INTRODUCTION. MENTAL PROCESSES

DANA – CRISTINA HERȚA, MD, PhD, Teaching Assistant Department of Medical Psychology

 The Department’s site is:  www.psychiatry-psychology.ro

 Select “Studii universitare” from the left menu

 Select “Psihologie Medicala” and scroll down until you reach the lectures listed under Psychology, Dental Medicine - English series 2013 - 2nd year Asist. Univ. Dr. Dana Herta

Psychology – Dental Medicine 2nd year: goals

  To understand theoretical aspects about mental processes

  To acquire basic knowledge about behaviour

  To understand theoretical aspects about social psychology

  To understand theoretical aspects about the psychology of medical profession

Specific goals   Basic mental state assessment

  Assessment of personality and relevance for medical practice

  Adjusting the way one relates to the patient, in order to fit the context

  Pain, non-compliance, bad news – how do we handle them?

  Counseling techniques

Requirements   Attendance to practical activities

  Attendance to lectures

  Completing the individual homework

  Presenting one of the homeworks during practical work

  No eating or drinking are allowed in the classroom – these are the rules of the Oprisiu Amphitheater

  No recording (video, audio or otherwise)

Grading

  One multiple choice questionnaire in January (60% - 75% of the final grade)

  Input during practical activities (25% - 40%)

Requirements for entering the written exam

  Attendance at practical work   Students with 4 absences or more will not enter written

exam

  Students will only enter written exam with student book and photo ID

  Students that do not finish and hand in the homeworks until the final lecture of the semester will not enter the exam

  Students who disturb the class will not enter the exam

  Mental processes are activities of the Central Nervous System, based on specific neural and functional structures

  Mental processes entail accomplishing specific functions

  For didactic purposes, mental processes are divided in: -  Cognitive -  Affective -  Conative (executory) “The trilogy of mind”

Cognitive mental processes   Sensation

  Perception

  Representation

  Attention

  Memory

  Thought

  Language

  Imagination

Affective mental processes   Mood   Affects   Emotions   Feelings   Passions

* Antonio Damasio: Searching for Spinoza; Descartes’ error

Conative mental processes   Motivation

  Volition

  Activity

* A. Maslow

* Antonio Damasio: Searching for Spinoza; Descartes’ error