Chapter 14

This chapter is overall about the different psychological disorders so instead of talking about everything covered in the chapter, I think I'll answer one question on the disorder known as schizophrenia.

So the question that I'm going to answer is.. What are the main symptoms of schizophrenia?

One common symptom is called a delusion, or a false/untrue belief held by someone that won't accept any proof that they are wrong. Although delusions aren't apparent in every type of schizophrenia, it is the symptom most associated with the disorder. There are four main types of disorders that do associate with schizophrenia and they are: delusions of persecution, delusions of reference, delusions of influence, and delusions of grandeur. The persecution delusions involve a schizophrenic thinking that other people are trying to hurt them in some way. Reference involves a schizophrenic thinking that other people, television characters, books, movies, or anything like that, are specifically talking to them. Influence involves a schizophrenic thinking that they are being controlled by external forces such as the devil or aliens. Grandeur involves them thinking that they are powerful people who are destined to save the world or are on some kind of important mission.

Another symptom is disturbance of speech such as made up words, repeated words/sentences, and sentences that don't make any sense but consist of only rhyming words. Overall speech and thought also seem to be interrupted often, and thoughts generally aren't relatively logical.

People with schizophrenia may also have hallucinations or false sensory perceptions, such as seeing people or hearing voices that aren't actually there. Although, hallucinations don't necessarily have to be related to sight or hearing, but those 2 senses are the most common to be affected.

There is also something called the flat effect that happens, this is a condition in which the person shows little/no emotion or experience certain emotions at the wrong time.

Lack of attention and organization are symptoms as well.

Chapter 12

This chapter is called "Social Psychology" which is defined as "the scientific study of a how a person's thoughts, feelings, and behavior are influenced by the real, imagined, or implied presence of others.

So the question that I'm going to answer is, What is compliance and what are the 4 common ways to gain compliance?

Compliance is when someone changes their behavior resulting from other people directing or asking for the change. Also, there is a difference between compliance and obedience in the sense that obedience includes a figure of authority (asking for the change) while compliance doesn't involve anyone with real authority.

There are 4 common techniques for gaining compliance. The first is called the foot-in-the-door technique and this is when someone asks for a small commitment and then asking for a bigger commitment once the first one was achieved. For example, your neighbor could ask you to watch their house for the weekend and you agree thinking that it isn't a large task. If your neighbor wanted to take advantage of this technique, they would then ask for something larger such as the watering of their plants.


The second technique is called the door-in-the-face technique and this is just the opposite of the foot-in-the-door technique except that the first (and larger) request gets denied. Back to the example, if your neighbor wanted to use this technique, they would ask for something that might be considered too much, such as watching their kids for the weekend. Once denied, your neighbor would ask for something considered smaller such as watering plants.

The third technique is called the lowball technique. This is when a commitment is gained, the the cost of committing is raised. For your neighbor to use this, they could ask you to water their plants. You agree thinking it is an easy task but you come to figure out that they have 300 plants throughout their house.

The last technique is called the that's-not-all technique, the best example of this is any of the one million infomercials on TV; they claim to give you more than they originally "planned" to.