Motivation and Emotion PDF

Motivation and emotion Motivation Definition – process that directs + energises the behaviour of animals and humans (goal-directed behaviour) Motivation psychologists -> they try to find motives that underlie goals pursuit. Different theories of motivation to have a better understanding that can...

Motivation and emotion Motivation Definition – process that directs + energises the behaviour of animals and humans (goal-directed behaviour) Motivation psychologists -> they try to find motives that underlie goals pursuit. Different theories of motivation to have a better understanding that can be beneficial i) Biological Instinct – inborn patterns of behaviour that are biologically determined, not learnt – essential for survival and fitness.- e.g. graylag goose egg retrieval Also called fixed action pattern→Once started, behaviour follows through to completion. In the case of the grey goose, the egg goes under his body even if there is not anymore. Supernormal stimulus: Resembles object that triggers instinct but has exaggerated properties. E.g. In the goose’s case, it does not have to be an egg or a round object. Problems with this model: - No agreement on how many instincts exist – 1920s stipulated over 14000, too many to measure so not useful. - Explanations do not go very far to explain certain patterns of behaviours appear in a given species. - Complexity and variety of animal behaviours, much of which are learnt, cannot be explained as instinctive. Drive reduction: - drive - state of internal tension that motivates an organism to behavior in a way that reduces this tension - Homeostasis - a state of internal equilibrium that body strives to maintain - Drive -> behaviour that reduces that drive is more likely to be repeated/reiforced - drive - thirst -> reinforced behavior is drinking water that reduces that drive. - Learned helplessness - learning that unpleasant stimuli cannot be avoided. - Dogs who learn helplessness do not have the drive reducing behaviour to stop the shock. - Drives compel us to reduce a physiological need. - E.g. when we need water, a drive to obtain it is generated – thirst. - Stems from the fact that people are always trying to reduce internal tension. - Hull: Behaviour = drive x habit – drive is bigger the longer someone is deprived of a need, habit forms when behaviour is reinforced (operant conditioning). - Why? homeostasis – basic motivational phenomena that underlies basic drives – body’s tendency to maintain a steady internal state. Problems with this model: - Does not account for how secondary reinforcers impact drive (e.g. money). - Does not explain why people engage in behaviours that do not reduce drive, e.g. eating when not hungry / activities that increase tension like skydiving. Arousal approaches: - Seeks to explain behaviours in which the goal is to maintain or increase excitement – everyone tries to maintain a certain level of stimulation, and this varies between people. - Too high stimulation-> try to reduce it (consistent with drive reduction) - Too low stimulation-> try to increase it by seeking stimulation (counters drive-reduction). - Yerkes-Dodson Law – relation between performance and arousal (motivation optimal at medium levels of arousal). - This relationship also depends on the nature/difficulty of the task – e.g. to carry out a simple task you need higher levels of arousal than to carry out a difficult one. Approach/avoidance - Motivation impels us towards some things and away from others. - Evolutionary adaptive – seizing opportunities vs. escaping from danger. - Behavioral activation system - roused to action by signals of potential reward and positive need gratification. Associated with the left prefrontal cortex. - Behavioural inhibition system - responds to stimuli that signal potential pain, and punishment. Associated with the limbic system and the right frontal lobe. - BAS and BIS are neurological systems that underlie the tendencies to maximise pleasure and minimise pain. - Reward relevant input stimulates BAS -> desire, anticipation of pleasure (approach behaviour) - Punishment relevant input stimulates BIS -> aversion, anticipation of pain (avoidance behaviour) - Loss aversion: strong tendency to regard losses as more important than gains of comparable magnitude. - Relates to prospect theory. - In general, losses loom larger than gains - You can use prospect theory to frame situations. - Situations framed in a gain context – people tend to avoid risk to protect the prospect of gains. - Loss context – people tend to seek risk to avoid losses. - People will take risks to avoid losses, but will avoid risks to protect gains. - loss context -> risk to avoid loss / gain context -> no risk to protect gain. ii) Psychosocial approaches Incentive approaches - Incentives → environmental stimuli that pull an organism to a goal. E.g. anticipating a good grade can be an incentive for studying. → emphasizes external factors → motivation stems from desire to obtain valued external goals, or external incentives. Ex: we’re drawn to food that appears particularly appetizing → Pull incentive theory Problems: - Organisms seek to fulfil needs even when there are no incentives. - Drive approach and incentive approach may work together – push and pull factors. →Satisfy hunger – push of drive reduction. →Drawn to food that is appetizing – pull of incentive theory. - Drive is a physiological force that pushes organisms into action, whereas incentive is an external stimulus which pulls organisms to a reward. Social-cognitive approaches - Explanation of motivation as a product of people’s thoughts, expectations and goals. - Expectancy x value theory – behaviour determined by strength of the expectation that behaviour will lead to a goal + incentive value person places on a goal (on the stimulus) -> explains why people can respond differently to the same incentive. Strength of expectation and incentive value E.g. Eleanor works hard because she believes (expectations) that the more she studies, she will get a high grade (incentive) & she values a high grade highly.  James also believes that studying hard will lead to a high grade, but a high grade holds little value for him - has strength of expectation but no incentive value. Pascale values high grades but he believes that studying is unlikely to get him a high grade - has incentive value but no strength of expectation. - Intrinsic (performing an activity because you enjoy it), extrinsic (performing an activity to obtain an external reward/avoid punishment). - Overjustification – expected external incentive e.g. money may decrease intrinsic motivation to perform a task. - E.g. children given rewards for using magic markers, children later showed less enthusiasm for drawing -> rewards can undermine intrinsic interest. Learned helplessness - When individuals have little control over outcomes -> lose motivation. - E.g. dogs could not escape shocks administered -> showed less motivation to escape them. iii) Biopsychosocial approaches Maslow hierarchy of needs - Proposed that many motivation models ignored key human motives – striving for personal growth (even though this is a higher goal). - Basic needs in the hierarchy must be met before needs of higher order can be tackled. Describes a progression of needs, from basic physiological survival to self-actualization: Deficiency Needs: Physiological needs, safety, belongingness, and esteem. Growth Needs: Cognitive, aesthetic, self-actualization, and self-transcendence. Self-actualization motivates individuals to explore intrinsic satisfaction and contribute to societal improvement. Places focus on the motivation to strive for personal growth, but states that first, you need to satisfy more basic needs. Self-Determination Theory Proposes three fundamental psychological needs: ○ Competence: Motivation to master challenges and perfect skills. ○ Autonomy: Desire for self-regulation and personal control. ○ Relatedness: Need to form meaningful relationships. Satisfying these needs enhances well-being, happiness, performance, and a sense of meaningfulness. Balances autonomy and relatedness for psychological fulfillment. ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION Achievement motivation is the drive to pursue and accomplish goals, often evaluated in terms of performance Key dimensions ○ Motive for success - focused on attaining competence and excelling - associated with high persistence and resilience in the face of challenges ○ Fear of failure - driven by the desire to avoid negative outcomes - often linked to anxiety, procrastination, and self-handicapping behaviours Achievement Goal Theory → focuses on the types of goals individuals adopt to achieve success ○ Mastery orientation (personal improvement) ○ Ego orientation (outperform others) Achievement Goal Orientations ○ Approach Orientation → focuses on achieving positive outcomes and excelling (e.g., a student studying hard to earn the top grade) ○ Avoidance Orientation → focuses on avoiding negative outcomes (e.g., a student studying just enough to avoid failing) Family, Culture, and Achievement Needs ○ Family influence - parental expectations, encouragement, and modelling play significant roles in shaping achievement motivation - authoritative parenting (high warmth and high demands) is linked to higher achievement motivation ○ Cultural variations - individualistic cultures (e.g., western societies) - collectivist cultures (e.g., east asian societies) MOTIVATIONAL CONFLICT Motivational conflict occurs when competing motives or goals interfere with decision-making and behaviour. Types of motivational conflict ○ Approach-Approach Conflict → conflict between two desirable outcomes (e.g., choosing between two dream job offers) ○ Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict → conflict between two undesirable outcomes (e.g., deciding whether to do a disliked chore or face a penalty) ○ Approach-Avoidance Conflict → conflict involving a single goal with both appealing and unappealing aspects (e.g., taking a high-paying job that requires relocation to an undesirable location) ○ Double Approach-Avoidance Conflict → conflict between two goals, each with both positive and negative aspects (e.g., deciding between two universities with different pros and cons) HUNGER AND WEIGHT REGULATION Physiology of Hunger: ○ Hypothalamus → key role in regulating hunger through signals like ghrelin (hunger hormone) and leptin (satiety hormone) ○ Homeostasis → body's need to maintain a balanced energy state, influencing drive to eat Psychosocial Aspects of Hunger: ○ Learned Associations → hunger can be conditioned by cues, such as meal times or the sight of food ○ Emotional Eating → eating in response to emotional states, rather than physiological hunger Environmental and Cultural Factors: ○ Availability and Variety → access to food and the variety of available food can increase consumption ○ Cultural influences → societal norms around food and body image influence eating behaviours and attitudes toward weight Obesity: ○ Causes → combination of genetic predispositions, environmental factors, and lifestyle choices ○ Health Risks → increased risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and psychological impacts, such as stigmatization SEXUAL MOTIVATION  Physiology of sex: ○ Hormonal Influence → testosterone and estrogen play key roles in sexual motivation