Psych 103 terms
Terms
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- mind-body dualism
-
renee descartes
belief that the mind is a spiritual entity not subject to physical laws that govern the body.
<roots of psych> - monism
-
thomass hobbes
mind and body are one
set stage for modern psychology
<roots> - british empiricism
-
john locke
all ideas and knowledge are gained empirically, or through the senses.
<roots> - Psychophysics
- the study of how psychologically experienced sensations dependon the characteristics of physical stimuli
- 4 roots of psychology
-
mind-body dualism
monism
british empiricism
psychophysics - 3 levels of analysis
-
biological
psychological
environmental - early schools of psychology
- structuralism, functionalism
- structuralism
-
wundt & titchener
established the first experimental psychology lab.
analysis of the mind in terms of its basic elements.
introspection- methodology used to study sensations - functionalism
-
william james
psychology should study the functions of conciousness rather that its stucture - psychodynamic prospective
-
sigmund freud
searches for the causes of behavior within the innerworkings of our personality, emphasizing the role of unconcious process
powerful sexual & aggressive drives - modern psychodynamic theory
-
object-relations theory
many modern psychologists reject freuds theory of the unconscious mind, but support the concept that behaviors can be trigggerd by unconscious proccesses - ivan pavlov
-
behavioral perspective
experiments w/ dogs
revealed that environment shapes behavior through the association of events with one another. - behavior perspective
- focuses on the role of the external environment in governing our actions
- behaviorism
-
dominates psych in america
assume that there are laws of learning that apply to all organisms
"tabula rasa"-blank slate on which all learning experiences are inscribed - cognitive behaviorism
- learning experiences and the environment influence our expectations and other thoughts, in turn, our thoughts influence how we behave.
- humanism
- emphasizes free will, personal growth, and the attempt to find meaning in ones existence
- self-actualization
- reaching ones full individual potential
- carl rogers
- pioneered the scientific study of psychotherapy
- positive psychotherapy movement
- stresses the importance of human strengths, fulfillment, and optimal living
- gestalt psychology
- examines how elements of experience are organized into wholes
- cognitive psychology
- focuses on the study of mental processes
- cognitive neoroscience
- use of electrical recording and brain imaging techniques to examine brain activity while people perform various tasks.
- social constructivism
- reality is largely our own mental creation
- sociocultural perspective
- humans are social creatures, the culture we come from helps shape our ideas, beliefs, and values
- socialization
- process by which culture is transmitted to new members and internalized by them
- individualism
- emphasis on personal goals and self-identity, used widely in europe and north america
- collectivism
- individual goals sustain to the welfare of the group, used in Asia, Africa, and South America
- behavioral neoroscience
- examines brain processes that underlie our thoughts, actions, feelings and emotions
- behavior genetics
-
study of how behavioral tendencies are influenced by genetic traits
ex: identical twins behavior - Evolutionary Psychology
-
Charles Darwin
A growing field that seeks to explain how evolution shaped modern human behavior
states that certain traits will give members an advantage for survival - Steps in the Scientific Process
-
1. initial observation/ question
2. gather info/form hypothesis
3. test hypothesis (conduct research)
4. analyze data & draw tentative conclusions
5. report findings
6. further research
6. new hypothesis derived from theory - research methods
-
case study
naturalistic observation
survey
correlational study
experiment - case study
-
individual, group, or event is examined in detail (using observations, interviews, psychological tests, etc.)
advantage:provides rich descriptive info; can study rare phenomena in depth
dis: poor method for establishing cause-effect; case may not be representative; relies on researchers subjective interpretations - naturalistic observation
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behavior is observed in a setting where it naturally occurs.
advantage: can provide detailed info about nature, frequency and context of naturally occuring behaviors
dis: doesnt establish cause-effect; observers presence may influence behavior - survey
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questions or tess administered to a sample
ad: a properly selected representative sample typically yields accurate info about population
dis: unrepresentative samples may yield misleading results; interviewer bias, social desirability bias can distort findings - correlational study
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variables are measured and the strength of their association is determined.
