Introduction to Psychology – Interim exam 2

An analogy refers to a similarity in behaviour, function, or relationship between entities or situations that are in other respects different from each other. The prefrontal cortex is involved in analogical reasoning. Analogical reasoning uses multiple areas in the prefrontal cortex, unlike simple semantic retrieval.

Inductive reasoning or induction is the attempt to infer some new principle or proposition from observations or facts that serve as clues. It is also called hypothesis construction. It is reasoning that is founded on perceived analogies or other similarities. Inductive reasoning is prone to several biases:

1. Availability bias
   People tend to rely too strongly on information that is readily available to us and ignore information that is less available (e.g: people tend to believe that a lot of people die from shark attacks because it gets a lot of news coverage, but this is not correct).
2. Confirmation bias
   People tend to look for information that confirms the hypothesis, rather than look for information that disproves the hypothesis.
3. Predictable-world bias
   People tend to believe that there are patterns in the world that do not exist (e.g: in a game of chance people that have seen a certain card a few times tend to go for another card, even though the probability is just as high, because they feel like the first card can’t come up again).

Deductive reasoning is the attempt to derive logically the consequences that must be true if certain premises are accepted as true. There is a bias in deductive reasoning. This occurs when people tend to use their knowledge rather than formal knowledge in answering deductive reasoning questions.

Insight problems are problems that are specifically designed to be unsolvable until one looks at them in a different way. These problems are generally very difficult, because their solution depends on abandoning a well-established habit of perception or thought, referred to as a mental set, and then viewing the problem in a different way. There is a mental set known as functional fixedness, in which there is a failure to see an object as having a function other than its usual one. There is a design stance in which people assume that some tools are designed for an intended function. This leads to more user-efficiency. People solve insight problems best if they take some time off from the problem, do something else and come back to it. This is known as the incubation period.

The broaden-and-build theory states that negative emotions tend to narrow one’s focus of perception and thought. The understanding of what is expected of a participant in a test is culturally dependent. People from non-western cultures are also more likely to sort things by function instead of taxonomy. In cultures such as China and Japan, the reasoning is more holistic and less individually centred.

In the early ages of intelligence testing, the testing of intelligence was focussed on schoolwork, rather than other intelligence-related concepts, such as abstract thinking or logical reasoning. The first intelligence test commonly used in North America was the Stanford-Binet Scale. This intelligence test, tested verbal comprehension, perceptual processing, working memory and processing speed. This test gives you an IQ score as a result and the average IQ of the population is 100.

The strength of the correlation between performance on the job and IQ depends on the type of job. There is a positive correlation, but the correlation gets stronger with more demanding jobs.

The positive manifold holds that scores always correlate positively with one another if the sample Is large enough when giving different mental tests to people who are part of the same broad cultural group. General intelligence (g) is the underlying ability that contributes to a person’s performance on all mental tests. General intelligence is usually measured by getting the average of several mental tests, which is done in most IQ tests nowadays.

Cattell argued that general intelligence consists of two parts that correlate positively with each other:

1. Fluid intelligence
   This is the ability to perceive relationships among stimuli independently of all previous specific practise or instruction concerning those relationships (e.g: finishing a pattern of not previous seen symbols). Tests in this category depend on ‘raw reasoning’.
2. Crystallized intelligence
   This is the mental ability derived directly from previous experiences (e.g: a test of knowledge). Tests in this category depend on previously learned information.

There is a positive correlation between general intelligence and mental speed, the inspect time that is required to detect certain patterns. The working-memory span also positively correlates with general intelligence. People with higher general intelligence perform better on executive function tasks. It is possible that general intelligence has been selected during human evolution because it helps us deal with novel problems.

Heritability is the degree to which variation in a particular trait, within a particular population of individuals, stems from genetic differences as opposed to the environmental differences. This is often quantified by the heritability coefficient. It does not say anything about how much of any trait is due to genetic factors, only what percentage of the difference in a trait within a specific population can be attributed to inheritance. Heritability is relative, varying with the environmental conditions in which people within the population live.

