1. ©2013 McGraw-Hill Companies
Social Psychology
David Myers
11e
©2013 McGraw-Hill Companies

2. Chapter Fourteen
Social Psychology in the Clinic

3. What Influences the Accuracy of Clinical Judgments?
Illusory Correlations
When we expect a particular association we generally perceive it
Hindsight and Overconfidence
I-should-have-known-it-all-along phenomenon

4. What Influences the Accuracy of Clinical Judgments?
Self-Confirming Diagnoses
Patients may supply information that fulfills clinicians’ expectations
Clinical versus Statistical Prediction
Statistical predictions are more reliable than intuitive predictions

5. What Influences the Accuracy of Clinical Judgments?
Implications for Better Clinical Practice
Be mindful that clients’ verbal agreement with what you say does not prove its validity
Beware of the tendency to see relationships that you expect to see
Rely more on your notes than on your memory

6. What Cognitive Processes Accompany Behavior Problems?
Depression
Distortion or realism?
Depressive realism
Tendency of mildly depressed people to make accurate rather than self-serving judgments, attributions, and predictions
Explanatory style
One’s habitual way of explaining life's events
Positive
Negative

7. What Cognitive Processes Accompany Behavior Problems?
Depression
Distortion or realism?
Is negative thinking a cause or a result of depression?
Depressed moods cause negative thinking
Negative thinking causes depressed moods

8. What Cognitive Processes Accompany Behavior Problems?
Loneliness
Feeling lonely and excluded
Loneliness, depression, and shyness feed one another

9. What Cognitive Processes Accompany Behavior Problems?
Anxiety and Shyness
Doubting our ability in social situations
Self-presentation theory
We feel anxious when we are motivated to impress others but have self-doubts
Overpersonalizing situations
Tendency that breeds anxious concern and, in extreme cases, paranoia
Alcohol abuse

10. What Cognitive Processes Accompany Behavior Problems?
Health, Illness, and Death
Reactions to illness
Noticing symptoms
Explaining symptoms: Am I sick?
We interpret symptoms by using familiar disease schemas
Do I need treatment?
Women more than men seek treatment

11. What Cognitive Processes Accompany Behavior Problems?
Health, Illness, and Death
Emotions and illness
Type A personality
Anger-prone
Depression

12. What Cognitive Processes Accompany Behavior Problems?
Health, Illness, and Death
Optimism and health
Stress and illness
Learned helplessness
Explanatory style and illness

13. What Are Some Social-Psychological Approaches to Treatment?
Inducing Internal Change through External Behavior
If we cannot directly control our feelings by sheer willpower, we can influence them indirectly through our behavior

14. What Are Some Social-Psychological Approaches to Treatment?
Breaking Vicious Circles
Social skills training
Observing and practicing new behaviors in safe situations, one may develop the confidence to behave more effectively in other situations
Explanatory style therapy
Reversing one’s negative beliefs about himself and his future

15. What Are Some Social-Psychological Approaches to Treatment?
Maintaining Change through Internal Attributions for Success
Once improvement is achieved, it endures best if one attributes it to factors under his own control
Using Therapy as Social Influence
One person affecting another

16. How Do Social Relationships Support Health and Well-Being?
Close Relationships and Health
One who enjoys close relationships with friends or family are less likely to die prematurely
Married people tend to live healthier, longer lives than unmarried people

17. How Do Social Relationships Support Health and Well-Being?
Close Relationships and Health
Confiding and health
Experiments confirm the benefits of engaging with others rather than suppressing stressful experiences
Poverty, inequality, and health
Reduced access to quality health care
Unhealthier lifestyles
Smoking
Increased stress

18. How Do Social Relationships Support Health and Well-Being?
Close Relationships and Happiness
Friendships and happiness
Friendships foster self-esteem and well-being
Marital attachment and happiness
Less risk for depression

19. Enhancing Happiness
Realize that enduring happiness doesn’t come from “making it”
Take control of your time
Act happy
Seek work and leisure that engage your skills
Join the “movement” movement
Give your body the sleep it wants
Give priority to close relationships
Focus beyond the self
Keep a gratitude journal
Nurture your spiritual self