Psychology Ch 9-12 PDF

CH 9: States of Consciousness Theory of Mind (ToM) refers to the ability to understand that others have thoughts, beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that may differ from one's own. Essentially, it is the capacity to recognize that other people have their own mental states, and that these...

CH 9: States of Consciousness Theory of Mind (ToM) refers to the ability to understand that others have thoughts, beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that may differ from one's own. Essentially, it is the capacity to recognize that other people have their own mental states, and that these mental states guide their behavior. ToM is an essential component of human social cognition, allowing individuals to interpret and predict the actions of others, navigate social interactions, and engage in cooperative behaviors Consciousness defined as an awareness of ongoing sensations (both internal and external) is probably less common in the animal kingdom. Nonconscious – inaccessible to our conscious awareness. Things that usually control our biological functions. BIOFEEDBACK – receiving information about our biological processes in order to control them. Preconscious – can be brought into awareness, but currently isn’t (what you had in Saga for lunch, or what time you woke up this morning). Selective attention: Occurs when you attend to one source of information while simultaneously ignoring other stimuli (Red wolf stalking a deer for focused visual attention. Cocktail party problem image in the Public Domain for focused auditory attention) Divided Attention: simultaneously attending to two (or more) tasks Experience can improve multitasking: automaticity 1. Watching Netflix and studying notes 2. Listening to a podcast and washing dishes Inattentional blindness = you are paying attention to some other tasks and don’t notice something unexpected, like deer on the highway while you’re driving; instructions to watch out for something help. Change blindness is when you don’t see what’s right in front of you, and directions don’t help. (Spot the difference between pictures) Controlled processes: activities that require full awareness, alertness, and con- centration to reach some goal. The focused attention required in carrying out controlled processes usually interferes with the execution of other ongoing activities. Automatic process: activities that require little awareness, take minimal attention, and do not interfere with other ongoing activities. (Daydreaming is an activity that requires a low level of awareness, often occurs during automatic processes, and involves fantasizing or dreaming while awake.) Altered States of Consciousness: result from using any number of procedures (such as meditation, psychoactive drugs, hypnosis, or sleep deprivation) to produce an awareness that differs from normal consciousness. Sleep consists of five different stages that involve different levels of awareness, consciousness, and responsiveness, as well as different levels of physiological arousal. Circadian Rhythms: process that happen in regular basis. A built-in cycle of physical processes in living beings. - In humans, circadian rhythms include core body temperature, alertness, hormone productions and other biological processes. - Our cycle of sleep is also greatly influenced by our biology. - For example, if you were put in a cave and had no cues as to time—no watches, light, or clocks—your body would exhibit a natural rhythm of sleeping and waking that closely resembles a 24- to 25-hour cycle. This sleep circadian rhythm is programmed by a group of brain cells in the hypothalamus called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). § The SCN works very much like an internal clock, signaling other brain areas when to be aroused (awake) to start the day and when to shut down (sleep) for the day. § The SCN is very responsive to light changes and takes its cues from your eyes. When your eyes transmit light information to the SCN, they are in essence telling it whether it is light or dark outside. § The light information helps the SCN direct the release of melatonin, the hormone that facilitates sleep. Hence, light information and melatonin regulate your sleep circadian rhythm and help you get to sleep or awaken. When circadian rhythms are out of sync, the effect can be quite disruptive. - Flying across time zones can leave you groggy and fatigued (jet lag). It may take a day or more for your body’s clock to align with the new time zone. - Workers scheduled to rotating or unpredictable shifts tend to have lower productivity and more accidents than workers that have a consistent schedule. (EEG) Electroencephalogram: measure during at brain waves (EOG) Electrooculogram: eyes movement (EMG) Electromyogram: muscle tension Sleep as altered state of consciousness - Stage I sleep is a light sleep and is characterized by theta waves. Theta waves are slower and less frequent than beta or alpha waves. During this stage, your breathing and heart rate slow down. You may experience sensations such as falling or floating. You can easily awaken from stage I sleep, which typically lasts from 1 to 7 minutes. - Stage II sleep is characterized by sleep spindles and lasts approximately 20 minutes. Sleep spindles are a pattern of slower theta waves sporadically disrupted by bursts of electrical activity. During stage II sleep, breathing, muscle tension, heart rate, and body temperature continue to decrease. You are clearly asleep and not easily awakened. Research suggests that stage II sleep spindles help us process both simple and complex motor skills that we have learned. - Stages