BulletPointsummary of Psychology by Gray and Bjorklund – 8th edition

What is the background of the study of psychology? - BulletPoints 1

• The three fundamental ideas of psychology come down to: Behavior and mental experiences have physical causes that can be studied scientifically; the way people behave, feel and think is shaped over time by their experiences in their environment; the body produces behavior and mental experiences, and is a product of evolution through natural selection.
• According to Descartes, the difference between humans and animals was the mind. He defined thoughts as conscious considerations and judgments. He suggested that the soul influences the body in a specific place: a small organ (pineal body) located between the two hemispheres of the brain. Descartes argued that thread-like structures bring sensory information through physical pathways to the brain (we now know as nerves or neurons). The soul receives the information and processes this information. On the basis of thoughts, the soul will then let movements take place and carry out its will by triggering physical actions in nerves that in turn act on the muscles. This opened the door to psychology as a science.
• Materialism was developed by Thomas Hobbes and included that the soul is a meaningless concept that consists of nothing but matter and energy. Hobbes argued that conscious thoughts are a product of the brain and therefore subject to natural laws. This philosophy does not impose any limitations on what people want to study in psychology.
• Darwin’s idea is that living things evolve gradually over generations through the process of natural selection. The individuals that are best adapted to their environments, are more likely to survive and reproduce than those less well-adapted to their environments.  Random changes in genetics happen within each generation. These variations are passed on from generation to generation, especially when they increase chances of survival and reproduction. Because of this evolution, innate characteristics of species can be studied for the function they served in survival or reproduction. Empiricists philosophers study the relationships between these innate characteristics and the environment.

What different methods are there in the field of psychology? - BulletPoints 2

• An experiment is the most direct and conclusive approach to testing a hypothesis about a cause-effect relationship between two variables. A variable is anything that can change or take on multiple values. The independent variable is the variable that is supposed to affect another variable. The dependent variable is the variable that is believed to be affected by the independent variable. In a within-subject experiment, each participant (subject) is tested in every condition of the independent variable. The participant is tested repeatedly. In between-groups experiments, there is a separate group of participants for each condition of the independent variable. One group usually is exposed to the manipulation, and the other group is not. This can be done with a minimum of two groups, but can also be done with more groups. To prevent that the groups differ from each other, the groups are randomly assigned. Because of this, there is assumed to be no difference between the groups and thus the groups cannot bias the results.
• Another way of research are correlational studies. For ethical or practical reasons, experiments can often not be used in psychology to get answers to specific questions. A correlational study then offers a solution. Such a study can be defined as a study in which the researcher does not manipulate a variable, but observes or measures two or more already existing dependent variables to find relationships between those variables. Thus, a manipulation does not take place, just like random assignment. This type of research can identify relationships between two variables, which allows us to make predictions about one variable based on knowledge about another variable. However, such studies tell us nothing about which direction of the change in one variable causes a change in the other variable. There might be covariates that explain the difference between the groups, because random assignment is not possible. Also, it is often uncertain of what came before what. This means that it cannot be determined with a correlational study what variable causes the effect and what variable is affected. The most important point to remember with correlational research is: correlation does not mean causation.
• A third way of research are descriptive studies. The purpose of a descriptive study is to describe the behavior of an individual or group of individuals without judging the relationships between two different variables. Descriptive studies can use numbers, but this is not necessary.
• Bias is a technical term and refers to involuntary influences caused by factor(s) that do not belong to the research hypothesis. Bias is a very serious problem in research, because statistical techniques cannot identify it or correct it. Error reduces the likelihood that researchers will find statistically significant results, while bias can lead to the conclusion that the hypothesis is supported by the data, while actually another factor outside the research causes the observed results.

