lOMoARcPSD|11944370
Complete Summary Lectures Introduction to Psychological
Theories
Introduction to Psychological Theories (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)
Scan to open on Studeersnel
Studocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
LECTURE 1: The Science of Psychology
What is Psychological Science?
Psychological science = the study, through research, of mind, brain and behaviour.
Aimed at understanding and predicting:
- Behaviour (actions): what we can observe
- Mind (mental activity): perceptual experiences, mental activity, memory, thoughts
and feelings  can’t observe
There are many levels at which you can study psychology:
 Groups vs. individuals
 Behavior vs. brain activity
 Nature vs. nurture
Short journey through history of psychology
Dualism = the separation of the soul/mind and the body (theory by Descartes)
A divine field of mystery: some early attempts to locate where soul and body integrate. The field of
psychology couldn’t develop earlier because of this taboo.
Structuralism: break down complex mental processes and reduce them to simples processes. Don’t
think of the function or purpose of a process.
Perception of an orange reduces to the colour and shape.
Methods used: - reaction times (STROOP task)
- introspection: describe mental experience, order of thoughts etc. a limited and
biased method. Not used anymore for psychological exploration.
Functionalism: concerned with the adaptive purpose/function of mind and behavior. Mind is more
complex than its elements.
Evolution: focus on the functions of behavior, the way our behavior helps us to survive and
reproduce (Darwin, On the origin of species (1859)
Psychoanalytical approach: mental processes operate below the level of conscious awareness. We
have unconscious drives (trauma, culture, childhood experience etc..). Some of them we can become
aware of but most of them are below the level of conscious awareness. (Freud) Memory doesn’t
operate as an archive of computer.
Behaviourism: only observable behavior can be subject of scientific investigation. Psychology’s focus
should be on how environments affects observable behaviour. (Pavlov, Watson, Skinner).
Gestalt: a few basic principles based on visual perception.
These explain how visual input is grouped into a coherent whole. ‘’The whole is bigger than
the sum of its parts’’. Its how we can see movement and depth in a drawing.
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
Humanistic Psychology: an approach focusing on basic goodness in people, achieving goals, and
finding fulfilment. Humans are in their aim good. (positive psychology), focus on possibility’s and
strengths. About humans’ values, creativity, quality of relationships, gratitude, faith.
Cognitivism: the cognitive revolution
> exploring mental processes
> influences by the progress in computer science
Cognitive neuroscience: we can infer how the mind works by looking at behavior.
> neuroimaging has even made the mind observable.
The scientific Method:
It’s a cycle, not a dead-end road.
Optimism bias: we tend to think we are better than others and overestimate our ability’s. (vast
majority of drivers rated themselves as better than the average driver)
Availability heuristic:
 If something is easier to bring to mind/image
 If we hear about something more often
 we judge as more probable.
Availability bias: when information is not available
The confirmation bias:
The deterministic fallacy:
The birthday paradox: on average it only takes 23 people to be in the same room for there to be a
50% chance that 2 of them share the same birthday.
- people have difficulty believing this. Difficulty with exponential growth.
- rare events given importance
- Self-identity
The importance of scientific method:
 Common sense if often ‘’not common’’, nor does it ‘’make sense’’
 Our intuitions and even perceptions are biased!!
The Scientific Method overcomes these problems:
Critical thinking an psychology
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
How to ‘’consume’’ psychological science?
With amiable scepticism: where is that information coming from?
What’s new in psychology?
 Biology (Evolution)
 Culture
 Interdisciplinary influences (crossing levels of analysis)
 (essential for solving wicked problems)
Evolution
- genetic diversity. Mutation = variation. Beneficial for sexual reproduction/selection of
survival.
- environmental pressures: evolution has no foresight.
Sexual selection: traits that aid the reproduction of the individual; e.g., bird songs and ‘dance’,
peacock’s tail, facial features in humans (etc.).
Psychology and Evolution
Psychology is about behaviour and the brain
Evolution can provide answers to the ‘’why’’ questions:
 Functionalism
- An elephants ears? A wolf’s haul?
- Disgust? Laughter? (helps the group to share certain experience that makes the group closer,
helps humans find a group, more chance to stick around and survive).
Remember: we don’t justify by functionalism explanations of behaviour. Evolution has no foresight!
Functionalism: trying to understand processes by its function (evolutional, physiological etc..)
 Structuralism: trying to understand processes by their steps/components.
LECTURE 2: Basic processes of Learning
Behaviourism theories about learning
Environment is never constant, individuals must adapt to these ever-changing conditions of the
specific environments they live in.
Almost everything people do is a respond to their environment.
Learning is an enduring change in behavior that results from experience.
Nonassociative learning
 Imagine a stimulus that triggers behaviour.
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370

Repeated exposure to this stimulus, can either:
 Decrease behavior : adaptation
 Increase behavior: sensitization
Associative learning
The world is full of regularities!
We learn connections between things:
- Things that happen close in time
- Behavior that has a predictable outcome (seeing the consequence)

Classical Conditioning: responding TO stimuli
= learning process that creates new reflexes from existing reflexes.
- A reflex is a simple, automatic stimulus-response sequence mediated by the nervous system.
- Reflexes: Stimulus (S)  Response (R)
There’s no conditioning yet: unconditioned stimulus and unconditioned response
Example: unconditioned stimulus (US): images of delicious food.
unconditioned Response (UR): hunger sensation, salivation.
Creating new reflexes:
 Pair a new (neutral) stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus triggering an unconditioned
response.
 The neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned
response becomes a conditioned response (CR).
For a stimulus to be conditioned it must have predictive value:
- Precede the Unconditioned Stimulus
- Signal increased probability  repeated pairings
- There must not already be a better predictor.
How long does it last?: It’s important to unlearn things. We can be conditioned to random things.
- Repeated exposure to the Conditioned Stimulus without the Unconditioned Stimulus may
make the Conditioned Response disappear.
- Spontaneous recovery can occur: there is this trace in our system.
