IDH Notes
Topics Covered:
Week 1: Learning Principles Week 2: Human Development Week 3: Memory
Week 4: Psychological Disorders
Week 5: Health-Risk Behaviours + Motivation Week 6: Behaviour Change
Week 7: Social Psychology Week 8: Communication Week 9: Personality Week 10: Pain Week 11: Emotions Week 12: Stress
Week 1: Learning Principles
Textbook readings: Chapter 1 pages 2-34 Learning Objectives:
Identify and describe the three key models of learning (classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning theory);
Distinguish between the three models of learning;
Examine how the three models of learning contribute to behaviour generally and behaviour in health and human services settings;
Apply learning principles to demonstrate how people present and interact in health and human services settings; and
Explore how specific learning principles can affect behaviour in health and human services setting.
Learning: The relatively permanent change in behaviour or knowledge which results from practice or experience.
Adaptive health related behaviour that can be acquired through learning:
- Healthy eating behaviour - Exercise behaviour - Social behaviour etc.
Maladaptive health related behaviours that can be acquired through learning:
- Substance acquired behaviours (e.g. drugs)
- Avoidance behaviours (e.g. swallowing pills, needle phobias)
Why is learning important?
- Everything we can do is learnt through acquired learning
- Behaviour in health and service settings can be understood by understanding learning
3 Learning Principles:
1. Classical conditioning 2. Operant conditioning 3. Social learning theory
Classical conditioning: (Learning through association)
A learning process in which an originally neutral stimulus, by repeated pairing with a stimulus that normally produces some response (unconditional stimulus), comes to produce a similar or even identical response (conditioned stimulus).
Classic example: Ivan Pavlov, study of digestion in dogs (1890’s):
- Dogs began salivating before meat was presented, when they heard footsteps in corridor - Respond with salivation to stimulus other than meat (footsteps)
Counterconditioning:
Counterconditioning is when one conditioned response is extinguished while another response is established.
Systematic Desensitisation is a form of counterconditioning that trains the client to maintain a state of relaxation in the presence of imagined or real anxiety-inducing objects or events. (Used to cure phobias)
Systematic Desensitisation:
Step 1: Teach the client a relaxation technique (e.g. Benson’s or Jacobson’s relaxation)
Step 2: Assist the client with the construction of an anxiety hierarchy of feared objects or situations.
Step 3: Proceed through hierarchy using imagery.
Step 4: In vivo (performed or taking place in a living organism) desensitisation achieved.
Operant Conditioning: (Learning through consequences)
A conditioning procedure in which behaviour becomes more or less probable depending on whether the behaviour has been reinforced or punished.
Reinforcement:
Consequences that lead to increases in behaviour.
Types of reinforcers:
- Primary reinforcers: events that are inherently reinforcing because they satisfy biological needs (value doesn’t need to be learned).
- Secondary reinforcers: Value of secondary reinforcers are learned.
Delivery of Reinforcement can be Positive or Negative:
Positive Reinforcement:
- The presentation of a rewarding stimulus after a particular response to increase the probability of the behaviour occurring again
- Everyday example: Receiving good marks for studying hard
- Health related example: Feeling good after exercise (e.g. rehabilitation programs) Negative Reinforcement:
- A response or behaviour is strengthened by stopping, removing, or avoiding a negative outcome or aversive stimulus
- Everyday example: Applying sunscreen (the behaviour) before going to the beach to avoid getting sunburned (removal of the aversive stimulus)
- Health related example: Workplace drug testing
Schedules of reinforcement:
Continuous schedules of reinforcement:
Delivery of reinforcement after every response e.g. praise a patient after every rehabilitation exercise.
Advantage: Good in the beginning
Disadvantage: Prone to satiation (to supply beyond capacity or desire), easily extinguished
1. Ratio schedules – reinforcement based on the number of responses Fixed Ratio Schedule:
- E.g. Frequent flyer program: getting a free flight after accumulating a certain number of flights
Variable Ratio Schedule:
- E.g. An average number of responses must occur for reinforcement to occur
2. Interval schedules – schedules of reinforcement based on time Fixed Interval Schedules:
- Individual is rewarded for the first response after a specified period of time e.g. reward a child with praise (chocolate biscuit etc.) after every 5 minutes of performing eye exercises Variable Interval Schedule:
- An individual is rewarded for the first response after an average time interval
What schedule produces the most stable and enduring learning?