and arousal ○ Sexual Response Cycle → stages of arousal, plateau, orgasm, and resolution Psychology of sex: ○ Individual Differences → variations in sexual desire and preferences influences by personal, psychological, and biological factors ○ Cognitive and Emotional Influences → thoughts, expectations, and emotions shape sexual experiences and desires Cultural and Environmental Influences ○ Norms and Values → societal attitudes around sexuality, such as permissiveness or conservatism, shape individual behaviours ○ Media and Socialization → influence of media and cultural narratives on sexual expectations and beliefs Sexual Orientation ○ Spectrum of sexual orientation → understanding that orientation exists on a continuum rather than strict categories ○ Biological and Environmental Contributions → complex interplay of genetics, hormonal influences, and environmental factors SOCIAL MOTIVATION Social motivation refers to the drive to seek and maintain interpersonal relationships The Need to Belong (Baumeister & Leary) ○ Humans have an innate need to form and sustain close relationships ○ Benefits → emotional support, shared resources, social learning ○ Isolation or lack of belonging can lead to psychological and physical health issues Evolutionary perspective ○ Affiliation enhances survival through cooperative living and shared resources ○ Protection from threats and increased reproductive success are key factors Situational factors ○ Stress and affiliation: people often seek companionship during stressful situations ○ Social comparison: affiliating with others helps in understanding and coping with stress Emotion: Definition – feelings (affective states) that impact behaviour, which generally have both physiological and cognitive elements. - Complex and hard to define. - Distinct from moods* - Strong adaptive function – link to motivation. Difference - Emotions: clear cause, brief, cognition and bodily changes, discrete categories - Mood: unknown reasons, lasting longer, subjective, less intense. Emotional intelligence - the abilities to read others’ emotions accurately, to respond to them appropriately, to motivate oneself, to be aware of one’s own emotions, and to regulate and control one’s own emotional responses. Function of emotions - Preparing us for action – link between events in the environment and our actions. - Shaping future behaviour – reinforcement (either to stop or experience the emotion) - Helping us to interact more effectively with others – signal to observers, allowing them to better understand what we are experiencing and predict our future behaviour. Type of emotions? - Darwin – joy, disgust, suffering, sorrow. - Eckmann – anger, fear, disgust, surprise, enjoyment, sadness. Models of emotion: - Categorical model – emotions derived from a set of innate universal emotions. - Dimensional approach – emotions are not discrete but results from activity on two dimensions – arousal and valence. Hybrid approaches - 8 basic emotions – trust, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger, anticipation, joy. - Each with a long evolutionary history – e.g. trust facilitates tribal sharing. - All emotions are variants of these 8 main ones – e.g. joy + trust = love. - Emotions have polar opposites – e.g. trust vs. disgust. What brings out the experience of a particular emotion? Common sense theory – danger CROCODILE -> perception -> emotion -> body arousal James-Lange – danger CROCODILE -> perception -> bodily arousal -> emotion. - Bodily arousal determins the subjective emotions we experience. Challenges to this: - It takes too long - Not distinctive – similar visceral responses for different emotions. - Physiological arousal Canon-bard – emotional stimuli processed in the brain, which separately generates bodily responses and feelings -> subjective experience of emotion and bodily arousal do NOT have a causal link, they are independent responses. Danger CROCODILE -> subcortical brain activity in thalamus -> emotion + bodily arousal. James-Lang vs. Cannon-Bard: - JL - feedback from bodily arousal -> tells the brain we are experiencing emotion, so without autonomic arousal, we can’t feel emotion. - CB - emotional experiences result from signals sent directly from thalamus -> cortex, not from bodily arousal.  - So is autonomic arousal necessary for emotions? CB experiment - severed nerves that provide feedback from organs to brain & found that they still exhibited emotional responses. Shaky bridge theory - relates to Schachter-Singer because participants make a wrong cognitive appraisal in attributing physiological arousal (related to fear) to sexual attraction. → The main idea is that people can misinterpret physical sensations caused by arousal (such as an increased heart rate) as emotional attraction. Experiment: Straight men were asked to walk across a bridge and then participate in an interview with an attractive experimenter (either male or female). Independent Variables (IVs): 1. Participants crossed either a shaky bridge (which swayed and was high off the ground) or a stable bridge (a solid, stable bridge close to the ground). 2. The experimenter was either of the same sex or the opposite sex to the participants. Dependent Variables (DVs): 1. Sexual imagery in the invented short stories from Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) pictures. This involved participants writing a story based on pictures of ambiguous scenes. The researchers scored the stories for sexual content or suggestiveness. 2. Number of calls: After the experiment, participants were given the experimenter's phone number. The number of calls they placed to the experimenter was counted as an indicator of attraction. Findings: ○ Men who crossed the shaky bridge were more likely to call the female experimenter afterward. ○ They also wrote more sexually suggestive stories compared to men who crossed the stable bridge. Explanation (Misattribution of Arousal): ○ The shaky bridge created physiological arousal (e.g., increased heart rate, nervousness) because of its instability and height. The participants misattributed this arousal as sexual attraction or romantic interest toward the experimenter, especially when the experimenter was of the opposite sex. ○ This demonstrates how physiological responses from one source (fear or excitement from walking on a shaky bridge) can be misinterpreted as emotional responses (attraction) in another context. Schachter – how do we know what we feel? - Experience of emotion depends on 2 factors – general arousal and cognitive label. - May interpret arousal as fear/excitement, depending on context. - E.g. different types of arousal if a tiger comes into a room vs. an attractive person. Schachter-Singer theory. - Role of appraisal. - Intensity of physiological arousal determines DEGREE of emotion. - Cognitive assessment determines TYPE of emotion. - Danger CROCODILE -> perception -> bodily arousal (degree) + cognitive appraisal (type) -> emotion. - Emotion depends on interpretation of arousal in the context of situational cues, i.e. a person’s judgements about why their physiology has changed. - If you KNOW why you feel aroused -> emotional state remains constant. - If you DON’T know why -> attribute feelings to a change in emotion. The Schachter & Singer (1962) study, often referred to as the Two-Factor Theory of Emotion, investigates how physiological arousal and cognitive appraisal (interpretation of the situation) interact to influence emotional experiences. It highlights the idea that emotions are not just a direct result of physiological changes, but also depend on how we label or interpret those changes in context. Method  Injection: Participants were injected with epinephrine (adrenaline), which increases heart rate and respiration. This physiological effect created arousal (increased physiological response). Independent Variables (IVs): ○ Informed vs. Ignorant: Informed: Participants were told that the injection would cause physiological effects such as increased heart rate. Ignorant: Participants were not informed about the effects of the injection. ○ Angry vs. Euphoric Confederate: Participants were exposed to a confederate (an actor involved in the experiment) who either acted angrily or euphorically in front of them, creating an emotional environment for the participant to interpret. Dependent Variable (DV): ○ The emotional reaction of participants was measured by how they described their own emotional state after interacting with the confederate. This was based on the participants' interpretations of their physiological arousal and the emotional environment created by the confederate's behavior. Results When participants were informed (i.e., aware of the physiological effects of epinephrine), they felt neutral regardless of the confederate’s behavior (angry or happy). This suggests they could attribute their physiological arousal to the injection, so they did not misattribute the arousal to the confederate's behavior. When participants were uninformed (i.e., unaware of the effects of the injection), they misattributed their arousal: ○ Those exposed to an angry confederate described feeling angry. ○ Those exposed to a happy confederate described feeling happy. This shows that when participants were uncertain about the cause of their physiological arousal, they used the environment (the confederate’s behavior) to label their emotional state. Conclusion The findings support the Two-Factor Theory of Emotion, which posits that emotion is the result of: 1. Physiological arousal (e.g., increased heart rate) and  2. Cognitive interpretation (how we label the arousal based on the environment). The same physiological response (epinephrine-induced arousal) can lead to different emotions (anger or happiness) depending on the cognitive appraisal of the situation. When participants did not know the cause of their arousal, they looked to the external cues (confederate's behavior) to label their emotional state. OVERVIEW of theories: - Common-sense theory – I will tremble because I am afraid of the crocodile. - James-Lange theory – I feel afraid of the crocodile because I am trembling. - Cannon-Bard theory – The crocodile makes me tremble and feel afraid. - Schachter-Singer – I label my trembling as fear because I appraise the alligator as dangerous. Components of Emotion: ○ Physiological Response: - Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) → emotions involve physiological arousal regulated by the sympathetic (arousing) and parasympathetic (calming) branches - brain structures → amygdala, prefrontal cortex, hypothalamus - hormones → adrenaline and cortisol ○ Behavioural Expression: expressive (facial expressions, body language, tone of voice) and instrumental (actions driven by emotions to achieve a goal) behaviours THE NATURE OF EMOTIONS Eliciting stimuli = events, objects, or situations that trigger emotional responses ○ Internal and external triggers - external stimuli include environmental events, such as seeing a friend or experiencing danger - internal stimuli involve memories or thoughts that evoke emotions ○ Innate and learned responses - some emotional reactions (e.g., fear of loud noises) are biologically innate - others are learned through personal experience or cultural context Cognitive component of emotion ○ Role of cognition → emotions are influenced by how we interpret or appraise a situation (e.g., interpreting