PSY10007 Weekly Summaries - Week 7-12 PDF

WEEK 7 SUMMARY Weekly Objective 1: Describe the core characteristics of the hypnotic state Hypnosis is defined as an altered state of consciousness brought on by special techniques and characterised by responsiveness to suggestions to produce changes in an individual’s experience and behaviour. Hypn...

WEEK 7 SUMMARY Weekly Objective 1: Describe the core characteristics of the hypnotic state Hypnosis is defined as an altered state of consciousness brought on by special techniques and characterised by responsiveness to suggestions to produce changes in an individual’s experience and behaviour. Hypnotised people are not sleeping. You cannot be hypnotised unwillingly, and the more people want to cooperate with the hypnotist, the more likely it is that they will experience hypnosis. Weekly Objective 2: Explain the factors that make someone more susceptible to hypnosis and hypnotic suggestibility Experiencing Hypnosis Procedures for inducing hypnosis begins with suggestions of relaxation and focusing people’s attention on a restricted, often monotonous, set of stimuli while asking them to ignore everything else as they imagine certain feelings. People with higher levels of hypnotic susceptibility have differences in certain brain structures, are more imaginative, tend to fantasise, tend to be more suggestible, have a greater ability to focus attention, can ignore distraction, can process information quickly and effortlessly, and have more positive attitudes and expectations about hypnosis. About 10 per cent of adults are difficult or impossible to hypnotise. The most important factor in inducing hypnosis is the willingness to be hypnotised. Under hypnosis, people respond to suggestions and can display age regression, apparently recalling or re-enacting their childhoods. Instructions about behaviour to take place after hypnosis has ended are called posthypnotic suggestions and can last for hours or days. Some people show posthypnotic amnesia, which is an inability to remember what happened under hypnosis. Hilgard described five main changes that people display during hypnosis. Hypnotised people display 1. reduced planfulness, the ability to initiate action on their own, 2. redistributed attention, they ignore all but the hypnotist, 3. increased ability to fantasise, 4. increased role taking, and 5. reduced reality testing. Weekly Objective 3: Describe the two main theories of how hypnosis works (role/sociocognitive theory, dissociation theory) According to state theories of hypnosis, hypnotised people experience an altered state of consciousness. According to non-state theories of hypnosis, like role theory, people under hypnosis merely act in accordance with the hypnotised role. They are not in a special state; they simply comply with the hypnotist’s directions. According to dissociation theory, which is a blend of role and state theories, hypnotised people are not in a special, but rather a general state of consciousness in which a person dissociates, or splits, various aspects of their behaviour and perceptions from the ‘self’ that normally controls these functions. Relaxation of this central control occurs as part of a social agreement to share control with the hypnotist. Weekly Objective 4: Explain how psychoactive substances affect the brain to create an altered state of consciousness Psychoactive drugs affect the brain, changing consciousness and other psychological processes. Psychopharmacology is the study of psychoactive drugs. Psychopharmacology Most psychoactive drugs or substances affect the brain by influence the interaction between neurotransmitters and receptors. These drugs get into the brain through the blood supply when they pass the blood-brain barrier. · Drugs that act as agonists mimic the effects of neurotransmitters. · Drugs acting as antagonists prevent neurotransmitters from binding with receptors and inhibit neurotransmitter activity. · Other drugs work by increasing or decreasing the release of a specific neurotransmitter. · And still others work by speeding or slowing the removal of a neurotransmitter from synapses. The Varying Effects of Drugs Predicting a drug’s effects is complicated because most psychoactive drugs interact with many neurotransmitter systems. Drugs have desirable main effects, but many also have undesirable side effects. Drug Abuse Drug abuse (or substance abuse) is the pattern of use that causes impairment or distress and serious social, legal, or interpersonal problems for the user. · Psychological dependence occurs when a person continues to use the drug to gain a sense of wellbeing, and becomes preoccupied with obtaining the drug, even when the drug produces adverse consequences. However, the person can still function without the drug. Psychological dependence can occur with and without physical dependence. · Physical dependence or addiction is a physiological state in which continued use of the drug is required to prevent the onset of an unpleasant drug withdrawal (or withdrawal syndrome). Drug tolerance is a condition in which increasingly large drug doses are needed to produce the same effect. It may develop with prolonged use of a drug. · By affecting the regulation of dopamine and other neurotransmitters in the brain’s ‘pleasure centres’, drugs of dependence have the capacity to create tremendously rewarding effects in most people. The changes created in the brain by drug dependence can remain long after drug use ends, increasing the chance for relapse months or even years later. Weekly Objective 5: Explain the role of expectations in enhancing the physiological effects of drugs Drug effects are not determined by biochemistry alone. Learned expectations also play a role. People who think they have taken a drug, but really haven’t may display the effects of the drug because they expect to be affected by it. Learned expectations regarding drug effects vary from culture to culture, therefore the effects of drugs likewise vary from culture to culture. Weekly Objective 6: Describe the three main classes of psychoactive substances and the specific drugs that each class encompasses. CNS Depressant Drugs CNS depressant drugs reduce central nervous system activity, partly by affecting the neurotransmitter GABA. Alcohol Alcohol affects the neurotransmitters dopamine, endorphins, endocannabinoids, glutamate, serotonin, and GABA. Alcohol affects specific brain regions. It reduces activity in the locus coeruleus and suppresses the hippocampus, cerebellum, and hindbrain mechanisms. Biological effects depend on the amount of alcohol the blood carries to the brain. Effects increase with faster drinking or drinking on an empty stomach, which speed the absorption of alcohol into the blood. Men tolerate higher amounts of alcohol than women. There are no effective measures to prevent or relieve the unpleasant hangover effects of overindulgence. Genetics also plays a role in determining the biochemical effects of alcohol and influences people’s tendency toward alcohol dependency. Barbiturates Also called downers or sleeping pills, barbiturates work by stimulating GABA receptors. Barbiturates are extremely addictive. Small doses cause relaxation, some euphoria, and diminished attention, among other effects. Higher doses cause deep sleep but can distort normal sleep patterns. Overdoses can be fatal and withdrawal symptoms some of the most unpleasant of any class of drug. GHB Gamma hydroxybutyrate