Mental Health and disorder

Mental Health – A state of wellbeing in which the individual realises their own abilities, can cope
with everyday stressors, and is able to make a contribution to their community (IT IS NOT JUST THE
ABSENCE OF A PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEM)
Mental Illness – A clinically diagnosable disorder that significantly interferes with an individual’s
cognitive, emotional or social abilities
- 86% of people have met the diagnostic criteria for at least one psychological disorder by the
time they reach mid-life

Psychological Health and Illness

Mental Disorder – Clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotional regulation

or behaviour… usually associated with significant distress or disability in social, occupational or other
important activities (DSM-5)
- The DSM-5 defines ‘an expectable or culturally approved response to a common stressor or
loss, such as the death of a loved one’ as not constituting a mental disorder
- Modern Approaches to classifying mental disorders incorporate both categorical and
dimensional approaches

Classifying Mental Health Issues

Categorical:
- Better clinical and administrative utility (clinicians are often required to make dichotomous
decisions)
- Easier communication
Dimensional
- Closely model lack of sharp boundaries between disorders and normality
- Have greater capacity to detect change and facilitate monitoring
- Can develop treatment relevant symptom targets (doesn’t just aim to resolve disorder)

Why diagnose or classify Mental Health issues?

- Communication (among clinicians, between science and practice)
- Clinical (facilitate identification of treatment, and prevention of mental disorders, descriptive
of experience, possible etiology and prognosis and prognosis)
- Research (test treatment efficacy and understand etiology)
- Education (teach psychopathology)
- Information Management (measure and pay for care)
Diagnostic Approach: Diagnostic and statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM-5-TR)
Diagnostic Groupings

Diagnosis
- Made on the basis of clinical interview, text descriptions, diagnostic criteria, clinician
assessment
- Currently presenting symptoms and severity (depressed
mood)
- Rule out disorder due to general medical condition (due
to hypothyroidism)
- Rule out disorder due to direct effects of a substance
(alcohol induced)
Diagnostic Approach
- Establish boundary with no mental disorder (clinical
significance/cultural sanction)
- Determine specific primary disorders (multiple diagnoses
possible)
- Add subtypes/specifiers (severity, treatment relevant, longitudinal course)

Paradigm’s
Freudian Paradigm
The unconscious has a profound influence on what we do and how we feel in our day-to-day life
- Becoming aware of unconscious motivations allows individual to produce less maladaptive
behaviour and more adaptive behaviour
Behavioural Paradigm
- The goal of behavioural interventions are to interrupt and/pr change stimulus-response
associations
Cognitive Paradigm
Biopsychosocial Paradigm
Biopsychosocial approaches to understanding mental
disorder integrates a range of factors

Biological – normal biology, disease processes and genetic

influences
Psychological – thoughts, feelings and perceptions
Social/Environmental – culture, ethnicity, social
environment

Emerging Approaches to Classification

Transdiagnostic Model
A move away from notion that each type of mental illness is associated with unique underlying
cognitive potentially neurological factors
- Recognition of shared aetiological and maintenance factors
- Can provide an explanation as to why diagnostic specific therapies are not effective for all
E.g. perfectionism related to depression, anxiety, eating disorders etc
Stigma

Public Stigma – refers to stigma exhibited by the public towards those with a mental disorder (is
thought to be the driving force behind other aspects of stigma)
- Stigma held withing a community
Manifests in THREE ways:
- Stereotyped attitudes and beliefs
- Prejudicial affective responses
- Discriminatory behaviours

Perspective of the Stigmatiser

Structural Stigma – refers to ingrained stigma manifest at the societal level

- Is maintained by social institutions (both government, religious and private) through policy,
law, and prescribed ideologies that restrict opportunities for particular groups
- Varies considerably across societies, time and topics
- Applies to mental illness but also extends beyond it to other issues (e.g. HIV-AIDS 1980s)
Measures of Stigma

Attribution Questionnaire (Corrigan et al, 2003):

Measure of stereotyped beliefs and prejudicial emotional responses to a person with a mental illness
- The AQ has SIX factors
Fear/dangerousness
Help/interact
Responsibility
Forcing treatment
Empathy
Negative emotion
Social Distance Scales
Bogardus (1925)
Social Distance Scale (Bruce Link 1987)
Social Distance Scale adapted for youth (Jorm and Wright 2008)

Perspective of the stigmatised

- Individuals living with mental ill-health are affected by numerous mechanisms of stigma
- These mechanisms are invariably outcomes of public stigma about mental ill-health
- The Mental Illness Stigma Framework (Fox et al, 2017) outlines that they include perceived
stigma, experienced stigma, anticipated stigma, and self stigma

Perceived Stigma
- Experienced by members of the public living either with or without mental ill health
- The term refers to an individuals awareness and perception of public stigmatised
stereotypes, prejudicial emotions, discriminatory behaviour or practices, and/or stigmatised
structural practices
- DSITINCT FROM ONES OWN BELIEFS
- Individuals living with mental ill-health are reported to show higher levels of perceived
stigma than those unaffected by mental health problems
- Shares a positive relationship with symptom severity for those living with mental ill-health
(Fox et al., 2017; Freidl et al., 2008)
- A fundamental substrate of the anticipation and internalisation of public and structural
stigma
Experienced Stigma
- Refers to the experience of having been the target of expressed negative stereotypes,
prejudices and manifest discrimination related to one’s mental ill health
- Can occur in subtle and insidious terms such as chronic exposure to commonplace
stigmatising representations of people with mental ill-health in mass media, or in more acute
ways (being denied housing)
- Can contribute to withdrawal from future opportunities and shares a relationship with the
anticipation of stigma
Anticipated Stigma
- The extent to which individuals living with mental ill-health expect to experience
stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination in the future because of their mental health
status
- Central to the experience of anticipated stigma
- An awareness of public and structural stigma
- Often results in withdrawal from social opportunities (Groot et al., 2020; Link et al., 1997)
Effective approaches to Stigma Reduction
Familiarity with mental illness is associated with decreased stigmatised attitudes and beliefs

Contact – Being in contact with someone with mental illness, it is positive for both parties and
particularly effective for addressing stigma in adulthood
Education – being educated about mental illness
- Increases knowledge and understanding
- Dispelling myth (e.g. violence myth)
- Opening societal discourse decreases self-stigma (observing that it is ok to talk about illness)
BAD EDUCATION
- A psychosocial explanation leads to increased blame
- A biomedical explanation leads to increased perception of uncontrollability and immutability

Stigma Reduction Initiatives

- Beyond Blue
- Livin Health Initiative
- Flourish

Tutorial
Expectations
- Come to class
- Contribute to collaborative work
- Helpfully assist `
What skills would you like to develop?
Depression and Anxiety
Mood – refers to an individual’s sustained experience of emotion
Affect – refers to the immediate experience and expression of emotion
Mood disorders – involve a depression or elevation of mood as the primary disturbance (DSM-5)

DSM-5 Major Depressive Episode Criteria

Five or more symptom present for at least 2 weeks
- Depressed mood
- Anhedonia
- Change in appetite or change in weight
- Persistently increased or decreased sleep
- Psychomotor agitation or retardation
- Fatigue or low energy
- Feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt
- Decreased concentration or indecisiveness
- Recurrent thoughts of death, suicidal ideation, or suicide attempt
DSM-5 Major Depressive Episode Specifiers
- Psychotic features (mood congruent or mood incongruent)
- Melancholic features
- Catatonic features
- Postpartum onset
- Anxious distress
- Seasonal pattern (seasonal affective disorder: SAD or winter depression)
DSM-5 Major Depressive Disorder Criteria
- Presence of a major depressive episode
- Episode not better explained by another diagnosis
- NO HISTORY of mania, hypomania, or mixed episode (unless substance or medical illness)
Epidemiology
- Family history of MDD increases an individual’s risk by 1.5-3 times
- Up to 20-25% of patients with major medical comorbidity (CVA, diabetes, cancer) will
develop MDD
- Often comorbid with one or more anxiety disorders

