TOPICS IN PSYCHOLOGY QUIZ 2 LANGER & RODIN ARTICLE ON THE NURSING HOME STUDY Flashcards
P. 150 Langer & Rodin
POWER & CONTROL STUDY:
what are L. & R. talking about when they talk about control?
what is control?
control: the personal power (ability) we possess over our own life and the events in it.
= Related to this ability are your feelings of competence and personal power and the availability of choices in any given situation.
p. 151 Langer & Rodin
1=what happens when your sense of control is threatened?
2=what do you do, or how do you react?
1=you experience negative feelings (anger, outrage, indignation).
2= you rebel by behaving in ways that will restore your perception of personal freedom.
p. 151 L. & R
what do we call the tendency to Resist any attempt to limit our freedom?
this tendency to resist any attempt to limit our freedom is called:
REACTNCE
P. 151 L. & R.
what happens when that control (personal environment) is taken away from us?
we experience psychological distress in the form of anxiety, anger, outrage, depression, helplessness, and even physical illness.
p. 151 L.& R
what happens when we are put in stressful situations believing we have some control over the stressful event?
studies have shown that in this situation the negative effects of the stress are REDUCED.
(Glass & Singer, 1972).
p. 151 Langer & Rodin
what happens in the life stage of OLD AGE?
Old Age: is the life stage were people lose their power to choose.
P. 152 L. & R.
What was Langer & Rodin’s theoretical Proposition?
if the LOSS of personal responsibility for one’s life causes a person to be less happy and healthy
= then INCREASING control and power should have the opposite effect.
= to test this theoretical idea they chose a group nursing home as participants.
=the Connecticut nursing home, the Arden House.
p. 152 L. & R. = Method used:
how many floors and residents were chosen?
Two floors were randomly selected:
the Fourth floor: 8 men and 39 women.and received increased responsibility.
and the Second floor: 9 men and 35 women. the comparison group. their level of responsibility was unchanged.
= these 91 participants range in age from 65 to 90.
p. 153 L. & R. Procedure used:
what was the difference between the responsibility induced group (4 floor), and the comparison group (2 floor)?
= the responsibility induced group were told that they had the responsibility of caring for themselves and deciding how they should spend their time.
= the comparison group was told how much the staff at the home wanted to make their lives fuller and more interesting.
p. 154 L. & R. Results
After three weeks what did the increased responsibility group report? and what did the comparison group report?
the responsibility group reported feeling happier and more active. their alertness was ratings were higher
= the nurses ratings reported their conditioned improved
=93% improved. =visited others more often, talked to staff more often, spend less time engaged in passive activities. more attended the movies. 10 participated in the jelly bean contest.
the comparison group:
=their condition declined, = only 21% (six participants) showed positive change. only one participated in the jelly bean contest.
p. 155 L. & R. Findings:
what was the most important finding of L. & R. study?
That 30% of the participants in the comparison group had died during the 18 month interval.
and only 15% of the experimental group had died during that time.
p. 156 L. & R. applications
In what year did L. & R. do their research?
1976
p. 156 L. & R. applicatios:
what did a 2010 study conclude?
a 2010 study called “Born to Choose”, proposed taht people’s ability to exert control over their environment and to be able to perceive that they have personal choice over the outcomes of their actions is not only PSYCHOLOGICALLY healthy but may be BIOLOGICALLY hardwired into us (Leotti, Iyengar, & Ochsner, 2010).