Heritability=r identical twins-r nonidenticaltwins*2

When the heritability is 1.0, it means that the environment for everyone in the population is the same and the differences in the population are fully caused by differences in genes. If the heritability is 0.0, it means that the genes are exactly the same for everyone and all the differences are caused by differences in the environment.

The influences of families on intelligence exists, but this effect disappears in early adulthood because by then the individuals choose their own environment.

If there are two wheat fields, each planted from the same package of genetically diverse wheat seeds, but with different soils, then there will be big differences between the wheat fields, but the differences within a wheat field are determined by genes and not the differences between the wheat fields.

There is a difference in IQ scores in the United States between blacks and whites, because of the social designation of black and white. Besides that, there is a stereotype threat. Stereotypes of a race influence the results on an IQ test.

Involuntary or castelike minorities on average score lower on IQ scores, because they are treated differently by society, than voluntary minorities. The Flynn-effect is the effect that the average IQ rises 9 to 15 points every 30 years. This effect could occur because of the improvements in modern life. More people receive education, more people have intellectual demanding jobs and modern technology is also increasingly intellectually demanding.

As infants, we depend physically and emotionally on adult caregivers. As children, we learn to get along with others and to abide by the rules and norms of society. As adolescents, we begin to explore romantic relationships and consider how we will take our place in the adult world. As adults, we assume responsibility for the care and support of others and contribute, through work, to the broader society.

The bond between infant and parent is promoted by innate tendencies: the infant to cry and the parent to help. Infants prefer their caregivers and react to their caregivers and in that way, the infants take an active role in building emotional bonds between themselves and those on whom they most directly depend. Attachment refers to emotional bonds.

The experiments of Harlow with monkeys provided a lot of evidence for the contact comfort theory, in which the bond between mother and infant is promoted by the warmth and comfort of the mother. Bowlby’s evolutionary explanation of the fact that infants between 8 months and 3 years old are distressed when their caregivers are out of sight is that infants who were in their mother's sight were an evolutionary advantage in the past. Evidence for this comes from the fact that similar behaviours occur in all human cultures and in other species of mammals.

There are four types of attachment and this can be assessed by the strange situation test, in which the mother suddenly leaves the room leaving the child either by itself or with a stranger.

1. Secure attachment (60%)
   These infants actively explore the environment with their mothers present and become distressed when their mother leaves.
2. Insecure-resistant attachment (10%)
   These infants appear anxious even with their mothers present and don’t explore much. They become very distressed when their mother leaves, but display anger towards the mother upon return.
3. Insecure-avoidant attachment (15%)
   These infants appear anxious even with their mothers present and don’t explore much. They show little distress when the mother leaves and when the mother returns they avoid contact.
4. Disorganized/disoriented attachment (15%)
   These infants don’t fit the other categories and have mixed reactions to either the departure or the reunion of the mother.

Sensitive care is the behaviour in which the infant’s signals of distress are responded to promptly and the infants receive regular contact comfort and interact with the infant in an emotionally synchronous manner. Sensitive care correlates with secure attachment and the children that are securely attached were more likeable people later in life, as well as better at problem-solving and emotionally healthier. Children that have a certain homozygous gene are less affected by environmental experiences.

There are three successive stages in a child from age 1 – 12: autonomy, initiative and industry. Prosocial behaviour is voluntary behaviour intended to benefit other people. There are three aspects of young children’s prosocial behaviour:

1. Helping
   An infant from about 12 months old will randomly start to give out objects in games of give-and-take, will help the adults any way they can and they always want to help.
2. Comforting
   An infant will start to cry when other infants are crying. Until the age of 15 months, the infant’s distress when others are distressed is referred to as egocentric distress because they look for comforting themselves. At about 15 months the infant will respond to distress by attempting to comfort them.
3. Sharing
   The extent to which children share increases with age. Sharing in young children is especially common in situations in which they need to collaborate to achieve a goal.

The development of empathy causes prosocial behaviour to be based on the understanding of and concern for other’s needs and feelings. Children of about age 2 and younger frequently engage in emulation, using different means to achieve the same goal. Later in life, they start with imitation, copying actions exactly and start with overimitation, copying all actions exactly, even if some actions are irrelevant. Preschool children do not often deliberately teach a skill to another child. It is more common for a child to happen to see the outcome of another child’s actions.