Anxiety and Anxiety-Related Disorders

- Panic Disorder (PD)
- Specific phobia
- Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)
- Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Acute stress Disorder
- Anxiety disorder due to a general medical condition
- Substance-induced anxiety disorder
- Anxiety disorder NOS
Panic Disorder
Recurrent unexpected panic attacks and for a one-month period or more
- Persistent worry about having additional attacks
- Worry about the implications of the attacks
- Significant change in behaviour because of the attacks
DSM-5 Panic Attack Criteria
A discrete period of intense fear in which 4 of the following symptoms abruptly develop and peak
within 10 minutes:
- Palpitations or rapid heart rate
- Sweating
- Trembling or shaking
- Shortness of breath
- Feeling of choking
- Chest pain or discomfort
- Chills or hot flushes
- Nausea
- Feeling dizzy or faint
- Derealisation or depersonalisation
- Fear of loss of control or going crazy
- Fear of dying
- Paraesthesia
Epidemiology
- 1-3% of the general population, 5-10% of primary care patients
- Onset in teens or early twenties
- For every man with panic disorder 2-3 women are experiencing it
- 30-50% of people affected will have agoraphobia (fear of difficulty of escape)
- 50-60% have lifetime major depression (one third with current depression)
- 20-25% have a history of substance dependence

Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

- People living with GAD experience excessive worry about numerous events for at least 6
months and have difficulty controlling the worry
3 or more of the following symptoms:
- Restlessness
- Easily fatigued
- Difficulty concentrating
- Irritable
- Muscle tension
- Sleep disturbance
Epidemiology
- 4-7% of the general population have GAD
- Typically, onset occurs in childhood or adolescence
- Females are at a higher risk than males (2:1)
- 90% have at least one other lifetime disorder (panic disorder, depression etc)
- 65% have another current such disorder
- Worse prognosis over 5 years when compared to panic disorder
The Tripartite Model of Depression and Anxiety (Clark & Watson, 1991)

BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL APPROACH

Beck’s cognitive Model of Depression

Schema – beliefs, rules and assumptions based on early experience
Negative events – establish negative, dysfunctional schema
- Critical incidents trigger negative schemas and governs information processing
- Activation of schema leads to negative automatic thoughts (NATs)

The ABC Cognitive Model of Emotion and Behaviour

A – Activating Event
- What was happening when negative feelings were experienced
B – Belief
- Beliefs or thoughts about the Activating Event
C – Consequence
- Feelings (emotions and physiological experience of emotion)
- Behaviour performed
Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders
Psychosis – Out of touch with reality (umbrella term)
- Refers to a variety of symptoms
- These symptoms can present in schizophrenia as well as dementia (organic presentations)
and substance use

Louis Wain
The development of Wain’s schizophrenia can be viewed through his art which were created as the
illness developed:

- Wain’s art demonstrates that his experience of reality was becoming very different to what
was generally agreed upon

At the disorder level, psychosis refers to a group of disorders distinguished from one another in
terms of:
Symptom Configuration – Non-bizarre or Bizarre delusions (delusional disorder vs schizophrenia)
Duration – More or less than 6 months (schizophrenia vs schizophreniform disorder)
Relative Pervasiveness – Both duration and the clinical picture of psychotic symptoms versus
affective symptoms (bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder)

- The term schizophrenia refers to split mindedness or a mind torn asunder (Bleuler)
- It involves disruption in various aspects of perceiving, thinking, feeling and behaviour
- Schizophrenic symptoms can be classified as positive or negative symptoms

Positive symptoms – additive to normal experience

Negative symptoms – deficit to normal function

Positive Symptoms Negative Symptoms

Hallucinations Avolition – lack of motivation
A percept in the absence of environmental Alogia – less speech, less speech content,
stimuli, can occur in any sensory modality. latency of speech and thought blocking
(Auditory is most common followed by visual) Anhedonia – inability to experience pleasure
Delusions Affective flattening – dulled emotional
- A false belief (bizarre and non-bizarre) expression
- Persecutory Inattention – disturbance in selective
- Delusions of reference attention
- Grandiose Delusions Catatonia - immobility
- Somatic Delusions Incongruent or inappropriate affect –
- Passivity phenomena (your thoughts Inappropriate behaviour in relation to context
aren’t your own etc.) Bizarre behaviour – no rational basis
Positive Thought Disorder
Clanging – speech pattern based on phonological association rather than semantic or syntactic
Circumstantiality – speech including unnecessary or irrelevant detail
Flight of Ideas – sequence of loosely associated concepts are articulated, sometimes rapidly
changing from topic to topic
Derailment – speech train steers off-topic to unrelated things
Incoherence – Incomprehensible speech
Pressure of speech – excessive spontaneous speech production and rapid rate, difficult to interrupt

DSM-5 Schizophrenia Diagnostic Criteria

Two or more of the following symptoms must be present for a significant portion of time of 1 month
- Delusion
- Hallucination
- Disorganised Speech
- Grossly disorganised or catatonic behaviour
- Negative symptoms

- Symptoms should be present for a significant proportion of time since onset and result in a
disturbance to everyday functioning
- Continuous signs of disturbance for at least 6 months, with one month of active symptoms
- Schizoaffective disorder/bipolar disorder ruled out (no mania or mood disturbance)
- Rule out substance or medical condition

Statistics
- Prevalence of schizophrenia is about 1% world wide with some variation in certain regions
- Equal prevalence in both males and females
- Male onset in later teens or early twenties
- Female onset in early thirties or mid-life

History of Schizophrenia

Benedict Augustine Morel (1860) – ‘demence prococe’

- The first attempt at a rigorous description of what we now know as schizophrenia
- Based on observations of individual’s displaying a set of symptoms and experiencing early
onset and deteriorating course
Emil Kraepelin (1898) – ‘dementia praecox’
- Emphasised early onset and deteriorating course
- Differentiated from manic-depressive psychosis and other psychotic illnesses based on
clusters of symptoms, onset, course and outcome
- Symptoms emphasised were hallucinations, delusions, negativism, attentional difficulties,
stereotypes, and emotional dysfunction
Paul Eugen Bleuler (1911) – ‘schizophrenia’
- Believed that schizophrenia does not necessarily display early onset, deteriorating course
and therefore was not a dementia
- Breaking of associative threads in thought, affect and action (core of the disorder)
- FIVE A’s (disturbances in association, disturbances in affect, ambivalence, autism, avolition)
Schneider (1959)
- First Rank Symptoms and diagnosis on cross section (duration criteria not necessary)
- 11 First Rank Symptoms: hearing one’s voice out loud, hallucinatory voices talking about
themselves, hallucinations in the form of running commentary, somatic hallucinations
produced by external agencies, thought withdrawal, thought insertion, thought
broadcasting, delusional perception, made feelings, made actions, made impulses
 - These symptoms are NOT specific to schizophrenia, they are found in bipolar disorder, there is
also a problem with the cross-sectional diagnosis
Patrick McGorry (late 1980s – present)
- Over-focus on chronic samples who are only representative of very poor outcome patients
and are contaminated by institutionalisation, medication side-effects etc
- Possible that society now has a biased view on schizophrenia as a result
- NEED TO STUDY FIRST-EPISODE PATIENTS AND PRODROMAL PATIENTS
Richard Bentall (1990s – present)
- Need to study psychotic symptoms individually, rather than schizophrenia as a construct

Aetiological Theories

Expresses Negative Emotion

- Stress: vulnerability model
Biological Models
- E.g. genetics including gene-environment interactions
Personality and Mental Ill-health
Three ways personality refers to mental health issues and disorders:
- Vulnerability
- Personality Disorder
- Other personality-related disorder

Vulnerability
People differ in susceptibility to mental health issues and disorders
- Genes
- Environmental stress
- Personality
Rarely does one factor work alone
- Genetic effects operate via personality
- Genetic effects require environmental contribution
- Environmental effects require genetic vulnerability

Diathesis-stress models
Most mental disorders involve the combined action of a personality vulnerability (diathesis) and
environmental stress
- No disorder without diathesis
- No expression of diathesis without stress
- Both diathesis and stress vary by degrees
- Level of stress required to trigger disorder depends on
degree of diathesis
Stress may come in different forms:
- Traumatic experiences
- Major life changes (including positive)
- Accumulation of hassles
Some diatheses may require specific types of stressors (e.g. relationship or achievement related)

Specific diatheses: depression

Dependency (interpersonal sensitivity)
- Susceptibility to interpersonal stressors
Autonomy (personal achievement)
- Susceptibility to achievement stressors
Self-criticism
Pessimistic attributional style
- Internal = low self-esteem
- Stable = hopelessness
- Global = helplessness
Specific diatheses: schizophrenia
Schizotypy
- Social anhedonia
- Physical anhedonia
- Perceptual aberration
- Magical thinking
This diathesis may be typological
- Non-schizotypes may be at zero risk of schizophrenia (ongoing debate)
Schizotypy survey example items
Social anhedonia
- When someone else is depressed it brings me down also (reverse scored)
Physical anhedonia
- One food tastes as good as another to me
Perceptual aberration
- I have felt as though my head or limbs were somehow not my own
Magical thinking
- If reinforcement were true, it would explain some unusual experiences I have had
Diatheses Examples
- Anorexia nervosa (perfectionism)
- Bipolar disorder (hypomanic temperament)
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (thought-action fusion)
- Panic disorder (anxiety sensitivity)

Personality Disorders
Peoples attributes can be extreme, inflexible and maladaptive, there are 10 disorders recognised.