III and IV sleep are referred to as slow-wave sleep. In stage III sleep, you begin showing delta brain-wave patterns. Delta waves are large, slow brain waves. When a consistent pattern of delta waves emerges, you have entered stage IV sleep. Stage IV sleep is referred to as deep sleep. The body is extremely relaxed. Heart rate, respiration, body temperature,  and blood flow to the brain are reduced. Growth hormone is secreted. It is difficult to awaken people from deep sleep. When they are awakened, they may be disoriented or confused. It is believed that during this deep sleep, body maintenance and restoration occur. Rapid Eyes Movement Disorder: People with REM behavior disorder may thrash about while in REM sleep, causing harm to themselves or others. REM sleep is intimately connected to dreaming. Although you can dream in some form in all sleep stages, dreams during REM sleep are more easily recalled. More than 80% of people awakened from REM sleep report dreaming. The body paralysis that occurs during REM prevents you from acting out your dreams. However, in rare instances, people do not experience the paralysis that normally accompanies REM sleep. This condition, which mainly affects older men, is referred to as REM behavior disorder. Sleep Disorders: Dyssomnias - Insomnia: inability to fall asleep or to remain asleep. - Conditioned insomnia: results from associations and conditioning ( - Idiopathic insomnia: caused by neurophysiological abnormality - Hypersomnia: excessive sleepiness Sleep Disorders: Parasomnias - REM Sleep Behavior Disorder: act out contents of their dreams - Slow Wave Sleep Disorders: Bedwetting, Night terrors, Sleepwalking Agonist: For someone not producing enough neuron chemical and what to increase that. Drug dependence Tolerance occurs when one of two things happen. In many cases, these outcomes go hand-in-hand. 1. The effects of a drug lessens over time, when a constant amount is taken. 2. A person must take larger quantities of a drug in order to produce the desired effects. When some habitually used drugs are no longer available, the user might experience withdrawal, a negative feeling that occurs when a drug is discontinued. Withdrawal often leads people to seek out the drug, in an effort to find relief from a negative state. In many cases, the negative state is the opposite of the drug’s effect: For instance, alcohol is a depressant that slows the nervous system. If a chronic alcohol user stops drinking, he or she may experience a rebound effect consisting of excess brain activity. In some cases, these are severe enough to produce life-threatening seizures. Withdrawal from stimulants like caffeine can make the user sluggish and lethargic. Although many abused drugs produce significant withdrawal, others do not. Heroin and nicotine produce powerful withdrawal effects, but cocaine usually does not Addiction is traditionally viewed as a physical or psychological dependence on a substance or activity. When a person compulsively uses a drug to maintain bodily comfort, a physical dependence (addiction) exists. Although tolerance and withdrawal are two hallmark symptoms of physical dependence on a drug, not all addictive drugs display these features. The defining features of an addiction are the compulsive repetition of drug use or an activity and the inability to abstain from the addictive behavior despite serious negative consequences. Addiction overwhelms normal control of behavior, distorts typical systems of reward, and interferes with the recognition of problems. Depressants share the ability to slow down the activity of the nervous system, leading to reductions in alertness and anxiety. Major substances in this category act to boost the activity of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA. Because these drugs all converge on the GABA receptor, combining them often results in a fatal level of nervous system inhibition. Alcohol is one of the earliest psychoactive drugs used by humans, dating back into our prehistory. In addition to seeking the relaxation produced by alcohol, early humans might have turned to fermented beverages as a safety precaution against contaminated water supplies, as alcohol has natural antiseptic qualities. Alcohol’s status as a depressant drug might seem confusing in light of its frequent use at parties. Why would anyone take a depressant to have a good time? The answer lies in alcohol’s ability to slow down activity in the judgment areas of the cortex, reducing behavioral inhibitions. At low doses, alcohol dilates blood vessels, giving people a warm, flushed feeling. It reduces anxiety, which makes relatively shy people more outgoing at a party. At higher doses, alcohol’s inhibition of the higher levels of the brain leads to aggression, risky behaviors, and poor motor coordination. At very high doses, alcohol can produce coma and death, either from suppression of breathing or aspiration of vomit. Barbiturates are depressants that are often used as sedatives. These drugs can have powerful interactions with alcohol, potentially leading to overdose. These days, barbiturates are mostly prescribed for anti-seizure purposes (anticonvulsants). Barbiturates were once used very widely as anti-anxiety medications. Their popularity, however, decreased with the introduction of benzodiazepines, which have lower risk of toxicity and dependence. Benzodiazepines are a newer class of depressants used to treat a wide range of psychological disorders, but also have the potential to create dependence and can be abused recreationally.  