Parenting styles are described in terms of two dimensions: the degree of warmth a parent shows toward a child, reflected by being loving and attentive to children and their needs and the degree of control a parent attempts to exert over a child’s behaviour. Parenting style can be divided into four general types depending on where a parent falls on these two dimensions:

1. Authoritarian (low warmth, high control)
   There is extensive use of power
2. Authoritative (high warmth, high control)
   The reason for the desired behaviour is explained. If the reason is not effective, use force.
3. Permissive (high warmth, low control)
   Little correction of undesired behaviour
4. Uninvolved (low warmth, low control)
   Not asking for anything, not giving anything.

Research found that the children of authoritative parents exhibited the most positive qualities. Evidence that parenting style influence children’s development comes from experiments that modify, through training, the styles of one group of parents and then compare their offspring to those of otherwise similar parents.

The evolutionary explanation that a child’s focus on peers is mostly because of future reproduction. Children across all cultures play and this play is mostly gender-segregated. Play serves as a possibility to develop skills. It also serves the function of learning an advanced understanding of rules, social roles and greater self-control. It also helps with the learning and understanding of society’s morals.

There is a difference between play between children that have a similar age and play between children that have a range of ages. Play between children that have a similar age is very competitive and this is not the case with play between children that have a range of ages. Younger children learn from older children through play and older children practice their nurturing skills through play with younger children. It also helps older children consolidate some of their knowledge by helping younger children.

There are gender differences between infants. Newborn boys are more irritable and less responsive to caregiver’s voices and faces than newborn girls. Boys from 6 months old also show anger more often than girls. By 13 to 15 months girls are more obedient than boys and this stays this way. By 17 months, boys show significantly more physical aggression than girls.

These differences could be explained by the way boys and girls are treated. The differences in treatment start at birth. By the age of 4 or 5, most children have learned strong cultural stereotypes for males and females. By this age, they also develop a gender identity, an understanding that they are one gender and will always be this gender. Young children often overgeneralize gender differences, with this being more extreme in boys than in girls. Children prefer to play with children of their own sex, although this preference is stronger in boys than in girls. In the segregated playgroups, boys often practice what they perceive to be masculine activities of their culture and the girls do it the other way around. Children sometimes reinforce gender segregation by ridiculing those who cross gender lines.

Girls and boys tend to play differently as well as separately. The world of boys has been characterized as consisting of relatively large, hierarchically organized groups in which individuals or coalitions attempt to prove their superiority through competitive games, teasing and boasting. The world of girls has been characterized as consisting of smaller, more intimate groups, in which cooperative forms of play predominate and competition is more subtle. Boys and girls play together more often in age-mixed groups.

Adolescence is the transition period from childhood to adulthood. It starts with puberty and ends when society deems the person an adult. In the stage of development emerging adulthood, a person has the independence of an adult but does not see himself like one yet.

The teenage rebellion typically occurs over immediate control that the parent still has over the teenager. Adolescence is often marked by conflicts centring parental authority. Children go to their parents for emotional support and this gradually declines. Adolescents mostly go to their peers for emotional support. Adolescents take more risks in life than any other age group. There are several theories for this:

1. Moffit’s theory
   The reason that adolescents take more risks is that adolescents are biologically adults and want to enter the adult world in any way available and crimes, sex and drugs is a way for them.
2. Harris’ theory
   This theory states that this risk-taking is not to join the adult world, but to set themselves apart from it.
3. Steinberg’s theory
   There is a competition between two developing brain systems, the cognitive-control network and the socioemotional network. The socioemotional network becomes dominant under conditions of emotional or social arousal or when in the presence of peers.

The increased risk-taking in mostly adolescent males is also called the young-male syndrome. There is a possible evolutionary explanation for this. In our species’ history, males who took risks to achieve higher status among their peers may well have produced more offspring, so genes that promoted this tendency have been passed along more.

