who are two of the primary figures in the field of cognitive psychology?
Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis
What does validity measure what it is intended to measure?
If a test says someone is depressed is that a valid test of their depression
What is intelligence?
Ability to prepreceave relationships
One major theory is Charles Spearman's concept of "g," or general intelligence, which the ability of a person to perceive relationships among things (e.g., cause and effect)
how different things relate to one another. There is also specific intelligence.
Competing theories, such as Howard Gardner's, posit that there are many different "intelligences," and that our testing systems do not adequately tap into all of them
music, interpersonal, intrapersonal, verbal, bodily, logical, visual
What is meant by a "parsimonious" diagnosis? What is comorbidity? What is the process of differential diagnosis (and what are differential diagnoses)?
Parsimonious: best explanation of observed behaviors. Differential diagnoses: differentiating between two or more conditions that have the same or similar symptoms. comorbidity: the co occurrence of one or more diagnosis at the same time.
What do meta-analyses tell us about whether or not treatment works?
Treatment typically always works, when there is a specific problem, specific treatments work the best. Moderate depression is equally treated by meds and therapy, severe depression is best treated by a combination of meds and therapy.
What is the rapprochement movement in treatment development/research?
An effort to identify a set of common strategies that characterize the work of all effective therapists.
How is fear different from anxiety? What are the three components of anxiety? Be able to describe elements of each of these components for a particular disorder.
Fear is instinctual, biological, and immediate. Anxiety is future oriented, worrying about the future and has multiple components. The three components are Psychological, cognitive, and affective.
What is an overriding behavioral principle that can be used to explain the anxiety disorders? (Hint: think Mowrer). Describe the different parts of this principle, what types of learning are associated with each part, and give an example of how an anxiety
Mowrer's Avoidance theory: Avoidance and escape, anxiety comes from classical conditioning were you learn to fear something because of paired associations. Escape or avoidance is connected to operant conditioning because you remove yourself from the stimu
Name one of the following from each category that is associated with anxiety disorders:
- region of the brain:
- neurotransmitter:
- hormone:
- nervous system:
- region of the brain: Amygdala, Prefrontal cortex, Anterior cingulate cortex
- neurotransmitter: GABA
- hormone: adrenaline, cortisol, and DHEA
- nervous system: sympathetic (fight or flight)
What is the core feature of generalized anxiety disorder?
Excessive anxiety under most circumstances, worrying about practically anything
How long does one need to have symptoms of GAD in order to meet a diagnosis?
Worry more days then not for at least 6 months
What is metaworry? How is it related to GAD?
This is someone who worries about worrying this is related to GAD because this is a general thing to be worried about people with GAD worry about practically anything.
Generalized anxiety is commonly related to many other psychological conditions. Which one, in particular, is highly comorbid with GAD?
Agoraphobia, Social Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder
What are new-wave cognitive perspectives on GAD? Be able to explain each of the three new-wave perspectives from the book and from class discussion.
Positive: worrying is useful way of coping with life threats
Negative: worrying is harmful (mentally and physically) and uncontrollable
Intolerance of uncertainty theory: cannot tolerate knowing that negative events may occur, worrying constantly that suc
All people have things that they are afraid of. Why don't we say that everyone has a specific phobia?
Severe and persistent fear of a specific object or situation. Object or situation almost always provokes immediate fear, is actively avoided or endured with intense fear, fear is out of proportion to actual danger posed, fear/anxiety or avoidance lasts at
Specific phobias are often considered one of the "easiest" psychological disorders to treat. Describe one treatment for phobias, and indicate why these disorders might be considered "easy.
A treatment for phobias would be cognitive: restructuring the thoughts related to the anxiety or behavioral: systematic desensitization in vivo (real life) exposure. This can be considered "easy" to treat because you have one specific thing you are treati
Name several common specific phobias
Fear of heights, injection, blood, germs
From an evolutionary perspective, why might phobias have developed and been passed down among generations?
We are biologically prepared to be afraid of things that could cause harm.
Describe a cognitive approach to understanding and treating specific phobias.
Phobias defend against impulses of the id. Catastrophizing cognitions. Two factor learning: the original fear reaction develops through a UCS-CS pairing. Anxiety is maintained through avoidance. To treat: restrust maladaptive thoughts related to anxiety.
What is in vivo exposure? How is it different from having a client to think about touching a spider, for example?
Exposed to the fear in real life
Exposure therapy can be administered in different ways. Describe two different "paces" of exposure therapy for a specific phobia.
Exposure graduated: gradually being exposed to anxiety provoking stimuli. Flooding: exposing them to anxiety provoking stimuli quickly
Both social anxiety and agoraphobia have, as a core fear, that one will be humiliated or embarrassed. So, how are these two disorders different?
Agoraphobia is the fear of being in situations that escaping may be difficult or embarrassing or help is unavailable if panic like symptoms were to occur. Social anxiety disorder is severe or persistent fear of social or performance situations in which sc
How prevalent is social anxiety disorder? Are there gender differences?
