There are several types of defence mechanisms, including mature, primitive, and intermediate. Mature defence mechanisms are considered healthy and effective ways of coping with emotional stressors. Examples of mature defence mechanisms include humour, suppression, anticipation, altruism, sublimation, and asceticism.

Sublimation is a particularly important mature defence mechanism, as it involves transforming instinctual energies into socially acceptable goals. This can lead to humanitarian and altruistic activities.

On the other hand, primitive defence mechanisms, such as denial, involve ignoring of disavowing that which the conscious cannot tolerate. Intermediate defence mechanisms, such as projection and splitting, involve attributing one’s own undesirable impulses of separating off intolerable aspects of the self.

It’s important to note that not all defence mechanisms are created equal. While mature defence mechanisms can be helpful, primitive and intermediate defence mechanisms can be harmful and may indicate underlying psychological issues.

Holmes and Rahe (1967) developed the social readjustment rating scale, which consisted of 43 life events of different levels of severity that appeared to occur before the onset of patients’ illnesses. The researchers analyzed 5000 patient records and found that the death of a spouse was the most serious life event, while a minor violation of the law was the least serious. Although this measure aimed to measure the impact of life events, it has received numerous criticisms, such as its failure to consider individual circumstances and its incomplete list of life events.

Cattell and Horn utilized factor analysis to suggest that intelligence can be separated into two categories: fluid intelligence (innate abilities) and crystallized intelligence (accumulated knowledge). Spearman’s two-factor theory suggests that intelligence tests measure both a general intelligence factor (g) and a specific factor (s). Burt expanded on Spearman’s theory to create the hierarchical model, which proposes that multiple major and minor factors exist between g and s. Guilford disagreed with the idea of general intelligence and instead categorized cognitive tasks based on three dimensions: content, operations, and products.

Perception is an active process that involves being aware of and interpreting sensations received through our sensory organs. When we perceive something, we tend to focus on patterns that stand out from their background, such as when we hear our name being mentioned in a crowded room (known as the cocktail party phenomenon). Our brain also tends to group similar items together and perceive interrupted lines as continuous (known as the law of continuity). Additionally, our eyes have the ability to adjust their focus from distant objects to closer ones (known as accommodation), which helps us perceive depth and distance. Pictorial depth, such as in a painting of photograph, can enhance our perception by providing more detailed and realistic visual cues.

There are several factors that can make people more likely to be attracted to each other, including being close in proximity, having familiarity with each other, sharing similar interests and values, being exposed to each other frequently, perceiving each other as competent, experiencing mutual liking, engaging in self-disclosure, and being physically attractive.

The gamma secretase complex, consisting of four key proteins including presenilin, plays a crucial role in converting Amyloid Precursor Protein to Amyloid β-protein. Amyloid β-peptides are the primary components of the amyloid plaques found in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease. In the brain, APP is primarily cleaved by β-secretase, while in other tissues it is cleaved by α-secretase, followed by γ-secretase. The presence of the APOE4 allele is associated with a higher likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s dementia later in life.

preconventional Stage of Moral Development

Kohlberg’s first stage of moral development is the preconventional stage. In this stage, children’s moral reasoning is based on avoiding punishment and seeking rewards. They follow rules to avoid getting in trouble and to gain approval from authority figures. Children in this stage are not yet able to understand the perspective of others of consider the consequences of their actions on others. They may also believe that what is right is what benefits them personally. As they grow and develop, children will move on to the next stages of moral development, which involve more complex reasoning and consideration of others’ perspectives.

In 1913, Ebbinghaus found that short-term memory had a limit of seven (+/- two) ‘chunks’ of information, which was later supported by George Miller in 1956 and is now known as Miller’s law. Atkinson and Shiffrin proposed a two-part memory store, one for current information and one for long-term storage. Baddely and Hitch suggested replacing short-term memory with working memory, which includes central executive, articulatory (phonological) loop, and visuospatial scratch pad functions. According to Lloyd, less than one hundredth of the information sensed by humans reaches the short-term memory store. Solso proposed passive decay theory to explain the forgetting of long-term memory.

Advertisements typically use backward conditioning, where the unconditioned stimulus precedes the conditioned stimulus, resulting in minimal conditioning. Latent learning refers to learning that occurs without any immediate effect on performance. Delayed (forward) conditioning, where the CS is presented before the US and continues until the US is presented, is generally the most effective form of conditioning, especially with short delays. In animal experiments, the optimal CS-US interval is 0.5 seconds. Trace conditioning, where the CS ends before the onset of the US, becomes less effective with longer delays. Simultaneous conditioning occurs when the onset of both stimuli is simultaneous. Variable ratio (VR) schedules provide reinforcement after a varying number of responses, making them highly resistant to extinction. Gambling machines often use VR schedules, resulting in high response rates.

In the given scenario, the individual is exhibiting projective identification by attributing their negative response to another person’s perceived attitudes. This is different from projection, where one attributes their own unacceptable thoughts of impulses to someone else.

The individual is not engaging in acting out, which involves impulsively acting on unconscious impulses to avoid conscious awareness of their effects. Instead, they are unable to gratify their impulse.

Suppression, a mature defense mechanism where one postpones attention to conscious impulses, is not being utilized in this situation. The individual is unable to avoid their unconscious impulse.

Repression involves the unconscious forgetting of painful memories of unacceptable impulses. However, in this scenario, the individual is expressing their unacceptable impulses rather than repressing them.