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SUSS PSY 108 PSYCHOLOGY Study Unit 3 (Psychological Disorder (Major Types…
SUSS PSY 108
PSYCHOLOGY Study Unit 3
Psychological Disorder
Psychopathology
Any pattern of emotions, behaviours, or thoughts inappropriate to the situation and leading to personal distress or the inability to achieve important goals. Other terms having essentially the same meaning include mental illness, mental disorder, and psychological disorder.
Symptoms
Three classic symptoms of severe psychopathology
Delusions
Involve troublesome irrational and false beliefs. For example, if you think you are the president, you are likely to be delusional.
Affective Disturbances
Emotional disorders.
Hallucinations
are false sensory experiences, such as hearing nonexistent voices or “seeing things.”
Model
The Medical Model
Assumes that psychological disorders are diseases caused by genetics, biochemical imbalance & brain abnormalities – Research has not found any genes causing mental illness
The Psychological Model
Psychoanalytic model: Present problems are caused by conflicts in the past – these conflicts are tied to early relationships & to traumatic experiences that occurred during childhood – memory is buried, or repressed & is in the unconscious mind
Behavioural perspective: • Abnormal behaviour is learned, just as normal behaviour is, through experiences of associations, reinforcements, and punishments.
Cognitive perspective – More recent • internal processes like expectations, biases, & errors in conscious thought result in maladjusted & disordered behaviour – Illogical thinking processes (Cognitive Errors)
The Bio-psychosocial Model • identifies numerous levels that may be relevant in understanding psychopathology, including social, psychological, biological, and physical variables
DSM IV
The fourth edition of the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,
published by
the American Psychiatric Association; the most widely accepted psychiatric classification system in the United States.
Two virtues.
First, it lays out specific criteria for diagnosing each of the 300+ mental disorders.
second, it gives practitioners a common language for the description of psychopathology.
Five-Dimensional Diagnosis:
The Multiaxial System
Axis III
Specifies any relevant medical problems, such as a stroke or dementia.
Axis IV
Notes any psycho-social or environmental issues that may affect the patient’s functioning i.e. divorce,
Axis II
Specifies any long-standing problems, such as the personality disorders and the developmental disorders
Axis V
Patient's Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) Scale. This assessment may range from a high score of 100 (the total absence of symptoms) to a low of 1 (the severe impairment that poses a danger to self or others).
Axis I
The primary diagnosis is usually on Axis I
Controversy
Diagnosis relies on the subjective clinical judgment.
Classifies disorders by symptoms, not by underlying causes. No Lab style test.
“all-or-nothing” nature
I.e. Either you are schizophrenic or you are not. But mental disorders are not distinct categories, instead, they see them as exaggerations of normal functioning. I.e. schizophrenic vary in intensity.
Viewing Mental disorder as a medical disease
.
mental disorders are not medical conditions at all but rather behav- ior patterns that have been learned. Some mental “illnesses” might even be a normal response to an abnormal environment.
Major Types of Psychological Disorders
2. Mood Disorders
Abnormal disturbance in emotion
or mood. Mood disorders are also called affective disorders.
Major Depression
A form of depression that does not alternate with mania.
Key Symptoms
of depression includes (at least Four of the following including a sense of gloominess or sadness for a prolonged period of at least 2 weeks):
Severe weight or appetite change.
Insomnia/Hypersomnia.
Psycho-motor retardation/agitation. Slower physiological reaction time (in speech and movement).
Fatigue.
A sense of worthlessness and excessive guilt. Likely escalates into delusion.
Lack of focus, indecisive.
Suicidal tendencies. Suicidal tendencies overlap across all other disorders but are more prevalent in mood disorder.
Bipolar Disorder
A mental abnormality involving
swings of mood from mania to depression
.
Typically the mania & depression alternate, although in rare cases they may coexist
Depression
Manic Episode (Mania)
An Abnormally elevated positive mood which persists for a period (Normally 1 week or more)
In which He or she will experience:
Inflated self-esteem (Thinks they are the smartest, the best, etc etc and is expressive about it).
Lack of sleep.
Abnormally talkative and speaks in a fast assertive manner. Mainly because they are trying to vocally articulate their thoughts which are shifting quickly.
Highly distractable.
A sudden spurt of ideas which are elaborative schemes (often involving securing large sums of money) and they will pursue these schemes irrespective even if its irrational (i.e. selling his whole house and going to a casino with the belief that they're on a winning strict).
