Stress 10 17 2013 Stress and Stressors The Steps that Leads to Stress and Defense Awareness and appraisal of a stressor Attempts to cope with the stress if coping is effective the process is stopped Stress response cognitive component I cant deal with this im stressed out or physiological component increased arousal such as heart rate and muscle tension Possible use of defense mechanisms and may cause problems later Defense Mechanisms If the defense is effective stress is reduced but the stressor remains Denial redefinition ignoring the problem or making excuses for self rationalizations bad method because doesn t solve problem Displacement don t attack or respond to the source of stress you displace it on someone else blame stress or poor performance on other people or things slamming doors hitting people yelling doesn t solve underlying problem Suppression distraction ex watching tv doing another activity to distract and ignore stress Repression forget Other Factors in the Control of Stress Social Support Counseling and psychotherapy gives emotional support to deal with stress Writing About Stress you sitting with a piece of paper writing about your stress people who write about their stress showed greater reductions in their stress rather than those who didn t begin writing about problems but then eventually start writing possible solutions to their problems Aerobic Exercise those who are aerobically fit can use oxygen more efficiently than those who aren t relieving stress Meditation and Biofeedback electronic form of autogenic training Influence of Genetic on Stressors Stress Your Brain and Your Behavior Psychological Health Behaviors 10 17 2013 Stress Causes increase in production of cholesterol when you become stressed you produce more cholesterol connection between heart and brain need cholesterol used to protect cells stress is a protective action Type A Personality Characterized by hostility competitiveness time urgency Personality Genes 10 17 2013 More like their identical twins than their fraternal twins even if identical twins are raised apart they have very similar personalities Children and their parents biological parents and their adoptive children are very different from eachother but biological parents and real children are very similar Genes are specifically related to lots of traits addiction aggression etc Rest of personality is determined by environment and errors of measurement unknown factors o Said that genes account for 50 of personality 30 to environment and 20 to errors of measurement Mediating variable is neurotransmitters ex low levels of serotonin more likely to be depressed People with history of depression are more likely to be depressed Substances that secrete from different organs in the body Testosterone men people who commit crimes high levels of testosterone can cause hostility Level of Hormones that mother is producing and carrying while pregnant influence your development influences personality and levels of hormone later in life Transgender disorder person is one sex and knows what that sex it but feels like member of other sex due to cross sex hormone exposure during early stage brain development in mothers womb meaning male is exposed to high levels of estrogen in womb or female is exposed to high levels of testosterone in womb due to themselves Hormones mothers hormone levels Tests 3 Types o MMPI paper pencil multiple choice test 555 questions looked to see how people with different characteristics or disorders responded to questions differently can score disorders like schizophrenia o TAT thematic apperception test people tell stories about pictures they see determining how you perceive other people and interpersonal relationships in a positive or negative way useless and is not used anymore because test can be fakes easily o Warshawk series of ink blots and must tell what they see in ink blots look for is what the person sees justified by the actual nature of the blob if form is bad then determine that person does not see in reality which fit their personalities test is useless does not tell anything about consciousness or unconsciousness unless it is really extreme case Intelligence 10 17 2013 The Concept of Intelligence Specific Abilities Versus General Intelligence o Individual intelligence Abilities intelligence o General intelligence reflection of underlying neurological factors how fast it is you can process information One of best measures of intelligence is speed of reaction time very highly correlated with IQ measure of how specific brain works Another measure is how good one is at general problem solving Specific Abilities Primary Mental Abilities General Intelligence o Speed of Neural Processing o Use of Problem Solving Strategies Crystallized Versus Fluid Intelligence o Crystallized is knowledge you have like how many days there are in a week will always be there o Fluid is more of a problem solving ability and can slip away over time as you get older you tend to lose your fluid intelligence Social and Emotional Intelligence o Social knowing how to interact with other people and the rules of the game good social intelligence allows people to not act rudely or foolishly key to success because must have people skills o Emotional your knowledge of yourself your emotions known you are volatile in some situations or excited in others your aware of that and will avoid situations in which you will not function well o People with delayed gratification go farther in life because they are less impulsive The Measurement of Intelligence A Brief History of Intelligence Testing o Selecting Students for Remedial Help o Screening Immigrants for Exclusion when people from all countries wanted to come in the US started giving tests so dumb people couldn t come in problem was that questions were US specific cultural questions like what does a tennis court look like that other cultures may not know o Development of New Tests ACT SAT measuring knowledge on different subjects Individual Tests Basic Requirements for a Good Intelligence Test o Reliability o Validity o Scores and Norms o Criterion Relevance Types of Intelligence Tests o Individual Tests sit down with person and asked intelligence questions along with puzzles puzzles measuring ability to look for relations tester gets to watch you work and can pick things up by watching which often makes people nervous and causes them to come out inaccurately o Culture Free Tests Mental
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