Psychology: Stages of Change Model

Stages of Change Model

• Stages: Precontemplation, Contemplation, Preparation/Determination, Action/Willpower, Maintenance
• Precontemplation: Not yet considering change, needing increased awareness of the issue.
• Contemplation: Recognizing a problem but not ready for change, like considering giving up a habit.
• Preparation/Determination: Recognizing the issue and preparing to change, like joining a support group.
• Action/Willpower: Committing to change and creating a plan. Celebrating accomplishments is key for motivation.
• Maintenance: Successfully avoiding temptation, anticipating situations, and transcending the need to consciously maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Social Support

• Benefits: Tangible assistance, information, emotional support.

Problem-focused Coping

• Aims to control or change the stress-causing environment.
• Focuses on solving the problem directly.

Emotion-focused Coping

• Aims to control emotional reactions to a stressor.
• Focuses on managing the emotional response to the problem, rather than solving the problem.

Successful Coping

• Associated with personal control, a healthy immune system, positive emotions, optimism, and hardiness.

Hardiness

• Characterized by commitment, control, and viewing problems as challenges rather than threats.

Criteria of Abnormal Behavior

• Not typical or culturally expected.
• Personally distressful.
• Dysfunction (interfering with effective functioning).
• DSM-5 (2013) by the American Psychiatric Association.

Anxiety-Related Disorders

• Characterized by physical-motor tension, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral symptoms.

Physical-motor Tension

• Jumpiness, trembling, dizziness, elevated heart rate.

Cognitive Symptoms

• Worrying, fearing loss of control, paranoia.

Emotional Symptoms

• Dread, terror, panic, irritability, restlessness.

Behavioral Symptoms

• Escaping situations, aggression, freezing.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

• Persistent, unspecified anxiety for at least six months.

Panic Disorder

• Recurrent, sudden episodes of intense terror without warning or specific cause. Symptoms include severe palpitations, shortness of breath, chest pain, trembling, sweating, dizziness, and helplessness.

Social Anxiety Disorder (Social Phobia)

• Irrational fear of being negatively evaluated by others in social situations, like public speaking or eating in public.

Anxiety Disorders

• Involve uncontrollable, disproportionate fears, and disruptive lives.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

• Unwanted intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and repetitive behaviors (compulsions).

Obsessions

• Intrusive thoughts or images.

Compulsions

• Repetitive behaviors (e.g., excessive checking, cleaning, counting).

Cognitive Perspective on OCD

• Individuals with OCD struggle to turn off negative thoughts.

OCD-related Disorders (DSM-5)

• Expanded categories of OCD-related disorders that include repetitive behaviors and feelings of anxiety. Includes hoarding disorder, excoriation (skin-picking), and trichotillomania (hair-pulling). Body Dysmorphic Disorder is also associated with hoarding disorder..

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

• Trauma-related disorder characterized by distress memories, emotional numbness, and hyper-vigilance.

PTSD Symptoms

• Flashbacks, avoidance of experiences/emotion, emotional numbness, hyperarousal, memory/concentration problems, and impulsive behaviors.

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)

• Persistent sadness, worthlessness, loss of interest, and changes in bodily functions (sleep, appetite) lasting at least two weeks. Specific symptoms include depressed mood, reduced interest, weight changes, sleep disturbances, fatigue, feelings of worthlessness/guilt, problems with thinking/concentration, recurrent thoughts of death/suicide.

Bipolar Disorder

• Characterized by cycles of mania and depression interfering with function. More cycles of depression interspersed with mania versus depressive disorders.

Eating Disorders

• Extreme disturbances in eating behavior (from very little to very much).

Anorexia Nervosa

• Relentless pursuit of thinness through starvation. Symptoms include weight less than 85% of normal, intense fear of weight gain, distorted body image, and severe health risks.

Bulimia Nervosa

• Binge-purge eating pattern, obsessive thoughts and fears of weight. Symptoms include frequent binge eating followed by purging through vomiting or laxatives. Often within normal weight range. Physical consequences include sore throats, kidney problems, dehydration, gastrointestinal and dental difficulties.

