Psychology 1B Notes

Human Development
(Learning Unit 1)

 Development: The sequence of age-related changes that occur as a person progresses from
conception to death
 Experience growth and decline across lifespan
 Different theories about how changes happen
 Stage Theories: Qualitatively different periods in our lives during which we construct
ourselves in completely different ways
 Interactionist Approach: A complex interplay of biological and environmental factors that
allow individuals to develop in the ways that they do (nature vs nurture)
Four Broad Periods
1) Prenatal (before birth)
2) Childhood (+- 11)
3) Adolescence (between 12 – 18)
4) Adulthood (+- 18)
Phases of Growth and Decline
 Physical development
 Cognitive development (language, problem-solving, mortality)
 Social and emotional development (personality, identity formation)

Progress Before Birth: Prenatal Development

Theme 1
Learning Outcomes:
1) Outline the major events of the three stages of prenatal development
2) Identify the influences on prenatal development
LO1: Stages of Prenatal Development
 Prenatal/Antenatal Period: Foetal development over the period of pregnancy from
conception to parturition (childbirth)
 Usually 9 months/40 weeks
Germinal Stage
 First two weeks after conception
 Begins after fertilisation and ends at implantation (2 weeks)

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  Zygote: Microscopic mass of multiplying cells that move along the mothers fallopians tube
to the uterus
 Zygote = Fertilised ovum (egg)
 Zygote rapidly divides through cell division- which begins 24-36 hours after conception
Embryonic Stage
 3rd week until the end of the 8th week
 Starts after implantation
 Blastocysts develops into motor complex structure called an embryo which undergoes
rapid cell division
 Cells start to form all basic bodily organs and system
Three Major Structures:
1) Amniotic Sac: Protects the foetus until birth
2) Placenta: Allows the exchange of nutrients and filtering of harmful material
3) Umbilical Cord: Links embryo to placenta
Four weeks:
- Neural tube (becomes the brain, spinal cord and nervous system
- Heart beat
- Spinal column and ribs are visible
- Muscle cells shift into place
Five Weeks
- Eyes develop (corneas and lenses)
- Lungs start to enlarge
Foetal Stage
 2 months (8 weeks) till birth
 Skeleton hardens
 Rapid growth of muscles and bones
 Organs develop
Third Trimester: 6-9 Months
- Brain cells multiply
- Layer of fat under skin for insulation
- Maturing respiratory system
 Average weight at birth is 3.5kg

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Preterm Birth
 Viability: Addresses whether a foetus might survive outside the uterus
- Before 23 weeks: 5-6%
- 23 weeks: 23-27%
- 24 weeks: 42-59%
- 25 weeks: 67-76
Causes of Pre-term Birth
 Chronic health conditions (diabetes or heart disease)
 Placental conditions (placental abruption or placenta previa)
 Preeclampsia
 Multiples (about 60% of twins/triplets are born prematurely)
 Problems with uterus or cervix
 Vaginal bleeding or infections during pregnancy
 Substance use (drugs/alcohol/smoking during pregnancy)
Complications of Pre-term Birth
 Higher risk of Sudden Infant Syndrome (SIDS)
 Anaemia
 Respiratory problems due to underdeveloped lungs
 Temporary pauses in breathing

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  Bleeding on the brain
 Inflammation of intestines
 Blood infection
 Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA) or abnormal blood flow in the heart
 Underdeveloped blood vessels in the eyes
Developmental Outcomes (Increased Risk)
 Cerebral palsy
 Hearing and vision problems
 Dental problems
 Learning problems
 Behaviour/mental health problems
 Poor growth
 Problems with communication or social development
 On-going health difficulties (asthma and feeding problems)

LO2: Influences of Prenatal Development

Even though the baby has a protective womb as a buffer, external events in the environment can
affect the baby through the mother because they are linked through the placenta
Genetic Factors
 Genetic Abnormalities: Caused by changes or mutations in the DNA sequence of a gene,
resulting in disruption of normal functioning
 Can be inherited or spontaneous
- Example: Cystic Fibrosis or Huntingtons Disease
 Chromosomal Abnormalities: Specific type of genetic abnormalities that involves changes or
disruptions to the structure or number of chromosomes, which carry genes
 Chromosomes are larger structures which are made up of DNS and carry genes
- Down Syndrome (Trisomy 21) – extra chromosomes on the 21st pair of
chromosomes
Maternal Nutrition
 Nutrition impacts foetal growth, infant health, survival and long term child health and
development
 Poor nutrition increases the risk of birth complications and neurological deficits
 Different nutrients are important for different phases of growth
- Example: Folic acid is critical for neural tube development

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 Sources of Foetal Nutrition
 Initially: Inside the fertilised egg
 Then: Reproductive tract
 Finally: Umbilical cord and breastmilk
Foods to Avoid
 Raw meat & eggs
 Unpasteurised milk
 Alcohol
 Excessive caffeine
 High-mercury fish
 Raw sprouts
 Soft cheeses
Maternal Stress
 Prenatal Stress: Significant effects on pregnancy, maternal health and human development
across the lifespan
 Stress impacts the mothers hormones which impacts development
Sources of Stress During Pregnancy
 Dealing with the discomforts of pregnancy (Morning sickness, fatigue)
 Hormonal changes and mood swings
 Worries about labour, birth and parenting
 Work or academic-related stress
 Family stress and low support
 Pre-existing physical or mental health conditions
Maternal Stress and Emotions: Short and Long Term Outcomes
Pregnancy and Birth Lifespan Effects on Human
Complications Associated Health and Development
with Prenatal Stress Associated with Prenatal
Stress
 Preterm labour  Attachment
 Preterm delivery difficulties
 Low infant birth  Stress hyper-
weight responsiveness
 Shortened  Asthma
gestational length  Allergies
 Preeclampsia  Difficult
 Gestational temperament
diabetes  Affective disorders

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 Increased Risk For…
 Cognitive and learning difficulties, anxiety disorders, ADHD, autism, schizophrenia,
behavioural problems and depression
 Physical health problems such as obesity and infectious diseases
Maternal Substance Use: Alcohol
 Alcohol consumption in pregnancy has severe risks and long-term effects
 Alcohol passes easily from a mothers bloodstream into her developing babies blood and
can interfere with the development of the brain and other critical organs, structures and
physiological systems
 Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs): A group of conditions that can occur in a person
who was exposed to alcohol before birth
- Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)
- Alcohol-related Neurodevelopment Disorder (ARND)
- Alcohol-related Birth Defects (ARBD)
- Neurobehavioral Disorder Associated with Prenatal Alcohol Exposure (ND-PAE)
 Foetal Alcohol Syndrome is a collection of congenital problems associated with excessive
alcohol use during pregnancy
 FAS represents the most complicated FASD spectrum
 There is a risk even with moderate drinking
 Central Nervous System problems and growth problems
 Problems with learning, memory, attention span, communication, vision or hearing
 Difficulties in school and getting along with others
Facial Features of a Child with Foetal Alcohol Syndrome

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Maternal Drug Use: Smoking (Nicotine)
 Increases risk of stillbirth, miscarriage and premature birth
 Increased risk for SIDS
Long Term:
- Poor self-regulation
- Deficits in academic functioning
- Increased risk for psychological disorders
- Increased risk for childhood obesity
Maternal Substance Use: Other Substances
 Tobacco, marijuana, prescription pain killers and illegal drugs in pregnancy double the
risk of still birth
 Most common: Marijuana and cocaine
Symptoms of Birth Due to Withdrawal
- Marijuana: Low birth weight, premature birth, tremors, extreme crying, chronic
and excessive vomiting, withdrawal-like symptoms
- Cocaine: Increased irritability, crying, decreased desire for human interaction,
withdrawal at birth
 Regular use of drugs can cause Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS), in which a baby
goes through withdrawals at birth
Maternal Drug Use: Prescription and Over the Counter Medication
 Some medicines are considered safe during pregnancy but the effects of many
medications are unknown
 Can result in foetal abnormalities
 Should avoid OTC in first trimester
Medication That Should be Avoided:
- Disprin
- Ibuprofen
- Accutane
- Certain mood stabilisers (Valporate and Warfarin)
Maternal Illness and Psychopathy
 Many infection diseases can affect the foetus’s central nervous system
 Rubella: Deafness, cataracts, heart defects, intellectual disabilities, liver and spleen
damage, low birth weight

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 High Risk for Intellectual Disability
- Rubella
- Syphilis
- Toxoplasmosis
- AIDS
- Genital Herpes
- Severe Influenza
Maternal Mental Health
 Mental health disorders can be managed and treated by a professional during pregnancy
 Certain medications are considered safer than the risk of discontinuing treatment or
untreated mental illness
Influence of Culture and Family
Culture Effects…
- Thoughts, feelings and behaviours
- How people define death, growth, birth and life cycles
In Some Traditional African Cultures:
- Miscarriage and maternal illness during pregnancy can be interpreted as
ancestors turning their back on a pregnant person or the family not adhering to
cultural practices
- Families perform different rituals to safeguard pregnancy
- Pregnancy is acknowledged but not celebrated
- Evil spirits are capable of stealing the pregnancy or interfering with it
Influence of Culture and Family: South African Context
 Social and economic change in SA in the last 30 years has changed the structures of
households and family members responsibilities
 Maternal stress has been impacted by…
- Single-parent households
- Poor access to social/familial support
- Child-headed households
- Poverty
- Taboo relating to unmarried status
- Maternal depression
- Exposure to violence

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  This leads to increased stress which can affect the hormonal balance needed for healthy
foetal development
Environmental Toxins
 Babies are exposed to a variety of environmental toxins in utero
Air Pollution
- Cognitive impairment at age 5
- Increased obesity at age 7
- Social competence and self-regulation deficits in childhood
Foetal Origins of Adult Disease
 Adverse events in prenatal period can “programme” the brain in a way that influences
vulnerability to illness in adulthood
Example:
- Schizophrenia: Linked to prenatal malnutrition
- Heart Disease: Low birth rate
- Mental Health: Increased risk of depression and bipolar disorders
- Chronic Diseases: Link to obesity, diabetes and certain cancers

Language and Socio-Emotional Development in Childhood

Theme 2
Learning
1) Explain the basic principles in motor development
2) Discuss the attachment in early emotional development
3) Illustrate how individuals learn to communicate
LO1: Basic Principles in Motor Development

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Exploring the World: Motor Development
 Motor Development: Progression of muscular coordination required for physical activities
 Babies have to learn many motor skills
- Holding up their head, neck stability, grasping, rolling, sitting, crawling, standing,
walking, running, jumping
 Requires strengthening of bones, muscles and the ability to move and touch their
surroundings
 Usually develops in a predictable sequence
2 Categories
 Fine Motor: Small movements in the hands, wrists, fingers, feet, toes, lips and tongue
 Gross Motor: Development of muscles that enable babies to hold their heads, sit and crawl
and eventually walk, run, jump and skip
 Long periods of no growth with sudden growth spurts
- Growth spurts can lead to irritability, restlessness and increased sleep
- Can feel like babies “change overnight” during a growth spurt
 Early motor skills development previously only attributed to maturation
 Maturation: Development that reflects the unfolding of ones genetic blue print
 Genetically programmed physical changes that are not due to experience
 More recent research shows that infants are active in their development
- Early motor development is dependent on exploration and the need to develop
more skills
 Developmental Norms: Typical age at which individuals display various behaviours and
abilities
- Based on averages and should only be seen as useful benchmarks
Exploring the World: Cultural Variations
 Motor development is based on a dynamic interplay between experience and
maturation
 Different cultures/societies encourage certain motor skills sooner or discourage
behaviours due to lifestyle, environment and cultural practices
Examples:
- Kokwet (Kenya): Babies walked 1 month early but crawling was discouraged due
to dangers on the ground
- Western culture emphasises crawling, walking and tummy time using baby gyms

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 - Japanese culture may discourage rough behavior and focus on fine motor skills
like origami
- Polynesian: Taught to swim early because of island environment
Motor Development in Underprivileged Communities
 Motor development is influenced by both biological and environmental factors
 Children raised in different socio-economic environments have different expected
developmental outcomes
 Physical development is tied to other development areas
- Crawl/Walking (Gross Motor Skills): Baby can explore their physical
environment, affects cognitive development
- Eating/Drinking (Oral Motor Development): Affects speech and social and
emotional development
 Well developed motor abilities at a young age allow navigation and manipulation of
environments which leads to more experiences and skills development, which affects
cognitive and academic development

LO2: Attachment in Early Emotional Development

 Social and emotional development in the early years refers to children’s developing
ability to:
- Experience, regulate and express a range of emotions
- Develop close, satisfying relationships with other children and adults
- Actively explore their environment and learn
 Social and emotional development is influenced by both biology and experiences (nature
vs nurture)
Temperament (Easy and Difficult Babies)
 Babies are born with different temperaments
 Temperament: Characteristics of mood, activity level and emotional reactivity
 Mood: General emotional state (happy, content, fussy)
 Activity Level: How much they physically move
 Emotional Reactivity: How intensely they react to environmental stimuli (loud noises, new
faces)
 Relatively stable over time, temperament at 3 months is fairly predictive at 10 years old
 Not unchangeable as many other factors influence emotional and behavioural problems

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Early Emotional Development: Attachment
 Attachment: Close emotional bonds of affection that develop between infants and their
caregivers
 Most often mom (usually primary caregiver in early months/years)
 Will attach to other caregivers or family members (dad, grandparents and siblings)
 Initially there is no preference for mom, but this changes:
- 2 to 3 Months: Smiles and laughs more around primary caregiver
- 6 to 8 Months: Pronounced preference for primary care giver, which is the
beginning of separation anxiety
 Separation Anxiety: Emotional distress within infants when they are separated from
caregivers or people they have formed attachments with
- Peaks between 14 and 18 months
Theories of Attachment
 Behaviourists: Attachment occurs because of reinforcing event of being fed (the mother)
- NS: Mother
- US: Being fed
- UR: Feeling nourished/comforted
- CS: Mother
- CR: Infant feels comforted or nourished
Harry Harlow
 Harry Harlow: The behavioural perspective overlooks the importance of comfort,
companionship and love in promoting healthy development
 Wanted to study the importance of attachment, the role of relationships and physical
touch in early development, which was controversial when people believed that touch
and affection would make children “weak” or “dependent”

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  Effects of maternal separation can be seen in orphanages or in children who experience
childhood trauma
Experiment
Infant monkeys were taken away from their biological mothers and given the choice or 2
inanimate surrogate mothers.
o Option 1: Simple constriction of wire and wood
o Option 2: Same construction but is covered in foam rubber and soft terry cloth
Assigned one of two conditions:
o Condition 1: The wire mother had a milk bottle and the cloth mother did not
o Condition 2: The cloth mother had food while the wire mother had none
Result: In both conditions the infant monkeys spent significantly more time with the terry
cloth mother. When only the wire mother had food, the babies came to the wire mother to
feed and immediately returned to cling to the cloth surrogate

John Bowlby
 John Bowlby: Babies and mothers have evolved a biological need to stay close to increase
survival
 Credited as the originator of attachment theory
 There is a biological basis for attachment (guided by evolutionary theory)
- Babies are biologically “programmed” to behave in ways that trigger an
affectionate and protective reaction from their caregiver (smiling, cooing,
babbling, crawling)
- A parent is biologically “programmed” to be fascinated with this behaviour and
respond to it in a protective way
 Attachment Behaviours (such as proximity seeking): Instinctive and activated by any
conditions that seem to threaten the achievement of proximity, such as separation,
insecurity and fear
 The quality of the attachment bond formed in infancy can have long-lasting effects on an
individuals emotional and social development
 Social and emotional responses of the primary caregiver give the child information about
the world and other people, and also how they view themselves as individuals
Mary Ainsworth
 Attachment falls into three categories: Secure, anxious-ambivalent and avoidant
attachment

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 - Disorganised-disorientated was added many years later
 Psychologist and research collaborator with John Bowlby
 Developed the “Strange Situation” procedure to asses individual differences in
attachment behaviour
Experiment
Laboratory experiment that assesses the quality of attachment between an infant and
caregiver by evoking an individuals reaction when encountering stress
- Series of brief separations and reunions between an infant, their care giver and
a stranger in an unfamiliar room
Result: Observed that the infants behaviour through theses stages to understand their
attachment style

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Maternal Sensitivity
 Type of attachment depends primarily on maternal sensitivity
- More sensitive = more secure attachment
 However other factors must be considered
- Maternal psychological health
- Quality of marital/couple relationship
 Secure attachment is more likely if a mother shows healthy personality traits and is in a
happy harmonious intimate relationship
 Quality of attachment between infant and mother has long lasting effects on
development
 Secure attachment promotes healthier outcomes including increased:
- Resilience
- Social competence and peer relationships
- Language development and academic ability
- Stronger self-regulation and understanding emotions
Patterns of Attachment: Internal Working Model
 Quality of attachment relationships can have important consequences for subsequent
development
 Internal Working Model: A mental representation or framework that individuals develop
based on their early attachment experiences
- Formed through interactions with primary caregivers in infancy and early
childhood
- Represents a persons expectations and beliefs about themselves and others in a
relationship
- Includes beliefs about ones own worth, lovability, competence and expectations
about others availability, responsiveness and trustworthiness
- Tends to be relatively stable overtime
- Influences perceptions, interpretation and responses in relationships
Attachment and Adult Relationships
 Early childhood experiences lead us to form ideas about what a relationship should be
like
 Internal working model becomes a guide for how we expect future relationships to be,
for example:

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 - Insecure Attachment: More likely to choose a partner who is uncaring and
doesn’t listen well
- Secure Attachment: Expects the partner to listen and act kindly etc.
 Attachment style is relatively stable but can change over the lifetime
 Insecure attachment often decreases as people age and experience good enough
relationships
 Inter-generational Continuity- passed through generations
Culture and Attachment
 Attachment is a universal feature of human development
 3 original types
 Secure attachment is the “norm” worldwide
 Economic factors diminish caregivers ability to provide sensitive care

LO3: How Individuals Learn to Communicate

 Early pattens of language development are similar across cultures
 Tends to develop roughly the same pace in different environments
 Suggests that language development is determined by biological maturation, rather than
personal experience
 HOWEVER
 Elements of experience are important like:
- Parents response to communication attempts
- Listening and responding to early babbling
- Talking to infants
- Exposing babies to vocabulary

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Stage 1: Moving Towards Producing Words
 Babies start learning basic vowel sounds in utero
Communication in the First 6 Months:
- Crying, cooing and laughing
6 Months:
- Begin babbling: More complex and resembles the caregivers language
- Begin to understand the meaning of simple, frequently used words
- Deaf babies will babble in sign language
10 to 13 Months
- Sounds corresponding to the parents language
- Example: dada, mama, baba
- These sounds are similar across languages
Stage 2: Using Words
 Rapid vocab development after first words
 By 18 month: 3-50 words
 Vocab spurt at 18 months
- Understand that everything has a name
- Can learn a word a day (previously a word a week)
 Receptive vocab (ability to comprehend words) is larger than productive vocab (ability to
express themselves through words
 Can understand 50 words long before they can say 50 words
Using words
 Mistakes made by toddlers when learning to speak
 Overextension: Incorrectly using a word to describe a wider set of objects or actions than is
meant to
- Uses the word to broadly and applies its to similar objects/actions, that are not
the same
- Example: Calls all 4 legged animals dogs
 Under-extension: Incorrectly using a word to describe a narrower set of objects/actions
than is meant to
- Applying the word to only one object/situation rather than all appropriate
objects/situations
- Example: Only calling specific teddy bear “bear” but not recognising other bears
as bears

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Stage 3: Combining Words
 Combining words typically occurs near the end of the 2nd year
 Telegraphic Speech: Early sentences which consist mainly of content words, nouns and
verbs
- Example: “want milk”, “doggy run”
 End of third year can typically expresses complex ideas such as using plurals or past
tense
 Over-regularisation: Child incorrectly generalises grammatical rules to irregular cases where
they do not apply
- Example: “I eated my food”

