Exam 1 Review Session
May Stern, Victoria Yin, Hannah Parent
General info
● 50% multiple choice directly from textbook
○ At LEAST skim it
○ Don’t worry about not getting 100%
● 50% open ended questions about a case study/short answer
○ Use lecture material
● Practice multiple choice on Canvas
Important topics
●Cultural Complex Stressors
○Microaggressions
○Fisher/Good Model of Feminism
●Vaillant's Defense Mechanisms
●Bowlby’s Attachment Theor
●Erikson’s 8 Psychosocial Stages
○Glick/Fiske Model of Sexism
●Stress
●Personality Disorders
●Lazarus and Folkman’s Coping Strategies
Case Study: Mrs. S
Mrs S is a 26 year old black female, who has been arrested for speeding in a predominantly white neighbourhood. The
police have concerns over her familial state and refer her to you for a report. She admits that she was speeding but explains
that she is terrified of being victimized by her husband (Mr S). She explains that her sister recently lost her job and moved in
with her and her husband. Mrs S comments how her husband is incredibly insecure and constantly fears being abandoned. Mr
S interpreted Mrs S’s sister moving in as Mrs S choosing her sister over him and physically assaulted Mrs S. Mrs S shows you
the bruise marks on her thigh as proof and says that this isn’t the first time her husband has lashed out in rage over
abandonment. Mr S had apparently shouted to “get that black woman out of our house!” She added that she never lashed out
against him in anger.
While she tried to garner the attention of her parents, she was never able to fully win her mother’s affection. Her father
was an alcoholic, and her mother was chronically depressed, but they both made her feel guilty for their misfortunes. Her
parents had a divorce when she was seven, but Mrs S recalled that she fantasized that her family was happy. This masked her
dissatisfaction with them. Mrs S described how she couldn’t stay in school and started living with her boyfriend when she
turned sixteen. Their relationship was also abusive, but she said that she needed someone who cared about her, just as she
wished her parents did. She described incredible panic and desolation at the thought of being abandoned.
Mrs S said that she still felt this way with respect to her husband, but now with her sister there and the support of the
police and the psychologist (you), she was hoping to divorce her husband. Then she would be able to live with her sister—as
long as she had her sister, she would be able to function. When she returned with you to the police precinct, she triumphantly
announced to you and the assigned officer that she was finally able to open up about her past and that she was confident you
would be able to help her.
Case of Mrs. S
Attachment style:
Cultural Factors:
Interpersonal Relationships:
Coping mechanisms/Defense mechanisms:
Diagnosis:
Attachment Style.
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Insecure ambivalent
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Has the desire for closeness with the other
Also has resistance against the other (wants to divorce husband)
Lack of synchronization
Research
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Higher odds of psychopathology (.81 effect size for depression)
Hypervigilant to threat; quicker to detect facial changes
See parental interactions as less favorable
Cultural Factors
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Shapes our attitudes, emotions & the way we express ourselves + society’s
response
Sexism
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Developmental Level: Stage (passive acceptance; re-evaluation, connectedness; joining w/
sisters)
Hostile sexism (using anger as a way to control)
Woman being less dominant makes her appear more likeable
Racism
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Microassault: Direct verbal assault - “Get that black woman out of our home”
Perceived racial discriminations affect stress, anxiety, HPA activity, executive functions
Interpersonal Relationships.
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Submissive to others
Lack of independence
Need for a partner, despite abuse
Parents
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Parental conflict (negatively affects child’s emotion regulation)
Depressed mother (Bridgett et al 2015)
Alcoholic father
Mother’s executive functioning (+) corr. w/ child’s (Bridgett et al 2015)
Coping Strategies and Defense Mechanisms
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Repression (of her anger)
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Schizoid fantasy (fantasized that her family was happy)
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Neurotic Defense Mechanism
Immature Defense Mechanism
Social support (problem-focused coping strategy)
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Many people will turn to problem-focused coping strategies first ex. Seeking social support,
confronting the situation, and may switch emotion-focused coping strategies.