a challenge as an opportunity can evoke excitement, while seeing it as a threat may cause anxiety)  ○ Cognitive appraisal theories → propose that emotional responses depend on our evaluation of the significance of stimuli for our well-being - primary appraisal = evaluating whether a situation is relevant or threatening - secondary appraisal = assessing how to cope with the situation HAPPINESS A positive emotional state characterized by satisfaction and contentment Subjective well-being → refers to how people evaluate their lives, including emotional experiences and life satisfaction Factors influencing happiness ○ Biological factors: genetic predispositions, and dopamine and serotonin ○ Psychological factors: personality traits, cognitive patterns ○ Social and Environmental factors: social connections, supportive relationships, economic stability, access to resources ○ Cultural variations The Hedonic Treadmill ○ People adapt to positive or negative changes, returning to a stable level of happiness over time Personality Distinctive and relatively enduring ways of thinking, feeling and acting that characterise a person’s responses to life situations + distinguish individuals from one another. Traits– constant, continuum. Low in level of kindness, stable and continues. Enduring quality. Genetic component. A trait could be kindness, happiness. Overall your level of happiness has a strong genetic component. States– temporary, maybe I slept well so my state is extra kind. Point being you return back to the baseline. Temporal causation. States change from the trait due to the context. Situations– context that impacts states. Something you are currently feeling. Self-esteem. Problems 18,000 terms for personality: agreeable, admirable, cordial, friendly, sociable, welcoming, warm… This means we have underlying traits in common. Like with intelligence, we have many skills, we can reduce and cathegorize them. → Trait theorists: manageable set of personality dimensions as basic traits (underlying personality dimensions). Instead of 18k we reduce them in a limited number of factors. How can we measure personality? Interview, Observation, Inventory/Questionnaire Questionnaire – factor analysis, big five personality dimensions. Factor analysis vs lexical approach to analyze personality traits - Factor analysis: Analyses patterns of correlation to extract factors that underlie correlations. Look for commonalities. Identifies clusters of related behaviors and organizes them into basic personality dimensions, like introversion-extraversion. Analyze the extent to which different traits are reliant on each other, i.e. if you are kind you are more likely to be trustworthy, and if you are kind you are not likely to be rude. - Lexical approach: identifies personality traits (like self.esteem) by analyzing words or concepts from everyday language. Traits examples: Carefree, compliant, dependable, hard-working, kind, rude, trusting. Cattell's Sixteen Personality Factors: Cattell identified 16 basic personality traits using factor analysis. These traits form the basis of the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF), which is used to describe individual personalities. Big five personality inventory (The Five Factor Model ) - Big Five: This model includes five major personality factors: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (OCEAN). - These factors are considered universal, found across various cultures. - There are subcategories (facets) for each of the Big Five factors, which provide more detailed predictions about behavior. - Openness vs. closedness to experiences - Conscientiousness vs. lack of direction - Extraversion vs. introversion. - Agreeableness vs. antagonism - Neuroticism vs. emotional stability. Are people honest? - Social desirability concern -> validity scales to check if answers make sense. - Lie scale -> denial of common frailties. E.g. "I read every editorial in the newspaper every day." “At times I feel like swearing.”. Know they are lies, will not be considered as truths in the Big Five scale inventory. Measures of personality - Stable across life? - Predict behaviours and life outcomes? - Correlated.50 to.70 across 30 to 40 years of life – pretty significant. - Increases with age – when you are a child, you are more impressionable. Criterion validity of big 5 Some traits like introversion/extraversion and emotional stability tend to remain stable over time. Other traits such as Neuroticism, Openness, and Extraversion may decrease with age, while Agreeableness and Conscientiousness tend to increase. Life experiences, therapy, and counseling can lead to changes in personality over time. High neuroticism - Pay more attention to threats in environment. - More stress when given a surprise maths test. - Higher divorce rate - More susceptible to depression and anxiety. - But is this clinically concerning? High extraversion - Attend more parties, popular. - Leaders in college - Live and work with more people. - Less disturbed by sudden loud sounds or intense stimuli. High agreeableness - More willing to lend money. - Higher school grades in childhood. - Fewer arrests as adults. High openness: - More likely to major in humanities. - Change careers in midlife. - Perform better in job training programs. - Play an instrument. High conscientiousness - More sexually faithful to spouses. - Higher job ratings. - Smoke less, drink less, drive safely, live longer, lower risk for Alzheimer’s. - Play instrument. What determines your personality? - Nature vs. nurture. - Twin studies – monozygotic vs. dizygotic twins, reared together vs. reared apart. - For each big five trait, correlations for monozygotic twins were higher than dizygotic twins – importance of genetic component. - Identical twins reared apart – time spent watching television, number of childhood accidents, tendency for marriage and divorce, religious attitudes, work interest, happiness. - Parents? It does not matter for monozygotic twins whether they are raised in the same or different families. → Studies show that identical twins tend to have more similar personalities than fraternal twins, suggesting that genetics contribute to personality traits. However, the environment also plays a role, as identical twins raised in the same family may have more similar experiences than those raised apart, making it harder to separate genetic from environmental influences. - Biological siblings far more similar to one another than adoptive siblings -> genetic component. - Children are no more similar to adoptive siblings than to randomly selected kids -> family plays little to know role? - Identical twins reared apart – both very neat -> one attributes it to her mother being super neat, the other one to her being a total slob – genetic component. While the Big Five provides a broad understanding of personality, more specific traits (like Cattell’s) may be better for predicting behavior in certain situations. QUESTION possible - genetic component The psychodynamic approach - Freud: - Discredited because his theories are not falsifiable - focus on unconscious mind influencing conscious one.  - Main determinants of personality - biological drives (understanding hidden physiological forces that drive behaviour) + childhood experiences. - Personality tests. Freud structure of personality: - Iceberg model - stresses importance of the unconscious. - Three levels of awareness: conscious (actual awareness), preconscious (easy to retrieve knowledge), unconscious (difficult to retrieve feelings and memories). - Structure - id, ego and superego. - Id - raw biological urges & pleasure principle (seeks immediate gratification or release, regardless of rational considerations and environmental realities + only structure present at birth. - Ego - decision maker with direct contact to reality, functioning on a conscious level & reality principle (testing reality to decide when and under what conditions the id can safely discharge its impulses and satisfy its needs - pragmatic) - Superego - moral component, ego ideal. Conflicts that arise because of these dynamics: - Id strives for release & experiences counter-forces by ego and superego -> neurotic anxiety if ego confronts impulses that can get out of control. Defense mechanisms (ego) - unconscious mental operations that deny or distort reality, satisfy the id and fool the superego. - These permit the release of impulses from the id in disguised forms that do not conflict with prohibitions of the superego. - Repression - memories that are too frightening are repressed - blocks or distorts memories of events, e.g. if a person was molested, they would have no memory of it. - Projection - by repressing an unacceptable impulse, you project it onto others - e.g. if you have fantasies of having an affair, you always accuse your partner of being unfaithful to you for no reason. - Reaction formation - an anxiety-arousing impulse is repressed, manifesting itself in an exaggerated expression of the opposite behaviour to compensate, i.e. doing the opposite  of what your urges tell you, e.g. a mother who resents her child represses them, becoming overprotective instead. - Displacement - an unacceptable or anger-inducing impulse is repressed, and therefore redirected to a safer and unrelated target, e.g. a woman who is harassed by her boss get angry, and then goes home and abuses her children. - Rationalisation - a person constructs a false but plausible explanation or excuse for an anxiety-arousing behaviour or event that has already occurred, e.g. a person evades paying taxes and rationalises it by saying the government wastes money. - Intellectualisation and isolation of affect - the emotion connected with an upsetting event is repressed, and the situation is dealt with an intellectual interesting event, e.g. a person who has been rejected romantically talks about the ‘interesting unpredictability of love relationships’ / if someone dies, you think of why it might be good, i.e. reduction of suffering. - Denial - distorts the way you perceive events. Difference between projection and displacement - in projection, you think that everyone has the same impulses as you, whereas in displacement, something causes you anger which you repress, only to then redirect this anger to something unrelated. Projective tests: - Rorschach inkblots – what do you see? - Free association. - Shows unconscious wishes, motivations, conflicts, related to Freud. - Location (entire inkblot or part of it) - Determinants (shape, colour, texture, shading). - Content. - Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) – make up a story about a picture (free imagination). Problems: - Too often misclassify normal people as pathological. - Culturally fair? - Inter-rater reliability. Beliefs viewed as personality traits Julian Rotter Belief of skill or luck affects behavior and performance Work harder and improve (skills) vs did not work much and no improvement (luck) Often unclear and uncertain how much control we have in life (example?) Studying -> good grade Eat healthy + exercise -> no heart attack. There are also people who live unhealthy lives and won’t have an heart attack. Same with smoking. Locus (location) of control (internal -we vs external-world) What is the center of control? Ex. Believe God is the control - In the case of the well-prepared student there is rarely if ever such a thing as an unfair