Awc Psychology Exam 4

Free Association: Saying whatever comes to mind without worrying whether ideas are painful, embarrassing, or illogical.

Example: A therapist letting the patient talk without censorship.

Dream Analysis: Helps the patients work past the obvious, visible meaning of a dream to uncover hidden symbolic meaning and analyze dream symbols.

Example: A man who dreams of pulling out a gun in front of his wife, firing the gun multiple times and fails to actually shoot the gun. His wife laughs at him which could be interpreted as sexual impotence with the gun representing his penis.

Analysis Resistance: Resistance or blockages in the flow of ideas which reveal a particularly important unconscious conflict.

Example: Asking a patient about something specific and they avoid the question by talking about some other topic not related to what was asked.

Analysis of Transference: Tendency to transfer feeling to the therapist similar to those the patient had for important persons in their past.

Example: A woman who's lost her husband in a car accident and is upset she didn't get to say goodbye so her therapist pretends to be the husband so she can "say goodbye" to the husband.

Pharmacotherapy: The use of drugs to treat psychopathology.

Example: The use of anti-depressants, like Prozac, to help combat severe depression.

Electrical Stimulation Therapy: Electrical stimulation therapies achieve their effects by altering the electrical activity of the brain.

Example: A person with severe depression having their behavior suppressed with the aid of electroshock.

Psychosurgery: Any surgical alteration of the brain.

Example: A lobotomy.

Positive Reinforcement: Responses that are followed by reinforcement tend to occur more frequently.

Example: If a child whines and they get attention for doing so they will whine more.

Non-Reinforcement & Extinction: A response that is not followed by reinforcement will occur less frequently. If this is repeated after the response is has been repeated many times, it will extinguish entirely.

Example: After you win 3 times on a slot machine, you play it 30 more times and don't win so you finally stop playing it.

Punishment: If a response is followed by discomfort or an undesirable effect, the response will be suppressed.

Example: Spanking a child after it throws a temper tantrum and it not throwing them anymore.

Shaping: Reinforcing actions that are closer and closer approximations to the desired response.

Example: Teaching a mentally disables kid to say "ball" and reinforcing the child for saying anything that starts with the letter "b."

Stimulus Control: Responses tend to come under the control of the situation in which they occur.

Example: If you set your clock 10 min fast, it may be easier to leave the house on time in the morning. Your departure us under the stimulus of the clock, even though you know its fast.

Time Out: Removing the individual from a situation in which reinforcement occurs.

Example: Two children who are fighting are sent to separate rooms and are only able to come out once they're calm.

Foot-in-the-Door: A person who first agrees to a small request is later more likely to be consistent to comply with a larger demand.

Example: A neighbor asks you to babysit her two kids for a few hours. Once you agree to the smaller request, she then asks if you can just babysit the kids for the rest of the day and you feel obligated to do so.

Door-in-the-Face: Tendency for a person has refused a major request to agree to a smaller request.

Example: A neighbor goes on vacation and asks you to take care of their plants and lawn and you say you can't. He then comes back and asks if you can get the mail for him and you would be more likely to agree because its a smaller favor.

Low Ball Technique: Getting a person committed to an act and then making the terms of the act less desirable.

Example: Someone asks for a ride to school in the morning and only after you agree to give them the ride, they mention they have to be there at 5:30 AM.

Intimacy: Refers to the feelings of connected-ness and affection.

Example: At the beginning of the relationship when you want to do everything and go everywhere with that person.

Passion: Refers to a deep emotional and/or sexual feelings.

Example: Having intense sex.

Commitment: Involves the determination to stay in a long term relationship with another person.

Example: Mutual feelings between both members of the relationship to stay with each other for as long as they can.