MBB2 Notes for Exam - University of Melbourne PDF

lOMoARcPSD|42186551 MBB2 notes for exam Mind, Brain And Behaviour 2 (University of Melbourne) Scan to open on Studocu Studocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Mind, Brain and Behaviour 2 Lecture 1: Introductory lecture What is mental health? Mental health is a state of well-being in which the individual realises his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community. Where can people access help? Remote Counselling General Practitioner Friends, family and services like lifeline less formal support Psychologist – talking therapy Psychiatrist – medication Clinical psychology integrates science, theory and practice to understand, predict, and alleviate maladjustment, and to support personal development What is a mental disorder? The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders (the DSM-5) is used as the current authoritative listing of mental disorders. It defines a mental disorder as: Clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation or behaviour, usually associated with significant distress or disability is social, occupational or other important activities. Categorical vs Dimensional classification Often, the boundaries of psychological health and illness are often indistinct, however the DSM-5 takes a hybrid categorical-dimensional approach: - Categorical: if a predefined set of criteria are met, diagnosis occurs. This is a binary classification system as a disorder is either present, or absent. - Dimensional: considers a continuum of mental health Categorical Dimensional Better clinical and administrative utility – Can develop treatment-relevant symptom clinicians are often required to make targets not simply aiming at resolution of dichotomous decisions disorder Easier communication Closely model lack of sharp boundaries between disorders, and normality Greater capability to detect change Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Why Diagnose or Classify Mental Health Issues? - Communication: among clinicians, between science and practice - Clinical: facilitate identification of treatment, and prevention of mental disorders, descriptive of experience, possible etiology and prognosis - Research: test treatment and understand etiology - Education: teach psychology - Information management: measure and pay for care Terminology: Descriptive psychopathology Signs: objective findings observed by a clinician - Accelerated speech - Poor eye contact Symptoms: subjective complaints reported by an individual - Low mood - Derealisation Syndrome: signs, symptoms and events that occur in a particular pattern and indicate the existence of a disorder - Schizophrenia Disorder: a syndrome which can be discriminated from other syndromes. To be labelled a disorder means there is a distinct course to the syndrome and the age and gender characteristics of the disorder have been describes. In some cases, prognosis may also be known Disease: for a disorder to be labelled a disease, there has to be indications of abnormal physiological or biological processes or structural abnormalities - Multi-infract dementia Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 DSM5 Diagnostic approach - Diagnosis will be made on the basis of: o Clinical interview  Structural Clinical Interview for DSM Disorders (SCID)  Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview o Text descriptions o Diagnostic criteria o Clinician judgement - Currently presenting symptoms and severity - Rule out disorder due to general medical condition - Rule out disorder due to direct effects of a substance - Establish boundary with no mental disorder o Clinical Significance/ cultural sanction eg. bereavement vs clinical depression - Determine specific primary disorders o Multiple diagnoses possible - Add subtypes/ specifiers o Severity o Treatment relevant o Longitudinal course Clinical staging model (McGregory et al. 2006) Model adapted from cancer staging (stages reflecting disease or disorder progression). Its key findings are: - Mental disorders develop over time with worsening severity - Preventative focus in stopping the emergence of first episode of disorder - Universal interventions that are less costly, less harmful and less intense Transdiagnostic model A move away from the notion that each type of mental illness is associated with unique underlying cognitive and potentially neurological factors. It recognises shared aetiological and maintenance factors and accounts for the comorbidity between disorders and why therapies are not always effective. Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Lecture 2: Stigma What is stigma? Stigma is the disapproval of, or discrimination against a person based on perceivable social characteristics that serve to distinguish them from other members of a society. Stigma is a barrier to accessing mental health treatment and support, particularly where stigma and social proximity are high. Internalization of stigma has a negative impact on mental health eg. reduced self-esteem. Elements of stigma can impact upon opportunities across life and psychosocial activities that support recovery. Pryor and Reeder (2011) taxonomy of stigma 1. Structural: ingrained stigma manifest at the societal level o Maintained by social institutions (government, religious and private) through policy, law and prescribed ideologies that restrict opportunities for a group o Varies considerably across societies, time and topics o Applies to mental illness but also to other issues like HIV-AIDS 2. Public: stigma exhibited by the public towards those with a mental disorder. This is the driving force behind other aspects of stigma o Stereotyped attitudes and beliefs eg. someone is ‘less than’ manifest through devaluing language o Prejudicial emotional responses eg. fear o Discriminatory behaviours eg. avoidance of interaction or social exclusion 3. Self: societal and interpersonal stigmatized attitudes, beliefs and behaviour affect individuals o Direct negative effects and outcomes of stigma eg. employment or ill- treatment within the mental health care system o Fear or anticipation of stigma, driven by an awareness of public stigma o Internalization of public stigma 4. Association: experienced by those associated with someone experiencing a mental health disorder o Public stigma: expressed negative attitudes and beliefs towards a person associated with someone experiencing a mental disorder o Self-stigma: fear of negative reactions and internalised stigma as regards association with a mental disorder Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Stigma research over time The first comprehensive and structured account of stigma was put forward by Goffman, 1963. About Our Turn to Speak Our turn to speak was a national survey that sought to understand the life experiences (positive and negative) of people living with severe and complex mental health issues in Australia. They wanted to understand if and how a person’s experience of mental health issues impacts the way they are treated by others in different areas of their lives. Participants: 18+ years of age, living with a severe and complex mental health issue such as schizophrenia, bipolar and personality disorder for over 12 months. Mental illness stigma research methods Often, stigma research involves presentation of vignettes, which are stories about a person experiencing symptoms of a mental disorder. Vignettes can be written such that they manipulate variables of interest eg. symptoms, signs, or labels. After reading a vignette, participants complete questionnaires. These vignettes assess participants stigmatized attitudes and beliefs about the protagonist in the vignette. - Attribution questionnaire (Corrigan et al, 2003) o Fear/ dangerousness o Help/ interact o Responsibility o Forcing treatment o Empathy o Negative emotion - Social Distance Scale (Link, 1987) o Desire to exclude someone from your life Effective approaches to stigma reduction While label changes has been proven to be ineffective in reducing stigma, two effective strategies include: - Contact: being in contact with someone with a mental illness - Education: being educated about mental illness Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Both strategies promote familiarity with mental illness, increase knowledge and understanding, dispel myths and open societal discourse which decreases self-stigma Lecture 3: Depression, Anxiety and Trauma Depression key terms: - Mood refers to a person sustained experience of emotion - Affect refers to the immediate experience and expression of emotion - Mood disorders involve a depression or elevation of mood as the primary disturbance DSM-5 major depressive episode criteria: Fire or more symptoms present for more than two weeks: - Depressive mood - Anhedonia (inability to experience pleasure) - Decrease or increase in appetite OR significant weight loss or gain - Persistent increased or decreased sleep - Psychomotor agitation or retardation - Fatigue or low energy - Fells of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt - Decreased concentration or indecisiveness - Recurrent thoughts of death, suicidal ideation or suicide DSM-5 major depressive episode specifiers: - Psychotic features – mood congruent (depressed theme) or mood incongruent - Melancholic features – loss of pleasure - Catatonic – not being responsive to stimuli - Postpartum onset – after having a baby - Anxious distress - Seasonal pattern – Seasonal Affective Depression DSM-5 major depressive disorder criteria: - Presence of a major depressive episode - Episode not better explained by another diagnosis - No history of mania, hypomania or mixed episode Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Epidemiology of Depression - 6.2% of Australian between 18-65 meet the criteria for MDE/MDD in a 12-month period. 