ad: allows prediction; may help est. how well findings from experiments generalize to more natural settings; can examine issues that cant be studied ethically or practically in experiments
dis: correlation does not = causation! due to bidirectionality problem and third variable problem - experiment
-
independent variables are manipulated, and their effects on dependent variables are measured.
ad: can examine cause-effect relations; ability to control extraneous factors helpsrule out alternative explanations
dis: confounding of variables, demand characteristics, placebo effects, and experimenter expectancies can threaten the validity of causal conclusions - hindsight
- after-the-fact explanation
- self-report measures
- asking the person to report on their knowledge, feelings, attitudes, etc.
- obervations
- anything that is visible/overt, can be subject to experimenter effects-behavior changes when others are watching
- unobtrusive measures
- record behavior in a way that keeps participants unaware that they are being observed (ex. one way mirrors)
- psychological tests
- special reports designed to study constructs
- physiological measures
- what does increased HR, BP, etc mean?
- independent variable
- factor that is manipulated by experimenter
- dependent variable
- factor thats measured by experimenter and may be influenced by the independent variable
- placebo effect
- people receiving a treatment show a change in behavior because of their expectations not because the treatment itself had any specific benefit.
- evolution
- a change over time in the frequency with which particaular genes & the characteristics they produceoccur with an interbreeding population
- biologically based mechanisms
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enable us to behave, think and feel in certain ways
-in humans they allow to learn, remember, speak a language, percieve certain aspects of our environment at birth, respond with universal emotions and bond with other humans - natural selection
- characteristics that increase the liklihood of survival
- adaptations
- physical or behavioral changesthat allow organisms to meet recurring environmental challenges to their survival, thereby increasing their reproductive ability- products of natural selection
- remote and proximate causes
- interact with one another as determinates of behavior
- remote causes
- past evolutionary pressures that may have prompted natural selection
- proximate causes
- more recent, such as cultural learning and the immediate environment
- genotype
-
genetic makeup of an individual
inner- computer code - phenotype
- observable characteristics- outer- what we see
- chromosome
- double stranded and tightly coiled molecule of DNA
- heritability coefficient
- estimates the extent to which variations in a specific characteristic within a group of people can be attributed to genetic factors
- cell body (soma)
-
contains biochemical structures needed to keep cell alive
nucleus carries genetic info - dendrites
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receiving units that collect messages from neighboring neurons and send them on to their own cell body.
incoming info is processed here - axon
- extends from one side of the cell body and conducts electrical impulses away from the cell body to other neurons, muscles, or glands
- axon terminals
- axons branch out to form many axon terminals which may connect with dendrites from numerous neurons in order to pass on info
- myelin sheath
- whitish, fatty insulation layer that coats the outside of the axon and functions to speed up the conduction of impulses.
- nodes of ranvier
- impulses jump from node to node
- resting potential
-
-70 mV
sodium is extracellular, and potassium is intracellular which makes the outside of the cell more positive and the inside more negative - Action potential
- sodium gates are opened and Na flows into the cell making it less negative on the inside creating a state of depolarization, and the inside becomes positive relative to the outside. goes to +40 mV
- repolarization
- to restore RP, Na gates close and K flows ouside the cell through its channels thus restoring the negative RP
- Absolute Refractory Period
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lots of K is being pumped out of the cell.
no action potentials can occur - hyperpolarization
- the time when the voltage of the cell is less than the RP
- relative refractory period
-
during hyperpolarization
cell can have more action potentials it just has to try much harder to get volage back up to -55mV so AP can occur - 4 tactile sensations
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pressure
pain
warmth
cold - largest organ in body?
