-the study of the relations between people and groups

-or how situational factors affect the thoughts, feelings, and/or behavior of an individual

-fairly stable evaluation of something as "good" or "bad"

-are learned, but can be changed

-preocessing that requires a great deal of thought, and therefore are likely to predominate under conditions that promote high eleboration

-involves careful scrutiny of a persuasive communication to determine the merits of the arguments

-do not involve elaboration of the message through extensive cognitive processing of the merits of the actual argument presented

-often rely on environmentsl characteristics of the message, like the percieved credibility of the source, quality of the way in which it is presented, the attractiveness of the source, or the catchy slogan that contains the message

-an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously

-proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance

-they do this by changing their attitudes, beliefs and actions or justifying, blaming and denying

an inference about what caused a person's behavior

-situational

-dispositional

-describes the tendency to over-value dispositional or personality based explanations for the observed behavior of others while under-valuing situational explanations for those behaviors

-most visible when people explain the behavior of others

-conformity

-obedience

-compliance

 -presented participants with two 

cards, a standard line and comparison lines

-asked to choose which of the comparison 

lines matched the standard line

-one answer was obviously correct

-when confederates agreed with participants, 

they always chose the right answer

-when all confederates gave the wrong 

responses, MOST participants also gave 

some wrong responses

-less than 25% refused to conform, and gave the correct answer every time

Causes of Comformity

(2)

Informational influence-people's desire to be correct

Normative influence-people's desire not to appear foolish

-when we are in a collectivist culture (i.e., 

East Asia)

-when the group is larger (at least 3 people)

-when the group is unanimous

-when we admire the group’s status and 

attractiveness

-a change in behavior in response to an 

instruction or command from another person

-personality plays a role in odedience

-authoritarian personalities are more obedient–

belief in power, dominance, and respect for 

authority

-but there is more powerful evidence for 

situations producing obedience

-two people are brought into a room and assigned roles

participant = teacher

confederate = learner

-confederate hidden from view of the 

participant

-the teacher gives a shock to the learner when the answer is wrong

-shock increases from slightto XXX

-machine does not actually 

administer a shock

-question: how far will people go when asked to do something?

-about 65% obeyed all the way to the end!

-administered what they though might have 

been life-threatening shocks

• When we believe we are not ultimately 

responsible 

• When there is greater psychological 

distance between actions and the result 

of those actions 

• When victim is dehumanized

• When we perceive the authority figure as 

being more valid

-cited as possible explanation for genocide 

and other atrocities

-normal people can do horrible things without 

much convincing

-results are generally replicated today

-debate over the benefits and ethical 

concerns of this research

Change in behavior in response to a request

-we are asked to do something, but not 

necessarily pressured

-we often comply due to the norm of 

reciprocity

-social standard suggesting a favor should be 

repaid

-and others will owe us if we do them a favor

That’s-not-all:

-start with a modest offer, and then improve on it

Foot-in-the-door:

-start with a small request, then make a larger one

Door-in-the-face:

-request something big (you know you won’t get) 

then make a reasonable request

Low-ball:

-get a commitment, then raise the price

behavior is influenced by the presence of an 

audience

-perform better in the presence of others

-easy tasks and/or things we’re good at

–perform worse in the presence of others

-tasks that are complex or difficult

-when people work as a team, the 

contribution produced by each team member 

is often less than the work each person 

would have done if working independently

The presence of other people can cause 

deindividuation

-individuals lose awareness of themselves as 

separate individuals

-individuals give in to impulses suggested by 

the situation

-it’s produced either by anonymity or by having 

an assigned role

Stanford Prison Experiment

(Zimbardo)

Stanford students assigned roles as 

guards or prisoners

-quickly took on roles of actual guards and 

prisoners

-engaged in abusive and inhumane behavior

-study had to be cut short after only 

several days

decisions made by groups are more extreme 

than decisions made by individuals

-groups will downplay any disagreements or 

differences of opinion among group members

-group members do all they can to promote 

group cohesion.