or GHB is a naturally occurring substance like the neurotransmitter GABA. A laboratory-manufactured version of GHB (also known as ‘G’) has become a popular recreational drug. It is known for inducing relaxation, elation, loss of inhibition, suggestibility, and increased sex drive. It can cause severe negative reactions, especially when combined with other drugs. CNS Stimulating Drugs CNS stimulating drugs increase central nervous system activity. Amphetamines Commonly known as uppers or speed, amphetamines increase norepinephrine and dopamine activity and decrease GABA activity. Amphetamines stimulate the brain and sympathetic nervous system, increasing alertness, raising heart rate, arousal, supressing appetite, raising the blood pressure, and constricting blood vessels. Continued use can result in a variety of mental, including long term psychiatric conditions and physical problems. Cocaine Cocaine’s effects are like but more rapid than those of amphetamines. Additionally, the effects of cocaine are short-lived, which may help explain why this drug is especially addictive both psychologically and physiologically, particularly crack, a purified, highly potent form of cocaine. Cocaine stimulates self-confidence and optimism. Continued use results in a variety of mental and physical problems and overdoses can be deadly. Ceasing cocaine dependence can be difficult. Numerous pharmacological and psychological treatments have been tried with mixed results, particularly over the long term. Caffeine Caffeine is the world’s most popular drug. This drug reduces drowsiness and can enhance cognitive performance and vigilance. It improves problem-solving, increases physical work capacity, and raises urine production. Long term caffeine can cause physical dependence and associated withdrawal symptoms. Nicotine This drug stimulates the autonomic nervous system. It enhances the action of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, increases the release of glutamate, activates the dopaminerelated pleasure system, and stimulates endogenous cannabinoid and opioid systems. It can improve mood, memory, and attention. Regular nicotine use can cause psychological and/or physiological dependence. Smoking is a major risk factor for cancer, heart disease and respiratory disorders. MDMA Also called ‘ecstasy’, MDMA increases the activity of dopamine neurons and is a serotonin agonist. It leads to some of the same effects as those produced by cocaine and amphetamines. With continued use, MDMA’s positive effects decrease, but its negative effects persist. Although MDMA does not appear to be physically addictive, high frequency use can cause permanent brain damage and cognitive impairment. Opiates Opiates, which include opium, morphine, heroin, codeine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, and propoxyphene are unique in induce states of sleep and pain relief. Opiates depress activity in wide areas of the cerebral cortex, they act as agonists for endorphins, and they appear to stimulate the endocannabinoid system, which may explain their euphoric effects. They are highly addictive partly because they stimulate a type of glutamate receptor that can physically change a neuron’s structure. Hallucinogenic Drugs Hallucinogenic drugs, also called psychedelics or psychotomimetics, cause a loss of contact with reality and induce changes in emotion, perception, and thought. Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is one of the most powerful psychedelics, however the effects are largely unpredictable. LSD stimulates serotonin receptors in the forebrain. Unpleasant hallucinations and delusions can occur unpredictably. LSD is not addictive, but tolerance does develop. It can cause paranoia, panic attacks and flashbacks. Ketamine Veterinarians use ketamine as an anaesthetic and doctors use it for critically ill patients or for suppressing dangerous seizure activity. People steal it to use as a recreational drug called ‘Special K’. It causes dissociative feelings that people describe as an ‘out of body’ experience, but it causes memory damage. Marijuana The active ingredient in the hemp plant Cannabis sativa is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). THC alters the blood flow to many brain regions. Low doses cause restlessness and hilarity, followed by carefree relaxation, vivid sensations, and food cravings. THC collects in the brain and reproductive organs. The brain contains several receptors for THC and produces a number of natural ‘endogenous cannabinoids’ whose receptors respond to THC. Week 8: Motivation Weekly Objective 1: Describe the different theories of motivation Motivation refers to factors that influence the initiation, direction, intensity and persistence of behaviour. A motive is a reason or purpose that may provide a single explanation for the occurrence of many different behaviours. Motivation is thought of as an intervening variable – something that is used to explain the relationships between environmental stimuli and behavioural responses. Sources of Motivation Four factors can serve as sources of motivation: physiological, emotional, cognitive and social. The Instinct Doctrine and its Descendants Instinctive behaviours are automatic, involuntary behaviour patterns, originally called fixedaction patterns that are consistently triggered, or ‘released’ by particular stimuli. The original instinct doctrine provided a description, rather than an explanation, of behaviour and it failed to accommodate the role of learning in human behaviour. Today inborn tendencies are often referred to as modal action patterns because they can vary quite a bit among individuals and can be modified by experience. So, the contemporary view is that the behaviour of humans and other animals may be motivated by inborn tendencies, but it is not necessarily entirely ‘genetically determined’. It can be shaped, amplified, or suppressed by experience and other factors operating in individuals. · Psychologists who take the evolutionary approach suggest that the behavioural predispositions we see in humans and other animals today have evolved in part because they were adaptive for promoting individual survival. The Instinct Doctrine and Mate Selection The evolutionary approach suggests that inborn desires to pass on our genes cause women to focus on men’s ability to amass resources and men to focus on women’s reproductive capacity. Surveys have supported this hypothesis; however, mate selection patterns may reflect social and economic influences, not innate biological needs. Evolutionary theorists acknowledge the role of cultural forces and traditions in shaping behaviour, but emphasise the role of genetic predisposition and innate tendencies. They focus on the ultimate, longterm reasons behind what we do and the circumstances in which evolved predispositions are, or are not, expressed. Drive Reduction Theory Homeostasis is the tendency to keep physiological systems at a steady level, or equilibrium. According to drive reduction theory, an imbalance in homeostasis creates needs, biological requirements for wellbeing. The brain responds to needs by creating a psychological state called a drive, a feeling of arousal that prompts one to take action to restore balance and reduce the drive. Primary drives stem from inborn physiological needs, such as for food or water, that people do not have to learn. Secondary drives are learned through experience and they motivate us to act