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
How close to a ‘’perfect’’ CS does a stimulus need to be to trigger a CR?: depends on generalization
and discrimination.
-
Classic behaviourist view: human and animals start as a blank slate, a tabula rasa.
Any stimulus pair leads to conditioning equally easily.
The modern view: conditioning occurs most easily for stimulus pairs that are relevant for
survival. You easily associate a taste with sickness, a conditioned taste aversion. You less
easily associate a sound with sickness.
Phobias in context of learning: a phobia is an acquired fear that is out of proportion to the real threat
of an object/situation.
Example: Little Albert experiment
Addiction in context of learning: addiction and conditioned drug effects.
Relapsing: environmental cues trigger cravings.
Drug tolerance: why addicts that take drugs in a different setting often overdose?

Operant Conditioning:
= learning the consequences of one’s actions – if I do A, then B happens.
We respond (obtain) for stimuli, for example; money, food, sex, safety, etc…
We operate something in our environment.
An Operant Response (OR):
- Which leads to a consequence
- They operate on the world to produce some effect
- They function like instruments/means/tools.
Law of effect:
 Behaviours (in a particular situation) followed by a satisfying consequence are more likely to
be repeated in the future.
 Behaviours (in a particular situation) followed by a discomforting consequence are less likely
to be repeated in the future.
This is how trial & error learning happens:
- Reinforcement (reward): a consequence that increases the chance of a behaviour occurring
again in the future.
- Punishment: a consequence that decreases the chance of a behaviour occurring again in the
future.
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
Reinforcement
= the addition (+) or subtraction (-) of a stimulus to INCREASE the chance that the desired behaviour
is repeated again in the future.
 Positive reinforcement: the addition of a stimulus increases the probability that the
behaviour will occur in the future (example: giving compliments).
 Negative reinforcement: removing/avoiding the negative consequence increases the
likelihood of particular behaviour occurring again in the future. (example: stopping with
criticizing). This is NOT punishment.
Shaping: a technique that you reinforce closer and closer responses, until your subject makes the
right response. This is how complex animal training can happen.
Principles of Reinforcement Schedules:
Fixed ratio: every certain number of responses
gets reinforced.
Variable ratio: response is reinforced after an
unpredictable number of responses.
Fixed interval: behavior is being reinforced with
the same time interval in between.
Variable interval: reinforcements are distributed
at varying intervals of time.

Token economies: kids get stickers as a reinforcement. Eco Coin: you can gather benefits for
showing environmentally friendly behaviour. Is an effective way for people to learn new
behaviours.
Punishment
= the addition (+) or subtraction (-) of a stimulus to DECREASE the chance that the desired behaviour
is repeated again in the future.
 Positive punishment: the addition of a stimulus decreases the probability that the behaviour
will occur in the future (example: criticizing) .
 Negative punishment: the subtraction/removal of a stimulus decreases the probability that
the behaviour will occur in the future (example: stopping with paying compliments, stop
giving attention).
Punishment is less effective than reinforcement.
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
-
-
Punishment results in dislike and resentment (classical conditioning). Based on the principles of
classical conditioning you condition fear responds in the individual, instead of correcting
behaviour.
Punishment does not allow us to learn the correct behaviour
What the punishes means as a punishment may actually serve as a reinforcement, e.g. attention
for bad behaviour.
Punishment is more sensitive to timing issues than reinforcement; It must be:
- Timely: so the individual knows what it’s punished for, the association needs to be build.
- Certain: the punishment has to be clear, and the reason why has to be clear.
Observational learning
We copy others in many ways: contagious yawning, instructional dance videos, fashion, social norms,
political opinions, suicide, terrorism.
 Modelling
= imitation of observed behavior.
- Bobo doll studies: children watching aggressive behaviour are more likely to play
aggressively with the dolls. This is an example of modelling.
- Modelling is influenced by the trait of the model (attractive, high status, (somewhat) similar
to oneself).

Vicarious learning
= learning from observing the behaviour of others.
- We observe if the behaviour is reinforced / punished.
Summary:
 Learning via Classical conditioning by creating new reflexes.
 Operant conditioning entails learning about conditions and consequences.
o Reinforcement is typically more effective than punishment
 Learning can occur through observation and imitation.
LECTURE 3: Brain and behaviour
Nervous system and brain structures
Human nervous system
Nervous system = System of interconnected neurons.
Neurons:
 Cells that connect with each other in the nervous system
 Operate through electrical impulses
 Communicate with other neurons through chemical signals
 Form neural networks
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
3 phases of neural communication
1. Reception: chemical signals are received from neighbouring neurons.
2. Integration: incoming signals are assessed.
3. Transmission: signals are passed on to other receiving neurons.
Neurons: several functions
 Sensory neurons
o Detect info from the physical world
o Pass that info to the brain
 Motor neurons
o Direct muscles to contract or relax
o Thereby produce movement
 Interneurons
o Communicate within local or short-distance circuits.
Brain: specialized functions
Different parts of the brain are specialized in different functions (functional localization).
Phrenology (Gall and Spurzheim): NOT TRUE (outdated)
- Brain operates through functional localization.
- If a person used a particular mental function more than other mental functions
- Part of the brain where emphasized function was performed would grow.
- Produce a bump in the overlying skull
- Phrenology is outdated. It is not true but it means that the skull shape does not describe
one’s personality.
However, strong scientific evidence that brain regions perform specialized functions (example:
Broca’s area). The idea of functional localization is true.
Quiz
TMS: method that uses strong magnets to briefly interrupt normal brain activity as a way to study
brain regions.
MRI: uses powerful magnetic field to produce high-quality images of the brain.
EEG: Measures electrical activity in the brain.
PET (positron emission tomography): Assesses metabolic activity by using a radioactive substance
injected into the bloodstream
FMRI: Examines changes in the activity of the working human brain by measuring changes in the
blood’s oxygen levels.