-people in a group are less likely to help 

strangers in distress than when they’re alone

-the larger the group, the less likely a 

person is to help

-wrongly think that other group members don’t share our perception

-they’re not doing anything, so they must not 

think there’s an emergency

-contributes to bystander effect

-everyone in a group believes that someone else will respond

-contributes to bystander effect

Stages of Prenatal Development From 

Conception to Birth

1.Conception

2. Embryonic Stage (3-8 weeks)

3. Fetal Stage ( 2 months until birth)

• Zygote: fertilized egg formed by the union of sperm and egg

• Nuclei of the two cells merge and create 23 pairs ofchromosomes

• Cell division – zygote divides repeatedly

-this produces a mass of identical cells called the blastocyst

• The blastocyst attaches itself to the uterine wall and is now called the embryo

• Three types of cells result from cell differentiation:

- Skin & Nervous System

- Muscle & Skeletal System

- Respiratory & Digestive System

Placenta – connects embryo to the uterine wall

Umbilical cord – Connects placenta and embryo.

Functions:

– Connect embryo and mother‟s blood supplies

– Allows embryo to take in nutrients, oxygen, and antibodies

– Allows developing embryo to eliminate waste products

• Mass of cells turns from an embryo into a fetus

• Early body systems and structures continue to grow and develop

• Heart begins to beat and rapid growth in the nervoussystem

• Simple behaviors (reflexes) and capacity to learn arepresent in this stage

–neighboring cells help to guide cell differentiation

-i.e., neurons find their way into the right position for properbrain development

–hormones circulating in the fetus‟s blood

-i.e., sex hormones govern development of genitalia

External Factors:

-maternal nutrition & health

–because embryo/fetus are connected to mother's bloodstream, mother's health is important for prenatal development

-teratogens: substances or environmental influences 

that disrupt development 

 Alcohol (fetal alcohol syndrome)

 Lead (Mental Retardation)

-maternal nutrition & health

–because embryo/fetus are connected to mother's bloodstream, mother's health is important for prenatal development

-teratogens

substances or environmental influences that disrupt development 

-alcohol (fetal alcohol syndrome)

-lead (Mental Retardation)

-many aspects of prenatal development have 

sensitive periods for the effects of teratogens

-generally, teratogens are most harmful during 

the embryonic period

• Tremendous neural growth, increase in brain size andcomplexity

• Newborns have fairly advanced sensory capacities:

– Can identify differences in brightness and color

– Differentiate between pitch and loudness

– Preference for mother‟s voice over other voices

-involuntary muscular responses to particular 

stimuli

-serve an adaptive purpose for infants

– grasp reflex:

when an infant‟s palm is touched, she closes her hand into a fist

– rooting reflex:

when an infant‟s cheek stroked, her mouth opens, head turns towards the stimulus

– sucking reflex:

when area around the mouth is stimulated, baby begins to suck

Children as Active Learners

• “Little scientists”

– generate hypotheses, conduct experiments, and draw conclusions

• Learn lessons on their own

– Instruction not necessary

• Intrinsically motivated to learn

– Rewards not necessary

• Schemas continually shaped by:

– Assimilation

• Existing mental schemas used to interpret and act on the 

environment

– Accommodation

• They accommodate new information in 

existing schemas

• Children's schemas change and broaden 

as a result of interactions with the environment.

• Sensorimotor (~ birth-2yrs)

• Preoperational (~2-7 yrs)

• Concrete operational (~7-12 yrs)

• Formal operations (~12+ yrs)

– Discontinuous

each stage is qualitatively different

– Invariant

each stage follows same fixed order

– Universal

same for all children around the world

– Parallel

same rate across multiple domains

• According to Piaget:

– limited to relations between 

Sensations and Actions

• What does that leave out?

– internal representations

Object Permanence

(Sensorimotor)

-the understanding that an 

object exists even when it is out of sight

-piaget thought that infants younger than 8 months did NOT have object permanence 

-Egocentrism

-Animism

 -Inability to interrelate or manipulate mental 

representations

-Fail to consider two physical dimensions 

simultaneously

–Can classify based on a single feature (can group by color but not by shape AND color)

-Fail on conservation tasks

– Piaget thought that children in pre-operational stage failed conservation tasks

inability to distinguish between perspectives of self and other

the understanding that quantity, length or number of items is unrelated to the arrangement or appearance of the object

-volume of liquid

-length

-numbers

–Piaget thought that children in pre-operational stage failed conservation tasks

Achieved:

–ability to classify based on multiple dimensions

–success in conservation tasks

• Elimination of egocentrism

• Can apply mental operations only to concrete objects or events

• Abstract thinking

• Logical reasoning & Problem solving

• Hypothetical-deductive reasoning

– The ability to develop a hypothesis and 

systematically deduce or conclude 

• Take interest in social relations, politics, religion and may challenge beliefs and conventions

•are there actually distinct stages?

