Chapter 16. Gender Roles

Gender refers to the sex of a person. Every person is different from other. For example, in food. Some people like sour things and other sweet, or you may like a certain kind of food but others do not. But difference are not always the most obvious ones, there are some more difficult to find like cognitive, or intellectual, abilities and differences in personality and behavior. Differences do not exist between the genders. Most biologists believe that genes for traits that help individuals survive and reproduce tend to be passed on to future generations. Gender variations may change during time and culture. Some psychologists believe that gender typing occurs because men and women differ in the organization and functioning of their brains. Sigmund Freud psychoanalytic theory argues that gender typing can be explained in terms of gender identification. According to him, boys come to identify with their fathers and girls with their mothers. It is through the process of identification with the same-sex parent that a child comes to develop the behaviors that are associated with his or her own sex.

Chapter 15. Psychological Tests.

This presentation was very clear to me, even though I knew most of the information given. Psychological tests assess abilities, feelings, attitudes and behaviors. This help can be helpful for people to make decisions. Achievement tests, aptitude tests and tests of interests are all related. Psychologists use personality tests to describe and measure various aspects of people´s personalities. Most of the tests we take, we know we are having them with anticipation. One big example of this is the SAT, schools usually program them with specific dates. So they give us a amount of time to study well and get prepared. There are many types of test parts such as, true and false, short-answer questions, essay questions and multiple choice questions. For multiple choice questions we first leave out what we are sure they are not right and then try with the possible answers. When taking tests we should gather information, practice and be test-wise. Most of the tests we take at school are achievement tests. These are tests that that measure people´s abilities, or aptitudes. But other tests help people identify their interests. Personality tests are usually used to identify psychological problems and disorders.  There are two types of personality tests: objective tests and projective tests. 

Chapter 10.Social Cognition

Attitudes are beliefs and feelings about objects, people, and events that can affect how people behave in certain situations. A person´s attitude about strangers, for example, can influence how that person feels and behaves around people he or she does not know. Cognitive evaluation is when people evaluate evidence and form beliefs on the basis of their evaluations. Part of this process is learning and evaluating data. Cognitive anchors or persistent beliefs that shape the ways in which he or she sees the world and interprets events. This anchors tend to keep people from changing.

Persuasion is a direct attempt to influence other people´s attitudes or views. Parents, for example, may try to persuade their children to adopt the same values that they hold. Central route uses evidence and logical arguments to persuade people. Peripheral route attempts to associate objects, people, or events with positive or negative cues. Two sided arguments is where people present not only their side of the argument but also the opposition´s side. Emotional appeals persuade by arousing such feelings as royalty, desire, or fear rather than by convincing through evidence and logic. Most messages are aimed at a specific audience. People with sales resistance have no trouble turning down requests to buy products or services.

Prejudice is a generalized attitude toward a specific group of people. People who are prejudice judge other people on the basis of their group membership rather than as individuals. Stereotypes are unchanging, oversimplified, and usually distorted beliefs about groups of people. Discrimination refers to the unfair treatment of individuals because they are members of a particular group. For example, people may denied jobs, housing, voting privileges, or other rights because of their skin color, sex, or religion. Some causes of prejudice are: exaggerating differences, justifying economic status, social learning, victimization and scapegoating.  Primacy effect is the tendency for people to form opinions of others on the basis of the first impressions. Recency effect occurs when people change their opinions of others on the basis of recent interactions instead of holding on their first impressions. Attribution therapy; according to this people tend to explain behavior in terms of either dispositional, or personality, factors or in terms of situational, or external, factors.

 Actor observer bias occurs because we tend to judge others only by the behavior we witness, and people´s behavior may not always be a true reflection of their personalities. Fundamental attribution error is the tendency to overestimate the effect of dispositional causes for another person’s behavior, and to underestimate the effect of situational causes. Self-serving bias allows individuals to place the blame for their failures on circumstances outside to place the blame for their failure on circumstances outside their control. Attraction is a kind of attitude. Attraction to another person often leads to friendship or love. Physical appearance tend to influence in the choosing of our friends and partners. Matching hypothesis is where people tend to choose as friends and partners those who are similar to themselves in attractiveness.

Love and friendship have important roles in social cognitive. Both of these words are used in our daily lives. We tend to attach to people, who we trust, respect and have affection for.  For every love relationship there should be passion, commitment, and intimacy. 

Chapter 19. Methods of Therapy

Psychotherapy involves verbal interactions between a trained professional and a person usually called the client or patient who is seeking for help for a physical problem. Biologically based therapies involve the use of drugs or other medical procedures to treat psychological disorders. Counselling psychologists generally treat people with less serious psychological problems. This psychologists usually work at schools. Clinical psychologists help people with psychological problems adjust to the demands of life. Many clinical psychologist work in hospitals or clinics. Psychiatrists are medical doctors and many have private practices.