Variable ratio and variable interval because they are the most unpredictable.
Punishment:
Consequences that lead to decreases in behaviour.
Punishment can be positive or negative.
Positive punishment:
- The presentation of an aversive stimulus after a particular response that decreases the probability of the behaviour occuring again
- Everyday example: Smacking a child for misbehaving, glare when looking into the sun - Health related example: Use of physical restraint to stop self-injury behaviour in children.
Negative punishment:
- Response cost: involves the removal of a positive event after a response that decreases the probability of the behaviour occuring again
- Everyday example: Withdrawal of affection when child throws a tantrum
- Health related example: Certain activities have been withheld from patients with anorexia for not eating
Treatment – positive reinforcement:
‘The application of operant conditioning principles to treat illness related behaviour and to optimise recovery.’
Social Learning Theory: (learning through observations)
Developed by Albert Bandura in 1960s.
Bandura acknowledged that we learn through direct experience, however we also learn by Observational Learning (Modelling).
Everyday examples of Modelling:
- Children learn a significant proportion of their behaviours through observation (e.g. from observing a sibling being rewarded for throwing a tantrum, how to play games and sports through observing others, aggressive behaviour)
NOTE: Individual observed in a social setting are called models.
Aggressive behaviour in children – Bandura (1965):
Aim: Demonstrate that learning can take place without direct reinforcement/punishment.
3 groups of pre-school aged kids watched same film, each with a different ending.
- Adult rewarded for being aggressive - Adult punished for being aggressive - No consequences
Children then observed playing alone in room with Bobo doll.
Conclusion: The children who watched the movie that ended in the adult being rewarded for being aggressive displayed aggressive behaviour towards the Bobo doll.
Modelling of health enhancing behaviours:
- Someone looking better after giving up smoking Modelling of health compromising behaviours:
- Observe friends, relatives being more sociable after drinking alcohol
The use of modelling in professional settings:
1. It can improve health by motivating individuals to engage in behaviours that can aid recovery/improve their health
2. It can reduce fear/anxiety in health and human service settings (e.g. preparing children for surgery)
3. It can lead to improvement in health by increasing self-efficacy – it can give people the confidence that they can perform ‘difficult’ behaviours. (e.g. older person after hip replacement modelling rehab off another hip replacement patient)
Week 2: Human Development
Textbook readings: Chapter 2 (35-81) Learning Objectives:
Describe two key models of psychological development (Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development);
Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development;
behavioural changes;
health and human services settings; and
psychosocial development. (Is this the ‘issues of development psychology?)
Development: The process of change which begins its pattern at conception and continues throughout life.
Influenced by biological/psychological and environmental factors.
Inner processes and external events contribute to changes in personality throughout life.
Types of influences:
Normative influences:
- Age-related biological changes - Predictable social transition events
- E.g. physical changes such as puberty or menopause
Non-normative influences:
- Unpredictable events
- Unusual, have a significant impact on an individual - E.g. serious illness or death in the family
Issues of development psychology:
Nature vs nurture:
- How much of an individual is because of genes or the environment they grow up in?
Critical vs sensitive periods:
- Whether something needs to happen in a timeframe or when it is only ideal for it to occur.
Continuity vs discontinuity:
- A continuous process (such as growth) as opposed to a sudden change, like menstruation.
Stability vs change:
- Does a personality remain the same, or change throughout life? E.g. adolescence
Piaget’s Theory for Cognitive development:
NOTE: Piaget’s theory is cumulative; have to make it through one stage before progressing to the next
Schemas: Mental structures that help individuals interpret the world; schemas are the building blocks of developmental change.
