SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY IN CLINICS

• Nimra Waseem
• Eraj Nadeem
• Abdullah Saeed
• Aiza Qayyum
• Ahmed Ashraf
 What influences the accuracy of
Accuracy in judgement judgement in clinics

Clinical judgements are based on what side of thought

clinician is using to perceive it and solve the issue.
 Clinical judgements are also social judgements
 The science of medicine is not diminished by
acknowledging that the notions of health and
illness are socially constructed.
 Clinical judgments are vulnerable to illusory
correlations, overconfidence bred by hindsight,
and self-confirming diagnoses.
 “The phenomenon of perceiving a relationship between
Illusory Correlations variables even when no such relationship exists.”

Reducing illusory correlation

• Utilize standardized and evidence-based assessment tools and

diagnostic criteria.
• Conduct thorough and comprehensive evaluations of patients.
• Avoid jumping to conclusions based on a perceived correlation.
• Seek collaboration and consultation with colleagues or
specialists.
 also known as the "I-knew-it-all-along" phenomenon,
Hindsight & refers to the tendency to perceive an event as having
been predictable or foreseeable after it has occurred.
overconfidence
 Clinicians may retrospectively overestimate
their ability to predict a patient's condition or
the effectiveness of a particular treatment.
 Clinicians may overestimate their diagnostic
abilities, believing that they can accurately
identify a specific disorder based on limited
information or their own clinical experience.
 The process of diagnosing or identifying a
Self-Confirming
medical condition in yourself and then providing
that information to clinician.
Diagnoses

 Clinicians may unconsciously focus on

information that confirms their initial diagnostic
impressions or hypotheses while overlooking or
minimizing contradictory evidence.
 Diagnostic overshadowing occurs when pre-
[use this space to place an image that best captures the
existing diagnoses or beliefs about a patient's main idea of point #2]
condition overshadow or distort the
interpretation of new information
 When recalling patient information, clinicians
may have a tendency to remember details that
support their preconceived notions while
forgetting or downplaying contradictory
information.
 CLINICAL VS STATISTICAL
PREDICTION Most clinicians and interviewers express more
confidence in their intuitive assessments than in
It provides an objective and systematic statistical data
approach to understanding psychological
To make informed decision in clinical setting it is
phenomena and treatment outcomes. important to use both technique (clinical intuition and
statistical data)
Statistical data enables clinicians to
compare different interventions or
treatment approaches.
Statistical data provides information on
the probability of specific outcomes and
potential risks associated with different
interventions.
Cognitive Processes Behind
Behavior Problems

THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN COGNITIVE

PROCESSES AND BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS
Depression

● Depressed individuals think in

negative terms
● Magnify bad experiences, minimize
good ones
● Intensely pessimistic outlook on life
● Self-defeating thinking patterns

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 Depression and Negative
Explanatory Style

● Pessimistic explanatory style can lead to

depression
● Those with pessimistic explanatory style
are more likely to become depressed
● Negative self-image, attributions, and
expectations are essential links in a vicious
circle
● People with pessimistic explanatory style
offer stable, global, and internal
attributions for bad events
Distortion or Realism?

● Study by Alloy and Abramson on

depressed vs. non-depressed college
students
● Depressed individuals more accurate
in estimating control
● Non-depressed individuals exaggerate
their control
● Phenomenon of depressive realism

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Negative Thinking and
Depression

● Negative thinking is both a cause

and a result of depression
● Depressed moods cause negative
thinking
● Moods color our thinking
● Bad mood primes negative
recollections and expectations

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 Negative Thinking and
Depression (cont.)

● Depression affects behavior

● Withdrawal, glumness, quick to
complain
● Negative thinking triggers social
rejection
● Depressed behavior can lead to
reciprocal depression in others

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Negative Thinking Causes
Depressed Moods
● Depression-prone people respond to
bad events with rumination and self-
blame
● Negative thinking leads to negative
mood, which fuels negative behavior
● Psychological understanding of
depression by Lewinsohn and
colleagues

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Depression and Cultural
Factors
● Decline of religion and family plus growth
of individualism breeds hopelessness and
self-blame
● Major depression is less common and less
tied to guilt and self-blame in non-Western
cultures
● The modern emphasis on individual
fulfillment and depreciation of marriage
and family life may be loneliness- and
depression-provoking
● Job-related mobility has caused fewer long-
term family and social ties and increased
loneliness
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Loneliness

● Loneliness is a painful awareness of

insufficient social relationships
● Modern cultures have fewer close
social relationships
● Possible causes: individual
fulfillment, depreciation of marriage
and family life, job-related mobility

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Feeling Lonely and Excluded

● Loneliness need not coincide with

aloneness
● Feeling lonely is feeling excluded
from a group, unloved, and alienated
● Loneliness has physical and emotional
effects
● Increased risk of high blood pressure,
heart disease, accelerated physical
decline

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Shyness as a form of social anxiety