1. Anxiety Disorders
Associated primarily with maladaptive behaviours leading to anxiety and distress.
Anxiety itself is not a disorder but the inability to cope with anxiety and/or the constant and consistent experience of anxiety makes it a disorder.
Types
Agoraphobia
A fear of public places and open spaces, commonly accompanying panic disorder.
Specific Phobia
One of a group of anxiety disorders involving intense
irrational fears
of a specific object or situation.
Panic Disorder
A disturbance marked by panic attacks that have no obvious connection with events in the person’s present experience. Unlike generalized anxiety disorder, the victim is usually free of anxiety between panic attacks.
Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD)
A condition characterized by
patterns of Obsession
i.e. persistent, unwanted, irrational thoughts and behaviours.
Leading to compulsion
which repetitive actions to alleviate that compulsion.
Generalised Anxiety Disorder
A psychological problem characterized by p
ersistent and pervasive feelings of anxiety, without any external cause.
Leading to a constant state of worry which may lead to muscle aches, headaches and irritability.
3. Somatoform Disorders or Somatic symptom disorder
Psychological problem appearing in the form of bodily symptoms or physical complaints, such as weakness or excessive worry about disease. The somatoform disorders include conversion disorder and hypochondriasis.
Conversion Disorder
A type of somatoform disorder marked by paralysis, weakness, or loss of sensation but with no discernible physical cause.
Hypochondriasis
A somatoform disorder involving excessive concern about health and disease; Worry about getting sick.
4. Dissociative Disorders
A disorder involving “fragmentation” of the personality, in which some parts of the personality have become detached, or dissociated, from other parts.
Dissociative fugue
Essentially the same as dissociative amnesia but with the addition of “flight” from one’s home, family, and job. Fugue (pronounced FEWG) means “flight.” Meaning to say, the patient not only suffers a global amnesia, he also adopts a completely different personality/ identity and forgets his previous indetity.
Depersonalization
disorder
An abnormality involving the sensation that mind and body have separated, i.e. “out-of-body” experience.
Dissociative amnesia
A psychologically
induced loss of memory
of personal information, such as one’s identity or residence. Could be induced by alcohol or psychoactive drugs.
Dissociative
identity disorder
A condition in which an individual displays multiple identities or personalities; formerly called “multiple personality disorder.”
6. Schizophrenia
From the Greek word 'Skhizein' meaning split and 'phren' which means mind. But what this alludes to really is a split from reality (i.e.
hallucinations and delusions
).
Not to be confused with split personality disorder, Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder involving
distortions in thoughts, perceptions, and/or emotions.
Causes
Biological factors
schizophrenic brain fails to synchronize its neural firing across the cortex
diathesis–stress hypothesis
In reference to schizophrenia, the proposal that genetic factors place
the individual at risk while environmental stress factors transform this potential into an actual schizophrenic disorder.
Cognitive cause
Inability to logically sequence sensation, thought and perception.
Leading to
Socio psychological
problem through loss of social contact and hence a lack of social affirmation/disapproval in regard to one's beliefs and behaviours.
Environmental factors.
A viral infection which affected early stages of mental development.
Traumatic experiences.
Stressful family environment.
Key symptoms
of Schizophrenia include:
Hallucinations
. Typically, Auditory Hallucinations.
Delusion
. One key aspect of delusion that Schizophrenics experience is called:
Ideas of reference
. (when they see people talking, they believe that people are talking about them. Or that people are following them).
Disorganised Speech
. Schizophrenics tend to babble and are almost completely incoherent in speech.
Odd motor movements
. The extreme case of this is called catatonic in which a patient freezes in position for no apparent reason,
(Catatonic Stupor)
or the person becomes extremely hyperactive and agitated
(Catatonic excitement)
An absence of regular speech functions and emotions.
Types
Based on these symptoms, Schizophrenics can be classified into several types depending on the intensity of one or several of the symptoms
Paranoid Schizophrenia
A highly exaggerated sense of self- importance (They think they're Jesus Christ).
Believe that people are spying on them/ plotting against them.
Undifferentiated
serves as a catchall category for schizophrenic symptoms that do not clearly meet the requirements for any of the other categories above.
Catatonic
appears in two forms:
Persons with the more common
catatonic stupor
may remain motionless for prolonged periods. They are extremely unresponsive and would repeat what is being said to them. i.e. they would not generate their own speech.
