panic disorder
- Experience of extreme panic!
- Intense fear that something is going to happen, no apparent cause
Symptoms of panic attacks
- Shortness of breath
- Sweating
- Dizziness
- Faintness
- Feelings of non-reality
- Imminent danger is approaching!
- Often leads to agoraphobia
Phobia
- A severe, irrational fear of a very specific object or situation
- Common phobias are for specific animals, heights, thunder, blood, and injections or other medical procedures
Specific (simple) phobias
- Pathological fear of specific animals, objects, or situations
- Negative experiences or social learning create a link between an object and an emotional
experience
Classical conditioning
- by coincidence a negative association is formed between an object or neutral situation and an anxious response
- e.g., Driving over a bridge when thunder goes off and sparks an anxious reaction
- In the future, that neutral situation provokes a fear response: now you’re nervous every time you go over a bridge
Operant conditioning maintains phobias:
Avoiding the object reduces anxiety,
i.e., avoids punishment of anxiety, so it is negatively reinforced
Social learning
modeling by another person (e.g., a parent) displaying fear of something
Personality factors
shy and inhibited people are more prone to phobias
Social anxiety disorders
- A very strong fear of being judged by others or being embarrassed or humiliated in public
- This leads people to limit their social activities, and to retain control over their ability to exit
the situation if they become anxious
How does the right amygdala affect people with social phobia fires in response to non-emotional faces
- This does not occur in people without social phobias
- Suggests that they have a lowered threshold for when somebody looks judging or threatening (hyperactive amygdala)
Agoraphobia
- An intense fear of outside spaces or having a panic attack in public where escape is difficult
- As a result of this fear, the individual may begin to avoid public settings and increasingly
isolate himself or herself
Anxiety disorders can lead to a self - perpetuating cycle:
Physiological responses (e.g., arousal) and
behavioural reactions (e.g., avoidance) can feed back to reinforce the fear
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
Presence of unwanted, inappropriate, and persistent thoughts (obsessions), and tendency to engage in repetitive, almost ritualistic, behaviours (compulsions) designed to reduce
anxiety
What is Obsessive-compulsive disorder characterized by?
Unwanted thoughts & dysfunctional actions
Obsessions of Obsessive-compulsive disorder
persistent and unwanted thoughts, ideas, or images
Compulsions of Obsessive-compulsive disorder
- actions that people feel compelled to do to relieve anxiety
- Non-functional and ritualistic
Compulsions are negatively reinforced…
Engaging in the compulsion keeps away
the anxiety. VERY hard to decondition.
Examples of complusions
- Fear something terrible might happen (e.g.,fire)
- Concern or need for symmetry, order, or exactness
- Intrusive nonsense sounds, words, or music
- Lucky/unlucky numbers
- Excessive or ritualized hand washing, showering, etc.
- Repeating rituals (going in/out of a door)
- Checking doors, locks, stoves, car brakes, etc.
What happens when compulsions occur:
Deficits in appraisal and attribution
Appraisal (in OCD)
The primary stress appraisal (“Is this stimulus
threatening?”) is hypersensitive to particular classes of stimuli
Attribution (in OCD)
OCD patients tend to misattribute negative life events to their failure to perform OCD
behaviours enough
OCD patients show…
- Increased activation of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC): involved with assessing personal consequences
- Increased activation of the prefrontal cortex: involved with decision-making, planning, etc.
what happens to the anterior cingulate cortex during OCD?
- becomes hyperactive
- structural differences (thinner in people with OCD)
- more likely to see connections between own anxious thoughts and own decisions or behaviours
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia lingering for four weeks or more after a traumatic experience
Neuroimaging study of PTSD patients
- They used a symptom evocation paradigm to cause patients to re-experience the traumatic
event - Emotional and memory areas became activated
- Frontal lobe areas involved with reasoning and decision-making showed reduced activity
Research shows that at least _______ of the population endured a _______ _______ at some point of their lives
50%; traumatic event
Go news about post-traumatic growth
After being exposed to a terrifying event, at least 80% of people do not experience post- traumatic stress syndrome
Post-traumatic growth
Most people who undergo trauma ultimately feel that the experience has made them stronger, wiser, more mature, more tolerant and understanding, or in some other way a better person
Which is more common, post-traumatic growth or PTSD
- post- traumatic growth
- Studies have found that more than 60% (sometimes 90%) of trauma victims undergo post- traumatic growth, including ones
who initially showed symptoms of
PTSD
“Playing Tetris May Alleviate PTSD Flashbacks” study
- Play Tetris (as soon as possible)!
- Participants watched a traumatic film
- IV: Played Tetris, or various control conditions
- DV: Number of flashbacks over a one-week period
- Tetris ties up our “visual-spatial” processing, interferes with visual memory formation!
- It also decreases cravings as well
Major depression
A disorder marked by prolonged periods of sadness, feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness, social withdrawal, and cognitive
and physical sluggishness
What is the lifetime prevalence of men and women with mood disorders?
~25% for women, 13% for men
In sum, what are the results of the team
A) A substantial increase in adolescent anxiety
and depression rates begins in the early 2010s
B) A substantial increase in adolescent self-
harm rates or psychiatric hospitalizations
begins in the early 2010s
C) The increases are larger for girls than for
boys (in absolute terms)
D) The increases are larger for Gen Z than for
older generations (in absolute terms)
Symptoms of major depressive disorder contain at least four of the following
- Weight or appetite change
- Sleep disturbances (usually more sleep, can be less)
- Psychomotor retardation or agitation (usually slowed-down movement)
- Feeling tired or fatigued
- Feelings of worthlessness or guilt
- Inability to concentrate/pay attention
- Suicidal ideation
Two primary brain regions of interest related to depression
The limbic system and dorsal cortex
limbic system
active in emotional responses and processing
Dorsal cortex
(back) of the frontal cortex, which generally plays a role in controlling thoughts and
concentrating