How do genetics and evolution form the foundation for behavior? - BulletPoints 3

• A class of proteins, called structural proteins, forms the structure of every cell in our body. Enzymes are a larger class of proteins and they determine the rate of every chemical reaction in every cell. Genes are extremely long molecules of a substance called DNA. These molecules exist in the egg cells and sperm cells that come together to form a new individual. Every nucleus of each body cell contains the whole set of DNA. Protein molecules contain amino acids. Every protein molecule contains from one hundred to a thousand amino acids in its chain. There are only 20 different amino acids, but because of the length of the protein molecules, there are countless sequences possible, each accounting for something else. For producing DNA, you need RNA. This is the template for producing protein molecules. Different genes have different tasks. There are two types of genes: coding genes (for coding unique protein molecules), and regulatory genes (for activating or suppressing genes).
• Evolution happens because of the natural selection. Some have more advantages in reproducing than others. The most well adapted will be most likely to reproduce. Because some of the reproducing is now in the hands of humans, it is not natural selection that plays the role of being able to pass genes to other generations, but the artificial selection.
• There are some universal species-typical behaviors. These are behaviors that are necessary for understanding each other and being able to fit in the group and find a mating partner. One example of this is that there are specific expressions of emotions which are universal. This smoothens the communication between people and makes it easier to communicate with other groups. When people are better able to fit into the group, it is easier for them to find a mating partner.
• Kin selection theory states that behavior that seems altruistic originated through natural selection because it helps family members who are genetically related. This behavior has been found in humans, but also nonhuman animals. The reciprocity theory can help explain altruistic acts to individuals who are not family. According to this theory, behavior that seems altruistic causes a long-term cooperation to be formed. This is driven by the ability to remember which individuals have reciprocated help before and the tendency not to help those who failed to reciprocate help before. Humans are the greatest reciprocal helpers. They are better of keeping track of help given and received. Emotions seem to be designed by natural selection to promote this reciprocity. People also help because of being able to develop a good reputation in a community.

How do neurons control behavior? - BulletPoints 4

• The central nervous system consists of the brain and backbone and integrates neural information. Extensions of the central nervous system are nerves and form the peripheral nervous system, which ensures that information will be exchanged with the brain and other parts of the body. A neuron is not the same as a nerve. A neuron is a single cell of the nervous system. A nerve is a bundle of many neurons. Nerves connect the central nervous system with sensory organs, muscles and glands.
• The nervous system is hierarchically organized in two distinct, but interacting, hierarchies: the sensory-perceptual hierarchy, which is involved in data processing, and the motor-control hierarchy, which is involved in controlling movement. Nerves are divided into two classes that correspond to the parts of the nervous system where they protrude: cranial nerves (which project directly from the brain) and spinal nerves (which project from the spinal cord). Sensory input from specialized sensory organs of the head enters the brain by cranial nerves. Sensory input from the rest of the body are transferred by the spinal nerves. These sensations are called somatosensation.
• Almost every part of the brain exists in duplicate. This is most obvious with the cerebral cortex that consists of a right and left hemisphere. The two parts are connected by a huge bundle of axons, called the corpus callosum. The two hemispheres are quite symmetrical in their primary sensory and motor functions. Each does the same job for the other half of the body, contralateral. The clearest difference between the two hemispheres is that in humans the left part is specialized in language and similar parts in the right hemisphere are specialized in non-verbal, visuospatial analysis of information.

What are the mechanisms of motivation and emotion? - BulletPoints 5

• In psychology, the term motivation is often used to refer to the entire constellation of factors, both inside and outside the organism, that cause certain behavior in an individual in a certain way at a certain time. This definition is very broad. A more precise label here is motivational state or drive. These two terms refer to an internal condition that allows an individual to focus on a specific goal and that can change over time in a reversible way. Drives are considered hypothetical constructs, because they cannot be observed directly.
• In psychology, the term reward has related, but in some ways distinct, meanings. A reward is something that we like, something that we want and something that serves as a reinforcer in a learning process. The part that is being stimulated when receiving an award is the medial forebrain bundle. The nucleus accumbens is associated with playing a role in guiding the behavioral effects related to rewards.
• An emotion is a subjective feeling that mentally focuses on a certain object. The object can be a person, an organism or a thing, an idea, or yourself. These emotions are pride, shame, guilt, shyness, jealousy, envy, empathy, and embarrassment. The feeling associated with emotions are called affects. A mood is a free-floating emotional feeling that is not focused on a specific object.