In
catatonic excitement,
the patient becomes agitated and hyperactive.
Residual Type
the diagnosis for individuals who have had a schizophrenic episode in the past but currently have no major symptoms such as hallucinations or delusional thinking. Instead, their thinking is mildly disturbed, or their emotional lives are impoverished. The diagnosis of residual type may indicate that the disease is entering remission or becoming dormant. (This diagnosis was assumed in most of Rosenhan’s pseudopatients, whom we met at the beginning of the chapter.)
Disorganized
Symptoms include incoherent speech, hallucinations, delusions, and bizarre behaviour.
i.e. A person who talks to imaginary people most likely would receive this diagnosis.
5. Developmental Disorders
Dyslexia
A reading disability, thought by some experts to involve a brain disorder.
attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
developmental disability involving short attention span, distractibility, and extreme difficulty in remaining inactive for any perio
Autism
A developmental disorder marked by disabilities in language, social interaction, and the ability to understand another person’s state of mind.
Indicators of Abnormality
Irrationality
.
The inability to exercise or the complete absence of logical reasoning.
Does the person act or talk in ways that are irrational or even incomprehensible to others.
Unpredictability.
Does the individual behave erratically and inconsistently at different times or from one situation to another, as if experiencing a loss of control.
Maladaptiveness
.
The inability to adjust healthily to particular situations resulting in dysfunctional behavioural responses.
Does the person regularly act in ways that make others fearful or that interfere with his or her well-being.
Unconventionality and undesirable behaviour.
Does the person behave in ways that are statistically rare and violate social norms of what is legally or morally acceptable or desirable.
Distress
.
prolonged anxiety.
Does the individual show unusual or prolonged levels of unease.
Personality
The psychological qualities that bring continuity to an individual’s behaviour in different situations and at different times.
In essence, it is a constant stable trait across different situation and time.
Personality Trait and Type Theory
Personality Trait Theory
Multiple stable personality characteristics that are presumed to exist within the individual and guide his or her thoughts and actions under various conditions.
The “Big Five” Traits: The Five-Factor Theory
A trait perspective suggesting that personality is composed of five fundamental personality dimensions (also known as the Big Five):
openness to experience
conscientiousness
extravertsion
agreeableness
neuroticism.
Assessing PersonalityTraits
Types of assessment
NEO Personality Inventory
If you were a clinical or counselling psychologist, you might want to a
ssess a client’s personality
on the five factors using a paper-and-pencil instrument such as the NEO Personality Inventory
MMPI-2
An instrument that
measures clinical traits pointing to signs of mental disorder.
It gives scores on ten important clinical traits; also called the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory.
Personality Type Theory
distinct & discontinuous categories of personalities, with each person falling into one category or another.
For example Introversion. you are either an introverted or you're not.
Assessing Personality Types
Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
A widely used personality test based on Jungian types. Widely used because it may predict job performance although it's purely a correlational claim.
This Indicator has not proven to firm validity or reliability.
Difference between trait theory and type theory.
The essential difference between the trait theory and type theory is: type theory views characteristics of people as discrete categories whereas trait theory views these same characteristics as part of a larger continuum.
For example, where a type theorist would claim that introverts and extroverts are two types of people, a trait theorist would claim there is a gradient leading from introversion to extroversion and it is possible for individuals to fall somewhere in the middle.
Concerns in assessing personalities
A good assessment must fulfill both criterias
Realibility
An attribute of a psychological test that gives consistent result.
i.e. No measurement errors
Validity
An attribute of a psychological test that actually measures what it is being used to measure.
i.e. Measure the topic of interest.
Psychodynamic Theory
A group of theories that originated with Freud. All emphasize motivation—often unconscious motivation—and the influence of the past on the development of mental disorders.
Method of treatment
Psychoanalysis
A method of treating mental disorders that are based on Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory.
The goal of psychoanalysis is to release unacknowledged conflicts, urges, and memories from the unconscious. (In common usage, the term often refers broadly both to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory and to his psychoanalytic treatment method.)
Initially, Freud used hypnosis and then used free association.
Projective test
Personality assessment instrument, such as the Rorschach and TAT, which is based on Freud’s ego defence mechanism of projection.
Rorschach Inkblot Technique
A projective test requiring subjects to describe what they see in a series of ten inkblots.