7.1% year prevalence, can be generalized (fear all social situations) or specific (confined to a particular action)
List three things that a cognitive behavioral therapist might do in working with someone who has social anxiety disorder.
1. Helping them face the social beliefs and expectations that work against them
2. Help them view themselves better and put away their thoughts of being unattractive or not being perfect
3. Help them find control over their feelings of anxiety
( I just ma
What might a "hierarchy" contain in the context of exposure treatment for SAD?
1) Talk about a normal conversation 2) talk about asking someone out 3) talk about a embarrassing situation 4) talk to someone you know 5) talk to someone new 6) ask someone out on a date ect.
What is the difference between a panic attack and panic disorder?
Panic attacks are typically short, occur randomly, and eventually pass. Panic disorder is marked by anxiety about having another attack and unexpected and recurrent attacks.
What is agoraphobia, and how is it associated with panic disorder?
Fear of situations from which escape may be difficult or embarrassing. Anxiety about not being able to escape a situations.
List several common situations that might be difficult for someone with agoraphobia.
Crowded areas, public speaking, rooms with limited exits, situations where everyone will look at them if they try to leave (I made these up)
What would happen if someone was experiencing high levels of anxiety in a particular situation, and therefore decided to leave before the anxiety got worse? [an ideal answer here would involve 1) what happens to the person's anxiety, 2) what happens to th
1) The individual's anxiety would decrease 2) the avoidance behavior is reinforced 3) the individual misses finding out if anything bad was going to happen
What are the pros and cons of different pharmacological treatments for panic disorder? [benzodiazepines, SSRIs/SNRIs, and beta blockers]
Beta blockers help with attacks but you have to take them if your having an attack they aren't preventative, SSRIs work on serotonin which may help but panic disorder is really a nervous system malfunction. Benzodiazepines attack the nervous system and GA
What is anxiety sensitivity? How is it related to interoceptive cues?
People with panic disorder are able to better perceive internal cues and anxiety and are likely able to "scan" their body to predict an attack
How are compulsions related to obsessions?
Obsessions are recurrent and unwanted thoughts while compulsions are a need to perform repetitive and rigid actions
What is an obsession? What has psychological research indicated to us about attempts to banish obsessive thoughts from consciousness?
Persistent thoughts, ideas, impulses or images that are repeatedly experienced, intrusive, and cause anxiety
Describe three common types of obsessions.
Cleaning and washing, checking, arranging and organizing things, repetitive counting, hoarding or collecting
Name three types of evidence we have that OCD may be biologically caused.
Serotonin and dopamine levels, orbitofrontal cortex and caudate nuclei, having strep in childhood may be related to OCD-like behavior
What would Freud say about OCD?
He would say you got stuck in the anal phase because they would be obsessive and uptight because they did not master control
What is the lifetime prevalence of OCD? When does it usually appear? Is there a gender difference?
Onset: 4-25 years, similar across genders and cultures, yearly prevalence: 1-2%
What are the two pathways activated by the hypothalamus that lead to fear and arousal?
Autonomic nervous system and the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal pathway
Describe two behavioral treatments for obsessive compulsive disorder. How might each one work?
Exposure and response (ritual) prevention - clients experience high-risk situations without engaging in compulsive behaviors, thought stopping
Name the four OCD-related disorders we discussed in class, and be able to explain each of these
Hoarding disorder: compulsive saving of possessions, trichotillomania: obsessive hair pulling, body dysmorphic disorder: people perceive part of their body as ugly or flawed and spend significant time masking the "defect", excoriation (skin picking) disor
What is the difference between PTSD and acute stress disorder?
You can sue someone for giving you PTSD. PTSD: symptoms happen for a month or more. Acute stress disorder: symptoms last for less than one month.
What are some of the types of traumas that can lead to PTSD?
Combat Exposure, Victimization or Abuse, Natural Disaster, Man Made Accidents, Terrorism, Torture
Not everyone who experiences a trauma goes on to develop PTSD. Why might this be the case? What are some factors that are related to people being more likely to develop PTSD (be able to list 5 factors that may make someone more likely to develop PTSD)?
Type and severity of trauma, trait anxiety, how acutely arousing the situation was, genetics, social support, childhood experiences, multicultural factors
PTSD is a constellation of symptoms following a trauma. How are these symptoms organized in DSM-5? What are the four categories we talked in class?
Re-experiencing the traumatic event (intrusive and distressing thoughts, flashbacks), avoidance (avoid activities that are reminders of the trauma), reduced responsiveness (detachment from other people, loss of interest in activities) , increased arousal/
Why do people develop a psychological stress disorder?
Biological
Genetics
Personality
Childhood Experiences
Social Support
Multicultural Factors
Severity of Trauma
What are the differences between state and anxiety?
Trait anxiety: individualized and general level of arousal and anxiety, traits that every person brings to life events
State/situation: individualized sense of which situation is threatening
What is the difference between PTSD and acute stress disorder?
Duration: PTSD symptoms greater or equal to a month, Acute stress disorder: less than one month, Not everyone who experiences a trauma goes on to develop PTSD because of biological factors, genetics, personal experience, and social factor
What are some of the types of traumas that can lead to PTSD?
