CBT for Stress

CBT combines both the cognitive and behavioural approaches to psychology to provide a treatment for many things, in this case stress. It is based on two assumptions. ) Abnormal behaviour is the result of thinking traps e.g. catastrophising, black or white thinking and an all or nothing attitude and 2) Behaviour can be learnt ,thus it can also be unlearnt CBT sees behaviour as the result of a stimulus and a thought. So a stimulus is present in the persons environment, for example exams, a faulty thought or cognition occurs like 'I don't know anything!' and this causes an abnormal behaviour like throwing your revision guide at someone. CBT believes that by changing these faulty cognitions to healthier ones the behaviour will change as a result. In stress this form of therapy can be broken down into two sections - hardiness training and stress inoculation therapy. There are three stages to SIT - Stage 1: Conceptualization - The therapist and client explore how the client views and copes with stress Stage 2: Skill acquisition & rehearsal - This can be broken down into two types: Direct action and Cognitive Coping. Direct action is physical coping skills e.g. knowing an escape root in a stressful environment or breathing techniques. Cognitive coping is training the client to think differently e.g. 'I can cope', 'If I miss my deadline my life will not be over'. The client

  • Word count: 495
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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Outline the findings of studies into sleep deprivation and assess their implications for one or more theories of sleep.

Outline the findings of studies into sleep deprivation and assess their implications for one or more theories of sleep. In this essay, I will be looking into 4 different studies of total and partial sleep deprivation and will be assessing their implications for Restoration theory of sleep. According to restoration theory, the purpose of sleep is to repair and recharge the brain and body through restoring energy resources, repair and growth of tissue cells and muscles, and replenishing neurochemicals. Firstly, I will be looking into total sleep deprivation research. Peter Trip, a New York DJ took part in a 'wakeathon' for charity he stayed wake for 8 days, which resulted in delusions and hallucinations. Another case study by Randy Gardener a 17 year old student stayed awake for 11 day which resulted in disorganised speech, blurred vision and a small degree of paranoia. However after two nights longer sleep with longer spend in REM (rapid eye movement) he returned to normal sleep patterns. This show that total sleep deprivation does not have a long lasting effects on people health or sleep patterns. Both of the case studies support Oswald (1980) who claimed that none REM sleep restored the body and REM sleep restored the brain, through protein synthesis. Both of the studies were case studies so cannot be generalised to the whole population. Huber-Weidman (1976) reviewed a

  • Word count: 649
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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Outline one theory of the function of sleep.

Outline one theory of the function of sleep. There are two main theories in psychology offered to explain the function of sleep. One is called the ecological or evolutionary theory. The basis of this theory is that the reason why all animals sleep is because sleep serves some adaptive function. The notion of adaptiveness comes from the theory of evolution. The idea is that any behaviour that has continued in an animal's gene pool is because it must have been naturally selected because it, in some way, has helped promote the survival and reproduction of an animal possessing that characteristic. An important consideration, when thinking about the function of sleep, is to distinguish between different kinds of sleep: core sleep and other sleep. The two most important kinds of core sleep are slow wave sleep and REM sleep. It is possible that each serves a different adaptive purpose. One of the key criticisms made, in relation to evolutionary theories of sleep, is that many of them suggest that animals sleep in order to waste time. Whereas the restoration view is that sleep is not wasting time but offers the opportunity for key functions to take place. A second criticism is that evolutionary theories may not be suitable for explaining human sleep. Sleep may have been adaptive during the environment of evolutionary adaptation but this hasn't been true for a long time and one

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  • Word count: 714
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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'Depression is a physiological disorder'

'Depression is a physiological disorder' When researching the above statement, I have taken into account what I consider to be some of the main physiological and biological arguments regarding depression as a physical illness, as well as several psychodynamic and behavioural theories in order to attempt to compare the two and result in understanding how true the above statement is. When looking at the physiological view, it can be useful to look at the biological explanation that depression is caused by a disturbance of hormones and brain chemistry. The Endocrine system can seriously affect the behaviours of a person. This system produces hormones that have an effect on many behaviours such as sleep, menstruation and growth. Many conditions that are similar to depression or where depression is one of the main symptoms have been linked to hormonal changes and fluctuations. For example, when looking at Postpartum Depression (PPD) we know that both pregnancy and birth cause massive hormonal changes. 20% of women are reported feeling moderately depressed during this time; few of these then became chronically depressed. In support of this, it has been discovered that the stress hormone 'Cortisol' is very low after giving birth, which could make coping more difficult, leading to depression. It cannot be denied however that many of the women who suffer seriously from PPD have

  • Word count: 1697
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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Rape vs. Sexual Harassment

Rape vs. Sexual Harassment Rape and sexual harassment are serious violations against individuals, both male and female. Many victims of these crimes present a wide range of issues that have diverse negative effects and greatly impact their lives. In the following essay I will define both rape and sexual harassment as well list some of the common effects both events create. Rape is defined as unlawful sexual intercourse with a man/woman without his/her consent. The assault comes as a devastating shock, destroying the victim's ability to maintain the important illusion of personal safety and invulnerability, and threatens many assumptions and beliefs survivors may have about themselves and the world around them. Not surprisingly, most victims exhibit high levels of psychological distress in the first week after the rape. This distress peaks in severity three weeks post-assault, continues at high levels for one to two more months before finally lessening two to three months afterwards. Throughout this process of recovery, victims experience guilt, shame, fear, anxiety, tension, crying spells, an exaggerated startle response, depression, anger (especially toward men), discomfort in social situations, impaired memory and concentration, and hasty mood swings. Even when evaluated several years after the assault, survivors are more likely to have a serious psychiatric diagnosis,

  • Word count: 447
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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What is Fear Conditioning? What are the neural mechanisms underlying it?

