Insecure Ambivalent Attachment - Essay Example

?ANSWER Control Group: A control group is usually a part of a social experiment in psychology aimed at understanding the effect of any type of treatment or intervention. The significance of such experiment is often found out by comparing two or more groups where one group acts as the control group. This control group is not exposed to the interventions or some form of treatment that is imparted to the other group. At the end of the experiment both the groups are then compared with the final results to find out if any significant change in behavior has taken place between the members of the two groups. This sort of experiment usually helps in finding out the criticality and success of a new technique or process and the effect on individuals. Such experiments are often conducted in understanding the effect of fertilizers on crop yield. Random selected fields are assigned experimental treatment and the ones left are used as Control groups. (Babbie, 2010 pp. 240-244)  Insecure ambivalent attachment: John Bowlby, who described attachment as a lasting psychological connectedness between human beings, developed the earliest attachment theory. This is shown in case of mothers and infants where infants create a sense of security when mothers are available and responsive to their needs. The insecure ambivalent persons are usually overwhelmed with their emotions and often find themselves unable to think rationally about events. Often their ability to bring things to perspective is drowned by their inability to think. This is due to the fact that basic emotional and physical needs are not being met and hence they often show intense anger, enrage, infuriation, frustration and impatience. Fear of conflict or rejection is high among insecure ambivalent adults. In case of ambivalently attached children, they become very distressed when their parent leaves. These children do not depend on their caregiver when they are in need.  This is seen when a child becomes anxious when its mother leaves, however on reunion, it is pleased that the mother has returned but at the same time also angry and doesn’t trust her to stay. (Goodman, 1997 pp.199-207)  Principle of Closure: The principle of closure implies people seek closure as a form of release from tension. People when threatened seek the closure of safety. People anticipate closure for gaining pleasure. Shopping is accompanied with the anticipated completion of purchase that would give pleasure. The mind works to towards seeing that has not already happened or may not be visible yet. This is seen in Gestalt’s principle of closure, which says that the human mind tends to complete figures although a considerable part of the information is missing. The mind matches it with patterns that are already familiar even if it hasn’t received the complete information. This is also speculative of a survival instinct, which takes the form of a predator that can go ahead with incomplete information. In a person’s thinking, closure comes in two places. The first instant is when an individual understands something and derives meaning out of it. The next instant of closure happens when a decision is taken about some pending issues. Closure helps individuals focus on futures by closing doors of confusions of the past. (Osborn & Osborn, 2004 pp.188-190)  Systematic Desensitization: This technique was developed by Joseph Wolpe for treatment of individuals suffering from anxiety related disorders and phobias. It is centered on the principles of classical conditioning and the understanding that whatever an individual had learned can be unlearned. Researches’ have shown that it is an effective method of reducing panic attacks and anxiety that are often associated with fearful situations. The process starts with imagining oneself in fearful situations and using relaxing strategies to counter it. Once an individual can start doing that, he/she gradually starts desensitizing to factors triggering such panic (Ankrom, 2009). The major focus areas in the process to make an individual learn to relax are: Deep Breathing Shallow breaths are associated with anxiety, which in turn disturbs the level of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the body. This results in increased heart beat, dizziness, and other physical sensations that contribute to panic attacks. Progressive Muscle Relaxation Muscle tension can become so automatic during panic attacks that one can forget the sensation of relaxed muscles. This technique helps quickly recover from such stress and stabilized the body functioning. Visualization Visualization forms an important part of the desensitization technique. Imagining oneself in stress free situations often helps in rejuvenating the mind that leads to lesser tension and decreasing the panic bursts. (Sundel & Sundel, 2004)    James-Lange Theory of Emotion: It is one of the earliest theories n the origin of emotions. It states that due to the various experiences of the world, the human nervous system responses through various physiological events. The emotions faced by individuals are a direct result of these physiological changes of the body rather than being the cause of such. The sequence of creation of emotion can be traced as Event-Arousal-Interpretation-Emotion. People’s physiological factors and how they change are often an indication of what emotions that individual will portray. The development of emotion within an individual can be noticed in a situation