Paranoid Personality Disorder – easily slighted, suspicious, bears grudges, reads hidden meaning
onto benign remarks, questions loyalty of others, expects to be exploited
Borderline Personality Disorder – unstable but intense relationships, impulsivity, affective instability,
inappropriate and intense anger, recurrent suicidality or self-mutilation, identity disturbance, chronic
feelings or emptiness or boredom, frantic attempts to avoid real or imagined abandonment
Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder – perfectionistic and this interferes with task
performance, preoccupied with rules, details etc. excessively devoted to work. Indecisive, cannot
complete tasks, restricted expression of affection, lack of generosity in time, money or gifts, hoards,
overly conscientious, scrupulous and inflexible, unreasonable insistence that others do things exactly
as they insist

Dissociative Identity Disorder (multiple personalities)

Two or more personalities that switch (1 host personality and 1 or more alters)
- Alters may differ in many ways: usually relatively uninhibited, often child-like, they may have
different allergies, optical prescriptions, handedness

DR, JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE

Dissociative Experience Scale (sample items)

Amnesia
- Some people have the experience of finding themselves in a place and having no idea how
they got there
- Some people have the experience of finding new things among their belongings that they do
not remember buying
Depersonalisation/derealisation
- Some people sometimes have the experience of feeling as though they are standing next to
themselves or watching themselves do something as if they were looking at another person
- Some people sometimes have the experience of feeling that other people, objects, and the
world around them are not real
Absorption
- Some people find that they sometimes sit staring off into space, thinking of nothing, and are
not aware of the passage of time
- Some people sometimes find that they become so involved in a fantasy or daydream that it
feels as though it were really happening to them
Reasons for Controversy
The disorder offends our sense of self-continuity and coherence
- Apparent explosion of cases (epidemic, prior under-diagnosis or fad)
- Geographic focus on the US
- Dramatic/theatrical quality of some people living with DID
- Alterations in symptoms (animal alters, increases in average number of alters)
Traumatic Theory
- Usually report suffering extreme trauma
- Tend to score higher on suggestibility
- Dissociation (internal avoidance)
- Patients become rehearsed and skilled in this defence and construct alter personalities to
deal with complexities and threats of life experience
Sociocognitive Theory
- DID may not be naturally occurring splitting or fragmentation of the personality, instead it
may be caused by therapists and culture
Therapists poorly skilled, inadvertently may use leading questions in suggestible, unstable people
may create apparently distinct personalities (latrogenic)
Culture sanctions this manner of expression of psychological distress through creative mass media
and news
- Treatment implications involve ignoring post-traumatic symptomatology
Developmental Psychology
The study of change and continuity and the fundamentals how people change and how they stay the
same across their life)
- Study to understand human nature
- Study to shape social policy
- To enrich human life

Child Development
Human Nature: how do genetics and environment affect children’s development
Social Policy: how can we conduct research with children while protecting their human rights
Human Life: what can psychology tell us about effective child-rearing and child mental health
Lifespan Development
Human Nature: how do we change across our life span, how do we stay the same
Social Policy: how do we recover from trauma, what supports are effective and for whom
Human Life: to what extent do we actively shape our lives or passively respond to surroundings

SEVEN ENDURING THEMES OF DEVELOPMENT

Continuity & Discontinuity
Mechanisms for Change
Universality & Context specificity
Individual Differences
Research & Children’s welfare
Nature & Nurture
The Active Child

Continuity and Discontinuity

Four types of change
- Continuity (stability) and discontinuity (change)
- Continuous change is quantitative, reversible (height, capacity for memory)
- Discontinuous change is qualitative and irreversible (puberty, ToM, learning)

Mechanisms for Change

MIGRATION, GENETIC DRIFT, NATURAL SELECTION
Universality and Context Specificity
To what extent is development:
- Universal across contexts and cultures
- Exclusive to specific contexts and cultures
https://www.sbs.com.au/programs/video/520489027747/Japans-independent-kids-The-Feed

Individual Differences
How do children with a shared background become different from each other? (two peoples
experiences of any given event are never the same)

Research and Children’s welfare

How can research promote children’s welfare?
- How can researchers conduct meaningful research with infants and young people?
- How can we protect infants and young people’s welfare in research?

Nature and Nurture

How do they work together to shape development?

The Active Child

How do children shape their own development?

A Developmental Perspective of Psychological Wellbeing

Wellbeing is a multidimensional concept that shapes and is shaped by developmental pathways
Why does wellbeing matter?
Wellbeing contributes to, and is affected by our developmental experiences:
- Continuity and Discontinuity
- Mechanism for Change

Wellbeing

Self-Determination Theory
A meta-theory of development
- Tendency for mastery and growth are innate but not automatic
- Social environments support and constrain capacity for growth/wellbeing
Two SDT theories:
- Growth/wellbeing is a person’s autonomy, relatedness and competence
- Growth/wellbeing is also intrinsic motivation
Students Perspectives of Wellbeing
Positive Experiences

Negative Experiences
A Developmental Perspective of Intelligence
Intelligence – the capacity to learn from experience and adapt to one’s environment
- Attention
- Memory
- Analysis
- Planning
- Persistence
- Emotional control
- Social awareness
- Inhibition

Intelligence means different things at different ages

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE
EMOTIONAL ITELLIGENCE
INTELLECTUAL INTELIGENCE

General Intelligence – A person possesses a certain amount of general intelligence (G), that influences their
ability on al intellectual tasks (cognitive ability, general mental ability, general intelligence factor,
intelligence)

Measuring Intelligence
One dimension: IQ
Two dimensions: crystalised and fluid
Few dimensions: Thurstone 7, Gardner 7
Many dimensions: Carroll’s 3-stratum model

One Dimension
Binet and Simone devised a test to measure intellectual development in children
Mental Age (MA) – The average age children achieve a given score on Binet and Simon’s test
- The mean score for large samples of children of the same age (5,6,7 etc)
- A typically developing child should be able to answer questions typical for their chronological age
- An intellectually impaired child should answer fewer questions than typical for their chronological
age
Binet and Simon’s initial measure led to the development of other well-known measures:
- Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)
- Stanford-Binet Scales
- British Ability Scale
Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

Two Dimensions
Raymond Cattell proposed two dimensions of intelligence (Crystalised and Fluid)
- Crystalised intelligence (factual knowledge about the world) increases over the lifespan
- Fluid intelligence (the ability to think on the spit) decreases over the lifespan
Few Dimensions:
Howard Gardner’s 7 Domains of Intelligence
Assumes intelligence is present from birth, not really falsifiable (difficult to prove areas of intelligence)
- Linguistic
- Spatial
- Kinaesthetic
- Musical
- Interpersonal
- Logical/Mathematical
- Intrapersonal
Thurstone’s 7 Primary Mental Abilities
- Word Fluency (e.g. say as many words as you can beginning with G in the next minute)
- Verbal Comprehension (e.g. read this passage aloud)
- Inductive Reasoning (e.g. which of these words do not belong, cat, bat, ball, mouse)
- Spatial Visualisation (e.g. which of these shapes is a rotated version of the original)
- Number Facility (e.g. John has 7 apples he gives 3 away and is given 1, how many apples)
- Associative Memory (e.g. repeat as much as you can: 3 6 5 2 8 7 1 1 9 7 2 5 2 2…)
- Perceptual Speed (e.g. which of these pictures is the same as this other picture)