Adolescence is also a period of rapid growth in the sophistication of moral reasoning and a time in which many people develop moral self-images that guide their actions. Kohlberg states that there are several stages of moral reasoning:

1. Obedience and punishment orientation
   Reasoners in this stage focus on direct consequences to themselves.
2. Self-interested exchanges
   Reasoners in this stage understand that different people have different self-interests, which sometimes come into conflict. To get what you want, you have to make a bargain.
3. Interpersonal accord and conformity
   Reasoners in this stage try to live up with the expectations of others who are important to them.
4. Law-and-order morality
   Reasoners in this stage argue that to maintain social order, each person should resist personal pressures and feel duty-bound to follow the laws and conventions of the larger society.
5. Human-rights and social-welfare morality
   Reasoners in this stage balance their respect for laws with ethical principles that transcend specific laws.

Moral reasoning is not the same as moral action. In adolescence there is a development of sexual attraction and a sexual-minority development; people start to identify their sexuality. Also, sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy are relatively high in adolescence, compared to other age groups. Males are more eager to have sexual intercourse without a long-term commitment and this can be explained in terms of parental-investment.

Natural selection may have predisposed humans to be sensitive to cues in the childhood that predict whether one or the other sexual strategy (restraint vs. promiscuity) will be more successful. One such cue may be the presence or the absence of a caring father at home.

People in love typically experience distress when the other leaves, either temporarily or permanently. When an individual’s partner leaves, an individual typically experiences intense anxiety, depression and feelings of loneliness and emptiness that is not relieved even by highly supportive friends and active social life. The attachment that adults form with romantic partners can be classified as secure, anxious and avoidant. Bowlby's theory states that people form mental models of close relationships based on their early experiences with their primary caregivers and then carry those models into their adult relationships.

There are some relationship patterns that can be changed for the better if the couple is willing to work on them:

1. Positive style of talking and resolving arguments (e.g: avoid yelling and name-calling).
2. An effort to communicate when you disagree (e.g: don’t give the silent treatment).
3. Handle disagreements as a team (e.g: capitalize on each other’s strengths to resolve conflicts).
4. Honesty with self and partner

Jobs are perceived as the least stressful if they are:

1. Complex, rather than simple
2. Varied, rather than routine
3. Not closely supervised

The paradox of old age is the following. Objectively, life looks worse in old age, subjectively, it feels better. The socioemotional selectivity theory states that older people shift their attention to the present moment, instead of the future, and this causes older people to enjoy life more, despite the losses that old age brings. Older people attend to more positive emotional stimuli than negative emotional stimuli. This is called the positivity bias.

Terminally ill people will generally go through five stages upon hearing the news:

1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

Personality is the relatively consistent patterns of thought, feeling and behaviour that characterize each person as a unique individual. A trait is a relatively stable predisposition to behave in a certain way. There are traits that are always present, but there are also traits that need a certain situation before they manifest. Traits are dimensions, which are measurable, continuous characteristics, along which people differ by degree.

Trait theories of personality endeavour to specify a manageable set of distinct personality dimensions that can be used to summarize the fundamental psychological differences among individuals. Factor analysis is used in defining the most useful dimensions. There are three steps in factor analysis:

1. Collect data from a lot of people
2. Factor extraction
   Correlate the data with each other. Here you correlate the terms with each other (e.g: friendly and likeable).
3. Label
   Here the factors that correlate strongly together get a new label, such as conscientiousness.

Factor analysis tells us that the dimensions are relatively independent of each other. The Big Five Theory of Personality states that someone’s personality is best described using five, relatively independent personality dimensions. These dimensions spell out OCEAN.

1. Neuroticism – Stability
2. Extraversion – Introversion
3. Openness to new experience – Non-openness
4. Agreeableness – Antagonism
5. Conscientiousness – Undirectedness

There was a proposal for a higher-order personality trait independent of IQ that is predictive of success in a wide range of domains and is called grit. Grit is defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Especially the tendency to persist at difficult tasks seems to be important for predicting success. The validity of the Big Five Theory of Personality is measured by checking the correlation between the test and the actual behaviour.

People with socially aversive personalities score high on the dark triad, which consists of three things:

1. Narcissism
   Extreme selfishness with a grandiose view of one’s abilities and a need for admiration
2. Machiavellianism
   Predisposed to manipulate other people, often through deception.
3. Psychopathy
   Amoral or antisocial behaviour, coupled with a lack of empathy and an inability to form meaningful personal relationships.