Spinal cord
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
 coordination of reflexes
 Carries information
- Sensory form the body to the brain
- Motor signals aways from the brain to the body
Tissue types
 Gray matter
 Dominated by neurons’ cell bodies
 White matter
 Axons
 Myelin sheaths that surround them
Brain stem: extension of spinal cord
Survival functions
 Heart rate
 Breathing
 Swallowing
 Vomiting
 Urination
 Orgasm
Structures
 Medulla oblongata
 Reticular formation
 Pons
 Midbrain
Cerebellum: at the back of the brain stem
Motor functions
 Coordinated movement
 Balance
 Motor learning
 Motor memory
Trained by the rest of the nervous system
 Operates independently
 Unconsciously
Subcortical structures
Below cerebral cortex
Functions
 Many aspects of emotion
 Motivation
 Appetitive behaviours.
Some structures are part of the limbic system.
 Thalamus: receives all of the incoming sensory information (‘’gateway to the brain’’) before
info reaches cerebral cortex.
 Hypothalamus: regulation of bodily functions
 Body temperature
 Body rhythms
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370



 Blood pressure
 Blood glucose levels
 Also influences basic motivated behaviours
Hippocampus: formation of memories
Amygdala: learning to associate things with emotional responses. Processing emotional
information.
Basal ganglia: movement planning and movement production.
Cerebral cortex
Functions: complex mental activity
 All thoughts
 Perceptions
 Complex behaviours
Outer layer of brain tissue; most noticeable feature of the forebrain
Forebrain:
 2 cerebral hemispheres (left and right)
 Cerebral cortex + subcortical structures
Each hemisphere has 4 lobes:
 Occipital: processes visual information in the primary visual cortex.
 Parietal: process touch and spatial relations in the primary somatosensory cortex
 Temporal: processes hearing in the primary auditory cortex, also memory.
 Frontal: responsible for planning, complex thoughts in the prefrontal cortex and planning of
movement in the primary motor cortex.
Popular Myth: ‘’left brain’’ and ‘’rights brain’’ people: overwhelming evidence that people are NOT
either left brain or right brain dominant.
Real-life example of brain-behaviour link
Question: neuropsychological cause of extortion.
Dirk M. accused of extortion of 2 dutch celebreties (linda and john de mol).
He suffered from Frontal lobe dementia. This influences behaviour and emotions.
- reduces empathy
- Altered awareness of norms
- Obsessive-compulsive behaviour
Guilty or not?
Brain-body link: Communication between brain and body
2 ways of communication:
 Electrochemical: (peripheral) Nervous system communicates through electrochemical signals
(working of neurons).
 Hormonal: Endocrine system communicates like the nervous system but through hormones.
Hormones are chemical substances released from endocrine glands. Hormones travel
through the bloodstream to targeted tissues, which are subsequently influenced by
hormones.
Our brains are very precise and specific in their connection, but also extremely adaptable.
Plasticity = property that allows brain to change/adapt as a result of experience or injury.
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
Genetic & heritability
Form large to small: chromosome – DNA (string) – Gene
- Genome =master blueprint for entire organism
- Genotype = internal genetic code, together with environment genotype affects phenotype
- Phenotype = observable characteristics of an individual. Physical appearance, personality,
behaviour.
Methods to study genetic heritability:
How much is a personality trade or behaviour influenced by the environment and how much by the
genes?
 Adoption studies
- relation between adopted children – adopted parents/siblings  influence of environment
(no shared genes).
- relation between adopted children – biological parents / siblings  genetic influence
(shared genes).
Problem of selective placement: placing adoptive children with adoptive relatives who are similar to
the biological relatives can increase similarity between children and their adoptive relatives.
 Twins study (shared genes)
- Monozygotic / identical twins
o Same genes, same environment
o Differences due to non-shared environmental factors
- Dizygotic /fraternal twins
o 50% same genes (just like other siblings), same environment
o Differences must be due to half the genes.
Problem: equal environment assumption. Twin method is based on equal environments assumption.
Environments experiences by identical twins are no more (dis)similar to each other than the
environments experienced by fraternal twins.
There is also some evidence that twins raised apart may be more similar than twins raised
together. Social environment may stress differences /encourage twins to develop own personality.
Not merely nature or nurture
 Interaction between genotype and environments.
 Individuals with different genotypes experience different outcomes to identical
environments.
 Correlation genotype – environment: individuals with different genotypes are exposed to
different environments.
 Example: genetic predisposition for (anti)social personality traits.
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
children with different genetics, also
experience a different environment because their peers behaviour is also influenced by
their behaviour. They fluctuate together.
LECTURE 4: Thinking, language and intelligence
A Cognition:
 The mental activity that includes thinking
 The understandings that result from thinking
What is thought?
Thinking = the mental manipulation of representations of knowledge about the world.
Allows us to:
1. Take information
2. Consider it
3. Use this to
a. Build models of the world
b. Set goals
c. Plan out actions accordingly
2 types of mental representations
 Analogical representations:
 concrete representations.
 Have some of the physical characteristics of objects.
 Are analogous to the objects
 Symbolic representations
 Abstract representations
 Usually words, numbers, ideas
 Do not correspond to physical features of objects or ideas.
> … yet sometimes symbols can also be analogical representations.
Roman numbers are symbols, but also analogical representations. (1 is III, etc.)
Efficient thinking
Thinking should be efficient: there is a limit to the amount of knowledge we can hold in memory.
There is need for efficient thinking the brain takes shortcuts (illusionist trick our mind with this).
Solution:
Categorization: grouping things based on shared properties.
Example: a category, or class, of related items. Consists of mental representations of
those items. Concepts!
 How do people form concepts?
 Prototype model
- Concept represented by 1 best example of the category. Clear-cut.
 Exemplar model
- Concept represented by combining representations of all exemplars one has ever
encountered.
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
- Fuzzy, not clear-cut but experience-based representations of concept.
 Schemas
Cognitive structures that help us perceive, organize, and process information
- Organize useful info about environments
- Culture shapes what we view as ‘’normal’’ or appropriate.
schemas are efficient on the short term. Quick judgments and decisions with little effort.
 …but may have negative consequences later. Chemas that children learn are likely to affect their
behaviour when they are older (like girls and boys behaviour).