•development seems to be much more gradual 

than Piaget thought

•children are constantly acquiring and 

incorporating new knowledge

•change occurs slowly and continuously, rather 

than in big “jumps” 

• Children do not pass a series of conservation 

tasks all at once! 

Number conservation vs. Volume conservation

-number conservation is 

easy for most 5-year-olds

-volume conservation can 

be difficult up to age 10

Culture/Experience makes a difference-->

development not invariant or universal…

-conservation may be delayed in cultures where 

those stimuli are unfamiliar

-not all cultures engage in hypothetical reasoning

-sequence of stages may be a result of schooling

–Piaget criticized for only taking viewpoint of literate societies

 • A couple important changes:

-scale-down the number task

–reduce from 5 coins to 2 or 3

• Change the language of the 

instructions

– “Find the winner”

-By 3, kids succeed by not paying attention 

to the length of the rows

–Preoperational children can 

describe what they see

–But have trouble describing 

what others see

–Inability to take others’ 

perspective

-egocentrism

• Children perform better with more 

familiar, easily differentiated objects 

-i.e., house, playground, etc.

-even 4 & 5 year olds can take others’ perspectives

Picture Task

– Double-faced card: 1 side = dog, 1 side = cat

– “What do you see?” ; “What do I see?”

– Even 3-year-olds can do this correctly!

• The recognition that objects continue to 

exist when out of view.

• Piaget: Infants do not search for hidden 

objects until 8 months

– Conclusion: No Object Permanence??

• Babies (and adults) look LONGER when they’re 

surprised by something

• Show infants 2 events:

– Possible event, consistent with object permanence

– Impossible event, violates object permanence

• If infants have object permanence

– They will look longer at Impossible than Possible event

Results:

• Both 8- and 6.5- month-olds look longer at 

Impossible event

• Infants have Object Permanence at 6.5 

months!

• 3-mo-olds look longer at the 

Impossible event 

-- they expected the mouse to 

appear between the screens

-- if they did NOT have object 

permanence, they wouldn’t have been 

surprised by this.

• 3-mo-olds have object permanence too!

Piaget set the stage for modern child psychology

-taking seriously children’s thinking

-trying to understand how they differ from 

adults

But, children are generally:

-much more competent(at earlier ages) than 

-Piaget believed their performance depends on construction of tasks and their own experience on similar tasks

• Further studies show that infants can perceive 

numerical equivalence

• provided the number of objects in the set is small enough

• 6-month-old Infants get habituated (and look 

less) after being presented with a slide with 3 

of a particular object

• Once that changes to 2 objects, infants look 

longer

• They notice this change

6-month-olds understand others’ actions in 

terms of their goals, and not just the specific 

movements themselves

the concepts we use to 

make sense of our thoughts, emotions, and 

bheaviors, AND those of others

-preschoolers don’t yet have a well-developed 

theory of mind

-limitations can be seen in children’s poor 

performance with false belief tasks

• Virtually all 3-year-olds will mistakenly believe 

that someone who does not see the switch 

will look for the object in the new location

-they assume that everyone shares their beliefs

-they think that others won’t have false beliefs

• By 4.5-5 years, children understand that not 

all knowledge is shared

-individuals may have different beliefs and 

different information available to them

• A symbol is anything that stands for 

something else

• When can children use this relationship 

to solve a simple problem?

The scale model task  (DeLoache): 

Find Snoopy

Procedure:

-2 ½ & 3-yr-olds; Big room & Scale model

-show & hide Snoopy in the big room

-find Snoopy in the scale model room

Results:

-3 yr-olds succeed

-2 ½ yr-olds fail

• Children in preoperational stage are good 

at providing magical explanations for 

complex phenomena

• They also easily accept magical 

explanations from others with little 

questioning

Emotional Milestones:

Expressions present at birth or shortly after

-Distress

-Disgust

-Interest

Emotional Milestones:

Emotions that emerge at about 6 months

-Fear

-Anger

-Surprise

Children pick up on parents’ strategies (Meltzoff)

Infants:

-limited capacity for control (e.g., turn away, suck finger)

-depend on caregiver for soothing

Early Childhood

-gains in language lead to communication with 

caregiver

-develop new strategies

-emotional outbursts decrease

• From a very early age, infants are 

interested in face-to-face interaction

• When infants begin to crawl (7 to 9 months), 

they begin to rely on facial cues.