test. Internal - Many times exam questions tend to be so unrelated to course work that studying is really useless. External People try to control their own fate (Internal) Preventive health care measures Succeed in weight-loss programs Seek information to protect from tornado Resist group pressure Prefer skill-games over chance-games What is the problem with these effects? Correlational effects, direction of causality is unknown. We learn these things. Bidirectional cycle, but intervention is still possible. Self-efficacy→ Belief about one’s ability to perform specific tasks How would you characterize the difference with Locus of Control? →Sense of ability (SE) vs will that ability do anything (LoC) E.g. Math Example: Good Self-Efficacy, External Locus of Control: You believe you're skilled at math (SE) but feel it doesn't matter because the teacher dislikes you and grades unfairly (external control over outcomes). Bad Self-Efficacy, Internal Locus of Control: You feel you're bad at math (SE) but think that hard work and practice (your actions) could eventually help you win a math competition or become a teacher. False feedback experiment - Participants told they had a high pain tolerance -> higher self-efficacy in enduring pain -> increases pain tolerance. - Participants told they had a low pain tolerance -> lower self-efficacy in enduring pain -> decreases pain tolerance. - Participants told they were good problem solvers -> higher self-efficacy in being able to solve problems -> better performance on problem-solving tasks. - Participants told they were bad problem solvers -> lower self-efficacy in being able to solve problems -> worse performance on problem-solving tasks. Possibility of personal improvement Fixed vs malleable entities. Can you change ? E.g., intelligence can grow or atrophy depending on efforts. Brain for instance. Growth vs decay. Advantage of malleable belief Embrace education Rebound from setbacks (growth experiences). Reform studying technique. Seek out challenges Improve personal relationships. Can improve or decline, putting positive energy. People can be taught to think of themselves as malleable Experiment: Movie about neurons and brain plasticity to one group, the other not. Results: seeing the movie led to Improved enthusiasm for academics, and GPA. How does this fit with the work on praise? Person praise: fixed Process praise: malleable →When a person receives praise, the feedback is directed toward their innate qualities or traits -> telling them their abilities are fixed and unchangeable. E.g. You are so smart, you are talented. →When someone receives process praise, the feedback is focused on effort, strategies or methods, rather than innate abilities -> suggests that skills are malleable and can be developed. E.g. you worked really hard on that. Positive thinking So: internal locus of control, self-efficacy, and malleable entity help performance and well-being. If a teacher says to you you’re good, it’s internal factor because YOU are good in math. Seligman questionnaire to assess optimistic or pessimistic dealing with negative life events “In uncertain times, I usually expect the best” Dispositional optimism —> personality trait - This correlates with positive outcomes Recovery from coronary artery bypass surgery Quicker to sit up, walk, vigorously exercise, get back to work (correlation) Why? Devote attention and energy to solving problems Pessimist: won’t work out, why try? Beliefs change behavior, free will. Optimistic children - Children often excellent at being optimistic - do recognise talent in others, but always count themselves among the best. - This increases self-efficacy and exploration in them -> higher verbal IQ, higher grades, optimism on memory tasks led to better performance. Adaptive and maladaptive optimism Defensive optimism Invulnerability to catastrophes→ Aids/STD, lung cancer, addiction, automobile accidents. Inflated belief in academic abilities blinds for shortcomings→They stop working for it Optimism may reduce anxiety by diverting thoughts away from scary outcomes ‘Controlling fate’ optimism leads to constructive behaviors, but the optimistic idea that everything will be alright outside of your control is dangerous Adaptive and maladaptive pessimism Is pessimism all bad? Adaptive pessimism: believe that there’s a good chance that they will not do well despite contradicting evidence Work hard to prevent that “I probably did poorly “-> A Optimists are still better off Failure anxiety leads to focus on grades -> overjustification effect Social cognition Impression formation – why do we have stereotypes about others? What is a stereotype? Generalized belief about a group or category of people, objects, events and situations and it represents a powerful type of schema. - Schematic processing – top-down vs bottom-up processing. - Stereotypes are schemas for classes/subtypes of people. (schema= mental frameworks that help us organize and interpret information.) Priming: - Stereotypes activate automatically – can be induced experimentally. - E.g. comply, adhere, conform, sexist TV ads, black and white faces on hostility. Consequences first impressions. - Weapon bias. - When forming impressions, the primacy effect refers to our tendency to attach more importance to the initial information that we learn about a person. It’s difficult to overcome someone’s negative first impression of you if that person subsequently avoids or ignores you. - Primacy effect may decrease—and recency effects (giving greater weight to the most recent information) may occur Self-fulfilling prophecy – thought -> behaviour in light with thought -> consequence in line with action and thought. Occurs when people’s erroneous expectations lead them to act toward others in a way that brings about the expected behaviors, thereby confirming their original impression. For example, if a teacher believes a student is academically gifted and treats them accordingly, the student may perform better because of the heightened expectations. Or someone is rude, I am cold to him and then he becomes rude. Attributions - judgements about the causes of our own and other people’s behaviour and outcomes. - Related to the cause of behaviors. - Inferring the cause of one’s behaviour, if it is dispositional or situational. - If dispositional, infer that people’s inherent characteristics cause their behaviour. - If situational, infer that aspects of the situation cause the behaviour, like provocation. - One can determine whether situational or dispositional factors are more prevalent by analysing different aspects and cues of the situation: - E.g. consistency (how frequently a person behaves in the same way in the same situation, e.g. does Megan always hate this professor or is she mad at him for a specific thing?), distinctiveness (how a person behaves in different situations, e.g does Megan hate all professors or just this one?), consensus (how other people behave in the same situation,  e.g. does everyone hate this professor?) information help us determine whether to make personal or situational attributions to situations. Explain - Fundamental attribution error - underestimation of situational factors and overestimation of dispositional ones. - Actor-observer bias - the tendency to make situational attributions to explain our own behaviour and personal attributions to explain the behaviour of others. - This is because we are not so aware of our own behaviour, instead we focus on the surroundings and are therefore more sensitive to situational factors. - As observers, we tend to focus more on other people’s behaviours. - In general, the actor-observer bias is self-serving, i.e. it only applies when it makes us feel better about ourselves. - Self-serving bias - the tendency to make personal attributions for one’s own successes and situational attributions for one’s own failures. - Depressed people tend to exhibit the opposite behaviour. Interpersonal attraction: - What determines who you will date and be friends with? - Looks – declines in importance when choosing long term partner. - Proximity – campus study. - Familiarity – mere exposure effect. - Similarity – similar, not opposites, attract + implicit egotism (name letter effect and sharing initials). Attitudes – a positive, neutral or negative evaluative reaction towards a stimulus, such as a person, action, situation, object or concept. - It would seem logical to say that attitudes have a direct influence on our behaviour, but in reality there is a gap. - Attitudes can influence our behaviour, but it must be under specific circumstances. What reduces the attitude-behaviour gap? - If situational factors that contradict our attitudes are weak. - Attitudes have a greater influence on behaviour when we are aware of them. E.g. you can make someone more aware of themselves by having them look at the mirror. - Attitudes have a greater influence on behaviour if they are strongly held and consistent - e.g. if they are with a political party’s many stances.  - General attitudes best predict general classes of behaviour, and specific attitudes best specific specific behaviours. - Distinction is made between cognitive attitudes (instrumental consequences of behaviours) and affective attitudes (emotional consequences). E.g. affective attitudes seem to be better predictors of health-related behaviour. E.g. Persuasion - it is not so easy to persuade people to change their attitudes. Elaboration likelihood model of persuasion (ELM) - Central route - when people think carefully about the message and are influenced because they find the arguments compelling. - Peripheral - when people do not scrutinise the message but are influenced mostly by other factors such as a speaker’s attractiveness or a message’s length or emotional appeal. - Which route depends on motivation and ability. - Central route persuasion is most effective if there is motivation and ability→ listen to the message and take it into account. Social influence - Social norms are shared expectations about how people should think, feel, and behave. They can lose their "invisibility" when violated or examined across different cultures and time periods, revealing that what we consider "normal" varies widely. For example, personal space preferences differ culturally: Japanese people prefer more distance than Venezuelans, with Americans falling in between. - Muzafer Sherif's autokinetic experiment demonstrated how group norms form. In a dark room, individuals perceived a stationary dot of light as moving, with each person's judgment varying. When placed in groups, their individual judgments gradually converged, forming a group norm without effort. This phenomenon showed how humans naturally develop shared standards for behavior and judgment. - A social role consists of a set of norms that characterizes how people in a given social position ought to behave. The social roles of “college student,” “professor,” “police officer,” and “spouse” carry different sets of behavior expectations. Social facilitation - an individual's performance on a task improves in the presence of others -> usually when a person is skilled at the task. - When someone is good at something, the mere presence of others boosts performance. Social inhibition - presence of others decreases performances, for tasks that are difficult or stressful. The mere presence of others: - Energises performance, e.g. making a child perform a simple physical task either alone or in the presence of another child -> performance improves in the latter condition. - Presence of others -> heightened arousal -> enhanced tendency to perform dominant responses (i.e. most typical responses). - If dominant responses are correct, typically in a simple situation, performance is enhanced. - If dominance responses are incorrect, typically in a difficult situation, performance is impaired. Evaluation apprehension (anxiety people feel when they feel they are being judged by others) - no apprehension -> weaker SFI effects because this either improves or worsens performance. Facilitation in groups: - Social loafing – people expend less effort when working in a group than working alone. - Pulling a rope blindfolded, applauding, tipping, donating to charity. - Would social loafing be reduced in eastern societies? Yes, because culture of shame vs guilt (shame: external group orientation, guilt: internal self-orientation). Facilitation vs. loafing: - Presence of others -> individual efforts evaluated -> evaluation apprehension -> social facilitation. - Presence of others -> individual efforts not evaluated -> no evaluation apprehension -> social loafing. Deindividuation: - Perceived loss of individual identity -> diminished self-regulation -> anti normative behaviour. - Driven by anonymity -> darkness. - Women-shock study - when women all wore white dresses, they felt more comfortable shocking each other, because of the group anonymity.  