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
A projective test requiring subjects to make up stories that explain ambiguous picture
Psychoanalytic Theory
Freud’s theory of personality and mental disorder.
Principles include
psychic determinism
Which assumes that all our mental and behavioural responses are caused by unconscious traumas, desires, or conflicts.
Key concepts
The Structure of Freudian Personality
Superego
The mind’s storehouse of values, including moral attitudes learned from parents and from society; roughly the same as the common notion of the
conscience
Id
One of the most prominent concepts of Freudian theory in psychology is his exposition of the unconscious.
The primitive, unconscious portion of the personality that houses the most basic drives and stores repressed memories.
Works on Freud's 'Pleasure principle'.
Unconscious
Central to Freudian personality theory.
A storehouse of repressed impulses, drives, and conflicts unavailable to consciousness.
Freud taught that the turbulent processes in the unconscious mind are fueled by psychological energy from our most basic and secret motives, drives, and desires—
Types of unconscious drive/motivation
Libido
The unconscious drive that drives individuals to experience sensual pleasure
Thanatos
The unconscious drive that drives individuals to aggressive and destructive behaviours
Eros
The unconscious drive that drives individuals acts that are sexual, creative and life giving
Ego defence mechanism
A largely unconscious
mental strategy
employed to reduce the experience of conflict or anxiety
Repression
An unconscious process that excludes unacceptable thoughts and feelings from awareness and memory.
Displacement
Your boss yell at you, you displace your anger by yelling at your friend.
Reaction formation
Rail against their desires
Regression
Adopting immature or juvenile behaviour in rrsponse to stress (i.e. crying)
Rationalisation
“everyone does it.”
Sublimation
When sexual energies are bottled up, the person may seek more socially acceptable outlets by engaging in intense creative actions or in excessive work activities.
Denial
“I don’t have a problem.”
Projection
When some personal attitudes or values cannot be fully accepted or owned up to, they can be directed outward as characteristics of others.
Ego
The conscious, rational part of the personality, charged with keeping the peace between the superego and the id.
Works on Freud's Reality principle' - i.e. deciding if a particular course of action is viable or isn't.
Works to between the Id and Superego. It's basically yourself
Freudian Personality Development
Psycho-sexual stages
2. Anal stage
pleasure comes from stimulating parts of the body associated with
elimination.
Fixation here may lead to anal personality (i.e. compulsive, stingy, doesn't want to part with anything even if it's crap)
3. Phallic stage
pleasure comes from “immature” sexual expression,
such as masturbation.
Fixation here may lead to an
imbalance of masculinity and femininity
in both man and women.
Unconscious conflict often related to the phallic stage
Oedipus complex
According to Freud, a largely unconscious process whereby young males displace an erotic attraction toward their mother to females of their own age and, at the same time, identify with their fathers.
Electra complex
Concept advanced by Carl Jung, highlighting a girl’s psychosexual competition with mother for the father’s love, which is resolved in psychoanalytic theory when the girl comes to identify with same-sex adult; equivalent to Oedipus Complex in males.
1. Oral stage
pleasure is associated with the
mouth.
Fixation here may lead to habits such as chewing gum or smoking to provide pleasures associated with the mouth.
5. Genital stage
brings maturity and mental well-being
Fixation
Occurs when psychosexual development is arrested at an immature stag
4. Latency Stage
Main critic
of Freud: His theory is too vague and flexible to be scientifically be proven/ falsifiable. Therefore, it is scientifically not reliable
Humanistic Theory
A group of personality theories that focus on human growth and potential rather than on mental disorder. All emphasize the functioning of the individual in the present rather than on the influence of past events.
Maslow's Hierarchy of needs
Our needs are arranged in a priority order, from the biological needs to self-actualization.
An unfulfilled “deficiency” need, such as a need for love, can produce maladjustment
Satisfaction of such needs allows the person to pursue interests that promote growth and fulfilment.
Self-actualizing personality
A healthy individual who has met his or her basic needs and is free to be creative and fulfil his or her potentialities
Carl Rogers’s Fully Functioning Person
The Phenomenal Field: The Person’s Reality
Reality is what we perceive and feel.
The phenomenal field is the totality of all our feelings and perceptions.
Self- concept is a perception of oneself and therefore a part of the phenomenal field.
In the fully functioning person, the self- concept is both positive and congruent with the feedback received from others.