Descision making
= The attempt to select the best alternative among several option
 Anchoring: in making judgments, the tendency to rely on the first piece of info encountered or
info that comes most quickly to mind and adjust away from that

Heuristics: shortcuts (rules of thumb or informal guidelines).
 Used to reduce the amount of thinking needed to make decisions.
Anchoring is one of the heuristics we use in descision making.
 Often occurs unconsciously: allow us to free up some cognitive resources
 Can be adaptive: allow us to decide quickly, rather than weighing all evidence before
deciding.
 Can results in biases: may lead to error or faulty decisions. ‘’quick and dirty’’.
Problem solving
= Finding a way around an obstacle to reach a goal. Several ways to overcome obstacles.
 Restructuring: new way of thinking about a problem that aids its solution.
 Mental sets: problem-solving strategies that have worked in the past
 Functional fixedness: in problem solving, having fixed ideas about the typical functions of
objects. People who don’t suffer from functional fixedness can think of several functions other
than the typical functions of a product.
Scheerer’s 9-dot problem: try to connect all dots with at least four straight lines without lifting the
pencil.
solutions:
Think outside the box! Most people consider only solutions that fit within the square formed by
the dots. We make a lot of assumptions that are not there.
- tend to think that the problem includes that restriction
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
- keeping the lines within the box is not a requirements
- solving the problem requires restructuring the representation.
Why do people make bad decisions/choices?
 Brain damage
o Prefrontal cortex
 Choice overload / too many choices
o Less is more
o People don’t make the right choice if there is too many options available.
 not consistently replicated in all circumstances
4 key factors that facilitate choice overload
1. Choice set complexity
2. Decision task difficulty
3. Preference uncertainly
4. Decision goal (in mind)
 Emotions influence decisions
 Social influence
o People want to satisfy others
o People want to show they are not influenced by others
 Conflicting goals /motivation
o Bad choice looking regarding one aim may seem good choice when considering
another aim. (study or social activity?)
The 4 key factors that facilitate choice overload
Factor 1: Choice set complexity
 More options = choice overload…
… with higher levels of choice set complexity
 For example:
o Absence of one dominant option
o Multiple attractive options
o Non-align ability of attributes
 Attributes describing one option are absent for another option.
Factor 2: Decision task difficulty
 More options = choice overload….
…. With higher levels of decision task difficulty
 For example:
o Deciding under time pressure
o Having to justify your choice to others
o Choosing between options described by mulptiple characteristics (colour, size, price,
durability, environmental impact)
o Random (not organized) presentation of choice options
Factor 3: Preference uncertainly
 More options = choice overload….
…. With higher levels of preference uncertainty
 For example:
o No stron pre-existing preferences
 Unfamiliarity with the choice set
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
 Lacking expertise or in-depth background knowledge
 Don’t understand the benefits of choice options
 Can’t prioritize benefits when trading off pros and cons of choice options.
Factor 4: Decision goal
 More options = choice overload
…. with more prominent, effort-minimizing goal
 For example:
o Explicit goal of making a choice
 Select 1 option, e.g. actually buy
 Not goal of merely considering available alternatives
 Browsing without actual immediate consequences.
When these 4 are taken into account significant effect of assortment size on choice overload.
Emotions influence decisions.
Language
What is language?
 a system of communication using sounds and/or symbols (according to grammatical rules).
 Syntax: the system of rules that govern:
- How words are combined into phrases
- How phrases are combined to make sentences
 Semantics: the study of the system of meanings that underlie words, phrases and sentences.
Language development
 as the brain develops, so does the ability to speak and form sentences.
 language develops in an orderly way
o some variation in the rate at which language develops
o overall stages of language development are remarkably similar across individuals.
Important part of language: joint attention
Having joint attention for a joint object.
 early interactions with caregivers
o basis for children’s acquisition of language
o parent look at an object when saying a new name
 child assigns the name to the object
o parent looks at something else when saying the new name
 child does not assign the name to the object.
In order to learn new words, the baby needs to see what a caregiver looks at to learn new words.
Development: Language development
 new-borns
o hearing differences between sounds
o listening preferences
 influenced by mother’s language during pregnancy
 subsequent stages
o learning sounds of their own languages
o learning meanings of their own languages
Development: Speaking
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370



Babies
 Babbling
Toddlers (kleuter)
 Telegraphic speech: tendency for toddlers to speak Using rudimentary sentences.
 Missing words and grammatical marking
 They do follow a logical syntax
 Convey a wealth of meaning (to be understood)
Adults
 Employing full vocabulary of ~60,000 words (without working very hard at it).
Sign language development
 Deaf babies
o When exposed to signed language form birth
o Acquire signed language on identical timetable as hearing babies acquire spoken
languages (this means it isn’t more difficult).
Social and cultural influences
The environment influences which language people acquire and also which accent within a language.
Reading
The letters in these words are mixed up but most of us are able to read this quickly.
 we look at letters grouped into words
 We Automatically derive meaning from groupings
 Even if they are misspelled.
 Effortless for most adults
 Needs to be learned
Dyslexia: learners struggle to figure out:
- which symbols are letters
- which letters are clumped into words
- which words combine into sentences
People with dyslexia have trouble in reading, spelling and writing (but normal levels of intelligence!).
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
LECTURE 5: Emotion and motivation
Motivation:
We see people start, stop, or change the intensity of behaviour.
But we cannot see what is motivating them to achieve a certain goal.
 we can only make inferences
 We may not really know what motivates people, unless they tell us themselves.
5 main theories of motivation
1. Satisfaction of needs
2. Drive reduction
3. Incentives
4. Optimal level of arousal
5. Pleasure principle
 Emotions and motivation can be related to each other. It’s a mutual inference.
Emotion
Scientific definitions:
 Terms emotion, mood etc.
o Often used interchangeably in everyday language.
o Psychologists distinguish between them.