Bystander effect - the phenomenon whereby the likelihood of any one person helping in an emergency situation decreases as the number of other bystanders increases. Causes - Pluralistic ignorance – look to others for a reaction, and as each person does not react, they observe other non-reacting bystanders, interpreting the situation as not requiring a reaction. Example of pluralistic ignorance - smoke in the room study. - Subject placed in a small waiting room to fill out a questionnaire. - After 2 pages, smoke appears. - DV - the time the subject remained in the room before leaving to report the smoke. - IV - number of people present in the waiting room (1, 3, 3 naive) Hypotheses: - An individual faced with passive reactions of other people will be influenced -> less likely to take action. - With 3 naive bystanders, the likelihood that at least one person will report the smoke is increased, even if the subjects had no influence on each other. Results: Alone conditions: 75% reported smoke before experimental period terminated Two passive confederates: 10% reported smoke before the experimental period terminated. Three naive bystanders: in 38% of the 8 groups in this condition, 1 person reported. Diffusion of responsibility – burden does not fall on me. - E.g. bystander effect in kids - 60 children. - 3 conditions - alone, 2 bystanders (confederates), 2 unavailable bystanders. - When alone and with unavailable bystanders, more likely to help. - With available bystanders, less likely to help. Audience inhibition - evaluation apprehension -> potential embarrassment. - Also apparent from the first experiment, but can be targeted in a separate one. - Questionnaire in the bar & you sit with either 2 male confederates or none.  - Experimenter explains what needs to be done, after which a breathalyser test would be taken -> while handing over questionnaire, she knocks over mouthpieces. - No bystanders - response time for helping increases with alcohol consumption. - Bystanders - response time for helping decreases with alcohol consumption -> more socially disinhibited -> less embarrassed to help. - With alcohol consumption, you are more socially disinhibited, so more likely to go against the bystander effect. Compliance. - Norm of reciprocity - the expectation that when others treat us well, we should respond in kind. - Need consistency to understand, predict and control our world. - Foot-in-the-door – small favour leads to bigger favour. - Lowballing – initial attempt is followed by a more costly and less beneficial version of the same request. Car that costs 2000, you accept and then the manager tells you it was actually 2300, but you accept anyway. First, you have to commit to the action at a more beneficial cost, and then the cost is increased after you have already committed, increasing your chances of complying. - Door-in-the-face – big request -> small request – works on the basis of reciprocal concessions. Refuse to donate 25 $ to charity, more likely to donate a small amount - may not work if the initial request is off-putting. Obedience to Authority: Obedience to authority, like conformity, can stabilize or harm society depending on context. Examples include Nazi war crimes and the My Lai massacre, where individuals followed orders leading to tragic outcomes. Cognitive dissonance - state of imbalance between attitude and behaviour, stems from a need for internal consistency. - State of imbalance among beliefs, including the beliefs that support a person’s attitude. - Often because of a discrepancy between attitude and behaviour. - Need for internal consistency – inconsistency tends to be psychologically uncomfortable. - Solve? Justify behaviour by changing cognition. An alternative explanation for attitude change is self-perception theory , which says that individuals infer their attitudes by observing their own behavior. For instance, if someone pays a minimal amount to lie, they might logically conclude that they genuinely enjoyed the tasks. In cognitive dissonance, you are changing your attitude to match with your behaviour, whereas in self-perception theory, you shape your attitude by observing your behaviour. Research shows that dissonance theory better explains attitude change in scenarios where behavior contradicts well-defined attitudes and threatens self-worth, while self-perception theory is more applicable when attitudes are weak or when behavior does not elicit strong emotional responses. Hazing: - Increase group cohesion – basis of cognitive dissonance. - Unpleasant initiation -> dissonance between effort you put in and the subsequent negative aspects. - To reduce this internal inconsistency, you overestimate the attractiveness of the group. - After the unpleasant initiation, your attitude becomes negative towards it, creating a feeling of internal imbalance at all the effort you put in (behavior). Therefore, you change your attitude, overestimating the attractiveness of the group to justify all the effort you put in (cognitive dissonance). Hazing experiment: - 63 women sign up for group discussions. - 3 conditions - no hazing, severe hazing, mild hazing. - Subjects proceed with pre-recorded discussion. - “One of the most worthless and uninteresting discussions imaginable” - the ones who were not hazed. - The ones who were hazed reported more positively about the discussion. Conformity: - Easy to conform to other people’s opinions, but if it is a simple perceptual task? - Personal norms can be quickly discarded. Social norms regulate behavior, but they require individuals to conform—adjusting behaviors, attitudes, or beliefs to group standards. Without conformity, society would face chaos. - Incidental influence (subtle social influence) leads to implicit norm adoption without conscious awareness. Types of Social Influence: Informational Social Influence: Conforming because we believe others possess accurate knowledge and their behavior is correct. Normative Social Influence: Conforming to gain social acceptance and avoid rejection. Asch’s Conformity Experiment: Solomon Asch's experiment illustrated how social influence affects individual judgments. Participants were asked to judge which of three lines matched a standard line in length. Each group included one real participant and several confederates instructed to give incorrect answers on specific trials. The participant, seated second-to-last, faced a decision: conform to the group’s incorrect answers or trust their own judgment. Findings: ○ Participants conformed to incorrect group judgments 37% of the time. ○ Only 1% error occurred when participants judged the lines independently. ○ Reasons for conformity included avoiding rejection (normative influence) or doubting their perception (informational influence). Factors Influencing Conformity: Group Size: Conformity increased with group size up to 4-5 members but did not rise further with larger groups. Presence of a Dissenter: If even one person in the group dissented, conformity drastically decreased. When someone dissents, this serves as a model for independence from the group. Cultural Differences: Collectivistic cultures exhibit higher conformity due to greater emphasis on group harmony. Minority Influence: A committed, consistent minority can influence the majority, especially when they remain open-minded and reasonable and independent in face of the majority pressure. Group polarisation: - When a group of like-minded people discusses an issue, the “average” opinion of group members tends to become more extreme. →individuals who are attracted to a group may be motivated to adopt a more extreme position to gain the group’s approval Process - Group member hears arguments from other members (persuasive arguments theory) -> learns position of other members (social comparison theory) -> more influenced by in-group members (self-categorisation theory) -> more polarised attitudes following group discussion. Lifespan development Stage of development Developmental psychology: examines biological, physical, psychological, and behavioral changes that occur as we age. Four broad issues: 1. Stability vs. change - change in childhood vs. stability in adulthood - what developments can be observed? 2. Continuity vs. discontinuity - are changes gradual and continuous, or discontinuous, progressing through qualitatively distinct stages? 3. Nature vs. nurture - to what extent is our development the product of inherited biological characteristics/product of our environment. 