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Psychology 101 Notes Defining Psychology: Scientific study of behavior and mental processes. Key terms: Science, Behavior, Mental Processes Psychological Frame of Mind: Psychologists approach life questions as scientists. Attitudes of scientific approach: critical thinking, curiosity, skepticism, objectivity. Science of All Human Behavior: Not just about psychological disorders, diverse field, understanding truths of human life in all its dimensions, includes people’s best and worst experiences. Careers in Psychology: Clinical 24%, Industrial 12%, Academic 34%, Private Practice 22%, Schools 4%, Other 4%. Structuralism: Wilhem Wundt (1832-1920); German philosopher-physician, First psychology laboratory (1879) Identify elements, or structures, of mental processes: introspection Functionalism: William James(1842-1910) American psychologist and philosopher Identify purposes, or functions, of the mind: Why is human though adaptive?, Natural flow of thought, or stream of consciousness. Evolution & Natural Selection: Charles Darwin(1809-1882) British Naturalist Natural selection is adaptive and functional: Nature favors traits that promote reproduction and survival, Successful characteristics become dominant Contemporary Approaches: Biological, Behavioral, Psychodynamic, Humanistic, Cognitive, Evolutionary, Sociocultural Biological Approach: Focus on brain and nervous system, Neuroscience; Structure, function Behavioral Approach: Emphasis on observable behavioral responses and their environmental determinants, Notable Behaviorists; John B Watson, B.F. Skinner
Psychodynamic Approach: Emphasis on; Unconscious, Conflict between biological drives and society, Childhood early family experiences; Founding father: Sigmund Freud Humanistic Approach: Emphasis on; Positive human qualities, Capacity for positive growth, Freedom to choose any destiny; Notable Humanistic Psychologists: Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow Cognitive Approach: Emphasis on mental processes involved in knowing, How we…; direct attention, perceive, remember, think, solve problems Evolutionary Approach: Use of evolutionary ideas…; Adaption, Reproduction, Natural Selection Sociocultural Approach: Examination of ways in which social and cultural environments influence behavior, Focus on comparisons of behavior Scientific Method: Observation: Choose a variable; phenomenon studied by scientists, anything that can change, Develop a theory; idea that attempts to explain observations, seeks to explain why something happened, can be used to make predictions. Scientific Method: Hypothesis: Formulate a hypothesis; educated guess derived from theory Scientific Method: Research: Establish an operational definition; objective description of variable, how will variable be measured?, Collect and analyze data; number crunching, what do data mean? Scientific Method: Conclusions: draw conclusions; is theory supported, should theory be changed, Evaluate conclusions; publication and review, ongoing research process. Types of Psychological Research: Descriptive research; Finding out about some variable, Correlational research; discovering relationships between variables, Experimental research; Establishing causal relationships. Correlational Research: Examining whether and how variables are related and change together Correlation and Causation: Correlation does not = Causation
Nervous System: Cells: Neurons – Nerve cells, Information processing; Glial cells – Support, Nutritional Benefits. Neurons: Structure: Cell body – Contains nucleus Neural Impulse: Resting Potential-Stable, negative charge of inactive neuron; Action potential- Brief, positive electrical charge or firing, Abides by all-or-nothing principle. Can we measure the speed of neural transmission?: 2 groups- shoulder tappers, ankle tappers, signal must travel longer distance in ankle tappers, extra 4.5 feet per person, everything else cancels out, difference in time/extra distance (4.5 people), feet per second 973 feet per second Synapses and neurotransmitters: Synapses – space between neurons, Neurotransmitters – stored in synaptic vesicles within terminal buttons; chemical signals which allow electrical impulses to cross synaptic gaps Neurochemical Messengers: Neurotransmitters are excitatory, inhibitory, or both., Acetylcholine
- Stimulates firing of neurons; involved in action of muscles, learning, memory; Alzheimer disease: Ach deficiency., Gamma aminobutyric acid – keeps many neurons from firing; anxiety: low levels of GABA Neurochemical Messengers: Norepinephrine – inhibits firing of neurons in CNS, excites heart muscle, intestines, urogenital tract, depression: too little norepinephrine, Agitated, manic states: too much norepinephrine; Dopamine – helps to control voluntary movement, Serotonin – involved in regulation of sleep, mood, attention, learning, Depression: lowered levels of serotonin; Endorphins – natural opiates that mainly stimulate firing of neurons, shield body from pain, elevate feelings of pleasure; Oxytocin – hormone and neurotransmitter, important role in experience of love and social bonding.