Some benzodiazepines (e.g. Xanax, Valium) act as muscle relaxants and can have anti-anxiety effects. Others are used as anticonvulsants. Still others are used to treat insomnia by inducing sleep. CH 10: Motivation and Emotion Motivational interviewing: type of psychological intervention that is utilize by physician to help someone become motivated about something they need to change like addiction program, help them find value and motivation in why they should change. - Pre-contemplation: don’t really care that there is a problem (most addiction when court called to attend therapy) - Contemplation state: Maybe I should change (thinking about it) - Preparation stage: Haven’t done anything but making preparation on how to change - Action state: Actively doing something about it - Maintenance: Doing that action for about six months - Relapse: Fall back, and reengage in that activity Instinct Theory: instinctive nature of behavior - Automatic, involuntary, and unlearned behavior patterns consistently “released” or triggered by particular stimuli. What do I valued and how is it motives me to do what I am doing. Drive-reduction Theory: we have these needs, and we are driven to get these met, so might be hungry, thirsty or cold, the drive, might start shaking, movement of muscle increase body temperature. Then engage in driving behavior, eating, drinking, putting on the heater, so homeostasis or equilibrium is created, where body have all the needs that are met. Until that needs come again, we are in the homeostasis state. - Primary drives: needs met quicker in term of learning like Hunger or thirst. (train animal to sit, treat is primary drive because it’s food) - Secondary Drives: need for achievement, affiliation, understand The Yerkes-Dodson curve: related to motivating and arousal (anxiety).  - In many cases, we tend to perform best on tasks when we are moderately aroused. Too much or too little arousal can have a negative impact on performance. - However, a person’s familiarity with the task can impact the shape of the curve. o For easy or well-practiced tasks, a higher level of arousal is often optimal. o For difficult tasks, people generally do better with lower levels of arousal, allowing them to direct more focus to the task. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: try to lower needs met first before higher need met. (physiological needs: hunger, thirst first before self-actualization self-fulfillment - not going to read a book just for the fun of it while hungry) Incentive Theory: external stimuli motivate behavior. (maximize pleasure- pulled towards behaviors that produce positive incentives and minimize pain-pushed away from behaviors with negative incentives) (trying to get PhD, short-term pain and long-term happiness) Operant Conditioning Principles: influence by physiological factors (e.g., hunger), as well as cognitive and social factors. Self-Determination Theory: need to meet internal needs creates autonomous motivation. Intrinsic – lead you to do things to experience the pleasure and satisfaction of doing them. (comes from within) (more successful in life) Extrinsic – lead you to do things to achieve some external goal (e.g., pleasing or impressing others, getting a promotion, making more money). The Biology of Emotions - Occur in the amygdala (feel emotion at higher level than other parts of the parts of the brain) and insula. - Other area that are also involved are Cingulate cortex and basal ganglia and Cerebral cortex outside.  - Amygdala: more developed during 13-15 years of age. During puberty stages, able to feel emotion a lot more than you did as a child. EMOTION: occur in response to rewards and punishers. Encourage us to persist in responding for reward. Different emotions are different adaptions. Accompanied by changes in thoughts, feeling, facial expressions, and physiology. Each emotion has extended behavioral elements - Includes changes in: 1. Hormones 2. Thought 3. Feelings 4. Other behavior 5. Facial expressions 6. Sense Perception Emotions are universal and serve as a communication tool Theories of Emotions James- Lange: perceived stimulus (a bear enter room), have a specific physical arousal because that stimulus being present (heart rate increase, sweating: the arousal cause to feel something) – because you have a physical response, you feel something connected to that physical response. (one lead to the other) Cannon- Bard: things two things happen simultaneously. A stimulus happens and response to that, both have physical response and subjective feeling. (Have physical response, heartrate increase and also feeling in response to the bears enter the room (stimulus), all at once, one doesn’t affect the other) Schacter- Singer: have stimuli, then the general arousal, but then you assist your surroundings to see what is it that you are feeling, (sometime have a physical response to something that doesn’t make sense to what is actually going on) (heartbeat, arousal, then assist your surrounding and ask yourself if you really need to be scared) Universal emotions and their facial expressions: happiness, surprise, anxious, disgust Emotional Contagion: emotion spread quickly rapidly. CH 11: Development Baby Proportions in Utero: a lot of effort producing the brain early on, the rest of the body form around and in the neuron. Physical Appearance at birth - Cover in vernix: a greasy cottage cheese - Might have lanugo: fine dark fuzz - Puffy eyelids – accumulation of fluids during delivery - Blood and other substances – more fluids Neuron Networks Neuron increase as ages because acquiring more information. (connection for neuron) pathway to recalled information more quickly. Secure attachment: Use caregiver as a secure base for exploration. Shows appropriate distress when