where the individual is faced with a bear. Accordingly the physiological changes that may occur are tension of muscles and increase in heartbeat. This results in the individual feeling the emotion of being afraid. (Pastorino & Doyle Portillo, 2008 pp.300-305)  Bystander effect: As the English word implies, this theory is related to the actions of individuals who are witness to a certain phenomenon and how they react to such. It indicates that the greater is the number of bystanders to the occurrence of an event, the lesser is the likelihood of people helping the individual in distress. Similarly in situations of emergency, observers are more likely to take action if there are few witnesses. Two major factors are crucial to the formation of Bystander Effect: Diffusion of Responsibility: In a situation where there are many observers, individuals do not feel compelled to take action as they assume that there are others who also responsible for taking action. Thus responsibility gets diffused amongst many people leading to lack of action. Behavior: People tend to be inclined towards behaving in socially correct and acceptable ways. Thus in a situation when one individual sees lack of action, that thought is implanted that an action is not needed or appropriate in that situation. This eventually leads to no action and what is referred to as the Bystander Effect. (Fraser & Burchell, 2001 pp.169-175)        ANSWER 2:  A. Cognitive Therapy is a type of psychotherapy, which emphasizes on the role of thinking in how humans feel and what they do. It is considered an effective therapy to eliminate stress as it helps to change the pessimistic ideas, unrealistic expectations and over critical evaluation of oneself that are causes of depression. The depressed person is also able to recognize and differentiate between the critical and minor problems of life and develops a more positive approach to life and its goals. The idea behind the use of Cognitive Therapy is that people’s feelings and behavior are influenced by their thoughts and not external factors like situations and events. Thus the process of cognitive therapy involves developing skills to modify beliefs, identify the distorted thinking, changing the behavior patterns and relating to people in many different ways. These methods help an individual to realize his/her potential to achieve and give them a better approach towards life. Depressive factors are eliminated and individuals feel much more relaxed and enthusiastic. A person who is not depressed may not think as negatively as a depressed person will after an unsuccessful interview. This will help the person perform better in the next one and potentially get the job. Cognitive therapy puts a lot of importance to a healthy and trustful relationship between the therapist and client. This ensures that people are able to speak about what they want in life, their difficulties and issues that hamper their living. The therapist plays the role of listening, teaching and encouraging while the client is able to express, learn and implement the learning, feels appreciated and lessens the stress upon his/ her mind. (Beck, 1995 pp.75-137)    B. Costa and McCrae’s Big Five Personality Model proposed that the human personality can be classified into five dimensions, namely: Extraversion Agreeableness Conscientiousness Neuroticism Openness The Agreeableness dimension of the personality includes various attributes like trust, affection, kindness and pro-social attitudes. An agreeable person has a high tendency towards being compassionate and co-operative than being suspicious.  An individual with a high degree of Openness is expected to show personality traits of high imagination, insights and a broad range of interests. They tend to be more intellectually curious and more receptive to ideas than other people. Such attributes when put together results in the depiction of what the social surroundings term as a friendly person. Thus an individual who is friendly in nature is expected to score highly on both the dimensions of Agreeableness and Openness in the big Five Personality Model. Areas under the Model where a friendly person can score high would be: Under Agreeableness: Interest in other people Soft heart Keeping people at ease Sympathize with other’s feelings  Under Openness: Rich Vocabulary Vivid Imagination Generating excellent ideas Reflecting on ideas  Analyzing these attributes help to find out the true nature and identity of an individual and hence a person who is friendly by nature would definitely score high on both the above dimensions of the Big Five Personality Model. (Quirk & Fandt, 2000 pp.32-43)    C. Reinforcement in Psychology is usually referred to a phenomenon that is strengthening or increasing the probability of a specific response. A reinforcement schedule is like a rule or a program determining the occurrence of a response. It influences how instrumental reinforcement is learned and how the same is also maintained by reinforcement. In many operating conditions, schedules of reinforcement play an important part in the learning process. Reinforcement schedules are broadly put under two types: Continuous Reinforcement Partial Reinforcement Variable ratio Reinforcement and Fixed ratio Reinforcement are two types of partial Reinforcement. In a fixed ratio schedule responses are reinforced after specific number of responses with the schedule producing a steady rate of responding with brief pauses. The variable schedule has