How are smell, taste, pain and hearing studied? - BulletPoints 6

• The physical stimulus is the matter or energy from the physical world that falls on the senses. The physical response is the chemical and electrical activity pattern that occurs in the senses, nerves, and brain as a result of the stimulus. The sensory experience is the subjective, psychological sensation or perception experienced by the individual whose senses are stimulated. Sensory receptors respond to physical stimuli. This is reaction is by producing electrical changes which initiate neural impulses in the sensory neurons. Sensory neurons are specialized neurons which transfer information from sensory receptors to the central nervous system. Neurons from a certain sense lead to pathways in the central nervous system that are unique to that sense. These paths send messages to many different areas of the brain including specific sensory areas of the cerebral cortex. Brain structures under the cortex may unknowingly respond to sensory stimuli through behavior, but conscious sensory experiences depend on activity within the cerebral cortex.
• There are roughly 400 types of sensory neurons in the olfactory nerves. The receptive ends of each type respond best to molecules that reach the olfactory epithelium in the nose. These different types of neurons are connected to corresponding parts of the olfactory bulbus. Their differential responsiveness allows us to distinguish one scent from another. The glomeruli in the olfactory bulb, send output to other parts in the brain, especially the limbic system and the hypothalamus. These areas are involved with basic drives and emotions. Smell can thus influence our motivation and emotion. The ways for smelling something other than food we eat and the food we eat are different. We smell everything other than food through the nostrils. For eating food, we use a nasal cavity referred to as the nasal pharynx. We experience flavor through the mouth, but it comes from the olfactory epithelium.
• Taste receptor cells are the receptors for taste. Most people have 2000, to 10.000 taste buds, and every bud contains 50 to 100 of them. They are distributed on the tongue, but also on the roof of the mouth and the opening of the throat. The more taste buds someone has, the more sensitive they are to tastes. When tasting something, the chemical must be dissolved in saliva and come in contact with the taste receptor cells for that specific chemical. Then it triggers an electrical change, which result in action potentials, in the taste receptor cells and in the sensory neurons when they are transferred by the synapses.
• Pain is a somatosense. Pain can originate from more than one place of the body. This is also the same for touch, temperature sensitivity, and proprioception. Pain is a combination of a perception, an emotion, and a drive together. It can overwhelm someone’s conscious mind and has a universal facial expression. Pain motivates the person to reduce the pain and avoid it in the future. Pain promotes survival.

How does the psychology of vision work? - BulletPoints 7

• In many types of multicellular animals, specialized light-detecting cells, called photoreceptors, evolved and were connected to the animal's nervous system. The photoreceptors are located in the retina, which is a membrane along the back of the eyeball. The eyeball is filled with a clear gelatinous substance, which lets the light through easily. The front of the eyeball is covered with the cornea, a transparent tissue that helps to focus the light through it. The iris is behind the cornea. The black center of the iris is a hole called the pupil. Only in that part of the iris does light enter. Behind the iris is the lens, which further helps to focus the light that started with the cornea.
• According to the three-primaries law, three different wavelengths of light are needed to be able to mix any color that the eye can see. The primaries can be of any three wavelengths, provided that one is from the long-wave portion of the spectrum (red), one is from the short-wave portion of the spectrum (blue or violet) and one from the middle (green or green-yellow). According to the law of complementarity, pairs of wavelengths can be found that produce the visual sensation of white when combined.
• Gestalt psychologists claimed that the nervous system has innate aptitude to respond to patterns in the stimulus world according to certain rules. These rules include the following: Proximity, similarity, closure, good continuation, common movement, good form.
• People can see in three dimensions because we have cues for depth perception. One of those binocular cues is binocular disparity. We have two eyes, but on different places, thus making it possible to see some depth perception. Not everyone has good sight with both eyes, but those people are still able to see depth. This is partly because of motion parallax. The ways our sight and depth perception work, can be used to understand how we perceive optical illusions.

