The basic study - Baker and Barenbaum (2007) 03

 The critical points were mainly three. One is that, those participating in the study were all American psychology students and this could mean that extending the findings to people who are at the outside; this quite limited group might be not valid.
 Next point is that, the assessment was in part of self-assessment and this might be that the participants’ answers were reflected by a social desirability.
 For example, the participants might felt as saying that they would deal with the stressful situation by ‘calmly taking five deep breaths, and taking it through with their friend’ was more acceptable instead of saying that they would ‘throw a rock through the nearest window’ to release the stress. The last point is that, at the beginning of this study that participants were all asked to identify a stressful situation and write about their feelings and properly, this might be regarded as unacceptable.
 The researchers were not to know of any stressful experience, these students might recently had that and making them as think about them and write down their feelings could have resulted in making the students feel a lot worse.　

The basic study - Baker and Barenbaum (2007) 02

 This finding of this study was essentially, three. One is that many individual were identified which played the important part of whether an emotion-focused approach or a problem-focused approach strategy was the best.
 For example, if the participants were not used to accessing their emotions, an emotion-focused approach strategy was useful for them as it helped them identifying their emotions in a way that they might not have considered. Second is that, a significant gender difference. Females were engaging with more of the emotion-focused approach strategies than males. Third is that, the dependence on what the stressful event was. If it was an interpersonal stressor, sorts of a problem with a boyfriend or girlfriend, and then, people are more likely to engage with more an emotion-focused approach strategies and on the other hand, if it was an achievement stressor, sorts of an examination or those kinds of test or some kind of assessments, people are more likely to engage in a problem-focused approach.

The basic study - Baker and Barenbaum (2007) 01

  The basic study was held by Baker and Barenbaum (2007).  In this study, their aim was to evaluate that which is the best, an emotion-focused approach to coping with stress or a problem-focused approach.
  Participants were 89 of American psychology students which contained both, females and males. They were volunteered as participants of this experimentation. For a part of psychology degree, these students were required to contribute in a certain number of this sort of experiments. Their gender was mixed and roughly the same. Specifically, females were 44 and males were 45. First, they were split in two groups and basically, all participants recognized a recent stressful situation. Then, one group wrote about their feelings for five minutes which is an emotion-focused approach and the other group wrote about how they might solve the stressful situation for same time as a problem-focused approach. Furthermore, all participants wrote a self-report questionnaire on the basic of how well they coped with stress after exercise during the week. Lastly, all participants were assessed for a number of things kinds of how they communicated their feelings and their mood as using a range of psychology assessments.　

The basic study - Meichenbaum (1975) 03

This finding of this study was the stress inoculation therapy as forms of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) provide to be very successful in this case, and is often shown to help reduce anxiety in stressful situations. However, as an example of CBT, it only applies to anxiety and not depression.

 The critical points were mainly three. One is that, the researcher used self-reports of the whether they felt their treatment had been successful. These are not necessarily reliable. Just because a person feels that something has no worked does not mean that they will receive no benefit from it. The other is that, SIT was found to be more successful following eight weeks of treatment. It could be that more systematic desensitization would have helped the students even more. This study does not address ‘optimum treatment period’ so we can’t be sure with of the methods is best, only that SIT worked better than systematic desensitization if a treatment if a treatment period of eight weeks is used.　

The basic study - Meichenbaum (1975) 02

 The first stage of Stress inoculation training is called ‘conceptualisation’. The therapist helps the individual to identify their stressors and how they respond to these and how successful these responses have been. Patterns of self-defeating internal dialogue are identified.

 The second stage is ‘skill acquisition and rehearsal’. The therapist helps the individual to develop and practice positive coping statements to be used in stressful situations. Other techniques such as relaxation and making a realistic appraisal of situations are also practiced.

 In the third stage ‘application and follow-through’ the individual begins to apply the newly acquired skills to progressively more difficult situations in the real world. The therapist provides support and further training when necessary.

  Meichenbaum studied anxious pre-exam college student. An independent measures quasi-experimental method was used. The first condition of this is eight weeks of stress inoculation therapy. The second condition is eight weeks of systematic desensitization. In the third condition is no therapy which means the students were told they were on a waiting list.　