4. Critical and sensitive periods - critical period (age range during which certain experiences must occur for development to proceed normally) / sensitive period (an optimal age range for certain experiences - if they occur at a different time, development can still occur normally). Methods of research: Cross sectional design - compares people of different ages at the same point in time to investigate developmental questions. You can gather data from many age groups quickly, however they have grown up in different historical periods -> different cohorts -> cohort effect. Cohort - group of people who have shared the same historical events by virtue of their being the same age. Cohort effect - differences in abilities or experiences of groups of people who were born at different points in history. Longitudinal design repeatedly tests the same cohort as it grows older. It can be time-consuming as the sample might drop out of the experiment or shrink as people move. sequential design, which combines the cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches. Several cohorts at one point in time and then again when they are older. Microgenetic - longitudinal method that measures change across short time spans. Why do humans give birth to helpless babies? - Intelligence - Metabolism hypothesis - Pelvis hypothesis - Brains underdeveloped -> longer gestational period. Cognitive development – how children make sense of the world around them & understand people’s intentions. - In history, the fragility of children was not emphasised. - Cognitive development – children are not mini-adults, they must learn to think abstractly, as they are not born with abstract reasoning skills. - Assimilation and accommodation are complementary processes by which thinking is learned. - Assimilation – incorporating and interpreting new experiences in terms of existing mental schemas. If a child sees a squirrel, which is similar to a cat, he or she may call it a cat. This is to fit this new experience into a pre-existing mental schema. - Accommodation – changing mental schemas in response to new experiences. If a child calls a squirrel a cat, when he or she learns that squirrels have different behaviours to cats, this creates a mental imbalance, which causes existing schemas that do not differentiate between squirrels and cats to change. Piaget stages of development 1. Sensorimotor stage (birth -> 2 years) – understand the world primarily with sensory experiences and physical (motor) interactions with objects. - Differentiation of self from objects, as agents + begin to act intentionally, demonstrate mirror self-recognition. - Achieve object permanence (8 months) → the understanding that an object continues to exist even when it no longer can be seen. - Before object permanence is developed, children focus on senses, especially vision – if they can see something, it is there; if they cannot, it is not there. - Symbolic thought - assigning linguistic labels to objects + initial development of language. Initial limitations: focus on senses, especially vision – if they can see something, it is there; if they cannot see it, it is not there.  2. Preoperational stage (2 -> 7 years) – the stage in which children represent the world symbolically through words and mental images but do not yet understand basic mental operations or rules. - Use of symbols, development of thought, visually oriented. - Rapid language development helps children label objects - Lack of conversation (idea that the volume, mass or amount of a substance remains the same, despite changes in its outward appearances). - Mostly egocentric (difficulty in viewing the world from someone else’s perspective), lack of theory of mind. - Three mountain problem exemplifies egocentrism - children assume that these mountains look the same for everyone, even if each person is looking at them from different angles. - Theory of mind - refers to a person’s ability to understand and reflect upon mental states, their own and others’. - e.g. if you show children a box of smarties, only to reveal that there are pencils inside, 4 year olds will be able to remember that they initially thought smarties were in the box, whereas 3 year olds do not have this metacognitive ability, failing to reflect on their past state of mind, answering ‘pencils’. - False belief – these children lack the recognition that things can look different from another person’s perspective. - e.g. Sally and Ann have two boxes, Sally puts a marble in her box. She leaves the room, and Ann moves the marble to her box. Kids say that when Sally comes back, she will look for the marble in Ann’s box, even though she doesn’t know that Ann moved it there – exemplifies false belief/ToM, i.e. if they know something, then everyone else must know it, even if their knowledge is different. - Children < 4 years old typically do not pass this task! - Animism, attributing lifelike qualities to physical objects and natural events. When it rains, “the sky is crying,” Limitations: lack of conservation, egocentric, lack of ToM. 3. Concrete operational stage (7 -> 12 years) – can perform basic mental operations concerning problems that involve tangible objects and situations. - Can use inductive reasoning, i.e. making generalisations from several observations (learning about a cat allergy from sensation). - Not good at deductive reasoning (using a general principle to predict outcome e.g. all birds have feathers, and robins are birds, so they have feathers too).  - Also not good at confronting hypothetical or abstract problems, e.g. if you ask a concrete operational child to decide where to put a third eye, he or she would be confined to the idea that eyes must be on the face, instead of thinking creatively. - Their reasoning might be unsophisticated, or they may think the task is silly because nobody has three eyes. - Gain conservation of quantity (liquid), conservation of number (flowers). Limitations: not good at deductive reasoning and abstract reasoning. 4. Formal operational stage (11 +) – Individuals are able to think logically and systematically about both concrete and abstract problems. - form hypotheses, and test them in a thoughtful or scientific way. - Formal thinking begins around ages 11 to 12 and increases through adolescence. - vary one factor at a time to figure out a problem. Summary Sensorimotor stage→ learn mirror task Learn object permanence Preoperational stage→ Learn theory of mind Concrete operational stage→ Learn deductive reasoning Learn conservation Formal operational stage Critiques of Piaget’s stages: - Based on observing his own children. - Modern research showed that by changing his tests, he underestimated children’s abilities, e.g. further research determined that even 3 ½ / 4 ½ month olds had some understanding of object permanence. - Is not so black and white - e.g. some children may perform at the pre-operational level for some aspects and not others. - Vygotsky’s socio-cultural approach places greater emphasis on culture shaping cognitive development. Vygotsky→ zone of proximal development (ZPD): the difference between what a child can do independently and what the child can do with assistance from adults or more advanced peers. Importance: recognize a child's potential with biological limits. E.g. Older siblings might improve a child’s cognitive development when the child is biologically ready for it. Information processing approaches - in contrast to Piaget’s approach, that is characterised by the emergence of distinct stages at specific times , many researchers view cognitive development as a more continuous process in which the same abilities are gradually developed.  - Visual search strategies→ Older children systematically scan tasks (e.g., comparing images), unlike younger children. - Processing Speed: Increases with age, particularly between 8-12 years, then slows during adolescence. - Working Memory: Improves with age, allowing better information storage, manipulation, and recall. E.g.: Older children use strategies like rehearsal for memory tasks. - Metacognition - an ability to reflect on cognitive processes such as memory. Older children develop greater self-awareness of cognitive processes, like when they have to study more to reach one goal. Violation-of-Expectation Experiments: Young infants demonstrate knowledge of physical principles earlier than Piaget proposed. e.g. Infants stare longer at "impossible" events (e.g., staring at a pen stuck in the middle of the air) because it violates their understanding of the world. Moral development in childhood - How do we come to reason about right and wrong? - Kohlberg analysed responses to hypothetical moral dilemmas -> 6 stages of moral reasoning: Pre-conventional level, conventional level, post-conventional level. - Kohlberg presented moral dilemmas like the story of Heinz, who stole a drug to save his wife after being unable to afford it. He wasn’t focused on whether people thought Heinz was right or wrong but on the reasoning behind their answers. He used these responses to identify three levels of moral reasoning, each with two substages: - Pre-conventional level : focused on personal consequences. Stage 1: Punishment and Obedience orientation Consider reasons given for stealing the drug Example: "Heinz should steal the drug because if he lets his wife die, he’ll get into trouble.". Stage 2: Self-Interest - naïve reward orientation. morality is judged by anticipated rewards. Example: "Heinz should steal the drug because he will still have his wife with him." - Conventional level – conformity to social expectations, laws, and duties. Stage 3: Seeking Approval - good girl/boy Example: "People will think Heinz is bad if he doesn’t steal the drug to save his wife."  Stage 4: Law and Order - social order. children believe that laws and duties must be obeyed simply because rules are meant to be followed. Example: "don’t steal because we have rules to maintain order in our society" - Post-conventional –well-thought-out, general moral principles Stage 5: Social contract - right and wrong viewed through rules, which are fallible Recognizing the importance of societal laws but also taking individual rights into account: Example: "Stealing breaks the law, but what Heinz did was reasonable because he saved a life." Stage 6: Universal/individual ethical principles + conscience orientation - abstract ethical principles emphasising equality and justice. Morality is based on abstract, ethical principles of justice that are viewed as universal: Example: "Saving a life is more important than financial gain, even for a stranger." Critique: - Western cultural bias. Highest moral values focus on principles like respect for all animal life, collective harmony, respect for elderly, etc - Male bias. Highly moral women place greater value than do men on caring + responsibility for others’ welfare - Abstract moral reasoning = real-life moral conduct? Very abstract dilemma asked to children, they should have been able to imagine all the Heinz’s scenarios. If you think like that → you might not behave like that. Emotional development of newborns Infants use facial expressions and vocalizations to communicate feelings like distress, joy, and surprise within their first year. By 18 months, self-awareness (like recognizing oneself in the mirror) allows for complex emotions like envy, embarrassment, empathy and guilt to emerge. After age 2, as toddlers learn about rules they are supposed to follow, they begin to display pride and shame. Emotion Regulation: processes by which we evaluate and modify our emotional reactions. Begins with simple actions like sucking a thumb and develops into more complex strategies like talking about feelings as children age. Emotional Competence: Refers to the ability to express and regulate emotions, influencing social interactions and peer relationships. Kids who can manage their emotions are usually better liked by their friends. Temperament→ a biologically based general style of reacting emotionally and behaviorally to the environment. Some babies are naturally calm, while others might cry a lot or get scared easily. Early studies categorized infants as "easy,"ate on schedule, accepted new situations) "difficult,"(irritable, fussy eaters) or "slow-to-warm-up" (least active, had mildly negative responses to new situations, but slowly adapted over time). - Shyness is part of a temperament style called behavioral inhibition. Inhibited infants are quiet and shy, while uninhibited infants are more sociable and outgoing. Research found that about 20–25% of infants show this inhibited behavior, which is moderately stable in infancy. Highly inhibited infants often grew into shy and cautious children, while highly uninhibited infants became sociable and talkative by age 7. Erikson's Psychosocial Stages (each of which involves a different “crisis” (i.e., conflict) over how we view ourselves in relation to other people and the world), the outcome of crises determines personality traits. 