Personality is relatively constant throughout adulthood and stays constant after 50 years of age. The older someone is, the less likely it is that their personality is going to change. The heritability of personality traits is about 0.50. The household in which an individual grew up does not correlate with personality at all. A single gene may influence neuroticism, as well as the neurotransmitter serotine. A single gene may influence novelty seeking, as well as the neurotransmitter dopamine.

It could be that personality is a side-effect of evolution. It could also be that personality has an evolutionary advantage. If there are more different types of individuals in one species, the likeliness of survival is bigger. There are differences in behavioural styles across species. The Big Five can be thought of as alternative general strategies for solving problems related to survival and reproduction. There is a trait that is associated with change and is called differential susceptibility to environmental influence. Individuals with this trait are very susceptible to their environment, for better and for worse.

Pre-existing small differences between siblings may become exaggerated in part because siblings tend to define themselves as different from one another and tend to accentuate those differences through their own behavioural choices. The sibling contrast refers to the within-family emphasis on the differences between siblings. The split-parent identification is a tendency for each of two siblings to identify with a different one of their two parents. A possible explanation for why siblings and parents accentuate differences is that is could possibly reduce sibling rivalry, which can be disruptive to family functioning.

There are gender differences in personality. Women score higher on agreeableness than men and women generally score higher on neuroticism. Gender influences the personality one develops. A possible explanation for this lies in cultural expectations for each gender. Gender differences in personality can be explained by the social expectations for each gender.

Freud used the term psychoanalysis to refer both to his method of treatment and to his theory of personality. Today, the type of therapy Freud used is called psychodynamic theories. These theories emphasize the interplay of mental forces. People are often unconscious of their motives and there are processes called defence mechanisms within the mind to keep unacceptable or anxiety/producing motives and thoughts out of the consciousness. Freud proposed a theory in which a child develops through several stages:

1. Oral stage (birth to 1 year)
   Sexual excitation is centred around the mouth.
2. Anal stage (1 to 3 years)
   Anal needs become increasingly important.
3. Phallic stage (3 to 5 years)
   Resolution of the Oedipus and Electra complex.
4. Latency stage (5 years to the beginning of puberty)
   No body parts arouse sexual pleasure
5. Genital stage (adolescence and adulthood)

Erikson believes that there are several psychosocial stages of development:

1. Basic trust versus mistrust (birth to 1 year)
2. Autonomy versus shame and doubt (1 to 3 years)
3. Initiative versus guilt (3 to 6 years)
4. Industry versus inferiority (6 years to puberty)
5. Identity versus identity confusion (12 to 18 years)
6. Intimacy versus isolation (young adulthood)
7. Generativity versus stagnation (middle adulthood)
8. Integrity versus despair (late adulthood)

Freud believes that the real reason for our actions lies in the unconsciousness. Defence mechanisms are mental processes of self-deception with the goal to reduce one’s consciousness of wishes, memories and other thoughts that would threaten one’s self-esteem or in other ways provoke a strong sense of insecurity or anxiety. There are several defence mechanisms:

1. Repression
   Anxiety-producing thoughts are pushed out or kept out of one’s consciousness.
2. Displacement
   The unacceptable wish is redirected toward a more acceptable alternative.
3. Sublimation
   This is a displacement in which a person’s wish is directed toward activities that are particularly valued by society.
4. Reaction formation
   Forming a different reaction for the true emotion (e.g: a hatred towards your mother may be changed in intense love towards your mother).
5. Projection
   Projecting a characteristic or attribute onto someone else.
6. Rationalization
   The use of conscious reasoning to explain away anxiety-producing thoughts or feelings.

Repressors are people who regularly repress emotions accompanying disturbing events in life. Repressors report less psychological distress but show more physiological distress than non-repressors. Defence mechanisms can be divided into three separate categories:

1. Immature defence mechanisms
   These are the defence mechanisms that distort reality the most and lead to the most ineffective actions (e.g: projection).
2. Intermediate defence mechanisms
   These are the defence mechanisms that lead to less distortion of reality and are more effective ways of coping (e.g: repression and reaction forming).
3. Mature defence mechanisms
   These are the defence mechanisms that lead to the least distortion of reality and lead to the most adaptive behaviours (e.g: suppression and humour).