2.8% do between 4-17 - Lifetime risk greater for biological females than males - Family history of MDD increases risk 1.5x-3x - Up to 20-25% of patients with major medical comorbidity will develop MDD - Often comorbid with one or more anxiety disorder Explaining Depression The Tripartite Model of Depression and Anxiety (Clark & Watson, 1991) Anxious arousal: physiological response Negative Affectivity: anger, guilt etc. Low positive affectivity: not feeling joy Hi-Top and the Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional disorders Each step up on the hierarchy suggest that these things underly what is below it Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Biopsychosocial approach - Serotonin, noradrenaline, dopamine - Genetic Risk – increased risk in family and twin studies - No main effects of genes Behavioural approach (Lewisohn 1974) Few potentially reinforcing events related to personal characteristics Little availability of reinforcement Low rate of positive Depression in environment reinforcement Little operant activity by the individual Beck’s Cognitive Model of Depression Schema – Beliefs, riles and assumptions based on early experience - Negative events establish negative/ dysfunctional schema - Critical incidents trigger negative schema – governs information processing - Activation of schema leads to negative automatic thoughts (NATs) ABC cognitive model of emotion and behaviour A- Activating event o What was happening when the feelings were experienced B- Belief C- Consequence o Feelings o Behaviour performed Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Anxiety and anxiety-related disorders Epidemiology of Anxiety disorders - One in seven Australians are currently experiencing an anxiety disorder - 14.4% of Australians between the ages of 16 to 85 have experience an anxiety disorder in the last 12 months - One quarter of Australiana will experience an anxiety disorder in their life - 26.3% of Australians aged between 16 and 85 have experiences an anxiety disorder Types of Anxiety disorders Panic disorder (PD): recurrent unexpected panic attacks for a one-month period or more of: - Persistent worry about having additional attacks - Worry about the implications of the attacks - Significant change in behaviour because of the attacks A panic attack is a discrete period of intense fear in which 4 of the following symptoms abruptly develop and peak within 10 minutes: - Palpitations or rapid heart rate - Nausea - Sweating - Dizzy or faint - Trembling or shaking - Derealisation or depersonalisation - Feeling of chocking - Fear of loss of control or going crazy - Chest pain or discomfort - Fear of dying - Chills or hot flushes - Paresthesias Epidemiology for Panic Disorders: 1-3% of general populations, 5-10% of primary care patients, onset in teens or early 20’s. Affects more females. Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD): People living with GAD experience: - Excessive worry more days than not: o For at least 6 months o About a number of events o Difficult to control or worry - With 3 or more of the following symptoms: o Restlessness o Easily fatigues o Difficulty concentrating o Irritable o Muscle tension o Sleep disturbance Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Epidemiology for GAD: 4-7% of general population, typical onset in childhood or adolescence, females more at risk Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): When a person was exposed to a traumatic event and both of the following were present: - The event involved actual or threatened death or serious injury to self and others - The persons response involved intense fear, helplessness or horror The duration of symptoms including sleep difficulty, irritability and difficulty concentrating is more than one month and cause significant distress or impairment in functioning, as the traumatic event is reexperienced via: - Recurrent recollections of the event - Nightmares - Flashbacks, intense physiological distress or physiological reactivity at exposure to cues of the event Often persistent avoidance behaviours are common Epidemiology for PTSD: 7-9% of general population, 60-80% of trauma victims, 50-80% of sexual assault victims, increased risk for young women, 30% of combat veterans Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Lecture 4: Schizophrenia spectrum disorders What is Psychosis? The term ‘psychosis’ is an umbrella term meaning ‘out of touch with reality’ and can refer to a variety of clusters of symptoms. These symptoms can occur only in schizophrenia spectrum disorders, but also in a range of disorders including: - Organic presentations like dementia - Substance use: amphetamine psychosis At the disorder level, psychosis refers to a group of disorders distinguished from one another in terms of: - Symptom configuration eg. Delusional disorder versus schizophrenia o Non-bizarre (potential expected) vs bizarre delusion - Duration eg. Schizophrenia verses schizophreniform disorder o Less or more than 6 months - Relative pervasiveness – in terms of both duration and clinical picture – of psychotic symptoms vs affective symptoms eg. Bipolar and schizoaffective disorder Schizophrenia The term Schizophrenia refers to ‘split mindedness’ or ‘a mind torn asunder’ (Bleuler) and involves a disruption in various aspects of perceiving, thinking, feeling and behaviour. - Schizophrenia is not multiple personalities disorder Phenomena associated with Schizophrenia can be identified into two major groups of symptoms: Positive symptoms – additive to normal experience - Hallucinations: a percept in the absence of environmental stimuli - Delusions: o a false belief or idea o Persecutory – someone is out to get you o Grandiose – having a special attribute o Somatic delusions – part of your body isn’t your own o Passivity phenomena – you are being made to feel/ think - Positive thought disorder o Clanging – speech pattern based on phonological association rather than semantic or syntactic o Circumstantiality – speech includes unnecessary or irrelevant detail Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 o Flight of ideas – sequence of loosely associated concepts are articulated. Sometimes rapidly changing from topic to topic o Derailment- speech steers off-topic o Incoherence – word salad and incomprehensible speech o Pressure of speech – excessive spontaneous speech production at a rapid rate Negative symptoms – deficit/ impairment in normal function - Avolition: lack of motivation to achieve goals - Alogia (negative thought disorder): poverty of speech and content - Anhedonia: inability to experience pleasure - Affective flattening: dulled emotional expression - Inattention: disturbance in selective attention - Catatonia: immobility - Incongruent or inappropriate affect: behaviour doesn’t match emotion DSM-% Schizophrenia diagnostic criteria Two or more of the following for a significant portion of time for a 1-months period: - Delusion - Hallucination - Disorganised speech - Grossly disorganised or catatonic behaviour - Negative symptoms Rule out substance or medical condition: - First episode, currently in: o Acute episode, partial or full remission - Multiple episodes, currently in: o Acute episode, partial or full remission - Continuous - Severity of primary symptoms Facts and figures about schizophrenia - Prevalence of schizophrenia is about 1% world-wide with some variation in certain regions eg. Parts of Ireland and Croatia where rates are 2% or more. - Sex ration is 1:1, but males have earlier onset in later teens to early 20s - Carries significant disability and handicap in many domains of functioning Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 History of schizophrenia The first purposeful description of schizophrenia was from Benedict Augustine Morel (1860). Based on observations of individuals displaying a set of symptoms and experiencing early onset and deteriorating course. He believed it was dementia. Emil Kraepelin (1898) refines a more formal definition which emphasises early onset and deteriorating course but differentiated it from manic-depressive psychosis and other psychotic illnesses by specifying its symptoms in a ‘dementia praecox’. Paul Eugen Bleuler (1911) disagreed with Kraepelin based on his observation that schizophrenia doesn’t necessarily display early onset and therefore isn’t a characteristic of dementia but its own disorder. He emphasised breaking of associative threads in thought, affect and action, and had five ‘A’s as the primary symptoms: - Disturbance in association (cognition) - Disturbance in affect - Ambivalence (conflicting thoughts/ feelings) - Autism (social withdrawal) - Avolition (low motivation) Schneider (1959) emphasises ‘first rank symptoms’ (hearing one’s voice out loud, hallucinatory voices talking about him or her etc.) and made the diagnosis on cross section (duration and criteria aren’t necessary). The problem with this approach is that some of the symptoms are found in other disorders. Patrick McGorry (late 1980s present) said there is too much focus on chronic samples who are only representative of very poor outcome patients and are contaminated by medication side effects etc. and that we must focus on first-episode patients and preventing those at risk Richard Bentall (1990’s – present) - we need to study psychotic symptoms individually, not schizophrenia as a construct (transdiagnostic) Aetiological Theories - Expresses negative emotion o A form of family communication characterised by high levels of criticism, hostility and emotional over-involvement that has been found to predict relapse in individuals with schizophrenia - Stress-vulnerability model - Biological models o Dysregulation of the mesolimbic dopamine system Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 o Structural abnormalities (decreased cortex volume) - Genetics including gene-environment interactions o Rates of schizophrenia are high among identical twins - Influenza and season of birth hypothesis Lecture 5: Personality and disorder Personality and clinical psychology - Both focus on individual differences - Both see critical role for assessment - Mental health issues occur in context of personality. Some maladaptive forms of personality are thought of as a disorder Vulnerability People differ in susceptibility to mental health issues and disorders due to factors such as genes, environmental stress and personality. Rarely does one factor work alone, as genetic effects operate via personality and require environmental contribution, while environmental effects requite genetic vulnerability. Diathesis-stress model Most mental disorders involve combined action of personality vulnerability (diathesis) and environmental stress. From this Diathesis-stress perspective: - No disorder without diathesis - No expression of diathesis without stress - Both diathesis and stress vary by degree - Level of stress required to trigger disorder depends on degree of diathesis Diathesis and stress are cumulative: This stress may come in different forms such as traumatic experiences, major life changes (which can be positive) or an accumulation of hassles. Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Specific diathesis: depression Dependency (interpersonal sensitivity) - Susceptibility to interpersonal stressors o If someone you like wants to just be friends Autonomy (personal achievement) - Susceptibility to achievement stressors o If you lose your job Self-criticism Pessimistic attributional style - Internal = low self-esteem o Something bad happened because of a personal flaw - Stable = hopelessness o This is the way it’s going to be in the future - Global = hopelessness o All relationships will break down because I’m flawed Specific diathesis: schizophrenia Schizotypy - Social anhedonia o Inability to enjoy social interaction o ‘when someone else is depressed it brings me down also’ (reverse scored) - Physical anhedonia o Inability to enjoy physical/ sexual interaction o ‘one food tastes as good as another to me’ - Perceptual aberration o Subtle hallucinations o ‘I have felt as though my head or limbs were somehow not my own’ - Magical thinking o Subtle delusions o ‘If reincarnation were true it would explain some of my unusual experiences’ This diathesis may be typological: Non-schizotypes may be at zero risk of schizophrenia Additional specific diathesis - Anorexia nervosa o Perfectionism: ‘I must exceed expectations of myself’ - Bipolar disorder Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 o Hypomanic temperament: ‘I am frequently hyper’ - Obsessive-compulsive disorder o Thought- action fusion ‘having a bad thought is a sin’ - Panic disorder o Anxiety sensitivity: ‘it scares me when I feel faint’ Personality disorders Some personality attributes can be extreme, inflexible and maladaptive. These can be diagnosed as ‘personality disorders’, and there are currently 10 disorders recognised: ‘Odd cluster’ ‘Dramatic cluster’ ‘Anxious cluster’ - Paranoid - Antisocial - Avoidant - Schizoid - Borderline - Dependent - Schizotypal - Histrionic - Obsessive-compulsive - Narcissistic Liked to risk of psychosis Linked to acting out Liked to anxiety and depression Types of personality disorders: Paranoid personality disorder Easily slighted, suspicious, bears grudges, reads hidden meanings into benign remarks, questions loyalty of others, expects to be exploited Borderline personality disorder Unstable but intense relationships, impulsivity, affecting suicidality, inappropriate and intense anger, recurrent suicidality or self-mutilation, identity disturbance, chronic feelings or emptiness or boredom, frantic attempts to avoid real or imagines abandonment Obsessive compulsive personality disorder Perfectionistic and this interferes with task performance, preoccupied with rules and details, excessively devoted to work, indecisive, can’t complete tasks, restricted expression of affection, lack of generosity in time, money or gifts, hoards, overly conscientious, scrupulous and inflexible, unreasonable insistence that other do things exactly how they insist Dissociative Identity disorder (multiple personalities) Two or more distinct personalities that switch between the host personality and one or more ‘alters’ which often: - Are relatively uninhibited and child-like - Have different allergies, optical prescriptions, handedness Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Dissociative experiences scale (sample items) Amnesia: Some people have the experience of finding themselves in a place and having no idea how they got there, or finding new things among their belongings that they don’t remember buying Depersonalization/ derealization: outer body experiences, feel like they’re watching themselves or feeling like other people or objects around them are not real Absorption: staring off into space and not being aware of the passing of time, or becoming so involved with a fantasy that it feels like reality Results of the Dissociative experiences scale: Reasons for controversy: - The disorder offends our sense of self-continuity and coherence - Apparent explosion of cases o Epidemic, prior to under-diagnosis or fad? - Geographic focus on USA - Dramatic/ theatrical quality of some patients - Alteration in symptoms o Animals alters, increase in average number in alters - Questionable theories: ritual satanic abuse Theories: Traumatic: people with MPD usually report suffering extreme trauma. They tend to score high on ‘suggestibility’ which is a susceptibility to hypnosis and dissociation (an auto- hypnotic defence in which consciousness is ‘split’ during traumatic stress). Patients become skilled in this defence and construct alter personalities to deal with the complexities of the experience. Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Sociocognitive: the disorder may be caused by poorly skilled therapists who use leading questions and create apparent distinct personalities (iatrogenic) as well as culture Lecture 6: Sandy Jeffs - Went to university and received a degree in Arts - She struggled with thought processes and how she felt in her own being throughout university - She began to hear whispers in her head, which built over time until she had a ‘crisis’ and her friends brought her to the psych ward - She was there for a month, w time in which she continued to hear voices, have delusions and become suicidal - She was admitted to another psychiatric ward for three months, and she was diagnosed with schizophrenia - In those days, this diagnosis was similar to a death sentence as there was no assumption of capacity, no thought of recovery. - ‘you were going to be mad for the rest of your life… your life is over’ - She went on a downwardly spiralling trajectory and went on the doll and other financial aid services - She lost purpose, hopefulness and meaning - She was dealing with people’s expectations, or lack of expectations - She withdrew from people - When you say schizophrenia, there is a withdrawing from you - Feeling like a failure in the eyes of my friends and family - The poems became a testimony to her existence and proof that she was alive - Antagonism between carers and consumers Stigma - Mad vs bad - In the community, schizophrenia is associated with mass murder - She feels tarred by that brush - Hello, I’m sandy and I’m not a monster - Expectations of her to have some sort of weird behaviours and to do something silly or inappropriate - Expectations in the media: bad, unpredictable and antisocial behaviour - Endlessly frustrating - Hollywood portrays people as psychopaths and confuses schizophrenia with psychopathy Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Lecture 7: Developmental Psychology Overview What is developmental psychology? Developmental psychology is the study of how people change and how they stay the same across the span of their lifetime. It incorporates how they understand and interact with the world around them. We study developmental psychology to: - Understand human nature o Child: How do genetics and environment affect children’s development? o Lifespan: How do we change across our lifespan/ how do we stay the same? - Shape social policy o Child: How can we conduct research with children while protecting their human rights? o Lifespan: how do we recover from trauma - Enrich human life o Child: What can psychology tell us about effective child-rearing and child mental health o Lifespan: to what extent do we actively shape our lives or passively respond to surroundings Seven enduring themes of development Nature and Nurture: - How genetics and the environment interact in development Continuity and discontinuity: - Continuity is something that stays the same; in developmental psychology this might be your name - Discontinuity or change is inconsistent and novel - Continuous change involved incremental increases or decreases in the scope of something that is measurable. For example, the height of a tree, or memory Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 - Discontinuous change is fundamental and irreversible change that can’t be measured as a quantity. For example, the development of a butterfly from a caterpillar or puberty Mechanisms for change - Experiences that cause change to occur like stopping drinking or surviving a disaster - In relation to evolution, migration, genetic drift and natural selection are all agents of change Universality and context specificity - To what extent is development universal or exclusive across contexts and cultures Individual differences - How do children with a shared background become different from each other? - Two people’s experiences of any given event are never the same Research and children’s welfare - How can research promote children’s welfare? - How can researchers conduct meaningful research with infants and young people? - How can we protect infants and young people’s welfare in research? The active child - How do children shape their own development? self-contribution - Children engage in activities that are encouraged by others, Children seek out environmental niches that are most compatible with their predisposition READINGS What are some characteristics of children that can help them overcome the sociocultural obstacles/factors that put their development at a disadvantage? - Positive personal qualities, Close relationship with at least one parent, Close relationship with at least one adult other than their parent Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Lecture 8: Wellbeing Wellbeing Wellbeing contributes to and is affected by our developmental experiences. One theory suggests that university is the place that needs to foster student wellbeing and student resilience in order to create healthy professional practice. Theories of wellbeing Hedonic – a view of wellbeing surrounded by emotion - This can be measured using PANAS o Positive effect o Negative effect Eudemonic – wellbeing is living a good life - The self-determination theory (SDT) o Intrinsic goal pursuit o Volition/ control o Mindfulness and awareness o 3 needs: competence, autonomy and relatedness Hedonic & Eudemonic - PERMA o Positive emotion o Engagement, flow o Relationships o Meaning o Accomplishment - Ryff’s Wellbeing Scale o 7 dimensions o Score between 18 and 126 Indigenous - Strong spirit o Social – family and kinship o Emotional – mind and emotions o Physical - body o Culture, community, land and country Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 o Spirit and ancestors Uni-dimensional - WEMWBS o Wellbeing - WHOQOL o Quality of life A meta-theory of development – Self-determination Theory - Tendency for mastery and growth are innate but not automatic - Social environments support and constrain capacity for growth and wellbeing - Two STD theories: o Growth/ wellbeing = a person’s autonomy, competence and relatedness o Growth/ wellbeing =intrinsic motivation Wellbeing at university Autonomous motivation – finding value in the discipline Competence – Feeling challenged and supported at different levels Autonomy – making informed decisions Relationships – fostering student-peer-staff relationships Belonging – feeling included in school activities Students: from research, engaging with academic life, talking with likeminded people were factors that increased wellbeing of students, while felling alone and overwhelming difficult experiences decreased wellbeing of students. Teachers: from research, creating opportunities for meaningful relationships and being aware and prepared for negative academic experiences is important for wellbeing. Emotion regulation The monitoring, modifying and modulating of emotional experiences and expressions. A person uses emotion regulation to achieve their personal and social goals. Eg. Social interactions, social norms, motivation, attention, persistence. How do emotion regulation change across a lifespan? Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 We regulate our emotions through suppression, relaxation, re-appraisal, rumination, distraction and engagement. Adolescents use distraction and suppression more than adults and re-appraisal less than adults. The higher the level of suppression in young adults and adolescents, the better relationship quality, while the higher the level of suppression in mid adults, the lower the relationship quality. Lecture 9: Intelligence What is intelligence? A person possesses a certain amount of general intelligence (g) that influences their ability on all intellectual tasks. The capacity to learn from experience and adapt to one’s environment. Intelligence incorporates a range of developmental experiences such as: - Attention Intelligence can be measured by: - Memory - Analysis - Cognitive ability - Planning - General mental ability - Persistence - General intelligence factor - Emotional control - Intelligence - Social awareness - Inhibition Multiple theories of intelligence One Dimension: MA Binet and Simon devised a test to measure intellectual development in children. In France at the time, there were varying levels of intelligence in school children across years, but they believed that with support, all children will progress in their intelligence. This approach assumes that developmental trajectory of intelligence can be changed. The Mental Age (MA) test was given to students ages 5-7 to test the average age at which children achieve a given score. Therefore, a typically developing child should be able to answer questions typical for their chronological age. Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Lewis Tyerman’s Intelligence Quotient (IQ) The problem with this is it’s a non- changing number representing a developmental process Two dimensions Raymond Cattell proposed two dimensions of intelligence: - Crystallized intelligence - the accumulation of knowledge o Increases over the lifespan - Fluid intelligence - the ability to reason and think flexibly o Decreases over the lifespan Multiple dimensions – Howard Gardner Howard Gardner’s 7 domains of intelligence: Gardner said that each domain was associated with distinct cognitive processes, are relevant from an evolutionary perspective, are dependent on identifiable brain structures, and there must be a case study of exceptional individuals in each. This assumes that intelligence is set from birth Multiple dimensions: Thurstone Thurstone’s 7 primary mental abilities: While he showed that people with different IQ scores, scored differently in different sections, when testing this theory on children with different IQ’s he found they scored higher in one section Multiple dimensions: John Carroll John Carroll proposed a Three-stratum theory of intelligence, which is a hierarchical integration of: Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 - G - Eight generalised abilities (including Crystallized and fluid intelligence - Many specific processes Lecture 10: Intelligence Stanford-Binet Scale Five cognitive abilities: - Fluid reasoning - Knowledge - Quantitative reasoning - Visual-spatial processing - Working memory This scale can be used for individuals from aged 2 to 23 and uses mental age to calculate IQ. British ability scale Three domains: - Verbal ability - Non-verbal ability - Spatial ability This scale can be used for individuals from aged 3 to 17 but is less widely used than the Stanford-Binet scale as it must be administered by a trained clinician. It is split into an early BAS and a school BASS: Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Limitations are that it is complex even for trained clinicians and difficult to interpret Wechsler Intelligence Test for Children (WISC) - 3 stratum hierarchical model of intelligence The most widely used instrument for children 6+ years. It is comprised of two main sections: - Verbal: general knowledge o Information: what is the capital of France? CRYSTALISED INTELLIGENCE o Vocabulary: what is a helicopter? o Similarities: how is a hammer and a chisel alike? CRYSTALISED INTELLIGENCE o Arithmetic: if 4 friends divided 20 lollies equally, how many would each person get? o Comprehension: why do we have prisons? CRYSTALISED INTELLIGENCE o Digit span: repeat the following numbers in order when I have finished: 5, 3, 7, 4, 9 - Performance: spatial and perceptual abilities o Block design: arrange blocks to match a picture FLUID INTELLIGENCE o Coding: identifying patterns from a series of simple shapes or numbers, each paired with a simple symbol FLUID INTELLIGENCE o Mazes: a set of increasingly difficult mazes printed in a response booklet. No pencil lifting or entering blind alleys FLUID INTELLIGENCE o Object assembly: assemble puzzle parts to form a meaningful whole o Picture completion: what part of this picture is missing o Picture arrangement: arrange cartoon frames to tell a coherent story ‘What we measure with tests is not what tests measure – not information, not spatial perception, not reasoning ability. These are only means to an end. What intelligence tests measure, what we hope they measure, is something much more important: the capacity of an individuals to understand the world about him and his resourcefulness to cope with its challenges’ - Wechsler What do these items measure? - Correspondence analysis o Identifies sets of items that discriminate between children of the same age - Factor analysis o Determines patterns of response across the items o Identifies commonalities or differences in those patterns o Distinct patterns represent underlying ‘factors’ (cognitive abilities) o Informs different theories of the structure of intelligence o It finds groups of variables that correlate with one another Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551  All three tests measure fluid, crystallized and visual perception intelligence Larry P vs Riles (1970) Legal cases between 6 families and the state of California - Children who did poorly on WISC were labelled ‘mentally retarded’ and ‘cognitively impaired’ - Test items all draw on European-American culture - Subsequently, minority children (especially African American children) did poorly - The families wanted the court to acknowledge the racial discrimination within, and furthered by, the WISC - The families won the legal case - No IQ tests were to be given to African American children in the state of California Larry P Larry P was in 1st grade when he was given the test and deemed mentally retarded and moved to a special ed class with no resources. In 8th grade: - He had 3rd grade reading level - ‘half-day’ program, working at the local grocery store for 4 school hours each day, without pay As an adult Larry was involved in a serious work-place injury, and he missed out on workers compensation because he couldn’t read the letter offering it. The Koori IQ test The Koori IQ test demonstrates: - How value of knowledge is culturally constructed - What it is like to be assessed and graded on the basis of unfamiliar criteria Example of questions are: Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Lecture 11: Development and Culture The active child How do children shape their own development? Passive / reactive? Active: - Genetic information - Create entertainment - Parents make decisions - Interpret event Children make decisions about: - Preferences o Favourite people o Favourite activities - Behaviours o Response to emotions o Response to others o Play - Values o Fairness o Etiquette What is culture? A culture is a socially transmitted or socially constructed constellation consisting of: - practices – the activities that take up our daily lives - competencies - thinking, reasoning and problem solving - ideas – the stories that are told to children that shape the way they think - schemas – cognitive frameworks of understanding information - symbols – mental representations of things, what we envision - values – different beliefs of the culture - norms – typical behaviour - institutions - goals – what one should be trying to achieve - constructive rules – rules that only apply to one context - artefacts – items produced within a culture - modifications of the physical environment – infrastructure etc. Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 A developmental theory of culture To what extent is a person’s developmental pathway (learning) influenced by their culture? Judith Carnes conducted an experiment where 88 individuals (44 indigenous and 44 European) completed 4 memory ‘games. She did this outside, sitting next to the individuals, wearing informal clothes and called them games not tests to reduce class, age and race barriers of intelligence tests. Participants were presented with a grid of items, and they had to put them back in the correct order. There were two types of items: - Artefactual: manufactured by the culture, have a meaning, easier to recall - Natural: not manufactured by the culture, don’t have a meaning, harder to recall The versions also use a different array of objects or the same array or objects. The different arrays should be easier to remember than the same arrays. And some are made up of 12 items while others are made up of 20 items. Results: - European children have a familiarity with the artefacts that they don’t have with natural objects, as seen by the difference in the two right hand graphs - Indigenous children don’t have as much familiarity with the artefacts, so they are equal to the natural objects - European children worked faster which relates to the time pressure placed on tests Key findings: - ‘The specific environmental experience of the indigenous children facilitated the acquisition of perceptual and visual memory skills, and maintained their Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 performance over the verbal coding skills demanded by European society and the school system’ - While European children used verbal labels memory tricks, Indigenous children used a visuo-spatial approach to the task. Limitations included the experiment not being systematic and the qualitative data. A developmental theory of culture To what extent is a person’s developmental pathway (decision-making) influenced by their culture? Analogous Sources Insight problems Chen took 270 undergraduate students (152 Chinese and 118 American) to test if cultural folk tales influence the way that young people solve novel problems. Six insight problems were given with varying levels of complexity: - 2 target problems: o The statue problem - a story that included a problem with not being able to weigh something was tied to ‘The Elephant Tale’ whereby a boy suggests weighing an elephant in water o The cave problem - a story that included a problem with getting lost was tied to ‘Hansel and Gretel’ who used breadcrumbs to find their way home - 4 control problems – no known relevant source analogues in either culture They were told to write down any ideas that they think might be appropriate. Results: - Remembering the analogous story increased the likelihood of solving the problem “substantial culture-specific analogical transfer was found when American and Chinese participants performance was compared on problems solved in European versus Chinese folk tales” Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Limitations included the influence of cross-ethnic experiences, the fact they treated culture as ethnicity, and the fact that insight problems must be novel Lecture 12: Nature and nurture Relationship between nature and nurture Developmental diversity Developmental diversity results from close and continual interplay of genes and experience. Three key elements: - Genotype: the genetic material one person inherits - Phenotype: the observable expression of the genotype - Environment: all the other aspects other than the genetic material Four relationships fundamental to child development 1. Transmission of chromosomes and genes from parent to offspring - Dominant and recessive genotypes 2. The child’s phenotypes are expressions of their genotypes 3. Impact of environment on child’s phenotype - Epigenetics – changes that arise due to changing gene expression rather than the gene itself. Events in ancestors’ lives can have ongoing effects on current lives - Opportunity – life decisions, availability of options, resources, dangers, nutrition 4. The child shapes their own environments - Passive: children engage in activities that are encouraged by others Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 - Active: Children seek out environmental niches that are most compatible with their predisposition - Evocative: Children’s attitudes affect how others interact with them Heritability Heritability is the proportion of variability in the population that is attributes to hereditary influence However, if the red faces have a tendency to move to the red area, while the multicoloured faces have a tendency to move to the blue area (a type of active contribution of a person to their environment), this must be accounted for. To do this we consider genetic variation as direct and indirect. For example, the direct genetic variation would be the colour of the faces, while the indirect genetic variation would be the tendency to move into a particular area. You therefore must add 2 to the top and bottom of the equations: Two strategies that assess heritability Selective breeding – choosing organisms with favourable traits to breed Family studies – Twin designs: Adoptive designs: Gene-environment interactions (GxE): One aspect of the environment impacts one gene, which impacts another aspect of the environment which impacts another gene. Four relationships: - Epigenetic effects of environments on genes Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 - Variations in heritability according to environmental circumstances - Gene-environment correlations - Gene-environment interactions Lecture 11: Social psychology Social psychology Social Psychology is the scientific study of the thoughts, feelings, and behaviour of individuals in social situations. (Gilovich, Keltner, Chen & Nisbelt, 2028) Social psychology is the study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are influences by the actual, imagines, or implied presence of others (Allport, 1985) Guiding principles: The social brain: our brains are good at taking in and processing social information The power of the situation: the social contexts we find ourselves in shape the way we think, feel, and act Levels of analysis: social psychs are interested in individuals, dyads, and groups Critical thinking: healthy scepticism The Power of the Situation Kurt Lewin (1935): The behaviour of people is always a function of the field of forces around them - The field of forces for humans is the situation they find themselves in - As such, human behaviour can be thought of as resulting from a combination of particular personal attributes in a particular situation - A person x situation interaction Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Levels of analysis Individual – relationship with the self Interpersonal – relationships with other individuals Intragroup – relationships with other people in our group Intergroup – relationships with people in a different group Challenges in social psychology - Social psychology is the study of context - We don’t always have a one-size-fits-all answer - Not all findings are true in every situation - Understanding how and why context matters is part of what makes social psychology so interesting Benefits of social psychology - Gives us insight into our own and others’ behaviour - Helps us understand the causes of current events - Gives us tools to act effectively and help others do the same The social self The self is a unitary and continuous awareness of who one is. Many aspects of the self are influences by social experiments: - How we think of ourselves - What and who we like and dislike - Habits we form - Values we adhere to - How we learn to behave How do we learn who we are? Socialisation agents model appropriate behaviour - Directly – parents telling you to say please and thank you - Indirectly – exposure to contexts that shape our values and beliefs The looking glass self (Cooley, 1902) - Other people’s reactions to us – approving and disapproving – serve as a mirror - We are who other people think we are Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Even personality is affected by social context. In a study conducted by Tice (1992), individuals in a public condition were more extroverted than when they were in a private condition Social identity We often think about identity as something unique to us, that distinguishes us from other people. But a big part of who we are comes from the groups we belong to (Tajfel, 1979). Identity is something that binds us with others, not separated us from others. Early conception of social selves - The social me (William James, 1890) o What we know about ourselves from social relationships o Who a person is in one context isn’t necessarily the same person that are in another context? - Working self-concept (Markus &Wurd, 1987) o A subset of our self-knowledge is brought to mind in a given context o The self-relevant to relationships may be the mind’s prime focus in romantic contexts; the self-related to competition in sports contexts Self-categorisation theory Categorisation: a basic human process - We groups things together to help us understand the world - Categorisation as a process emphasises the differences between groups and the similarities within groups - At the group level, we categorise people into ‘ingroups’ (groups in which we belong) and ‘outgroups’ (groups in which we don’t belong) Cultural identity Our sense of self derived from groups that we belong to that have a distinct culture (nationality, ethnicity, social class, etc). A form of social identity, but one that is often with us from the day we are born and encompasses a total way of life and the way we view the world. Can be fostered directly (through socialisation efforts) or indirectly (through background exposure to wats of like, predispositions toward seeing the world in a particular way Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Cultural self-construal (Markus & Kitayama, 1991) - Individualist (or independent): the self is an autonomous entity separate from others; people should assert their independence and celebrate their uniqueness o My environment should change to fit me o Many Western countries: USA, Australia, UK - Collectivist (or interdependent): the self is fundamentally connected to other people; people should seek to fit in a community and fulfil appropriate roles o I should change to fit my environment o