 Shyness characterized by self-consciousness and worry about what others think

 Shy people feel anxious in situations where they feel they are being evaluated
 Anxiety in social situations is more of a personality trait for shy individuals
Factors causing anxiety in social situations

 Self-presentation theory: We feel anxious when motivated to impress others but have self-doubts
 Situations that induce anxiety:
 Being with powerful, high-status individuals
 Evaluative contexts (e.g., making a first impression on in-laws)
 Self-consciousness and attention focused on oneself
 Central to self-image situations (e.g., presenting at a professional convention)
 Novel or unstructured situations with uncertain social rules
Paradoxical impressions of shy people

 Shy individuals often appear cautious, unassertive, and agreeable in an attempt to make a good impression
 Over time, shy people are often well-liked due to their lack of egotism, modesty, sensitivity, and discretion
Over personalizing Situations and anxious
concerns

Shy, self-conscious individuals tend to overpersonalize situations, leading to anxious concern

They overestimate others’ attention and evaluation of them
 Worrying about blushing, others’ thoughts, or what to say next is common among shy individuals
Alcohol as a coping mechanism

Chronically self-conscious individuals are more likely to turn to alcohol to reduce anxiety and self-
consciousness
Alcohol lowers anxiety and self-consciousness temporarily
 Shy individuals with alcohol-related issues may be at higher risk of relapse during stress or failure
Symptoms as self Handicapping and excuse
making

Symptoms (e.g., anxiety, depression, alcohol abuse) can serve as a strategic ploy to explain away negative
outcomes
Labeling oneself with symptoms provides an excuse for failure, protecting one’s ego
 Providing alternative explanations for anxiety can reduce shyness
Noticing and interpreting symptoms

 Noticing and interpreting bodily signals is similar to noticing how a car is running
 Most people are not astute judges of their physiological states
 Early signs of illnesses are often subtle and easy to miss
 Interpreting illness : Determining illness

Interpreting symptoms involves matching them with familiar disease schemas

Medical students and psychology students often attribute symptoms to recently learned schemas
 Critical questions: Does the symptom match our idea of a serious condition?
Deciding to seek medical Treatment

 Factors influencing the decision to seek medical care:

 Belief in a physical cause rather than a psychological cause
 Embarrassment, perceived benefits of treatment, and fear of a devastating diagnosis
 Gender difference: Women report more symptoms, use more medications, and visit physicians more often
than men
Emotions and illness

 Emotional factors linked to heart disease, stroke, and other ailments

 Anger-prone personality linked to heart disease
 Depression increases the risk of various illnesses, including heart disease
 Negative emotions contribute to depression and anxiety among the chronically ill
Stress and illness

 Experiments on animals show that uncontrollable stress lowers the body's resistance.
 Animals subjected to uncontrollable shocks are more likely to develop tumors and have weakened immune
responses.
 Highly stressful experiences in humans can make them more vulnerable to diseases.
Explanatory Style and illness

 Pessimistic explanations of bad events contribute to increased vulnerability to illness.

 Baseball Hall of Fame members offering pessimistic explanations tended to die at younger ages.
 Optimists who explain good events in stable, global, and internal ways usually outlive pessimists.
 Social psychology approaches to treatment

Social therapy, a relatively new intervention pioneered in  Frustration

the late 1970s, helps children develop strategies to  Emotional connectivity
develop friendships as they grow older. This helps
decrease a sense of loneliness, isolation and stress the  Depression
child may be experiencing.Social therapy is an  Sadness
intervention that is based on groups, and the role of an
individual within that group. The therapy was developed
to help an individual who is experiencing psychological
issues or anxiety to regulate their emotions and build
connections to others by participating in group
therapeutic settings.Common social issues those with
Cerebral Palsy experience include.
 Anxiety
 Shyness
Goals of social therapy

 Teaching children to learn through experiences with other people

 Encouraging positive social interactions and cooperation
 Helping children develop confidence
 Creating sustainable social environments for children
 Empowering a child to contribute to the group
 Eliminating physical and psychological barriers to social interaction
 Realizing the benefits and joy of interaction
Benefits of social therapy

 Enhancing relationships  Decreasing feelings of loneliness and isolation

 Developing personality  Reducing stress and anxiety
 Increasing creativity  Enhancing social skill
 Increasing productivity  Encourages friendships
 Encouraging collaborative efforts
 Encouraging learning by example
 Increasing independence
 Enhancing self-regulation and coping skills
Inducing internal change through external
behavior

 Inducing Internal Change Through External BehaviorChanges in external behavior can trigger internal
change. Ex: If you tell yourself every morning that you are beautiful and it's going to be a great day, you will
have a positive outlook and feel better about yourself. Saying is believing!
 Breaking vicious circle