- skin
- free nerve endings
- primary receptors for pain and temperature
- somarosensory cortex
- sensations are sent to the part of it that corresponds with where on the body the sensation was received
- phantom limb phenomenon
- occurs when an amputee feels sensation in their missing limb
- perception
- organization of information conveyed by sensory system through the nervous system
- bottom-up processing
- system takes in individual elements of the stimulus and then combines them into a unified perception (ex. reading)
- top-down processing
- sensory info is interpreted in light of existing knowledge, concepts, ideas, and expectations (ex. interpreting words and sentences)
- attention
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1. focusing on a certain stumuli
2. filtering out other incoming info - Habituation
- decrease in the strength of a response to a repeated stimulus
- inattentional blindness
-
failure of unattended stimuli to register in conciousness.
we dont attend to every sensory message we recieve - nature of the stimulus
- intensity, movement, contrast, repetition
- personal factors
- motives, interests (ex hungry person sensitive to food-related cues)
- retina
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extention of brain
contains rods and cones - rods
- primary black and white brightness receptors
- cones
- color receptors
- lens
- flips images
- pupils
- constricts in lighht, expands in darkness and is controlled by iris
- fovea
- area of no rods or cones (blind spot)
- cornea
- protective, semi-permeable membrane
- bipoloar cells and ganglion cells
- share synaptic gaps
- optic nerve
- comprised of ganglion cell axons
- gestalt principles
-
similarity
closure
proximity
figure and ground
perpetual constancies
depth/distance
movement
illusions - perpetual constancies
- our perceptions of size and distance are imtimately related
- stroboscopic motion
- flashing of a series of still pictures in rapid succession
- phi phenonmenon
- occurs when lights flashed in a sequence are perceived as moving (ex. car CD player)
- learning
- a process by which experience produces a relatively enduring change in an organisms behavior or capabilities
- classical conditioning
- occurs when 2 stimuli become associated with one another such that one stimulus now triggers a response that was previously triggered by the other stimulus
- operant conditioning
- when you learn to associate a response with specific consequences
- observational learning
- observers imitate the behavior of a model
- ethology
-
europe
thought that every species comes into the world prepared to act in certain ways
focused on adaptive significance
fixed action patterns
focused on animal begavior in the natural environment esp. what they learned in order to survive-not how they learned. - adaptive significance
- how a behavior influences an organisms chances of survival and reproduction in its natural environment
- fixed action patterns
- unlearned response automatically triggered by a particular stimulus
- unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
- elicits a reflexive or innate response w/o learning
- unconditioned response (UCR)
- reflexive or innate, elicited by UCS; what automatically happens w/o learning
- Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
- stimulus that was previously neutral, but through associatio with UCS, comes to elicit a CR similar to UCR
- Conditioned response (CR)
- response elicited by CS
- aquisition
- CS and UCS pairings. period in which CS is being learned or associated
- extinction
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CS is repeatedly paired w/o UCS, causing CR to weaken and eventually disappear.
similar to habituation, but habituation has no learning invloved - spontaneous recovery
- reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response
- 2nd spontaneous recovery
- each time it happens, you get less of a response; extinction trial takes a long time to take hold
- generalization
- stimuli similar to the initial CS elicit a CR
- discrimination
- treating people unfairly based on the group to which they belong
- higher-order conditioning
- a neutral stimulus becomes a CS after being paired with an already established CS
- overcoming fear
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exposure therapy
systematic desensitization
flooding
aversion therapy - consequences of behavior: ABCs 3term contingency
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A: Antecedent- which stimuli are present before behavior occurs
B: Behavior- what organims emit
c: Consequence - what follows behavior
can chage A and B to change C - contingency
- relationship between behavior and consequence
- reinforcement
- increase behavior
- punishment
- decrease behavior
- positive
- add
- negative
- take away
- primary reinforcers
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stimuli that an organism naturally finds because they satisfy biological needs
