humans experience only a small number of distinct emotions that combine in complex ways

primary emotions:

• Happiness
• Disgust
• Anger
• Disgust
• Fear
• Contempt

each emotion must be preceded by a distinct physiological response

Ex.: Someone sees a bear while hiking. Their immediate physical response is sweating, increase in heartrate, etc. Because of that, their following emotional response is fear

stimulus leads to an undifferentiated (neutral, neither negative or positive) state of arousal. an emotion is then attributed to the arousal in order to explain it

Ex.: Encountering the bear, we become aroused (preparation for fight/flight). We then seek what is causing the arousal. Finally, seeing the bear right before us, the emotion concluded is to labelled as fear.

both the emotion and physiological response occur simultaneously

Ex.: With the bear example, both the increased heart rate, sweating, AND fear are invoked at the same time

repeated exposure to a stimulus makes us like it more

note: mere exposure to work, the individual must at least feel neutral towards the stimulus

Ex.: a person is neutral towards parrots. one one of their family members gets a parrot as a pet. eventually, the person comes to like parrots

possible explanation: the more experience w/ something, less effort it takes to comprehend

three types:

• illustrators - highlight/accentuate speech

Ex.: first pumping when speaking of a success

• manipulators - one body part strokes/bites/etc. another

Ex.: twirling/playing with hair when nervous

• emblems - convey conventional meanings recognized by members of a culture

Ex.: the middle finger = fuck you

humans are motivated to maintain homeostasis (equilibrium/balance)

connected to Yerkes-Dodson Law

there is an inverted U-shaped relation between arousal and performance

Ex.:

study for a final one month in advance = weak performance (not enough attention and/or interest to perform)

study for a final one week in advance = peak performance

study for a final one day in advance = weak performance (impaired performance because of strong anxiety)

Id: operates purely on the pleasure principle - "do what feels good, avoid what feels bad"; immediate gratification

Superego: internalization of societal standards, values, etc.; your moral guide

Ego: "mediator" between the Id and the Superego; operates of the reality principle - reality requires delayed gratification sometimes

conflict b/w Id and Superego leads to anxiety

apart of Freud's P.T. various kinds of defense mechanisms to cope with events/emotions

• Repression: make the problem unconscious; block it out from memory.

• Denial: refuse to accept reality

• Rationalization: providing reasonable-sounding explanations for unreasonable behaviors or failures

• Intellectualization: avoiding the emotions associated with anxiety-provoking experiences by focusing on abstract and impersonal thoughts

• Displacement: directing an impulse from a socially unacceptable target to a socially acceptable one

• Projection: seeing your unwanted thoughts/desires in other people

• Regression: return to an earlier stage in psychological development

• Reaction formation: transform unwanted feelings to exact opposite

Sublimation: channel unwanted feelings into a socially acceptable (or even beneficial) behavior

part of Freud's P.T. an explanation for some issue in later adulthood.

oral stage - occurs early on, from birth to 12-18 months, focuses on the mouth (sucking and drinking). not completing this stage leads to the tendency to place objects into mouth as an adult (smoking, overeating, drinking). adults like this tend to react to stress by relying on others

anal stage - 18 months to 3 years. focuses on the anus, relief from bowels. if toilet training is too harsh or lenient, a fixation and prone to regressing during anxiety-provoking circumstances. leads to "anal" personalities (neatness, stinginess, stubbornness)

phallic stage - 3 to 6 years. failure of successfully passing this stage leads to an Oedipus complex (an attraction to one's own mother) in males, and penis envy in females.

latency stage - period of calm following the phallic stage. 6 to 12 years. basically, the "cooties" stage where sexual desires are repressed and the opposite gender is unappealing

genital stage - 12 years and up. sexual impulses reawaken. if this stage is not successfully completed, issues with establishing intimate love are likely

social learning: focus on locus of control (internal vs external). Interplay of external environment, thoughts/feelings, and behaviors.

Remember:

Locus of control - extent to which people believe that life events lie inside/outside their control

External - fate is predetermined, life just "is" and nothing to do about it, luck, etc. leads to learned helplessness (dogs and electric boxes)

Internal: expect events to be controlled by own actions, only by the extent of one's own abilities, etc.

Behavioral: basically, "free will is an illusion"

Humanistic: Roger's conditions of worth - only worth something when we fulfill some conditions. also, self-actualization

OCEAN

Openness (to experience) - one's willingness to try out new things

Conscientiousness - sense of duty, discipline, orderliness

Extraversion - tendency to be social and lively

Agreeableness - degree to which you are willing to upset others

Neuroticism - tendency to experience and express unpleasant emotions

criticisms:

-only describes, offers no explanation

-is it the right number? what about cultural differences?