• Helps them determine if a situation is 

dangerous

-Tronick

-Synchrony between parent-child

-Parent and child are “in tune” and react to each other

-emerges 6-8 months

-peaks 8-10 months

-response to 

unfamiliar people

-peaks 13-15 months

-response to being 

away from caregiver

What contributes to social 

and emotional development?

Two general categories have been studied 

extensively:

-children’s innate emotional tendencies

-parenting and family influences

-individual differences in emotional and 

behavioral functioning

-emerges early in life

-biologically based

-temperamental style influences ability to 

regulate emotions

-also affects social interactions

-parents respond differently to different types 

of temperament

-also related to styles of interacting with peers 

in later childhood

-somewhat stable over time

Adaptability

-response to environmental changes

-“roll with the punches” vs. slow to acclimate

Persistence

-response to challenges and obstacles

-gives up vs. keeps at it

Activity Level

-energetic vs. calm

Easy

-positive mood and adaptable

Slow to warm up

-slow to adapt and low activity level

Difficult

-negative mood, unadaptable, intense

emotional reactions

-difficulty is most widely studied temperament 

dimension

-an enduring 

emotional tie between 2 people

-infants form attachment to 

caregiver(s)

-attachment formed during 2nd

half of the first year of life

-children use their caregivers as a

“secure base” 

-parents provide a “safe haven” so that 

children can explore the world

-this attachment relationship serves as an 

“internal working model”

-guides how they interact in other 

relationships

Why do infants become 

attached?

Evolutionarily adaptive

-beneficial for the child’s safety (and survival) 

to maintain proximity to the caregiver

Feeding?

-behaviorism suggests that infants go to 

mother to get relief from hunger

-positive associations from drive reduction lead 

to attachment

-Harry Harlow

Monkeys reared with surrogate 

moms in a cage

-one wire monkey who provided 

food

-one cloth monkey who did not 

provide food

-babies spent significantly 

more time with the cloth 

mother even though they 

weren’t the one to provide food

-comfort (not just feeding) is a

basis for attachment

-used to assess attachment quality in infants

-used with 1-2 year-old children

-series of separations and reunions from

the caregiver

-a stranger is introduced

-how does baby react to this 

somewhat stressful situation?

~ 65% of US children

-explore freely in caregiver’s presence

-often visibly upset when caregiver leaves

-greet caregiver warmly at reunio

~35% of US children

Categories:

Avoidant Attachment

-not distressed by separation

-avoid contact with caregiver upon reunion

 Resistant Attachment

-very distressed and don’t settle easily upon reunions

-mix proximity-seeking and angry behaviors

  Disorganized Attachment

-no coherent strategy

-best predictor of becoming securely attached

Benefits:

-better problem-solving skills

-greater social competence/peer relations

-less aggression, more empathy

-emotional implications later on (self-esteem, less  anxiety, less emotional distress…)

-Mary Main

-retrospective accounts of own experiences

-e.g., What were your parents like?

-classified based on:

  -HOW their experience is integrated              -NOT exactly what happened

Autonomous/Secure

-provide coherent, realistic view of their parents

-provide details that show objectivity and 

balance

Opposed to “insecure” categories

-dismissing, Preoccupied, and Unresolved

Each AAI category maps onto a Strange 

Situation Category

-Parents’ adult attachment classifications 

predict the quality of attachment with their 

children

-Parents who have autonomous narratives 

are more likely to have children who are 

securely attached to them

-attachment classifications appear to be 

fairly stable across early childhood

-other reseachers have examined the role 

of parenting in older children

-identified different types of parenting 

styles

Parenting varies along two separate 

dimensions:

Warmth/Responsiveness

-degree of comfort and support parents provide

Control/Demandingness

-degree of limit-setting that parents provide

Authoritative

-high on both dimensions

Authoritarian

-high on control 

-low on warmth

Permissive

-low on control

-high on warmth

Uninvolved

-low on both dimensions

-Same age

-Horizontal relationship

Roles:

-play companions

-models & instructors

-social comparison

-sonfidant (especially in adolescence)

-emotional support

Gender Differences in 

Early Peer Relationships

-different strategies of connection

-Intensive vs. Extensive relationships

(girls)            (boys)

Measuring Peer Acceptance

(2 methods)

1.Nominations technique

-positive nominations (who do you like most?)

-negative nominations (who do you like least?)