Drugs and neurotransmitters: drugs influence behavior mainly by interfering with neurotransmitters; Agonist – drug that mimics or increases effects of neurotransmitter; Antagonist – drug that blocks effects of neurotransmitter. Studying the brain: brain lesioning – determines effects of brain tissue disruption on behaviors; Staining – dyes neurons for tracking neural Brain imaging: fMRI brain function Organization of the brain: hindbrain – adjacent to top part of spinal cord; midbrain – rises above hindbrain; forebrain – uppermost region of the brain Forebrain: thalamus and basal gangalia: thalamus – serves as relay station for information Forebrain: cerebral cortex: 4 lobes: occipital love(back), temporal lobes(bottom), frontal lobes(front), parietal lobes(top) Cerebral Hemispheres: corpus callosum – large bundle of axons connecting brain’s Cerebral Hemispheres: Corpus Callosum – Large bundle of axons connecting brain’s two hemispheres, relays information two sides.; Left Hemisphere – Receives information from right side of body, Language processing, such as speech and grammar; Right Hemisphere – Receives information from left side of body, processing non-verbal information. Endocrine System: Endocrine System – set of glands that regulate activities of certain organs; Glands – organs or tissues that create chemicals that control bodily functions; Hormones ‘ Chemical Endocrine System: Pituitary gland – controls Brain damage, Plasticity, and Repair: Collateral Sprouting – Axons of healthy neurons adjacent to damaged cells grow new branches; Substitution of Function – Damaged region’s function is taken over by another brain area; Neurogenesis – New neurons are generated
JND – just noticeable difference: Weber fractions, light intensity 0.079, sound intensity 0.048, finger span 0.022, lifted weight 0.020, line length 0.029, taste(salt) 0.083, electric shock 0.013, (teghtsoonian, 1972) Perception of Sensory Stimuli: Attention – Selective: cocktail party effect, Shiftable: novelty, size, color, movement, stroop effect; Perceptual set – Predisposition or readiness to perceive something a particular way. Other Perceptual Phenomena: Sensory Adaptation – a change in responsiveness of sensory system based on average level of surrounding stimulation; Extrasensory Perception (ESP) – perception in absence of concrete sensory input; Parapsychology – Scientific study of ESP, Absence of empirical data for existence of ESP. The Visual Stimulus: Light – form of electromagnetic energy; wavelength hue, or color; amplitude brightness; purity saturation, or richness. Structure of the Eye: Sclera – white, outer part of eye, helps maintain shape of eye Visual Processing: Feature Detectors – neurons in primary visual cortex that respond to particular features of a stimulus; Parallel Processing – simultaneous distribution of information across different neural pathways; Binding – integration of what is processed by different pathways or cells. Color Vision: Trichromatic Theory: Three types of cones, sensitive to different (but overlapping) ranges of wavelength; Support includes – color matching, color blindness. Color Vision: Opponent-Process Theory: Afterimages – Sensations that remain after stimulus is removed, not explained by trichromatic theory, explained by opponent-process theory; Visual system treats colors as complementary pairs; conclusion: both theories are correct. Perceiving Depth: Ability to perceive objects three-dimensionally; Binocular cues combined images from two eyes: disparity, convergence; Monocular cues available from image in one
eye: familiar size, height in field of view, linear perspective and relative size, overlap, shading, texture gradient. Perceiving Motion: Retinas of humans cannot detect movement, neurons specialized to detect motion, feedback from body, environment rich in cues, real movement, apparent movement. Chapter 4 Consciousness: William James & Stream of Consciousness