Binge-Eating Disorder (BED)

• Recurrent episodes of consuming large amounts of food with a lack of control. Most common eating disorder.

Dissociative Disorders

• Feeling disconnected from immediate experience

Dissociative Disorders: Mental Health Issues

• Disorders marked by loss of awareness of self or surroundings, interfering with function.

Dissociative Identity Disorder

• Multiple distinct personalities or identities (formerly multiple personality disorder). Episodes of amnesia are common and the disorder is often linked to childhood trauma. The average number of alternative personalities is between 8 - 13 and it is more common in women.

Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)

• Disregard for and violation of the rights of others, lacking remorse or guilt. Characteristics include lack of empathy, failure to conform, deceitfulness, impulsivity, irritability/aggression, reckless disregard, irresponsibility, and lack of remorse.

Schizophrenia

• Severe mental disorder involving disturbances in thoughts, perceptions, emotions, and behavior; disordered thoughts are detached from reality.

Psychosis

• State where perceptions and thoughts are detached from reality.

Schizophrenia Symptoms (Positive)

• Hallucinations (false perceptions), delusions (false beliefs), disorganized speech (lack of association), disordered behavior (unusual behaviors).

Schizophrenia Symptoms (Negative)

• Blunted affect (lack of emotion), alogia (decreased speech), avolition (lack of motivation), anhedonia (lack of pleasure).

Hallucinations

• Perceiving things that aren't real. Auditory or visual are most common.

Delusions

• False beliefs.

Disorganized Speech

• Speech lacks connections between ideas and events.

Disordered Behaviors

• Inappropriate or unusual behaviors (e.g., catatonic excitement, catatonic stupor).

Catatonic Stupor

• Absence of all motor behaviors.

Catatonic Excitement

• Sudden agitation, fidgeting, shouting, rapid movement.

Blunted Affect

• Lack of emotion, social withdrawal, loss of motivation.

Alogia

• Decreased speech quality and quantity; brief, empty replies.

Avolition

• Inability to follow through with plans, lack of interest in usual activities.

Anhedonia

• Reduced ability to feel pleasure.

Therapeutic Alliance

• Trust, respect, and cooperation between therapist and individual.

Ethical Standards

• Competent treatment, informed consent, confidentiality (with exceptions for harm to self or others), and appropriate interactions.

Interpretation

• Therapist's view of themes and issues influencing the client's behaviors, seeking hidden meanings, aiding insight.

Free Association

• Encouraging individuals to verbalize whatever comes to mind.

Transference

• Client unconsciously relating to the therapist like a significant figure (parent, friend, partner), reliving past relationships.

Humanistic Therapies

• Focus on self-understanding, personal growth, conscious experiences, rather than illness, self-fulfillment versus illness. Client-centered therapy is an example.

Empathy

• Therapist understanding the client's emotions through active listening and reflective speech (mirroring feelings).

Genuineness

• Therapist's authenticity in relationship, sharing feelings, and avoiding facades to build trust.

Cognitive Therapies

• Focus on the individual's thoughts as the source of abnormal behavior.

Cognitive Restructuring

• Changing thought patterns that cause problems.

Foundations of Cognitive Therapy

• Humans control feelings, which depend on how they think about things.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

• Combines cognitive restructuring (reducing self-defeating thoughts) and behavior therapy (changing behavior). Effective for OCD and anxiety disorders.

Nash's Stress

• Inability to come up with original ideas as a math graduate student.

Hallucination Not Experienced

• Sol.

John's Schizophrenia Delusions

• Persecutory and grandiose.

John's Schizophrenia Symptoms

• Anhedonia, avolition, blunted affect (all of the above).

Explore the Stages of Change Model in psychology, including Precontemplation, Contemplation, Preparation, Action, and Maintenance. Understand the importance of social support and different coping strategies such as problem-focused and emotion-focused coping. This quiz will help you grasp the fundamentals of behavior change and stress management.