the caregiver leaves is comforted on return, returning to exploration. May be comforted by the stranger but shows clear preference for the caregiver. Insecure attachment: might not care for child or parent (not want to be comforted) Continuity Approach: gradual learning through development. The gradual approach might be visualized as a rainbow, with one color (stage) gradually merging into the next, with no bold line separating the two. Discontinuity Approach: There are discrete stages that can meet certain miles before moving on to the next. a staircase to be climbed. Jean Piaget: agree with discontinuity approach. He talks a lot about schemas - Schemas (the way things are organized) - Accommodation (changing the schemas) (bird must fly, but not all birds fly so must change them up) - Assimilation (adding new things into already existing box) Cognitive Development: Piaget’s Stages - Sensorimotor stage (Birth-2) – kids begin to explore their world, walk, roll, interact n Object permanence: holding something behind, kids 7-8 months will think it completely disappear, but kids 12-13 months, beings to develop object permeance, going to walk around knowing it still exist. - Preoperational Stage ( ages 2-6) n Egocentrism: the world evolves around the child. Kids want now! n Conservation: The amount of liquid is the same but because the width of container is different. Kids would think the taller have more liquid. Understand the concept of height but not volume. n Animism: have stuff animals that can talk and emotion and feeling. - Concrete Operation (ages 6-12): think in more concrete ways.  - Formal Operations (after age 12): think in more abstract way (if the entire dark and who become leader of the world. They might think people who are blind have the capacity to be able to operate that is dark) - The Harlow’s monkey experiment, conducted by psychologist Harry Harlow in the 1950s and 1960s, is a landmark study in the field of developmental psychology, particularly in the study of attachment and social development in primates. The experiments were designed to understand the nature of attachment in infant rhesus monkeys and to challenge the behaviorist views on the importance of maternal bonding and nurturance. Vygotsky’s Theory: focused on education and development ( able to do things that they couldn’t do normally on their own) What I cannot do even with help (left circle): Zone of proximal development(middle) : What I can do my self (right) Attachment Styles: separation and stranger anxiety (the significant social bonds that form between caregivers and their young) Secure attachment: adjusts calmly to the parent leaving and returning Insecure-resistant attachment holds onto parent to prevent separation Insecure-avoidant attachment shows little interest when the parent eaves or reappears Disorganized attachment: wants to be close to but also away from parent - Avoidant, anxious-ambivalent, and disorganized Parenting Styles The authoritative parenting style is a cross between high support and high regulation. This is the ideal style for parents, as evidenced by the superior outcomes among children raised by parents using this style. The authoritative parent is a teacher who disciplines the child with an eye toward making that child a productive, prosocial member of the community. Limits are appropriate for the age and stage of the child’s development, and consequences are educational, not punitive. For example, a teen who abuses the privilege of using the family car might lose that privilege for a reasonable time.  Because of the emphasis on teaching, these parents tend to use little or no physical punishment. They are consistent and firm but also warm and reasonable. They communicate their standards and invite feedback, but there is no question as to who is running the show. The authoritarian parenting style combines low support with high regulation. The high regulation provided by these parents prepares children for the limits they inevitably meet in the community from other authority figures such as teachers and law enforcement personnel, but this is considered a less-than-ideal approach in most contemporary environments due to lower levels of warmth and support. Authoritarian parents have a greater tendency than authoritative parents to use harsh punishments, including physical punishment. This behavior can prompt some rebelliousness in the child that is not seen as frequently in response to authoritative parents. Cross-cultural research has found that the impact of authoritarian parenting does not differ between collectivist cultures and individualistic cultures. Authoritarian parenting in China, Egypt, Australia, and the United States is viewed quite similarly by the children exposed to it, and the outcomes for children of authoritarian parents vary little across these cultures. These children tend to have few problems with externalizing (“acting out”) behaviors, such as drug use. However, compared to children raised in authoritative homes, the children of authoritarian parents have more internalizing symptoms, such as depression. The indulgent or permissive parenting style is produced by crossing high support with low regulation. These are very warm, loving parents, but they simply do not want to be the ones who tell their children the dreadful word “no.” They are much more comfortable letting others, such as teachers, neighbors, and law enforcement, be the ones to establish any rules. Children of indulgent parents are monitored much less than children of authoritative and authoritarian parents and show a much higher level of cigarette and alcohol use and antisocial behavior. The cross between low support and low regulation is the uninvolved parenting style.  