Sleep disorders: insomnia; sleepwalking, sleep talking, and sleep eating; nightmares; night terrors – sudden arousal from sleep, intense fear; narcolepsy – sudden, overpowering urge to sleep, bowler; sleep apnea – individuals stop breathing and awaken to breathe better. Dreams: Freud – Dreams symbolize unconscious wishes; Cognitive theory – dreams as subconscious cognitive processing, lack of attention to roles of brain structures and activity in dreaming; activation-synthesis theory – dreams as result of synthesis of neural signals. Addiction: Psychoactive drugs increase dopamine levels in brain’s reward pathways – ventral tegmental area, nucleus accumbens, activation of limbic(pleasure sensors) Drug Classes: stimulants, depressants, hallucinogens Psychoactive Drugs: Stimulants: Caffeine; Nicotine; Amphetamines (uppers) Psychoactive Drugs: Hallucinogens: Also called psychedelic drugs; marijuana – actually hard to classify since marijuana has stimulant, depressant and hallucinogenic qualities; MDMA (ecstasy); LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) Speed of Action: Drugs that produce quick physiological reactions tend to be the most addictive. Opponent process: Every psychoactive substance involves the body working against the drug to maintain homeostasis; Taking a stimulant will activate the opponent process where the body will depress systems to “get ready” for the effect of the drug; Familiar surroundings will act as cues to start this process. Doing drugs in a novel environment will not start this opponent process. Accidental overdoses?; Unrelated but cool opponent process illusion. Hypnosis: Altered state of consciousness; Psychological state of altered attention/expectation; Nature of hypnosis: The Four Steps – Minimizing distractions, maximizing comfort, concentration on something specific, information about what to expect in hypnotic state, suggestion of events or feelings already occurring.
Explaining Hypnosis: Hypnosis as a Divided State of Consciousness – Hidden Observer; Social Cognitive Behavior View of Hypnosis – Cognitive Factors – Attitudes, expectations, beliefs, Social Context Meditation: Attaining peaceful state of mind; Mindfulness Meditation – For depression, panic attacks, anxiety, For chronic pain, stress, psoriasis; Meditative State of Mind – Hypnogogic reverie Feeling of wellness, Increased activation in basal ganglia and prefrontal cortex, Decreases in anterior cingulate. Learning and Behaviorism: Learning – Systematic, relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs through experience; Behaviorism – Theory of learning that focuses solely on observable behaviors, Discounts importance of mental activity. Types of Learning: Associative Learning and Conditioning – Classical Classical Conditioning: Reflex: Automatic, without prior learning – Unconditioned stimulus (UCS), Unconditioned Response (UCR); Learning: Association, after pairing of stimuli – Conditioned Stimulus (CS), Conditioned Response (CR) Classical Conditioning: Extinction – Weakening of CR when UCS is absent; Spontaneous Recovery – Recurrence of CR after time delay, without further conditioning. Classical Conditioning in Humans: Explaining and eliminating fears – Watson & Rayner: Little Albert, Counterconditioning, Systematic Densitization; Explaining Pleasant Emotions – Aversive Conditioning. Classical Conditioning in Humans: Placebo Effect; Immune and Endocrine Systems – Immunosuppression; Taste Aversion Learning; Drug Habituation. Operant Conditioning: Classical Conditioning – Based on involuntary responses; Operant Conditioning – Explains voluntary behaviors; B.F. Skinner – Consequences change probability of behavior, operant = behavior, Consequences contingent on behavior.