2.Rating scale technique – rating children on their “likeability”

Categories of peer acceptance:

Popular-many positive nominations,

few negative

Rejected-few positive nominations, many negative

Controversial-many positive nominations, many negative

Neglected-few positive nominations, few negative

Average Moderate-few extreme ratings

Rejected children are:

-more lonely

-more depressed

-more socially anxious

Rejected children at risk for:

-dropping out of school, truancy

-low self-esteem, depression

-delinquency, antisocial behavior

Moral development: 

Jean Piaget

Proposed that moral concepts 

(equality, reciprocity, fairness) 

emerge from peer interactions

2-stage theory:

1. Moral realism

2. Moral relativism

-shifts around age 8

Kohlberg’s stages of moral 

development

1. Preconventional level (Stage 1 & 2)

-focus on obeying and avoiding punishment

2. Conventional level (Stage 3 & 4)

-focus on following rules, pleasing others, fulfilling roles

3. Postconventional level (Stage 5 & 6)

-focus on universal principles of justice, equality, 

respect for human life

-Cross-culture relevance?

-Androcentric?

   -Moral reasoning the same across               -Religious lines?

-Focus on moral reasoning?

We often make moral decisions based on     

moral intuitions

5 foundations of morality:

1. Harm/Care

2. Fairness/Reciprocity

3. Ingroup/Loyalty

4. Authority/Respect

5. Purity/Sanctity

-Richard Shweder, Lene Jensen

Our moral reasoning revolves around three 

core ethics:

1. Ethic of autonomy

2. Ethic of community

3. Ethic of divinity

-The use of these ethics varies across 

cultures & developmentally

Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial 

Theory of Development

Personality develops through a series of 8 

stages throughout the lifespan

-positive or negative outcome of each stage

-goal in each stage is to “resolve” a core issue

-very linear – cannot move on to one stage until 

you’ve resolved prior issue

Identity “achievement” a key task in 

adolescence

[image]

1. 0-1 yrs/Trust vs. Mistrust/Mother/Can I trust the world?

2. 2-3 yrs/Autonomy vs. 

Shame & doubt/Parents/Is it OK to be me?

3. 3-6 yrs/Initiative vs. Guilt/Family/Is it OK for me to do, move, act?

4. 7-12 yrs/Industry vs. Inferiority/

Neighbors & school/Can I make it in the world 

of people & things?

5. 13-19 yrs/Identity vs. Role confusion/

Peer & role 

models/Who am I? What can I be?

6. 20-30 yrs/Intimacy vs. Isolation/

Partners & friends/Can I love?

7. 30-50 yrs/Generativity vs. Self-absorption/

Household & workmates/Can I make my life 

count?

8. >50 yrs/Integrity vs. Despair/Mankind/

Is it OK to have been 

me?

James Marcia’s Theory of

Identity Statues

1. Identity Diffusion: no exploration & no decision

2. Identity Foreclosure: made decision, but no exploration

3. Moratorium: explored identity, but not yet reached a decision

4. Identity Achievement: explored identity & come to a decision

Characteristics:

-sometimes, but not usually, turbulent

-more conflict with parents

(but, this is highly culturally

variable)

-peer relationships take on

even greater importance

-identity crisis!! (?)

According to Erikson…

Adolescence = 13-19

-identity vs. role confusion: who am I? what can I be?

(Young) Adulthood = 20-30

-intimacy vs. isolation: can I love?

the study of mental disorders 

-often called abnormal psychology

-early views of mental disorder based on this

-disorders are the result of a specific injury or 

infection to the body

-in contrast to somatogenic hypothesis

-Sigmund Freud

-mental disorders are rooted in psychological 

processes

Diathesis is a predisposition or vulnerability 

for a disorder

-often genetic or biological abnormality

Stress provides a trigger that turns this 

vulnerability into a disorder

-usually environmental events (life experiences, 

abuse/neglect, etc.)

• Multiple factors give rise to both diathesis and 

stress

• Leads to biopsychosocial viewpoint  -- multiple 

factors all contribute to psychopathology

-biological factors (i.e., genetics)

-psychological factors (i.e., style of thinking)

-social factors (i.e., relationships with others)

Must have more than one:

A.  Abnormality (deviance) 

-abnormal behavior that deviates from the norm

B. Maladaptiveness

-behavior that interferes with (or disrupts) social, 

academic, or vocational life

C. Personal Distress

-internal psychological state such as fear, sadness, loss of control

-must be reported by the person with the disorder

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of 

Mental Disorders (DSM)

-manual that provides specific guidance on 

how to diagnose each of the nearly 200 

psychological disorders.

