Psychology 23 questions

1. What are the three categories of stressful events? Provide an example of each of the three. Continuous Low-level Stress. This is the daily stress of life that involves things you have little control oner, like terrible traffic, or rude customers.
Unfinished Tasks. These include bills that pile up, or messes that get bigger over time, and other ongoing problems that you never can get to.
Major Life Events. These include deaths in the family, loss of ones home, and natural disasters.
2. Outline the three stages of the general adaptation syndrome.
Alarm Phase: this is the fight or flight response when the stressor is introduced.
Resistance Phase: the body calms itself and the mind can strategize a response
Exhaustion Phase: after prolonged stress the body begins to wear out and break down, leading to poor health.
3. What is a weakness of this model for describing the stress response?
Not everyone has the same response to stress, but the model assumes that we all fit into GAS. An event might might stress one person but not someone. Or someone may have a bigger reaction to a stressor than someone else does
4. On what grounds have scientists criticized Stanley Milgram’s work on obedience to authority?
Milgram led people to believe they were harming or even killing the person they were testing, which has been called unethical. People who volunteered were described as experiencing ” entrapment” because the experimenter continued the experiment after each shock was applied, leading volunteers to commit themselves to the experiment.
5. Describe the main types of positive and negative strategies that people can use to cope with their stress.
Positive strategies involve calming the mind, such as through meditation, not focusing on the problem, or reframing the problem.
Negative strategies can include violence, such as punching a wall. It can also include yelling, drinking, smoking, crying, or pondering suicide.
6. What is learned helplessness, and how does it relate to well-being in human beings?
Learned helplessness is when you believe you cannot solve a problem even when it would not take much effort to solve it. People might develop learned helplessness when too many things have been out of their control in their lives. People with learned helplessness believe that because they couldnt solve past problems they wont be able to solve future ones. They are often depressed.
7. Briefly describe some of the behavioral and psychological differences between people with Type A and Type B behavior pattern.
Type A people feel like they are under pressure, are impatient and competitive. They yell at people and get angry easily. Type B people are calm and non-aggressive and easier to get along with because they are more cooperative.
People who panic or become depressed can suffer more and the disease can progress faster. People who learn to be more positive and learn to do things like meditate can survive longer.
8. Why is smoking behavior so difficult to change?
Nicotine has a physical effect on the brain that causes smokers to feel good when they smoke. The repetitive behavior is also a comfortable habit that is hard to give up.
9. What is patient noncompliance, and what are some of the reasons it occurs?
When patients dont follow the doctors orders it is called noncompliance. Patients can be noncompliant for many reasons, such as not understanding instructions, not having enough money for treatment, fear or even not trusting the doctor.
10. What are some of the strategies patients can use to improve the communication patterns they have with their physicians?
Patients can ask more questions to make sure they understand. They can bring a supportive person to ask questions they might not have thought of. They can even take notes during the appointment.
11. Contrast the use of positive versus negative message framing in ensuring healthy habits through advertising.
Negatively framed ads use methods like focusing on the harmful aspects of certain foods, or use shaming tactics to get people to choose certain products. They might show someone as looking stupid for eating a certain type of food, for example. Positive framing tries to persuade people by focusing on the benefits of certain products and behaviors.
Give an example of each type of message. Indicate under which conditions each method is more effective.
Negative: There were some lite beer commercials that showed men who drink lite beer as being feminine. One man carried a purse and the other wore a skirt. This meant they were weak. This would work amongst young males because they are usually more worried about their image than older men are.
Positive: most cruise commercials show sunny skies, happy people, and relaxing things to do. By not focusing on negative things people are escaping from, the ads make people associate the cruise with fun and adventure.
12. What are the factors associated with happiness? What are the advantages of being happy?
Factors associated with happiness include optimism, time for both work and play, a sense of control over ones life, self-esteem, close relationships, spirituality. Happiness improves overall quality of life by helping one to handle stress and to avoid depression or feelings of helplessness.
13. Compare and contrast biological and behavioral explanations for the cause of anxiety disorders.
Biological explanations for anxiety focus on genetics and on the brain. Some people are simply more prone to anxiety. These are disorders that run in families. The brains chemical makeup is also a cause for anxiety disorders. Behavioral causes for anxiety include trauma, long periods of stress, and abuse.
14. What are the three theories of mood disorders that emphasize learning and cognitive factors?
Psychosocial theories claim that mood disorders are caused by negative thought processes, low self esteem, poor relationships, and ones learning history.
Learned helplessness theory says that a history of failures and continual stress lead to mood disorders.
Environmental factors are said to affect mood. Seasonal Affective Disorder and depression have been connected to seasonal changes affect the amount of lightness or darkness.
15. Symptoms of schizophrenia develop in two major patterns. Identify and name two types and indicate which one has a more favorable treatment prognosis.
The two major patterns involve symptoms that are either positive or negative. Positive symptoms include disorganized thinking where people lose their place in a conversation, or say things that dont make sense. Negative symptoms refer to diminished ability to function. The positive pattern has the most favorable prognosis.
16. Describe four biological approaches to understanding the causes of schizophrenia.
Genetics approach: looking at families (studying twins, looking at family history).
Brain structure: there may be areas of the brain that are physically damaged or have odd features.
Neurotransmitters: study of brain chemistry.
Viral: this examines the possibility of the fetus being affected by a viral infection that leads to schizophrenia.
17. Briefly describe the disorders amok, koro, and brain frog.
Amok: an illness associated with Malaysia that starts when a person goes through a period of quietness, then suddenly begins attacking people and objects for seemingly no reason.
Koro: another Malaysian illness involving sexual organs shrinking into the body, usually if the person has done something sexually wrong such as cheating on their spouse. People can possibly die from this.
Brain fog: an illness associated with western Africa that happens to students. These students get tired and spacey, have watery eyes, and develop head and neck problems after studying for a long time.
18. What are the four main therapeutic tools used by Freudian psychoanalysts
Dream interpretation
Analyzing speech errors
Hypnosis
Free association
19. What are the three main components of person-centered therapy?
Unconditional Positive Regard
Empathy
Genuineness
20. What is groupthink? How does entrapment relate to groupthink?
Groupthink is when members of a group come to think alike and accept ideas even when they seem outrageous. Entrapment occurs when a person who has committed himself to a group becomes even more committed over time.
21. What are some of the factors that lead to heightened liking among people?
Trust,
22. In what ways can prejudice and stereotyping be reduced?
Mixing with people of different races, and learning more about different races in school would help. If the older generation would stop passing prejudices to the younger generation there would be less prejudice and stereotyping over time.
23. What are the differences between stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination?
Stereotypes: Beliefs about the attributes or qualities of a group of people.
Prejudice: a biased attitude toward a group based on faulty generalization
Discrimination: negative act towards a person or group of people because of the social category they belong to.