Personality, Cognitive and Moral Development in Childhood

Theme 3
Learning Outcomes
1) Use Erikson’s theory to explain the stages of childhood personality development
2) Provide an overview of Piaget stage theory and contemporary research on cognitive
development
3) Explain Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and contemporary research on cognitive
development
4) Outline Kohlberg’s theory of moral development
Personality Development
 Personality: The enduring characteristics and behaviour that comprise a persons unique
adjustment to life, including major traits, interests, drives, values, self-concept, abilities and
emotional patterns

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  Personality helps determine behaviour
 Freud: Basic foundation for personality is determined by age 5
 Erikson revised personality theory
- Agreed with Freud: Early childhood events have a permanent impact
- Changed: Personalty evolves over entire lifespan

Stage Theories of Personality Development

 Stage: A developmental period during which characteristic patterns of behaviour are
exhibited and certain capacities become established
 Stage theories assume:
1) Individuals must progress through specified stages in a particular order
because each stage builds on the previous stage
2) Progress through these stages is strongly related to age
3) Development is marked by discontinuities that usher in dramatic transitions
in behaviour
LO1: Erikson’s Theory of Childhood Personality Development
 Framework to describe how an individual personality develops and evolves over time
 Divided lifespan into 8 stages (each stage is a specific period in life and has unique
challenges)
 Each challenge is called a stage that brings a psychosocial crisis involving transitions in
important social relationships
 Psychosocial: Psychological development and social development
 Personality is shaped by how we deal with these psychosocial crises
- Successfully resolving the crises leads to positive personality traits eg. Hope
- Unresolved challenges can lead to less desirable traits, difficulties or
“imbalances” in personality
 Each crisis is a potential turning point which can have different outcomes – how we
handle each crisis influences our personality throughout our lives
 Emphasises the interaction between biological maturation and social environment and
interactions – the combination of these influence how we navigate each stage
 Successfully progressing through each stage allows us to develop a sense of self,
establish interpersonal relationships and make meaning of our lives

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Stage 1: Trust vs Mistrust
 Is my world predictable and supportive?
Age Range Stage Psychosocial Positive Outcome Negative Outcome
Crisis
Infancy (0-1 Trust vs Sense of  Hopeful  Mistrust
year) Mistrust trust/mistrust in  Secure  Fear
caregivers  Loved  Insecurity
 Infants mainly rely on caregivers for basic needs
 Biological needs must be met and a secure attachment for child to develop optimistic
and trusting attitude towards the world
 Inadequate care = Fear, mistrust, difficulty forming close relationships later in life
- Neglect = Significant developmental problems
 Important to have balance between the continuum of outcomes
- Not healthy to be too trusting or distrusting
Stage 2:Autonomy vs Shame and Doubt
 Can I do things myself or must I always rely on others?
Age Range Stage Psychosocial Positive Outcome Negative Outcome
Crisis
Toddler (2-3 Autonomy vs Developing  Confident  Ashamed
years) Shame and sense of  Capable  Doubtful
Doubt independence  Unsure
and control or
shame and
doubt in ones
abilities
 Emergence of independence and self control
 Should be allowed and encouraged to do things for themselves to learn responsibility
 Express opinions and make choices
 Start to develop self-control by regulating impulses and behaviour
 Use language to assert their needs and wants

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Stage 3: Initiative vs Guilt
 Am I good or bad?
Age Range Stage Psychosocial Positive Outcome Negative Outcome
Crisis
Preschool (4- Initiative vs Taking  Sense of  Guilt
6 years) Guilt initiative, control  Fear of
exploring and  Initiative punishment
planning or  Can take  Lack of
feeling guilty control initiative
and inhibited  Inhibited
 Curiosity, physical exploration, questions, high energy play, decision-making, initiating
games, rapidly expanding vocab
 Challenge: Function socially within their family
 Parents should:
- Support independence and initiative
- Maintain appropriate boundaries, support and guidance
 Depending on family members responses a child can feel feelings of guilt which leads to
low self esteem
 Learning to share, cooperate and empathise = Sense of initiate and self confidence
develops
Stage 4: Industry vs Inferiority
 Am I competent or worthless?
Age Range Stage Psychosocial Positive Outcome Negative Outcome
Crisis
School age Industry vs Develops a  Feel  Feel
(6- Inferiority sense of accomplishe inferior
puberty) competence and d  Inadequate
accomplishment  Competent  Low self
or inferiority  Productive esteem
 Challenge: Learning to function socially outside of the family
 Learns to do things well or correctly according to standards set by others (school)
 Important to develop: Competence and self-confidence
 Able to succeed in school and society = Develops sense of “industry” or self-confidence
 Failure to meet demands = Feeling inferior, being unwilling to try new things or tasks
Growth of Thought: Cognitive Development
 Cognitive development refers to transitions in youngsters patterns of thinking, including
reasoning, remembering and problem solving
 Processes that allow individuals to acquire knowledge, process information and gain
understanding of themselves and the world

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 - Examples: Learning to expect food when placed in high chair, linking sucking
thumb to self-soothing, gravity through dropping things
LO2: Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development
 Active role of children in constructing their own knowledge through interactions with their
environment
 Developed revolutionary theory of cognitive development that changed the
understanding of how children think and learn
 Worked on intelligence testing on children and noticed that younger children routinely
made similar mistakes which were different to older children or adults
Piaget’s Stage Theory
 Children’s thought processes move through 4 major stages
1) Sensorimotor Period
2) Pre-operational Period
3) Concrete Operational Period
4) Formal Operational Period
 All children go through that same stages but not necessarily at the same rate
 Development is an interaction between maturation (nature) and environment (nurture)

Sensorimotor Period
Stage Age Range Key Themes
Sensorimotor Period Birth to 2 years  Object
permanence
 Symbolic thought
 Ability to coordinate sensory input with motor actions and simple problem solving
 Use senses and actions to learn about the world
 Object Permanence: Realising that objects out of sight till exist

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 - Basis of separation anxiety between 4-18 months
 Goal-directed Action: Learning to act intentionally to achieve goal, not just reflexes
 Deferred Imitation: Continuing to imitate others after the event
 Focus on repeated patterns of movement or sound (sucking, shaking, banging and
babbling)
 6 months onwards:
- Organise their knowledge conceptually
- Don’t understand specific toy but as they look, feel and touch it, they start to
form a concept of the toy in their minds
- Learn more about the properties of objects and how they can be manipulated,
they begin to understand the effects of play on their environments
Pre-operational Period
Stage Age Range Key Themes Characteristics
Pre-operational 2-7 years Egocentrism Symbolic Thinking: Using
Period words and images
Intuitive reasoning: Lacks
logical reasoning
 Symbolic thinking develops – can use symbolic words and pictures to represent objects
 Begin to engage in symbolic play
- Example: Pretending a stick is a gun
 Build conceptual knowledge through pretending and dramatic play
 Common Behaviour:
- Magical Thinking: Believe that wearing a certain colour shirt will directly
influence the outcome of a specific event
- Role Switching: Pretending to be a parent, teacher or doctor = demonstrating
their understanding of different perspectives
- Imitation: Imitation of adult behaviour and routines such as cooking, cleaning or
driving a car
- Questions and Curiosity: Children ask a multitude of questions as they explore
and make sense of the world
 Egocentrism
 Egocentric Thinking: Difficulty understanding or considering the perspectives and
viewpoints of others
- Perceive the world primarily from their own perspective
- Struggle to understand that others may have different thoughts, beliefs or
feelings

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  Dominate conversations and only focus on own interests, don’t show interests in others
point of view
 Imposing preferences – everyone should like the same things they do or engage in
activities they enjoy
 Three Mountain Task: In one of Piagets famous experiments, children are presented with a
model of three mountains of different heights and are asked to choose a picture
representing what the scene would look like from the perspective of the doll at a different
location. Children in the pre-operational stage typically select the picture that represents the
scene from their viewpoint, disregarding the dolls perspective
 There are still short-comings that children will experience in this stage of development
- Conservation: Awareness that physical quantities remain constant
- Contraction: Ability to focus on one feature (eg. More slices = more pizza, can’t
think about the number of slices and sizes of slices at the same time)
- Irreversibility: Inability to envision reversing and action
- Egocentrism: Limited ability to share another persons point of view
- Animism: Belief that all things are living (the sun is shining because it is happy)
Concrete Operational Period
Stage Age Range Key Themes Characteristics
Concrete 7-11 years  Conservation Logical thought with concrete
Operational Period  Logical Thinking objects: Understands
conservation/reversibility
(understanding that things can
be undone)
 Develop “rules” for ordering their worlds called “operations”
- Create and apply rules or systematic procedures to manipulate and understand
the world around them
- Example: Mentally reversing actions, classifying objects into categories and
understanding concepts like conservation
 Children can perform mental operations on tangible objects or events
- These are things that can be seen, touched, heard, tasted or smelled in the
immediate environment like toys, books fruits and furniture
 Capable of mentally manipulating and applying logical operations to these tangible
objects and events
- Solve problems, understand relationships and draw conclusions based on their
interactions with the physical world

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 - Significant cognitive milestone as they move away from initiative thinking into a
more structured systematic thinking
 Good at inductive reasoning
- Moving away from an specific experience to a general principle
- Example: Watery eyes and sneezing when around cats = reason that you are
allergic to cats
 Start recognising reversibility
- Recognising that actions can be undone
- Understanding reverse order in mental categories
- Example: I have a dog, my dog is a Labrador, a Labrador is a dog and a dog is an
animal
 Gradual mastery of conservation
- When something changes shape or appearance, it is still the same
- Example: A chocolate bar broken in two parts is the same amount as a chocolate
broken into for parts
 Decentration
- The ability to focus on more than one aspect of a problem
- Can understand there are multiple ways to solve a problem
- Leads to a decrease in egocentrism and start to become socio-centric
- Can think about how others view the world and use this information to make
decisions and problems solve and become aware that others have their own
thoughts
 Develop new problem solving capacities
- Can understand hierarchical classifications
- Example: All apples are fruit and all fruit is food
- Can sort according to multiple categories
- Can find all the green food items and can categorise those into green fruit and
green vegetables
Formal Operational
Stage Age Range Key Themes Characteristics
Formal Operational 11+ years  Abstract logic  Abstract
Period  Hypothetical reasoning
reasoning  Hypothetical
thinking
 Logical problem
solving
 Start contemplating abstract concepts and hypothetical possibilities

25
 - Example: Justice, love and free will
 Thought processes become logical, systematic and reflective
 Use deductive reasoning
- Ability to use a general principle to determine a particular outcome like in maths
 Problem Solving
- Use logical and methodical methods (rather than trial-and-error)
 Can think abstractly
- Consider all possible outcomes and consequences of actions, long term planning
 Develop creative ways of approaching problems
 Graduate to “adult” ways of thinking
 Don’t stop learning but rather there are changes in the degree of thinking into
adulthood, not the nature of thinking
Piaget’s Stage Theory
 Children develop schemas – patterns of knowledge in long-term memory that help them
remember, organise and respond to information
 Assimilation: Use already developed schemas to understand new information
- Example: Learning schema for horses, they may call the striped animal they see
a horse rather than a zebra
- Children fit the existing schema to new information and label the new
information with existing knowledge
 Accommodation: Involves learning new information, thus changing the schema
- Example: Mother says, “No that’s a zebra, not a horse.”, the child may adapt the
schema to fit the new stimulus learning that there are different types of four
legged animals and that only one is a horse
Evaluation of Piaget’s Theory
 Considered a landmark theory and has been the basis of a huge amount of research
Criticisms:
1) Underestimation of children’s cognitive development
- Object permanence and symbolic though have been seen earlier than Piaget
described
- Children are less egocentric than originally thought
2) Stage “mixing”
- Elements of more than one stage are seen
- Brings into question whether a “stage” model is important and relevant

26
 3) Timetable or rate of cognitive development is different across cultures
- Example Children of pottery makers in Mexican villages realise that reshaping
clay doesn’t change the amount of clay at much younger ages than children who
do not have similar experiences
LO3: Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
 Cognitive development is fuelled by social interactions with parents, teachers and older
children who can provide invaluable guidance
 Focused on the relationship between cognitive development and the environment in
which children grow up in
 Influenced by Piaget
 Language acquisition is crucial in fostering cognitive development
 Children acquire their cognitive skills and problem-solving strategies through
collaborative dialogues with more experienced members of society
 Children can use their private speech (talking to themselves/talking themselves through
a task) to plan their strategies, regulate their actions and accomplish their goals
 As a child grows older, private speech is internalised and becomes normal verbal
dialogue that people have with themselves
 Had key contributions to the field of educational psychology
 Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): Range of tasks that a learner can accomplish with the
guidance of a “more knowledgeable other”, such as a teacher, peer or parent
- The “gap” between learning can accomplish independently and what they can
achieve with the guidance from someone more knowledgeable
- Changes as skills and competencies develop – represents potential rather than
learning
 Social interaction is key
- Learning and cognitive development are fundamentally social processes –
interaction with those who are more knowledgeable helps move the ZPD
 Scaffolding: Teaching strategy where the teacher provides support and assistance to
learners as they work on challenging tasks
- Support is gradually reduced = students can perform the tasks independently
Vygotsky vs Piaget
Piaget Vygotsky
Main Focus Individual cognitive Sociocultural context and
development social interactions
Role of Social Interactions Limited emphasis on social Central role of social
interactions interactions

27
 Cognitive Development Processes through distinct Continuous and influenced by
stages cultural tools
Nature of Learning Self-discovery and exploration Guidance and scaffolding by
more knowledgeable
individuals
Language Development Language as a byproduct of Language as a tool that shapes
cognitive development cognition and learning

Innate Cognitive Abilities?

 The evolution of developmental research has showed that Piaget (and others)
underestimated the cognitive abilities of infants
 Not passive observers from an early age
- Rather slowly building up explanatory systems to organise knowledge
 Infants can understand things they haven’t learnt, therefore some cognitive abilities
must be biologically pre-wired into their neural architecture
- 3 to 4 months: Objects have boundaries, move in distinct paths and can’t pass
through each other
- 5 months: Very basic numerical abilities
 Evolutionary Theorists: We are the product of natural selection and therefore have
developed adaptive functions
LO4: Development of Moral Reasoning
 Morality: The ability to figure out right from wrong and to behave accordingly
 Our personal ethics and morality form part of the core of who we are as individuals and
guide our behaviour
 Encompasses: Religion, ethical and cultural values
 Influences: Behaviour and sense of social responsibility
Kohlberg’s Stage Theory

28
  Studied nature and progression of participants moral reasoning and developed a stage
theory of moral reasoning of 3 levels with 2 sub-levels. Each stage shows a different
approach to thinking about right and wrong

Pre-conventional Stage (Stage 1 & 2)

 Mainly to avoid the punishment of authority figures such as parents
 Ages 2-8
 Example used: Sarah discovers that her best friend, Mia, has stolen money from another
students backpack at school. The money belongs to a classmate who was saving it to buy
a birthday gift for his little sister. Sarah is now faced with a moral dilemma. Should she
report Mia’s actions to the teacher, knowing that Mia might get in trouble and their
friendship may be at risk or should she keep it secret to protect their friendship?
Stage Explanation Example
Stage 1: Punishment Right and wrong are Not reporting the theft to
Orientation determined by what is avoid Mia getting in trouble or
punished facing punishment themselves
Stage 2: Naïve Reward Right and wrong are Deciding not to report Mia to
Orientation determined by what is protect their friendship
rewarded
Conventional Stage (Stages 3 & 4)
 Wish to be seen as virtuous and to avoid punishment
 Ages 7-15
 Feel that societal rules should be rigidly enforced
 Social groups like friends and family are seen as the authority

29
  Rigid and inflexible thinking
Stage Explanation Example
Stage 3: Good Boy/Girl Right and wrong are Talking to Mia privately and
Orientation determined by close others encouraging her to return the
approval or disapproval money to preserve the
friendship
Stage 4: Authority Orientation Right and wrong are Reporting Mia’s actions to
determined by societies rules uphold the school rules and
and laws, which should be maintain fairness
obeyed rigidly

Post-Conventional Stage (Stage 5 & 6)

 Develop a personal code of ethics which guides reasoning
 Ages early as 12 onwards
 Acceptance of rule acceptance becomes less rigid and more flexible
 Begin to understand that people might not follow societal rules if they contradict their
personal ethics
Stage Explanation Example
Stage 5: Social Contract Right and wrong are Encouraging Mia to take
Orientation determined by societies rules responsibility for her actions
which are viewed as fallible and return the money,
rather than absolute considering fairness and
justice
Stage 6: Individual Principles Right and wrong are Reporting the incident to the
and Conscience Orientation determined by abstract ethical teacher to uphold ethical
principles that emphasise principles, even if risking the
equity and justice friendship
Evaluating Kohlberg’s Stage Theory
 Continued research shows moderate support
- Adolescents do move through stages
- Stages are roughly predicted by ages
 However

30
  Evidence of stage mixing
 Criticised as only being relevant to individualistic Western society and ideology
- Research based on Western samples and ethical dilemmas may not be universal
outside of the US
- Emphasises individual rights, ethics and autonomy in decision making
- Collectivist societies emphasise group harmony, social obligation and
interdependence
- Based on Western legal systems and notions of justice
- Cultural, social and situation context can influence decision making
 Other factors to consider
- Automatic immediate reactions (moral intuitions) and the justification of
emotional reactions (we are more emotional and irrational than Kohlberg
theorised)

The Transition to Adolescence

Theme 4
Learning Outcomes
LO1: Describe the stages of adolescence
LO2: Explain the components of adolescence
 Adolescence: A unique, intermediate period in which the individual is no longer a child, but
not yet full matured
 Between ages 10-19 years old
 A transitional phase where rights, hopes and tasks of childhood and adulthood overlap
 Characterised by physical changes and an increase in sexual hormones as sexual
maturity is reached
 Changes in peer relationships, autonomy and decision-making, intellectual interests and
social belonging
Normal Adolescence
 Normality is the degree of psychological adaptation that is achieved while navigating
difficulties and meeting milestones of the period of change and growth
- Difficulties include: Academic pressures, peer relationships, family dynamics and
emerging identity issues

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 - Milestones include: Forming a coherent identity, developing interpersonal skills
and gaining autonomy
 Adaptation: How well adolescents cope with the changes, manage emotions and
maintain their mental well-being in the face of stressors
 Normality is not fitting into a mould but rather fostering healthy development and
resilience through individual growth and with the support of others
 Individuation and autonomy become dominant
 Individuation: Self-definition
- Beginning to assert an independent identity
- Developing a cohesive sense of self
 Autonomy: Striving for freedom or mastery
- Feeling, behaving and thinking independently
- Freedom to make own choices
- Separation from parents/caregivers
 Adolescent adjustment: An extension of previous childhood psychological functioning
- Higher risk in adolescence if child had psychological challenges
- (+-)60% of adolescents adjust and are satisfied with their lives
 Erikson’s Stage: Identity vs Role-Confusion
- Identity Crisis: The pursuit of alternative behaviours and styles, striving to
successfully mould different experiences into a social identity

Adolescent High-Risk Behaviour

 Risk Behaviour: Any behaviour that places a person at risk for negative physical,
psychological or social consequences
 The rate of risk behaviour tends to peak between late teens and early 20s
 Includes: Substance abuse, sexual behaviour, traffic safety, eating behaviours and
violence