reinforcements after an unpredictable number of responses. This is highly seen in gambling and lottery games where rewards are based on variable ratio schedule. Thus a variable ratio works better towards motivating people to gamble more in casinos as the there is no surety of rewards or gains after certain number of attempts. Some slot machine can give rewards after two attempts, some can give after five and some can take twenty. Thus people are unsure of the specific intervals but acknowledge that a reward is to be gained. Hence it helps people to strengthen their reinforcement, waiting on the probability of a reward that is likely to happen. (Kalat, 2010 pp.218-229)      ANSWER 3:  A. Studies have shown that an individual’s personality is often affected by genetics and environment. Sides are divided upon the basis of Nature and Nurture. One believes that an individual will grow on to develop intelligence depending upon the genes developing their bodies while the other group argues that the environment plays a large role in the mental aptitude. The case of the Chinese girls who worked hard towards improving their grades to A1 in English is an interesting mix of both the angles. There is no doubt that the girls were faced with situations of tremendous adversity and in such situations they worked towards overcoming such difficulties. The Chinese are considered to be very conscious of their portrayal and respect. Loss of respect is a huge concern and threatens the relationship with others in their social circle. Thus they try to avoid such in all circumstances. The Chinese also possess high levels of endurance and diligence, which makes them accustomed to putting up with hardships. This was probably ingrained into them due to the long march of Communism, which has made the Chinese people to stand up to hardships and not back away. The Chinese are also considered to be very competitive which many historians believe is not due to their culture or history but something from inside their blood. (Hays, 2008) Considering such inborn traits, when the girls were subjected to stressful conditions they utilized their personality traits to overcome it and succeed. To overcome the barriers in English, the girl joined the English Literary, drama and Debate society and also made sure to write one essay and comprehension each day. She subjected herself to her fears and by using the understanding of desensitization; she systematically ensured that she could overcome her stress factors and work towards better grades. The fact that they are highly in the need of social respect and diligence could also have been an impetus to her initiative and effort to overcome the odds. Subjecting oneself to the conditions that affect an individual helps them to assess what is lacking and then they can focus on the areas where they need to improve.     B. Miss X was quick to realize her lack of abilities in English prompting her to take corrective measure that would help her overcome it. Rather than being negative about the fact that she was not so competent, she held a positive approach towards gaining command over the English Language. This helped to motivate herself in attaining her objectives and not giving up. Her problem solving technique also includes ways with which she could familiarize herself with the English Language. She did that by devoting more time in being associated with groups that used English as their main mode of communication. This helped her to be more acquainted with pressure situations and she learned to adjust and improve herself to come up to standards. This process of desensitizing herself to the pressures and situations also helped her to focus more on completing her objectives. These techniques implemented by the girl can be considered to be very appropriate and creative as she was in a different environment and she could have easily given up. Instead she focused on coping with the situation with the best possible ways. Her initiate to engage with drama and literary club should especially be considered a great move, as it would have helped her to improve her fluency over the language and gather sufficient information about the local lingo. (Davidson & Sternberg, 2003 pp.3-31)                          Bibliography Ankrom, S. (2009, June 08). Systematic Desensitization. Accessed on April 13, 2011, from About.com: http://panicdisorder.about.com/od/treatments/a/SystemDesen.htm Babbie, E. R. (2010). The Practice of Social Research. London: Cengage Learning. Beck, J. S. (1995). Cognitive Therapy:Basics and beyon. New York: The Guildford Press. Davidson, J. E., & Sternberg, R. J. (2003). The Psychology of Problem Solving. UK: Cambridge University Press. Fraser, C., & Burchell, B. (2001). Introducing Social Psychology. USA: Wiley-Blackwell. Goodman, R. (2007). Child Psychiatry. USA: Wiley-Blackwell. Hays, J. (2011, February 11). Chinese Personality Traits and Charactristics. Accessed on April 13, 2011, from Facts and Details: http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=116&catid=4&subcatid=18 Kalat, J. W. (2010). Introduction to Psychology. USA: Cengage Learning. Osborn, M., & Osborn, S. (2004). Public Speaking. New Delhi: Dreamtech press. Pastorino, E. E., & Doyle-Portillo, S. M. (2008). What is Psychology?Essentials. USA: Cengage Learning. Quirk, M. P., & Fandt, P. M. (2000). The 2nd Language of Leadership. New Jersey: Routledge. Sundel, M., & Sundel, S. S. (2004). Behaviour Change in Human Services. USA: Sage Publications. Read More