 Mood
o Diffuse, long-lasting emotional state
o Does not have an identifiable object or trigger
 Emotion
o Immediate, specific negative or positive response
o To environmental events or internal thoughts
Emotion: 3 components
1. Physiological process
 Heart rate, sweating
2. Behavioural response
 Eyes and mouth opening wide
3. Feeling based on:
 Cognitive appraisal fo the situation
 Interpretation of the bodily states
 The feeling ‘’ I’m scared’’.
Classifying emotions
Theory of primary- and secondary emotions
 Primary emotions:
o Innate
o evolutionarily adaptive
o universal (shared across cultures)
Examples: anger, fear, sadness, disgust, happiness, surprise, contempt
 Secondary emotions
o Blends of different primary emotions
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
Examples: guilt, shame, love, bitterness, jealousy
Circumplex model: another system for classifying emotions.
Emotions are plotted along two continuums.
 x-as: valence; how negative or positive emotions are.
 y-as: arousal: how arousing emotions are.
Feeling specific emotions
How do people come to experience a certain emotion?
3 main theories:
 James-Lange theory: emotions are the result of
perceiving our bodily responses to a stimulus.

Cannon-Bart theory: a stimulus triggers a bodily response and an emotion at the same time.
 but how do you distinguish between emotions that share bodily responses?
 Schachter-Singer two factor theory: after a stimulus triggers a bodily response, we apply a
label that interprets the response based on the stimulus, which results in emotion.
Lie-detection
 Emotions have a communicative function. Emotion expression can be based on:
o Genuine emotions
o Deception
 How to tell the difference?
o Fake vs. Duchenne smiles
o Duchenne (real) smile: muscles around the eyes contract creating
 Fake smile: activates the motor cortex.
 Duchenne smile: activates the brain areas involved with emotion.
Polygraph (lie detector)
 Electronic ‘’lie detection’’ instrument
o Assesses the body’s physiological response to questions
o Records numerous aspects of arousal
 E.g. breathing rate, heart rate, skin conductance
 Use of polygraphs is highly controversial
o Often not allowed as evidence in court cases
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
o But continues use by criminal investigators and federal agencies.
 How valid are polygraphs as lie detectors?
o Understand working and assumptions
 Goal of polygraphy
o Determine a person’s level of emotionality (indicated by autonomic arousal) .
o When confronted with certain info
 Core assumption
o Lying is stressful for most people
o Autonomic arousal higher when people are lying than when they are telling the
truth.
Note: No absolute measure of autonomic arousal can indicate presence/absence of a lie. Each
person’s level of autonomic arousal is different.
 Measure the differences between physiological reaction to control questions and critical
questions.
> Arousal may indicate nervousness from lying.
> but… this arousal could also be caused by the question itself. This can falsely indicate that a person
is lying.
Conclusion: Polygraph is very hard to interpret whether the person is lying or not.
Also: pretty easy to pass using countermeasures
> counting backward by sevens
> pressing your feet to the floor during critical questions.
Most serious issue: the investigator has to make a subjective judgment. Whether pattern of arousal
indicates deception.
Confirmation bias: Judgment is often influenced: investigator believes the person is guilty or not?
Problem around forensic assessments: particularly when individuals develop ‘’tunnel vision’’, ignore
other evidence.
Lie-detection: Differences in brain activity:
Numerous studies using EEG and fMRI
Activation of various brain regions: genuine deception, or simply reflects other cognitive processes??
Methodological and ethical problems (privacy).
Motivation
Can you distinguish? : need, drive, motivation.
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
Book: ‘’Drives motivate the satisfaction of need.’’
 Need:
 a state of biological or social deficiency
 Drive:
 a psychological state that, by creating arousal, motivates an organism to satisfy a
need.
 Motivation:
 a process that energizes, guides, and maintains behaviour toward a goal (need).
2 types of motivation
 Extrinsic: motivation to perform an activity because of the external goals toward which that
activity is directed.
o Example: working to receive a paycheck.
 Intrinsic: Motivation to perform an activity because of the value or the pleasure that is
associated with that activity.
o No external goal or purpose
o Examples: Reading a good novel, listening to music, voluntary work.
 Extrinsic rewards can undermine intrinsic motivation. When the external award is taken
away people are not motivated anymore.
Maslows Need Hierarchy
People are driven by many needs, arranged into a need hierarchy.
Basic survival needs must be met, before people can satisfy higher needs.
In some cases this might not be true. If you are new to a group, for example, you may set a basic
need like food aside to be a part of the group.
The order of priorities may depend on situations.
 Maslow’s hierarchy simply describes one way to think about motivation.
Sex and gender
What is the difference between sex and gender?
 Biological sex: physical traits like chromosomes.
 Gender identity
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
Do not necessarily align.
Hormones influence:
 Producing and terminating sexual behaviours
 Development of secondary sex characteristics
Sex differences:
 Males have more androgens (e.g. testosterone)
 Females more oestrogens and progesterone activity


Males need a certain amount of testosterone to be able to engage in sex, but…. do not perform
better if more testosterone.
In women, testosterone stimulates sexual thoughts and desires. Typical females have relatively
low levels of testosterone.
Oxytocin is released during sexual arousal and orgasm. (may play a role in love and attachment
between partners, but also in social behaviour in groups and family).
Cultural influences: Gender norms
- Behaviour of men and women is not just influenced by biological factors.
o Hormones
- Behaviour of men vs. women in movies and other media
o Shape beliefs and expectations
 What sexual behaviours are appropriate
 When they are appropriate
Sexual scripts: cognitive beliefs about how a sexual episode should be enacted.
Example: what is ‘’normal’’ in: flirting, dating, etc.
Scripts differ in many places in the world.
Example: countries where arranges marriages are common.
‘’Normal’’ sexual behaviours: most changes in sexual behaviours due to changes in cultural pressures
and expectations.
Sexual customs and norms vary across cultures:
 Cultures and their norms change over time
 But all known cultures have some form of sexual morality
o Ideas about which sexual behaviours are (not) morally and socially acceptable.
Erotic plasticity
= the extent to which sex drive can be shaped.
 by social, cultural and situational factors.