What basic processes underly learning? - BulletPoints 8

• Classical conditioning is a way of learning that trains predicting events based on relationships between two events. At its most basic level, classical conditioning is a learning process that creates new reflexes. A reflex is a simple, relatively automatic, stimulus-response sequence that runs through the nervous system. Reflexes can be changed through experience because they run through the nervous system. Habituation is defined as a decrease in the strength of a reflexive response when the stimulus is repeatedly successfully offered. It happens when we get used to something. This is one of the simplest forms of learning.
• Operant conditioning can be defined as a learning process in which the effect of a reaction influences the number of times that reaction will take place in the future. It is sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning. An operant response is any behavioral response that has a reliable effect on the environment that influences the likelihood that the person will have that response again. Operant conditioning is the process by which humans and animals learn to make operant responses.
• Playing is behavior that does not serve a clear, immediate and useful purpose. Nobody learns someone to play, everyone just does it (animals and humans). Groos argued that the main purpose of play is to allow young animals to practice their instincts - their species-typical behavior. Young animals are born with biological tendencies to behave in a certain way, but to be effective, such behavior must be practiced and refined.

How do memory, attention, and consciousness work? - BulletPoints 9

• There are several information processing theories about cognition. A key assumption of these approaches is that an individual has limited mental resources for processing information. Another core assumption is that information moves through different storage systems. The information processing model devised by Atkinson and Shiffrin serves as a general framework for thinking and talking about the mind. This model portrays the mind as consisting of three types of memory storage locations: sensory memory, short-term memory (working memory) and long-term memory. Information is retained in this memory storage location and something takes it through the storages. Each storage location is characterized by its function, its capacity and its duration. The model also specifies a group of control processes such as: attention, practice, encoding, and retrieval. These processes ensure the processing of information within the storage locations and ensure the transfer of information from one storage location to another.
• Attention is partly conscious and unconscious. The unconsciousness comes from the part that is preselected by the brain of what is important in a specific situation and what not. There are a lot more stimuli than you actually experience, and even to less stimuli that you experience, you focus your attention on. This attention is the part which is conscious.
• Explicit memory is the type of memory that can be brought into one's consciousness. It is also called the declarative memory. Implicit memory, on the other hand, is the type of memory that cannot be expressed in words. It consists of all non-verbal and unconscious means with which previous experiences can influence the behavior of a person and his thoughts. It is also called the non-declarative memory. How good your implicit memory of something is, is revealed when you perform something, for example cycling.
• Retrieving specific items from each storage system depends on how the stored information is organized. Long-term memories are not stored in isolation, but in networks where each item is linked to many others through connections called associations. When a memory is triggered by a suitable stimulus or thought, other memories associated with the first memory are also temporarily triggered to be easier to retrieve. A stimulus or thought that triggers a certain memory is a retrieval cue for that memory.

How do we solve problems, when taking reasoning and intelligence into account? - BulletPoints 10