Many Dimensions
John Carroll proposed a Three-stratum theory of intelligence
- A hierarchical integration of: g, eight generalised abilities and many specific processes)

Summary
- Intelligence includes intellectual pursuits, learning, and adaptation
- Intelligence is developmental and contextual, measured in different ways, and defined in different
ways
- There is no single correct theory of intelligence (currently the 3-statum model is admired)
Stanford-Binet Scales
Five Cognitive abilities:
- Fluid reasoning
- Knowledge
- Quantitative reasoning
- Visual-spatial processing
- Working memory
Can be used in ages 2 to 23, popular in the US, uses MA to calculate IQ

British Ability Scale

Three domains:
- Verbal ability
- Non-verbal reasoning
- Spatial ability
Early form is used for ages 3 to 7, school form used for ages 6 to 17, popular in the UK, uses g

Wechsler Intelligence test for children (WISC-R)

- The most widely used instrument for children 6 years and older
- Two main sections: verbal (general knowledge, language skills) and performance(spatial and
perceptual abilities)
- Uses MA to calculate IQ
Verbal section
- Information (what is the capital of France?)
- Vocabulary (what is a helicopter?)
- Similarities (how are a hammer and a chisel alike?)
- Arithmetic (four friends divide 20 lollies…)
- Comprehension (why do we have prisons?)
- Digit Span (repeat the following numbers…)
Performance section
- Block design (arrange the blocks to match the picture)
- Coding (identify patterns)
- Mazes (printed mazes of increasing difficulty)
- Object assembly (assembling a puzzle)
- Picture completion (what part of the picture is missing?)
- Picture arrangement (arrange cartoon frames to tell a coherent story)
What do these intelligence tests measure?

Intelligence test hope to measure the capacity of an individual to understand the world about them and
their resourcefulness to cope with its challenges

Correspondence analysis:
- Identifies sets of items that discriminate between children of the same age
Factor analysis:
- Determines patterns of response across the items
- Identifies commonalities or differences in those patterns
- Distinct patterns represent underlying factors (cognitive abilities)
- Informs different theories on the structure of intelligence

Issues of Measurement
- Often doesn’t account for cultural differences

Larry P vs Riles (1970)

Legal case between 6 families & the State of California
- Children who did poorly on WISC were labelled “mentally retarded” and “cognitively impaired”
- Test items all drew on European-American culture
- Subsequently, minority children (especially African-American children) did poorly on the test
- The families wanted the Court to acknowledge the racial discrimination within, and furthered by,
the WISC.
- The families won the legal case.
- No IQ tests were to be given to African-American children in the state of California.
- “Larry P” was in 1st grade when he was given the test.
- He was deemed “mentally retarded” and moved into a special ed class with no resources.
In 8th grade:
- He had 3rd grade reading level
- “Half-Day” Program, working at the local grocery story store for 4 school hours each day, without
pay.
As an adult:
- Involved in serious work-place injury
- Missed out on workers compensation because he couldn’t read the letter offering it.

IN 2003 THE WISC IV WAS REVISED TO BE MORE VERSATILE

Development and Culture

The Active Child

Children make decisions about:
- Preferences (favourite people, favourite activities etc.)
- Behaviours (response to emotions, response to others, play)
- Values (fairness, etiquette)
Culture – is a socially transmitted or socially constructed constellation consisting of practices, competencies,
ideas, schemas, symbols, values, norms, institutions, goals, constitutive rules, artefacts, and modification of
the physical environment
- Culture is not limited to a nationality or ethnic group, it can be any group as long as that group has
two or more people, with distinct practices, values, norms, rues, artefacts etc.
E.g. groups with shared hobby, friendship groups, sports teams, neighbourhoods, other social
groups
Body Image
Our thoughts, feelings, attitudes and behaviours we hold towards our appearance
- Children as young as three report negative body image (concerns about being fat, aversion to
weight gain, more positive judgements of thin bodies
- Negative body image in childhood is a risk factor for poorer psychological wellbeing, disordered
eating, in adolescence and adulthood
How peers and family influence our body image
- Being in an environment where appearances isn’t a key focus, where there is emphasis on body
functionality, exercise to feel good etc, shapes a positive body image
- Praise for weight loss, diet talk, being bullied teases and/or discriminated against due to one’s body
weight or shape can lead to a negative body image
There are variations across cultures about ideal physiques and body types
- Sexual minority men (LGBTQIA) are more vulnerable than heterosexual men to experiencing
negative body image
How can culture be shaped when it comes to body image?
In the context of our body image, we can ‘push back’ on cultural influences and challenge cultural norms
- Learning how to be media literate, so you have the ability to challenge body ideals (understanding
social media isn’t real etc)
- Actively pushing back on cultural norms at different scales (smaller scale: withing peer groups,
family and on a broader scale: within university, engaging in activism)
A reciprocal person-culture relationship

Summary
- Culture is more than a label
- A person’s culture shapes their developmental pathways in direct and indirect ways (provides
options for decisions, body image)
- The relationship between a person and their culture is reciprocal
Development, Genetics and Environment
How do nature and nurture shape development?
Nature (Genetic) Nurture (Environment)
Heredity & Genetic Make-up Environment
Cell maturation Learning
Evolutionary behaviour Peers & friendships
Biological Systems Cultural Influences

Does developmental diversity occur due to:

- Differences in our environment and upbringing
- Genetic factors beyond our control
- A combination, and interaction of both

Developmental diversity results from the close and continual interplay of genes and experience

Three key elements:

- Genotype the genetic material one person inherits
- Phenotype the observable expression of the genotype
- Environment all other aspects other than the genetic material itself

Parent Genotype → Child Genotype

Transmission of chromosomes and genes from parent to offspring
- Dominant and recessive genotypes (homozygous & heterozygous)
- Colour blindness, cystic fibrosis, hair colour, muscle control etc.
Child Genotype → Child Phenotype
The child’s phenotypes are expressions of their genotypes
- Regulator genes can turn on or off genetic information so that the recessive is expressed rather
than the dominant trait
Child Environment → Child Phenotype
Impact of the environment on a child’s phenotype
Epigenetics:
- Changes that arise due to changing gene expression rather than the gene itself
- Events in ancestors’ lives can have ongoing effects on current lives
Opportunity
- Life decisions, availability of options, resources, dangers, nutrition
Parent phenotype → Child Environment
Manner of interaction, home environment, experiences they arrange, encouragement for particular
behaviours and attitudes
- A child is more likely to develop athletic ability when a parent has an interest in fitness, sport and
the resources to finance athletic participation
Child Phenotype → Child Environment
The child shapes their own environment
- Passive: children engage in activities that are encouraged by others
- Active: children seek out environmental niches that are most compatible with their predisposition
- Evocative: children’s attributes affect how other interact with them
Heritability
The proportion of variability in the population that is attributable to hereditary influence
Genetic variation
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Total (genetic + environmental) variation

- Heritability can be assessed using selective breeding or family studies

Selective Breeding
- Marriage, dogs, fruits and vegetables
- Ethical Considerations: Selective breeding may lead to adverse traits (PUG) etc

Family Studies

Biological Family Adoptive Family

Genetic makeup 50% genes 0% genes
Home environment Pre-adoption (if at all) Post-adoption

Ethical Considerations:
- Experimental analysis: cannot separate families, cannot force adoption, cannot force twins
- Observational design is best: identify adoption families, report patterns in experiences

Gene-environment Interactions (GxE)

Four relationships:
- Epigenetic effects of environments on genes
- Variations in heritability according to environmental circumstances
- Gene-environment correlations
- Gene-environment interactions
Social Psychology
The scientific study of the thoughts, feelings, and behaviour of individuals in social situations.
The scientific study of how people’s thoughts feelings, and behaviours are influenced by the actual,
imagined, or implied presence of others

Guiding Principles
- The social brain (our brains are good at taking in and processing social information)
- The power of the situation (the social contexts we find ourselves in shape the way we think, feel
and act)
- Levels of analysis (social psych are interested in individuals, dyads and groups)
- Critical thinking (healthy scepticism)
The Social Brain
- Understanding the self and its relations to others
- Forming judgements about others
- Understanding and making inferences about others mental states
- Social decision making (to help or hurt, to trust or not to trust)
- Understanding social categories and our place in them
- Perception of socially relevant cues (faces, eye gaze, expressions, gestures)
The power of the Situation
Kurt Lewin (1935): the behaviour of people is always a function of the field of forces around them
- The field of forces for humans is the situation they find themselves in
- Human behaviour can be though of as resulting from a combination of particular personal
attributes in a particular situation
- A person/situation interaction