(ex. water food shelter etc) - secondary reinforcers
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stimuli that acquire reinforcing properties through their association with primary reinforcers
(ex. money)
changes from culture to culture and person to person - operant extinction
- the weakening and eventual disappearance of a response because it is no longer required
- resistance to extinction
-
degree to which nonreinforced responses persist
strongly influenced by the pattern of reinforcement that has previoouslymaintained behavior. - Banduras Social Cognitive Theory
- People learn by observing thte behavior of models and aquiring the belief that they can produce behavior to influence the events in their lives
- memory
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the process that allows us to record, store, and later retrieve experiences and information:
-encoding
-storage
-retrieval - short term(working) memory
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a memory store that temporarily holds a limited amount of info
7 +/- 2 items - chunking
- combining individual items into larger units of meaning
- 3 stage model
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sensory memory
working memory
long term memory - sensory memory
-
briefly holds incoming sensory info in sensory registers
iconic store-visual
echoic store-auditory - encoding
- getting information into the system
- storage
- retaining info over time
- retrieval
- access stored info
- modeling process
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attention
retention
reproduction
motivation - long term memory
- vast library of more durable stored info
- serial position effect
- ability to recall an item is influenced by its position in a series
- primacy effect
-
earliest items in long term memory
tendency to attach more importance to the initial information we learn about a person - recency effect
- most recent items in short term memory
- 4 components of working memory
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central executive
visuospatial sketchpad
episodic buffer
phonological loop - effortful processing
- intentionally initiated encoding
- automatic processing
- occurs without intention and requires minimal attention
- structural encoding
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how the word looks
shallow - phonological encoding
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how the word sounds, matching sounds
deeper - semantic encoding
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matching meaning
deepest - maintenance rehersal
-
not optimal
simple, rote repetition - elaborative rehersal
- involves focusing on the meaning of information or expanding on it in some way
- hierarchy organization
- associations between concepts
- dual coding theory
- uses both verbal and visual codes
- method of loci
- attaches info to physical locations
- mnemonic device
- memory aid ( acronyms)
- schema
- an organized pattern of thought about some aspect of the world
- stress process
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stressors
intervening factors
stress reaction - stressors
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demanding or threatening situations
(ex: catastrophes, life changes, hassles) - intervening factors
- ex: appraisal( primary and secondary), consequences, personal meaning
- stress reaction
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reactions to demands that exceed a persons resources
(ex: physiological, emotional, behavioral - Selyes General Adaptation Syndrome
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3 stages:
alarm reaction
resistance
exhaustion - effects of stress on health
-
stress hormones released into the bloodstream supress the immune system (ex: cortisol)
people are more likely to get sick after a stressful event - factors influencing stress-health relations
-
vulnerability factors (low SES, low social support
protective factors (high SES, high social support
physiological reactivity
type A behavior
hardiness
coping self-efficacy
optimism, positive attitude
meaning making stressful life events - 3 Cs of Hardiness
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Committment
Control
Challenge - coping strategies
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problem focued coping
emotion focused coping
seeking social support - problem focused coping
- strategies that attempt to confront and directly deal with the demands of a situation or to change the situation so that it is no longer stressful
- emotion focused coping
- strategies that attempt to manage the emotional responses that result from a stressful situation
- seeking social support
- turning to others for assistance and emotional support in times of stress
- emotional constraint
-
expressive writing
emotion suppression
thought suppression - Coping strategy men use?
- problem focused
- Coping strategy women use?