Applied Behavior Analysis: Also called behavior modification; use of operant conditioning principles to change human behavior; all human behavior is understood as being influenced by rewards and punishments. Bandura’s Observational learning: Also called imitation or modeling; learning when behavior is observed and imitated; vicarious reinforcement & vicarious punishment. Cognitive Factors in Learning: Purposive Behavior (Tolman) – behavior is goal-directed; Expectancy Learning and Information; Latent (Implicit) Learning – Unreinforced learning not immediately reflected in behavior, Studey: Rats in a maze. Cognitive Factors in Learning: Insight Learning (Kohler)- Problem solving in which sudden insight, or understanding, occurs, Thinking “outside the box”; Studies of Apes – “stick problem”, “box problem”; Duncker Candle Task. Biological Constraints in Learning: Structure of an organism’s body – Permits certain kinds of learning, inhibits other kinds of learning; Instinctive Drift – Tendency of animals to revert to instinctive behavior that interferes with learning; Preparedness – Species-specific biological predisposition to learn in certain ways but no others. Memory: Retention of information or experience over time; Processes – Encoding, Storage, Retrieval. Memory Encoding: Process by which information enters memory storage – Some information enters automatically, Other information requires effort; Attention; Deep processing; Elaboration; Use of mental imagery. Attention: To begin memory encoding, must pay attention; Selective Attention – Focusing on specific aspects of experience while ignoring others, limitation of brain’s resources; Divided Attention – Attending to several things simultaneously, “Multi-tasking”
Mnemonic Device using imagery – Peg Word System: One is a bun, two is a show, three is a tree, four is a door, five is a hive, six are sticks, seven is heaven, eight is a gate. Use of Mental Imagery: Powerful encoding tool; verbal code; image code; Dual-Code Hypothesis
- memory for pictures better than memory for words, pictures stores as both image and word. Memory Storage: How information is – Retained over time, represented in memory; Atkinson- Shiffrin Theory. Sensory Memory: Holds information in sensory form for an instant Short-term Memory: Limited-capacity memory system; information retained for up to 30 seconds, without strategies to retain it longer – loss of STM; chunking – grouping information into higher-order units; rehearsal – conscious repetition of information Let’s chunk some more: A stitch in time saves nine; don’t take any wooden nickels; absence makes the heart grow fonder; accidents will happen; truth is stranger than fiction; no rest for the wicked; life’s not all beer and skittles; hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Working Memory: Alternative approach to explaining short-term memory. Working Memory: Alternative approach to explaining short-term memory; Three-part system to hold information temporarily; Phonological loop – briefly stores speech-based information; Visuospatial working memory – stores visual and spatial information; central executive. Long-term memory: Relatively permanent memory; Stores huge amounts of information for long time; Explicit memory – episodic memory, semantic memory; implicit memory – procedural memory, classical conditioning, priming Explicit (Declarative) Memory Implicit (non-declarative) Memory: Non-conscious recollection of skills and sensory perceptions; Procedural Memory – memory for skills; Classical Conditioning – Memory for associations between stimuli; Priming – activation of information already in storage.
The Cognitive Revolution: Cognition – way in which information is processed and manipulated in remembering, thinking, and knowing; Shift away from behaviorism in 1950’s – computer analogy for human cognition and brain, artificial intelligence; Cognitive – Approaches seeking to explain observable behavior by investigating mental processes and structures that cannot be directly observed. Thinking: Manipulating information mentally; Concepts; Problem solving; Reasoning and decision making; Thinking critically and creatively; Expertise Concepts: Mental categories used to group objects, events, and characteristics – Allow generalization, allow association of experiences and objects, aid memory, provide clues about how to react to particular object or experience; Prototype model – comparison of item with most typical item in category. Problem Solving: Finding appropriate way to attain goal which is not readily available; find and frame problems; develop good problem-solving strategies – sub-goaling, algorithms, and heuristics; evaluate solutions; rethink and redefine problems and solutions. Problem-Solving Strategies: Sub-goaling – setting intermediate goals, defining intermediate problems; Algorithms – strategies that guarantee solution to problem; heuristics – shortcut strategies that suggest solution to problem. Obstacles to problem solving: Fixation – using prior strategy, Failing to look at problem from fresh, new perspective; Functional fixedness – failure to solve problem due to fixedness on usual function of something; Failure to “think outside the box” Reasoning and Decision Making: Reasoning – Mental activity of transforming information to reach conclusions, Inductive reasoning(from specific observations to generalizations), Deductive reasoning(from general case to specific instance); Decision Making – Evaluating alternatives and choosing among them.