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  Might be because the development of the prefrontal cortex is slower than the emotional
parts of the brain (Limbic system)
 Hormonal surge associated with emotional responses
Stages of Adolescence
1) Early Adolescence (12-14)
 More aware of appearance
 Experimentation with risky behaviours
 Increased sexual behaviours and romantic relationships
 Challenging behaviours towards authority
2) Middle Adolescence (14-16)
 Strive to be more independent
 Increase in sexual behaviours
 More complex romantic relationships
 Self-esteem has marked influence on positive or negative behaviours
 Peers as role models and highly influence choices
 Define themselves as unique and different from family but still maintain alliances
3) Late Adolescence (17-19)
 Investigate different academic opportunities, artistic tastes, sports and social bonds
 Stronger definition of self and sense of belonging to groups in society
Components of Adolescence
Self-Esteem
 A measure of self-worth based on perceived success and achievements
 Important: Perception of physical appearance is high worth to peers and family
Moral Development
 A set of shared beliefs about codes of behaviour
 Conform to those shared by others in society
 Behavior patters characteristic of behaviour from family, school and peers that they
admire
Socialising Processes
 Find acceptance in peer groups (belonging is a sign of adaptation)
 More mature social cognition – how people process, store and apply information about
other people and social situations
 Very important to be viewed as socially competent by peers
Cognitive Maturation

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  Most changes fall within the realm of decision-making functions – from concrete to
more intellectual thinking processes, a new ability for self-regulation and reflection
 The continued growth of white matter: Neurons become more myelinated enhancing
connectivity
 Synaptic pruning of grey matter is important for forming neural networks
 Both myelinated and pruning for most evidence in the prefrontal cortex
 Prefrontal cortex’s is the last area for the brain to fully mature (mid 20s)
Emerging Adulthood
 Jeffery Arnet: Should recognise emerging adulthood as a new developmental stage in
modern society because the search for identity continues into adulthood
 Distinct transitional age: (+-)18 to 19 years old
 Different demographic changes such as delaying marriage and parenthood to late
20s/early 30s for longer time in university and due to more barriers to financial
independence
 Distinct features:
- The subjective feeling of being between adolescence and adulthood
- Many possibilities and optimism about the future
- Self-focused
- Instability and change while dealing with identity issues

The Expanse of Adulthood

Theme 5
Learning Outcomes
1) Explain personality development in adulthood by applying Erikson’s theory of adult
development
2) Identify the physiological changes that accompany ageing
3) Explain ageing and neural cognitive changes
4) Explain the psychosocial aspects of ageing
 Previous focus was on development in childhood
 Today we see development as a lifelong journey
 Many adults face periods of transition and adjustment such as marriage, parenthood
and careers
 Patterns of development in adulthood = increasingly diverse
 Boundaries between young, middle and late adulthood is more blurred

34
Adulthood: Building Effective Lines
 Experience key changes in social needs and desires across the different stages of
adulthood
- Early adulthood: 25-45
- Middle adulthood: 45-65
- Late adulthood: 65+
 Learn to give and receive love in close, long-term relationships and develop an interest
in guiding the future generation
 Physiological changes: Muscle strength, reaction time, cardiac output and sensory
abilities begin to decline, menopause in women
 Social stages are driven by the “social clock” = known as the “right time” for major life
events such as moving out, getting married and having children
Personality Development in Adulthood
 Contradictory Research: Some found a vast personality change while others found
personality trends stable over 20-40 years
 Personality test scores are relative measures (in relation to others scores)
 Raw scores (ones not in relation to others) showed greater variation
- Biggest changes between 20 and 40
- Neuroticism (Degree of emotional instability, anxiety, moodiness and
vulnerability to stress): Shows moderate decline with age until 70-80 and then
increases
- Agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience tend to increase
and then decrease around 70 to 80
 Typical development trends represent ‘positive’ changes that move people towards
greater social maturity
 Personality in adulthood is characterised by both stability and change
Erikson’s Stage Theory
Stage 6: Intimacy vs Isolation
 Shall I share my life with another or live alone?
Age Range Stage Psychosocial Positive Outcome Negative Outcome
Crisis
Young Intimacy vs Forming close,  Intimacy  Isolation
Adulthood Isolation intimate  Love  Loneliness
relationships  Connection  Fear of
Can I be loved? rejection
 Key question: Can you develop the capacity to form intimate relationships

35
  Positive resolution: Promotes empathy and openess
 Negative resolution: Shrewdness and manipulativeness
Stage 7: Generativity vs Stagnation
 Will I produce something of real value?
Age Range Stage Psychosocial Positive Outcome Negative Outcome
Crisis
Adulthood Generativity How can I  Productivity  Stagnation
(40-65) vs contribute to  Care  Unproductive
Stagnation society and  Generativity  Selfishness
future
generations
 Start to reflect on life experiences and accomplishments
 Key challenge: Aquire genuine concern for establishing and guiding future generations
 Positive resolution: Sense of purpose and fulfilment, stronger relationships, attitude of
care, encouragement of others and creative and productive tendencies
 Negative resolution: Sense of purposelessness, disconnection from the world and
others, poorer mental health, less meaningful relationships and lack of motivation

Stage 8: Integrity vs Despair

 Have I lived a full life?
Age Range Stage Psychosocial Positive Outcome Negative Outcome
Crisis
Late Integrity vs Reflecting on life  Wisdom  Despair
Adulthood Despair and accepting  Fulfilment  Regret
(65+) ones  Acceptanc  Feelings
accomplishments e of
failure
 Challenge: Avoid dwelling on the past and imminent death
 People need to find meaningful and satisfaction to avoid bitterness, regret and
resentment
 Successfully moved through the previous 7 stages = likely to see experiences as
meaningful and feel satisfaction
Ageing
 The natural and gradual process of growing older over time
 Complex, multifaceted process influenced by various biological, genetic, environmental
and lifestyle factors
 Associated with change in many aspects
Ageing and Physiological Changes

36
  Some changes have no functional significance
- Example: Balding and going grey but may lead to people to feel unattractive due
to societal pressure
 Subjective Age (from (+-)30 years): People view themselves as younger than they are
- Associated with better physical health, cognitive function and reduced mortality
 Physiological changes tend to: Reduce functionality, reduce biological resilience and
increase susceptibility to acute and chronic disease
 Psychological factors that can improve “successful ageing” include: Higher intelligence,
optimism, conscientiousness, high self-esteem, positivity and beliefs about ageing
 Behavioural habits are important including diet, exercise, substance use and regular
health checks

Physical Changes Sensory Changes Hormonal Changes

Hair may thin and grey Farsightedness and difficulty Menopause in women (+-50
seeing in low light years)
Loss of hair in men Decline in hearing sensitivity Chronic disease increase
more noticeable after age 50
Amount of body fat tends to Sensations (temperature) due Hormones help diminish the
increase to decreased blood flow to the effects of aging
nerve endings
Aging and Neural Changes
 Brain tissue and brain weight decline gradually in late adulthood (60+)
 Decrease in the number of active neurons and shrinking in active neurons
 Dementia: An abnormal condition marked by multiple cognitive deficits that include
memory impairment and other cognitive functions which interferes with daily living
- Caused due to Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Disease, Huntington’s Disease, AIDS etc
- 10% of 65-69 years and 1/3 of 85 years
- Dementia is not part of the normal ageing process
 Alzheimer’s Disease: A form of dementia that, over a period of years leads to the loss of
emotions, cognitions and physical functioning and which is ultimately fatal
 Profound and widespread loss of neurons and brain tissue occurs, especially in the
hippocampus known to play a key role in memory
- Can begin 15-20 years before symptoms are apparent

37
 - Early symptoms: Forgetting new information
- Other symptoms: Impairment in working memory, attention and executive
function
- Progress: Gradual decline over 8-10 years ending in death
- Accounts for 60-80% of all cases of dementia
- Prevalence is increasing
 Genetic factors can contribute but the genetic base is not clear
- Protective factors: Exercise, low cardiovascular risk, no history of smoking or
diabetes, participating in stimulating cognitive activities, diet
Aging and Cognitive Changes
 Numerous studies report decreases in older adults memory capabilities
- Some research: Moderate and not experienced by everyone
- Salthouse: Memory decreases are substantial and begin early in adulthood, they
effect everyone
 Speed in learning, problem solving and processing information tends to decline with age
 Speed decreases but problem-solving is relatively stable if given enough time to
compensate
 Evidence supports the notion that high levels of mental activity in late adulthood can
delay the typical age-related declines in cognitive functioning like problem-solving
Death and Dying
 Death: The irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain
stem, is dead. The brainstem is permanently damaged and there is no neurological activity
 However, hard to define due to the increase in medical terminology
Bereavement, Grief and Loss
 Bereavement: The loss of something, most commonly someone
 The bereaved has had something taken away eg, friends, marriage, job
 Followed by grief
 Grief: The psychological and bodily reaction that occurs in people who have suffered
bereavement
 Observable grief is called mourning
 Affects different functions
- Biologically: Appetite, sleeping patterns, pain
- Socially/Psychologically: Isolating, labile (changing) or dysphoric (depressed)
mood

38
 - Cognitively: Preoccupied with the loss which impacts reasoning, problem-solving
and memory
 The grieving process is impacted by multiple factors
- Emotional state
- Cultural beliefs
- Previous losses
- Relationship to the decreased
- Type of death
-
Kübler-Ross Model of Grief
Stage 1: Denial
 Denial is typically only a short defence
 Can be a state of shock because life has changed instantly
 This emotion is generally replaced with awareness

Stage 2: Anger
 Begins when person realises that the denial can’t contribute
 Difficult to care for someone in this stage due to emotions like envy and rage
Stage 3: Bargaining
 A sense of false hope characterises this stage
 If the person could only do, say, give, provide or replace something in exchange for a fix
to the problem
Stage 4: Depression
 At this stage the person understands the reality of the situation
 Person may shut others out, become silent and openly show emotions
Stage 5: Acceptance
 During this stage the person has come to underside the reality of the situation
 The person may shut out others, become silent or openly show emotions

39
 Personality
(Leaning Unit 2)
The Nature of Personality
Theme 1
Learning Outcomes
1) Provide a comprehensive definition of personality
2) Explain the five-factor model of Personality Traits
LO1: Defining Personality
 Consistency and Distinctiveness
 Personality: An individuals unique set of consistent behavioural traits
 Explains the stability in a person and behaviour over time and across situations
(consistency)
- Example: An optimistic person has a fairly consistent tendency to behave in a
cheerful, hopeful, enthusiastic manner across many situations
 Explains behavioural differences among people reacting to the same situation
(distinctiveness)
- Example: Three people getting into an uber will all behave differently
 We all have traits that are seen in other people but each individual has their own set of
personality traits

40
  Individual differences in characteristic patterns of…
- Thinking (Eg. Focus on positives (optimists) or negatives (pessimists))
- Feeling (Eg. Tend to be happy, unhappy, easily angered or sensitive)
- Behaving (Eg. Tending to talk a lot, being untidy, liking to try new things)
 Personality is not
- Physical characteristics
- Abilities
- Temporary states
What are Personality Traits?
 Dispositions and Dimensions
 Personality Trait: A durable disposition to behave in a particular way in a variety of
situations
- Example: Timid, suspicious, impulsive, friendly
 Most current approaches to personality assume: A small number of basic, fundamental
traits determine other more superficial traits
 Traits Approach: Assume that people differ from each other on continuous traits (there
are no distinct groups)
 The goal of trait classification:
- Catalogue the dimensions on which people vary and create classifications of
traits that tend to go together (talkativeness, sociability, assertiveness)
- These “groups” of traits are called personality factors
 Traits are very useful for describing personality and predicting patterns of thinking,
feeling and behaving
 Doesn’t give a cause but rather describes
 Commonly measured using personality tests where people self report their own
characteristics
 Psychologists goal: Take a huge number of descriptors and determine the underlying
important or “core” traits among them
 Factor Analysis: Statistical analysis of correlations among many variables to identify closely
related clusters of variables
- Helps simplify the complexity of personality traits by showing which traits are
connected or tend to show up together
- Future out pattens in lots of data about peoples personality
- Example: Organised and punctual might be part of conscienceless

41
  If the measurement of variables (personality traits) correlate highly, the assumption is
that there is a single (hidden) factor (group of traits) that is influencing them all
- These hidden traits (factors) determine more specific traits
LO2: Models of Personality
Five-Factor Model of Personality Traits
 Five-Factor (Big Five) Model of Personality: There are five fundamental underlying trait
dimensions that are stable across time, cross-culturally shared and explain a substantial
proportion of behaviour
 Uses statistical analysis
 Five- Factor Model includes:
1) Openness to experiences: Individuals willingness to embrace new ideas, their level of
curiosity, imagination and appreciation for art and beauty
- Includes: Curiosity, flexibility, imaginativeness, intellectual pursuits and
unconventional attitudes
- Tend to be more tolerable of ambiguity
- Sample items: “I have a vivid imagination”, “I have a rich vocab”, “I have
excellent ideas”
2) Conscientiousness: Related to the following rules and being self-disciplined
- Diligent, well-organised, punctual, dependable
- Associated with strong self-discipline and the ability to regulate oneself
effectively
- Sample items: “I am always prepared”, “I follow a schedule”
3) Extraversion: Persons level of social ability, assertiveness, enthusiasm and the tendency
to seek out social interactions
- Outgoing, sociable, upbeat, friendly, positive outlook, motivated to pursue social
contact, intimacy and interdependence
- Sample items: “I am the life of the party”, “I feel comfortable around people”, “I
talk to a lot of different people at parties”
4) Agreeableness: Propensity for kindness, empathy, cooperativeness and their ability to
get along with others
- Warm, sympathetic, trusting, compassionate, cooperative, modest, straight
forward
- Correlated to empathy and helping behaviour

42
 - Sample items: “I am interested in people”, “I feel others emotions”, I make
people feel at ease”
5) Neuroticism: Reflects individual emotional stability and tendency to experience a variety
of distressing emotions
- Anxious, hostile, self-consciousness, insecure and may exhibit more
impulsiveness and experience negative emotions
- Sample items:”I am not usually relaxed”, “I get upset easily”, “I am easily
disturbed”
 Five factors can assist in predicting behaviour
- Example: Openness to experience – likely to have a diverse music collection
- Example: Neuroticism – interpret ordinary situations as threatening and have
trouble coping with stress
 Provides a common language to discuss personality and helps in self-awareness and
understanding the behaviours of oneself and others
 Can guide interventions aimed at promotions positive personality development and
helping individuals manage problematic traits
 Has been validated across cultures and age groups (suggests universal relevance in
culture and understanding personality
- Cultures may differ in the expression of traits but core dimensions remain
constant
 Modest differences based off gender: Females tend to score slightly higher on
agreeableness and neuroticism
- Could be genetic or environmental
 Several traits show the following correlations:
- Grades = Higher conscientiousness
- Achievement in arts = Higher openness
- Career success = Extraversion and consciousness
- Likelihood of divorce = Neuroticism
 Health and longevity
- Neuroticism: Increased physical and metal health disorders, and mortality
- Conscientiousness and agreeableness: Less illness
Theories of Personality
Theme 2
Learning Outcomes

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 1) Discuss the psychodynamic perspective in understanding personality
2) Discuss the behavioural perspectives in understanding personality
3) Discuss the humanistic perspectives in understanding personality
4) Discuss the biological perspectives in understanding personality
 Psychodynamic Perspective: Personality is influenced by unconcious thoughts, desires and
early life experiences
 Behavioural Perspective: Personality develops through learned behaviours and interactions
with the environment
 Humanistic Perspective: Emphasises individual growth, self-actualisation and fulfilling ones
potential
 Biological Perspective: Personality traits are influenced by genetic factors, brain structure
and physiological processes
Psychodynamic Perspectives
 Loosely related, diverse theories descended from Freud
 Includes: Carl Jung and Alfred Adler

Freuds Psychoanalytic Theory

 Focuses on the influence of early childhood experiences, hidden motivations, unconcious
conflicts, sexual urges and desires that shape personality and behaviour
 Psychodynamic theories that descended from Freud that focus on unconcious mental
forces
 Grew from decades of interactions with patients
 Hysteria: A set of personality and physical symptoms, patients who experienced
symptoms which could not be explained such as chronic pain, fainting, seizures and
paralysis
- Went under hypnosis and started to remember traumas and experience
“catharsis” (outpouring of emotions)
- Concluded that the disorder was caused by psychological factors
 Delves into the unconscious minds influence on behaviour
 Behaviours are predetermined by motivations that lie outside our awareness
 Show up in dreams and “slips of tongue” (reveal unconcious desires in language)
- Example: Mean to say “so happy to see you” but actually say, “so happy to sleep
with you”
 Contemporaries were uncomfortable with Freuds theories, based on:

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 - Individuals are not masters of their own minds due to the unconcious
- We are shaped by childhood experiences and these experiences are out of our
control, thus we are not in control our own destinies
- Conservative Victorian values were offended by Freuds focus on sexual urges
Freuds ID, Superego and Ego
 Mind or personality structure consists of three components
1) ID: The component of personality that houses our most primitive urges
2) Superego: Our sense of morality and “ought’s”
3) Ego: Concious controller and decision-maker in personality
ID
 Primitive, instinctive component of personality that operate according to the pleasure
principle
 Entirely unconcious
 Reservoir of psychic energy and drives raw biological urges including:
- Sexual drive
- Aggressive or destructive drive
- Need to eat, sleep, etc
 Pleasure principle: Desire/demand for immediate gratification of sexual and aggressive
urges
 Leads people to engage in fun or harmful behavior at the cost of more productive
activities
Superego
 Moral component of personality that in operates social standards about right and wrong
 In childhood we receive a lot of information about social norms which we internalise
 Starts developing between 3-5 years old
 Strives for perfection and can be irrationally demanding which leads to guilt
Ego
 The decision-making component of personality that operates according to the reality
principle
 Reality Principle: Tries to delay gratification of the ID’s urges until appropriate outlets can
be found
 Unconcious controller or decision-maker of personality
 Mediates forces between ID and superego
 Seeks to maximise gratification but helps stay out of trouble through rationality

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  Keeps out of trouble and avoids negative consequences
- Might want to scream or hit but the ego tells us to wait, reflect and choose a
more appropriate response
Traits of ID, Ego and Superego
 People whose ID has more control show personality traits like:
- Impulsivity: Acting without consequences
- Selfishness: Prioritising personal desires over others needs
- Lack of control: Difficulty restraining urges or desires
- Childlike behaviour: Seeking out instant gratification without considering
longterm outcomes
 People whose superego has more control show personality traits like:
- Excessive guilt: Constant criticism and feelings of inadequacy
- Rigidity: Difficulty adapting to changing circumstances
- Perfectionism: Unrealistic standards and fear of failure
- Lack of spontaneity: Inhibition of natural desires and impulses
 A balanced ego:
- Reality testing: Effectively assesses situations and makes rational decisions
- Impulse control: Manages desires without succumbing to them
- Social adaptability: Adjusts behaviour to fit different social contexts
- Emotional regulation: Handles emotions properly
Freuds Levels of Awareness
 Personality development is a result of the dynamic interaction between ID, ego and
superego as they respond to experiences and conflicts
 These interactions take place at different levels of awareness
 Conscious: What you are aware of at a particular point of time
- Reading these notes
 Preconscious: Contains material just beneath the surface of awareness that is easily
retrieved
- What your ate for dinner or the last person you spoke to
 Unconscious: Thoughts, memories and desires that are well below the surface of conscious
awareness, but still have an influence on our behaviour
 ID operates in the unconcious, while ego operates across all levels of awareness
 Iceberg: Unconcious is larger compared to consciousness

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  The superego influences behaviour at all times since it embodies moral values that guide
decisions and actions
 Concious mind is influenced by ego

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× 313

Conflict: Sex and Aggression

 Behaviour is the outcome of consistent conflicts between the ID, ego and superego
- Conflict = results from “pushing” for opposite behaviours
- Unresolved conflict leads to anxiety
 Conflict about sex and agression = likely to have worse consequences because…
 Sex and aggression are subject to more ambiguous social controls but we get inconsistent
messages about what is appropriate
- Example: Adverts and media use sexual imagery for commercial purposes but
might be seen as taboo in general conversation
- Example: Aggression is used and glorified by characters in movies and books to
solves issues, but in condemned in real life
 Urges related to sex and aggression are more likely to be denied due to social norms in
comparison to other biological needs (hunger, sleep)
Anxiety and Defence Mechanisms
 Many internal conflicts are easily resolved but some don’t and cause internal tension
- Often revolve around sexual and aggressive urges that society wants to tame