Levels of Analysis
- Individual (relationship with the self)
- Interpersonal (relationships with other individuals)
- Intragroup (relationships with other people in your group)
- Intergroup (relationships with people in a different group)

Challenges in Social Psychology

Scientific rigour and critical thinking
- Social psychology can be considered the study of context
- There isn’t always a one-size fits all answer
- Not all findings are true in every situation
- Some studies have failed to be replicated
Benefits of Social Psychology
- Provides insight into our own and others behaviours
- Helps us understand the causes and consequences of current events
- Provides tools to act effectively and help others do the same
Making Social Psychology Self-Relevant
- We learn more when we can make information self-relevant (Hulleman & Harackiewicz, 2009)
- This allows for more learning and can lead to things such as better grades

PERSONAL IDENTITY
SOCIAL IDENTITY
CULTURAL IDENTITY

The Social Self

The self is a unitary and continuous awareness of who one is (Morf & Koole, 2012)
- The same person who fell asleep last night and woke up this morning
- This DOES NOT MEAN THE SELF EVER CHANGES, a person’s sense of self can change due to external
factors (new job, moving country) or your own effort over time (therapy, personality change)
Many aspects of the self are influenced by social experiences:
- How we think of ourselves
- What we like and dislike
- Habits we form
- Values we adhere to
- How we (learn to) behave
Personality can be affected by social context

Social Identity
- People often think of identity as something unique to themselves that distinguishes people
- A big part of who someone is comes from the groups we belong to, it can be difficult to describe
yourself without reference to a group
- Identity is something that binds people together rather than separate them

Early Conceptions of Social Selves

The Social Me (William James, 1890)
- What we know about ourselves from social relationships
- Who a person is in one context (e.g. at work) isn’t necessarily the same person they are in another
context (e.g. at home)
Working Self-Concept (Markus & Wurf, 1987)
- A subset of our self-knowledge is brought to mins in a given context
- The self-relevant to relationships may be the mind’s prime focus in romantic contexts, the self-
related to competition in sports contexts

Self-Categorisation Theory
Categorisation: A basic Human Process
- We group things together to help us understand the
world
- Categorisation process emphasises differences between
groups and the similarities within groups
- At the group level, people are categorised into
‘ingroups’ (belong) and ‘outgroups’ (don’t belong)
We categorise ourselves as well as other people
- The self can be constructed at various levels of identity
abstraction
- Different identities become salient in different contexts
- Shifting the salience of different identities can make
previous outgroup members (art students) become
ingroup members (UniMelb students)
- ‘Who are we’ depends on the context in which we find
ourselves
Cultural Identity
- Our sense of self derived from groups we belong to that have a distinct culture (e.g. nationality,
ethnicity, social class etc)
- A form of social identity, but one that is often with us from the day we are born and encompasses a
total way of life and the way we view the world
- Can be fostered directly (through socialisation efforts) or indirectly (through background exposure
to ways of life, predispositions toward seeing the world in a particular way)
Culture and the Social Self
Cultural self-construal (Markus & Kitayama, 1991)
- Individualist (or independent) the self is an autonomous entity separate from others, people should
assert their independence and celebrate their uniqueness (my environment should change to fit
me), often seen in western countries (USA, Australia, UK)
- Collectivist (or interdependent), the self is fundamentally connected to other people, people should
seek to fit in a community and fulfil appropriate roles (I should change to fit my environment), often
seen in east Asian, south Asian, African and Latin American countries

Culture and the Social Self

‘Who am I’ exercise (Kuhn & McPartland, 1954)
- List 20 statements that describe who you are
- Americans self-descriptions tend to be context-free responses about traits and preferences
- Responses by people from interdependent cultures tend to be context dependent and refer to
relationships (e.g. I’m serious at work, I’m Jans friend)
Even within cultures there are difference in self-construal (Ma & Schoeneman, 1997)
- ‘Who am I’ exercise among different groups living in Kenya
- Undergraduate student living in Nairobi with greater exposure to Western culture and being
educated in Western tradition
- Traditional Maasai herding people who had very little contact with Western principles.
Are other people good or bad for us?
Being with others meets basic needs
Humans have basic psychological needs (Williams, 2009)
- Belonging: to be accepted by others
- Self-esteem: to be liked by others
- Control: to be capable of achieving goals
- Meaning: to have relevance in the world
Connection with others fosters these needs (Greenaway et al., 2016)
- People were asked to remember they gained or lost an important identity or group membership
- Then reflected on how this event affected basic needs

Social Belonging, Self Esteem?

The Sociometer Hypothesis (Leary et al., 1995)
- Things that make us feel good about ourselves (self-esteem) are also things that make others accept
and like us (belonging)
- Like a fuel gauge, self-esteem is a readout of our likely standing with others (high self-esteem =
social inclusion and low self-esteem = social exclusion)
- Self-esteem cues us when we need to attend to and shore up our social bonds
- Leary and colleagues argue that we don’t need self-esteem for personal reason, just social reasons

Social Comparisons
Social Comparison Theory (Festinger, 1954)
- Two assumptions: We seek to gain accurate self-evaluations and Comparisons with other people
help us reality-check our own self-evaluations
- (Wills, 1981): Downward comparisons (comparing ourselves to others we think are worse than
ourselves) and Upward comparisons (comparing ourselves to others we think are better than
ourselves)
Self-Evaluation Maintenance Model (Tesser, 1988)
- We seek to maintain or improve self-evaluation and comparisons influence our self-evaluation
- Reflection: other people improve our self-evaluation and Comparison: other people worsen out
self-evaluation

Reflection
- Usually happens when evaluation
happens in a domain that is not
relevant to the self (e.g. my sister won
her race, I feel so good)
- Self-evaluation goes us because the
self shares in the success
Comparison
- Usually happens when evaluation happens in a
domain that is relevant to the self (e.g. my
friend go a higher score than me, I need to eat
my feelings)
- Self-evaluation goes down as it invites
unfavourable comparison with our own abilities
The Better-Than-Average Effect (Alicke & Govorun, 2005; Taylor & Brown, 1988)
- Most of us tend to view ourselves positively
- So much so that people think they are above average on a wide range of positive dimensions
- Most drivers said their driving skill was closer to ‘expert’ than ‘poor’ while hospitalised for being in
a car accident (Preston & Harris, 1965)
- Does not differ when comparing a general or similar other

Alone Together
We can be apart from others in more ways than physical distance
- Psychological distance: loneliness
- Social distance: social network centrality
- Induced distance: rejection and discrimination
Loneliness
Subjective feeling of distress when social relations are not going how we would like
- Discrepancy between the level of connectedness we want to have and what we currently have
- We can be surrounded by others and still be lonely or can be alone but not feel lonely
- Loneliness is affected by lack of relationship quantity (e.g. number of friends), but is more affected
by lack of relationship quality (feeling misunderstood or that relationships are not meaningful)
Loneliness differs from social isolation, which is the state of having minimal contact with others

Social Distance in Social Networks

A way of quantifying social structures
- Characterises networked structures in terms of nodes (individuals within the network) and the ties
that link them
- Yields several measures: who knows whom in a network, popularity within a network, closeness
between people in a network etc
Given the importance of connectedness, lack of inclusion in a social network is detrimental for health
Social Networks and Physical Health
Greater social integration is associated with lower
mortality
- Berkman and Syme (1979) reported the results
of a 9-year prospective study of 6,928 adults in
Alameda County, California
- Assessed social ties in the form of marriage,
friends, relatives, organisational and church
membership
- The fewer social ties people had, the more
likely they were to die over the next 9 years
- Same pattern for men and women across age
groups
Social Networks and Mental Health
Loneliness is catching
- Cacioppo and colleagues (2009) found people directly connected to a lonely person in a social
network were 52% more likely to be lonely
 - Loneliness grows in networks over time
- Growth is particularly strong when the lonely tie is close
Three explanations:
- Induction: emotion contagion within a network
- Homophily: similar people are connected (like with like)
- Shared environment: exposure to the same social challenges and upheavals

Ostracism
A procedure from Ancient Greece in which a citizen was expelled from the city-state for 10 years
- In modern terms, ostracism refers to social shunning
- ‘Any act of ignoring and excluding of an individual by an individual or a group (Williams, 2001)
Why do we ostracise?
- Group reasons (strengthen the group: cohesion and protect the group: correct behaviour)
- Individual reasons (that act od ostracising someone can make you feel powerful and in control)
Ostracism Hurts
From an evolutionary perspective, ostracism signals danger (no access to social resources)
- Being excluded harms basic psychological needs and makes us feel bad
- Ostracism hurts not matter who does it as humans are sensitive to social feedback

Discrimination
How others treat us on the basis of our group membership impacts our mental and physical health
- Stress and emotional reactions with detrimental impacts on mental health
- Negative coping responses (smoking, drug use etc)
- Reduced access to resources (education, employment, housing, medical care etc)
- Physical injury via racially motivated assault

The Online Context

Is social media good or bad?