-currently in the fourth edition

I. Clinical Syndromes

II. Mental Retardation and Personality 

Disorders

III. Medical Conditions 

IV. Social or Environmental Problems 

V. Global Assessment of Functioning

-Nearly half of the U.S. population  (46%) 

will experience at least one mental 

disorder during their lifetime. 

-More than a quarter of the population 

(28%) will experience two or more 

disorders

-Comorbidity- The tendency for different 

mental disorders to occur together in the 

same person

Anxiety Disorders

-A group of disorders distinguished by 

feelings of intense distress and worry 

-In many cases, disruptive and 

unsuccessful attempts to deal with these 

feelings

Generalized Anxiety Disorder 

(GAD)

-A disorder characterized by continued, 

persistent anxiety

-Not caused by a specific situation or object 

-Anxiety is continuous, pervasive, and difficult 

to control

Panic Disorder

Disorder characterized by repeated or 

disabling panic attacks. 

Panic Attack-a sudden episode of terrifying 

bodily symptoms marked by fear and terror 

-labored breathing

-choking 

-dizziness

-tingling hands and feet

-sweating

-trembling

-heart Palpitations

Phobias

-An anxiety disorder 

characterized by an 

intense and irrational 

fear

-Specific-fear of a 

particular object or 

situation 

-Social-fear of being 

watched and judged 

by others

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder 

(OCD)

Disorder marked by persistent thoughts 

(obsessions), impulses, or actions (compulsions) 

that interfere with daily functioning

-Obsessions-recurrent unwanted or disturbing 

thoughts

-Compulsions-repetitive or ritualistic acts that 

serve in some way to deal with the obsessions

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder 

(PTSD)

A chronic, sometimes lifelong disorder that 

follows a traumatic experience

Symptoms:

-recurring nightmares

-flashbacks

-sleep disturbances

• A number of different genes are thought to 

contribute to the anxiety disorders

• Neuroimaging studies reveal that different 

anxiety disorders have different biological 

bases

• Conditioning emphasizes the role of 

learning in anxiety disorders

A group of disorders distinguished 

primarily by changes in positive and 

negative affective state

Major Depressive Disorder 

(MDD)

-Prolonged periods of sadness, apathy, and 

lack of energy

-Also experience loss of interest in common 

activities such as eating, hobbies, and sex. 

-Prevalence for women 25% / for men 12%

Why?

-women may be more willing to admit depression

-women more likely to ruminate

-passive Disorder vs. Active Disorder

Alternating between manic episodes and 

depressive episodes

Mania-a state characterized by racing 

thoughts, pressured speech, irritability or 

euphoria, and impaired judgment.

• Mood disorders have important hereditary 

components

• A disruption of neurotransmission 

-involving the norepinephrine, dopamine, and 

serotonin systems

Someone with schizophrenia is likely to 

suffer from three types of symptoms:

• positive symptoms (e.g., delusions, 

hallucinations, disorganized behavior) 

• negative symptoms (e.g., an absence of 

emotional expression) 

• cognitive symptoms (e.g., impairments in 

working memory and attentional control)

Causes:

-generally considered a neurodevelopmental 

disorder

-genetic predisposition 

-period of diminished oxygen supply to the newborn 

-a variety of prenatal viral infections  

-stress also contributes to schizophrenia.

-this is one reason why it’s especially prevalent 

among people with low socioeconomic status.

Dissociative disorders involve extreme 

responses to horrific events

Dissociation-various ways in which people 

try to distance themselves psychologically 

from ongoing events

Psychogenic (Dissociative) 

Amnesia & Fugue

Dissociative Amnesia

• unable to remember some period of one’s life 

Dissociative Fugue

• people wander away from home, lose track of 

who they are, and then, months later, realize 

they are in a strange place and don’t know 

how they got there

Dissociative Identity Disorder 

(DID)

-The creation of two or more distinct 

personalities within one self to deal with 

traumatic emotional experiences

-Prevalence is controversial,

but it appears to be very rare

Two types:

-anorexia Nervosa

-bulimia Nervosa

-90% females, 10% males

• Preoccupied with extreme 

concern with being 

overweight 

• compulsive dieting-

sometimes to the point of 

self-starvation

-15% below the expected weight 

-Still view themselves as being overweight

Eating disorder characterized by repeated binge and-purge bouts

-Binge eating-eating a large amount of food 

within a brief period 

-Compensatory behaviors-actions taken to 

ensure that binge eating does not cause 

weight gain (e.g., self-induced vomiting or 

misuse of laxatives)