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  Happens in the unconcious, not aware but causes anxiety
 Anxiety slips to the surface into conscious awareness
 Anxiety is unpleasant thus we try get rid of it in anyway possible
 This is done through defence mechanisms (largely unconscious reactions that protect a
person from unpleasant emotions)

1) Repression: Keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious

 Most basic and common defence mechanism
 People repress desires that make them feel guilty, conflicts that make them anxious and
memories that are painful
- Example: Getting into a car accident as a child
2) Rationalisation: Creating false but plausible excuses to justify unacceptable behaviour
 Coming up with a logical, rational but false explanation for a shameful thought or action
- Example: Justifying cheating on a test by saying “everyone was doing it”
3) Projection: Attributing ones thoughts, feelings or motives to another
 Usually unwanted thoughts such as guilt
- Example: A man with powerful unconscious desires for women claims that
women use him as a sex object
4) Displacement: Diverting emotions from original source to a substitute target
 Directing threatening impulses such as anger away from the original cause of anxiety
and towards a more acceptable source
 Societal expectations often dictate that we hold back anger, which leads to us lashing
out at people close to us
- A student who is angry at her professor for a bad grade yells at her roommate
who is a safer target for her anger
5) Reaction Formation: Behaving in a manner that is opposite to ones feelings
 Can be driven by guilt about sexual urges
 Can be “spotted” due to the exaggerated quality of opposite behaviour
 Freud: Homophobic men are defending against their own latent homosexual impulses
- Indica is sexually attracted to their friend Smithy, but she claims that she
intensely dislikes him

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 6) Regression: Reversion to immature patterns of behaviour
 Retreating to an earlier, more childlike and safer stage of development in a response to
stress
- Example: Anxiety about self-worth can lead to exaggerated and childish bragging
about talents or achievements
7) Identification: Boosting self-esteem by forming an imaginary or real alliance with a person or
group
 May adopt characteristics, values or behaviours of another person to cope with feelings
of inadequacy or reduce anxiety
- Example: A young employee with low self-worth stats to dress similarly and use
similar phrases to her boss who is confident and highly respected – mimicking
her boss’s traits reduce her feelings of anxiety and inadequacy
8) Sublimation: Channelling unconscious, unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable
activities and behaviours
 Relatively healthy defence mechanism
- Example: Channelling aggression by playing rugby

Current Thinking on Anxiety and Defense Mechanisms

 Reliance on defence mechanisms increases when people experience threats to their
sense of self
 Defense mechanisms serve a protective function from emotional distress
 Excessive dependence on defence mechanisms is associated with mental health
impairments
Freuds Psychosexual Stages
 Psychosexual Stages: Developmental periods with a characteristic sexual focus, which leave
a mark on adult personality
 Freuds Stage Theory: Development is made up of 5 psychosexual stages
 The most controversial part of the Freudian theory of personality is fully formed by age 5
 Sexual in this context refers to urges for sexual pleasure
 Each stage has a…
- Unique developmental challenge (consists of interplay between sexual and
psychological aspects of development)
- Pleasure from a different part of the body

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  Urges shift as children process through the stages of development
 The way that each challenge is handled will shape personality
 Fixation: Failure to move from one stage to the next, as expected
- Can be caused by excessive gratification or frustration of needs at a specific
stage
- Fixations carried over from childhood affect adult personality leading to
personality problems
- People will tend to regress to the stage in which they are fixated at during times
of stress
Psychosexual Stages
1) Oral Stage (0 – 1)
 Erotic focus on the mouth
 Pleasure comes from the mouth in the form of sucking, biting and chewing
 Focus on feeding (especially weaning from breast or bottle)
 Access to feeding or early weaning can lead to fixations
 Fixation: Overly dependent, turning to the mouth to self soothe (smoking, nail biting,
excessive eating)
2) Anal Stage (2 – 3)
 Erotic focus on the anus
 Pleasure crimes from bowel and bladder elimination or retention
 Toilet training represents societies first control of biological urges
- More opportunities for punishment and criticism from parents
- Challenged by obedience and self-control
 Fixation
- Anal Retentive: Very harsh potty training = can become stingy, extremely rule-
abiding and obsessed with order
- Anal Expulsive: Too lenient = poor self-control, rebellious, disorganised and anti-
authority
3) Phallic Stage (3 – 5)
 Erotic focus on genitals
 During this time children develop powerful, unconscious attraction to opposite sex
parents and see the same sex parent as a rival that they want to eliminate
 Oedipus Complex: Children manifest erotically tinged desires for the opposite-sex parent,
accompanied by feelings of hostility towards the same-sex parent

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  Greek Mythology: Oedipus didn’t know his parents and unknowingly married his mother
and killed his father, the poked out his own eyes when he realised what he had done
 Castration Anxiety: Become aware of the physical differences between themselves and
their mother and fear that their fathers will punish them by castrating them as a
punishment for their desires towards their mothers
- This leads to the repression for a boys Oedipal desire for his mother and
contributes to resolution for the Oedipus complex
 Penis Envy: A sense of deprivation experienced by girls once they realise they don’t have
a penis which results in them becoming hostile towards their mother for who they
blame for their anatomical deficiency
- Leads to repression of desire for a father and replaces it with the desire for a
baby
 Fixation: Overly vain, exhibitionistic, sexually aggressive, anxiety about sexual performance,
the need for reassurance and validation, rivalry with other women or the need for male
attention and approval
4) Latency Stage (6 – Puberty)
 Erotic focus: None
 Sexuality is suppressed and becomes latent (little to no interest in opposite sex)
 No major psychological struggles
 Focus on expanding social contact outside the family (school, hobbies, etc)
5) Genital Stage (Puberty Onwards)
 Erotic focus on genitals and intimate sexual relationships
 Sexual energy aimed at peers of the opposite sex (in phallic stage it is directed to
themselves)
 If development has proceeded normally with no fixation = can move to adult, mature
relationships
 Ongoing Development
 Personality development does not stop but due to early childhood experiences, the
foundation of adult personality is solidly determined
 Conflict later in life are due to replays of crises from childhood
- Unconcious sexual conflicts from childhood are the origin of psychological
disorders

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Jung’s Analytical
Psychology
 Jungs Theory: Unconscious is made up of two layers – the personal unconscious and the
collective conscious
 Personal Unconscious: A layer of the unconscious mind that contains an individuals unique
and personal experiences, thoughts, feelings, memories and perceptions that are not
currently in conscious awareness
- Example: Forgotten, repressed or not focused on in the present moment
 Collective Unconscious: A storehouse of latent memory traces inherited from peoples
ancestral past
- Shared by humans
- Shared dreamworld for all humanity (Metaphor: Software that comes pre-
installed in our brains shaping our thoughts, fear and desires in ways that we
don’t realise)
- Ancestral memories (show up in art, literature and religion) are called
archetypes
 Archetypes: Emotionally charged images and thought forms that have universal meaning
and shows up as symbols as art, literature and religion
 Blueprints or patterns within this shared dreamworld (recurring symbols, characters and
stories found in myths, religions and dreams across cultures and time)
- Not memories of personal experiences

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 - Show up frequently in dreams
- Unconsciously shape our reactions and decisions
- We can work to recognise archetypal themes in our lives to better understand
our motivations, desires identity and decision-making
- Example: “Trickster” archetype is likely to be mischievous and unconventional
Adlers Individual Psychology
 The primary motivation of human behaviour is striving for superiority
- Striving for Superiority: Universal drive to adapt, improve oneself and master
life’s challenges
- Motivates us to overcome challenges, set goals and fulfill potential
 Young children feel inferior and weak – feelings of inferiority motivate children to gain
more skills
 Everyone has to overcome feelings of inferiority through compensation
- Compensation: Efforts to overcome imagined or real life inferiorities by
developing ones abilities
 Children who are overly pampered or neglected are likely to develop an inferiority
complex later in life
 Inferiority Complex: Exaggerated feelings of weakness or inadequacy
- Feelings of not meeting peoples expectations leading to low self-esteem and a
tendency to overcompensate
- Example: Demonstrate superiority at all costs, can become domineering, focus
on acquiring status at all costs
 Psychological disorders are due to attempts to compensate for the inferiority complex in
order to meet the goal of superiority
Adlers Birth Order
 Depending on birth order, you are born into a different environment and treated differently
which is likely to affect your personality
 Birth Order: The order in which you were born among your siblings
 Acknowledged the social context of personality development
 Theory has remained poplar but recent evidence does not show meaningful correlations
Evaluating Psychodynamic Perspectives
Positive Contributions
 Unconscious forces can influence behaviour
 Internal conflicts play a role in causing psychological distress

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  Early childhood experiences can influence adult personality
 People use defence mechanisms to reduce the experience of unpleasant emotions
Criticisms
 Too vague and speculative to make it scientifically testable
 Based in unrepresentative samples of white, upper-class, sexually repressed women
 Depend too heavily on case studies where clinicians can be biased and “see what they
want to see”
 Based on recollections of childhood memories which can be distorted, incomplete or
inaccurate
 Based on sexist bias against women
Research has shown
 Development is a lifelong journey and is not fixed at the age of 5
 Oedipal complex is not universal or as important as Freud thought
LO2: Behavioural Perspective
 Behaviourism: A theoretical orientation based on the premise that scientific psychology
should only study observable behaviour
 Focus on the mind and mental processes is not scientific
 Three primary theorists: BF Skinner, Albert Bandura and Walter Mischel
 Personality is based on learning

B.F. Skinner on Personality

 Father of Operant Conditioning: Behaviour that is followed by pleased consequences is
likely to be repeated and behaviour followed by unpleasant consequences is less likely to be
repeated
- Reinforcement (positive/negative) increases behaviour
- Punishment (positive/negative) decreases behaviour
 Not intended to be a personality theory but his concepts been applied to many areas of
human behaviour and personality development
Skinner’s Personality Structure
 Focus on external behaviour moulds overt behaviour
- No focus on the “internal” personality structures (what goes on inside people)
 Believed in determinism: Behaviour is fully determined by environmental stimuli
- Behaviour is a result of the rewards and punishments people have experienced
in the past

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  People show consistent behaviour due to stable response tendencies which have been
acquired through experience
- Overtime we learn to behave in a particular way
 Personality: A collection of response tendencies tied to stimulus situations
Skinner’s Personality Development
 Response tendencies are acquired through learning
 Operant conditioning shapes human responses
- Reinforcement, punishment and extinction determine patterns of responding
- Response tendencies constantly being strengthened or weakened by new
experiences (reinforcement or punishment)
- Example: If your joking leads to attention and compliments, your tendency to be
witty and humorous will be strengthened
- Example: If your impulsivity often leads to negative outcomes, your tendency to
be impulsive will decrease
 Personality development is continuous, lifelong journey
- No special focus on early childhood or specific stages
Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory
 Agreed that personality is shape by learning but didn’t agree with “pure” behaviourism
because…
- Humans are conscious, thinking and feeling beings
- Cognitive processes are the most distinctive and important feature of human
behavior
 Social Cognitive Theory
 People are not passive participants in conditioning
 We seek out and process information to maximise favourable outcomes
 What shapes behaviour is not only the actual reinforcements (rewards and
punishments) that people experience, but how people interpret these reinforcements
 People can learn from observing other people being rewarded or punished
 Observational Learning: Ones responses are influenced by observing others
- Classical and operant conditioning can occur indirectly
- Our patterns of behaviour are determined by models
- Models: A person whose behaviour is observed by another
- Many response tendencies (assertiveness, easy going, explosive) are due to
imitation of the models we are exposed to (parents, teachers, siblings, peers)

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Bandura’s Self-Efficiency and Reciprocal Determinism
 Many personal factors (aspects of personality) influence behaviour
 Self-Efficiency: Ones belief about the ability to perform behaviours that should lead to
expected outcomes
 Belief in your ability to do something and how confident you feel about doing task or
deal (not about your actual ability but what you believe your ability is)
 Influences how someone behaves to achieve desired results – powerful psychological
factor that can significantly impact behaviour, motivation and overall success
 People with High Self Efficiency: Confident in their abilities to execute the responses
necessary to earn reinforcers (believe they can overcome challenges to reach their goal)
- Example: Student who believes they can ace their math exam is likely to study
hard and feel confident during the test
 People with Low Self Efficiency: Doubt their abilities and believe they are not capable of
doing the correct thing to achieve the reinforcer (may avoid challenges or give up easily)
- Example: Student who doubts their math abilities might avoid studying and feel
anxious during the exam
 Self efficiency can vary according to the task (confident in public speaking but not math
skills)
 Reciprocal Determinism: Internal mental events, external, external environmental events
and overt behaviours all influence one another
 The environment influences how one thinks and feels, which in turn influences their
behaviour, which impacts the environment
 Role of The Environment in Personality
- There is a continuous interplay between personal factors (how we think, feel
and behave) and environmental factors
- The environment does influence behaviour but people can also change their
environment through their behaviour
- Example: A person who is talkative and very enthusiastic could choose a career
in sales where that behaviour is rewarded
 Example: Shy student who usually keeps to themselves (personal factor), walks into class
on the first day of school to find that other students are already sitting down
(environmental factor). The shy student tries to slip to the back of the class to avoid
becoming the centre of attention (behavioural factor). If a friendly classmate greets

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 them enthusiastically and invites them to sit next to them, then the change in the
environmental factors may influence their behaviour
Walter Mischel’s Person-Situation Controversy
 People make responses they think will lead to reinforcement in the situation at hand
 Focused on how much situational factors govern behavior
- Example: You will work hard in your job if you believe it will lead to a promotion
and if you don’t believe that it will lead to a promotion, you are likely to be less
conscientious and hardworking
 Today psychologists acknowledge that both personal and situational factors affect
behaviour
Evaluating Behavioural Perspectives
Positive
 Behavioural theories are firmly rooted in extensive empirical research
- Have been developed on vast real-world research and provide well-supported
and credible explanations for human behaviour
Criticisms
 Behavioural theories aren’t very behavioural anymore
- Theories such as social learning theory undermines the idea that we should only
study observable behaviour
 Behaviourists have indiscriminately generalised from animal research to human
behaviour
LO3: Humanist Perspectives
 Theoretical orientation that emphasises the unique qualities of humans, especially their
freedom and potential for personal growth
 Humanistic theorists assume that
- People can rise above their primitive animal heritage
- People are conscious and rational beings not dominated by unconscious,
irrational conflicts
- People are not helpless pawns of deterministic forces
 A persons subjective view of the world is more important than the objective reality
Roger’s Person-Centred Theory
 Carl Roger’s
 Theory was developed based on interactions with clients
 Viewed people as primarily moral and helpful

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  The Self
 Personality is made up of the self (what we know today as self-concept)
 Self-Concept: A collection of beliefs about ones own nature, unique qualities and typical
behaviour
- Own mental picture of yourself
- Example: “I am hardworking”, “I am pretty”
 Self-concept is subjective
 People tend to distort their experiences and interpret events, feedback or situations in a
way that aligns with their desired self-image, even if its not entirely accurate
 The gap between self-concept and reality = incongruence
 Incongruence: Degree of disparity between ones self-concept and ones actual experience
 Too much incongruence affects psychological wellbeing
 Development of Self
 Childhood experiences can promote a congruent or incongruent sense of self
 Unconditional Love: Unwavering love and acceptance without any requirements or
conditions
- Children feel worthy of affection no matter what they do
 Conditional Love: Affection and acceptance is based on whether a child is behaving well or
meeting parental expectations
- Children are uncertain on whether they are deserving of love
 Conditional love leads to a need to distort the experience
- Develop a self-concept based on meeting external expectations
- Focus on meeting the expectations of others rather than understanding their
own needs and desires
- Can suppress or deny parts of themselves that don’t fit these criteria (leads to
internal conflict)
- Self-worth becomes intertwined with how well they meet the conditions set by
others (may strive relentlessly to be perfect, compliant or fit a particular mould)
 Conditional love fosters an incongruent self-concept which makes one prone to
recurrent anxiety which triggers defensive behaviour, which fuels more incongruence
 Anxiety and Defence
 Experiences that threaten personal views of ourselves is the main cause of anxiety
 To avoid anxiety one must act defensively to reinterpret their experience so it remains
constant with their self concept

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 - Example: Ignore or twist reality to protect self-concept
 Conditional love fosters an incongruent self-concept which makes one more prone to
recurrent anxiety, which triggers defensive behavior which fuels more incongruence
 Conditional love sets up a cycle of:
1) Distorted Perception: Focusing on external validation rather than internal needs
2) False Self: Developing a self-concept based on meeting others expectations
3) Self-Suppression: Hiding authentic parts of self
4) Incongruence: A mismatch between the real and ideal self
5) Anxiety and Defensiveness: Protecting the fragile self-concept
 Example:
Jane has always been praised for her academic achievements. She values her parents
approval and sees herself as “smart” and successful” She now faces a difficult course and
struggles with the material. She receives a lower grade on an assignment than she expected.
To protect her self-concept of being “smart” and “successful”, Jane might react defensively
(downplaying the importance of the assignment, blaming the teacher for unclear
instructions etc.) she might also avoid discussing the grade with her parents or friends
fearing that it might challenge their perception of her as a high achiever.
By avoiding her lower grade, she suppresses her true feelings. However, the incongruence
between her self-concept and experience still exists and has not been addressed, which can
lead to anxiety.