Stimulation hypothesis – online interactions strengthen existing relationships and thus have a social benefit
Displacement hypothesis – social media replaces offline, face-to-face interactions incurring social costs

Stimulation Hypothesis
Social Media can strengthen social ties
- Active use to connect with others is associated with greater perceived social-support and better
well-being (Frison & Eggermont, 2015, Burke, 2011)
- Online communication can stimulate self-disclosure improving relationship and wellbeing
(Valkenberg & Peter, 2009)
Displacement Hypothesis
Social Media can weaken social ties
- Passive use is associated with less perceived social support and worse well-being (Frison &
Eggermont, 2015)
- Accessing social media because it seems easier than communicating face-to-face increases
loneliness (Teppers et al., 2014)
Social comparison is problematic
- Frequent Facebook users thinks others are happier and doing better than them (Chou et al., 2012)
- Social comparison anxiety on Instagram predicts greater depression (Mackson et al., 2019)

The impact of social media depends on us

- Active (social) and passive (lurking) users
- Motives for use
- If used to enhance relationships and forge new connection social media is good
- Is used to escape the social world or compare ourselves social media can be harmful
How to win friends and influence people
Dale Carnegie’s Golden rules for becoming friendlier
1. Don’t criticise, condemn, or complain
2. Give honest, sincere appreciation
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want
4. Become genuinely interest in other people
5. Smile
6. Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound
7. Be a good listener, encourage others to talk about themselves
8. Talk in term of the other people’s interests
9. Make the other person feel important (sincerely)

Making a First Impression

Snap Judgements:
Lack of sufficient information rarely stops us from making
judgements about others
- Often make snap judgements about others
- Willis & Todorov (2006) showed faces and had them
rate those faces on a range of traits
Our judgements of others predict consequential decisions
(political voting)
- Snap judgements of competence aren’t necessarily
based in reality but they can affect perceivers thoughts
and behaviours
Thin Slicing:
The ability to find patterns in events based on ‘thin slices’, or narrow windows of experience
- Our ability to draw relatively accurate conclusions about the emotions and attitudes of people in
short interactions
- Ambady and Rosenthal (1993) had participants form judgements of university lecturers and high
school teachers
Person Perception:
How we perceive others is a complex process influenced by many factors (warmth and competence)
- Warmth (are this person’s intentions toward me good or bad?)
- Competence (can this person carry out their intentions toward me?)
- Warmth and competence are independent dimensions on which to judge people
- Warmth judgements appear to be primary, and are formed more quickly than competence (Fiske,
2006)
Impression by Innuendo
We like to form well-rounded impressions of people, meaning we may infer qualities about people if we
don’t have concrete evidence about those qualities

Impression Formation
The process by which people combine information about others to make overall judgements (Algebraically
or Configurationally)
- Algebraic models are impressions formed on the basis of a mechanical combination of information
about a person (summative, averaging, weighted averaging)
Configurational Model
Based on Gestalt principles (the whole is greater than the sum of its parts)
- People combine information they receive about someone into an overall impression that can be
different from the simple sum of items of information about that person (central and peripheral
traits)

What do we like in others?

To understand how to deepen connections, we need to understand what people generally like about others
- We like people who are familiar (mere exposure effects)
- Individuals tend to like more attractive people or more similar people
What strategies help us get closer with others?
Healthy patterns of communication foster more satisfying social
bonds
- In general, communication that builds trust improves
relationships (sharing with others, self-disclosure)
- Self-disclosure (revealing personal information)
- Self-disclosure that is not reciprocated results in less liking
and closeness
Dale Carnegie’s Golden Rules for Winning People to Your Way of Thinking
1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it
2. Show respect for the other person’s opinion
3. If you are wrong admit it quickly and emphatically
4. Begin it in a friendly way
5. Get the other person to say ‘yes,yes’ immediately
6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking
7. Let the other person feel the idea is theirs
8. Try to see things from their perspective
9. Dramatise your ideas
10. Throw down a challenge

Milgram’s Obedience Studies

Examined how individuals could obey orders that instructed them to harm others
- Was run on Yale University students
- Three roles: experimenter, teacher (naïve) and the learner (confederate)
- Teacher is instructed to run a series of learning trials and administer an electric shock to the learner
if they are incorrect, increasing the voltage with each incorrect response
- Confederate learners consistently made errors and reacted to the ‘shocks’
- Most teachers became emotionally conflicted and requested to stop, however, when told to
continue they reached the XXX shock level
High obedience level attributed to:
- High status of the authority figure
- Teachers believed the experimenter were responsible for their actions
- No clear point to switch to disobedience
- Many obedience situations have gradual escalation
Factors reducing the likelihood of obedience:
- Non-committed experimenter
- Teacher and learner having a close relationship
- Witnessing other participants disobey

Stanford Prison Experiment

Zimbardo and colleagues (1973) conducted a study designed to simulate prison life, participants (students)
were randomly assigned to either be a prisoner or a guard
- Prisoners were arrested and brought to a basement, Zimbardo explained the rules
- Multiple prisoners became emotionally disturbed
- Some guards began tormenting and abusing prisoners
- The experiment was intended to last 2 week but only lasted 6 days
Criticisms:
- Only 30% of guards behaved cruelly
- Self-selection (advertising as ‘prison life’ influenced who volunteered)
- Demand characteristics
- Motivated leadership (Zimbardo encouraged guards to act hostile and appealed to shared identity
among the guards)
Replications and Reenactments:
- BBC Prison Study (Reicher & Haslam, 2006), leadership emerged among the prisoners and they
ended up with better mental health than the guards

Emotion-based Approaches
Compliance with requests is higher when people are in a positive mood (Andrade & Ho, 2007; Isen, Clark &
Schwartz, 1976)
- Mood colours interpretation of events (requests seem less intrusive when in positive mood)
- Emotion maintenance (want to continue feeling positive, possible by granting a request)
Reason-based Approaches
- Often decisions are made by weighing the pros and cons of engaging in a particular action
- Some persuasion attempts are focused on changing people’s decision calculus
- They induce compliance by providing good reasons for people to grant a request

Norm of Reciprocity
When someone does something for us, we feel pressure to help in return
- People are expected to provide benefits for those who provided benefits for them (Fiske, 1991)
- Not responding violates social expectations and risk social condemnation (Cotteral et al., 1992)
Regan (1971) had a confederate bring a participants a soft drink during an experiment
- Later, the confederate explained they were selling raffle tickets
- Participants given a soft drink brought double the amount of tickets

Power of Commitment
Once a choice has been made people feel obligated from themselves and others to act consistently with
that commitment
- Cialdini et al. (1978) conducted an experiment where participants were told it began at 7am both
before and after committing
- 31% continued when told before and 56% continued when told after

Door in the Face (Cialdini et al., 1975)
Ask for a very large favour that will be refused, and
then follow with a more modest favour
- Drop in request appears to be a concession
on behalf of the asker
- People feel compelled to respond to a
concession by making their own
Fuelled by reciprocity
Foot in the Door (Freedman & Fraser, 1966)
Make a small request (most agree), follow it with
the larger real request
- Human behaviour is subject to momentum
- Individuals do no want to go back on their
word, so complying with the request
becomes part of their self-image
Fuelled by commitment

Elaboration Likelihood Model

Explains how people change their attitudes in response to persuasive messages (Petty & Cacioppo, 1979)