Many East Asian, South Asian, African and Latin American countries ‘Who am I’ exercise (Kuhn & McPartland, 1954) - List 20 statements that describe who you are - Americans’ self-descriptions tend to be context-free responses about traits and preferences (“I like camping”; “Hard working”) - Responses by people from interdependent cultures tend to be context dependent and refer to relationships (“I’m serious at work”; “I’m Jan’s friend”) Even within cultures there are differences in self-construal (Ma & Schoeneman, 1997) - ‘Who am I’ exercise among different groups living in Kenya - Undergraduate students living in Nairobi with greater exposure to Western culture and being educated in Western tradition - Traditional Maasai herding peoples who had very little contact with Western principles Lecture 12: Social Psychology Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Humans have basic psychological needs - Belonging: to be accepted by others - Self-esteem: to be liked by others - Control: to be capable of achieving goals - Meaning: to have relevance in the world Connection with others fosters these needs (Greenaway et al., 2016) - People were asked to remember they gained or lost an important identity or group membership - Then reflected on how this event affected basic needs The sociometer Hypothesis (Leary et al., 1995) - Things that make us feel good about ourselves (self-esteem) are also the things that make others accept and like us (belonging) - Like a fuel gauge, self-esteem is a redoubt of our likely standing with others o High self-esteem signals social inclusion  Defensive self-esteem is the need to maintain high self-esteem at all times and is made from low explicit self-esteem and high implicit self esteem o Low self-esteem signals social exclusion - Self-esteem cues us when we need to attend to and shore up our social bonds - Leary and colleagues argue we don’t need self-esteem for personal reasons, just social reasons Social Comparisons Self-Evaluation Maintenance Model (Tesser, 1988) - Two assumptions of this theory o We seek to maintain or improve our self-evaluation o Relationships with others influence our self-evaluation - Two processes in this theory o Reflection: Other people improve our self-evaluation o Comparison: Other people worsen our self-evaluation Reflection - Usually happens when evaluation happens in a domain that is not relevant to the self - Self-evaluation goes up because the self-shares in the success Comparison - Usually happens when evaluation happens in a domain that is relevant to the self Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 - My friend got the highest score on the MBB2 assignment – I need to eat my feelings - Self-evaluation goes down because it invites unfavourable comparison with our own abilities Both processes are exacerbated with a close other BIRG-ing and CORFing The Better-Than-Average Effect (Alicke & Govorun, 2005; Taylor & Brown, 1988) - Most of us tend to view ourselves positively - So much so that people think they are above average on a wide range of positive dimensions - Most drivers said their driving skill was closer to “expert” than “poor” …while hospitalised for being in a car accident (Preston & Harris, 1965) - Does not differ when comparing a general or similar other Alone together Loneliness Subjective feeling of distress when social relations are not going how we would like - Discrepancy between the level of connectedness we want to have and what we currently have - We can be surrounded by others and still be lonely or can be alone but not feel lonely - Loneliness is affected by lack of relationship quantity (e.g., number of friends) - But is more affected by lack of relationship quality - feeling misunderstood or that relationships are not meaningful Different from social isolation, which is a state of having minimal contact with others Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Survey of 3,061 Australians at several points during COVID-19 pandemic. Participants from Victoria reported increases in loneliness as lockdown continued. 35% of Victorians reported feeling lonely some or all of the time in May compared with 45% in August. Impacts of loneliness include: - Worse physical health - Worse like satisfaction - Fewer social interactions - Greater social anxiety - Greater depression - More negative emotions Social Distance in Social Networks A way of quantifying social structures - Characterises networked structures in terms of nodes (individuals within the network) and the ties that link them - Yields several measures - who knows whom in a network, popularity within a network, closeness between people in a network etc Given the importance of connectedness with others, lack of inclusion in a social network is detrimental for health. Greater social integration is associated with lower mortality. - Berkman and Syme (1979) reported the results of a 9- year prospective study of 6,928 adults in Alameda County, California - Assessed social ties in the form of marriage, friends, relatives, organisational and church membership - The fewer social ties people had, the more likely they were to die over the next 9 years - Same pattern for men and women and across age groups Social networks and Mental Health Loneliness is catching Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 - Cacioppo and colleagues (2009) found people directly connected to a lonely person in a social network were 52% more likely to be lonely - Loneliness grows in networks over time - extends up to a friend of a friend of a friend - Growth is particularly strong when the lonely tie is close - a friend or family member - Three explanations for this: o Induction: Emotion contagion within a network o Homophily: Similar people are connected (like with like) o Shared environment: Exposure to the same social challenges and upheavals Ostracism/ exclusion A procedure from Ancient Greece in which a citizen was expelled from the city-state for 10 years - In modern terms, refers to social shunning - “Any act of ignoring and excluding of an individual or group by an individual or a group” (Williams, 2001) Why do we ostracise? - Group reasons - Strengthen the group: make the group cohesive - Protect the group: correct unacceptable behaviour - Individual reasons - Individuals who ostracise feel more powerful and in control Cyberball Online version of the ball-tossing game. Still used regularly in studies today, despite the laughably simple rendering. From an evolutionary perspective, ostracism signals danger (no access to social resources) We’re so sensitive to social feedback that ostracism hurts no matter who does it! o-Cam Modern manipulation of ostracism that increases the realism of the ostracism experience. A participant is talking to two people, who then begin to talk among themselves. Social Pain in the Brain Eisenberger et al. (2003) had participants play a game of cyberball in which they were included or excluded Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 - Areas of the brain that are active when feeling physical pain were also active when experiencing social pain (exclusion) - Participants’ self-report of how much pain they felt was related to amount of activation in the dACC Is social pain the same as physical pain? Somerville et al. (2006) argued the study by Eisenberger et al. (2003) was flawed - The cyberball paradigm involves exclusion that is unexpected, violates social norms - dACC signals cognitive conflict - may have been activated by expectancy violation, not social pain - Created a paradigm to model expected and unexpected rejection - Found dACC was responsive to expectancy violation, not rejection per se - For a rebuttal, see Eisenberger (2015) Discrimination How others treat us on the basis of our group membership impacts on our mental and physical health Discrimination can lead to ill-health through: - Stress and emotional reactions with detrimental impacts on mental health - Negative coping responses (e.g., smoking, drug use) - Reduced access to resources (e.g., education, employment, housing, medical care) - Physical injury via racially motivated assault The online context Stimulation hypothesis: Online interactions strengthen existing relationships and thus have a social benefit Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Social media can strengthen social ties: - Active use to connect with others (e.g., private exchanges with others, public posts with the intent to broadcast to others) is associated with greater perceived social support and better wellbeing (Frison & Eggermont, 2015, Burke, 2011) - Online communication can stimulate self-disclosure, which improves relationships and well-being (Valkenberg & Peter, 2009) o Computer-mediated-communication reduces social contextual cues o People become less concerned with how others view them o Feel fewer inhibitions about disclosing information Displacement hypothesis: Social media replaces offline, face-to-face interactions, thus incurring social costs Social media can weaken social ties - Passive use (e.g., monitoring others’ lives without direct exchanges) is associated with less perceived social support and worse well-being (Frison & Eggermont, 2015) - Accessing social media because it seems easier than communicating face-to-face increases loneliness (Teppers et al., 2014) Social comparison is problematic - People who are on Facebook longer and more frequently tend to think others are happier and have better lives than them (Chou et al., 2012) - Social comparison anxiety on Instagram predicts greater depression (Mackson et al., 2019) How we use social media matters - Active vs. passive: engaging socially vs. lurking - Motives for use: connect with others vs. avoid social anxiety When actively used to enhance existing relationships and forge new social connections, social media can be a force for good When passively used to escape the social world or compare ourselves with others, social media can be harmful Lecture 14: How to win friends Snap judgements Lack of sufficient information rarely stops us from making judgements about others Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 - We often make snap judgements about people - quick impressions based on the briefest of glances - Willis & Todorov (2006) showed people