Psychosomatic Processes

Test 2 -- March 3, 1997

Write your name on the BACK of the exam. Answer 8 of the following 9 questions (5 points each).

1. Would it be possible to synthesize a drug to make people feel guilty? How would it work (or why wouldn’t it) according to James, Schachter, Alexander, and Cannon?

2. What is meant by the term social psychosomatics? Drawing on your knowledge of the biobehavioral model, would cancer be considered a social psychosomatic disorder? Justify your answer.

3. Little Johnny is absent from school for upper respiratory infections (URIs) at much higher rates than his classmates. How would Minuchin, Kagan, and Alexander explain his health problems? Would these theories necessarily be incompatible? Justify your answer.

4. What is the evidence that there is a biological basis to inhibition/disinhibition? Would the fact that this trait might be inherited be adaptive for the survival of the group? Draw on your knowledge of Kagan and evolutionary psychology in your answer.

5. Does the Alexander model make sense? Draw on your knowledge of physiology, Sapolsky, and SRS in your answer.

6. Would you classify each of the following theorists/ideas as representing a weak systems or specificity perspectives? Why? a) James b) Schachter c) secondary gain d) Minuchin e) Kagan

7. Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is characterized by the following symptoms: fatigue, headache, muscle tension, racing heart, upset stomach, sleep disruption. Unfortunately, no clear biological markers have been found for this disorder. How would each of the following people explain it: Schachter, Alexander, Whitehead’s instrumental conditioning model, Sapolsky, Andersen’s biobehavioral model.

8. What is parental investment theory? What predictions would it make about how the mother and/or father would deal with the illness of their offspring? Would these predictions be different in cultures where there was high versus low infant mortality rates?

9. Make up a question that could have been on this test and answer it. Don’t make it too easy. You will be graded on both your question and your answer.