Two pathways to persuasion:

- Central: people think carefully and deliberately about the content of the message, attending to
argument strength
- Peripheral: people attend to easy-to-process, superficial cues related to argument length or
message source
Social Norms
Norm-Based Approaches
The tendency to conform to the behaviour of others around us can be harnessed to achieve compliance
- Schultz et al. (2007) gave households information about their own energy use in comparison to
their neighbourhood average, people changed their behaviour to make their energy use match the
average

Social Influence
Majority Influence:
- When most group members behave in a certain way, one tends to behave in a similar way
- Asch (1956) determine which line matches the target; confederates all responded incorrectly (75%
of participants conformed on at least one trial)
Factors affecting majority influence
Anonymity When answers are conveyed privately
Expertise and Status More likely to conform to views of experts
Group size Conformity increases with group size, but only to a certain point
Group unanimity One person dissenting reduces conformity
Minority influence:
- Even if there is a strong majority, a consistent minority in the group can affect group members
attitudes and behaviour
- NO SOCIAL CHANGE without minority influence
- Moscovici et al. (1969) asked participants if slides were blue or green, minority stated green, higher
rates of conformity with a consistent minority

Normative Influence Informational Influence

People are influenced by others because they want People are influenced by others because they
to gain their social approval and/or avoid their accept information from them as evidence about
disapproval reality
More common in majority influence More common in minority influence
Out for Ourselves
A widespread assumption across Western culture is that humans are fundamentally selfish
- Freud: actions are motivated by the ‘pleasure principal’ maximising personal pleasure
- Machiavelli: humans are ‘fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain’

Dictator Game
A paradigm for investigating trust and generosity
- Player 1 (allocator) is given money and decides how much to give participant 2, keeping the
remainder for themselves
People are encouraged to give by:
- Level of social closeness to the recipient
- Trust and prosociality
- Demographic factors (e.g. women and the elderly are more generous)

Social Loafing
The tendency to exert less effort when working on a group task in which individual contributions cannot be
monitored
- Ringelmann (1913) investigated social performance in an individual or cooperative rope-pulling task
- When pulling alone more force was exerted than when in pairs or groups (larger group = less force)
Why people loaf:
- Deindividualation (avoid negative consequences in a group)
- Equity (pre-conceived ideas of less effort in groups)
- Reward (feel personal effort won’t be recognised)
LIKELY WHEN MOTIVATION IS LOW
Social Facilitation
Co-Action Effects:
- Performance boost when accompanied by others engaged in the same activity
- Triplett (1898) cyclists performed better when racing against each other instead of the clock
Audience Effects:
- Performance boost when in the presence of passive spectators
- People perform better on fine-motor tasks and simple math tasks when an audience is present
- Thought to be because other people heighten physiological arousal and evaluation apprehension
LIKELY WHEN MOTIVATION IF HIGH

Altruism
Prosocial behaviour that benefits others without regard for the consequences to oneself
- Batson and Shaw (1991) proposed motives for altruism (social reward, personal distress,
empathetic concern)
Competitive Altruism:
- If people are motivated by social reward they may try to outdo one another in altruistic acts

The Bystander Effect

Bystander Intervention
Assistance given by a witness to someone in need

The smoke under the door experiment

Latane & Darley (1968), participants were seated in a waiting room where smoke began to enter, most did
not intervene
- Diffusion of Responsibility (presence of others reduces sense of responsibility)
- Pluralistic Ignorance (uncertainty about the situations legitimacy)
- Evaluation Apprehension (people fear making mistakes and being perceived as foolish)
Explanations suggest that the bystander effect is stronger in groups than alone

Factors that increase the likelihood of intervening:

- A more dangerous situation
- The perpetrator was present
- The victim was a close associate
- Other bystanders were real (rather than confederates)
Prejudice
An attitude or affective response (positive or negative) toward a group and its members (pre-judgement)
E.g. Racism, Sexism, Homophobia, Transphobia, Religious, SES, age, disability, political orientation prejudice

Discrimination – favourable or unfavourable treatment of individuals based on their group membership

PREJUDICE IS AN ATTITUDE DISRIMINATION IS A BEHAVIOUR

A prejudiced individual may not at on their prejudice

Prejudice is an Attitude
Affective Behavioural Cognitive
How much someone likes Intentions to turn thoughts and Thoughts that reinforce a persons
someone based on their group feeling into actions feelings (knowledge and beliefs)

Types of Prejudice:
Blatant Prejudice (Allport, 1958):
- ‘Old-fashioned’ prejudice
- Explicit rejection of the outgroup
- Belief in the inferiority of the outgroup
- Opposed to contact with the outgroup
- Outward expression of negativity towards outgroup
Subtle Prejudice:
- Covert forms
- Rejection of explicitly prejudiced beliefs while still feeling animosity
- Reflected in unacknowledged or unconscious negative feelings towards members of certain groups
- Assessed using implicit measures that don’t rely on self-reports

Hostile sexism (women are incompetent) and Benevolent sexism (women need protection)

Prejudice Origins
The Economic Perspective:
- Intergroup tensions can arise when groups are competing for the same limited resources
- Realistic Group Conflict Theory (prejudice will increase under economic stress)
The motivational Perspective:
- Hostility can emerge between groups even in the absence of direct competition
- Simply develop because another group exists, groups boundaries can initiate intergroup prejudice
The Minimal Group Paradigm
Henry Tajfel (1970)
- Designed to reveal the minimal conditions required for ingroups favouritism and outgroup
derogation to occur
- People are allocated to groups based on seemingly meaningless criteria and have no interaction
with other group members, they then assign points to other participants

Social Identity Theory

An individual’s identity is composed largely of the social groups they belong to
- To boost their own esteem, people will attempt to boost the status of their ingroups
- People who are more identified with the ingroup shower greater favouritism

The Cognitive Miser

- Prejudice as a byproduct of the tendency to categorise things
- People tend to favour simpler ways of thinking than more effortful ways (Fiske & Taylor, 1984)
The Cognitive Perspective
Gives rise to stereotypes by processing information rapidly and efficiently, but it can be biased
1. Define people in terms of their social category membership
2. Stereotypes are shared (amount to more than one person’s opinion)

Stereotypes
DEFINIITION
- A baby was brought into a social psychology class, half were told its name was Keith, the other
Karen and were asked to rate the baby on stereotypically gendered personality traits

Prejudice Reduction
Economic Lessons:
- Reduce intergroup competition and increase intergroup cooperation (recategorization)
Motivational Lessons:
- Set ingroup norms against prejudice and for tolerance (normative influence)
Cognitive Lessons:
- Weaken stereotype effect by exposure to individuals from different groups (intergroup contact)
Personality Psychology

Individual Differences
Personality refers to enduring, relatively broad psychological differences between people (excluding
cognitive details)

Personal identity & self-concept:

- Likes, beliefs, values
- Personality traits
- Behaviours
- Interpersonal attributes
- Demographic attributes
- Physical characteristics
- Abilities/aptitudes
Social communication & gossip:
- Communication aims to learn what others are like
Person perceptions:
- Judging other people’s personalities
- Rapid personality judgements
- Dispositional inference & correspondence bias
Stereotypes:
- Largely made up of personality traits believed (true or not) to be associated with social groups

PERSONALITY WITHIN PSYCHOLOGY FOCUSES ON DIFFERENCES ON PEOPLE RATHER THAN SHARED

MECHANISMS AND PROCESSES (INTRINSIC PERSPECTIVE)

Personality Psychology Focus’:

- Human nature
- Systematic variation
- Personal uniqueness

Personality Traits
A trait is a consistent pattern of behaviour, thinking
or feeling
- Relatively stable over time
- Relatively consistent across situations
- Varying between people
- Dispositional
Trait Organisation

- Lexical Approach

Cattell’s 16 Factors

The Big Five

OPENESS TO EXPERIENCE
CONSCIENCTIOUSNESS
EXTRAVERSION
AGREEABLENESS
NEUROTICISM

Facets of Conscientiousness
- Order
- Dutifulness
- Competence
- Achievement striving
- Self-discipline
- Deliberation
Facet of Neuroticism
- Anxiety
- Hostility
- Depression
- Self-consciousness
- Impulsiveness
- Vulnerability