Psychologists have several techniques to help their patients. The first one is free association where the analyst asks the client to relax and then to say whatever comes to mind. Resistance is the term psychoanalysts use to refer to a client´s hesitancy or unwillingness to discuss issues raised during free association. The second technique is dream analysis is when the analyst interprets the content of client´s dreams to unlock these unconscious thoughts and feelings. Transference is when the client is transferring feelings and expectations from one person to another.

Humanistic therapy is to help individuals reach their full potential.  Person-centered therapy was developed in the early 1950s by Carl Rogers. Nondirective therapy is talking openly of about what ever may be troubling them. Active listening is a widely used communication technique in which the listener repeats, rephrases, and asks for clarification of the statements made by the speaker. Cognitive therapy and behavior therapy are considered together because both methods share the same goal; to help client develop new ways of thinking and behaving.

 Cognitive therapy is to help people learn to think about their problems in more productive ways. Cognitive psychologists focus on their beliefs, attitudes and thought processes that create and compound their clients´ problems. Rational-emotive behavior therapy is based on Ellis´s belief that people are basically logical in their thinking and actions. Behavior therapy or behavior modification helps people develop more adaptive behavior. Behaviorists believe that both desirable and undesirable behaviors are largely learned and that people with psychological problems have learned unhealthy ways of behaving.  Aversive conditioning, is the opposite systematic desensitization. Operant conditioning is based on the assumption that behavior that is reinforced tends to repeat, whereas behavior that is not reinforced tends to extinguish. Drug therapy is the most widely used biological treatment for psychological problems. Antianxiety drugs are used as an outpatient treatment to help people with anxiety disorders or panic attacks. Antidepressant drugs are used in the treatment of eating disorders and panic disorder. Antipsychotic drugs are effective for reducing agitation, delusions and hallucinations.  

Psychosurgery is a brain surgery that is performed to treat psychological disorders. Psychological and physical problems have multiple ways to be solved. They are very common in human beings, no matter if they are big or small. People who care about this problems are interested in helping people cope with this issues. 

Chapter 17. Stress and Health

Stress is the arousal of one´s mind and body in response to demands made upon them. There are different sources of stress including frustration, daily hassles, life changes, and conflict. Not all stresses are bad. Positive stress is called eustress and negative stress is called distress that is intense pressure of anxiety that can have severe psychological and physical effects.

Stress has different sources, the first one is frustration. This is one of the most common sources of stress that means that we are being blocked from obtaining a goal. Examples of this is being delayed from keeping an appointment, lacking enough money to buy an object we really need or want, or forgetting something important. Daily hassles is another source of stress and this are the everyday frustrations we all experience. Life changes: such moving, serious illness or a death in the family. Conflict is another source of stress, this is being pulled in two or more directions by opposing forces or motives. An example of a conflict is when we are applying to a college. Let´s say that we have been accepted in three colleges, and we have the pressure on deciding to which are we going to go. There are three types of conflict approach-approach conflict that is the least stressful type of conflict because the choices are positive. Avoidance-avoidance conflict is a single goal that can produce both avoidance and approach motives. And multiple approach-avoidance conflict is that each alternative courses of action has its advantages and disadvantages.

General adaptation syndrome has three stages, and alarm reaction, a resistance stage and an exhaustion stage. The alarm reaction is initiated when a stressor is perceived. This reaction mobilizes the body for defensive action. The resistance stage happens if the alarm reaction mobilizes the body and the stressor is not removed. During this stage people attempt to find a way to cope with the stressor to avoid being overwhelmed by their negative reactions to the stressor. And the exhaustion stage happens if the stressor is still not removed. At this stage the adrenal and the other glands activated by the fight-or-fight reaction can no longer continue to secrete hormones. When people have stress they are more common to have a great variety of disease causing organisms. The immune system prevents disease by producing white blood cells that destroy these.

There are several ways to cope stress. Defensive coping is one way to reduce the immediate effects of a stressor, but it is probably, but it is probably not the most desirable way. Defensive coping may give people time to gather their resources, but it does not eliminate the source of stress or improve the effectiveness of one´s response to stress. Substance abuse is that some teenagers use alcohol, tranquilizers, and other drugs to try to reduce feelings of stress. Aggression is used by some people that use violence to cope with stressful situations. Suicide happens when people feel so much stress that they just kill themselves.

Stress can have many consequences in our lives, some big and other small. We fight against stress in our daily basis and everyone has their own kind of stress. Stress can cause many physical conflicts such as losing hair, biting our nails and much more.