Assimilation: How a new experience is incorporated into an existing schema Accommodation: How a new experience causes an existing schema to change
Stages of cognitive development:
Stage/Ages Characteristic and major accomplishments
Sensorimotor (0-2) Child begins life with small number of
sensorimotor sequences (uses motor actions;
the movement of muscles with a specific intention)
Child develops object permanence and the beginnings of symbolic thought
Preoperational (2-7) Child’s thought is marked by egocentrism and centration
Child has improved ability to use symbolic thought
Concrete operational (7-11) Child achieves understanding of conservation Child can reason with respect to concrete, physical objects
Formal operational (11+) Child develops capacity for abstract reasoning and hypothetical thinking.
Key words:
- Object permanence: refers to children’s understanding that objects exist and behave independently of their actions or awareness
- Egocentrism: the inability for child to imagine things from another point of view - Centration: focus on one characteristic of something
- Conservation: children know that the physical properties of objects do not change when nothing is added or taken away, even though the objects’ appearance changes.
Erikson’s Theory of psychosocial development:
- Examines how people interact with others and how we progress through separate stages at different times throughout our life.
- Erikson identified 8 stages through which a healthy developing human should pass from infancy to late adulthood
Infancy – trust vs mistrust (0-2years):
- Crisis faced is a sense of basic trust versus basic mistrust
- To be able to develop a sense of trust sufficient care must be met, with adequate attention and needs looked after.
- If carers are neglectful or abusive, mistrust develops - A child will learn to move, crawl, and toddle around.
Toddler – autonomy vs self-doubt (2-3 years):
- Can now initiate contact with others without waiting for someone to come to them - Increased mobility, explores surroundings
- Parents still provide strong base of security Childhood – initiative vs guilt (3-5 years):
- Can balance, stand on one foot, run, climb, and explore the environment independently - Primary drive is to explore their environment in a communicative sense
- New emotion of guilt, when actions don’t achieve a desired response
Mid-childhood – industry vs inferior (6-12 years):
- Children start recognising their special talents and continue to discover interests as their education improves
- Industry is going through with the action competently; not perfect but well enough - Competency gives the feeling of adequacy, failure brings inadequacy
Adolescence – identity vs role (12-20 years):
- This is the stage where people are exploring and experimenting with different aspects of themselves
- Dressing differently, dying hair, discovering who they want to be
- Dealing with expectation from external forces such as parents and society Early adulthood – intimacy vs isolation:
- Aim to feel comfortable with ourselves, establish good friendships, establish a family Mid-adulthood – generativity vs stagnation:
- What am I generating? What am I doing that actually means anything?
- The need to contribute to society and do things to benefit future generations/
- Those who fail to attain this skill fell unproductive and uninvolved in the world Senior – integrity vs despair:
- Reflection on the life lived and enjoying life in retirement. Slowdown in productivity.
- If we see our lives as unproductive or didn’t accomplish our life goals we become dissatisfied, leading to depression and hopelessness.
- Success at this stage will lead to the virtue of wisdom.
Summary of Erikson’s stages of Psychosocial Development:
Approximate age Crisis Adequate resolution Inadequate resolution 0-2 Trust vs mistrust Basic sense of safety Insecurity, anxiety
2-3 Autonomy vs
self-doubt
Perception of self as agent capable of controlling own body and making things happen
Feelings of inadequacy
3-6 Initiative vs guilt Confidence in oneself as initiator, creator
Feelings of lack of self- worth
6-12 (puberty) Competence vs inferiority
Adequacy in basic social and intellectual skills
Lack of self-confidence, feelings of failure 12-20 (adolescence) Identity vs role
confusion
Comfortable sense of self as a person
Sense of self as fragmented, shifting, unclear sense of self Early adulthood Intimacy vs
isolation
Capacity for closeness and commitment to another person
Feeling of aloneness, separation; denial of need for closeness
Middle-adulthood Generativity vs stagnation
Focus of concern beyond oneself to family, society, future generations
Self-indulgent concerns;
lack of future orientation
Later-adulthood (senior)
Integrity vs despair
Sense of wholeness, basic satisfaction with life
Feelings of futility
(pointlessness/uselessness), disappointment