faces and had them rate those faces on a range of traits (likeable, competent, honest, aggressive, extraverted etc) o Some participants rated at their own pace (“gold standard” comparison) o Others rated after seeing the faces for 1 second, half a second, or 100 milliseconds Impressions that make a difference Our judgements of others predict consequential decisions, not least in the form of voting behaviour - Politicians with faces judged to be more competent after 1 second exposure were 69% more likely to win their election (Todorov, Mandisodza, Goren, & Hall, 2005) - Replicates when the faces are shown for 1 tenth of a second (Ballew & Todorov, 2007) - Snap competence judgements made before an election accurately predict who will win that election in 70% of cases (Ballew & Todorov, 2007) Of course, snap judgements of competence aren’t necessarily based in reality, but they can affect perceivers’ thoughts and behaviour Thin slicing The ability to find patterns in events based on “thin slices”, or narrow windows, of experience - Our ability to draw relatively accurate conclusions about the emotions and attitudes of people in short interactions - Ambady and Rosenthal (1993) had participants form judgements of university lecturers and high school teachers o The catch: judgements were based on 10 second videos of the person teaching o Participant judgements were compared against student evaluations (lecturer) and principal ratings (high school teacher) Person perception How we perceive others is a complex process influenced by a number of factors But judgements do appear to be based on two primary dimensions: warmth and competence - When we meet people, we ask ourselves: what is this person’s intention toward me (friend or foe)? Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 - We also ask: is this person capable of acting effectively (achieving goals)? Fundamental dimensions Abele & Wojciszke (2007) had participants rate 300 traits drawn from existing psychological scales - Agency/Communion - Individualism/Collectivism - Morality/Competence - Big 5 personality dimensions Two dimensions emerged that explained 90% of variance in the traits Warmth and competence are independent but important dimensions on which we judge people - Cold and incompetent - Cold and competent - Warm and incompetent - Warm and competent Warmth judgements appear to be primary, and are made more quickly than competence judgements (Fiske, 2006) Impression by innuendo We like to form well-rounded impressions of people, meaning we may infer qualities about people if we don’t have concrete evidence about those qualities Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Kervyn et al. (2012) devised a study to test the “innuendo effect” - Warm: “Well, Pat seems like a very nice, sociable, and outgoing person” - Control: “Well, Pat made a very positive overall impression” - Competent: “Well, Pat seems like a very smart, hard-working, and competent person” Updating a first impression Impression formation: the process by which people combine information about others to make overall judgements Two ways in which impressions are updated: Algebraically - Impressions formed on the basis of a mechanical combination of information about a person Three ways of combining information to form overall impressions - Summative o We add the values that an individual gets on each trait - Averaging o We add the values that an individual gets on each trait and then divide that value by the number of traits we’re assessing - Weighted averaging o We take the value that an individual gets on a trait and we multiple it by the weight of that trait. Repeat for every trait and add each together and divide by the total number of traits Configurationally Based on Gestalt principles: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts People combine information they receive about someone into an overall impression that can be different from the simple sum of items of information about that person - Central traits: influential in impression formation - Peripheral traits: less influential in impression formation Asch (1946) tested how small changes to a description of an individual might affect overall impression formation A person was described as: - Intelligent, skilful, industrious, warm, determined, practical, cautious - Intelligent, skilful, industrious, cold, determined, practical, cautious - Participants asked how likely the person was to also possess other traits Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Impressions aren’t formed algebraically through a careful weighing of all relevant pieces of information An emergent impression is formed that may vary depending on the total context of the information provided Central traits (traits that hold a lot of weight due to context) change the impressions that we form Getting to know someone To understand how to deepen connections, we need to understand what people generally like in others We like people who are familiar - Mere exposure effect: the more we are exposed to something, the more we like it - Moreland and Beach (1992) tested the mere exposure effect among students - Four people attended psychology lectures but didn’t participate (mere exposure) - Varied the number of lectures attended: 0, 5, 10, 15 We like people who are similar - Burgess and Wallin (1953) had 1000 couples provide information on 88 characteristics - Real couples were more similar to each other than “random couples” on 66 of 88 characteristics - Actual similarity only seems to predict liking in short interactions; perceived similarity matters most in existing relationships (Montoya et al., 2008) - The less we know about someone, the more actual similarity affects liking (because we have little else to base our impression on) We like people who are attractive - We tend to like attractive people more: the Beautyis-Good stereotype (Dion et al., 1972) o We’re more likely to come to the aid of an attractive person (Cash & Trimer, 1984) o Attractive criminals receive lighter sentences (Stewart, 1980) o Each 1-point increase in attractiveness on a 5-point scale is worth $2,000 in annual salary (Frieze et al., 1991) - Happily, there is considerable variation in what people find attractive and we find people we like more attractive than people we don’t like (Murray, Holmes, & Griffin, 1996) Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 What strategies help us get closer with others? Healthy patterns of communication foster more satisfying social bonds In general, communication that builds trust improves relationships - Sharing with others - Self-disclosure - (Lack of) secrecy In general, communication that builds trust improves relationships - Sharing information with others is a good way to deepen connections with others - In the case of positive information (e.g., good news), this can result in capitalisation - a process in which we turbo-charge our own positive experience and social intimacy - BUT it depends on an engaged other Healthy patterns of communication foster more satisfying social bonds. - Self-disclosure: revealing personal information about yourself not readily known by the other person - Can build trust because we are being vulnerable - Self-disclosure begets more self-disclosure: norm of reciprocity - Secrecy can undermine social relationships and make us feel more alone (Slepian, Halevy, & Galinsky, 2019) - Having secrets confided in us makes us feel closer to the person confiding to us (Slepian & Greenaway, 2018) Lecture 15: How to influence people Milgram’s Obedience studies Experiments to examine how individuals could obey orders that instructed them to harm others. Could ordinary people become agents of destruction simply by obeying authority? Milgram advertised an experiment at Yale University to find out Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Teachers were instructed to increase the shock voltage one step at a time with each incorrect response. Levers were marked: - “Slight shock” - “Extremely intense shock” - “Danger: Severe shock” - “XXX” Confederate learners consistently made errors and reacted verbally and physically to the shocks with escalating severity Most teachers showed a great deal of emotional conflict and told the experimenter they wanted to stop. The experimenter responded with escalating statements: - “Please continue” - “Please go on” - “The experiment requires that you go on” - “It is absolutely essential that you go on” - “You have no other choice than to go on” Teachers concerned about the learner’s physical condition were told “Although the shocks may be painful, there is no physical damage, please go on” Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Results: Milgram asked psychiatrists who read the study protocol to predict rates of obedience at varying levels of shock intensity. In reality, most participants (68% in one study) administered shocks to the ‘XXX’ level The high rate of obedience is typically attributed to a number of factors: - The authority figure has high status - Participants believe the authority figure (not themselves) is responsible for the actions - No clear-cut point to switch to disobedience - Many obedience situations have gradual escalation - following orders at first has mild consequences with more harmful consequences coming later (at which point you’ve already obeyed a lot…) Milgram’s other studies In reality, Milgram conducted 23 different versions of his ‘experiment’, varying many different conditions. Obedience varied greatly across the different conditions. (Nick) Haslam, Loughnan, & Perry (2014) accessed Milgram’s original data and meta- analysed the findings across 21 of the 23 conditions. Overall, fewer than half of the participants continued to the maximum voltage. Factors that reduced likelihood of obeying included a non-committed experimenter, having a close relationship with the learner, and seeing other people disobey Replications and re-enactments Would people disobey today? - Burger (2009) replicated Milgram under more ethical conditions - Found similar results: 70% of people obeyed to a critical shock level - No gender differences, but people with greater desire for control and more empathic concern for others were more reluctant Shock Room (film, 2015) - (Alex) Haslam, Reicher, & Millard (2015) re-enacted Milgram with naive actors - Almost everyone refused to administer the final shock - The final straw for most people? Being told “you have no other choice” Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Stanford Prison Experiment Zimbardo and colleagues (1973) conducted a study designed to simulate prison life. Participants were college students who answered an ad and were randomly assigned to groups - Prison guards - Prisoners “Prisoners” were arrested and brought to the basement of the Stanford psychology building; the Prison warden (Zimbardo) explained prison rules to all involved Results - A number of “prisoners” became emotionally disturbed - Some “guards” began tormenting and abusing prisoners The experiment was supposed to last for two weeks, but was stopped after 6 days Often cited as an example of how we conform to roles and behave in ways expected by the situation Criticisms In reality, despite the brutal conditions, only 30% of guards behaved cruelly (Fromm, 1973) - Self-selection o Carnahan & McFarland (2007) conducted an experiment showing the mention of “prison life” in the study recruitment materials likely biased who volunteered to take part (high in aggression, low in empathy) - Demand characteristics o Banuazizi & Mohavedi (1975) had students read a description of the study procedure o 80% correctly identified the hypotheses; 89% predicted the guards would be oppressive - Motivated leadership o Far from being an impartial observer, Zimbardo actively encouraged guards to act in hostile ways o Used an appeal to shared identity among the guards (using language like “we”, “us and them”; [Alex] Haslam et al., 2019) Replications and re-enactments BBC Prison Study (Reicher & [Alex] Haslam, 2006) - Restaged Zimbardo’s famous ‘experiment’, with some key differences - This time, leadership emerged among the prisoners that led to a very different outcome - Prisoners identified strongly with their group; guards did not Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 - Prisoners ended up with better mental health than the guards Persuasion Emotion-based approaches Compliance with requests is higher when people are in a positive mood (Andrade & Ho, 2007; Isen, Clark, & Schwartz, 1976) This happens for two main reasons: - Mood colours our interpretation of events: requests seem less intrusive when we feel good - Emotion maintenance: we want to continue feeling good, and granting a request is one way to do so Reason-based approaches We often make decisions by weighing the pros and cons of engaging in a particular action. Some persuasion attempts are focused on changing people’s decision calculus. Reason- based approaches induce compliance by providing good reasons for people to agree to a request Norm of reciprocity When someone does something for us, we feel pressure to help in return - People are expected to provide benefits for those who provided benefits for them (Fiske, 1991) - To fail to respond is to violate a social expectation and run the risk of social condemnation (Cotterell et al., 1992) Regan (1971) had a confederate bring a participant a soft drink during an experiment - Later, the confederate explained they were selling raffle tickets - Participants who were given the soft drink bought twice as many raffle tickets as those not offered a soft drink Power of commitment Once a choice has been made, people feel pressure from themselves and others to act consistently with that commitment - Even if the commitment becomes increasingly costly - This can be exploited by others Cialdini et al. (1978) asked participants to take part in an experiment. Everybody agreed. Then they were informed the experiment started at 7am. - 56% agreed to do the experiment - 31% agreed when told the start time up front Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Door in the face and foot in the door Elaboration likelihood model Explains how people change their attitudes in response to persuasive messages (Petty & Cacioppo, 1979) Proposes two pathways to persuasion: - Central: people think carefully and deliberately about the content of the message, attending to argument strength - Peripheral: people attend to easy-to process, superficial cues related to argument length or message source Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Social norms Norm-based approaches Our tendency to conform to the behaviour of others around us can be harnessed to achieve compliance with explicit and implicit suggestions Schultz et al. (2007) gave households information about their own energy use in comparison to their neighbours - In one experimental condition they also included smiley or frowny faces to indicate approval or disapproval about energy use In preparing norm-based appeals, we should be aware that there are two types of normative information people pay attention to: - Descriptive norms: what people actually do (e.g., actual energy usage) - Prescriptive norms: what people are supposed to do (e.g., approval/disapproval about energy usage) Descriptive and prescriptive norms can be the same (e.g., we should obey the speed limit and people do most of the time) or different (e.g., people shouldn’t binge-drink for health reasons, but binge-drinking is common in student samples) People pay more attention to prescriptive norms than descriptive norms Types of social Influence - Majority influence: When a number of group members behave in a certain way, one tends to behave in a similar fashion - Minority influence: Even if there is a strong majority, a consistent minority in the group can affect group members’ attitudes and behaviour Asch (1956) had a group of students perform a simple perceptual task: determine which of three lines was the same length as a target line - The correct answer was abundantly clear - Each person called out their judgement publicly, one at a time - Everyone but a single participant was a confederate - instructed to respond incorrectly with the same wrong answer - Asch counted how many times participants gave the same incorrect answer as everyone else Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Factors that affect majority influence Anonymity - When we privately write - rather than publicly say - our answer, conformity drops Expertise and status - We are more likely to conform to the views of others we think are experts on the topic Group size - Conformity increases with more people reporting incorrectly, but only up to a point Group unanimity - One person dissenting - even if it doesn’t support our view - reduces conformity Majority influence doesn’t always prevail Majority opinion doesn’t always prevail - if it did, there would be no social change Moscovici et al. (1969) asked participants to determine whether slides were green or blue - Participants nearly always thought the stimuli were blue - Participants could hear other people in the study, an inconsistent or consistent minority of whom said the slides were green Participants in the blue-green experiment conformed to the consistent minority’s opinion more than the inconsistent minority Participants then did what they thought was a different study where they again evaluated whether slides were green or blue (privately, this time) - Participants exposed to the consistent minority indicated more green slides than those in the control condition Normative vs informational influence Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Lecture 16: Is everyone just out for themselves? How selfish are we? A widespread assumption in Western thought is that humans are fundamentally selfish Freud: actions are motivated by the ‘pleasure principle’ - we do things that maximise personal pleasure Machiavelli: humans are “fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain” Are we hardwired to prioritise our own interests even to the point of hurting others? Dictator game - A paradigm for investigating trust and generosity - Player 1 (the allocator) is given some money, e.g., $10 - Player 1 decides how much to give to Player 2 (the recipient) - Player 2 receives the offered amount and Player 1 receives the rest What encourages people to give? - Social closeness to or distance from the recipient (eg., when both anonymous, allocators tend to give less; Hoffman et al., 1996) - Trust and pro-sociality (e.g., people who are more socially oriented and care about others more tend to give more; Bekkers, 2007) - Demographic factors (e.g., women and older allocators tend to be more generous; Engel, 2010) Giving feels good Spending money on others makes us happier than spending money on ourselves - Spending more of our income on others increases happiness acutely and over time (Dunn et al., 2008) - Recognising that tax contributions help other citizens is associated with greater happiness (Thornton et al., 2019) - Prosocial spending creates a positive feedback loop: helping others feels good so we do it more (Aknin et al., 2011) - A ‘psychological universal’: generalises across cultures (Aknin et al., 2013) and starts as early as 1 year old (Warneken & Tomasello, 2006) Downloaded by Amanda Pan ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|42186551 Social loafing Social loafing: the tendency to exert less effort when working on a group task in which individual contributions cannot be monitored (Karau & Williams, 1993) An explanation for why groups are sometimes less productive than the combined performance of their members working as individuals. - Ringelmann (1913) investigated social performance in an individual or cooperative rope-pulling task o When pulling alone, people exerted more force (they tried harder!) compared to when they pulled in pairs or groups o The larger the group, the smaller the amount of force exerted o “Each man, [sic] trusting in his neighbour to furnish the desired effort, contented himself by merely following the movement of the crank, and sometimes even let himself be carried along by it” Why do we loaf? Equity: people have preconceived ideas that people don’t work hard in groups, so reduce their own effort Deindividuation: people feel they can ‘hide in the crowd’ and avoid the negative consequences of slacking off Reward: people feel their personal effort won’t be recognised eve

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