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Karen J. Prager, Ph.D., A.B.P.P. Professor of Psychology and Program Head for Gender Studies Diplomate in Family Psychology The University of Texas at Dallas |
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More Information About Dr. Prager's work Processes in Couple Relationships Teaching and Professional Practice Selected Papers and Publications
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The Cognitive Approach: Relevant Research Cognitive theory creates a new lens through which to understand ideas from other theorists and approaches. The focus is on schemas which are? 1. their importance to us 2. how frequently we use them to process information 3. how accessible they are (which means?) 4. how they make us different from one another (how?) Projection This concept originated with? Defined as? When cognitive theorists talk about it as an "activated schema," they mean: How might an activated schema affect encoding? Expectations & interpretations? Memory for an event? Transference: This concept originated with? In what context was it believed to be Defined as? How would an activated schema increase the likelihood of a transference-like reaction to someone? How would the psychotherapy context activate schemas about parents? Research on schemas and "selective remembering:" If we are given a list of characteristics of a person we are about to meet, and then asked to recall characteristics from that list (before meeting the person), sometimes we "invent" characteristics that remind us of someone we already know. Why would we invent such characteristics for a person we haven’t met (or scarcely know)? Under what conditions are we most likely to invent such characteristics, according to research?
Repression Some people are more prone to repress unpleasant thoughts, emotions, and memories than others. We can identify these folks with paper and pencil measures assessing their "repression vs. sensitization" tendencies. How do people who describe themselves as repressors cope differently from those who do not? 1. What evidence is there that repressors seem to have stronger reactions to unpleasant thoughts and emotions than do non-repressors? That is, how do they appear on videotape while talking about uncomfortable or embarrassing topics?. 2. What evidence is there that repressors do indeed forget more events from their childhoods, especially unpleasant ones? 3. How do repressors seem to avoid experiencing unpleasant emotions? What coping strategy do they use? Gender Type When we think of sex-typing as a schema, how are we defining it?
What does it mean to say that your gender schemas are highly accessible? Since we remember items, events, and people in clusters, what kinds of clusters would reveal an accessible set of gender schemas? According to research, what kinds of people are most likely to cluster items, when they try to recall them, by gender association or category? According to research, what kinds of people have the easiest time – that is, can say the most quickly – whether gender-stereotyped adjectives describe themselves? Why might women be better at remembering emotionally charged information about interpersonal events while men are better at remembering impersonal information like American history? Depression Beck’s cognitive triad: Self: negative thoughts about themselves, Future: pessimistic about the future Other: interpret other people’s actions in a negative light Might some people be more vulnerable to depression because of the way they process information? 2 sets of research findings: 1. depressive schema research 2, learned helplessness – attributions of uncontrollability. 1. Depressive schemas: A depressive schema is? How would cognitive theory – specifically, depressive schema theory – explain why people who are depressed, when presented with a list of potentially self-descriptive adjectives & asked to remember as many as they can, are more likely to remember those associated with depression (bleak, sad, dismal, etc.)? How might depressive schemas affect the way people interpret information about themselves? Especially, ambiguous information?
2. Learned helplessness & attributions about control. Learned helplessness in humans seems to involve attributions of WHAT? about important events. People who cannot control a situation seem to pause and ask themselves, "why not?" The way they answer that question to themselves may determine whether or not they become depressed. Attributes most likely to be associated with depression are? A person’s explanatory style refers to? |