The basic study - Meichenbaum (1975) 01

The basic study of stress inoculation training testimony was held by Meichenbaum (1975). In this study, their aim was to investigate how effect his own 1972 stress inoculation therapy (SIT) was.

 Stress inoculation training is a form of cognitive behavioral therapy developed by Meichenbaum (1972).

 Stress inoculation training is a form of cognitive restructuring as it is a method of changing an individual’s thinking patterns about themselves and their lives. The aim is to change their emotional responses and their behavior ideally before the individual becomes very anxious or depressed as a result of stress. Developed by Meichenbaum in the 1960s it is a three stages procedure carried out with the help of a therapist. It is based on the assumption that people experience stress because they interpret an event or situation in catastrophising ways and their internal dialogue (their thoughts) are negative. 

The name and rule of deduce to reduce stress: 04

  Beta-blockers effects are mainly four. One is lowering the heart rate and next is reducing high blood pressure. Last effect is that it might be useful when people are having panic attacks. It also blocks the effect of adrenaline and this cause to stop the physical of people’s natural fight or flight response. It reduce the risk of death by about 20% in patients which were suffering from heart disease and this was found by Lau et al in 1992. From this, beta-blockers effects the working of heart is clearly defined. People who have some sorts of problems which relates to heart are usually prescribed beta-blockers by doctor because of the working of reducing the strain on the heart is beneficial for them. It starts the working relatively quickly. Specifically, it works about an hour and half after taking it. From this work, it can be used for a directly combat of a stressful situation. For instance it has been used successfully to reduce the stress of having a performance for musicians and public speakers. For example, Taylor has used before her performance in 1995. It reduces the stress and makes people no need to worry those kinds of events. People might need it next time however it encourages people.

These reducing stresses might solve peoples feeling but these are just a temporary fix and they do not solve the original causes of stress but only the symptoms.

The name and rule of deduce to reduce stress: 03

Benzodiazepines are quick acting and also people can offer speedy relief from the unpleasant feeling of having stress. This gives sufficient support to some people as encouraging them and seeking more permanent solutions to their problems.

There are three unsolved issues of using the benzodiazepines as reducing stress. One is that the drug therapy does not treat the cause of stress, but only the symptoms are treated. This has been argued for a long time. It is only that their effects are being ‘masked’ not treated by the drug. Severely, the drug therapy does not really treat stress. Things which people are causing by stress will be a long term solution for them. Second is that people could have tranquilizing effect. It is that decelerating of physical movements and mental alertness which is that it could affect the normal day-to-day activities. Indeed, this effect would be much worse with alcohol. It could make people as putting them at risk as their driving skills might be affected. The last issue is that prolonged using of benzodiazepines could cause tolerance and addiction. Tolerance is that to earn same effects people will need larger and larger amount of the medication. Addiction is that stopping them could causes withdrawal symptoms and frequently it’s going to be worse from the first time of medication.

The name and rule of deduce to reduce stress: 02

The working and effects of the benzodiazepines are mainly three. One is declining of tension as keeping people calm. Second is lessening of nervousness which people have during when they are feeling stress. Last is overall calming effect as including the effects and working of one and second. These can be used for two types of feeling stress. One is sudden severe stress which could happen anytime. The other stress is general tension. By affecting the levels of naturally occurring brain chemicals the benzodiazepines will work. These brain chemicals are called neurotransmitters. Particularly, the benzodiazepines increase the levels of neurotransmitters which are called GABA. It mainly has two effects on the brain. There are quieting of down activity and the other effect is that it decreases the activity of serotonin. The serotonin is other neurotransmitters. From these effects, for the result, physiological arousal is reduced and people would feel calmer as making them calmer from the declining of anxious.

The name and rule of deduce to reduce stress:01

The names of drag which reduce stress are the benzodiazepines. It is widely used nowadays as anxiolytic drugs that prescribed. Anxiolytic means that they reduce the physical feelings of anxiety. There is one more drag to reduce stress and some doctors use this. It is beta-blockers. To reduce stress, there are many sorts of ways to do it and one of ways is to self-medicate. It works by taking illegal or a recreational drug which is kind of alcohol and it is same as drug. People use it to combat stress. Taking drugs which is prescribed by doctor is the most common way of emotion-focused therapy.