Maslow’s Theory of Self-Actualisation

 Felt that psychology should focus more on healthy personality development, rather then
only on psychological disorders
 Key contributions: How motives are organised hierarchically and description of healthy
personality
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
 Systematic arrangement of needs, according to priority, in which basic needs must be met
before less basic needs can be activated
- If a person satisfies a level of needs reasonably well = the satisfaction activates
needs at the next level
- If previously met needs are threatened they shift focus back onto more basic
needs
 Humans have an innate drive for personal growth (evolving to a higher state of being)

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  Highest need “the need for self-actualisation”: The meed to fulfil ones potential
- “What a man can be, he must be”
- If you are unable to use your talents or pursue your interests, you will become
frustrated
 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as we understand today:
- Has been widely influenced and distorted by popular culture and interpretations
of the theory which is not true to Maslow’s writing
- Is a compelling analysis of personalities but is difficult to validate with empirical
studies

-
Maslow’s Healthy Personality
 People with exceptionally healthy personalities = self-actualising persons
- Committed to continued personal growth
 Characteristics of Self-Actualisers
 In tune with reality
 At peace with themselves
 Open
 Spontaneous
 Sensitive to the needs of others
 Good interpersonal relationships
 Not dependent on the approval of others
 Have more “peak experiences” (profound emotional highs)
Evaluating Humanistic Perspectives

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Positive
 The humanistic approach made the self-concept an important construct in psychology
- The idea that someone’s subjective views may be more important than objective
reality is compelling
 Optimistic, health oriented approach
 Laid the foundation for the positive psychology movement
Criticism
 Aspects of humanistic theory are difficult to put to scientific test
 Humanists have been unrealistically optimistic in their assumptions of human nature and
descriptions of healthy personality
 More empirical research is needed to solidify the humanistic view
LO4: Biological Perspectives
 Emphasises the role of genetic, neurological and physiological factors in how personality
develops
 We are genetically predisposed to certain personality traits
Eysenck’s Model of Personality
 Described personality as a hierarchy of traits which are biologically determined or influenced
by genetic factors
 Personality is shaped by ones genes
 A few high-order traits determine a host of low-order traits
- Example: Extroverted people tend to be sociable
 This determines a persons habitual response
- Example: Extroverts habitual response could be initiating conversation or
seeking out social interaction
 Eysenck believed that some people are more easily conditioned than others die to inherited
differences in physiology
 Special Interest in Extraversion-Introversion
 Extraverts have lower physiological basal arousal thus are less sensitive to stimulation
and actively seek out external sources of stimulation
 Introverts are more easily aroused by events and easily overwhelmed by external
environments (noisy environment, new situation)
- Higher arousal levels make introverts sensitive to stimuli
- Classical Conditioning: Introverts brains may notice small or neural stimuli more
readily and acquire more conditioned inhibitions

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 - Learn to suppress certain responses that lead to behaviour such as shyness and
uneasiness in social situations
Behavioural Genetics and Personality
 Behavioural genetics have shown that genetics shape an individuals personality
 Twin Studies of the Big 5 Personality Traits
 Identical twins score more similarity than fraternal twins even when they grow up in
different homes
 Shared Family Environment has Little Impact on Personality
 Research is starting to look at the subjective experiences of children within families
 Current Research
 Specific personality traits are likely influences by 1000’s of genes
Evolutionary Approach to Personality
 Behaviour has a biological basis because natural selection has favoured certain traits
throughout history
 Certain traits developed because of increased survival and reproductive advantage
- Leading to an increased likelihood of genes being passed on
 Evolutionary view of psychology focuses on how personality traits and their ability to
recognise these traits in others, contributed to reproductive fitness in ancestors
David Buss
 Big 5 personality traits are important across cultures due to adaptive implications
 Historically humans have depended on groups for protection, sourcing and sharing food
- We need to make judgements on whom they can trust or depend on
 Big 5 factors are evident as are personality traits across cultures because we have
developed a special sensitivity to recognise certain personality traits in others
- Ability to bond (extraversion)
- Willingness to cooperate and collaborate (agreeableness)
- Tendency to be reliable and ethical (conscientiousness)
- Capacity to be innovative and problem-solve (openness to experience)
- Ability to handle stress (low neuroticism)
Daniel Nettle
 Personality traits themselves and not the ability to recognise them in others are products of
evolution
 Extraversion: Increases mating success
 Agreeableness: Assist in building alliances

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  Neuroticism: Helps avoid acute dangers and increases competitiveness
 Openness: Increases creativity which attracts mates
 Conscientiousness: Increased life expectancy due to avoiding risks and adopting healthy
behaviours
- Research has found that higher extraversion and low neuroticism are associated
with higher fertility rates in modern society
Evaluating Biological Perspectives
Researchers Have Compiled Convincing Evidence That:
 Biological factors help shape personality
 A shared family environment has small effects on personality development
Criticism
 Too much emphasis on heritability estimates (an estimate of how much variability in a
trait among individuals is due to genetic factors)
- Lots of variation in research finding depending on sampling and statistical
analysis
 Genetic and environmental components influence on personality is not entirely
independent
- Example: A child with a difficult in-born temperament may evoke a specific
parenting style (the child’s genes may influence the environment)

Stress, Coping and Health

(Learning Unit 3)
Learning Outcomes
1) Explain what stress entails
2) Discuss the major types of stress
3) Discuss some stressors experienced within South Africa
4) Explain how an individual responds to stress
5) Explain the effects that stress has on human beings and physical health
6) Explain how an individual can deal with stress
LO1: Stress
 Any circumstance that threatens or is perceived to threaten ones wellbeing and that tests
ones coping abilities
 Historical perspective: Purely physiological, biological phenomenon

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  Current understanding: The process by which we perceive and respond to
circumstances we judge to be threatening
 Can be due to: Physical (heat, pain, etc.) or psychological (breakup, traffic, deadline etc.).
 Causes a series of emotional, behavioural, cognitive and physiological changes
 Mild stress can be healthy and beneficial
- Example: Physical exercise, preparing to bungee jump, first date
 Threats can be immediate safety, long term security, self-esteem, reputation, peace of
mind etc.
The Nature of Stress
 Biopsychosocial Model: Physical illness is caused by a complex interaction of biological,
psychological and sociocultural factors
 Current research focuses on the biopsychosocial model

 Stress is often thought of in the context of major, traumatic crises (natural disaster,
pandemic etc.)
- Does lead to an increase in psychological and physical health problems
- However, crisis are only a small part of the stress and are relatively rare
 Routine everyday stress = significant harmful effects on mental and physical health
- Example: A 15 year study on every day stress had a greater association with
higher mortality than major traumatic events in elderly men
 Stress is cumulative
- Routine stressors (home, work, family) may seem harmless in isolation but
chronic, enduring stress can add up
The Nature of Stress: Appraisal
 Stress is subjective
 Dependent on

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 - What a person notices
- How they judge/perceive the event
- Eg. Driving on the highway, going on a date
 Lazarus and Folkman distinguish between primary and secondary appraisal
 Primary Appraisal: Initial evaluation on whether an event is
1) Irrelevant to you
2) Relevant but not threatening
3) Stressful
 When you view an event as stressful, you are more likely to make a second appraisal
 Second Appraisal: Evaluation of your coping resources and options for dealing with stress
EXAMPLE: A student gets a challenging assignment with a tight deadline
 Primary Appraisal: Student perceives the assignment as a threat due to its difficulty as
tight timeline
 Secondary Appraisal: Student assesses their resources (prior knowledge of the topic,
access to relevant resources and a supportive friend whose good at the subject) this feel
more confident about managing the situation and coping with the stress
LO2: Major Types of Stress
 4 major types of stress
1) Frustration
2) Internal Conflict
3) Change
4) Pressure
Frustration
 Frustration is experienced whenever the pursuit of some goal is thwarted
- When you goals or expectations are met or you can’t have something you want
 Experienced every day (low phone battery, timetable changes, being left on read)
 More easily resolved
 Can cause significant distress or become a long term problem (which can then have
psychological and physical impacts)
 Causes:
- Daily hassles
- Finances
- Interpersonal conflicts
- Relationships

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 - Stressful current world events
 Signs of frustration
- Feeling annoyed/angry
- Feeling on edge
- Getting overwhelmed
- Changes in eating and sleeping habits
- Loss of confidence
Internal Conflict
 Conflict: When two or more incompatible motivations or behavioural impulses compete for
expression
1) Approach-Approach Conflict: A choice must be made between two attractive (rewarding)
goals
 Often less stressful
 Can become difficult (choosing between 2 partners)
2) Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict: A choice must be made between two unattractive goals
 “Lesser of two evils” or “caught between a rock and a hard place”
 Unpleasant and highly stressful
- Example: Breaking up with a partner or turning down a dream job
3) Approach-Avoidance Conflict: A choice must be made about whether to pursue a single goal
that has both attractive and unattractive aspects
 Common, stressful
 When you have to take a risk to pursue the desirable outcome
 Causes vacillation (go back and forth cause you can’t decide

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Change
 Life changes are any substantial alterations in ones living circumstances that require
readjustment
 Holmes and Rahe: Life changes including positive vent, represent key types of stress
 Social Readjustment Rating Scales: Used to measure life changes as a form of stress
- Widely used and accepted
- Criticised: Doesn’t only measure change
 Current Understanding
- Change is not inherently or inevitably stressful
- Change can be positive or stressful
Pressure
 Pressure involves expectations or demands that one behaves in a certain way
 Pressure is related to psychological and physical symptoms (Eg. Heart attack)
 Pressure to Perform
 Expected to execute task and responsibilities quickly, efficiently and successfully
- Can lead to stress, anxiety and fear of failure
- Often driven by completion, comparison to others or the desire to meet high
standards
 Pressure to Conform
 Social influence or expectation for individuals to adopt the behaviours, beliefs, values
and norms of a particular group or society
- People want to gain social acceptance and avoid rejection
- Driven by the desire to adhere to established social norms, even if they don’t
align with personal beliefs
- Often occur within social groups where shared values and behaviours are
emphasised
 Pressure is Often Self-Imposed
 People create their own sources of pressure through their personal goals, ambitions and
internal standards
LO3: Stressors in South Africa
 People in SA face stressful situations everyday
- Joblessness, inflation, lack of access to resources, load shedding, unreliable and
costly transport, crime, financial stress and illness

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  Leads to direct and indirect psychological and physical health implications

 Crime
 Social Health and Health Survey: 50% had experienced more than one trauma
 Many people showed sub-clinical symptoms of PTSD
 Fear of Crime: Pervasive awareness or general anxiety that one could be the next victim
of a crime which leads to high levels of mistrust, suspicion and wary social interactions
 South African adults living in communities that experience relatively higher levels of
social dysfunction (crime) are more likely to experience mental health problems
LO4: Responding to Stress
 Human response is complex and multidimensional
 Affected on multiple levels including:
1) Emotional
2) Physiological
3) Behavioural

Emotional Responses to Stress

 No simple “one-to-one” links between stress and emotions
 However researches haves found…
- Links between certain cognitive reactions to stress (appraisals) and specific
emotions
Self-blame —> Guilt
Helplessness —> Sadness
 Chronic experience of negative emotions is predictive of poor subjective health across
vultures
 Verbally describing and communicating emotions

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 - Less severe reaction to stress
- Less maladaptive coping mechanisms
 Stress can lead to positive emotions (gratitude)
 Positive response is linked to better physical outcomes and resilience (ability to “bounce
back”)
 Improved immune response
 Effects of Emotional Arousal
 Emotional responses are important (serve a protective function)
 Negative response signals the need to take action
 Strong arousal can improve performance (cognitive function, memory and attention) up
to a point
 Task performance should increase with increased emotional arousal
- Reaches optimal level of arousal
- After this point performance deteriorates
- Depends on the complexity of the task (simple task = optimal level is higher,
more complex = optimal level is lower)
Physiological Responses to Stress
 General Adaptation Syndrome: Model of the body’s physiological stress response to long-
term stress consisting of three stages (alarm, resistance and exhaustion)
- Framework for how stress leads to illness
1) Alarm: A threat is recognises, body gathers all resources and the fight-or-flight response is
activated
2) Resistance: With prolonged stress, the elevated physiological response starts stabilising and
coping efforts begin
3) Exhaustion: After a substantial period of time, the body’s resources for fighting stress
become depleted and the physiological response will decrease, increasing the chance of
illness
 EXAMPLE: Student preparing for final exams
1) Alarm Stage
- Exam dates approach, starts experiencing stress which triggers the alarm stage
- Body responds with “fight or flight” response which releases stress hormones
(adrenaline and cortisol)
- Physiological reaction prepares the student to focus and perform well
2) Resistance Stage

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 - Continues to study and takes exams, enters the resistance stage
- Body attempts to adapt to the ongoing stressor (exams)
- Physiological response remains elevated as the body tries to cope with the
demands
- Can experience improved focus and increased energy to handle the workload
3) Exhaustion Stage
- If prolonged and intense stress due to numerous exams and inadequate rest, the
student can eventually reach the exhaustion stage
- The body’s resources become depleted and the constant release of stress
hormones can lead to physical and emotional exhaustion
- May experience burnout, difficulty concentrating, irritability and a weakened
immune system
 Brain-Body Pathways: Two major pathways between the brain and endocrine system in
times of stress
1) Pathway 1: Brain (Hypothalamus) —> Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) —> Catecholamines
Hypothalamus activates the sympathetic division of ANS —> Stimulates adrenal medulla
(central part of adrenal glands) —> Releases catecholamines (dopamine, norepinephrine,
adrenaline) —> Produce physiological changes throughout the body —> Raised
catecholamines = body prepares of action
2) Pathway 2: Brian (Hypothalamus) —> Pituitary Gland —> Corticosteroids
Hypothalamus activates the Pituitary Gland (master gland of endocrine system) —> Pituitary
gland secretes ACTH (Adrenocorticotropic hormone) —> Stimulates the adrenal cortex
which releases corticosteroids —> Increases energy and inhibits tissue inflammation in case
of injury
 Severe of Chronic Stress:
 Can impact neurogenesis (formation of new neurons)
 Can cause structural and functional changes in the
brain
 Changes: Elevated risk of some physical and
psychological disorders
 Key Areas: Amygdala, hippocampus and prefrontal
cortex
Behavioural Responses to Stress

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  Behavioural Responses: Any action taken on the environment due to stress
 Coping: Efforts to master, reduce or tolerate the demands created by stress
- Can be adaptive (healthy) or maladaptive (infective, harmful, counterproductive)
Maladaptive Coping Strategies
1) Giving Up
 Learned Helplessness: Passive behaviour produced by exposure to unavoidable aversive
events
- Respond by giving up, retreating or fatalism
- Usually when people feel that they have no control over events
 When a goal is realistically unattainable it is healthy to cut losses, disengage and “goal
adjust”
2) Self-Blame
 Becoming highly critical in response to stress
 Catastrophic Thinking: Ruminating about and automatically jumping to irrational worse-
case outcomes, overestimating the likelihood of negative events and magnifying the
negative aspects of the situation
- Increases and perpetuated emotional responses to stress
 Good to know limits/weaknesses but excessive self blame is unhealthy
3) Lashing Out at Others
 People often respond to stress with anger
 Aggression: Any behaviour that is intended to hurt someone physically or verbally
 Frustration and anger can lead to aggression
- Anger leads to a strong emotional response —> Impacts information processing
and cognitive control of behaviour
 Many negative emotions can increase aggression
 Suppressing anger is also unhealthy
 Freuds catharsis (release of emotional tension by behaving aggressively) has been
debunked as research has shown that people who behave in an aggressive manner tend
to generate more anger and aggression
4) Self-Indulgence
 Stress leads to reduced impulse control and increased unhealthy self-indulgence
(drinking, over-eating, retail therapy)
 Stress is linked to increased smoking, gambling, drinking and weight
 Recent type of self indulgence is internet addiction

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 - Internet Addiction: Problematic, compulsive use of internet that results in
significant impairment in an individuals function in various aspects of life over a
prolonged period of time
- 3 Subtypes: Excessive gaming, preoccupation with sexual content and obsessive
socialising (Instagram, texting)
- Characteristics of Internet Addiction: Excessive time online, anger and
depression when thwarted from being online, escalating need for better
equipment and connections, adverse consequences such as arguments and lying
about internet use
5) Defensive Coping
 Defence Mechanisms: Largely unconscious reactions that protect a person from unpleasant
emotions such as anxiety and guilt
 Freud pioneered the psychoanalytic understanding of defence mechanisms
 Protective response to unpleasant emotions bought on by stress
 Defensive coping doesn’t solve the underlying problem
 Positive Illusion: A form of self-deception under which people have inflated, favorable
attitudes about themselves or others close to themselves
- Example: Exaggerating ones positive traits, overestimating ones degree of
control in life
- Can help with life difficulties if used in a healthy manner
- Major distortion of reality are maladaptive and unhealthy ways of coping
Adaptive Coping Strategies
 Constructive Coping: Relatively healthful efforts that people make to deal with stressful
events
 No one size fits all and even healthy strategies can become maladaptive and ineffective
depending on
- The person
- The context
- Nature of the stressor
 Constructive coping generally involves:
1) Confronting problems directly (task relevant and action orientated)
- Conscious effort to rationally evaluate your options so you can try to solve your
problems
2) Realistic appraisals of your stress and coping resources

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 - No excessive self-deception or negative thinking
3) Reappraising stressful events in less threatening ways
4) Efforts to ensure that your body is not especially vulnerable to the potential
damaging effects of stress
LO5: Effects of Stress on Health
Emotional Reactions and Heart Disease
 Cardiovascular Disease: Diseases that involve the heart and blood vessels
 Friedman and Rosenman: A link between coronary risk and “Type A Personality” (known as
type A syndrome)
 Type A personality: Leads to self-imposed stress and intense reactions to stress
 Characteristics:
- Strong, competitive orientation
- Impatience and time urgency
- Anger and hostility
 Type A: Ambitious, perfectionists, competitive, workaholics
 Type B: Relatively relaxed, patient, easygoing, amicable
 More recent research: Link between coronary risk and “anger and hostility” component
of type A personalities
- Angry temperament has a higher incidence of heart attacks and other coronary
events
Depression and Heart Disease
 Previous Research: People diagnosed with heart disease become depressed
 Recent Research: Emotional dysfunction of depression may cause heart disease
- Sample of 20 000 participants with no prior heart disease
- Those diagnosed with depression were 2.7 times more likely to die of heart
disease
 Overall Research: Depression doubles the chances of developing heart disease
Stress, Disease and Immune Functioning
 Consensus: Stressful events can impact most diseases
 Immune Response: The body’s defensive reaction to invasion by bacteria, viral agents or
other foreign substances
 Animal Studies: Induced stress impairs immune functioning
 Human Studies: Stress leads to immune suppression

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  Chronic Stress: Can also increase inflammation which is an important factor in the
association between stress and diseases
- Linked to heart disease, arthritis, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s and certain types of
cancer
Link Between Stress and Illness
 Research suggests that stress contributes to the causation of illness
 But research is primarily correlational (cannot prove the cause)
 A positive correlation between stress and illness could be due to a third factor (eg.
Neuroticism)
 From a biopsychosocial perspective stress is part of a network that impact health
- Genetics, exposure to toxins, nutrition, exercise, alcohol, smoking
LO6: Moderating Factors on the Impact of Stress
 Moderating Factor: A factor that can change the relationship between two other variables
1) Social Support
 Social Support: Various types of aid and emotional sustenance provided by members of ones
social network
 Social Support System: A network of friends, family, neighbours, colleagues and others
surrounding an individual that provides assistance in helping one cope with biological,
psychological and social stressors
 Closest relationships (spouse/romantic partner) have the biggest impact
 Recieves and providers of social support also benefit as it increases happiness and
reduces their response to stress
 Types of Social Support
 Explicit Social Support: Overt emotional solace and instrumental aid from others
 Implicit Social Support: The comfort that comes with knowing one has access to close
others that will be supportive

2) Optimism and Conscientiousness

 Optimism: General tendency to expect good outcomes

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  Optimists tend to cope better than pessimists
 Response Tendency: Action-oriented, problem-focused, positive appraisal of stressful
events
 Have higher social support and better relationships
 Conscientiousness (Big 5 Factor): High levels of thoughtfulness, good impulse control and
goal-directed behaviour, organised, detail-orientated, planning ahead and think about how
their behaviour will affect others
 Avoid unhealthy habits (drinking, smoking, dangerous driving, risky sexual behaviour)
 Constructive coping strategies
 Persistent
 Better health management and follow medical advice
3) Positive Effects of Stress
 Not all effects of stress are bad
 Develop new skills and strengths, reevaluate priorities, new insights and new strengths
 Post-Traumatic Growth: Positive changes in thought patterns and behaviours after a
traumatic event
 Exposure to stress can increase tolerance
 Immediate levels of stress = healthier = help develop resilience
 Resilience: The capacity to adapt, recover and possibly even flourish following some
adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress (such as family and
relationship problems, serious health problems and workplace/financial stressors)
- Successfully adapting to difficult life experiences through mental, emotional and
behavioural flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands
- Qualities Include: Self-awareness, self-regulation, mental agility, strength of
character, connection and optimism
Reactions to Illness
Seeking Treatment
 People experience similar sensations (headache, nausea) but whether they view these as
symptoms is a matter of individual interpretation
 Higher anxiety + Neuroticism = Report more symptoms of illness
 Problem with health-seeking behaviour:
- Delay seeking professional help
- Stops early detection and intervention
 Delays often because people

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 1) Misinterpret or downplay the significance of their symptoms
2) Worry about looking silly if the problem turns out to be nothing
3) Worry about bothering the doctor/physician
4) Are reluctant to disrupt their plans (go out to dinner, see a movie)
5) Waste time on trivial matters (showering, packing clothes) before going to the
emergency room
Communicating with Healthcare Providers
 Quality of communication between patients and health care providers affects health
outcomes
 Patients often don’t understand health instructions
 Doctors should show genuine concern, listen attentively and show sensitivity to patients
 Barriers to Effective Communication
 Economics = brief appointments
 Medical jargon
 Patients missing information or misreporting symptoms
 Patients nit disclosing information due to fear of serious illness
 Patient-expert dynamic and not wanting to challenge doctors authority
 Patients can improve communication by:
 Actively participating in appointments
 Prepare questions in advance
 Provide accurate, candid information
 Ask for clarification when you don’t understand
 Seek a second opinion if you feel unsure
Adhering to Medical Advice
 Medical Adherence: The extent to patients take medications as prescribed
 Non Adherence:
- Intentional Non-Adherence: The active process whereby the patient chooses to
deviate from the treatment regimen
- Unintentional Non-Adherence: Passive process in which the patient may be
careless or forgetful about adhering to treatment regiment