Instinctive sexual behaviours are constrained by social context.
 frontal lobes inhibit unintentional breaking of social rules (which are determined largely by
culture)
Sexual orientations
 Most people are attracted to opposite sec
o Through history and across cultures
 Many people are (also) attracted to the same sex
o 2-5% same sex
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
o 1-2% both sexes
 sexual orientation as a continuum.
Homosexual behaviour has been noted in various forms throughout recorded history.
Develop of sexual orientations
- How parents treat their children?
- Any other environmental factors?
Little or no evidence: overwhelming majority of studies on environmental role. Biological factors /
genes? Unclear.
 sensitive ethical concerns!!!
Therapy cannot change sexual orientation:
- sexual activity can be changed.
- Sexual orientation does not seem a choice.
Non-heterosexuals have always existed: whether or not they were free to be themselves.
LECTURE 6: Social Psychology
Social Psychology
= the psychology of how we view one another and are influenced by one another
- Impressions of self/others
- Social behaviour (cooperation)
- Groups
Impression formation
 Other people’s appearances and behaviours are observable.
 We infer their attitude and personality trait based on their behaviours
o Although, our cognitions are limited, and biased….
Forming impressions of other people: ‘’human being are naïve psychologists’’ – Heider
Consistent mistakes/biases
 Not using full mental resources
 Limited information about an event
 Unconscious motives for reaching particular conclusions.
o Optimism bias: we tend to be optimistic about ourselves.
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
Attribution
We give too much weight to personality and not enough to the environmental situation.
Fundamental attribution error: people attribute other people’s behaviour to a trait, whereas they
attribute their own behaviour to the context.
Actor/Observer discrepancy
Other people
- bad thing happens: characteristics of that person: bad attitude, careless, clumsy, not paying
attention.
- good thing happens: characteristics of the situation: right time right place, they got lucky
Ourselves
- good thing: characteristics of ourselves: careful, skilful, paying attention etc.
- Bad thing: characteristics of the situation: wrong place and wrong time, bad luck, it was
slippery etc.
Attractiveness bias (Halo effect)
Attractive people are seen as:
- Moral, Intelligent, Trustworthy, Competent, Sociable, etc..
- Attribution of attractive people’s misbehaviour to environmental circumstances rather than
their personality.
Internet as a social environment
Impressions on the Internet:
People who met initially on the internet liked each other more than
people who initially met face to face.
- less anxious
- more intimate
- freed from the biasing effects of physical appearance
Self
Self-concept – a social product
Looking glass self: we see ourselves through the eyes of other.
Self-fulfilling prophecy / Pygmalion effect: due to change in attention, encouragement & selfconcept others’ assumptions may become reality. People are significantly influenced by the
expectations of others.
Self-esteem: ‘meter’ to inform us how accepted/rejected we are. Self-esteem reflects the level of
acceptance or rejection we believe we can expect from others.
Driven by a fundamental need to belong. We need to attach to others to survive.
Social comparison
Self-concept varies depending on the reference group. People identify themselves largely in terms of
the ways in which they perceive themselves to be different from those around them.
This affects us socially and psychologically.
Actively constructing our self-perceptions
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
Enhancing our views of ourselves
- Self-serving attributional bias:
o A tendency to attribute our successes to our own inner qualities and out failures to
external circumstances
- Accepting praise at face value:
o compliments are not doubted because of, for example other motives.
- Remembering successes, forgetting failures
- Overinflated sense of self
o When one’s self-concept is far in excess of one’s accomplishments, the outcome may
be maladaptive.
Stereotypes
Beliefs, attitudes and attributions associated with members of particular groups.
Stereotypes can be:
 Explicit: the beliefs you consciously hold
o Images and associations with a particular group (declarative memory)
 An African American woman? An Italian man?
o Public or private level
o Self-report measures of explicit stereotypes
 Explicit stereotypes can change by deliberate learning and logic.
Also Perspective taking and perspective giving.
 Implicit: these associations are unconscious
o Mental associations with regard to members of specific groups.
o Implicit stereotypes may contradict our conscious beliefs!
 ‘short people’: linked with less competence than tall people.
o Implicit association tests:
Assessment – Priming
 Show words/images very shortly and then observe
behaviour
 Example: first who black vs. white faces and
then measure characteristics of other
people. Task: categorize the image.
o Can be beaten with repeated exposure over time. Being
aware they exist can help. Classical conditioning helps.
Exposure to admirable characters in movies, literature etc.
can increase positive associations with the ethnic groups and reduce automatic
negative attitudes.
- The Good: stereotypes can save efforts for us,  quick decision making in identification &
response.
- The bad: stereotypes can contain biased information. Discrimination, prejudice, stereotype
threat.
Stereotype threat
Imagine you are a young woman who is about to take a math exam. On the way one of your ‘friends’
makes a joke about women being bad at math. Does this affect your performance on the exam?
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
Negative stereotype interferes with our performances.
Linking to the working memory. If you’re busy with a
difficult task, but you’re stereotype is activated and you’re
doubting your performance, this takes away from the
working memory, resulting in worse performance.
Summary so far
 Our perceptions of ourselves and others are largely affected by others.
 Stereotypes help to organize and simplify vast and complex social stimuli, but lead to biased
perceptions and can result in discrimination.
 Even when we are not aware of implicit attitudes and stereotypes, they can affect out behaviour.
THE POWER OF GROUPS
Humans (and other animals) often act differently when in groups than on their own.
Mere presence is enough
Participants asked to change into an unfamiliar/familiar jacket and unfamiliar/familiar pair of shoes.
- Alone
- With people watching
- With someone changing a light bulb (not watching)
numbers: the seconds it took
to complete the task
Effects of being observed:
 Other people = our behaviour is observed (and evaluated)
 Social facilitation versus Social interference
o If a task is easy/familiar, and others are present
o If a task is hard/unfamiliar, and others are present.
Facilitation vs. Interference
(Perceived) evaluation  anxiety
We conform to a group
 Informational influence: other people are doing it therefore they have information I don’t,
and I should do it too.
o Example: people looking up and pointing. You automatically look too.