What is Fear Conditioning? What are the neural mechanisms underlying it? To understand what fear conditioning is, we must first understand what the term conditioning means. Classical conditioning is a type of learning, in which a neutral stimulus, which initially elicits no response in a subject (conditioned stimulus), is paired with a stimulus that provokes a strong response (unconditioned stimulus). If the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli are presented consecutively and repeatedly, the subject will associate the first stimulus with the second, and will react to the first stimulus alone. Fear conditioning is simply classical conditioning where the unconditioned stimulus evokes fear and thus a fear response is elicited on presentation of the conditioned stimulus. It is one of the mechanisms of survival, so that dangerous situations can be avoided after learning that they have unpleasant effects. Pavlov's experiment in 1901 with dogs is perhaps the most famous of classical conditioning experiments. He found that when dogs were presented with food, the dog salivates. The sound of a bell evoked no similar response. However, after the bell is paired with the food on several trials, the bell alone will generate salivation. The bell is now a conditioned stimulus, and salivation to it is a conditioned response. The dog had been conditioned to respond to the bell. To be able

  • Word count: 1841
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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In Being and Time, States-of-mind show “how one is”.

Jeremiah Smith Philosophy 418 Essay #3-Final, Question #2 Dr. Piotr Hoffman 2/13/01 In Being and Time, States-of-mind show "how one is". Similar to moods, states-of-mind are the barometers of the 'is' of a dasein. Anxiety as a state-of-mind reveals that dasin is anxious. Anxiety is primordially a state-of-mind, and similar to fear and falling states-of-mind. Anxiety as a state-of-mind is a categorical demarcation, and does not pertain to dasein without explanation of how anxiety is anxious. How the state-of-mind of anxiety discloses itself to dasein, through entities within the world as well as dasein's being in the world is key. In paragraph 34, Heidegger explains the notion of falling, dealing with how dasein becomes immersed in the "they" or the others around him as well as how dasein is immersed in his concernful dealings in the world1. This is the conceptual framework in which he wishes to place the notion of Anxiety. Fleeing, the action surrounding falling is in the face of falling. "Dasein's falling into the 'they' and the 'world' of its concern is what we have called 'fleeing' in the face of itself"2. It, like the anxiousness of anxiety is the activity related to a state-of-mind that often lies dormant or unrealized by dasein, and is only made manifest in the face of something. Involved in this character of falling, is dasein's propensity to turn away

  • Word count: 1471
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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Effects after rape.

Effects and aftermath of rape Physical force is not necessarily used in rape, and physical injuries are not always a consequence. Deaths associated with rape are known to occur, though the prevalence of fatalities varies considerably across the world. For victims the more common consequences of sexual violence are those related to reproductive health, mental health, and social wellbeing. Pregnancy Pregnancy may result from rape. The rate varies between settings and depends particularly on the extent to which non-barrier contraceptives are being used. A study of adolescents in Ethiopia found that among those who reported being raped, 17% became pregnant after the rape, a figure which is similar to the 15-18% reported by rape crisis centres in Mexico. A longitudinal study in the United States of over 4000 women followed for 3 years found that the national rape related pregnancy rate was 5.0% per rape among victims aged 12-45 years, producing over 32 000 pregnancies nationally among women from rape each year. Experience of coerced sex at an early age reduces a woman's ability to see her sexuality as something over which she has control. As a result, it is less likely that an adolescent girl who has been forced into sex will use condoms or other forms of contraception, increasing the likelihood of her becoming pregnant. A study of factors associated with teenage pregnancy

  • Word count: 1046
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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Psychology, Stress and the Immune system

Aim: The researcher aimed to find out whether caffeine levels have any affect on reaction time. The researcher's experimental hypothesis is that higher caffeine levels will cause slower reaction times. The researcher's null hypothesis is that caffeine levels will have no effect on reaction times. Procedure: The researcher used an experimental method called a lab experiment and the experiment design that was used was an independent group design. The researcher used 15 participants from Ossett Sixth Form College that were attending their regular AS level Psychology class. The participants were aged between 16 and 17. The researcher used a technique known as an opportunity sample. Opportunity sampling is the sampling technique most used by psychology students. It consists of taking the sample from people who are available at the time the study is carried out and fit the criteria you are looking for. - The researcher asked the participants to split into pairs. They were then asked to split themselves randomly into group A and group B. - The sample was then divided. Group A were given a caffeine based drink and Group B was given a caffeine free drink. The participants from both groups were asked to drink their drinks at the same time. - The participants were left for 15 minutes. This was so that the caffeine, if it did have an effect on reaction time, had time to get into

  • Word count: 712
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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Outline and evaluate biological explanations for schizophrenia

Outline and evaluate biological explanations for schizophrenia There appears to be a tendency for schizophrenia to run in families. This suggests that genesplay a role. The closer the genetic relationship the more likely the people are to share thedisorder. Evidence from family studies by Gottesman showed that when both parent areschizophrenic then there is a 46% chance of the child getting it, however, if only one parenthad it, it dropped to 16% and dropped to a further 1% when the sibling of the child hadschizophrenia. This suggests that a genetic factor is involved. Gottesman also looked atschizophrenics whose father had an identical twin. He found that there was a 17% of beingschizophrenic when the father was but he also found that there was also 17% chance of developing the disease when the father's twin had schizophrenia but the father didn't.MZ twins share 100% of their genes; DZ twins share 50% of their genes. If genes are a factor we would expect more identical twins to share the disorder than non-identical. Rosenthal tooka case study which had a set of female quadruplets. They all developed schizophreniaalthough the onset and symptoms were very different. This could have been a result of havinga troubled upbringing. This suggests a strong heritable component.However, most first degree relatives and twins share the same or similar environments so it isdifficult to

  • Word count: 1200
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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