Systematic desensitization

 Systematic Desensitization: This is a form of treatment or therapy for phobias, fears, and aversions that people have. The premise is to reduce a person's anxiety responses through counterconditioning - a person who learned to be afraid of something is associating fear with that object or behavior, and the way to eliminate this is to teach the person to replace the feelings of anxiety with feelings of relaxation when the object or behavior is present. This approach is based on conditioning relaxation with the feared object or object of anxiety.

Social support

  When we are having stress, our friends and family can help us as discussing the problem which you are experiencing stress, to cope the stress. This helps us healing the stress more successfully than solving the stress by ourselves. To avoid the stress or to make better deal for us, in the situation of, if we could identify that what might cause the stress as if we could find out that what trigger the stress; it is more likely situation to avoid it.
 Examination is a good example to proof this. It can cause a great deal of stress. Student can cause this, because they do not have much experience for the emotional impact of the important examination, so they are not well prepared for that kind of impact. Furthermore, learning techniques to deal with stress, which caused by examination could be useful for them. Other thing that they could do is prepare well for the examination. These dealing as problem-focused methods are useful for healing stress in these cases and engaging in a form of training is also useful. In this way, people could be better practiced and better able to cope with it, when stress comes along.
 In 1984 Kiecolt Glaser et al found that students who had more social support suffered less reduction of their immune responses prior to university examinations however, we need to consider definitions of social support.

Anticipatory coping

Lazarus and Folkman (1984) suggested that there are two coping strategies that people use to deal with stress. There are emotion-focused and problem-focused methods of coping. Another known as 'Anticipatory Coping' this method is stress and anxiety come with certain symptoms which might include physical responses, like a tightening of the stomach or shortness of breath. For example, if we anticipate a change, or we have sensitivity to dealing with crowds, then we might change our plan to avoid crowds. Because of this our stress levels will not increase. So, to improve our anticipation we need to gain information about what makes us stressed and developed a plan of action to help us deal with it once we have successfully anticipated it.

Ethical concerts associated with research into obedience

Other criticisms of Milgram's research and other research into obedience focus on ethical concern. These include:

- Causing distress

- Deceiving participant

- A lack of informed consent

- Participants not being given the opportunity to withdraw from the study.

Milgram responded to these criticisms by arguing that:

- The distress was not anticipated and there was no long-term harm

- The deception was necessary and the means justified the ends

- Informed consent was replace by presumptive consent

- Debriefing took place

 Both Milgram and Aronson argued that people made ethical objection because of the actual (distasteful) finding, not because of the methods used.

External validity

- This describes the extent to which the result of a study can be applied to other everyday life situation other individuals.

- Laboratory experiments are often seen as artificial and unreal (they lack mundane realism.) However, if they have experimental realism this may give them external validity ( if the participants regard the experimental situation as real).

- Further support for external validity from research with similar result in other cultures, showing that the findings can be applied to other situations and other people.

- Milgram's experiment raises question as to whether any parallels to the Holocaust can be drawn from his research.

Research studies into obedience

Classic research studies into obedience include

- Milgram

- Hofling

- Messue and Raajimakers

Miligram's classic study on obedience showed that people were more obedient than we would imagine.

The main criticisms if his research concern the lack of internal and external rapidity, and the contravention of ethical codes.

Issue of validity associated with research into obedience

Obedience research has been criticized in term of:

Internal validity:

- This describes the extent to which a participant believes in the experimental manipulation and therefore the extent to which the participants behavior can tell us anything about real behavior.

- The roles of demands characteristics and social contracts are important consideration.

- Milgram's research raised questions as to whether the participants believed the "victim" was received shocked and was in pain.

Explanation of why people yield to majority and minority influence

We can further explain majority and minority influence in terms of the factors that influence it.

People differ in the extent of their conformity as result of:

- situation factors: e.g. cultural and historical factors:

- genders,

- dispointional factors: self esteem, the need for personal control.

