(HW)

Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology dedicated to studying how people think
(their internal thinking, emotion, creativity and problem-solving abilities affect they
function).
Behavioural Psychology is the study of the connection our minds and our behaviour. How our
behaviour affects our ability to function in daily life decisions and situations.
Emotional is the body’s way of showing emotions which are conscious mental reactions such
as anger, sadness or fear which are strongly directed towards an object or a living thing.
Depression is a mental disorder that includes a low mood or loss of pleasure or interest in
activities for long periods of time.
Behavioural Characteristics of depression
 Activity Levels
(Reduced levels of energy tending to education, work, school and social life).
 Disruption to eating and sleeping behaviour
(Depression can decrease or increase the average level or interest of a person wanting
to eat and sleep).
 Aggression and self-harm
(Irritation levels increase therefore an increase of verbal or physical abuse towards
others and themselves).
Emotional Characteristics of Depression
 Lowered mood
(Sadness an increase of emotion leaning more to sadness and verbal abuse to oneself
ex. Worthless and pathetic).
 Anger
(Negative emotions tend to show however under extreme conditions anger can be
shown, especially towards themselves or others).
 Lowered self-esteem
(Reduction of self-esteem, the emotional process of disliking ours little by little).
Cognitive Characteristics of Depression
 Poor Concentration
(Reduced levels of concentration, the ability to not complete a task properly or fully
in addition poor decision making).
 Attending to and dwelling on the negative
(When experiencing depression persons tend to dwell on the more negative aspects of
a situation instead of the positive. High recall of unhappy events).
 Absolutist thinking
(Over-exaggerating the situation, if the situation is unfortunate then they tend to see it
as an absolute disaster).

Two Methods to treating Depression

  BCT (Beck’s Cognitive Therapy) An addition to CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy)
It is used to identify automatic thoughts about the world the self and the future this is the
negative triad. Once identified the thoughts must be on trial therefore the central component
of therapy. Other than directly challenging these thoughts, CT (Cognitive Therapy) aims to
help clients test the reality of their negative beliefs. They then are old to recall or write when
they enjoyed an even or when people were nice to them and this method is called the ‘client
as scientist’ investigating the reality of their negative beliefs in a way a scientist would. If the
client or patient would bring the past event they previously enjoyed and say it was horrible or
no one was nice to them the scientist or doctor would use the previously written evidence and
rebel against the clients claims.
 Ellis Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (EREBT)
This method extends the ABC model to an ABCDE model D stands for dispute and E for
effect. The REBT central method is to detect and irradicate irrational thoughts. Ex. A client
might say how unlucky they have been or how unfair things have been for them or seem. An
REBT Therapist would identify these findings of utopianism (the use of describing ideologies
that aim to create an ideal society that does not exist a utopian society), and challenge the
clients’ spouts as an irrational belief. A vigorous argument would surface. This intended
effect is used to break the link between negative life events and reality. This method is the
hallmark, the centre of REBT making Ellis identifying different disputing methods.

CBT is short for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

CBT is a type of psychotherapy which is a psychological treatment that helps to reduce the
mental disorders spectrum by changing the unhelpful or unhealthy persons way of thinking,
feeling and behaving (emotional, cognitive and behavioural).
Challenging Irrational Thoughts can be done by using EREBT which can dispute the
challenging thoughts and break the link between utopia societies and reality. Challenging
irrational thoughts means by arguing vigorously with a patient that an REBT therapist may
have diagnosed with utopianism by doing this it helps to break the connection the client
seems to have between reality and their utopian society or societies.

Phobias
Phobias are an irrational fear of an object or situation
 Classical Conditioning:
This means learning to associate something we initially have no fear of (neutral
stimulus) with something that already triggers a fear response (known as an
unconditioned stimulus).
 John Watson and Rosalie Rayner (1920) stimulated a phobia in a 9-mont old baby
called ‘Little Albert’. Albert showed no unusual anxiety at the start of the study.
When shown a white rat he interacted and tried to play with it. However, the
experimenters set out to give Albert a phobia. When Albert was in the presence of the
white rat investigators made loud banging noise by banging an iron bar close to
 Alberts ear. The noise is the unconditioned stimulus which erupted an unconditioned
response of fear. When the rat a neutral stimulus and the UCS (the noise) are now
interacted together so close in time the NS (the rat) becomes associated with the UCS
(the noise) which both now produce the fear response (UCR). In addition, the rat now
evokes fear in Albert, which now the rat is the conditioned stimulus and the fear from
Albert the conditioned response.
 In conclusion this conditioning was generalised with similar objects. For example,
when Little Albert was put in front of anything furry objects a sign of distress was
produced.