as if we have unmet basic needs. Arousal Theory Many behaviours cannot be explained by drive reduction theory, including curiositymotivated behaviours and those that are done just to cause an increase in physiological arousal, a general level of activation that is reflected in the state of several physiological systems. Arousal theory states that people are motivated to behave in ways to maintain or restore their optimal level of arousal, increasing arousal when it is too low and decreasing it when it is too high. In general, people perform and feel best when arousal is moderate. Optimal arousal levels vary from person to person. Incentive Theory According to incentive theory, behaviour is goal-directed; we behave in ways that allow us to get desirable incentives and avoid negative incentives. The value of a goal or incentive is influenced by biological, cognitive, and social factors. Motivation theorists distinguish between wanting and liking. Wanting is the process of being attracted to incentives, whereas liking is the immediate evaluation of how pleasurable a stimulus is experienced. These two systems appear to involve activity in different parts of the brain and involve different neurotransmitters. The wanting system can compel behaviour to a far greater extent than the liking system. Weekly Objective 2: Identify the control of hunger and eating Biological Signals for Hunger and Satiation Hunger is the state of wanting to eat; satiation is the satisfaction of hunger; satiety is the state of no longer wanting to eat. Signals from the Stomach Stomach cues affect eating, but they do not play a major role in the normal control of eating. The cues may operate mainly when people are very hungry or very full. In addition, the small intestine is lined with cells that detect the presence of nutrients and send neural signals to the brain about the need to eat. Signals from the Blood The brain constantly monitors the level of food nutrients absorbed into the blood from the stomach and the level of hormones released into the blood in response to nutrients and from stored fat. Short-term blood-borne signals that tell us when to start and stop eating are called satiety factors. One satiety factor comes from cholecystokinin (CCK), a neuropeptide that regulates meal size. Nutrients the brain monitors include glucose, the main form of sugar used by body cells. When glucose levels rise, the pancreas releases insulin, a hormone that most body cells need in order to use the glucose they receive. Insulin may amplify the brain’s response to CCK and it may also provide a satiety signal by acting directly on brain cells. The long-term regulation of fat stores involves a hormone called leptin. When leptin levels are high, hunger decreases, and vice versa. Leptin is not effective for treating obesity, severe overweight, because it appears that in most common cases the brain becomes less sensitive to leptin signals. Hunger and the Brain Regions of the hypothalamus detect and react to the blood’s signals about the need to eat. At least 20 neurotransmitters and neuromodulators, substances that modify the action of neurotransmitters, convey hunger or satiety signals to other parts of the hypothalamus and the brain. Activity in the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus signals that there is no need to eat. Activity in the lateral hypothalamus stimulates eating. Initially, researchers thought that the combined activity in these areas maintained a homeostatic level or set point, based on food intake, body weight, and other factors. Once the set point was reached, normal animals would stop eating. This theory turned out to be too simplistic. More recent research indicates that other areas are also involved in the brain’s control of eating. The paraventricular nucleus in the hypothalamus also plays an important role. In addition, hunger and eating certain foods is related to the effects of various neurotransmitters on certain neurons in the brain. • Neuropeptide Y stimulates increased eating of carbohydrates. · Serotonin suppresses carbohydrate intake. · Galanin motivates the eating of high-fat food and enterostatin reduces it. · Endocannabinoids stimulate eating in general. · Peptide YY3-36 causes a feeling of fullness and reduced food intake. Flavour, Cultural Learning, and Food Selection Flavour, the combination of food’s taste and smell, can override a set point. More food will be eaten when a variety of flavours is offered. Another factor that can override set point is appetite, the motivation to seek food’s pleasures. Classical conditioning influences the appetite. The sight and aroma of food can elicit conditioned responses (the secretion of saliva, gastric juices, and insulin) that are associated with eating. These responses then increase appetite. Eating can also be influenced by specific hungers, desires for certain foods at certain times. These hungers may reflect biological needs for nutrients found in those foods. The taste and odour of food may become associated with its nutritional value. The food industry uses flavourings that trigger cravings in the absence of nutritional value. The role of learning is also seen when people start to eat in response to sights, sounds, and places which have been associated with eating in the past. People also learn social rules and cultural traditions that influence eating. Social cues tell people what and how much is appropriate to eat in certain social situations. The mere presence of others, even strangers, tends to increase food consumption. Eating in a culture is reflected in its food culture, which involves food and food selection, portion sizes, and speed of consumption. Unhealthy Eating Problems in the processes that regulate hunger and eating may cause eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia, or can result in a level of food intake that leads to obesity. Obesity Obesity is a condition in which a person’s body-mass index (BMI) is greater than 30. (BMI is the person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of the person’s height in metres. However, muscle weighs more than fat, so a very muscular person may have a high BMI without being overweight.). Obese people get more energy from food than their body metabolises, or ‘burns up’; the excess energy, measured in calories, is stored as fat. Obesity is associated with Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, certain cancers, liver and gall bladder disease, osteoarthritis, and increased risk of heart attack and stroke. Moreover, obesity is being blamed for increasing deaths each year and for a predicted shortening of life expectancy in the 21st century. Obesity appears to be on the rise among adults and children around the world. Reasons for the increase in obesity are unknown, but possible causes include big portion sizes at fast-food outlets, greater prevalence of high-fat foods, and less physical activity in work and recreation. Inadequate physical activity combined with overeating, especially of high-fat foods, has a lot to do with obesity. Not everyone who is inactive and eats a lot is obese and some obese people are very active, so other factors must also be involved. These include genetic predispositions, slow brain processing of satiety signals and viruses. Psychological explanations for obesity include factors such as learning and maladaptive reactions to stress. There are many treatment approaches to obesity. · The most radical