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 Abnormal Behaviour
(Learning Unit 4)
Theme 1: Defining Abnormal Behaviour
Learning Outcomes
1) Explain abnormality and the medical model
2) Discuss the criteria that clinicians use when making a diagnosis
3) Discuss the purpose of DSM-5
LO1: Abnormality and the Medical Model
Criteria of Abnormal Behaviour
 A statistical approach
 If normal is the average then abnormality would be what is not average or expected
 Statistical abnormality does not apply to illness and disorder

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  The reverse is true – even if a behaviour is common in a certain population (therefore
not statistically abnormal) it can still be an indicator of illness
Medical Model Applied to Abnormal Behaviour
 The medical model proposes that it is useful to think of abnormal behaviour as a disease
- Example: Mental illness, psychological disorder, psychopathology
 Dominant view during the 18th and 19th centuries
- Still persists today
- Has helped in terms of understanding, empathy and treatment
 Criticisms Against the Medical Model
 Labelling people leads to stigma
- Stigma: Refers to a “disgrace or defect” that indicates that a person belongs to a
culturally devalued social group
 Psychiatric diagnosis are linked to words such as erratic, dangerous, incompetent or
inferior
 Stigma
 Promote distance, distain and rejection
 Affects people during and after diagnosis, treatment and healing
 Create additional stress on top of living with a mental disorder
 Prevents help-seeking behaviour
 Is perpetuated in society (affects the type of help people can get)
 Does a medical/physiological/biological model of psychopathy reduce stigma?
 No
 Biogenetic explanations of mental health have shown
- Decrease in blame for people with mental illness
- Increased tendency to view psychological disorders as untreatable
 The medical model is still a dominant way of thinking about psychological diagnosis
 Important elements that assist in identification, treatment and study of abnormal
behaviour
 Provide a common language and shared meaning
- Diagnosis: Naming the problem
- Aetiology: Understanding the cause
- Prognosis: Predicting the outcome
Definition of a Mental Disorder

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  A mental disorder us a syndrome characterised by clinically significant disturbance in an
individuals cognition, emotion regulation or behaviour that reflects a dysfunction in the
psychological, biological or developmental processes underlying mental functioning
 Mental disorders are usually associated with significant distress or disability in social,
occupational or other important activities
 A mental disorder is not:
 An expectable or culturally approved response to a common stressor or loss
 Socially deviant behaviour (political, religious or sexual) and conflicts between the
individual and society
LO2: Criteria of Abnormal Behaviour
 All people make judgements about what is considered normal
 Mental health professionals use certain criteria when determining if something is
abnormal
1) Deviance
 Behaviour, thoughts, emotions or experiences that differ significantly from societal
expectations and norms
 Thoughts and behaviours that is different from the rest of your cultural context
- Example: Wearing a bikini to the office or hearing voices that are not there
 Context is important
- Killing someone is considered deviant but it is not considered abnormal to kill
someone during war
2) Maladaptive Behaviour (Dysfunction)
 Impairment or disruption of an individuals ability to function effectively in their daily life
 When a persons thoughts, emotions and behaviours cause significant problems in their
personal, social, occupational or academic life
- Example: Not being able to get out of bed due to depression
3) Personal Distress
 Emotional suffering, pain or discomfort experienced by an individual due to their thoughts,
emotions, behaviours or experiences
 Diagnosis is often based on a persons subjective report of personal distress and
emotional suffering (or distress to people around them)
 Subjective feeling that something is very wrong (not normal variations in mood or
behaviour

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 - Anxious patients: Heart palpitations, interference with daily activities,
impending sense of doom etc.
 People are often considered to meet only 1 of the three criterion
 Involves value judgements on what is normal or abnormal
 Impacted by cultural values, social trends, political forces, scientific knowledge etc
Diagnosing a Mental Disorder
 The diagnosis of a mental disorder should have clinical utility – it should help clinicians
to determine:
- Prognosis
- Treatment plans
- Potential treatment outcomes for their patients
 However the diagnosis of a mental disorder is nit equivalent to a need for treatment
 The need for treatment is a complex clinical decision that takes into consideration:
- Symptom severity
- The patients distress (mental pain) associated with the symptoms
- Disability related to the patient
- Symptoms, risks and benefits of available treatments
- Other factors (eg. Physical illnesses, home circumstances)
LO3: Psychodiagnosis: The Classification of Disorder
 DSM-5: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th edition, 2013)
 Classification system published in 2013 by the American Psychiatric Association after
research, consultation and debate
 541 specific diagnoses
 Organised in a general developmental manner
- Example: Starting with those disorders seen in early life moving towards those in
early adulthood
 Purpose: To distinguish between different disorders and guide appropriate treatment
 Common language to describe disorders and patients
 Enable research
 Enhance communication between professionals
 Criticisms: Categorical approach
 Commitment to a categorical approach placing people in discontinuous (not
overlapping) diagnostic categories
 Reality: Huge overlap between disorders and comorbidity

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  Critics suggest a dimensional approach
- Describe disorders in terms off how people score on a limited number of
continuous dimensions
- Example: Anxiety, depression, agitation, rumination, paranoia
 The practicalities of switching to a new approach made it unfeasible
Theme 2: Anxiety Disorders, Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders and Trauma-
and-Stressor-Related Disorders
Learning Outcomes
1) Describe what anxiety disorder is
2) Explain Generalised Anxiety Disorder
3) Explain what specific phobia disorder entails
4) Explain how panic disorders are characterised
5) Describe Agoraphobia
6) Explain the biological and psychological aetiology of anxiety disorders
7) Discuss obsessive-compulsive and related disorders
8) Describe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

LO1: Anxiety Disorders

 Disorders that are characterised by
fear, anxiety and related behaviour
disturbances
1) Fear: Emotional response to a
real or perceived imminent
threat
 Leads to: Spike in autonomic
arousal, reparation for fight or
flight thoughts of immediate
danger and escape behaviour
2) Anxiety: Anticipation of a future threat
- Associated with muscle tension, vigilance in preparation for future danger and
cautious or avoidant behaviours
 Differ from “normal” fear and anxiety in terms of:
- Excessive or persisting beyond developmentally appropriate period
- Lasts for 6 months or more

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 - Overestimation of danger
 More prevalent in females
LO2: Generalised Anxiety Disorder
 Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD): Marked by chronic, high level anxiety that is not tied to
any specific threat
 Excessive and persistent worry and anxiety about many different things in their life
- Yesterdays mistakes and tomorrows problems
 Physical Symptoms:
- Trembling
- Muscle tension
- Diarrhoea
- Dizziness
- Fainting
- Sweating
- Heart palpitations
 Worries are often out of proportion to the actual events or situations (minor issues with
family, work, finances, personal illness)
 Hope that the worry will prepare them for the “worst case scenario” but the constant
worry leads to physical over arousal (ANS response) and persistent negative emotions
 Associated with increased risk
for physical health problems
 Onset: Midlife (around 30)
 Functional Consequences:
- Affects the capacity
to do things quickly
and efficiently
- Worrying takes time
and energy and leads
to fatigue
- For parents it affects
confidence building
in their children
LO3: Specific Phobia

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  A specific phobia involves a
persistent and irrational fear of
an object or situation that
presents no realistic danger
 Anxiety has a specific focus
(rather than general worry as
seen in GAD)
 Occurs in response to a
particular situation or object
in anticipation of the
object/situation
 Phobias can be of nearly
anything
- Long words, air,
clowns, balloons, money, darkness, choking, peanut butter
 Distress due to realising it is “irrational” but still unable to calm themselves
 Fear doesn’t match the actual danger posed
 Physical symptoms:
- Trembling
- Palpitation
 Lifetime prevalence: 10%
 2/3 of patients are female
 Onset: Early childhood (average age 10)
- Sometimes after a traumatic event
 Functional Consequences
 Differs according to the number of fears or the type of fear
- Blood-injection-injury specific phobia might avoid medical treatment
- Choking or commuting fear leading to restricted diet
- Falling (in older adults) leads to lowered mobility

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LO4: Panic Disorder
 Panic disorders are
characterised by recurrent
attacks of overwhelming
anxiety that usually occur
suddenly and unexpectedly
 Surge of intense fear or
discomfort that reaches a
peak within minutes
 Recurrent = More than
one panic attack
 Unexpected = No obvious
cue or trigger at the time
 Physical symptoms: Pounding
heart, sweating, trembling,
chest pain, nausea, fear of
dying
- Often mistaken for heart attacks
- Patients become hyper vigilant (fear of next attack)
 Worries about panic attacks include:
- Physical symptoms (worry that the panic attack is a sign of heart disease)
- Embarrassment and judgement from others
- Losing control of “going crazy”
 Leads to avoidance behaviours:
- Reorganising daily events to ensure there is support at specific times
- Avoiding physical exertion
- Avoiding daily activities
 2:1 females to males with the diagnosis
 Onset: Usually around 20-24 years old
- Chronic but “waxing and waning” without treatment
 Functional Consequences
 Social, occupational and physical disability and impairment
 High economic costs due to many medical visits or unemployment due to missing work
 Increased risk of physical ailments and lower quality of life

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LO5: Agoraphobia
 Fear of going out to public places
 Fearful or anxious about 2 or
more of the following
- Enclosed places
- Public transport
- Being in open spaces
- Standing in line
- Being in a crowd
- Being outside the home
in certain situations
 Primary Fear: Not being able to
escape easily or get help if panic
sets in (dizziness, fainting, fear of
dying)
 Can be in the situation or anticipation of the situation
 May lead to panic attacks
 Often with other disorders (especially panic disorders)
 Leads to active avoidance: Behaving in ways designed to prevent or minimise contact
with agoraphobic situations
- Example: Changing jobs to avoid public transport, changing daily routines,
relying solely on food delivery
 Might be able to comfort situations with a companion and using distraction techniques
 Age of onset: Average 17 years and before 35 years
 Functional Consequences
 Increased risk of developing other disorders
- Example: Major depressive disorder, substance abuse disorder
 Considerable impairment in role functioning and work productivity
 1/3 of people with agoraphobia are housebound and unable to work
LO6: Aetiology
 Aetiology: Apparent cause and progress of a disease or illness
 In psychology: Usually due to complicated interactions between a variety of biological
and psychosocial factors

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  Concordance Rate: Percentage of twin pairs (or pairs of relatives) who have the same
disorder
- Relatives who share more genetic similarity (like identical twins who share 100%
of their DNA) show higher concordance rates than relatives who share less
genetic overlap (siblings) – this finding supports the genetic hypothesis
- I.e: If family members who are more closely related are more likely to share the
same anxiety disorder, it suggests that genes are a key factor in causing these
disorders
 Genetic Hypothesis: Refers to the idea that genetics or genes play a role in the
development of specific disorders
Aetiology of Anxiety Disorders
 Complicated interactions between a variety of biological and psychological factors
Biological Factors
 Twin and family studies show a moderate concordance rate
- Suggests a moderate genetic predisposition to anxiety disorders
- Genetic predisposition = because of the genes you inherit from your parents,
you might be more likely to have a certain trait or condition (eg, anxiety) but
doesn’t mean you will definitely get it
 Possible link between anxiety disorders and the brains neurochemistry, specifically the
neurotransmitter GABA
 GABA: Slows down the brain by blocking specific signals in your central nervous system and
producing a calming effect
 When there is not enough GABA, the brain can become more prone to excessive worry
and fear
 Some medications used to treat anxiety disorders (Valium and Xanax) alter the
neurotransmitter activity at synapses that release GABA
 Serotonin has been linked to Obsessive-compulsive disorders
Conditioning and Learning
 Anxiety responses can be acquired through classical conditioning and maintained
through operant conditioning

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  Many people with specific phobias report a traumatic conditioning event
- Example: Hilda is 32 years old and
has a unusual fear of snow. She can’t
go outside in the snow and can’t even
stand to see snow or hear about it on
the weather report. Her phobia
constricts her day-to-day behaviour.
In therapy she revealed that her
phobia was caused by a traumatic
experience when she was 11. She was
playing in the snow at a ski lodge and
was briefly buried by a small
avalanche of snow. She had no
recollection of this experience until it
was recovered in therapy
 Neural stimulus (snow), paired with the frightening event (avalanche) and becomes a
conditioned stimulus eliciting anxiety
 Maintained through operant conditioning (person starts avoiding the anxiety producing
stimulus which is followed by reduction in anxiety)
- Avoidance response is reinforced (positive feeling of anxiety being reduced)
 Why do some people develop phobias?
1) Preparedness
 People are biologically prepared by their evolutionary history to acquire some fears more
easily than others
 Martin Seligman: Classical conditioning creates phobic responses but evolutionary
history is also important
 Reason why people develop fears of ancient sources (snakes), rather than modern
threats (irons and plugs)
2) Evolved Module for Fear Learning
 Fear Module: A relatively independent behavioural, mental and neural system that is
specifically tailored to help solve adaptive problems prompted by potentially life threatening
situations in the ecology of our distant forefathers
 Automatically activated by stimuli related to past survival threats in evolutionary history
that is relatively resistant to intentional efforts to suppress the resulting fears

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 - In research, images of snakes and spiders produce a larger fear response than
neural stimuli in a classical conditioning experiment
 Some people have an over-sensitive or over-active fear module which predisposes them
to develop phobias
- Difficult to “eliminate” the phobia since it’s hardwired into our brains
3) Distortions in Generalisation
 Generalisation: Process by which an individual starts responding to similar stimuli in the
same way as the original conditioned stimulus
 Panic disorder and PTSD: “Distortions” or abnormalities in the way fear responses are
generalised
- Fear response are applied to a broader range of stimuli than people
- Example: Fear the original traumatic stimulus but also things that resemble it in
some way
Cognitive Factors
1) Style of Thinking
 Certain styles of thinking make people more vulnerable to developing an anxiety disorder
 Some people are more susceptible because they:
- Misinterpret harmless situations as threatening
- Focus excessive attention on perceived threats
- Selectively recall information that seems threatening
 Example: When presented with a sentence “The doctor examined little Anna’s growth” –
people with anxiety tend to interpret this as a tumour rather than Anna’s height
 Cognitive Model: People are more likely to develop anxiety since they subjectively see
threat in all areas of their lives
2) Executive Function
 Executive Functioning: Basic cognitive processes that support self-regulation, planning and
decision making
 Meta-analysis showed impairment in executive functioning in patients with OCD
Stress
 Various types of anxiety disorders are related to stress
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Response to an extremely stressful incident
- Panic Disorder: Many experience dramatic increase in stress in the month
leading up to the onset of the disorder
- Stress levels predictive of the severity of OCD symptoms

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  High stress often helps to trigger or aggravate anxiety-related disorders
LO7: Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders
 Potentially disabling conditions that
trap individuals in endless cycles of
repetitive thoughts and behaviours
 Obsessions or rituals are
excessive and persists beyond
developmentally appropriate
stages
 Different types of OCRD
- Obsessions produce
anxiety or nervousness
that leads to an urgent
need to perform compulsive behaviours
- Recurrent body-focuses behaviours like hair pulling and skin picking
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
 Obsessive compulsive disorder is marked by persistent, uncontrollable intrusions of
unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and urges to engage in senseless rituals (compulsions)
 Obsessions: Recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges or images experienced as intrusive
and unwanted
- Thoughts about contamination
- Images of violent and horrific
scenes
- Urges to stab someone
 Not under conscious control or pleasurable
 In response to obsessions people may:
- Try to ignore or suppress
obsessions (eg, avoid triggers)
- Try to neutralise the obsessions
with another thought or action (eg,
performing the compulsion)
 Often centre around: Inflicting harm on
others, personal failures, suicide and sexual
acts

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  People feel out of control and fear they have “lost their mind
 Compulsions (rituals): Repetitive behaviours or mental acts that an individual feels driven to
perform in response to an obsession or abiding by the rules that must be applied directly
- Common Examples: Handwashing, repetitive cleaning and ordering objectors,
endless rechecking of locks, taps and switches and mental acts (counting,
repeating words silently)
 Most people with OCD have both obsessions and compulsions
- Example: Thoughts of something being incorrect thus leading to repeating
rituals until it feels “just right”
- Often have more than one obsession and compulsion
- Aim: Reduce the stress triggered by the obsession or prevent a feared event
(getting sick, protecting a loved one from harm)
- Not a realistic link (lining up items cannot realistically prevent a loved one from
being in a car accident)
 Many people with OCD have dysfunctional beliefs such as
- Inflated sense of responsibility (they will be entirely responsible for something
bad happening if they don’t perform a specific compulsion)
- Tendency to overestimate a threat
- Perfectionism
- Over-importance of thoughts (thinking a forbidden thought is as bad as acting
on it)
- Need to control thoughts
 Age of Onset: 19-20 years
 Equal number of males and females
 The amount of insight varies
- Many have good or fair insight (the individual believes that the house definitely
will not, probably will not or may not burn down if the stove isn’t checked 30
times)
- Some may have poor insight (the individual believes that the house will probably
burn down if the stove is not checked 30 times)
- Few have absent insight/delusional beliefs (the individual is convinced that the
house will burn down if if the stove is not checked 30 times)
 Poor insight is linked to worse long-term outcomes
 Functional Consequences

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  10x increased risk for suicide
 High levels of social and occupational impairment
 Reduced quality of life
 Impairment due to:
- Time spent obsessing and performing compulsions
- Avoiding situations that trigger the obsessions and compulsions leading to
restricted functioning
- Relationship difficulties
- Difficulty completing tasks due to symmetry obsessions
- Contamination obsessions leading to missed doctors appointments or skin
problems due to excessive hand washing
LO8: Trauma and Stressor-Related Disorders
 Disorders that are characterised by the development
of emotional or behavioural symptoms following
exposure to a stressful or traumatic event
 Stressors and trauma can include:
- Physical, sexual or emotional abuse
- Physical or emotional neglect
- Household violence, substance
abuse or mental illness
- Parental separation or divorce
- Loss of a family member
- Natural disasters
- War and ongoing conflict
- Witnesses of violence
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
 Post-traumatic stress disorder involves
enduring psychological disturbance attributed
to the experience of a major traumatic event
 WW1 and Shell Shock
- Condition observed in soldiers
exposed to intense shelling on the
front lines

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 - Symptoms included tremors, disorientation and other psychological and physical
reactions
- Limited understanding and often stigmatised
 WW2 and Combat Fatigue
- Similar symptoms were referred to as combat fatigue
- Limited understanding
- Treatment often focused on rest and recuperation
 Vietnam War and PTSD
- Modern concept of PTSD took shape during and after the Vietnam war
- Veterans returning from Vietnam exhibited a range of psychological symptoms
- Professionals recognised the need for a more comprehensive understanding of
these issues
 Exposure to an actual or threatened death, serious injury or sexual violence in one or more
of the following ways:
 Direct experience
 In-person witnessing of the event to others
 Learning about the traumatic event happening to close family/friends
 Repeated of extreme exposure to aversive details of traumatic events
- Example: Paramedics or police officers investigating child abuse

 Symptoms
 Recurrent involuntary memories
 Recurrent distressing dreams
 Dissociative reactions
- Dissociation: Psychological defence mechanism that involves a disconnection or
separation of ones thoughts, feelings, memories or sense of identity
- Example: Flashbacks which feels as if the event is reoccurring
 Prolonged psychological distress when faced with triggers related to the trauma
 Physiological reactions to triggers related to trauma
 Leads to:
 Efforts to avoid memories, thoughts and feelings about the event
 Avoidance of external reminders of the events
- Example: People, places and conversations that trigger memories, thoughts and
feelings related to the event