• An analogy is the similarity in behavior, function, or relationship between entities or situations that are in other ways different from each other. Analogies are used in scientific reasoning, but also in judicial and political reasoning or persuasion. Inductive reasoning is interfering new principles or propositions from observations or facts that are clues. Examples of inductive reasoning are the availability bias, the confirmation bias, and the predictable-world bias. We use analogies or inductions to make reasoning in daily life easier.
• The formal structure is most important when using logic to solve syllogisms. In that case, it should not matter if the statements in the problem are consistent or violate everyday experience, or are absurd. However, experiments have shown that also the content is important. The preference for using knowledge instead of formal logic when answering questions about deductive reasoning can be seen as a preference for inductive thinking rather than deductive. We have the tendency to reason by comparing new information with past experiences and information about those experiences. This tendency helps us in most occasions. Contradicting our knowledge from previous experiences uses the skill of solving problems, which is influenced by our experience in ability and willingness to suppress specific knowledge.
• Current intelligence tests find their predecessor in the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale developed by Binet and his assistant Simon. Binet believed that intelligence could best be understood as a collection of higher mental skills that are loosely related. He also believed that intelligence is fueled by interaction with the environment and that the appropriate goal of education is to increase intelligence. The main purpose of the Binet and Simon test was also to identify children who did not benefit as much from their education as they should and therefore needed more appropriate attention.
• Heredity is the extent to which variation in a certain trait, within a certain population of individuals, arises from genetic differences as opposed to environmental differences. Heredity is often indicated by the heredity coefficient, which runs from zero (none of the differences are attributed to heredity) to 1.0 (100% of the differences in a trait are attributed to heredity). It reflects that part of the difference of an observed trait that results from genetic variability. Heredity says nothing about how much of a trait is due to genetic factors, only what percentage of the difference in a trait within a specific population can on average be attributed to inheritance. Heredity is therefore relative, varying with the environmental conditions in which people live within the population.

How did thought and language develop? - BulletPoints 11

• The important organs develop during the embryonic phase. The embryo receives food from the mother via the umbilical cord through the placenta. The placenta develops in the womb during pregnancy. The fetal phase is from nine weeks until birth. The most obvious feature of this period is the growth and refinement of organs and body structure. Fetuses have "behavior" and are able to perceive some stimuli.
• Piaget's idea was that the mental development comes from the actions of the child itself with the environment. By acting on objects, children develop mental representations, schemes. Piaget used this term to refer to mental representations of a movement of the body or of something that a person can do with an object.
• The fundamental idea of ​​Vygotsky is that development begins on a social level and later also on an individual level. The term zone of proximal development refers to all activities that a child can do in collaboration with more competent others, but cannot yet do independently. According to Vygotsky, children's development is most efficiently promoted through their behavior within their zones or proximal development. A related concept is the concept of scaffolding. This happens when experts are sensitive to the skills of a novice and give responses that gradually increase the understanding of the novice of the problem.
• Developmental psychologists who maintain the information processing perspective try to explain children's mental development in terms of operational changes in basic components of their mental machines. This approach starts with the assumption that the mind is a system for analyzing information from the environment. The mental machines include mechanisms for attention, working memory and long-term memory.
• According to Chomsky, all grammatical rules are based on certain fundamental principles that are innate properties of the human mind. The term used to refer to this is universal grammar. Chomsky used the term language-acquisition device (LAD) to refer to the entire set of innate mental mechanisms that enable a child to learn a language quickly and efficiently. Support for this concept also comes from the evidence that young children invent their own grammar when there is not enough language around them.

What is the course of psychosocial development? - BulletPoints 12

• Caregivers are the basis of growth, because the attachment of the child to the caregivers matters for how they grow up. There are four different attachment styles: secure attachment, insecure-resistant attachment, insecure-avoidant attachment, and disorganized/disoriented attachment.
• Erikson divided the life period from 1 to 12 years into three consecutive phases, which focus on the development of autonomy (self-control), initiative (willingness to initiate action), and industry (the competence to complete tasks). According to Erikson, the way caregivers react to a child's actions influences the child's social development. According to Erikson's theory, a psychologically healthy person responds appropriately to the needs of others without sacrificing his own sense of self-control. Developmental psychologists call such actions prosocial behavior.
• There are four main parenting styles: authoritarian (high control, high warmth), authoritative (high control, low warmth), permissive (high warmth, low control), and neglectful (also uninvolved, low warmth, low control).
• In addition to parents, peers play an important role in the social development of children. Play is important for developing skills, and to learn about rules and developing self-control. Different ages playing with each other can have advantages. Younger children develop more advanced interests and skills by observing and interacting with older children and older children will learn nurturing and helping skills. Gender influences play. Parents react differently to different genders, it affects children’s behavior, which results in separated play between the genders and gender differences in play.