is bariatric surgery, which involves restructuring the stomach and intestines so that less food energy is absorbed and stored. · Anti-obesity medications available or under development include one that prevents fat in foods from being digested, one that dissolves fat, and one that interferes with an enzyme that forms fat. · No single treatment is likely to work for everyone. To achieve the gradual weight loss that is most likely to last, people need to increase exercise, reduce food intake and change eating habits and attitudes toward food. · The ultimate remedy for the obesity epidemic is prevention. To accomplish that goal, parents and other caregivers must begin to promote exercise and healthy eating habits in their children from an early age. Anorexia Nervosa Anorexia nervosa is characterised by some combination of self-starvation, self-induced vomiting, and laxative use that results in weight loss to below 85 per cent of normal. Anorexic individuals are preoccupied with food, yet refuse to eat. Anorexic self-starvation causes serious, often irreversible physical damage. Between 4 and 30 per cent of people with anorexia die of starvation, biochemical imbalances, or suicide. Anorexia affects about 0.5 per cent of young females and .01 per cent of young males in Australia and New Zealand and is a growing problem in many other industrialised nations. About 95 per cent of those suffering from this disorder are young women. Anorexia is probably caused by a combination of factors including genetic predispositions, biochemical imbalances, social influences and psychological characteristics. Psychological factors include a perfectionist personality and an obsession with thinness. Treatments include drugs, hospitalisation, and psychotherapy. More effective methods and early intervention methods are still needed. Bulimia Nervosa Bulimia (or bulimia nervosa) involves eating huge amounts of food and then getting rid of the food through self-induced vomiting or strong laxatives. Bulimia also involves intense fear of being fat, but the person, who is often female, may be thin, normal weight, or even overweight. Bulimia and anorexia are separate disorders. Most with bulimia see their eating habits as problematic, whereas most with anorexia do not. Though bulimia is usually not life threatening, it can lead to dehydration, nutritional problems, intestinal damage, and dental problems. It is estimated to affect around 5 per cent of young people in Australia. Bulimia is probably caused by a combination of factors including perfectionism, low self-esteem, stress, a preoccupation with thinness, depression and other emotional problems. Biological factors may include defective satiety mechanisms. Treatments include individual or group therapy and, sometimes, antidepressant drugs. Weekly Objective 3: Explain human sexual behaviour Sex is not necessary for an individual’s survival. However, a strong desire for reproduction does help ensure the survival of a species. People show many different sexual scripts or patterns of behaviour that lead to sex. Focus on Research Methods: A survey of human sexual behaviour Human sexual behaviour was extensively studied by Alfred Kinsey using questionnaires in the 1940s and 1950s and by Masters and Johnson using laboratory observations of the human sexual-response cycle in the 1960s. However, the people involved in these studies were probably not representative of the adult population and so the results may not apply to people in general. More recent data from surveys in magazines are also flawed by non-random samples. • • • What was the researchers’ question? Can researchers collect data that is more representative to describe people in general? In the early 1990s, researchers from the University of Chicago conducted the ‘National Health and Social Life Survey’, the first extensive survey of sexual behaviour in the US since Kinsey’s studies. How did the researchers answer the question? This survey included important design features not used in other surveys of sexual behaviour. Participants were not volunteers. A sample of 3432 people, aged 18 to 59, was constructed to represent current US sociocultural diversity. Data were gathered in face-to-face interviews to assure that respondents understood and fully answered questions. Participants could answer some of the more sensitive questions by writing and sealing responses in an anonymous envelope. What did the researchers find? · Most people had sex about once a week in monogamous relationships, and a third had sex a few times or not at all in the past year. · Males reported an average of six sexual partners in their lifetimes; women reported an average of two. · People in committed, monogamous relationships had the most frequent and satisfying sex. · The most common heterosexual sexual practice was penis–vagina intercourse. • • What do the results mean? The results of the Chicago sex survey challenged popular culture and media images of sexuality in the US. It suggests that people in the US may be more sexually conservative than portrayed. What do we still need to know? The Chicago survey did not ask about more controversial aspects of sexuality, such as pornography use, paedophilia (sexual attraction to children), and the role of sexual fetishes, such as shoes or other clothing in sexual activity. People in the US were the focus of this study; therefore, to know about people in the rest of the world, the Chicago team has continued to conduct interviews in the US and other countries. Other researchers focusing on gender differences in sexuality have found that men tend to desire sexual activity more than women do, and that women are more likely than men to associate sexuality with commitment in a relationship. Many questions are raised by studies like this. For example, when do people become interested in sex and why? How do people express their desires? How does learning modify the biological forces at the base of sexual motivation? The Biology of Sex Masters and Johnson’s in-depth study of human sexuality and sexual arousal resulted in a description of the sexual response cycle, the pattern of physiological arousal during and after sexual activity. Although all sex hormones circulate in both males and females, some predominate in each sex. Females have more estrogens (for example, estradiol) and progestational hormones, or progestins (for example, progesterone), whereas males have more androgens (for example, testosterone). Sex hormones have two kinds of effects on the brain. Organisational effects are permanent changes that alter the brain’s response to hormones. These effects occur in areas described as sexually dimorphic around the time of birth when certain brain areas are sculpted into ‘male-like’ or ‘female-like’ patterns. Rising levels of hormones during puberty have activational effects, which are temporary behavioural changes that last only as long as the hormone level is activated. Social and Cultural Factors in Sexuality Sexual attitudes and behaviours are learned as part of the development of gender roles in a culture. A person’s learning history, cultural background, and perceptions of the world interact with a range of physiological processes to influence sexuality. Sexual Orientation Sexual orientation refers to the nature of a person’s enduring emotional, romantic, or sexual attraction to others. Most humans’ sexual orientation is heterosexuality, attraction to members of the opposite