 Normative influence: other people are doing it, and I don’t want to look different.
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
o
o
Bystander effect: responsibility decreases by increasing the number of people
involved.
Anonymity
Obediance
Authority figure: problem for experimenters. We tend to obey authority.
Milgram’s experiments: how far would you go to obey an authority?
Authority told people to administer shocks, with increasing intensity.
Why conform? We do not want to take the risk of being excluded from a group.
We are social animals
 Cooperation helps survive.
- Breaking norms can lead to social exclusion
 Regulatory functions
- However, not so useful and even harmful when norms are out of date, inappropriate or
unfamiliar.
o Prejudice
o Culture clash.
Compliance:
 The low-ball technique:
o Increasing the price after commitment to buy.
 Foot-in-the-door technique:
o Making a small request to prepare the ground for a large one.
 Door-in-the-face:
o People are more likely to agree to a small request after rejecting a big one.
Group Polarization
People vary before a group discussion. After a group discussion people are divided in two groups.
Some people will have shifted to other streams: their opinions are polarized.
Intergroup prejudice
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
We have a tendency to categorize others as ‘’us versus them’’.
Social identification: the ingroup- outgroup bias
= more likely to help ingroup members. Less likely to help outgroup member.
- The Robber’s Cave experiment: boys divided in camps, being very hostile and competitive
with each other. When they had to cooperate to reach common a goal, a superordinate
identity grew.
Summary:
 Our perceptions (of ourselves, others, and our environment) and our behaviour are largely
affected by presence of others
 Attribution bias means we are harsher to others than to ourselves (in failure: Situation > Person)
 Stereotypes help to organize and simplify vast and complex social stimuli, but lead to biased
perceptions and can result in discrimination
 We may be biased without realizing it; implicit attitudes and stereotypes can affect our behavior
 We have a tendency to conform to groups; or at least to socially loaf
 We also tend to obey authority
 We easily categorize us versus them, favour us and despise them
 Proximity, familiarity, similarity and physical attractiveness influence attraction
LECTURE 7: Psychological disorders and treatment
Interpersonal attraction
Factors in attraction to others:
 Proximity: Interactions with people who are physically close are less ‘’costly’’ (time, money and
energy).
 Similarity: Byrne’s law: attraction to a stranger is a function of the proportion of similar
attitudes.
 Physical attractiveness: main predictor in intention to ask out again (for males and females).
o Sexually dimorphic features: masculine features, facial width etc…symmetry
Love


Passionate love: associated with dopamine reward systems.
Companionate love: based on trust, respect and intimacy.
Attachment theory: attachment style as an adult related ot childhood attachment to parents.
Clinical psychology
= an applied field to assess, understand an treat psychological conditions in clinical practice.
What is Abnormal?
- deviation from Statistical Norms? IQ scores
- Deviation form social norms? Homosexuality
- Maladaptive behaviour? Violence breaking the law
- Distress and impairment? Yes but: chronic. How distressing a syndrome must be to be
considered clinically significant.
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
A syndrome
= significant detriment.
 Distress or impairment of functioning.
 Derives from an internal source
 Not subject to voluntary control
Problems with diagnoses
 Confusion of serious disorders with normal problems
o For example: depression after a loss of significant other.
 The illusion of objectivity and universality
o Cultural differences and biases
 Labels and self-fulfilling prophecies
o Mad, crazy, nutcase
Overdiagnosis
Allen Frances, chaisman of DSM-IV. After this was published bipolar disorder in children increased 40
times. DSM V most likely will increase over-diagnoses.
Higher reliability with every new issue, the description gets better.
Psychological suffering is real! Regardless of the diagnosis issues, the very real suffering of individuals
is a fact and needs to be dealt with. Diagnosis should serve in the treatment.
Explanations of disorders
- Biological: brain is involved in all mental disorders
- Psychodynamic: unconscious (childhood) conflict.
- Humanistic: inner potential and others’ perception
- Cognitive: automatic negative thoughts
- Behavioural: maladaptive behaviours
- Evolutionary: costs of variation. Serve some kind of adaptive value.
- Psychopathology: the behaviour Is considered maladaptive.
RdoC = research domain criteria
Domains of functioning (e.g. anxiety, attention, social processes)
Considered across levels of analysis:
Guides research on underlying biological and psychosocial causes of disorders.
What makes one vulnerable to develop a psychological disorder:
Trauma can be experienced different.
Circumstances can trigger mental disorder.
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
Is behaviour is supposed to be functional and adaptive, why are mental disorders so prominent?
Anxiety disorders
= a feeling of apprehension, uncertainty, fear and increased arousal in reaction to a threat (real or
imagined)
Evolutionarily useful:
A signal for danger (snakes, spiders, heights,etc..)
Extremes of normal anxiety: it’s excessive & inappropriate.
Common: 15-20% lifetime prevalence.
Distinguish between:
 Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
 Phobias
 Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
 Panic Disorder
 Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
General worry, about various things, not specific object/situation.
 For extended periods (at least 6 months)
 May result in physical distress: high pulse, increased respiration, need to urinate frequently,
muscle tension, lack of sleek, digestion problems.
Hypervigilance: a trait to look into where GAD comes from.
Fixate at the cross on the screen. Words pop up. Report what they see: the positive words/pictures
or the negative.
People who are highly hypervigilance notice more threatening stimuli.
Phobias
= an exaggerated and unreasonable fear of a specific activity or object.
 Social phobia: fear of being evaluated/judged by others.
 Specific phobias: fear related to a non-social context.
Common specific phobias:
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
- Darkness
- Heights
- Pain
- Thunderstorms
- Enclosed spaces
- Water
- Fire
- animals
Some atypical phobias:
- Fear of fog
- Fear of cats
- Fear of bubbles
- Fear of buttons
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
 Obsessions: repetitive, persistent thoughts
‘’Did I close the door when I left home?’’
 thoughts we can’t let go of.
So intruding that it prevents one from functioning well.