What is social psychology? - BulletPoints 13

• Heider observed that people tend to put too much weight on personality and not enough on environmental situation when they make attributions about the behavior of others. This is called the person bias. There was a lot of evidence for the existence of the person bias, that's why Lee Ross called it the fundamental attribution error. This is to indicate how pervasive and strong the bias is and to indicate that it is at the basis of many other social psychological phenomena. The label is still used even though there is growing evidence that the bias is not as fundamental as Ross thought. The fundamental attribution error seems to apply primarily in the West. An explanation can be that Western cultures place more emphasis on personal independence, while Eastern cultures place more emphasis on interdependence between people.
• According to Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory, people have a brain-built mechanism that creates unpleasant feelings of dissonance when we notice some inconsistency in different explicit attitudes, beliefs, and bits of knowledge in our mental store. The unpleasant feeling of cognitive dissonance motivates us to look for ways to resolve the contradictions or inconsistencies in our conscious cognitions. This can be solved in healthy and logical ways, but often also in unhealthy and illogical ways. There are the following ways to prevent or resolve cognitive dissonance: Avoiding dissonant information; Strengthening an attitude so that it remains consistent with an action, behavior, choice made; Changing an attitude to justify an action.
• In Milgram's research, participants are asked to ask questions to another participant to test his verbal memory. The other participant is actually an actor and is bound to a chair and electrodes are attached to his wrist. The real participant is instructed to press a button with each wrong answer from the other participant (actor), which will cause an electric shock for the actor. For each subsequent wrong answer, the participant must press a button with a higher electrical voltage. The actor acts that he can no longer tolerate the pain, does not want to participate anymore and refuses to give further answers. Ultimately, the actor no longer responds. The result was that 65% of the participants continued the experiment until the end and thus delivered a shock of a voltage of 450. Participants did not find it easy to do, many of them argued with the researcher, wanting to stop. The researcher responded first with "Continue", then with "the research requires you to continue", if the participant continues to protest, the researcher says "It is absolutely important that you go further" and "You have no other choice, you must continue.” The experiment is stopped if someone still refuses to continue at that point. The researcher says this firmly, but did not look physically aggressive. He didn't threaten.

What is personality psychology? - BulletPoints 14

• Personality consists of behavioral dispositions and traits. There are different theories around traits with the intention of describing personality. Traits can be defined as relatively stable predispositions to behave in a certain way. Traits are seen as part of the person and not of the environment. The appearance of the trait needs some kind of perceived trigger from the environment. People possess all traits more or less. So, it can be seen on a continuum. Traits describe differences between people and their tendencies to behave in a certain way, but they do not explain the differences.
• Small differences between siblings are quickly exaggerated because they want to define themselves as different from each other and they tend to emphasize those differences through their behavioral choices. Parents also tend to focus more on the differences than on the similarities. This emphasis on differences between brothers and/or sisters is called sibling contrast. Something that may be related to this is split-parenting identification. This is defined as the tendency of each of the two brothers and/or sisters to identify with another of their two parents. An explanation for sibling contrast and split-parent identification may be that it may reduce the rivalry between brothers and/or sisters, because rivalry can seriously disrupt the functioning of the family.
• Psychodynamic theories focus on the interaction between mental forces. This focuses on the unconscious motives and drives which steer their actions. Humanistic theories are more focused on the conscious understanding of people. Thus, focuses more on things like the self-actualization of someone.
• Social-cognitive theorists emphasize the role of general beliefs about the nature of the world that are gained through one's experiences with the social environment. These beliefs can be conscious and unconscious. The subconscious mind according to these theoreticians refers to automatic mental processes. Thus, personality is seen as being influenced by beliefs and experiences from the social environment.