sex. Sexual attraction between members of the same sex is homosexuality (specifically, gay for men and lesbian for women). Attraction to both sexes is bisexuality. Attempts to alter the sexual orientation of homosexuals have usually been ineffective. Since homosexuals and bisexuals are often discriminated against, many hesitate to reveal their sexual orientation. Thus, it is difficult to estimate the relative mix of different sexual orientations. Studies that allow anonymous responses suggest that gay, lesbian, and bisexual people make up 21 per cent of the population of the US, Australia, Canada, and Western Europe. Weekly Objective 4: Outline the importance of achievement in goal setting People work partly due to extrinsic motivation, a desire for external rewards, such as money. They also work due to intrinsic motivation, a desire to attain internal satisfaction. Much behaviour is motivated by a desire for approval, admiration, and achievement, in other words, for esteem, from others and ourselves. Need for Achievement A desire for mastery or effectance is the motivation to behave competently. People with a high achievement motivation (need achievement) are motivated to master tasks and take great pride in doing so. Individual Differences People with a high need to achieve set challenging but realistic goals. They are interested in their work, actively seek success, take risks when necessary, are intensely satisfied when they succeed, and, if they have tried their best, are not too upset by failure. In contrast, people with low achievement needs seem to enjoy success because they have avoided failure. People with learning goals are concerned with getting better at something. They tend to be more persistent and less upset when they do not immediately perform well. People with performance goals are usually more concerned with how well they perform compared with others than they are about how to improve their performance. They tend to avoid challenges and quit in response to failure. Development of Achievement Motivation Achievement motivation tends to be learned in early childhood, largely from parents. Parents of children who scored high on tests of achievement motivation: • encouraged children to try difficult tasks, especially new ones, · offered praise and other rewards for success, · encouraged children to find ways to succeed rather than letting them just complain about failure, and · prompted children to go on to the next, somewhat more difficult challenge. Ideas about how people achieve differ from culture to culture. Subtle messages about a culture’s view of how achievement occurs often appear in books that children read and stories that they hear. Goal Setting and Achievement Motivation We set goals when we see a difference between how we want things to be and how things are now. Establishing a goal motivates us to engage in behaviours designed to reduce the discrepancy we have identified. The kinds of goals we set can influence the amount of effort, persistence, attention and planning we devote to a task. People work harder to achieve difficult goals. This assumes that the goal is valued and seen as realistic. Setting goals that are clear and specific tends to increase people’s motivation to persist at a task. Achievement and Success in the Workplace Workers tend to be more satisfied and productive if they are: · encouraged to participate in decision making, · given problems to solve on their own, · taught more than one skill, · given individual responsibility, and · given public recognition, not just money, for good performance. Allowing people to set and achieve clear goals is one way to increase both job performance and job satisfaction. Effective goals are those that are: · personally meaningful, · specific and concrete, and · set by the employees but encouraged and rewarded by management. Achievement and Wellbeing Wellbeing (or subjective wellbeing) is a combination of a cognitive judgement of satisfaction with life, the frequent experiencing of positive moods and emotions, and the relatively infrequent experiencing of unpleasant moods and emotions. Research supports the idea that people under extreme stress feel less happy than people in better circumstances, but effects of events on mood do not last as long as might be expected. People generally return to a baseline level of happiness, even after an extremely positive or negative event. Most people’s subjective wellbeing tends to be remarkably stable throughout their lives. Individual differences in happiness are more strongly associated with inherited personality characteristics than with environmental factors, such as money, popularity, or physical attractiveness. Close social ties, religious faith, and having adequate resources to allow progress toward one’s goals are important to happiness. Those who try to seek happiness by trying to acquire goods or status that they think they need, rather than appreciating life itself and what they do have, have a deficiency orientation and experience unhappiness and psychological problems. Relations and Conflicts among Motives Abraham Maslow proposed that human behaviour reflects a hierarchy of needs or motives. Needs at the lower levels must be at least partially satisfied before people can be motivated by higher-level goals. The five motives from bottom to top are: • biological, such as the need for food, water, air, and sleep, · safety, such as the need to have a secure income and a safe place to live, · belongingness and love, the need to be part of groups and to have relationships, · esteem, the need to be respected as a useful, honourable individual, and · self-actualisation, fulfilling one’s fullest potential. Maslow’s hierarchy has been called simplistic because it cannot explain extreme behaviours due to politics or moral causes, it does not account for the seeking of several needs at once, and it does not acknowledge that needs may differ across cultures. There may not be a single, universal hierarchy of needs. The existence, relatedness, growth (ERG) theory places needs into three categories: • existence needs, such as for food and water, · relatedness needs for social interactions and attachments, and · growth needs, such as for developing one’s capabilities. The ERG theory does not assume that needs must be satisfied in a particular order, but motivation to pursue them depends upon time and situation. Linkages: Conflicting motives and stress Motives that act at the same time complicate life and can create significant emotional arousal and other signs of stress. Conflicting motives can make a person more vulnerable to physical and psychological problems when there is no obvious right choice, when the conflicting motives have approximately equal strength, and when the choice can have serious consequences. There are four basic types of motivational conflicts. 1. Approach-approach conflicts exist when one must choose only one of two desirable activities. 2. Avoidance-avoidance conflicts force one to select from two unattractive choices. 3. Approach-avoidance conflicts occur when one activity has both attractive and unattractive features. 