1. Basic trust vs basic mistrust (first year): Developing trust or mistrust based on caregiver responses during the first year of life. 2. Autonomy vs shame and doubt(1-2 years old): During the next two years, building autonomy or experiencing shame based on exploration freedom (e.g. toilet training). 3. Initiative vs guilt (3-5 yo): Encouraging curiosity leads to initiative when answers are given, while suppression of curiosity with punishment leads to guilt. 4. Industry vs inferiority (6 until puberty): Mastering tasks fosters industry- striving to achieve; repeated failure and lack of praise leads to inferiority More specifically: 1. Hope - focuses on basic needs like feeding. Year 1 - Conflict - trust vs. mistrust. - “Is my world predictable and supportive?” - Yes -> trusting personality - No -> suspicious one. 2. Will. Year 2,3. - Conflict - autonomy vs. shame and doubt. - “Can I do things myself or must I always rely on others?”. - Dependent on encouraging vs restrictive parenting.  3. Purpose. 4-6 - Conflict - initiative vs. guilt. - “Am I good or bad?” - Ability to be a self starter develops successfully -> sense of initiative. - If not -> inadequacy to be one’s own. 4. Competence. - Conflict - industry vs. inferiority. - “Am I successful or worthless?” - Discovering talents, how things work -> motivation. - If not, low self esteem. 5. Fidelity. - Conflict - identity vs. role confusion. - “Who am I, where am I going?” - Identity crisis, lots if going on at this time, e.g. physical changes, choice of school/vocation. 6. Love. - Conflict - intimacy vs. isolation. - If relationships develop well, social personality also develops. - If not, relational aloofness. 7. Care. - Conflict - generativity vs. self absorption. - Concerns develop for future generations. - If not, concern remains focused on oneself. 8. Wisdom. - Conflict - integrity vs. despair. - Sense of fulfilment, or dissatisfaction. HOW WILL PIT COMPETE FOR LOVE CONSIDERING WILL Critique: - More attention paid to childhood. - How testable - Vague notions - Cultural bias. Attachment Imprinting = innate form of recognition and attachment to caregiver e.g. geese. Biologically primed form of attachment. - This influenced Bowlby’s theory of attachment, arguing that a similar biologically programmed process happens in humans - infants seek proximity with caregiver -> develops into attachment relationship. - However there are key differences - in humans there is no critical period during which contact is required for an infant-caregiver bond, as is the case with imprinting. - Instead, sensitive periods are observed, in the first few days of life, where children can more easily form a bond with their caregivers. Attachment = enduring emotional bond that develops between infants and primary caregivers e.g. Harlow’s monkey studies. Freud - Cupboard theory. Attachment arises from the idea of reduction of biological drives such as hunger. - Importance of drive reduction -> attachment. Mother is a secondary reinforcer because it is associated with satisfying basic needs. Drive reduction behaviour of feeding the child is the primary reinforcement. - Mother provides food = attachment. Harlow - based on the idea that attachment is based primarily on the mother’s role in satisfying the infant’s need for nourishment. - Evidence from rhesus monkeys - separated infants from their mothers and replaced them with a terry cloth (soft) v.s wire (not soft) surrogate mother. - Contact comfort observed (body contact with a comforting object) - even infants fed on wire mum went to cloth surrogate for comfort. - Seeking protection when frightened - even infants fed on wire mum went to cloth surrogate for protection from danger. - Main finding - contact comfort > provision of nourishment in terms of fostering attachment. - It follows that denying infants of such contact can be detrimental to their development (social isolation/deprivation experiments e.g. Romanian orphanages). Bowlby - in response to Harlow’s findings, proposed that an infant’s attachment is a biological predisposition, not from the need for nourishment.  - Children come into the world pre-programmed to form bonds with others. - Proposed that attachment in infancy results from the need for a secure base from which to explore and learn about the environment, while still being able to seek protection. 5 stages of attachment he proposed: 1. Indiscriminate attachment behaviour - newborns cry, vocalise and smile towards everyone -> evoke caregiving from adults. 2. Discriminating attachment behaviour - around 3 months, infants direct attachment behaviours towards familiar caregivers. 3. Specific attachment behaviour - by 7 months, infants develop meaningful attachment to specific caregivers - secure base for infant to explore environment with. 4. Goal-directed attachment behaviour - by 3 years, the child can take account of the caregiver's needs when expressing attachment, becoming more of a partnership. 5. Lessening of attachment - at school age, children become happy to spend significant amounts of time further away from the caregiver. As attachment becomes more focused, two types of anxiety can occur: 1. Stranger anxiety - distress over contact with unfamiliar people. 2. Separation anxiety - distress over being separated from primary caregiver. Strange situation paradigm: - A way to measure separation anxiety - gauging infants’ reactions to strangers and separation from caregivers. Types of attachment: 1. Secure attachment: - Explores playroom + reacts positively to stranger -> distressed when parent leaves -> happy when she returns. - On reunion with caregiver, children seek physical contact, proximity, interaction - immediately soothed by parents, returning to play. 2. Insecure attachment: i) Anxious-avoidant: - Shows few signs of attachment -> rarely cries when mother leaves -> does not seek contact when she returns. ii) Anxious-resistant:  - Demands attention from parent, but seems fearful -> distressed when parent leaves, but not soothed when she returns -> may angrily resist attempts at contact, seeking proximity and then resisting it. iii) Disorganised: - Infant shows contradictory features of several patterns of anxious attachment, e.g. might cry for parent at the door and then run away if it opens - appears dazed and confused, e.g. might ‘freeze’ for a few seconds. Social development and attachment. - Across culture, 50-75% securely attached. - Bidirectional – parent-child influences work both ways. - Infancy is sensitive but not a critical period for attachment - Model for adult attachment relationships? Health psychology Definitions: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. “Health as the ability to adapt and to self-manage, in the face of social, physical and emotional challenges”. Biopsychosocial model: Views health and illness as the interaction of biological characteristics (genes, viruses), psychological factors (attitude to stress, neuroticism), social conditions (socio-economic status, cultural influences, interpersonal relationships). Conclusions: - Narrow interpretations – absence of disease and complete physical, mental and social well-being. - Broad interpretations – positive health spider web diagram. Stress – a pattern of cognitive appraisals, physiological responses, and behavioural responses to perceived imbalance between situational demands and resources needed to cope with them. Stressors – stimuli that place demands on us and require us to adapt (threatening) - Microstressors: daily hassles, minor annoyances. - Major negative events. Personal, distressing events (e.g. the death of a close one) - Catastrophic events. Unexpectedly, it typically affects a large number of people (e.g. floodings). Shared major life event. Measures - Self-reports, using life event scales to quantify the amount of life stress that a person has experienced over a given period of time (e.g., the past 3 months or the past year). Stress response: - Improve physiological and mental functioning to meet imminent demands and enable survival. - Some stressors are so traumatic that they can have a strong and long-lasting psychological impact. Nazi survivors still have trauma and still have traumatic stress after their traumas. Depression and crying as well. Women who experience rape. - Activation of the sympathetic nervous system and increased activity of a neuroendocrine system hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. - Adaptive response to acute stress (e.g. seeing a lion). - Why don’t zebras get ulcers - acute vs. chronic stressors. Zebras are usually stressed because of predators. If they escape, their stress is reduced, and if they die, they cannot be stressed anymore - acute stress. Our stress is more chronic and persistent, not usually a life or death situation. - Ancestral landscape vs modern society. - Chronic stress -> chronic illness. - Negative consequences -> heart diseases, absenteeism, cognitive impairments, loss of productivity, sleep disorders, depression, aggression etc. Stress response: cognitive appraisals - of demands (primary), resources (secondary), consequences + meaning of consequences. - Appraisal of the nature and demands of the situation (primary appraisal). Interpret the situation as benign, neutral or threatening. - Appraisal of the coping strategies / resources you have to deal with it (secondary). - Judgements of the consequences. Seriousness and likelihood they will occur. - Appraisal of the personal/psychological meaning, i.e. what the outcome might imply about us and our character. Physiological responses: - Appraisal and physiological responses affect each other - appraisal -> physiological responses like shaking and elevated heart rate -> appraisal of situation as even more stressful. - The general adaptation syndrome (GAS) consists of three phases: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. - Alarm - activation of sympathetic nervous system + release of hormones in response to stressor. Short-lived in order to maintain homeostasis -> activation of parasympathetic nervous system to reduce arousal. - Resistance - body’s resources mobilised by stress hormones released by adrenal glands. Cannot last for long because resources are depleted and the immune system suppressed by stress hormones. - Exhaustion - if stressor too intense -> increased vulnerability and disease, maybe collapse and death. Immune system: Stressors can affect the immune system in many ways: i) Stressors activate hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis / sympathetic nervous system -> release stress hormones which can bind to immune system cells -> influence functioning of the immune system. ii) Nerve fibres extending from brain to lymph tissues release chemicals that bind to white blood cell receptors -> influence immune functions. iii) People’s coping mechanisms for stressors, e.g. substance abuse, poor nutrition, lack of sleep, impair immunity. There are two kinds of immune reactions. 