OPENESS TO EXPERIENCE & CONSCIECTIOUSNESS CANNOT BE OBSERVED IN OTHER SPECIES

Concerns about Trait Psychology

- Are individual differences consistent
- Is the structure of traits universal
- Traits or Types?
- Are traits sufficient enough to describe personality (what about interests or vaues?)
Values
Concepts or beliefs about desirable end states or behaviours that transcend specific situations and guide
selection or evaluation of behaviour and events
- They are cognitive, linked to motives & desires, intrinsically desirable and learned
Schwartz Value Circle:

VIA Classification
Wisdom:
- Strengths involving acquisition and use of knowledge (creativity, curiosity, judgement, perspective)
Courage:
- Use of will in the face of opposition (integrity, vitality, industry, valour)
Humanity:
- Strengths that are interpersonal in nature (kindness, love)
Justice:
- Strengths that are civic in nature (fairness, leadership, teamwork)
Temperance:
- Strengths that protect from excesses (modesty, prudence, self-regulation)
Transcendence:
- Strengths that connect us to the larger universe (forgiveness, hope, gratitude, spirituality)
Biological Approaches
Efforts to explain the biological bases of personality operate at several levels (distal → proximal)
- Genetics
- Brain functioning (neural systems, structures, chemical)
- Hormonal factors

Genetics of Personality
Is personality inherited?
- DNA as a source of peoples similarities and differences
Ways to examine genetic contributions:
- Family studies (resemblance between family members)
- Twin studies (monozygotic and dizygotic twins - removal of environment confounded factors)
- Adoption studies (resemblance of adopted children to bio parents, implies nature & nurture)

Heritability
Heritability = proportion of variance in the trait accounted for by genes (height, weight, aptitude)
- Most personality attributed show heritability’s from 0.3 to 0.5
- DOES NOT relate to an individual’s genetic contribution to personality
The Role of the Environment
- Shared environmental influences tend to be weak (parental education, class, ethnicity, diet)
- Non-shared environmental factors are more influential (illness, friends)
- Can be influenced by genetics (susceptibility to accidents & other life events)

Genetics and environmental contributions to the Big 5

Brain Functioning
Systems
Eysenck’s Theory:
- Extraversion and low brain arousal leads to a desire for stimulation (novelty, excitement)
- Neuroticism & limbic system reactivity leads to higher autonomic NS arousal to threat & stress
Gray’s Theory:
- Impulsivity and behavioural activation system (BAS) are linked to sensitivity to reward and pleasure
with a tendency to approach rewards
- Anxiety and behavioural inhibition system (BIS) are linked to sensitivity to punishment and pain
with a tendency to avoid punishments

Structures
- Links between the Big Five and brain structure volumes have been discovered, however, it is more
likely that the Big Five correlates to functional connectivity within the brain
Chemicals
- Personality factors may be associated with neurotransmitter activity in the brain
- Extraversion & dopamine levels (exploration, approach & incentive motivation)
- Neuroticism & norepinephrine levels (negative emotion, vigilance for threat, cautiousness)
- Agreeableness & opioids (attachment processes)
- Constrain & serotonin levels (inhibition of emotional responses, low impulsiveness, low serotonin
can lead to aggression and emotional instability)

Hormonal Factors
Evidence that personality is influenced by prenatal exposure to sex hormones
- A longer ring than index finger is associated with testosterone exposure
- A lower 2D:4D ration in men correlates with aggression, ‘masculine’ career interests, less ‘feminine’
gender role
- A lower 2D:4D ration in women correlates to indirect aggression (rumours, malicious humour,
excluding people) and more ‘masculine’ interests

Risks of Biological Explanation

- Reductionism (belief that psychological explanations are unnecessary)
- Determinism (belief that a biological explanation is inevitable and unchangeable)
- Naturalistic Fallacy (belief that a biological explanation is natural and ought to be)
Cognitive Explanations
Explain personality with reference to cognitive processes and structures (thoughts, memories, beliefs)

Personal Constructs (perceiving)

- George Kelly proposed that humans are primarily driven to understand, predict and control their
environment
- Kelly believed human cognition was contrastive (bipolar & categorical)
- Each person has a system of constructs in which they perceive they world and they build personality

Attributional Styes (explaining)

- Attributions are about how we explain the world (cause of events etc.)
- Internal vs External attributions
- Stable vs Unstable attributions
- Global vs specific attributions
- An ATTRIBUTIONAL STYLE is focused on negative events
- Pessimism is the disposition to explain such events with internal, stable, and global causes
(pessimists may explain positive events as being due to chance)
- Both PESSIMISM & OPTIMISM can be irrational

Emotional Intelligence (thinking)

- Perceiving emotion (accurate recognition of own and perception of others emotions)
- Using emotion (use of own emotions to guide and plan behaviour)
- Understanding emotion (predicting others emotional states and reasoning about them)
- Managing emotion (ability to control and regulate emotions)
- Correlates with openness and agreeableness

The Self (representing)

A mental representation of one’s personal attributes

Self-Complexity:
- A number of self-aspects and degree of
distinctness between them
- Greater self-complexity is associated with greater
depression
- If ‘complexity’ implies a fragmented, incoherent
or confused self, it can have negative
consequences
- Self-concept clarity may be more important than
complexity
Self-Esteem:
- Positive global evaluation of the self
- Stability and consistency is more important than high levels
- Fragile self-esteem fluctuates in response to life events
- Narcissism (sense of superiority) can be encouraged by social media
Domains of Personality Assessment
- Organisational psychology
- Clinical psychology
- Educational psychology
- Counselling psychology
- Forensic psychology
E.g. interviews, personality inventories, projective tests, implicit personality tests

Cons of Personality Assessment

- Subjective
- No infallible source of information about the individual
- The individual is aware their personality is being measured
- Personality traits are not directly observable

Reliability
Does the measurement yield consistent, dependable and error-free information
- Internal consistency (do test components cohere & correlate)
- Inter-rater reliability (tests provide same infor when administered by different people)
- Re-test reliability (individual yield similar scores when tested at different times)
HIGH RELIABILITY = HIGH CONSISTENCY = LOW MEASUREMENT ERROR
Validity
Does the measurement assess what it is intended to assess and is it useful
- Content validity
- Convergent validity
- Discriminant validity
- Predictive validity
IF RELIABILITY IS LOW, VALIDITY MUST BE LOW

Interviews
- Time consuming and labour intensive
- Subjective
- Structured, unstructured, semi-structured, provocative
Inventories
- Self-report personality tests
- Items form scales
- Vulnerable to response biases and limitations of self-knowledge
E.g. MMPI
Projective Tests
- Bypass problems of self-report
- Involve deliberate ambiguity and open-endedness
E.g. Thematic Apperception Test, Rorschach Test
- Time-consuming, wild interpretation, low inter-score reliability
Implicit Tests
- Rapid, automatic responses
- Difficult to fake, less susceptible to response bias
E.g. Implicit Association Test (IAT)
Can Personality Change?
Trait Theory – traits are stable
Biological Approach – heritability may imply stability, maturational change can be genetically programmed
Psychoanalysis – childhood determinism
Cognitive Approach – personality is made of cognitions and cognitions can change, personality can change

Stability Causes
- Genetic influences
- Environmental channelling
- Environmental selection
- Freedom from disruptive life changes
- Psychological resources
- Identity formation

Rank Order Stability – relates to an individual’s position relative to their peers

- Young people typically become more agreeable & conscientious during the transition to adulthood
- Educational challenges from school to university transition increase conscientiousness
- Work attainment from 18026 is associated with increased self-confidence and decreased anxiety

Erikson’s 8 Life Stages

1. Basic trust vs mistrust (infancy, oral stage)
2. Autonomy vs shame & doubt (toddler, anal stage)
3. Initiative vs guilt (pre-school, phallic stage)
4. Industry vs inferiority (school years, latency)
5. Identity vs identity confusion (university years, psychological moratorium, trying identities)
6. Intimacy vs isolation (young adulthood, close relationships)
7. Generativity vs stagnation (mid-life, sense of meaningful contribution to the future)
8. Integrity vs despair (old age, wisdom, transcendent satisfaction with life)

Life Narratives
- Express sequences of personal change
- Seeing one’s life as a hero’s journey correlates to greater meaning and wellbeing in life

Entity Theory – personality is fixed

Incremental Theory – personality is malleable
Notes