4. Multiple approach-avoidance conflicts involve a choice between two or more alternatives, each of which has both positive and negative features. These conflicts are the most difficult to resolve, partly because the features of each option are often difficult to compare. Opponent Processes, Motivation and Emotion According to opponent-process theory, any reaction to a stimulus is automatically followed by an opposite reaction, called the opponent process. After repeated exposure to the same stimulus, the initial reaction weakens, and the opponent process becomes quicker and stronger. For example, before a first skydiving jump, people usually experience terror, followed by intense relief when they reach ground. With more experience, though, the terror becomes mild anxiety and the relief becomes a sense of elation that may begin to appear during the jump. Week 9: Health, stress and coping Weekly Objective 1: Define health psychology • Health psychology is the specialisation of psychology concerned with psychological influences on how people stay healthy, why they become ill, and how they cope and recover from illness. Weekly Objective 2: Distinguish between the various social-cognitive theories of health behaviour • The cognitive approach to health psychology is embodied in various health belief models. One of the most influential of these models was developed by Irwin Rosenstock (1974). This model is based on the assumption that people’s decisions about health-related behaviours (such as smoking) are guided by four main factors: 1. Perceiving a personal threat of, or susceptibility to, developing a specific health problem. (Do you believe that you will get lung cancer from smoking?) 2. Perceiving the seriousness of the illness and the consequences of having it. (How serious do you think lung cancer is, and what will happen if you get it? 3. Believing that changing a particular behaviour will reduce the threat. (Will giving up smoking prevent you from getting lung cancer?) 4. A comparison of the perceived costs of enacting a health-related behaviour change and the benefits expected from that change. (Will the reduced chance of getting cancer in the future be worth the discomfort and loss of pleasure associated with not smoking now?) • • • According to this health belief model, the people most likely to quit smoking would be those who believe that they are at risk of getting cancer from smoking, that cancer is serious and life-threatening, that quitting will reduce their chances of getting cancer, and that the benefits of preventing cancer clearly outweigh the difficulties associated with quitting. Other cognitive factors are emphasised in other health belief models. For example, people generally do not try to quit smoking unless they believe they can succeed. So self-efficacy, the belief that one is able to perform some behaviour, is an additional consideration in decisions about health behaviours. A related factor is the person’s intention to engage in a behaviour designed to improve health or protect against illness. Weekly Objective 3: Describe the barriers to health promotion and preventative health Changing health-related behaviours depends not only on a person’s health beliefs but also on that person’s readiness to change. According to James Prochaska and his colleagues, the process of successful change occurs in five stages: 1. Precontemplation: the person does not perceive a health-related problem and has no intention of changing in the foreseeable future. 2. Contemplation: the person is aware of a health-related behaviour that should be changed and is seriously thinking about changing it. 3. Preparation: the person has a strong intention to change and has made specific plans to do so. 4. Action: the person is engaging successfully in behaviour change. 5. Maintenance: The healthy behaviour has continued for at least six months, and the person is using newly learned skills to prevent relapse, or ‘backsliding’. • • These stages may actually overlap somewhat; for example, some ‘precontemplators’ may actually be starting to contemplate change. In any case, the path from precontemplation through maintenance can be a bumpy one. Usually, people relapse and go through the stages repeatedly before finally achieving stability in the healthy behaviour they desire. Smokers, for example, typically require three to four cycles through the stages over several years before they finally reach the maintenance stage. Weekly Objective 4: Describe the major sources of stress • • Stress is the internal processes that occur as people try to adjust to events and situations, especially those that they perceive to be beyond their coping capacity. Common sources of stress (stressors) include: 1. Catastrophic events - these are sudden, unexpected, potentially life-threatening experiences or traumas, such as physical or sexual assault, military combat, natural disasters, terrorist attacks and accidents. 2. Life changes and strains - these include divorce, illness in the family, difficulties at work and other circumstances that create demands to which people must adjust. 3. Chronic problems – those that continue over a long period of time – include circumstances such as living in a high-crime neighbourhood or under the threat of terrorism, having a serious illness, being unable to earn a decent living, being the victim of discrimination, and even enduring years of academic pressure. 4. Daily hassles - are irritations, pressures and annoyances that may not be significant stressors by themselves but whose cumulative effects can be significant. Weekly Objective 5: Discuss the nature of the relationship between stress and health • • • • • • • • The immune system is the body’s first line of defence against invading substances and microorganisms. It is perhaps as complex as the nervous system and contains as many cells as the brain. If our immune system is impaired – by stressors, for example – we are left more vulnerable to colds, mononucleosis and many other infectious diseases. The activity of immune system cells can be either strengthened or weakened by a number of systems, including the endocrine system and the central and autonomic nervous systems. It is through these connections that stress-related psychological and emotional factors can affect the functioning of the immune system. Researchers have found that people under stress are more likely than less stressed people to develop infectious diseases and to experience flare-ups of latent viruses responsible for oral herpes (cold sores) or genital herpes. Other research has shown that a variety of stressors lead to suppression of the immune system. The effects are especially strong in the elderly but they occur in everyone. The relationship between stress and the immune system is especially important in people who are HIV-positive but do not yet have AIDS. As their immune systems are already seriously compromised, further stress-related impairments could be lifethreatening. Research indicates that psychological stressors are associated with the progression of HIV-related illnesses. The sympatho-adreno-medullary (SAM) system is linked to the cardiovascular system, its repeated activation in response to stressors, especially chronic ones, has been associated with the development of coronary heart disease (CHD), high blood pressure (hypertension) and stroke. The link between CHD and physical stress responses appears especially strong in people who show intense physiological reactivity to stressors. For example, among healthy young adult research participants, those whose blood pressure rose most dramatically in response to a mild stressor or a series of stressors were the ones most likely to develop hypertension later in life. Physiological reactions to