This style generally does not occur unless there is something seriously wrong with the family situation. Illness, marital discord, psychopathology, or substance abuse can prevent the parent from carrying out his or her duties in regard to children. As a result of the incapacity of the parent, the children are basically ignored. In extreme cases, neglect may require the intervention of social services in order to maintain the health and safety of the child. By the 12th grade, children of uninvolved parents drink and smoke nearly twice as much as children of authoritarian or authoritative parents, and sons of uninvolved parents are at a very high risk of antisocial behavior. Authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles are associated with lower rates of antisocial behavior in children than the indulgent or uninvolved parenting styles. However, children with authoritarian parents begin to show progressively higher rates of internalizing problems (feeling depressed and withdrawn) over the course of adolescence compared to children with authoritative parents. Heritability: disorder that are inheritable. Prenatal Development - Fertilized egg - Zygote (first two week) – rapid cell division  - Embryo (after two week) head, feet, nail, heartbeat. (2-9 weeks) 2-8 weeks gestation - Fetus(9 weeks gestation to birth, refinements and finishing touches) n A lot of formation of cell turning into a body, more human like. When certain things are not developed during there is likely that the baby won’t fully developed. (miscarriage or spontaneous abortion) - Mutation is likely to occurs the more the mom is pregnant because as the women ages, there is a higher chance of mutation, the older that they are, the more that can be risk of genetic disorder. Teratogens: anything that the mother cannot be exposed to during pregnancy like alcohol, aspirin, caffeine, cocaine etc. 1. Alcohol: fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Includes most serious diagnosis of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) 2. Thalidomide: used during the 1960s to prevent morning sickness 3. Zika virus: Microcephaly in infants 4. COVID-19 Physical Development: The Brain Frontal lobe takes about 20-25 years until fully developed. That’s why we need to create something to support teenager because their frontal lobe is not developed yet. Cognition: changes during adolescent - Abstract thought - Idealism of youth - Return to egocentrism - Imaginary audience - Personal fable Moral Reasoning - Kohlberg n Preconventional: good and bad based on reciprocity and punishment n Conventional: morals based on societal pressures n Postconventional: morals based on internal principles irrespective of societal expectations. - Gilligan n Gender perspective Erikson’s Stages of Development Late Adulthood  CH 12: Health and Stress - Stress is used to refer to a wide range of concepts from external environmental stimuli to internal experiences and bodily responses. - Stressors are external circumstances and stimuli that represent a perceived potential for harm, loss, damage, challenge, or other deviations from a balance state. - Stress responses are internal integrated psychological (cognitive) and biological responses to stressors that then work to restore a balanced state. Different types of Stress - Types of stressors can be defined by Duration (chronic, acute, traumatic) and Severity (how severs is it) 1. Acute Stressors: short-term circumstances, lasting minutes to hours and have the potential for harm, loss, damage, or challenge 2. Chronic Stressors: Enduring circumstances, lasting weeks to years, with the potential for harm, loss, damage, or challenge 3. Traumatic Stressors: most severe stressors involving threat to your own or another’s life or physical integrity. Hans Selye, the “Father of Stress Research” believed that stress isn’t bad in moderation. Stress responses can be hugely beneficial – “eustress” He came up with General Adaptation Syndrome: The normal process when we encounter stress. 3 Steps of working through. Used rate for this experiment. - An alarm reaction is initiated when a stressor is first perceived and identified. - When stressors are prolonged, Selye suggests we enter a stage of resistance. During this stage, we continue to experience ongoing stress, which requires us to adapt and cope as well as possible. - If stressors are severe and last long enough, a person might reach Selye’s exhaustion stage. Strength and energy drop to very low levels. The exhaustion stage has much in common with the criteria for major depressive disorder. When a person is in exhaustion, they are susceptible to stress-related illnesses. In extreme cases, exhaustion can even lead to death. Origins of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) – found the exposure to early adversity, especially in the absence of protective factors (e.g., supportive family environments and social networks), can result in a host of harmful outcomes immediately and throughout the life course. - Include child maltreatment (i.e., child abuse and neglect) and household challenges (i.e., witnessing intimate partner violence, parental separation or divorce, mental illness in the household, substance abuse in the household, or parental incarceration) that happen during the first 18 years of life. Research demonstrates that ACEs are prevalent, and exposure to ACEs has been linked to underdeveloped executive functioning and altered physiological stress responses, mental health problems, chronic health conditions, health risk behaviors, decreased life opportunities (e.g., education and income), and decreased life expectancy. These linkages highlight the critical association between childhood experiences and ill health and subsequently the importance of preventing ACEs. HIGH ACE? NOW WHAT? Early identification and intervention is critical Increase safe, stable, and nurturing relationships Oxytocin(natural hormones that release when a mother nurses child) research – may regulate the HPA function Exercise – helps stress response reset itself and recalibrate Helps metabolize stress hormones and release endorphins Stabilizes mood and immune functions.  