Ever had one of those days, when things just spin out of control no matter what you do? You have? Welcome to
the club of "life on rotation". Because this is what happens when vicious circle takes over your life.This,
however, does not have to be. Personally and professionally, I have found 5 strategies to be most effective in
stopping yourself from going into a catatonic maze in times of vicious circle. These strategies are interrelated,
and when applied can help you keep your sanity.
Shift your focus by letting go of the problem and not trying to fix things. There are times when situations are
best left alone temporarily. Your wanting to control a volatile or calamitous situation when you are
overwhelmed only makes things worse.
The best approach is to turn your attention to other matters and relax.
Choose your thoughts carefully. It is only natural that when things get out of control your thinking gets
impaired. Still, it is important to watch your thoughts and emotions. For these are powerful energy which can
constrict or open your path to finding new solutions, depending on how you use them.
Continue…

be open to others. Invite other people into your life by having a giving heart. Share your knowledge and joy with
people who want them.
Social skill training
Training in social skills helps master specific skills -- for example, improving one's telephone manners, using
eye contact when speaking with others, or maintaining a certain amount of personal space with people that
interfere with their jobs or daily lives.
Explanatory style therapy
Explanatory style is based on how one explains good and bad events according to three dimensions:
personalization, permanence, and pervasiveness. With an optimistic explanatory style, good events are explained
as personal, permanent, and pervasive, whereas bad events are explained as external, temporary, and specific.
Maintaining change through internal
attribution

Maintaining change through internal attribution for successAttribution theory is concerned with how individuals
interpret events and how this relates to their thinking and behaviour. Heider (1958) was the first to propose a
psychological theory of attribution, but Weiner and colleagues (e.g., Jones et al, 1972; Weiner, 1974, 1986)
developed a theoretical framework that has become a major research paradigm of social psychology. Attribution
theory assumes that people try to determine why people do what they do, i.e., attribute causes to behaviour. A
person seeking to understand why another person did something may attribute one or more causes to that
behaviour. A three-stage process underlies an attribution:
(1) the person must perceive or observe the behaviour,
(2) then the person must believe that the behaviour was intentionally performed, and
(3) then the person must determine if they believe the other person was forced to perform the behaviour (in
which case the cause is attributed to the situation) or not (in which case the cause is attributed to the other
person)
Social influence therapy

Social Influence Therapy is an approach to treatment that attempts to change the clients' attitudes or perspective
by employing a range of persuasive tactics adopted from areas outside of therapy.
 How do social relationships
support health and well-being?

Our relationships are fraught with stress

Close relationships and health

 Close relationships predict health. Health risk are

greater among lonely people, who often experience
more stress, sleep less well, and commit suicide more
often. Compared with those who have few social ties
 Married people also tend to live healthier, longer lives
than their unmarried counterparts.
Close relationships and health
CONFIDING AND HEALTH

 There is a link between social support and health. Those who

enjoy close relationships eat better, exercise more, and smoke and
drink less. Friends and family help bolster our self-esteem. A
supportive network helps us evaluate and overcome stressful
events.
 Social support has been linked with better-functioning
cardiovascular and immune systems.
 Relationships and health
POVERTY, INEQUALITY, AND HEALTH

 Connections between health and the feelings of control

that accompany a positive explanatory style. Feelings of
control and support together with health care and
nutritional factors help explain why economic status
correlates with longevity.
 The correlation between poverty and ill health could run
either way. Bad health isn’t good for one’s income. But
most evidence indicates that the arrow runs from poverty
toward ill health.
 Poverty and its associated stresses help explain the lower
life expectancy of disadvantaged minorities.
Close Relationships and Happiness

 Confiding painful feelings is good not only for the

body but for the soul as well. people are happier
when supported by a network of friends and
family.
Close Relationships and Happiness
FRIENDSHIPS AND HAPPINESS

 Individuals with few or many close

relationships. Being attached to friends
with whom we can share intimate
thoughts has two effects, “It redoubleth
joys, and cutteth griefs in half.”
Close Relationships and Happiness
MARITAL ATTACHMENT AND HAPPINESS

 Most people are happier attached

than unattached. Compared with
those single or widowed, and
especially compared with those
divorced or separated, married people
report being happier and more
satisfied with life.
 More important than being married, however, is the
marriage’s quality. People who say their marriages
are satisfying—who find themselves still in love
with their partners—rarely report being unhappy,
discontented with life, or depressed.
Why are married people generally happier?

 Happy people are more fun to be with. They are also more outgoing, trusting, compassionate, and focused on
others. Unhappy people, as we have noted, are more often socially rejected. Depression often triggers marital
stress, which deepens the depression. So, positive, happy people do more readily form happy relationships.
Marriage enhances happiness for at least two
reasons:

 First, married people are more likely to enjoy an enduring, supportive, intimate relationship and are less likely to
suffer loneliness.
 Second, Marriage offers the roles of spouse and parent, which can provide additional sources of self-esteem.
Enhancing happiness:

 Realize that enduring happiness

doesn’t come from “making it.”
 Take control of your time.
 Act happy.
 Join the “movement” movement.
 Give your body the sleep it wants.
 Give priority to close
relationships.
 Focus beyond the self.
 Keep a gratitude journal.