stressors – and the chances of suffering stress-related health problems – depend partly on personality, especially on how people tend to think about stressors and about life in general. For example, the trait of hostility – particularly when accompanied by irritability and impatience – has been associated with the appearance of coronary heart disease. Weekly Objective 6: Describe the major strategies for coping with stress • • • • • • • • • • • • • Coping methods can be classified as either problem-focused or emotion-focused. Problem-focused coping involves efforts to alter or eliminate a source of stress e.g. confronting, seeking social support and planned problem solving. Emotion-focused techniques are aimed at regulating the negative emotional consequences of the stressor e.g. self-controlling, distancing, positive reappraisal, accepting responsibility and escape/avoidance (wishful thinking). Some people use both kinds of coping. For example, you might deal with the problem of noise from a nearby airport by forming a community action group to push for tougher noise regulations and, at the same time, calm your anger when noise occurs by mentally focusing on the group’s efforts to improve the situation. However, coping efforts may not always be so adaptive. In the face of a financial crisis or impending exams, for example, some people rely on emotion-focused methods such as using alcohol or other drugs to ease anxiety but take no problemfocused steps to get out of debt or learn difficult material. These emotion-focused strategies may reduce distress in the short run, but the long-term result may be a financial or academic situation that is worse than it was before. Strategies for coping with stress can be cognitive, emotional, behavioural or physical. Cognitive coping strategies involve changing how we think about stressors. These changes include thinking more calmly, rationally and constructively in the face of stressors and may lead to a more hopeful emotional outlook. For example, students with heavy course loads may experience anxiety, confusion, discouragement, lack of motivation and the desire to run away from it all. Frightening, catastrophising thoughts about their tasks (for example, ‘What if I fail?’) magnify these stress responses. Cognitive coping strategies replace catastrophic thinking with thoughts in which stressors are viewed as challenges rather than threats. This substitution process is called cognitive restructuring which involves first identifying upsetting thoughts (such as ‘I’ll never figure this out!’) and then developing and practising more constructive thoughts to use when under stress (such as ‘All I can do is the best I can’). Cognitive coping does not eliminate stressors, but it can help people perceive them as less threatening and thus make them less disruptive. Finding social support is an effective emotional coping strategy. Feeling that you are cared about and valued by others can be a buffer against the ill effects of stressors. Research suggests that having enhanced social support is associated with improved immune function and more rapid recovery from illness. Behavioural coping strategies involve changing behaviour in ways that minimise the impact of stressors. Time management is one example. Time management can’t create more time, but it can help control catastrophising thoughts by providing reassurance that there is enough time for everything and a plan for handling all that you have to do. Physical coping strategies can be used to alter the undesirable physiological responses that occur before, during or after the appearance of stressors. The most common physical coping strategy is some form of drug use. Prescription medications are sometimes an appropriate coping aid, especially when stressors are severe and acute, such as the sudden death of one’s child. However, the drug effects that blunt stress responses may also interfere with the ability to apply other coping strategies. The resulting loss of perceived control over stressors may make those stressors even more threatening and disruptive. • • Non-chemical methods of reducing physical stress reactions and improving health and functioning include progressive muscle relaxation training physical exercise, biofeedback, yoga, meditation and tai chi. Progressive muscle relaxation training is one of the most popular physical methods for coping with stress. It involves tensing a group of muscles (such as the hand and arm) for a few seconds and then releasing the tension and focusing on the resulting feelings of relaxation. Once people develop some skill at relaxation, they can use it to calm themselves down anywhere and anytime, often without lying down. WEEK 10: Emotion and Emotion Regulation Week Objective 1: List the defining characteristics of emotion Emotions are organised psychological and physiological reactions to changes in our relationship to the world. They are partly private or subjective experiences and partly objective, measurable patterns of behaviour and physiological activity. The subjective experience of emotion has several characteristics. Emotion or the emotional experience: 1. is usually temporary, having a relatively clear beginning, end, and short duration. Moods tend to last longer, 2. can vary in intensity and can be positive or negative or a mixture of both, 3. alters thought processes, often by directing attention toward some things and away from others; negative emotions such as fear, can narrow an individual’s focus, while positive emotions can widen out attention. 4. triggers an action tendency, the motivation to behave in certain ways, and 5. are passions that you feel, usually whether you want to or not. You have some control in that emotion depends in part on your interpretation of situations, but such control is limited. You cannot decide to experience a particular emotion. The objective aspects of emotion include learned and innate expressive displays and physiological responses. Emotions are temporary experiences with positive or negative or mixed qualities. People experience emotions with varying intensity as happening to the self, generated in part by a mental assessment of situations, and accompanied by both learned and innate physical responses. Through emotions, people communicate their internal states and intentions to others, whether they mean to or not. Emotions often disrupt thinking and behaviour, but they also trigger, and guide thinking and organise, motivate, and sustain behaviour and social relations. Weekly Objective 2: Describe Taxonomies of emotion- negative and positive affect; basic and complex emotions Psychologists have attempted to classify emotions using taxonomies. One way to classify emotions is through listing basic emotions that are believed to be common amongst all humans, such as anger, fear, happiness, and sadness. Emotions can also be classified as to whether they are subjectively experienced as positive or negative and by the degree of arousal that accompanies the emotional experience. Basic emotions include anger, fear, disgust, sadness, contempt, surprise, and joy. Basic emotions are thought to be universally experienced, are accompanied by universally recognised facial expressions and happen automatically. Complex emotions are an aggregate of two or more emotions and can vary across people, situations, and cultures. Complex emotions therefore may not be as easily recognizable, can be expressed with different