What psychological dysfunctionalities do exist? - BulletPoints 15

• Mental disorder has no satisfactory definition. The following is the DSM's definition of a mental disorder: “A mental disorder is a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disruption of a person's cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological, or developmental processes that underlie mental functioning. Psychiatric disorders are usually associated with severe stress during social, professional or other important activities. An expected or culturally approved response to a common stress factor or loss is not a mental disorder. Socially deviant behavior and conflicts that are primarily between the individual and society are not psychological disorders unless the deviation or conflict is the result of a dysfunction in the individual as described above.”
• Most mental disorders are due to the joint effects of multiple causes. It is useful to distinguish three categories of causes: Predisposing causes, precipitating causes, and perpetuating causes.
• Anxiety disorders are those where anxiety is the most prominent disturbance. Genetic differences play an important role in the predisposition of anxiety disorders. There are different anxiety disorders. Generalized anxiety disorder, phobias, and panic disorder, are some well-known examples being discussed here.
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder is an obsession with an action. These actions can vary across people and does not have to be one specific action. An obsession is a disturbing thought that repeatedly invades the consciousness of a person, even though the person recognizes it as irrational. A compulsion is a repetitive action that is usually performed in response to an obsession.
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is necessarily caused by stressful experiences. By definition, the symptoms of PTSD should be linked to one or more emotionally traumatic incidents experienced by the affected person.
• Mood refers to a long-lasting emotional state that colors many aspects of a person's thoughts and behavior. There are different types of mood disorders. Some of them are depressive disorders, and bipolar disorders.
• Schizophrenia literally means "split mind" and this refers to the idea that mental processes, such as attention, perception, emotion, motivational thoughts, operate in relative isolation within a person with this disorder. This leads to bizarre and disorganized thoughts and behaviors.
• Personality disorders are defined as a continuous pattern of behavior, thoughts and emotions that deteriorates the person's sense of self, goals and capacity for empathy and intimacy and is associated with significant stress and dysfunction. They are clustered in the clusters A, B, and C.

What kind of treatment do exist for psychological disorders? - BulletPoints 16

• Antipsychotic drugs are used to treat schizophrenia and other disorders in which psychotic symptoms play a major role. Such drugs reduce hallucinations, delusions and bizarre behaviors in the active phase of schizophrenia. However, these drugs also have unpleasant and harmful side effects. Because of these side effects, many people with schizophrenia stop taking the medication as soon as the psychotic symptoms diminish. This can be a serious problem because stopping medication can cause a new psychotic episode. However, it is not known for how many of the people stopping the medication does not cause any problems. These people do not report it, because they no longer have a reason for it.
• Antidepressants are used in the treatment of depressive disorders and anxiety disorders. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) is a relatively new group of antidepressants, which block the reuptake of serotonin but not that of other monoamine transmitters. The blockage causes the action of the molecules of the transmitter on the postsynaptic neurons to be extended.
• Psychotherapy focuses on the unconscious part of the client. There is a separation of following Freud’s theories mainly, and focusing looser on the theories developed by Freud. Person-centered therapy is a form of humanistic therapy. It focuses more on the client having the lead in telling their story, being empathic, and providing unconditional positive regard. 
• Forms of behavioral therapy are contingency management, and exposure therapy. Cognitive therapy focuses on correcting maladaptive beliefs, and achieving goals. In behavioral therapy, clients are exposed to new environmental conditions designed to retrain clients so that maladaptive behavior automatically disappears and new, healthier habits and reflexes are taught. Cognitive therapy focuses on maladaptive thoughts. Cognitive therapists also use objective measures to determine whether the treatment helps the client. Cognitive therapy starts with the assumption that people disturb themselves through their own beliefs and thoughts. Maladaptive thoughts and beliefs make reality look worse than it is, which can lead to fears or depression. Identifying non-helping ways of thinking and replacing them with helping ways that ensure effective interaction with the real world is the goal of cognitive therapy.