- emotion focused or seeking social support
- stress managment training
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cognitive restructuring
self-instructional training
somatic relaxation training
cognitive relaxation meditation - pain receptors are in all body tissues except:
- brain, bones, hair, nails, nonliving parts of teeth
- gate control theory
- proposes that the experience of pain results from the opening and closing of gating mechanisms in the nervous system
- endorphins
- natural opiate-like substanses that are involved in pain reduction
- risk factors causing death
- heart disease, cancer, stroke, accidents, lung disease
- harm reduction
-
prevention strategy that is designed not to eliminate a problem behavior but rather to reduce the harmful effects of that behavior when it occurs
(ex: methodone clinics for drug addicts, safe rides, etc) - self fulfilling prophecy
- the way we think affects the way we act
- cortisol
- stress hormone that causes a persons immune system to be suppressed
- 2 types of social influence
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normative
informational - factors influencing obedience
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status
proximity
generality - social loafing
- the tendency for people to expend less individual effort when working collectively in a group than when working alone
- response disinhibition
- term for a model performing a desired but "prohibited" act
- foot-in-door technique
- a manipulation technique in which the persuader gets you to comply with a small request first and later presents a larger request
- Type A
- behavior pattern exhibited by people who live under great pressure and demand much of themselves and others
- lowballing
- a manipulation technique in which a persuader gets you to committ to some action and then before you perform the behavior- he/she increases the "cost" if that same behavior
- social norms
- shared expectations about how people should think, feel, abd behave
- response facilitation
- term for a model performing "legal" behavior and we follow
- social compensation
- working harder when in a group than when alone to compensate for other members lower output
- bystander effect
- the principle that the pressence of multiple spectators inhibits each persons tendency to help, largely due to social comparison or diffusion of responsibility
- attribution
- a judgment about the causes of our own and other peoples behavior
- realistic conflict theory
- maintains that competition for limited resources fosters prejudices
- groupthink
- the tendency of group members to suspend critical thinking because they are motivated to seek agreement
- deindividuation
- a state of increased anonymity in which a person, often as part of a group or crowd, engages in disinhibited behavior
- prejudice
- a negative attitude toward people based on their membership in a group
- matching effect
- in romantic relationships, the tendency for partners to have a similar level of attractiveness
- consummate love
- in robert sternbergs triangular theory of love, this brings together intimacy, passion, and committment
- social structure theory
- maintains that men and women behave differently, such as expressing different mate preferences, because society directs them into different social and economic roles
- vulnerability-stress model
- each of us has some degree of vulnerability (ranging from low to high) for developing a psychologic disorder, given sufficient stress. used to explain abnormal behavior
- abnormal behavior
- behavior that is personally distressing, personallu dysfunctional, and/or so culturally deviant that other people judge it to be inappropriate or maladaptive
- reliabilty
- clinicians using the system should show high levels of agreement in their diagnostic decisions
- validity
- the diagnostic categories should accurately capture the essential features of the various disorders
- The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
- most widely used diagnostic classification system in US
- consequences of diagnostic labeling?
- affects of we percieve and interact with those w/ the disorder, labels are not easily shed, people may accept the new identity implied by label and develop the expected role, law takes it into account
- anxiety disorders
- frequency and intensity of anxiety responses are out of proportion to the situations that trigger them, and the anxiety interferes with daily life
- anxiety responses have 4 components
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1. subjective-emotional- feeling of tension and apprehension
2.cognitive- worrisome thoughts
3. physiological- increased heart rate and blood pressure, muscle tension, etc
4. behavioral- aviodance of certain situations - clinically significant
-
interfere significantly with life functions or cause the person to seek medical treatment
70% of anxiety disorders are - phobias
- strong and irrational fears of certain objects of situations
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder
-
chronic state of diffuse or free floating anxiety that is not attached to specific situations or objects
diagnosis requires continual presence for at least 6 months - Panic Disorders
-
occur suddenly and unpredictabke, intense feeling of tension and anxiety
diagnosis requires recuurent attacks , followed by psychological or behavioral problems - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
-
obsessions-repetive and unwelcome thoughts, images, impulses that invade conciousness and are very difficult to dismiss or control
compulsions- repetitive behavioral responses that can be resisted only with great difficulty -
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
PTSD -
severe anxiety disorder that can occur in people who have been exposed to traumatic life events
may lead to increased vulnerability to development of later disorders - 4 major symptoms of PTSD
-
1. symptoms if anxiety, arousal, and distress
2. victim relives trauma recurrently
3. person become numb to outside world and aviods stimuli that serve as reminders
4.intense survival guilt in instances where others were killed and they survived - causal factors in anxiety disorders
-
biological: genetic factors that predispose us
psychological: inability to repress unwanted thoughts, maladaptive thought patterns or as a result of classic or operational conditioning
cultural factors (ex: anorexia nervosa) - somatoform disorders
-
physical complaints or disabilities that suggest a medical problem but have no biological cause and are not produced voluntarily by the person.