Biases in Decision Making: Confirmation Bias – tendency to search for and use information that supports ideas rather than refutes them; Hindsight Bias – Tendency to report falsely, after the fact, that outcome was accurately predicted Heuristics in Decision Making: Rules of Thumb; Availability Heuristic – prediction about possibility of events based on recalling or imagining similar events; base rate fallacy (tendency to ignore information about general principles in favor of very specific but vivid information); Representativeness Heuristic – Tendency to make judgments about group membership based on match or group stereotype. Thinking Critically: Thinking reflectively and productively; Evaluating Evidence; Mindfulness – Being alert and mentally present for everyday activities; Open-Mindedness – Being receptive to other ways of looking at things Thinking Creatively: To think about something in novel/unusual ways; To devise unconventional to problems; Divergent Thinking – Producing many solutions to same problem, brainstorming; Convergent Thinking – Producing single best solution to problem; Creative thinkers do both Intelligence: Cultures vary in ways they define intelligence; All-purpose ability – to do well on cognitive tasks, to solve problems, to learn from experience. Measuring Intelligence: Validity – extent to which test measures what it is intended to measure; Reliability – Extent to which test yields consistent, reproducible measure of performance; Standardization – Uniform procedures for administering and scoring, Norms, or performance standards for test. IQ Tests: Mental Age – Individual’s level of mental development relative to that of others; Cultural Bias in IQ Testing: Culturally biased tests have favored people – From urban, rather than rural, environments, Of middle, rather than low, socioeconomic status, Who are white, rather
Exam 54 questions Couple questions from videos REM disorder – don’t get paralyzed Rusty the narcoleptic dog Manifest Content – list of contents of the dream Latent Content – hidden meaning of unconscious. Opponent process – body gets ready for intake of drugs Classical Conditioning – Pavlov: unconditioned stimulus followed by unconditioned response. US – food, UR – salivate to food, CS – bell, CR – salivate to food Operant Conditioning – Thorndike’s Law of Effect: if gotten a reward for behavior, will repeat behavior. Shaping – slow steps to get subject to perform task. Kid standing on chair Schedules of Reinforcement – Fixed Ratio: every 15 tries get a reward, Variable Ratio: on average every 15 tries get a reward(sometimes more sometimes less), Variable Interval: on average every 15 minutes get a reward(sometimes more sometimes less), Fixed variable: every 15 minutes get a reward. Reinforcement always good. Punishment always bad. Negative reinforcement – get good grades = no final. Positive reinforcement – get good grades get money, Negative punishment – be bad get toy taken away, Positive punishment – be bad get a spanking. Episodic Memory – things that happen to you. Don’t last very long Semantic Memory – knowledge you have that doesn’t directly involve you but you know from long term memory. Ex.) mother’s maiden name. Chunking and Rehearsal – try and get memories into long term memory.
Rehearsal – repeat information. Phone number long enough so you can make a call. Chunking – take lots of things and link them into one big thing. Random letters into items. Nbcabccbscnn = NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN. String – functional fixedness: 2 strings apart. Use pliers to swing string and tie together. Nine – dot – Framing problem space: think outside the box. Connect all the dots 6 matchsticks – 2 dimensional: make a 3-D triangle to solve it Prototype model – what image comes in your head when you hear a word. Exemplar – same thing that deviates from your prototype but is still the same item. Ex.) car. Test 3 Nature and Nurture: Nature – Biological inheritance, especially genes; Nurture – Environmental and social experiences; Genotype – Genetic heritage; Phenotype – Observable characteristics, Contributions of both nature and nurture(interaction) Nature and Nurture: Exposure in the womb – how much exposure to male hormones did you have?, did your mother have a male child before you? Nature, Nurture, and You: We can develop beyond what our genetic inheritance and our environment give us – seeking optimal experiences in life; Life Themes – Activities, Social Relationships, Life Goals Prenatal Development: Conception Zygote fetus; Germinal Period (weeks 1 & 2) – Cell divisions, Attachment to uterine wall; Embryonic Period (weeks 3 through 8)