Combat exposure, Victimization of abuse, natural disasters, person cause, terrorism, torture
How are the symptoms of PTSD organized in a DSM-5? Four categories?
Re-experiencing the traumatic event, Avoidance, Reduced responsiveness and disassociation, increased arousal, negative emotion and guilt
What are the basic goals for treatment of PTSD?
end the stress reaction, gain perspective on painful experience, return to constructive living
What are some behavioral techniques used in the treatment of PTSD?
systematic desentiziation, flooding, relaxation training, prolonged exposure, imaginal (retelling story of trauma), In vivid exposure( doing work outside of therapy to confront other situations or reminders of trauma "in real life", EDMR
What is Prolonged exposure treatment?
invented by edna foa, prolonged exposure teaches the individual to gradually approach their trauma related memories. The learn that trauma related memories are not harmful.
What is EDMR?
Eye movement desenzititaion and reprocessing, developed by francine sharpo, move eyes in the rhythmic manner from side to side, flood mind with images of situations ordinarily avoided.
describe the current debate about represses memories and "false memories" How is Elizabeth Loftus research related to this debate?
Eye witness and recollected emery might not be reliable,
Elizabeth conducted studies where false memories were "implanted in research subjects, demonstrates the fragile nature of the memory
What are some different biological treatments that might be useful for PTSD?
SSRIs, prazosin- reducing nightmares
what is a unstructured interview?
without relying on a predetermined set of questions, the assessor and client discuss the client's problems. The assessor (if s/he is a good diagnostician) will use a mental "decision tree" to make diagnostic decisions.
� E.g.: if a client endorses racing
What is a structured interview?
A structured interview is comprised of a set of predetermined questions that the interviewer follows in order. Some of the most commonly used structured interviews are:
� International Personality Disorders Examination (IPDE)
� This interview is a method
What is an interpersonal personality disorder examination?
this interview is a method of assessing personality disorders
What is Addiction Severity Index?
A structures clinical interview for substance abuse and dependence.
What is a mental status exam?
an interviewers recording of a number of different domains of client behavior
MSE domains?
observations of appearance and behavior, speech, thought content, thought process, mood, affect, perceptual experiences, insight, judgement
What is standerrzized assessment procedures?
an established protocol for administering and scoring the test
What is the quality of a standardized test determined by?
psychometric properties
What are some psychometric properties?
reliability: consisteny of a clients respond over time, validity: does it measure what its intended to measure
What is intelligence?
chapels spermans concept of "g" g- general intelligence- the ability of a person to perceive relationships among things
gardener: there are many different "inellegences" and that our testing systems do not tap into all of them
What is a stanford binet test?
the oldest standardized intelligence test that was derived from binets work for the french government: based on the concept of intelligence as ones mental age divided by ones chronicle age. Problem: as people age into adulthood this, this formula is no lo
What is WAIS?
...
Weschler adult intelligence scale
an important consideration in all intelligence testing is the degree to which tests are culturally appropriate
What is an objective personality test?
has standardized scoring?interpritation, theoretically requires little judgement on the part of the interviewer
What is the MMPI?
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, the most widely used personality test, this test has three validity scales which let you know if the administration of the test with a given person is a valid administration
What are projective personality tests?
require more interpretation of the part of the interviewer, they are a product of psychoanalytic thinking-most of an individuals behavior is driven by unconscious process
What is Roschachs Inkblot?
The most famous projective personality test, includes black and white as well as colored ink blots as stimuli
What is thematic apperception test?
shows ambiguous scenes(drawings) and asks the client to describe what is going on in the pictures
What is behavioral self monitoring?
the client is responsible for taking note of his or her own behavior
In regards the behavioral assessment, what is the ABC method?
antecedents/situations, Behaviors, consequence, helps clients to know how to avoid unwanted situations, how to process consequence, how to regulate behavior
What is reactivity in regards to behavior?
client reacts to observation, possible problem
What is neuroimaging?
intention: measure brain structure, or function, types: EEG, CAT, MRI, and fMRI, use in conjunction with clinical interview and family history
What is the wisconson card short test in regards to types of assessment?
test short term memory, working memory, reasoning, strategy, respond to feedback
What is a multi cultural assessment?
understand a person in context, normative data are problematic for minorities
What is a battery?
a group of tests administered together
whats the best assessment to use?
Thats depends on what a client wants to solve, whats the presenting problem, whats a therapists theoretical orientation, whats the goal of assessment?
What are some characteristics of a good assessment?
High reliability, high validity, parsimonious, account for comorbidity, culturally sensitive, dimensional information
Treatment issue and meta analysis?
smith, glass, miller 1980 concluded that yes treatment works, average patients receiving treatment is doing better that 75 percent of people without treatment
What type of treatment to use?
empirically supported treatments
What is the rapprochement movement in the treatment development research?
...
How do we know which aspect of the treatment makes it work?
look at the common factors/ non specific factors that are helpful for different treatment, working through emotional process, having a supportive context, intuitive therapist