much higher instances in cultures that discourage open discussion of emotions - dissociative disorders
- a breakdown of normal personality integration, resulting in significant alterations in memory or identity
-
Dissociative Identity Disorder
DID -
2 or more seperate personalities coexist within the same person
distinct physical and behavioral differences from one personality to the next
development of new personalities occurs in response to severe stress (abuse) -
Borderline Personality Disorder
BPD -
serious instablility in behavior, emotion, identity, and interpersonal relationships. suffer from an intense fear of rejection, are parasuicidal, clingy, and characterized by extrteme behavioral outbursts
2/3 are women
associated w/ PTSD, mood disorders, substanse abuse disorders - splitting
-
in BPD
failure to integrate positive and negative aspects of anothers behavior into a coherrant whole
sudden shifts from extreme love to intense hatred -
Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
ADHD -
most common childhood disorder
7-10% of american children
4X more frequent in boys
experience problems: inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity, or both
no known cause - Autistic Disorder
-
80% are boys
5 in every 10,000 children
70% remain diabled as adults
2/3 are mentally retarded, remaining have average to above average IQs
sometimes refered to as childhood schizophrenia, characterized by extreme unresponsiveness to others, poor communication skills, and highly repetitive and rigid behavior patterns
some have extraordinary sevant abilities
larger brains
biological basis - schizophrenia
-
severe disturbances in thinking, speech, perception, emotion, and behavoir
delusions, halucinations, flat affect, blunted affect, inappropriate affect - delusions
-
false beliefs
delusions of persecution, delusions of grandeur - paranoid schizophrenia
- prominent features are delusions of persecution and delusions of grandeur
- disorganized schizophrenia
- central features are confusion and incoherence, together with severe deterioration of adaptive behavior such as personal hygiene, social skills, and self-care
- catatonic schizophrenia
- characterized by striking motor disturbances ranging from muscular rigidity to random or repetitive movements
- antisocial personality disorder
- severe antisocial and irresponsible behavior begining in early childhood and continuing past age 18; impulsive need gratification and lack of empathy forothers; often highly manipulative and seem to lack conscience
- psychoanalyis
-
goal is to help clients achieve insight which allows them to adjust their behavior to their current life situations
psychic energy that was preiously devoted to keeping unconscious conflicts under control can be released and redirected to more adaptive ways of living - free association
-
clients verbally report without any interuption the thoughts, feeling or images that enter their awareness.
analyst is out of sight so clients thought process is influenced only by internal factors - dream interpretation
- psychanalysts believe that dreams express impulses, fantasies, and wishes that the clients defenses keep bottled up unconsciously during waking hours. searches for unconscious material disguised in dreams
- resistance
- any defense maneuver that hinders the process of therapy
- transference
- occurs when the client responds irrationally to the analyst as if he/she were an important figure from the clients past. brings repressed feelings and maladaptive behavior patterns into the open that both the therapist and client can discover and explore
- interpretation
- any statement by the therapist that is intended to provide the client with insight into his/her behavior or dynamics
- interpersonal therapy
- focuses almost exclusively on clients current relationships with important people in their lives
- humanistic psychotherapies
- believe that humans are capable of consciously controlling their actions and taking responsbility for their choices and behavior. therapy is directed at helping clients become aware of feelings as they occur. focus on present and future rather than past
- client centered therapy
-
most widely used
unconditionak positive regard: no judgement or evaluation
empathy:willingness and ability to view the world through clients eyes
genuineness: consistency between way therapist feels and behaves - gestalt therapy
-
develpoed by fritz perls
often carried out in groups, methods are much more active and dramatic than client centered approaches and sometimes even confrontational, to help clients get in touch with their inner selves - informative social influence
- following opinions of other people because we think their knowledge in what they think is good
- normative social influence
- conform to get a reward for being accepted vs. being rejected in a group
- norm of reciprocity
- tendency to respond in kind when other people treat us well or poorly
- door-in-face technique
- persuader makes a larger request expecting rejection and then presents a smaller request
- group polarization
- average opinion of group tends to become more extreme