Social-cognitive theory
A group of theories that involve explanations of limited but important aspects of personality (e.g., locus of control). All grew out of experimental psycho
Bandura’s Theory
Children develop a clearer sense of identity by observing how men and women behave in their culture.
This is explained through
*Observational learning
.
The relationship between behaviour, environment and cognition vis a vis personality is described as
reciprocal determinism
Observational learning
A form of cognitive learning in which new responses are acquired after watching others’ behavior and the consequences of
Reciprocal Determinism
The process in which cognition, behaviour, and the environment mutually influence each other
Rotter’s Theory: Locus of control
Behaviour depends on our sense of personal power or locus of control.
locus of control, then, acts as a sort of filter through which we see our experiences and as a motive for action or inaction.
internal locus of control
exerting some control over your fate.
external locus of control.
feeling that you have no control over the events in your life, that whatever will be, will be,
Stress and Health
Stress
The physical and mental response to a stressor
Note the following subdivision for the overall topic:
A.Stressors.
B. Responses.
C. Moderators and coping strategies.
A. Stressor
A stressful event or situation.
May be divided into Chronic stressors and Traumatic stressors.
Traumatic stressor
A situation that threatens one’s physical safety, arousing feelings of fear, horror, or helplessness.
1. Catastrophic event
An example of Traumatic Stressor
A sudden, violent calamity, either natural or manmade, that causes trauma.
Psychological Response to Catastrophe
Communal effort
people pool resources and collaborate,
Letdown
survivors feel abandoned, comprehend and feel the tragedy's impact.
Automatic action
victims have little awareness of their own experiences and later show poor recall for many details about what occurred.
Recovery
Survivors adapt to changes created by the disaster.
Immediately after the event, victims experience
psychic numbness,
including shock and confusion, and for moments to days cannot fully comprehend what has happened.
Narratives
A personal account of a stressful event that describes our interpretation of what happened and why.
Research also indicates the importance of stories or narratives in working through catastrophic experiences.
Vicarious traumatization
Severe stress caused by exposure to traumatic images or stories that cause the observer to become engaged with the stressful material.
3. Personal Loss
Types
Pure Loss
i.e. Loss of a loved one through death.
Humiliation as Loss
i.e. Loss of a loved one through rejection (broken marriage)
May result in
targeted rejection
which is the exclusive, active, and intentional social rejection of an individual.
Responses
Grief
The emotional response to loss, which includes sadness, anger, helplessness, guilt, and despair
Grieving
A normal, healthy process of adapting to a major life change
Integration
A final phase of grieving, in which the loss becomes incorporated into the self.
Disenfranchised grief
The emotion surrounding a loss that others do not support, share, or understand.
2. Post-traumatic Stress
A delayed stress reaction in which an individual involuntarily re-experiences emotional, cognitive, and behavioural aspects of past trauma.
Symptoms include
emotionally numb
alienated from others
experience less pleasure from positive events.
Chronic Stressors
Long-lasting stressful condition
2. Societal stressor
A chronic stressor resulting from pressure in one’s social, cultural, or economic
environmen
3. Burnout
A syndrome of emotional exhaustion, physical fatigue, and cognitive weariness, often related to work.
a positive alternative to burnout
job engagement
which is a sense of being part of a meaningful work setting where she or his contribution is valued and equitably rewarded
Outcomes of Burnout
Poor health
Poor quality of work
4. Compassion Fatigue
A state of exhaustion experienced by medical and psychological professionals, as well as caregivers, which leaves the individual feeling stressed, numb, or indifferent
actions to take: include:
Focus on their sense of compassion satisfaction (i.e. Appreciation due to their field of work).
avoid becoming over-involved.
resist over-volunteering.
1. Hassle
Situation that causes minor irritation or frustration
5. Major Life Events/Changes
Mariage, Pregnancy
B. Physiological Responses to Stress
Fight-or-flight response
A sequence of internal responses preparing an organism for struggle or escape.
Can be triggered by
acute stress
-temporary state of arousal, caused by a stressor, with a distinct onset and limited duration
The General Adaptation Syndrome
A three-phase pattern of physical responses to a chronic stressor.
2. Resistance phase
The Second phase of the GAS, during which the body adapts to and maintains
resources to cope with the stressor.
Arousal subsides because of:
• decrease in adrenal output.
• counter reaction of
parasympathetic nervous system.
3. Exhaustion phase
The Third phase of the GAS, during which the body’s resources become depleted.