Humanistic theories of personality emphasize people’s understanding of themselves and their capacity to choose their own paths to fulfilment. Phenomenology is the study of conscious perceptions and understandings. Phenomenological reality refers to each person’s conscious understanding of his own world. Self-actualisation refers to the process of becoming one’s full self. This includes realizing one’s dreams and capabilities. People will always make choices that are best for their own development. According to phenomenologists, humans have five needs that are in hierarchical order:

1. Self-actualisation needs
2. Esteem needs
3. Attachment needs
4. Safety needs
5. Physiological needs

People can only focus on a higher need if the one below it is sufficiently satisfied.

Social-cognitive theories of personality emphasize the roles of general beliefs about the nature of the world, which are acquired through one’s experiences in the social environment. The locus of control refers to the tendency of people to behave according to a generalized disposition (a personality trait) acquired from past experience. People who believe that they control their own rewards are said to have an internal locus of control and people that believe that rewards are controlled by factors outside themselves are said to have an external locus of control.

Self-efficacy refers to people’s beliefs about their own abilities to perform specific tasks. Self-efficacy refers to the person’s sense of his own ability, while the locus of control refers to the person’s belief that ability will produce its desired effects. If people expect that they can do something, they are more likely to be able to do it. People who are more malleable, meaning that the belief that they are not fixed entities are more likely to strive for self-improvement.

The personality traits of the big five can differ per situation. Two children can have the same score for aggression, but that trait might manifest itself in completely different situations for both children (e.g: one child shows aggression when warned by an adult while another child shows aggression when teased by a peer).

The eight DIAMONDS dimensions of situations measure the situations. It describes the situation.

1. Duty
   Does something need to be done?
2. Intellect
   Is deep information processing needed?
3. Adversity
   Is someone being threatened?
4. Mating
   Does the situation involve sexual or romantic content?
5. Positivity
   Is the situation positive?
6. Negativity
   Do negative things taint the situation?
7. Deceptions
   Is someone being deceptive?
8. Sociability
   Does the situation involve social interaction and possible relationship formation?

There are cultural differences of personality, especially across collectivistic and individualistic cultures.

The caring for people with psychological disorders used to be non-existent. Nowadays, there is more care. Since the 1970s, assertive community treatment has existed, aimed at helping a person with severe psychological problems and preventing hospitalization.

Electroconvulsive therapy is used primarily in cases of severe depression that does not respond to psychotherapy or antidepressant drugs. The treatment consists of people receiving anaesthesia and passing an electric current through a patient’s skull triggering a seizure in the brain that lasts approximately one minute. The shocks and the seizures promote the producing of neurotransmitters and the sensitivity of postsynaptic receptors. It also stimulates the growth of new neurons. The most frequent side effect of the treatment is memory loss, although this mostly clears up within a few months after the treatment.

Psychosurgery is a last-resort treatment, which involves surgically cutting or producing lesions in portions of the brain to relieve a psychological disorder. The consequence of prefrontal lobotomy was that people did not have access to their executive functions anymore and needed constant care. In deep brain stimulation, a thin wire electrode is planted permanently in the brain, usually in the cingulum or in a portion of the basal ganglia for patients with OCD, and this electrode can be activated in order to electrically stimulate, rather than destroy the neurons lying near it.

Psychotherapy aims to treat psychological disorders through talk, reflection, learning and practice. Psychotherapy is any theory-based, systematic procedure, conducted by a trained therapist, for helping people to overcome or cope with mental problems through psychological rather than physiological means. Each major approach in psychotherapy draws on a set of psychological principles and ideas that apply to adaptive as well as maladaptive behaviour:

1. The psychodynamic approach focusses on the idea that unconscious memories and emotions influence our conscious thoughts and actions
2. The humanistic approach focusses on the value of self-esteem and self-direction and that people need psychological support in order to freely pursue their own chosen goals.
3. The behavioural approach focusses on the roles of basic learning processes.
4. The cognitive approach focusses on the idea that people’s ingrained, habitual ways of thinking affect their moods and behaviour.