Non-conformity can be explained in terms if reactance.

What is obedience to authority?

Obedience to authority is behaving as instructed, usually in response to an individual rather than a group.

It can usually be considered a desirable social influence, unless it is unjust, and is generally a positive a response to social instruction.

Obedience and influence (major and minority) differ in term of the source of social pressure and the extent to which private opinion is changed.

Minority influence

 Minority influence occurs when the minority changes the beliefs and opinions of the majority group.

Individuals often comply with the majority whereas they are converted by the minority.

The likely conditions for minority influence include:

- consistency,

- flexibility,

- commitment,

- relevance of minority argument.

 Research studies into minority influence

 Moscovici suggests that minority influence and majority influence work in different ways:

- Majority influence is the result of compliance.

- Minority influence is the result of conversion.

 However, Latené and Wolf suggest that minority influence ad majority influence work in similar way. Their Social Impact Theory, which can be used to explain both majority and minority influence, suggests that social influence can be     related to:

- strength,

- number and status,

- immediacy.

The behavioural approach as an explanation for eating disorders

 This approach outline anorexia as the result of conditioning. It focuses on:
  - Classical conditioning : eating food is associated with anxiety.
  - Operant conditioning : individuals are given positive reinforcement for being slim.
  - Social learning theory : young women are rewarded for being slim and imitate cultural role models.
 The success of behaviour modification therapy support these explanations.
 While this approach can explain features of the disorder such as cultural specificity and the increasing incidence of eating disorders, it has been criticised in that:
  - It doesn't explain why some women develop the disorder, but others do not.

 The cognitive approach as an explanation for eating disorders
 This approach focuses on:
  - Distorted cognitions about body image.
 However this approach can be criticised in that:
  - Cognitions may be an effect of the disorder, rather than the cause.

The psychodynamic approach as an explanation for eating disorders

This approach focuses on:
 - Eating disorders act as a means of avoiding sexual maturity.
 - Minuchin's family systems theory which suggests anorexia develops as a result of enmeshed family dynamics.
 - Bruch's view that anorexia is related to mother-daughter sonflicts over dominance and autonomy.
This approach has been criticised in that:
 - It lacks objective support.
 - It blames the mother for the daughter's disorder.
 - It does not explain why there has been an increase in the incidence of anorexia.

The biological approach as an explanation for eating disorders

This approach considers the possibility of infection which is an unlikely cause of eating disorders. It also focuses on:
 - genetic vulerability - by looking at twin studies;
 - environmental factors;
 - biochemical factors such as endocrine dysfunction and changed hormone levels.
 This spproach has been criticised in that:
 - There is not a 100% concordance rate for monozygotic twins.
 - Changes in biochemistry may be the result of the disorder, rather than the cause.
 - Care needs to be taken befote generalising research finding based on animals to humans.

The clinical characteristics of anorexia and bulimia nervosa

Anorexia nervosa is typified by:
 - low body weight ( being less than 85% of expected weight);
 - anxiety;
 - an unrealistic body image;
 - amenorrhea.
It is a disorder found mostly in young women in Western and middle-class culture, and has increased in the last 20 years.

Bulimia nervosa is typified by:
 - body weight being usually within 10% of normal weight;
 - episodes of binge eating and purging;
 - lack of control over eating when bingeing;
 - self evaluation depending excessively on body shape;
Stufferers may also have been anorexic.
The condition is also increasing in Western society as well as elsewhere.

The congnitive model

This model suggests that mental disorders stem from distorted and irrational beliefs, and there is no doubt that patients with anxiety disorder and depression have distorted negative beliefs.

 However, this model has been criticized in that:

       -It is not always clear whether the distorted thinking is an effect of the disorder, or the cause.

       -Another issue is that the cognitive model has mainly been applied to anxiety and depression, and its relevance to other mental disorders is largely unknown.

       -It implies that individuals are somehow to blame for their problems.

The behavioural model

 This model suggests that learning maladaptive behavior via conditioning or observational learning causes mental disorders.