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  Changes in Cognitions (Thoughts) and Mood
 Difficulty remembering important details of the event
 Exaggerated negative beliefs about oneself or the world (no one can be trusted, I am
broken forever)
 Self-blame for the event
 Negative emotional state (fear, anger, shame)
 Diminished interest or participation in important activities
 Feeling detached from others
 Inability to feel positive emotions
 Change in Physiological Reactivity
 Irritable or angry outbursts
 Reckless, self-destructive behaviour
 Hyper-vigilance
 Very easily startled
 Concentration problems
 Sleep problems
- Example: Falling asleep or staying asleep
 Symptoms and cognitive, emotional and physiological responses for more than one
month
 This leads to significant distress and impairment (dysfunction)
 Onset: Usually within 3 months of the event
 Different symptoms across lifespan
- Child: Behavioural changes, comes up symbolically during play
- Adolescents: Feeling cowardly, socially undesirable, hopelessness about the
future
- Adults: Avoidance, hyper-arousal and sleep problems
 Age of onset: Any age after the age of 1
 12 month prevalence: 3.5% in USA
- Lifetime prevalence according to DSM 5 (higher than previous estimates of 7-
8%)
- Higher in jobs that expose people to trauma (police, paramedics, soldiers)
- Prevalence in South Africa is likely much higher
- 2022 of 70 000 South African university students: 21% had symptoms of PTSD
 Functional Consequences

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  Social and occupation impairment
 Relationship difficulties
 Absenteeism
 Lower income and educational attainment
Theme 3: Depressive and Bipolar-Related Disorders
Learning Outcomes
LO1: Describe major depressive disorder in terms of its nature and prevalence
LO2: Differentiate between unipolar disorder and bipolar disorder
LO3: Explain the aetiology of depressive and bipolar disorder
LO1: Major Depressive Disorder
 Major Depressive Disorder: Persistent feelings of sadness and despair and a loss of intrest in
previous sources of pleasure
 Symptoms include:
 Depressed Mood: Sadness, emptiness and hopelessness
 Anhedonia: Diminished ability to experience pleasure leading to diminished interest in
enjoyable activities
 Significant weight loss or gain
 Changes in appetite
 Changes in sleep (struggle to sleep or excessive sleep)
 Physical agitation/restlessness or sluggish
 Anxiety and irritability
 Fatigue and energy loss
 Feelings of worthlessness and inappropriate guilt
 Difficulty concentrating or being very indecisive
 Recurrent thoughts of death
 Decreased self-esteem
- Causes significant distress or impairment in functioning
 Lifetime Prevalence: 13-16%
- Approx. 8 million people in SA will experience or have depression
- Twice as high in women
- Doesn’t seem to be genetic
- This could be due to hormonal changes during the reproductive cycle
(postpartum depression, perimenopausal)

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 - Higher likelihood of sexual abuse, poverty and societal pressure regarding
physical appearance
 Age of Onset: 35 years old
- Prevalence less in childhood
- 2/3 of people will have more than one episode
- (+-) 5 to 6 episodes lasting 6 months
 Functional Consequences
 Increased physical risk and 50% higher mortality
 Increased suicide risk
 Mild unpleasant symptoms that other may not even notice due to severe impairment
- Example: Unable to manage basic self-care, catatonia, psychosis
 More physical pain and Illness
LO2: Bipolar Disorder
 Bipolar Disorder: Experience both depressed and manic episodes
- Swings in mood from overly “high” to sad and hopeless, and back again, with
periods of near-normal mood in between
 A manic episode has the following symptoms
 Euphoria and excessively cheerful (“on top of the world”)
 Impulsivity
 Inflated self-esteem or grandiosity (an exaggerated sense of ones importance, abilities
or achievements)
 Decreased need for sleep (eg, rested after 3 hours)
 More talkative or pressurised speech (rapid, forceful speech that is difficult to interrupt_
 Flight of ideas (disorganised thinking where a person experiences a rapid and continuous
slow of thoughts that are often interconnected, but the connections between them are
illogical)
 Racing thoughts
 Distractibility
 An increase in goal-directed behaviour (setting numerous goals and rapid, relentless
pursuit of these goals)
 Physical restlessness and inability to sit still
 Excessive involvement in high-risk behaviour (spending sprees, risky sexual behaviour,
foolish business decisions)
 Hypomanic Episode

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 - Symptoms similar to mania but less severe and shorter in duration
- Doesn’t cause significant impairment in functioning
- Doesn’t require hospitalisation
- No psychotic symptoms
 Lifetime Prevalence: 1%
- Equal in men and women
 Age of Onset: Late teens – early adulthood
- Different symptoms in childhood
- 90% will have more than one manic episodes
 Functional Consequences
 30% severe work impairment
 Impairs cognitive functioning
 Increased unemployment
 Increased risk for panic attacks, social phobia and substance use disorder
 50% of people with bipolar have an alcohol use disorder
Mood Dysfunction and Suicide
 SA has the 3rd highest suicide rate in Africa 23.5% per 100 000
 8% of all deaths each year
 Attempted suicide may be 25x higher than completed suicide
 Women attempt suicide 3x more
 Men complete suicide 4x more
 90% of people who commit suicide have a psychological disorder
 Highest in depressive and mood disorders
- 50-60% of completed suicides
LO3: Aetiology of depressive and mood disorders
Biological Factors
1) Neurochemical and Neuroanatomical Factors
 Abnormal levels of neurotransmitters
 Serotonin: “Feel good: neurotransmitter
- Contributes to a sense of well-being, happiness and key role in regulating mood
and emotions
- Lower levels in depressed patients
 Norepinephrine: Involved in the bodies “fight or flight” response to stress
- Prepare the body to respond to threats by increasing alertness and auroral

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 - Changes in norepinephrine levels can contribute to symptoms such as low
energy, difficulty concentrating and disrupted sleep
2) Decreased Hippocampal Volume
 Significant stress (which leads to depression) affects neurogenesis (generating new
neurons) leading to a smaller hippocampus
3) Heightened Reactivity of the Amygdala
 Associated with learning of fear response
 Increased reactivity = predisposition to depression
4) Lowered Sensitivity to Anticipation and Experience of Reward and Reinforcement
Cognitive Factors
1) Learned Helplessness
 Passive “giving up” behaviour due to exposure to unavoidable aversive events
 Roots of depression linked to how people explain setbacks and negative events
 Pessimistic explanatory style makes people more vulnerable to depression
- Attribute setbacks to personal flaws and far-reaching conclusions about personal
inadequacies
2) Rumination
 A tendency to repeatedly and passively dwell on negative thoughts, feeling and problems,
often without making progress towards solutions or resolutions
 People with depression who ruminate stay stuck in their depression for longer
 Focus on their feelings of depression (sadness, poor motivation etc.)
 Increased negative thinking, decreased social support and impaired problem solving
 Increased in women which could explain the difference in prevalence rates
3) Hindsight Bias
 The tendency to shape memories of the past so that they fit with how events turned out
 People with depression view events/outcomes as inevitable or foreseeable
- Example: “I saw it coming”, “I knew things would go badly”
 Leads to self blame
Cognitive Factors
1) Cognitive Factors Theories of Depression
 Negative thinking leads to depression in many
people
 The question of cause-and-effect

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 - Does depression cause negative thinking or does negative thinking cause
depression?
 Evidence for negative explanatory style thinking
1st year students studied for 2.5 years
173 (high negative thinking)
176 (low negative thinking)
Depression emerged in 17% of those with high negative thinking and only 1% of those
with low negative thinking
2) Interpersonal Roots
 Social Skills and Depression: People more likely to develop depression have poor social skills
 Lack the social ability and skills to navigate social interactions effectively
 Making it difficult to maintain friendships or function in a work environment etc.
 This leads to enquiring reinforcers
- Positive rewards such as good friends, top jobs and desirable partners
 This leads to feelings of negative emotions such as disappointment, frustration and
sadness
3) Interpersonal Interactions
 Depressed people unintentionally “invite” rejection from others because they are
irritable, pessimistic etc.
 Alienate people due to constantly seeking reassurance which leads to rejection and
increased chances of depression
 Difficult social relationships lead to increased stress which increases the risk of
depression
4) Precipitating Stress
 Stress that acts as a triggering or initiating factor for a particular event, condition or
response
 A link between stress and the onset of major depression and bipolar disorder
 More severe stress = more likely to trigger depression
 Vulnerability to depression increases as people go through more depressive episodes
Theme 4: Schizophrenia Spectrum-Related Disorders
Learning Outcomes
LO1: Explain Schizophrenia-Related Disorders
LO2: Describe the symptoms associated with schizophrenia
LO1: Schizophrenia Spectrum and Related Disorders

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  Schizophrenia is a disorder marked by delusions, hallucinations, disorganised thinking and
speech and the deterioration of adaptive behaviour
 Translates directly to “split mind”
- The “split” refers to fragmented thought processes, not split personalities
 Severe psychiatric disorder
 Can cause immense chaos, distress and destruction
 Delusions: False beliefs that are not grounded in reality
 Hallucinations: Person perceives things (seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling) that are not there
in reality
 Disorganised Thinking and Speech: Breakdown in logical flow and organisation of thoughts
and speech
 Deterioration of Adaptive Behaviour
LO2: Schizophrenia Symptoms
1) Delusions and Irrational Thought
 A central feature in schizophrenia which consists of cognitive deficits and disturbed thought
processes
 Delusions are false beliefs that are maintained even though they are clearly out of touch
with reality
 Don’t change even when there is evidence to show it is not real
- Example: Believing your private thoughts are being broadcast, thoughts are
being injected into their minds (thought insertion), thoughts of being controlled
by an outside force (delusions of control) or thoughts have been removed from
an outside force (thought withdrawal)
 Variety of General Themes of Delusions
 Delusions of Persecution: Belief that one is going to be harmed or harassed by a person,
group or organisation
- Range from brief suspicion to worry of elaborate plots
- Example: You’re not worried your friends are plotting to kill you. You know your
friends are plotting to kill you. Even when you know you’re having a delusional
episode, you’re still convinced the worst thing you can ever imagine is
happening
 Delusions of Grandeur: Belief that one has exceptional abilities, wealth or fame
- Example: “I had a hard time receiving my diagnosis because I always believed
that I had a special connection with God and that I was the Messiah. I thought I

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 have to move energy to the right objects to balance the energy and when I’m
older everything will be balanced and I will ascend. I am realising now with
treatment that this is unlikely. It crushed me though because it felt that my life
purpose and view of the world was taken from me
 Erotomanic Delusions: When an individual believes falsely that another person, often a
public figure, is in love with them
 Nihilistic Delusions: Involve conviction that a major catastrophe or something
apocalyptic will occur
 Somatic Delusions: Focus on preoccupations regarding health and organ function
- Example: Organs having been removed
 Referential Delusions: Believe unrelated events or objects have a personal significance
or meaning
2) Distorted Perceptions:
 Hallucinations are sensory perceptions that occur in the absence of a real, external
stimulus or are gross distortions of perceptual input
 Seeing or hearing things
 No outside stimulus
 Vivid and clear (not under voluntary control)
 70% of patients have auditory hallucinations
- Hearing voices (familiar or non-familiar) of people who are not there
- Often experienced as running commentary, insulting, argumentative and issuing
commands

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 3) Disorganised Thinking and Speech
 Disorganised thinking is evident in a persons speech

4) Disturbed Emotion
 Flattening of Emotions: Little emotional responsiveness
 Inappropriate emotional responses
 Emotional instability or explosive behaviour (sometimes aggression)
 Before DSM-5: 4 Types of Schizophrenia were Recognised:
1) Paranoid Schizophrenia: Dominated by delusions of persecution, along with delusions of
grandeur
2) Catatonic Schizophrenia: Marked by striking motor disturbances ranging from the muscular
rigidity seen in a withdrawn state classed a “catatonic stupor” to random motor activity seen
in a state of catatonic excitement
3) Disorganised Schizophrenia: Severe syndrome marked by frequent incoherence, obvious
deterioration in adaptive behaviour and virtually complete social withdrawal
4) Undifferentiated Schizophrenia: People who clearly exhibited schizophrenic symptoms but
who could nit be placed into any of the three previous categories
 DSM-5 Framework for Understanding Schizophrenia: Positive and Negative Symptoms
 Positive Symptoms: Behavioural excesses or peculiarities such as hallucinations,
delusions, incoherent thought, agitation, bizarre behaviour and wild flights of ideas
- “Add” something to a personals mental experiences or behaviours
 Negative Symptoms: Behavioural deficits, such as flattened emotions, social withdrawal,
apathy, impaired attention, poor grooming, lack of persistence at school or work and
poverty of speech
- Represent a “loss” or diminishment of certain aspects of a persons mental and
emotional life

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  Most people have both types of symptoms to varying degrees

Treatment of Psychological Disorders

(Learning Unit 5)
Theme 1: Treatment of Psychological Disorders
Learning Outcomes
LO1: Discuss the different treatments for abnormal psychology and their effectiveness
LO2: Explain the role of mental health professionals in dealing with abnormal behaviour
LO3: Differentiate between a psychologist and psychiatrist
LO1: Treating Psychological Disorders
 Psychotherapy: Diverse approaches used in the treatment of mental disorders and
psychological problems
 Psychological disorders can lead to tremendous individual, family, social and
occupational impairments
 Psychology evolved in a way to understand behaviour
- Studies the mind, mental processes and behaviour
 Different approaches will suit different people, disorders and circumstances
Types of Treatment

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 Insight Therapies Behaviour Therapies Biomedical Therapies
Focus “Talk” therapy Principles of learning Intervention on
persons biological
functioning
Treatment Complex, lengthy Directive, structured Psychiatric
verbal interactions (worksheets, drug/medicine
homework) Electroconvulsive
Therapy (ECT)
Goal Increased insight into Make changes to Provided by
clients difficulties and problematic responses psychiatrists/doctors
find possible solutions and maladaptive with a medical degree
responses
Effectiveness of Psychotherapy
 Difficult to measure effectiveness
 Spontaneous Recovery: People get better/recover without intervention
 Different approaches have different:
- Views on what is effective
- Goals in therapy
 Measure of outcomes/effectiveness is subjective
 People go to therapy with very different problems and severities (goals or outcomes may
be different

Insight Therapies
 Consist of verbal interactions that are intended to enhance the clients self-knowledge, thus
promoting healthy changes in personality and behaviour
1) Psychoanalysis: Emphasise the recovery of unconscious conflicts, motives and defences
through techniques such as free association and transference
2) Client-Centred Therapy: Emphasises providing supportive emotional climate for clients who
play a major role in determining the pace and direction of their therapy
3) Group Therapy: Simultaneous treatment of several clients in a group
4) Couples/Marital Therapy: Treatment of both partners in a committed, intimate relationship
in which the main focus is on relationship issues
5) Family Therapy: Treatment of a family unit as a whole, in which the main focus is on family
dynamics and communication
Effectiveness of Insight Therapies
 Use experimental groups
- One group gets a specific treatment and control group gets no treatment

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  Measured using: Psychological tests, ratings of symptoms by therapies to and patients,
family members rating of progress
 Insight therapy is superior to no treatment of placebo treatment
 Effects of therapy are relatively durable (effects last over time)
 Biggest impact is in the first 10-20 weekly sessions
 The effectiveness of treatment depends on:
- How much patients gain insight and self-understanding
Common Factors Across Insight-Based Therapy Approaches
 Develop a therapeutic alliance with a professional helper
 Provisions of emotional support and empathy
 Cultivation of hope and positive expectations in the client
 Providing a rationale for the clients problems and a plausible method for reducing them
 Provide an opportunity to express feelings, confront problems and gain new insights
Behavioural Therapies
 Involve the application of principles of learning and conditioning to direct efforts to change
clients maladaptive behaviours
 Focus on modifying specific behaviours to develop healthier, more adaptive behaviours
 Don’t delve deeply into the underlying emotions or find the root cause of psychological
issues
- Not concerned with developing insight into thoughts, emotions or past
experiences
 Short term and goal focused
 Concentrate on current problems
 Therapist and client work together to achieve a specific, observable behaviour change
 Main Assumptions:
1) Behaviour is a product of learning (result of previous conditioning)
2) What has been learned can be unlearned
 Apply Principles of:
 Classical conditioning
- Neutral stimulus leads to conditioning stimulus and response
 Operant conditioning
- Reinforcement and punishment
 Observational learning
- Learning from models

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  Used in Treatment of:
 Depression
 Anxiety
 OCD
 PTSD
 ADHD
 Eating Disorders
Types of Behaviour Therapy
1) Systematic Desensitisation
 Behaviour therapy used to reduce a clients phobic response
 Create a hierarchy of the clients intensity of response to the stimulus at different levels
of exposure to the stimulus
 Client clears relaxation techniques that will counter-condition their response to aversive
stimulus
 Client is desensitised to the stimulus through systematically graded exposure to the
stimulus
 Practices relaxation techniques to counter their aversive “fight or flight” response during
the exposure
- Exposure Therapy: Clients are confronted with situations they fear so they learn
that these situations are really harmless
2) Social Skills Training
 Behaviour therapy designed to improve interpersonal skills through:
 Modelling (Watching socially skilled friends behaviours to learn appropriate responses)
 Behavioural rehearsal (Practicing social techniques in role-playing exercises and receive
it positive reinforcement for new skills)
 Shaping (Gradually handling more complicated social situations)
3) Cognitive Therapy
 Uses specific strategies to correct habitual thinking errors that underlie various types of
disorders
 Identifying and challenging negative thought patterns (all-or-nothing thinking, mind
reading)
 Used to treat primarily mood disorders (depression and anxiety)
4) Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

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  Use combinations of verbenas interventions and behaviour modification techniques to help
clients change maladaptive patterns of thinking
 Builds on cognitive therapy but adds behavioural techniques such as exposure therapy,
behaviour modification and teaches problem solving strategies
 Broader Application: Mood disorders, phobias, eating disorders and behavioural
problems
 Difference Between Cognitive Therapy and CBT
 Cognitive therapy focuses on identifying challenging negative thoughts and beliefs that
contribute to psychological distress
- Emphasises the relationship between thoughts, feelings and behaviour
 CBT expands cognitive therapy by incorporating behavioural techniques to address
specific behaviours associated with psychological problems
- Focus on changing both thoughts and behaviours to improve overall wellbeing
Effectiveness of Behavioural Therapies
 More focus on measuring therapeutic outcomes
 Favourable evidence for the effectiveness with:
- Phobias, OCD, sexual dysfunction, schizophrenia, drug-related disorders, autism,
intellectual disabilities, psychosomatic disorders and hyperactivity
 However:
- Only suitable for certain types of problems
- Can’t “paint with broad strokes”
- Using the systematic desensitisation for phobias is vastly different from using
aversion therapy for sexual deviance
Biomedical Therapies
 Physiological interventions intended to reduce symptoms associated with psychological
disorders
Treatment with Medication
1) Anti-Anxiety
2) Antipsychotic
3) Antidepressants
4) Mood Stabilisers
Anti-Anxiety
 Anti-Anxiety Drugs: Reduce tension, apprehension and nervousness
 Described as tranquillisers or benzos (benzodiazepines)

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  Work almost immediately
 Impact is short lived (usually only a few hours)
 Side Effects: Drowsiness, light-headedness, dry mouth, depression, nausea, constipation
 High potential for abuse, dependence, overdose and withdrawal
Antipsychotic
 Antipsychotic Drugs: Used to gradually reduce psychotic symptoms, including hyperactivity,
mental confusion, hallucinations and delusions
 Examples:
- First Generation: Haloperidol, Fluanzol and Clopixol
- Second Generation: Olanzapine, Clozapine, Seroquel and Risperdal
 Primarily used for schizophrenia (low doses may have other uses such as treating sleep
difficulties)
 Actual mechanism of how it works is unclear but appears to decrease activity at
dopamine synapses
 Gradually reduces symptoms of psychosis in 70% of patients
- 2 days – week to start working (continues to reduce symptoms over time)
 Side Effects: Drowsiness, constipation, dry mouth, tremors, muscle rigidity and impaired
coordination
- This causes many patients to stop taking medication
- Of those who stop meds, 70% relapse within a year
Antidepressants
 Antidepressant Drugs: Gradually elevate mood and reduce symptoms of depression to help
bring people out of depression/depressive episodes
 Most Common: Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) which slow the reuptake
of serotonin in the synapses which increases the amount of serotonin that is available
and enhances serotonin activity in the brain
 Examples: Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft
 Potential Side Effects: Nausea, drowsiness, sexual difficulties, weight gain, emotional
numbing, insomnia, vivid dreams, agitation and increase in suicidal thinking
 Can be used for anxiety disorders
 Takes effect gradually (usually start to see improvements over a period of weeks)
 Patients with serious depression show more improvement than those with mild-
moderate depression, they usually only show moderate benefit or reduction in
symptoms