Gross - ideally should focus on appraising the meaning of the situation & cope accordingly
Schafer - such adaptive strategies are negatively correlated with anxiety and depression
Diagnosis
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Dependent Personality Disorder → pervasive pattern of excessive need to be taken care
of, dependence on submission to others
○ “Needed someone to care about her”
○ Fear of abandonment & preoccupied with this notion
○ Goes to an extreme for nurturance ex. Remaining with abusive husband
Case Study 2: Mr. A
Mr. A comes into your office because, according to him, his wife is out of her mind because she wanted to get a job,
after he says he does more than enough to support her. After a fight, he became aggressive, which lead to Mrs. A forcing him
to see a “quack.” After some prodding, he explains that growing up his father was always out of the house at work, making
money to support him and his ungrateful mother. While his father was out of the house, his mother would bring home
“visitors” and when the two of them were home alone, she would start drinking. She often neglected him, and left him to play
on his own. He learned to be very independent, and began to view his mother as more of a burden.
He goes off on a tangent, describing all of the accolades that he has acquired throughout his life. He claims to be top of
his class at Harvard Medicine and is now one of the top surgeons at the hospital. He also explains how his wife believes he’s
been going through a hard time, which he says isn’t true. His father, who he barely knew, died and he didn’t get the promotion
at work. First, he wasn’t close to his father and never wanted to be anyways. And he says, he didn’t get the job only because
they are jealous and want to hold him back in his career. He describes to you a situation which he still can’t fully understand
himself. During the funeral he decided he would entertain the guests by giving the best speech they had heard. But halfway
through he started crying for no reason! That, he says, is the only reason he even considered coming to you.
His wife called you after the session and told you how he would often spend hours away from home, talk down to her,
and not open up to her emotionally. He constantly thinks he’s not recognized for his great work and intelligence, and once in a
fit of anger punched the wall. She confesses that after a lot of thought, she finds his behavior problematic and is thinking of
leaving him if he doesn’t make efforts to change and moving in with her sister.
Case of Mr. A
Attachment style:
Cultural Factors:
Interpersonal Relationships:
Coping mechanisms/Defense mechanisms:
Diagnosis:
Attachment Style
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Insecure avoidant: Dismissive
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Thinks of others as unnecessary, “I don’t need anybody” attitude
Rejection by mother
Avoids attachment in other relationships (wife and father)
Cultural Factors.
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Glick/Fiske Model of Sexism
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Benevolent Sexism
■ Protective paternalism
■ Complementary gender roles
Hostile sexism (using anger/violence as a way to control)
■ Overt or covert
Fisher and Good Model of Feminism
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Connectedness: calling out sexism, connecting w other women
Moving in with sister
Interpersonal Relationships
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Only needs people to validate himself
Independent
Parents
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Parental conflict (negatively affects child’s emotion regulation)
Mother distracted or avoided infants plea for attention
Alcoholic mother who had affairs in front of child
Father was not around
Coping Strategies/Defense Mechanisms
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Repression (of his sadness at father’s funeral)
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Acting Out (punching a wall)
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Neurotic Defense Mechanism
Immature Defense Mechanism
Denial (he didn’t want to know his father anyways)
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Psychotic Defense Mechanism
Diagnosis
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Narcissistic PD → pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, lack of empathy
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“top of his class at Harvard Medicine and is now one of the top surgeons at the hospital”
“He constantly thinks he’s not recognized for his great work and intelligence”
Exaggerated sense of own importance
Feels unique/entitles and exploits others
Men: higher exploitative/entitlement; Women: Higher in grandiosity/exhibitionism (Gripalvas
2015)
Fun Research
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Infancy and attachment --Beatrice Beebee (Columbia University)
○ Early infancy is a critical developmental period
○ Face to face communication =nonverbal language
○ Mother and baby respond to each other in a positive manner or lack coordination
Belsky et al, 2015
○ A woman’s maternal stress score predicts her depression
○ Her depression in turn predicts her child’s level of cortisol (high cortisol, high stress)
Acute stress and effect on episodic memory (Shields et al. 2017)
○ When stress occurred prior to or during encoding it impaired memory
○ If the delay between the stressor and encoding was very short the stress improved encoding
○ post-encoding stress improved memory unless the stressor occurred in a different physical context