 This model offers people with mental disorders hope, in that it implies their behavior can be changed – anything that is learned can be unlearned using the same techniques.

 The approach is most suited to explaining and treating those disorders that emphasis external behavior, e.g. phobias.

 Ethically, there are advantages such as the lack of blame attached to a person with a metal disorder, however it has been criticized in that:

        -It is somewhat over simplistic and ignores individual differences.

        -It s based on animal research.

        -The treatments developed from this model can be painful and manipulative (e.g. aversion therapy).

The psychodynamic model of abnomality

This model suggests that the cause of mental disorders arise from unresolved unconscious conflicts and traumas of early childhood and in problems with personality development.

 Whilst this model has offered insights into anxiety disorders and changed the perception f mental illness, it has been criticized in that:

      -It is difficult to disprove and thus has been criticized for being unscientific.

      -It may focus too much on the past, rather than the preset.

      -It may focus too much on sexual problems rather than interpersonal and social issues.

      -It raises ethical concerns about the problems of false memory syndrome, sexism and parental blame. 

The biological model of abnormality

This model suggests that the causes of mental disorders resemble those of physical illnesses.

 Clusters of symptoms can be identified and a diagnosis made, followed by suitable treatment.

 There is some evidence that the following may account for mental disorders:
   -genetics,

-       -biochemistry,

         -neuroanatomy,

         - infections.

 While this approach has received some scientific support and has contributed to treatment it has been criticized in that:
-It focuses on symptoms rather than the person’s thoughts and feeling.

      -It is less appropriate for disorders wit psychological symptoms such as eating disorders.

      -There is some debate as to whether mental disorders are the same as physical illnesses.

      -The treatments based on the medical model (e.g. drugs, ECT, and psychosurgery) may have unpleasant side effects and their efficacy has been challenged.

Deviation from ideal mental bealth

 Another approach suggests that abnormality can be defined in terms of deviation from ideal mental health.

 Humanistic psychologists consider the factors that may be important for normal development such as an ultimate goal.

However, this approach has been criticised as follows:

-       The approach is based on abstract and culturally relative ideals, not shared by collectivist societies. There are cultural variations in how to identify psychological health.

-       Unlike physical health, it is difficult to measure psychological health.

 Limitations with all these approaches

 Cultural relativism is a problem in all four of the approaches described. The definitions inevitably refer to some subjective, culturally viewed as abnormal and undesirable.

 However, there are also cultural universals – behaviors such as anti-social behavior or chronic depression are universally viewed as abnormal and undesirable.

 The resolution may lie in using a combined approach that focuses on which features are more likely to be associated with abnormality.

Failure to function adequately

The third approach suggests that abnormality can be defined in terms of an inability to function adequately in day-to-day life and social interactions.

 An absence of distress and the ability to function are standards normal.

 This approach has the benefit of taking the individual’s experience into account. However it has been criticized as follows:

-       How do we determine whether a person is functioning adequately?

-       Not all those with mental disorders are aware of their own distress or dysfunction.

-       The definition raises concerns about cultural bias and subjectivity as judgments by others on their behalf may be biased.

-       Rosenhan and Seligman have extended the “failure to function” model to cover seven features associated with abnormality, but these again rely on making subjective judgments.

Deviation from social norms

 This is another way of defining abnormality. Social groups have norms of what is considered to be socially acceptable behavior. Deviation from these is abnormal and undesirable.

 This approach has been criticised as follows:

- The perception of deviance may change over historical time and what is socially deviant varies across cultures with ethnic or religions differences.

- The definition ignores the role of social context. In some cases it may be desirable to be socially deviant.

- The concept of social deviance could lead to an abuse of human rights.

The statistical infrequency approach

This is one way of defining abnormality. According to this approach abnormality can be defined in terms of behavior or beliefs that are statistically rare in a population.

The normal distribution is one way to describe a statistical distribution.

While this approach suffers less from value judgments than the other approach it has been criticized as follows:

-       It does not distinguish between desirable deviation and undesirable deviation.

-       It doesn’t define at what level or percentage statistical deviancy is decided.

-       It doesn’t allow for cultural and sub-cultural differences.