Increases production of and releases BDNF (like miracle grow for the brain) – makes new connections. Mindfulness – stimulates the parasympathetic NS (a network of nerves that helps the body relax and conserve energy), being present in time The Stress Response serves to protect us from harm and restore balance to the body. - Homeostasis: the state of balance that is upset by stressors and then restored by the stress response. Neurobiological Response: Studied by exposing people to short-term stressful situations while brain activity is being measured using electroencephalography (EEG) or functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) Earliest stress responses typically occur in the amygdala Hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex also important Hippocampus (long-term memory) important in learning and memory Prefrontal cortex (problem-solving, making decision) important in higher-order processing of stimuli. Biological Response: Once the brain registers a stressor, the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis are rapidly activated The ANS includes two major branches, the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). The SNS elicits the fight-or-flight response, which is involved in preparing the body to fight or to flee in response to stressors (Cannon, 1939) activation and regulation are key to understanding the stress response. The Immune System: Research has shown that everyday acute stressors promote an inflammatory response. - When encountering acute psychological stressors, the body increases levels of proteins called cytokines that regulate inflammation These include interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and acute phase protein C-reactive protein (CRP) Helps the body to deal with any injuries and/or infection (through any wounds) that may occur Stress Appraisals and Coping - Primary Appraisals: are based on your perceptions of the stressor characteristics, how much demand it represents, and its relevance for you - Secondary Appraisals: based on your perceptions of the resources available for coping for a specific stressor - Internal factors: e.g. personality and personal abilities - External factors: e.g. social support or financial resources Challenge and Threat Theory: - Challenges - defined as situations in which resources exceed the demands of the situation The potential for positive outcomes and gain are more likely to be perceived as challenges - Threats - defined as situations in which demands exceed the resources available for coping Danger, uncertainty, uncontrollability, novelty, and high levels of effort all have higher “demands” and are more likely to be perceived as threats Coping with Stress– Approaches n Problem-focused coping: aimed at controlling or altering the environment that is causing the stress. One benefit of either of these problem-focused coping strategies would be elimination of the perceived stressor. At the same time, you benefit by experiencing more control over your environment, which may also enhance your self-esteem. However, it is also possible that you have misdiagnosed the problem, which is a cost of problem-focused coping. Generally, problem-focused coping tends to be most useful when we feel that we can do something about a situation. Under these circumstances, problem-focused coping is more likely to lead to a more positive health outcome. However, when we do not feel that a situation is controllable, we often rely more on emotion-focused coping strategies. n Emotion-focused coping: aimed at controlling your internal, subjective, emotional reactions to stress. You either express your emotions or alter the way you feel or think to reduce stress. Stressors activate a variety of emotions, including anxiety, worry, guilt, shame, jealousy, envy, and anger. Because these emotions are usually experienced as unpleasant, we are motivated to release, reduce, or avoid them. We attempt to lessen the effects of these negative emotions in two ways: by engaging in cognitive reappraisal and by using psychological defense mechanisms. - Cognitive reappraisal is an active and conscious process in which we alter our interpretation of the stressful event. - Cognitive reappraisal can be an emotionally constructive way of coping with a stressful event. Diathesis-Stress Model: “Theory that mental and physical disorders develop from a genetic or biological predisposition for that illness (diathesis) combined with stressful conditions that play a precipitating or facilitating role.” Healthy Behaviors - Physical activity: maintaining a physically active lifestyle is one of the best things to do for mental and physical health - Maintain a healthy sleep schedule - Choose a healthy diet - Healthy social connection Social Brain Hypothesis propose that humans and other primates evolved relatively large and metabolically expensive brains in order to navigate the complex social networks in which we operate. - Emotional support refers to expressions of empathy, love, and care when someone is experiencing stressors or high levels of perceived