 Operant Conditioning
This type of conditioning only takes place when reinforcement (a presence of reward)
is present or punishment. Reinforcement tends to increase the frequency of a certain
type of behaviour this applies for positive or negative reinforcement. In case of
negative reinforcement, the individual tends to avoid a situation which is unpleasant.
 Mowrer suggested that whenever we avoid a phobic stimulus, we successfully escape
the fear and anxiety that would’ve been experienced if we had stayed there. This
reduction in fear reinforces the avoidance behaviour and so the phobia is maintained.

Behavioural Characteristics of Phobias

 Panic
(A response from interacting in the presence of a phobic stimulus may involve a
range of behaviours including crying, screaming, or running away. This is a state of
panic).
 Avoidance
(Unless there is an attempt being made by being in the phobic situation deliberately
or facing the phobia then a sign of avoidance is shown when the person completely
avoiding which can affect their daily life).
 Endurance
(the alternate response instead of avoidance is endurance, this happens when the
person chooses to stay in the phobic situation or stimulus instead of avoiding it)

Emotional Characteristics of Phobias

 Anxiety
(Persons display anxiety when faced or in the presence of the phobic stimulus.
Anxiety can be long-lasting and, in this state, it’s hard for the person to experience
any positive emotion).
 Fear
(When faced with the phobic stimulus fear can surface this is an unpleasant and
immediate emotion or response persons experience).
 Emotional Response is Unreasonable
 (The response of fear or anxiety is much greater than ‘normal ‘and disproportionate
to any threat present).

Cognitive Characteristics of Phobias

 Selective Attention to the phobic stimulus
(Keenly looking or focusing on the phobic stimulus and zoning out other things in the
area, focusing on the threat can cause the person to react more quickly).
 Irrational Beliefs
(When in presence of phobic stimulus or stimuli unfounded thoughts may surface or
occur which has no basis to reality).
 Cognitive distortions
(The perceptions of a person with a phobia may be inaccurate and unrealistic).

The two-process model states that phobias are learned by classical and operant conditioning
maintains it. The phobia is learnt through association and kept and reinforced by rewards or
punishments via positive or negative reinforcement.

OCD
Genetic Explanations of OCD:
Differences in certain genes that supplies information for proteins that react to or transport
serotonin which have been connected to an increase risk of OCD.
 Candidate Genes
(Researchers have identified genes that may increase the risk of OCD levels which is
called candidate genes. Some of these genes aid in the development of the Serotonin
System).
 OCD is Polygenic
(Research has shown that OCD is not caused by one gene but a combination of
genetic variations that together increase the vulnerability of OCD- increase the
chance).
Steven Taylor (2013) analysed previous findings of other studies (a meta-analysis)
found evidence that up to 230 different genes may be involved in OCD. The action of
dopamine as well as serotonin.
 Different types of OCD
(One group of genes may cause OCD in one individual however a different group of
genes may cause it in another. The term heterogenous best describes this
phenomenon. OCD may also be caused by different genetic variations like a hoarding
disorder or religious obsession).
Neural Explanations of OCD:
The genes that may affect the role of key neurotransmitters as well as structures of the brain,
these are neural explanations.
 The role of Serotonin
(The role of neurotransmitter serotonin for OCD, which is believed to help regulate
the mood. If a person has low levels of serotonin, then normal transmission of mood-
relevant information does not take place and a person may experience low moods. In
addition, some cases show OCD can be explained by a reduction in the functioning of
the serotonin system in the brain).
 Decision-making systems
(This may be associated with the abnormal functioning in the frontal lobes; the sides
or lateral of them. The frontal lobes are responsible for decision making and logical
thinking).

OCD is the shortened version of obsessive-compulsive disorder which is known to be as a

mental disorder that can affect persons with low serotonin levels in the serotonin system.
Behavioural Characteristics of OCD
 Compulsions are repetitive
 Compulsions reduce anxiety
 Avoidance

Emotional Characteristics of OCD

 Anxiety and Stress
 Accompanying depression
 Guilt and Disgust

Cognitive Characteristics of OCD

 Obsessive Thoughts
 Cognitive coping strategies
 Insight into excessive anxiety