1. Alarm phase
The first phase of the GAS, during which body resources are mobilized to cope with the stressor.
General arousal caused by:
• an increase of adrenal hormones.
• a reaction of a sympathetic nervous
system.
Tend-and-befriend
Stress response model proposing that females are biologically predisposed to respond to threat by nurturing and protecting offspring and seeking social support
Cortisol
A steroid produced by the fight-or-flight response.
Oxycontin
A hormone produced (by both women and men) in response to a stress
C. Moderators, Coping Strategies and Positive Lifestyle choices
Stressors induce stress leading to illness. But with moderator and coping strategies, one may inhibit this process.
Stressor- (Moderator) - Stress - (Coping) - Illness
Moderators reduce the impact of stressors, inhibiting stress.
Coping strategies dampens the impact on stress levels to prevent adverse health risk.
Positive lifestyle choice (Can be both moderators and coping strategies)
Coping Strategies
These learned skills reduce the impact of perceived stress on physical and mental health
Emotion-Focused
Indulging
: i.e. Eating comfort food
Suppressing
: Stopping or inhibiting negative thoughts/emotions
Disclosure
: Talking or writing about your emotions
Cognitive Reappraisal
: Changing the way you think and feel about stress
Distraction
: Taking your mind off your stress by doing something else (e.g. running)
Relaxing
: Triggering the relaxation response to clear the mind (e.g. meditation)
Problem-Focused
Problem-Solving
: Getting to the root of the problem or the source of the stress
Time-Management
: Managing time more effectively
Cognitive Restructuring
Reappraising stressors (Cognitive appraisal of situation).
goal to create a less stressful perspective
seeing a situation in a more positive light
cornerstone of cognitive
behavioural therapy
Social Comparison
Type of cognitive restructuring
Compare oneself to others in similar situation
Downward social comparison
upward social comparison.
Positive lifestyle choices
Social support
Resources others provide to help an individual cope with stress.
Exercise
Nutrition and Diet
Sleep and Meditation
Moderator
Factor that helps prevent stressors from causing stress.
These personality characteristics reduce the impact of stressors on an individual’s stress level:
Type A/B Personality
Locus of Control
Optimism
Hardiness
Resilience
Hardiness
An attitude of
resistance to stress
, based on three characteristics:
Challenge
(welcoming change, eager to be overcome and an opportunity to learn and grow—rather than perceiving a threat)
Commitment
(engagement, highly focused on meaningful activities)
Control
(maintaining an internal locus of control ).
Optimism
An attitude that interprets stressors based on three assumptions:
Specific
: Negative events are the result of specific causes rather than global problems: “I got a low grade on my last psychology test,” instead of “I’m doing badly in school.”
Situational
: Negative events are situational rather than personal problems: “It probably happened because I missed class the day before the exam when the professor gave a review session,” rather than “I’m not smart enough to do well
Temporary
: Negative events are temporary, rather than permanent: “If I’m careful not to miss class any- more, I’ll do better on the next test,” rather than “I won’t be able to recover from this low score.”
Locus of control
A relatively stable pattern of behaviour that characterizes individual expectations about the
ability to influence the outcomes in life.
Internal/external
Internal Locus
People with an internal locus of control who
believe they can do much to influence
their life outcomes.
External Locus
People with an external locus of control who
believe they can do little to influence
their life outcomes.
Primary/secondary
Primary Control
Efforts aimed at controlling external events.
Secondary Control
Efforts aimed at controlling one’s reactions to external events
Resilience
Capacity to adapt, achieve well-being, & cope with stress, in spite of serious threats to development
Type A/B Personality
Type A Personality
Behaviour pattern characterised by intense, angry, competitive, or hostile responses to challenging situations.
A Type A person is likely to contract Heart disease due to his hostile nature.
Knowing this, Type A person should engage in more relaxing activities: Meditation etc
Type B Personality
Behaviour pattern characterised by a relaxed, unstressed approach to life
Terms to note
Cognitive appraisal
Our interpretation of a stressor and our resources for dealing with it.
Plays an important role in the degree of stress we feel when faced with a stressor.
You can choose to interpret a given event as stressful or nonstressful
Distress
The psychological reaction created by external stressors, which can be an emotional, cognitive, or behavioural response. It is part of the stress response that also includes biological and physiological reactions to stressors.
Health Psychology
applies behavioural principles to promote health and prevent illness.