Psychoanalysis refers to the forms of therapy that are closely tied to Freud’s ideas. Psychodynamic therapy is used to include psychoanalysis and therapies that are more loosely based on Freud’s ideas. Psychodynamic therapy focusses on the fact that mental problems arise from unresolved mental conflicts, which themselves arise from the holding of contradictory motives and beliefs. Symptoms are surface manifestations of the disorder. The disorder itself is buried in the person’s unconscious mind and must be unearthed before it can be treated. The elements of thought that are the least logical give clues to the unconscious motive and psychodynamic therapists use three techniques to find these elements of thought:

1. Free association as clues to the unconscious
2. Dreams as clues to the unconscious
3. Mistakes and slips of the tongue as clues to the unconscious

Patients often resist the therapist’s attempt to bring their unconscious memories or wishes into consciousness. The resistance may manifest itself in for example refusing to talk about a topic, forgetting to come to the sessions. Resistance may give an insight into the unconscious thoughts. To avoid too much resistance, the therapist must present interpretations gradually. Transference also occurs in psychodynamic therapy. This happens when the patient’s unconscious feelings towards someone are projected onto the therapist.

Humanistic therapies are built upon two fundamental psychological ideas:

1. Humans have the capacity to make adaptive choices regarding their own behaviour
2. In order to feel good about themselves, to feel motivated and to move forward in life, people need to feel accepted and approved of by others.

The humanistic views emphasized the inner potential for positive growth, the actualization potential. The goal of humanistic therapy is to help people regain awareness of their own desires and control of their own lives. It is also called person-centred therapy. The relationship between the therapist and the patient is very important. The therapist lets the patient take the lead in therapy, strives to understand and emphasise with the client and endeavours to think positively and genuinely of the patient as a competent, valuable person. Therapists paraphrase what the patient said.

Unconditional positive regard implies a belief on the therapist’s part that the patient is worthy and capable even when the patient may not feel or act that way. By expressing positive feelings about the patient regardless of what the patient says or does, the therapist creates a safe, non-judgemental environment.

Behavioural and cognitive therapies state that the symptoms are the problem. Behaviour therapy is symptom orientated and concerned with immediate, measurable results. The two most common types of treatment in behaviour therapy are contingency management therapy and exposure therapy. Contingency management is a therapy that is focused on altering the contingency between actions and rewards (e.g: people afraid of dogs are rewarded by not seeing dogs by not being afraid, thus they stay afraid of dogs).

If there is an unconditioned fear response to something, then there is habituation, because of exposure therapy. If there is a conditioned fear response to something, then there is extinction, as a result of exposure therapy. There are three different means to present feared stimuli to clients in exposure treatment:

1. Imaginal exposure
2. In vivo exposure (real-life exposure)
3. Virtual reality exposure

Cognitive therapy deals with maladaptive habits of thought. Cognitive therapy starts with the assumption that people disturb themselves through their own, often illogical beliefs and thoughts. There are three general principles in cognitive therapy:

1. Identification and correction of maladaptive beliefs and thoughts
   This is done in several ways, for example, using humour or using Socratic dialogue.
2. Establishment of clear-cut goals and steps for achieving them
   Once the maladaptive belief has been identified, it has to be corrected by a more rational and adaptive way of thinking. This can take long
3. Moving from a teaching role to a consulting role with the patient
   After a while, the therapist becomes less of a teacher and more of a consultant.

In cognitive therapy, there is an ABC theory of emotions. A is the activating event, B is the belief that is triggered in the patient’s mind when the event occurs and C is the emotional consequence of the triggered belief. The therapy changes the belief.

Therapy helps. About 75% - 80% that receive psychotherapy improve upon their condition. There is no therapy superior to another type of therapy, but some types of therapy might work better for some disorders than for other disorders. All therapies include some common factors:

1. Support
   This includes acceptance, empathy and encouragement.
2. Hope
3. Motivation
   The active agent of change is the patient himself and this change requires motivation.