COGNITIVE QUESTIONS 1
1. Describe Tolman’s experiments on latent learning, including the three different results for the three groups of rats in the maze. Based on the findings of his study, explain why he concluded that the drive or motivation to learn does not require external rewards.
2. Explain Noam Chomsky’s claim that Skinner’s theory that behavior is controlled and predicted by conditioning is false. Explain how Chomsky demonstrated that the notion of “stimulus” cannot be objectively defined (as an object in the environment that is separate, independent from the organism) and in fact depends on subjective (i.e., internal, mental) factors to produce a response.
3. Discuss the application of conditioning techniques (i.e., behavioral therapies) to treat psychological disorders. Based on Alex’s story in the movie A Clockwork Orange, what results can be obtained by therapies that seek to control human behavior? To what extent can such therapies promote human growth and development?
4. Discuss Skinner’s claims that the causes of behavior are external and do not depend on internal factors or mental entities (goals, purposes, intentions, desires, motivation, interests, etc.). Based on the ‘trainer’s paradox’, explain why his claim that humans are not initiating, creative agents is false. In other words, explain why it is impossible to elimate human agency (humans acting as social actors) and ethical dimensions (issues of choice, deciding what’s good or bad, right or wrong behaviors or actions), from human conduct (i.e., what people do, how they behave).
UNHINGED QUESTIONS 2
1. What neurobiological findings about mood disorders, including the chemicals (neurotransmitters) and areas of the brain found to be involved, did the authors of the Textbook of Psychopharmacology (APA, 2009) report? Explain why they concluded that “the central question of what variables drive the pathophysiology of mood disorders remains unanswered.”
2. Explain why Dr. Carlat says that researchers generate neurobiological theories of psychiatric disorders by ‘working backward’. How does that logic work with theories about depression? Explain how he demonstrates the fallacy[1] of this logic with the example of opiate deficiency as a theory for the cause of pain
3. Why does Dr. Carlat consider that psychiatry has lost its mission and become unhinged?
4. What is the root cause of Linda’s problem? How can we argue that the source of her problem is not in her brain? In addition, what other alternative interventions can we consider for her case, other than prescribing psychotropic medications (drugs that act on the brain)?
5. Describe the main aspects of Kraepelin’s investigation in a psychiatric hospital in Germany in 1890. What method did he use to (a) collect data and (b) analyze his data? What were his main findings?
6. What is the DSM? How does it work? How did the description of mental disorders change from the DSM-II to DSM-III? Explain the reliability problem and how the DSM-III, led by Robert Spitzer, solved it. How do psychiatrists involved in creating and updating the DSM select the criteria for defining each psychological disorder? How do they decide many symptoms per disorder are needed to establish a diagnosis (pp. 51-54)
7. Are mental disorders objectively defined biological entities ? Is there a clear neurobiological basis for the disorders listed in the DSM? Provide reasons why the diagnoses in the DSM could be both seen as reflecting “real processes” and as human creations.
You must address the following issues as you consider whether or not the classification of psychological disorders by the DSM reflects real, distinct biological entities (for instance, the polio virus or the coronavirus, are both real and distinct biological entities):
A. Comorbidity and Nonspecificity of Psychiatric Symptoms (pp. 60-61)
B. Overlapping Psycho-pharmacotherapy- Nonspecificity of treatment (pg. 61)
6. What is the social danger associated with the proliferation of diagnostic labels and ? Why is Allen Frances worried that the consequent broadening of psychiatric disorders would amount to “a wholesale imperial medicalization of normality and trivialize mental disorder? (pp. 64-67)
[1] Fallacy: a mistaken belief, especially one based on unsound argument; a failure in reasoning that renders an argument invalid.
The readings the problem with psychiatry and the bible of psychiatry are for the unhinged questions while the other three are for the cognitive questions.
BEHAVIORISM QUESTIONS 3
The behaviorists readings is for these questions
1. Define behavior and learning according to behaviorist theories (e.g., Pavlov and Skinner). Define both classical and operant conditioning as learning mechanisms, explain how behavior changes in each of these two types of learning, and provide an example of each.
2. What is Rom Harre’s critique of Skinner’s book ‘Walden Two’ based on? What is the training paradox that Harre’s point out?
3. What are the clinical applications of classical and operant conditioning? Please do a search and bring to class a one-page (typed, font-12) document that answers this question. Describe, briefly, each tecnhique listed below. Provide an example for each.
Aversion therapy, systematic desensitization, flooding, token economy.