-doesn't predict behavior

structured tests - tests in which a series of questions are asked in a traditional test format

Ex.: Online personality tests

projective tests - tests in which a key factor is the interpretation of the responses

Ex.: Rorschach tests

PT Barnum effect: tendency to rate your results as highly accurate, thinking they fit specifically to you, but they could actually fit most people

failure of psychological adaptation to the environment

criteria:

-statistical clarity (uncommon in the population)

-subjective distress (produces emotional pain)

-impairment (negatively affect ability to function)

-societal disapproval (conditions that society dislikes)

-biological dysfunction (can arise from breakdown of phys. systems)

-cultural universality (appears across all cultures)

Generalized-Anxiety Disorder:

-persistent feelings of worry, anxiety, physical tensions, and irritability

-trouble sleeping and concentrating

-spend about 60% of the day worrying

affects about 3% of the population

Panic Disorder:

-repeated and unexpected panic attacks(brief, intense episodes of extreme fear)

-concerns of future attacks

-attacks may follow specific 

Phobias:

-intense, irrational fears of an object/situation

-must severely affect our lives and/or create considerable distress

-agoraphobia = fear of crowded spaces or enclosed public places

-social anxiety disorder = fear of negative evaluation in social situations

PTSD:

-emotional disturbance after experiencing a severely stressful event

-flashback, triggers, panic, attacks, difficulty sleeping, recurrent dreams/nightmares

OCD:

-repeated and lengthy immersion in obsessions and/or compulsions

-obsession: unwanted or persistent idea, thought, or urge

-compulsion: repetitive behavior/mental acts performed to reduce/prevent stress

major depressive disorder:

-sadness, hopelessness, loss of enjoyment, loss of motivation, weight loss, etc.

-avg onset in 30s

-can develop gradually or suddenly

-average episode can last 6 months to a year

Bipolar disorder:

-alternating b/w periods of mania (great joy) and depression (great sadness)

-marked by at least one manic episode

-mania = elation ,energetic, optimistic, creative, impulsive, inflated self-esteem

conditions in which personality traits:

-lead to severe distress/impairment

-are inflexible, stable, and expressed in a variety of ways 

-hard to diagnose, lower reliability

Borderline personality disorder:

-"stable instability"

-extremely unstable mood, identity, and impulse control; destructive tendencies such as...

• sexual promiscuity
• overeating
• self-mutilation
• threatening suicide

explained by:

-intense feelings of abandonment

-early problems developing a sense of self and bonding w/ others

-splitting people into "good people vs bad people"

psychopathic personality disorder:

-psychopathic = superficial charm, dishonest, manipulative, self-centered

anti-social personality disorder:

-overlaps somewhat w/ psychopathic -> history of irresponsible or illegal actions

most people with a personality disorder...:

-are not psychotic

-rational, "just don't care" about the state of affairs

-"successful" psychopaths in leadership position

involves disruptions of consciousness, memory, identity, and/or perception

depersonalization:

-multiple episodes of depersonalization and/or derealization

-surreal feeling that your body and/or world are not real

dissociative amnesia:

-inability to recall important person information

dissociative fugue:

-sudden, unexpected travel away + amnesia

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID):

-presence of 2+ distinct personalities (alters) that take control of behavior

-extremely controversial

-posttraumatic model

-form of dissociative disorder

-NOT multiple/split personalities

-mind has "split" from reality (schizen = break)

-extremely disturbed/disorganized thinking, emotion, perception, behavior

-affects <1% of the population

-adolesence or early adulthood onset

-severe!

delusions:

strongly held, fixed beliefs that have no basis in reality...

grandeur = you are very, very important, the chosen one

persecution = "they're out to get me"

body-centered; ex.: body is infested with parasites

disorganized language:

-word salad

-skip from topic to topic in a disjointed way

-weakened word associations

disrupted perception:

-hallucinations = sensory perception that occurs in the absence of a stimulus

Ex.: hearing voices, seeing shadows or figures

disorganized behavior:

-expression of emotions at inappropriate/unpredicatable times

Ex.: laughing at a funeral

-wearing unfitting attire

Ex.: winter coat in the spring

catonic symptoms:

-motor problems

-holding bizarre or ridgid posture

-pacing aimlessly

the treatment of psychological disorders:

Psychotherapy: a psychological intervention designed to help people resolve emotional, behavioral, and interpersonal problems

-Insight (split into psychodynamic and humanistic)