1. Natural immunity occurs quickly (often within minutes) of an immune challenge and is relatively nonspecific in nature. E.g. →inflammation→ certain immune cells congregate at the site of an infection and release toxic substances that kill invaders. Cells are cytokines, which help produce fever and inflammation, promote healing of injured tissue, and activate and direct other immune cells. Natural killer (NK) cells are also part of the natural defense team. They attack invaders, as well as tumors, and keep away from site of infection. Fight-or flight response to an acute physical stressor that could produce injury and the entry of pathogens into the body through wounds. 2. Specific immunity→ targeted process, takes longer to occur (several days). Identification invaders and development of antibodies that neutralize bacteria. Coping mechanisms for stress: Problem focused coping mechanisms - strategies to directly confront demands of stressful situations to make it not stressful. Emotion-focused coping - strategies to manage emotional responses that result from stressful situations. Sometimes, this strategy is associated with avoiding feelings and taking things out on other people (test I say it’s easy) -> depression and poorer adjustment. In general, there is a difference between avoidance/denial (the stressor) and changing negative and irrational mindsets, which does have positive outcomes. Seeking social support - turning to others for assistance and emotional support in times of stress. Key takeaway: no one coping mechanism is better than the other, so it is good to have a variety of them in order to deal with different types of stressful situations. The effectiveness of a coping technique also depends on the nature of the situation. Coping mechanisms - gender: - In general, women engage in more coping mechanisms than men, e.g. women are more likely to seek social support than men. - Men - fight or flight. - Women - tend and befriend (tending involves nurturant activities to protect the self, offspring and partners -> reducing distress; befriending is the creation and maintenance of social networks that can aid this process). - It can be argued that this system has a biological basis - prevalence of oxytocin. - Social support - women exposed to threatening stimuli, fMRI showed that if they were holding someone’s hand (preferably a spouse’s) their brain was less stressed.  - Other studies have shown this effect NOT to be gender specific, i.e. women seek out social support more, but it is effective for men too. Coping mechanisms - culture: - North-Americans and Europeans are more likely to use problem focused mechanisms vs. Asian and Hispanic, who use emotional coping mechanisms. - Social support also differs cross-culturally - Asian-Americans reported social support to be less helpful in reducing stress than European Americans did. Stress management training: Cognitive restructuring - systematically detects, challenges and replaces irrational ideas Self-instructional training - technique in which people learn to talk to themselves and guide their behaviour in waits that help them cope more effectively. Somatic relaxation training - means of voluntarily reducing or preventing high levels of arousal. Stress mindsets: - Focus on such negative consequences is a mindset that paradoxically may contribute to its negative impact. - Stress mindsets – stress is debilitating vs stress is enhancing. - Stress paradox – while experiencing stress can debilitate health, it can also enhance it. - Prevailing societal emphasis is on the former, not the latter. Happiness and health promotion: Categories of health behaviour: - Health enhancing behaviours – exercise, diet, safe sexual practise, regular medical checkups. - Health impairing behaviours – smoking, fatty diets, sedentary lifestyle, unprotected sexual activity. Health enhancing behaviours:  - Aerobic exercise - sustained activity that elevates the heart rate and increases body’s need for oxygen -> heart beats more slowly, oxygen is better utilised, slow-wave sleep increases, cholesterol reduced, faster physiological adaptation to stressors, more calories burnt. - Weight control - obesity is a risk factor for many chronic diseases e.g. cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, cancer and diabetes. - Health-related programs can have a dramatic benefit for people’s health, e.g. behavioural self-regulation programmes -> reduced LDLs, increased HDLs, increased exercise. Health threatening behaviors: - Unsafe sexual practises - e.g. AIDS. Prevention of aids is as much a psychological problem as it is a physical one. Treatment programmes involve changing people’s mindsets about how to approach sex safely, e.g. use of contraceptives. - Such programmes tested on the demographic of gay men showed their increased use of condoms, decreasing the risk of spreading AIDS. - Key takeaway: preventative measures to promote health. - Substance abuse - tobacco and alcohol abuse have a huge toll on society, physical-health wise and economy wise too. Mass media campaigns: - To increase awareness of risks associated with health threatening behaviours like drinking, smoking etc. - These have both a direct and indirect effect on people’s health. - Direct - benefits of behaviour change, long-term benefits in stopping, as well as long-term consequences of continuing a certain unhealthy behaviour. - Indirect - by creating discussion, they can influence societal position on certain health issues, changing public opinion. Motivational interviewing. - Leads the person to his or her own conclusion by asking questions that focus on discrepancies between the current state of affairs and the individual’s ideal self-image, desired behaviours and desired outcomes. - Non-confrontational procedure designed to engage the person’s own motivation to change self-defeating behaviours. - Connect to what people want, to what is important to them. - Offer perspective on what can be done and provide guidance. Multi-modal treatments: - Treatments that combine biological and psychological measures. - Used for stubborn issues, particularly substance abuse. - E.g. aversion therapy - undesired behaviour associated with an aversive stimulus e.g. electric shock or a nausea-producing drug -> negative emotional response to currently pleasurable substance. - Relaxation and stress management training. - Self-monitoring procedures to identify consequences of abuse behaviours. - Marital and family counselling. - Positive reinforcement to strengthen change. Harm reduction approaches to prevention - Prevention strategy that is designed not to eliminate a problem behaviour but, rather, to reduce the harmful effects of that behaviour when it occurs. - E.g. needle and syringe exchange programmes to reduce the risk of HIV, rather than make people stop doing drugs all together which is unrealistic. - Even if addictive behaviour cannot be eliminated, it is possible to mitigate the negative effects from said addictive behaviours. Maintaining positive behaviour changes: - Relapse prevention - designed to reduce risk of relapse. - Relapses tend to happen after one or more lapses in response to different stressors, specifically if the person has not developed strong enough coping mechanisms to deal with the stressor -> resort to substance abuse to cope. - Abstinence violation effect - a person becomes upset and self-blaming over the lapse and views it as proof that he or she will never be strong enough to resist temptation. - Non-adherence - the person does not adapt the treatment and behaviours their health professionals recommended. Factors that influence stress-health relations Vulnerability factors - factors that increase one’s susceptibility to stressful events Protective factors - environmental/personal resources (social support being the most important one) that help people cope more effectively with stressful situations. Social support - happiness and social connection:  - Relationships among the most robust predictors of well-being and health. - Also in primates - strong and consistent social bonds enhance the longevity of female baboons. - Relationships are necessary - humans have a fundamental need to belong, social exclusion hurts. - We have an innate bias towards prosocial behaviour. - Enhances immune system functioning, decreases maladaptive coping strategies, increases feelings of control over stressors, greater sense of identity and meaning. Type A behavior pattern, who tend to live under great pressure and demand much of themselves and others. → workaholics, continually striving to get more done in less time. high levels of competitiveness and ambition, which can foster aggressiveness and hostility when things get in their way Type B shows the opposite pattern of patience, serenity, and lack of time urgency. Pain and pain management - Physical pain is common and often requires medical attention. Pain is unpleasant but essential for survival, acting as a warning signal to bodily threats or damage. - It triggers protective behaviors→ avoiding harm or seeking medical help. - Pain is not purely sensory; it involves complex psychological processes. - People can experience severe pain without physical damage or have significant physical damage without perceiving pain (e.g., soldiers in combat). - The limbic system handles the emotional aspect of pain, contributing to suffering when painful sensations combine with negative emotions. - Pain is processed in the brain more rapidly than other tactile stimuli Gate Control Theory→ Proposes that pain is regulated by gating mechanisms in the nervous system that open or close to allow or block pain signals from reaching the brain. Events in the spinal cord can open "gates" for pain impulses to travel to the brain. Sensory input (e.g., rubbing a bruise) can close these gates, reducing pain. Thoughts, emotions, and beliefs from the brain can influence spinal gates, increasing or decreasing pain perception. Glial Cells: Support neurons in the spinal cord and contribute to pathological pain by releasing cytokines that amplify pain. Cytokines→ promote inflammation, linked to sensations of widespread pain during illness. Endorphins: Natural opiates from the nervous system that reduce pain by inhibiting neurotransmitter release in the pain pathway. They bind to specific opioid receptors in the brain. They can be stimulated by stress, acupuncture, and other factors. Stress-Induced Analgesia: A temporary reduction or absence in pain perception under stress, aiding survival by prioritizing immediate actions. Ex. wounded soldiers that did not report pain while they were fighting because under extreme stress. Cultural Learning: Different cultures attribute varying meanings to pain, influencing perception and tolerance. Beliefs and Personality: Personal control beliefs and emotional reactions affect pain levels and suffering. Pain perception varies among individuals due to differences in endorphin activity, receptor availability, and psychological factors. Beliefs about treatment can significantly reduce pain, as shown by studies where placebos provided relief comparable to morphine for many patients→ PET-scan studies reveal that positive expectations trigger endorphin release→ pain reduction. Cultural differences in attitudes toward pain (e.g., suppression vs. open expression) influence the experience of pain and suffering. Acupuncture: Works by stimulating tactile receptors to close pain gates and by releasing endorphins. Personality Traits: Neuroticism is associated with pain perception, while optimism and acceptance correlate with reduced suffering and better adjustm