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  Potential Concern: Increase in the risk of suicide in adolescents and young adults, however
research is difficult because
- Depressed patients already have an elevated risk for suicide even months before
medication usage
- Current Concern: Due to warning labels, fewer SSRI’s are prescribed to
adolescents leading to increased suicide in untreated patients
 In SA only Prozac is approved for paediatric patients
- Risk of treating vs non-treating must be considered
- Close monitoring by doctors and family is crucial
Mood Stabilisers
 Mood Stabilisers: Drugs used to control mood swings in patients with bipolar mood
disorders
 Two main mood stabilisers:
- Lithium
- Valproate (Epilim)
 Valuable in:
- Bringing patients out of current manic or depressive episodes
- Preventing future episodes of mania and depression in patients with bipolar
disorder
 Side Effects
- Lithium: Dizziness, drowsiness, tremors, dry mouth, nausea, vomiting, blurred
vision, kidney and thyroid problems
- Lithium Toxicity: Potentially fatal
- Valproate: Diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, increased appetite, hair loss and
tremors
Effectiveness of Treatment with Medication
 Advantages:
 Demonstrate clear improvements
 Important for those with severe disorders where therapy doesn’t work
 Criticisms:
 Not as effective as advertised
- Short-term superficial improvements as they don’t stress the underlying cause
and symptoms return when medication is stopped
 Over-prescribed and over-medicated

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 - Practitioners rely on medication and undermine for difficult or complicated
interventions like insight or behavioural therapy
- Use of multiple medications at the same time
 Side effects are underestimated
- Sometimes as bad or even worse than original symptoms
- Long-term effects on neurotransmitters which can make people more vulnerable
to psychological disorders
 Conflict of interest in the pharmaceutical industry leads to skewed reporting on positive
and negative effects
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
 Biomedical treatment in which an electric shock is used to produce a cortical seizure
accompanied with convulsions
 Electrodes are attached to he skull over the temporal lobes of the brain
 Light anaesthesia is administered and the patient is given a variety of drugs such muscle
relaxants to minimise the likelihood of complications like spinal fractures
 Electric current is then applied for about a second
 Current triggers a brief (5-20 second) convulsive seizure during which the patient usually
loses consciousness
 Patient normally awakens in about an hour or two
 People typically receive two or three treatments a week over a period of a few weeks,
with a typical course of treatment consisting of 6-12 sessions
 The vast majority of ETC patients are diagnosed with major depression (85%)
 Surrounded by stigma and therefore underutilised
 Risks
 Short-Term Common Side Effects: Memory loss, impaired attention and cognitive
deficits
- Usually mild
- Disappear within a few months
 Long Term: Memory deficits can be severe in some patients
- Retrograde Amnesia for Autobiographical Information: Difficulty or the inability
to recall past personal experiences or memories, or one’s own life events that
occurred before a particular point in time
- Can be persistent and sometimes permanent
 Supporters

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  If used optimally it can reduce symptoms in 75% of patients with major depression
 Useful for people with treatment-resistant depression
 Safe in elderly people
 Reduces short-term admission rates
 Critics
 Studies are flawed
 ETC is as effective as a placebo but with unpleasant side effects
 Long-term relapse rate is high
- 38% after 6 months and 51% after a year
 Consensus
 Safe for conservative use to treat severe mood disorders
 Relapse rate may be inflated as ETC is used in severe cases where high relapse rates are
expected
LO2: Mental Health Professionals Providing Professional Treatment
 Psychologist
 Counsellor
 Psychiatrist
 Psychiatric Nurse
 Social Worker
Role of Mental Health Professionals
 Psychology: The profession of a person registered under the Health Professions act as a…
- Clinical psychologist
- Counselling psychologist
- Educational psychologist
- Research psychologist
- Industrial psychologist
- Neuropsychologist
- Registered counsellor
- Psychometrist
 There is an overlap between the fields in terms of intervention, assessment and
treatment
 Each category will use these to differing degrees
Role of Mental Health Professionals: Psychology
1) Clinical Psychology

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  Specialist category within professional psychology that provides continuing and
comprehensive mental and behavioural healthcare to individuals and groups across the
lifespan
 Includes assessment, diagnosis, evaluation and treatment of psychological and mental
health disorders that ranger from mind to severe
 Deliver a range of high-intensity psychological interventions with demonstrated
effectiveness in treating mental health disorders and psychological distress associated
with medical conditions
 Specialise in the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders
2) Counselling Psychology
 Specialist category within professional psychology that promotes the personal, social and
educational functioning, career functioning and wellbeing of individuals, couples, families,
groups, organisations and communities
 Assist people with normal developmental issues
 Prevent and alleviate psychological and mental health disorders that range from mild to
moderate severity
 Draw on a holistic appreciation of peoples lived experiences and their sociocultural
contexts
 Offer a range of high-intensity psychological interventions that take into account the
therapeutic potential of positive relationships and peoples strengths and resources
Role of Mental Health Professionals: Supporting Registrations
1) Educational Psychology
 Specialisation of psychology concerned with assessment, diagnosis, formulation and
intervention in contexts that support the learning and development of individuals with an
emphasis on children and young people
 Work with children and young people in setting such as family, school, early childhood
and development context, social residential and mental health settings as well as
parents, caregivers and teachers
2) Industrial and Organisational Psychology
 The science and practice of professionals who function in organisational and occupational
settings with an aim to ethically explain, assess and influence human behaviour and its
reciprocity at individual, group and organisational levels, with all efforts directed at human
flourishing and the sustainable development of all affected stakeholders
3) Research Psychologists

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  Apply skills in statistics, research design, computing and data analysis in an attempt to
answer a variety of hypotheses in the field of psychology
 Conduct research at centres, universities, corporations, NPOs and for the government
 Loom at patterns in human behaviour and cognition and use testes research techniques
to make empirical conclusions about the topic they are researching
4) Psychiatrist
 Qualified medical doctor who specialises in the diagnosis and treatment of psychological
disorders
 Training:
- Bachelor of Medicine or Bachelor of Surgery degree
- Two year internship at recognised hospital or medical institution
- One year community service program in a hospital or clinic
- Four year post grad specialist training program to complete a post grad degree
in psychiatry
 Work holistically as part of a MDT (multidisciplinary team) which can include social
workers, psychologists, occupational therapists, dieticians and psychiatric nurses
 Allowed to prescribe medicine
5) Psychiatric Nurse
 Qualified nurse with an Advanced Psychiatric Nursing honours degree in the field of mental
health nursing science
 Promote mental health in all settings and work in partnership with other professionals
and the community to provide comprehensive mental health care, including assessment
and screening, prevention, patient management and rehabilitation
 Important for inpatient treatment
 Register with the South African Nursing Council (SANC) and HPCSA
6) Psychometrist
 A psychological practitioner who performs psychometric assessments in various contexts
 Includes administering, scoring, interpreting, report-writing and providing feedback
based on psychometric testing
 Contributing to the development of psychological tests and procedures particularity for
the South African context
7) Registered Councillor
 Conducts psychological and preventative interventions that focus on the promotion and
enhancement of psychosocial well-being for individuals, families, groups and communities

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  Usually work in schools, youth centres and family planning centres etc
 Perform psychological screening, basic assessment and psychological interventions with
individuals and groups, aimed at enhancing personal functioning
 Focus on short-term supportive counselling, psycho-education and promote
psychological wellbeing
 Their function is to prevent, promote, intervene and appropriately refer
Role of Mental Health Professionals: Training Requirements

Role of Mental Health Professionals: Social Workers

 A practice-based profession and academic discipline that promotes social change and
development, social cohesion and empowerment and liberation of people
- Principles of social justice, human rights, collective responsibility and respect for
diversity are central to social work
- Engages people and structures to address life challenges and enhance well-being
 Degree in social work with practical coursework
 Work in: Government departments, NGOs, social welfare agencies, hospitals, clinics,
treatment centres, schools, residential care and treatment settings, occupational
settings, corporates, mental health facilities and private practice
 Many areas of specialisation: Adoption, healthcare, clinical probation, forensics
LO3: Psychologist VS Psychiatrist
Psychologist Psychiatrist
Training Bachelors, Honours, Masters, Medical degree, internship,
Internship (Community service community service and
for clinical) specialisation in psychiatry
Treatment Trained in human behaviour Medically trained to treat mental
and understanding the mind, illness, addiction and general mental
mental processes and behaviour health problems. Focus on biological
and chemical imbalances
Diagnosis Some categories can provide Can diagnose mental illnesses and
diagnosis prescribe medication

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 Therapeutic Insight based or behavioural Focus on biomedical intervention
Approaches therapies such as (medicinal) and some
psychoanalysis, client-centred psychotherapeutic techniques
therapy, CBT
Registration HPCSA HPCSA

Cognition and Intelligence

(Learning Unit 6)
Theme 1: The Conception of Intelligence
Learning Outcomes
LO1: Distinguish between “intelligence” and “IQ”
LO2: Provide an overview on the history of intelligence testing
LO3: Discuss how psychological tests are used
LO4: Describe what reliability and validity of tests refers to
LO5: Discuss IQ, intelligence and socioeconomic disadvantage
LO1: The Concept of Intelligence
 Human intelligence is a complex human ability in which mental processes are used to attend
to tasks, solve problems, comprehend abstract ideas and information
Intelligence
 The broader ability to acquire and utilise complex mental skills

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  Includes: Problem-solving, critical thinking, learning, memory, creativity and ability to
adapt to new situations
 Influenced by: Genetics and the environment
 What is considered intelligent varies between cultures
- Example: Academic achievement, communal wisdom, creativity and
entrepreneurial skills or ability to read the natural environment
Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
 A numerical representation of the level of an individuals intelligence
 Assessed using standardised testing
 Provides a score relative to the general population
 Designed to be culturally neutral
 Relatively stable overtime
Theories of Intelligence
 Spearman’s General Factor (“g”): There is one general underlying intelligence that underlies
cognitive ability
 “g” influences behaviour on multiple mental tasks such as problem solving,
understanding complex ideas and specific abilities like verbal and mathematical skills
 “g” contributes to a persons overall cognitive competence
 Gardeners Multiple Intelligences: Several mental skills, talents or abilities that make up our
intelligence
LO2: History of Intelligence Testing
 Early 1900s: French education commission wanted to assess children in order to identify
“mentally subnormal” children
- Wanted to identify children who required additional support
- Did not want to rely on potentially bias teacher evaluations
 1904: Alfred Binet was tasked to design the measure
- Collaborated with Theodore Simon
 1905: Binet-Simon Scale
- Popular
- Easy to administer
- Inexpensive
- Objective
- Able to predict scholastic performance
 Binet-Simon Scale: Expressed the child’s score as a “mental level” or “mental age”

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  Mental Age: The child displays the mental ability typical of a child of that chronological
(actual) age
 Tests and tasks were chosen that measured skills thought to represent intelligence like
language, memory, problem-solving etc
 These selected tasks were then administered to a large sample of children on various
ages
 The results were analysed to determine the average or typical performance for each age
group
 Once the typical performance for each age group was established, a mental age was
assigned to each child based on their test performance
 If a child’s test performance was similar to the average performance of a typical child of
a certain age, their mental age was the same as their chronological age
- However if a child’s test performance was above or below the average for their
age group, the mental age would differ from the chronological age
 Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (1916)
 Binet-Simon Scale was revised by Lewis Terman and colleagues at Stanford University
 New scoring was based on William Sterns Intelligence Quotient
 Reasons:
- Was not tied to a specific age and allowed for comparison across age groups
- Allowed for consistency across different tests and assessment modules
- Important clinical and educational implications
 Intelligence Quotient (IQ): A child’s mental age divided by the
chronological age, multiplied by 100
Examples:
1) Simon
Mental Age: 7
Chronological Age: 8
IQ = (6/8) x 100 = 75
= Below Average
2) Mary
Mental Age: 7
Chronological Age: 7
IQ = (7/7) x 100 = 100
= Average

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 3) Andile
Mental Age: 12
Chronological Age: 10
IQ = (12/10) x 100 = 120
= Above Average
LO3: What do IQ Scores Mean?
 Individuals performance on an intelligence
measure is represented in comparison to the
general population
 Normal Distribution: A symmetrical bell-shaped
curve that represents the pattern in which many
characteristics are dispersed in the population
- Example: The mean height of a
population is usually (+-)175cm for
adult males and (+-)162cm for adult
females in many Western countries
 If the trait is normally distributed, most cases
will cluster around the mean and decline as it moves away from the centre
 Standard Deviation: The statistical measure of the spread or dispersion of a set of data
 In the context of IQ, its used to describe the variation in the IQ scores within a
population
 Intelligence scores fall into a normal distribution
- Mean is 100
- Standard deviation is 15
- 68.26% of the people will fall within one standard deviation(15) of the mean
(100)
- 34% will have scores between 100 and 115 (above the mean)
- 34% will have scores between 85 and 100 (below the mean)
 2 Standard Deviations from the mean (+-30 IQ points)
- Approx 95% of the population falls within 2 standard deviations of the mean
- 2.5% of the population will have IQ scores higher than 130
- 2.5% of the population will have IQ scores below 70
- The majority of individuals will have IQ scores between 70 and 130
 3 Standard Deviations from the mean (+-45 IQ points)

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 - Approx 99.7% of the population falls within the 3 standard deviations of the
mean
- 0.15% of the population will have IQ scores higher than 145
- 0.15% of the population will have IQ scores lower than 55
- Vast majority of individuals will have IQ scores between 55 and 145
 Percentile Score: Percentage of people who will score at or below the score one has attained
- If you score in the 80th percentile in a race, it means you are faster than 80% of
your peers
EXAMPLE: Jane takes an IQ test in order to help her decide what she could study in
university.
IF Jane’s results show an IQ of 100, this puts her in the 50th percentile
- This means that 50% of the people taking the same test as Jane will score an IQ
of 112 or less
IF Jane’s results show an IQ of 70, this puts her in the 2nd percentile
- This means that 2% of the people taking the same test as Jane will get an IQ
score of 70 or less
 When interpreting IQ scores beware of:
 Viewing results as if they represent an inherent and unchangeable ability
 The expectation that results are 100% accurate
 The view that results are infallible and perfectly reliable
LO4: Reliability and Validity
 Reliability and validity are important statistical information about all psychological tests
 We can only use tests fairly and make decisions about people based on their results if
the test is both reliable and valid
Reliability
 Reliability: Measurement consistency of a test
 Consistency and stability of test score over time and different administrations (does the
test give you consistent results?)
- If I test Jane in 2021 and again in 2023 with the same test, will the results be the
same/similar?

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 - If psychometrist A and psychometrist B both test Jane, will the results be the
same/similar?

 To Measure Reliability: Use statistical methods to determine the correlation (association or

relationship between the scores)
- Is there statistical evidence to show a relationship between Jane’s results in
2021 and 2023?
- Is there statistical evidence to show the relationship between psychometrist A
and psychometrist B’s scores for Jane?
 Reliability is reported as a correlation coefficient
 Correlation Coefficient: Numerical index of the degree of the relationships between two
variables
- Always between 1 and -1
 IQ tests must be interpreted with caution
 Factors such as low motivation, anxiety or the testing conditions can negatively impact
scores
- Example: Jane might have an actual IQ of 130 but because she was not
motivated to take the test, she didn’t apply herself and her results of 122 don’t
accurately represent her potential
Do Intelligence Measures Have Adequate Reliability and Validity?
 Reliability
- Well-designed, non-bias Intellegence tests that are used in modern Intellegence
testing show a high correlation coefficient (means that they have a high level of
reliability)
- We can say that IQ tests consistently measure what they are designed to
measure
- However we should understand the scores context and interpret scores due to
the effects of anxiety, motivation and testing environment

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Validity
 Validity: Ability of the test to measure what it was actually designed to measure
- Is the score that Jane obtained actually an accurate measurement of
intelligence?
- Will the decisions made based on Jane’s score be accurate and meaningful?

Do Intellegence Measures Have Adequate Reliability and Validity

 Well designed, non-bias Intellegence tests that are used in modern intelligence testing
have adequate validity
 We can say that the tests
- Accurately measure what they were designed to measure
- Are useful in predicting future performance
 In an educational context, IQ scores are predictive of school performance
- If Jane scores in the high average range = likely to perform well at school
- If Jane scores significantly below average = struggle in school and support need
 Schooling also affects IQ performance
- Can impact IQ between 1 to 5 points for each year of additional schooling
- If Jane continues with her studies, her IQ score may increase
 Well designed IQ measures are reasonably valid measures of school-related intellectual
abilities/academic intelligence
What Do IQ Tests Actually Measure?
1) Verbal Intelligence: The ability to use language effectively and to express themselves
articulately (involves reading, writing, speaking and comprehension
2) Practical Intelligence: Ability to solve real-life problems and adapt to different situations in a
practical and effective manner (involves skills related to everyday problem-solving, common
sense and application of knowledge to specific situations)
3) Social Intelligence: The ability to understand, relate to and interact effectively with other
people (involves skills related to empathy, emotional intelligence, social awareness and the
capacity to navigate complex social relationships)

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  IQ tests mostly assess verbal intelligence and more specifically academic/verbal
Intellegence
- Verbal intelligence is highly valued in society
- IQ tests were designed to measure academic achievement and verbal and
mathematical skills were considered important
- Practically it is easier to measure verbal intelligence
Intelligence Testing and Predicting Vocational Success
 Vocational Success: The achievement of ones career-related goals and the attainment of
satisfying and fulfilling work life, and is measured in terms of financial success, job
satisfaction, achieving higher positions in the work environment etc.
 People who score high on IQ tests are more likely than those who score low to end up in
high-status jobs
- If Jane has an IQ of 112 and John has an IQ of 98, then Jane is more likely to end
up in a high end job
 Since school success is important for most jobs and IQ is a good measure of school
performance, we can predict that high IQ scores predict vocational success
- However, this relationship is moderate as there are many exceptions to this rule
and many other influencing factors
 IQ Testing and Job Selection
 On going debate on whether IQ tests should be used in job selection since IQ tests may
be culturally unfair, for example…
- Jane and John apply for the same managerial position at a financial company
- Jane comes from an English speaking household, while John speaks Zulu
- The test is administered in English
- If the IQ tests primarily focus on verbal intelligence, do Jane and John have an
equal opportunity to get an IQ score that is a good representation of their ability
and potential to do the job?

LO5: IQ, Intelligence and Socioeconomic Disadvantage

 Growing up in a socioeconomically disadvantaged environment leads to an increase in
factors which can impact intellectual potential

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 - Exposed to fewer books
- Less learning supplies
- Less access to computers and technology
- Sub-optimal conditions for concentration (privacy, space, quiet)
- Less parental assistance
- Less pressure/focus on intellectual pursuits
- Lower quality of schooling
- Higher levels of stress (children and parents)
- Higher exposure to environmental risks (poor prenatal care, lead poisoning,
pollution, nutritional deficiencies, poor medical care)
 All these factors can impact the development of the brain and are not reversible
 Low socioeconomic status is associated with a 15 point difference in average IQ scores
Challenges to Reliability and Validity in Intelligence Testing in South Africa
 Trained administrators
 Valid and reliable assessment measures
 Language and literacy
 Translation
 Educational opportunities
 Poverty and nutrition
 Knowledge of technology

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