 Compulsions = repetitive, ritualised behaviour
‘’ if I don’t dress and undress in specific pattern my husband will die in a car accident’’
 unreasonable thought, but if the patients doesn’t do this anxiety will rise.
People with OCD know the obsessive thoughts/compulsive behaviours are unreasonable. If it is not
done, fear and anxiety increase.
Commonly associated with death and disease, resulting in compulsive checking and cleaning.
> 1 hr per day and seriously interfere with work & social relationships.
Panic Disorder
= panic is a feeling of helpless terror.
Trigger: interpreting heightened physiological arousal as a start of a disaster.
 rapid breathing, dizziness, sweating, nausea and chest pain
Panic attacks: inappropriate/unpredictable panic
- at least two attacks followed by one month of excessive worry and life-constraining changes in
behaviour.
May be an acquired tendency to interpret physiological arousal as catastrophic.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
 Most anxiety disorder are linked to stressful experiences.
 PTSD is explicitly linked to such extremely stressful situations
- war, sexual assault, accidents, natural disasters
- Repeated exposure more likely to lead to PTSD.
Flashback- uncontrollably mentally replaying/re-experiencing the event.
Sleeplessness, high physiological arousal, guilt, irritability and depression.
Mood disorders


Depression (unipolar)
Bipolar disorder: depression combined with periods.
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
Depression
Prolonged disturbances in:
 Emotion:
o Excessive sadness
 Behaviour:
o Loss of interest
o Inactivity, lower movement
 Cognition
o Thoughts of hopelessness
o Don’t see it’s temporary
 Body function
o Extreme fatigue, loss of appetite
o Too much sleep, no sleep
Gender and age
Women experience more depression.
The middle age group (20-64) have higher depression rates.
Depression and cognition
Depressed individuals:
 believe their situation is uncontrollable.
 There’s less illusion of control & optimism bias.
 Tendency to ruminate
o May explain some of the sex difference.
o Women tend to ruminate more than men.
Evolutionary advantage of depression
 It may have been ‘helpful’ to be depressed.
o Low activity to save energy during winter; when resources are scarce.
= Seasonal Affective Disorder
 Promoting more realistic thinking, especially when situations are hard.
 Signal one’s need for help.
Bipolar disorder
= Periods of Depression with periods of Mania
Mania
= excessive euphoria. Excessive energy, high verbal activity, sexual arousal, risky behaviour
(recklessness).
Maladaptive: people can’t keep up with this energy so eventually there’s a crash (depression).
Treatment: try to keep it on a more constant level, less fluctuation.
Schizophrenia
= a class/group of disorders. Literally it does mean ‘’split mind’’
 However it is NOT the same as multiple personality disorder
Symptoms vary: all are associated with fundamental disturbances in cognition, emotion or behaviour.
 Positive symptoms: indicate the presence of abnormal behaviours & cognitions.
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
o Disorganised speech (and thought)
o Delusions of persecution (paranoid), control, and/or grandeur.
o Hallucinations: all senses can be involved.
 Negative symptoms: indicate the absence of normal behaviours & cognitions.
o Apathy with Flat effect: showing little or no emotion
o Poverty of speech
o Loss of pleasure
o Slow body movement.
Commonalities
 Deficits in information processing: lower working memory capacity & speed.
o Both when having episodes and when in remission.
 Neuroanatomical
o Dopamine
o Overactivity in basal ganglia & underactivity in prefrontal cortex
o Enlarged ventricles & reduction in grey matter.
Schizophrenia has the highest hospitalization rates.
Schizophrenic across countries: patients in developing countries experience better outcomes than
those in developed.
Why? Differences in support networks? Lack of labelling & perception of permanence. Drugs.
TREATMENT
Public awareness and fighting stigma is important! Normalize the presence of psychological
disorders. From trauma awareness to healing-centered classrooms.



Biological treatment
Psychodynamic & humanistic therapy
Cognitive & behavioural therapy
Biological treatment
Usually medication, drugs.
Work at the level of synapse, by increasing or decreasing neurotransmitter level.
Types:
- Antipsychotic: treat the positive symptoms of Schizophrenia via:
o Via blocking dopamine
o Via increasing serotonin
- Antidepressant
o Increasing serotonin
- Anti-anxiety
o Tranquilizers: aimed at anxiety disorders.
o Increase GABA and inhibits excitation of neurons.
Drugs – effectiveness
Widely used, however their effectiveness is controversial
- Publication bias
- Drop out rates
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
-
Side effects & addiction
Treating the symptom but not the cause
Placebo effect.
Alternative treatments: psychedelics (LSD, MDMA)
Electroconvulsive Therapy
 not as bad as in the movies
 patients are unconscious; muscle relaxant to avoid.
 remarkably effective to treat sever depression
Deep brain Stimulation
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Psychodynamic therapy
Partly based on the ideas of Freud
Aims to bring hidden impulses and memories to the surface and solving them
 free assocaionts
 dream analysis
 resistance: resisting/subverting therapy
 transference/countertransference
o expression of feelings toward the therapist that actually represent others.
Humanistic therapy
Emphasis on self-discovery
Client does the analysis
Client-centered therapy
Therapist validates clients thoughts, provides empathy and unconditional positive regard.
Cognitive therapy
Targeting out automatic negative thoughts (ANTs)
Habits and patterns of thought create our reality
Cognitive restructuring
Often more confrontational than other therapies
 therapist in a role of a teacher or consultant, coaching new ways of thinking
Risk: Be aware of blaming the victim: harden up! Don’t be a sissy! Its all in your head.
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|11944370
Behavioural therapy
Focusses on the maladaptive behaviour
Classical conditioning:
 aversion therapy
 exposure therapy: extremely successful with treating phobias.
o Exposure can be:
 imagined
 experienced (virtually, in vivo)
Operant conditioning:
 Contingency management
New developments:
 Mindfulness
 ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy)
 Positive psychology: focusses on things that we can do. Faith, spirituality.
 Community-base psychological first aid
Downloaded by Noortje Kamphuis (noorkamphuis@gmail.com)