-Group

-Behavioral (split into exposure, modelling, and operant conditioning)

-Cognitive-Behavioral

For Anxiety Disorders: Behavioral and Cognitive-Behavioral therapy

For Mood Disorders: Cognitive-Behavioral

For Personality Disorders: Behavioral and C-B

For Schizophrenia: Medication

concentrate on behavioral habits of clients and the factors that contribute to the problematic thoughts/emotions/behaviors

assumptions:

-focus:current behaviors

-disorders due to peoples' learned actions

-can change by learning new ways to act

goal:

-change actions via conditioning

therapist role:

-teacher, trainer

methods

systematic desensitization:

-for phobias

-relax, then progressive exposure

-create an anxiety hierarchy

flooding:

-opposite of sys. desen.

-safe exposure to feared stimulus

-response prevention (technique that prevents client from using their typical avoidance behavior)

modelling:

-observational (vicarious) learning

-therapist goes first, then walks client through it

positive reinforcement:

-reward good behavior

-token economy

aversion therapies

-associate bad behavior w/ negative stimulus

psychoanalysis

core techniques:

-free association (client expression w/o censorship)

-interpretation (hypothesize origin of client's problems; explanations of unconscious)

-dream analysis (interpret relation of a dream to the client's experience)

-resistance (avoid confrontation and anxiety associated with repressed thoughts/emotions/impulses

-transference (projecting intense, unrealistic feelings from past onto therapist)

-working through (confront and resolve problems)

therapist must show:

-unconditional positive regard (emphasize that client is valuable, no matter what they think/say)

-empathy (getting into emotional experience of the client from their PoV)

-congruence (therapist is consistent between how they feel and act towards the client)

-reflection (rephrase what client says to indicate understanding)

Gestalt = whole

-growth occurs when we are aware of feelings

-symptoms occur when clients lose themselves

-therapist points out inconsistencies (in what they say vs actions, body language)

-roleplay to get in touch with feelings

Ex.: chair technique

assumptions and approach

-can identify/measure cognitions

-cognitions key to psychological functioning

-irrational beliefs/catastrophizing can be replaced

goal

-change interpretation of events

therapist role

-identify and critically evaluate learned cognitive distortions

-often give homework

-women are more likely to seek therapy than men; white caucasians are more likely to seek therapy than minorities

-

-tendency to look towards others to figure out how to behave/react in ambiguous situations

-can lead to mass hysteria or collective dellusions

Ex.: Every first Tuesday of the month, a test alarm sounds. If someone doesn't know this, they look around at others to see their reactions.

-we perform worse on hard tasks when others are watching us

-optimal arousal

-limits of working memory

-over estimating impact of dispositional influences, and under estimating impact of situational influences on other's behavior

(applies to others, not ourselves)

Ex.: Alice sees Bob trip on a rock, so she think he's clumsy. On the other hand, if Alice tripped on the rock, then she would make other excuses and dismiss being clumsy.

tendency of people to alter their behavior as a result of group pressure

(Asch 1955 study, line lengths)

unanimity: all the confederates had to give the same wrong answer for the effect to occur

size of group: for up to 5 people, more confederate = more conformity

culture: individualistic vs collectivistic societies

low self-esteem: self-explanatory

deindividuation:tendency of people to engage in unusual behavior when stripped of normal identity

-enhanced by wearing masks/uniforms (faster anonimity)

-dehumanizing in prison - caused by personality? or situation?

emphasis on group unanimity at the expense of critical thinking

-happens when groups become too focused on making sure everyone agrees

basically: an experiment to test the extent that "obedience" would bring the average person to harming someone.

More obedience: direct commands (right in front of you)

Less obedience: commands over a medium (letter, phone call, etc.)

foot-in-door: make small offer, come back later for a bigger request

door-in-face: big request, followed by a smaller, more reasonable request

low-ball: go low then add gradually

"but you are free": remind them that they are free to choose

peripheral = superficial/aesthetic attractions

central rout = statistics and numbers

-pre-judging

-drawing negative conclusions about a person or group without evaluating the evidence

-a belief (negative or positive) about the characteristics of members of a group that is applied generally to most members of the group

-like a schema

-differential behavior towards a person or group of people

-prejudice = negative attitude

-discriminate = negative behavior

adaptive conservatism

-evolutionary principle that creates a predisposition towards distrusting anything or anyone unfamiliar or different

in-group bias

-tendency to favor individuals within our own group

scapegoat hypothesis

-prejudice arises from the need to blame other groups for our misfortunes

just-world hypothesis

-belief that the world is just, people get what they deserve

conformity

personality