facial features across people or may have no accompanying facial feature at all. Examples of complex emotions are grief, jealousy, regret, love, embarrassment, envy, gratitude, guilt, pride, and worry, among many others. Weekly Objective 3:Compare the James-Lange, Cannon-Bard and cognitive theories (Schachter-Singer and Lazarus) of emotion, and explain their strengths and weaknesses James’ Peripheral Theory (or James-Lange theory) According to this theory, people experience emotion based on observations of their own physical behaviour and peripheral responses. Observing Peripheral Responses - The brain interprets a situation and automatically directs a particular set of peripheral physiological changes. We are not conscious of the process until we become aware of these bodily changes. At that point, we experience an emotion. Each particular emotion is created by a particular pattern of physiological responses. Evaluating James’ Theory - Research shows that certain emotional states are indeed associated with certain patterns of autonomic activity. Also, different patterns of autonomic activity are closely tied to specific emotional facial expressions. According to the facial-feedback hypothesis, involuntary facial movements provide enough peripheral information to create emotional experience. This helps to explain why posed facial expressions generate the emotions normally associated with them. It also explains why many people with spinal cord injuries and thus reduced peripheral responses can still experience intense emotion. They get all the physiological information necessary to perceive an emotion from facial expressions. Cannon-Bard theory— According to Cannon’s central theory, also called the Cannon–Bard theory, emotion starts in the thalamus, which then sends signals simultaneously to the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and to the cerebral cortex, where it becomes conscious. Cannon said that the experience of emotion appears directly in the brain, with or without feedback from peripheral responses. Updating Cannon’s Theory - Recent evidence suggests that the thalamus does not produce the direct central experience of emotion but that activity in specific brain areas produces feelings associated with various emotions. Different parts of the central nervous system (for example, the amygdala, and the dopamine systems) may be activated for different emotions and for different aspects of the total emotional experience. Cognitive Theories of Emotion (or Schachter–Singer theory) - emotions are produced both by feedback from peripheral responses and by a cognitive interpretation of the nature and cause of those bodily responses. Labelling of arousal depends on attribution, the process of identifying the cause of an event. Physiological arousal might be attributed to one of several emotions depending on the information available about the situation. If you attribute physiological arousal to a nonemotional cause, your experience of emotion should be reduced. Studies on excitation transfer theory found that physiological arousal from one experience can carry over to affect emotion in an independent emotional situation. People sometimes attribute prior arousal to the new situation at hand, thereby intensifying their present feelings. Some theorists have argued that the cognitive interpretation of bodily responses is not as important as the cognitive interpretation of the events themselves in the experience of emotion. Lazarus’ cognitive appraisal theory suggests that our emotion is a result of our evaluation of how an event affects our wellbeing. If the event is relevant to our wellbeing, we will experience an emotional reaction to it. The reaction will be positive or negative depending on whether we see the event as advancing our personal goals or obstructing them. In the conceptual act model of emotion, core affect – pleasant or unpleasant feelings – is distinguished from emotion. According to this model, emotion results when we attach to our feelings a category label – such as guilt, shame, anger, or resentment – that our cultural and language training has taught us to use. Models like this one are valuable because they incorporate research on language and culture into efforts to better understand the labelling processes involved in human emotional experience. Weekly Objective 4: Explain which emotions are innate, which are learned and which are universally recognised Innate / Universal Expressions of Emotion - Darwin proposed that some facial expressions are universal and that these are genetically determined. Infants show facial expressions appropriate to their current state, and, apart from subtle cultural differences, for basic emotions all people show similar facial responses to similar emotional stimuli. Ekman and Friesen (1975) identified six emotions that have been associated with universal facial expressions in every study over 30 years. The emotions are: surprise, fear, disgust, anger, happiness, and sadness. However, although there is a basic pattern of facial expression for each emotion, there are individual differences, and some emotions have as many as 100 varied expressions. Social and Cultural influences on emotional expression (learned emotions) Although a core of emotional responses is recognised universally, there is a degree of cultural variation in recognising some emotions and people learn to express certain emotions in particular ways as specified by cultural rules. Social situations also influence emotional expressions. Researchers catalogued 17 types of smiles people learn to use to communicate certain feelings. They called the smile that occurs with real happiness the Duchenne smile. Learning about Emotions As children grow, they learn emotional expressions through operant shaping and they also learn an emotion culture, rules that govern what emotions are appropriate in what circumstances and what emotional expressions are allowed. These rules can vary between genders and from culture to culture. Social Referencing The process of letting another person’s emotional state guide our own behaviour is called social referencing. It is most often used in ambiguous situations when we are not sure what to do. Weekly Objective 5: Describe emotion regulation Emotional regulation refers to the way we manage our emotions –strategies are used to manage emotional experiences in ways that emotional states are adjusted to a more comfortable level so that we can achieve our goals. It requires voluntary, effortful management of our emotions. In infancy, babies are easily overwhelmed by both internal and external stimuli and depend on the quality of soothing given by caregivers for such emotional adjustment. When parents fail to regulate stressful experiences for infants, brain structures that buffer stress fail to develop properly resulting in anxious, emotionally reactive children with a reduced capacity for regulating emotion. By 2 years, language acquisition allows for talk about feelings and provides the environment for control of the emotions –children can make their own decisions, parents prepare children for pleasant and unpleasant events –dentist, injections, school, kinder, etc. Stability of emotion normally occurs at about age 4-5 years old. When emotional self-regulation has developed well, young people acquire a sense of emotional self-efficacy that fosters a favourable self-image and an optimistic outlook, which, in turn, helps them to