Final Notes- Psychology 120 PDF

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PSYCHOLOGY 120- FINAL EXAM NOTESCHAPTER 1 & 2 – Introducing Psychology & Major PerspectivesSchool of Psychology Description Important Contributors Structuralism Uses the method of introspection to identify the basic elements or “structures” of psychological experienceWilhelm Wundt Edward B. ...

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PSYCHOLOGY 120- FINAL EXAM NOTES CHAPTER 1 & 2 – Introducing Psychology & Major Perspectives School of Psychology Structuralism

Functionalism

Psychodynamic

Behaviourism

Cognitive

Social- Cultural

Description Uses the method of introspection to identify the basic elements or “structures” of psychological experience Attempts to understand why animals and humans have developed the psychological aspects that they currently posses Focuses on the role of our unconscious thoughts, feelings, and memories and our early childhood experiences in determining behaviour Based on the premise that if not possible to objectively study the mind, and therefore that psychologists should limit their attention to the study of behaviour itself The study of mental processes, including perception, thinking, memory, and judgements The study of how the social situations and the cultures in which people find themselves influence thinking and behaviour

Important Contributors Wilhelm Wundt Edward B. Titchener

William James

Sigmund Freud Carl Jung Alfred Adler Erik Erickson John B. Watson B.F. Skinner

Hermann Ebbinghaus Sir Frederic Bartlett Jean Piaget Fritz Heider Leon Festinger Stanley Schacter

Definitions  Dualism  the mind is different from the body  Structuralism  identify the basic elements or structure of physiological experience  Heritability of the characteristics  the difference of characteristics among people that is due to genetics  Psychodynamic psychology  is an approach to understanding human behavior that focuses on the role of the unconscious thoughts, feelings, and emotions  Psychanalysis  talk therapy and dream analysis  Introspection  involves asking research participants to describe how they feel doing a task Perspectives  Plato  nature vs nurture, certain types of knowledge are innate or inborn. He also believed that people were not fully human

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Aristotle  more on the nurture side, kids are born on the empty slate. Knowledge is acquired through learning and experiences Rene Descartes  free will, the mind controls the body. Believed the soul lived in the pineal gland of the brain and controlled the body through hollow tubes. Socrates  created the ideas that the mind and body are sperate Hippocrates  father of medicine. He was first to believe that diseases were caused naturally and not by superstition. Saw the brain as the location of pleasure and pain. Believed that certain human’s behaviours were caused by excess or lack of body fluids John Locke  believed that humans were born with a clean slate and were influenced by the association of ideas based on experience with observation, sensation, and perception Phrenology  he believed that different areas in the brain accounted for different character and personalities Wilhelm Wundt  considered the father of modern psychology. Distinguished psychology from philosophy. His work gave rise to three psychologies (structuralism, functionalism, and psychoanalysis)

Definitions  Structuralism  human consciousness could be broken down into basic elements of emotions, perceptions, and sensations. Once broken down a person's experience could be described, analyzed, mapped, and then integrated into basic blocks of learning strategies. Was rigorous and scientific (tries to break consciousness down)  Functionalism  organisms use their knowledge and perception to function in their environment. The principle of “fitness” is now in its place (serves a purpose)  Psychanalysis  Freud believe that all behaviors stem from unconsciousness, motivation, and desire. He believes that the unconscious part of the mind contains unrevealed thoughts, dreams, wishes, feelings, memories, and desires  Id, ego, and super ego- Freud’s theory  the id represents the unconscious mind (sex, food, and water). The ego represents the conscious mind and the characteristics of reason and self-control. The superego is the moral mind that controls behaviour and manages conflict  Psychosexual development  Freud believes that human development happens in stages/milestones and phases. If one or more of the phases are not met during development, then problems will arise.  Biological psychology  the study of how external environments and bodily events interact to affect behaviour, feelings, perspectives and thought. This brings the principals of biology to the study of mental process and behaviour. It suggests that we think and act that we do because of what going on around us  Evolutionary psychology  the study of patterns of human’s behaviour to human survival. Closely based on Darwin’s theory of natural selection  Learning perspective  suggests that behaviour is based on a system of reward and punishment that results in a learned response to various environmental stimuli  Behaviourism  suggests that it isn’t possible to study the mind or measure thought and feelings. Therefore, psychologist should only study behaviours that can be observed. They believe that we are shaped directly from our environment  Cognitive psychology  involves the study of the human brain. The focus of this psychology is on thought processes and how we make sense of info. It’s also the study of reasons, memory, problem solving, benefits and morality  The social cultural approach  suggest that people are affected by both the society and the culture. This focus is on things that shape people (ex. social norms)

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Psychodynamics  believe that it is possible to help patients if the unconscious thought, desires and drives that were influencing their behaviour can be remembered through the clinical practice of psychanalysis Humanistic psychology  focuses on self-improvement and optimism in stressful situations. They wanted to focus on the importance of self-esteem, self-expression, and self-actualization on human behaviour. People can control their own destines Maslow’s hierarchy of needs  suggest that humans can only reach their full potential once their basic phycological and emotional needs have been met Critical psychology  the framework includes feminist and indigenous perspectives and focuses on historical, social, cultural, and political context and its influence on people’s behaviour. They challenge assumptions, stereotypes, and stigma in the interest of social change Feminist psychology  focuses on gender, race, ethnicity, and social class. They want to demolish gender stereotypes and sexism Indigenous psychology movement  challenges mainstream psychological approaches and offers alternative explanations for health outcomes for indigenous populations

CHAPTER 3 – Methods in Psychology Observation  The case study: try to determine why a person is behaving in a particular way  An in-depth study of one person  Anne O: first classic case of hysteria, talk about her symptom presentation  The Wolf Man: male case of hysteria. Study of a man who was having dreams. In his bedroom and outside his bedroom there was a tree, and on the tree, there was 5 wolves. The book talks about why he is having these dreams. Freud treated him with dream analysis  The problem with this single case, is that it will not apply to everyone The Scientific Method  Identifying the problem  Hypotheses  a statement of what you think should happen in your experiment. A testable prediction  Examples  neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, and openness Designing an experiment  Operational definition  what is the definition of each of the variables  Independent variable  group which does not depend on the results of the other  Dependant variable  depend on the values of the independent variable  Experimental group  group that is being experimented on  Control group  not use in the treatment, but is used as benchmark for results Preforming an experiment  Measurement  o validity is the extent to which a measurement and a property are conceptually related o reliability is the tendency for a measure to produce the same measurement whenever it is used to measure the same thing o you must match your validity with your reliability  Random selection  if each member of a population has an equal chance of inclusion in the study

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Random assignment  if each member selected has an equal chance of being placed in the experimental or control condition

Understanding research results  Descriptive statistics  Correlations  Inferential statistics Descriptive statistics  Mean  average  Median  middle score  Mode  most frequently occurring score Correlations  Correlation  is when variations in the value of one variable are synchronized with variations in the value of the other  Positive correlation or negative correlation  Correlation coefficients measure the direction and strength of a correlation (r)  ‘r’ ranges from -1.0 to +1.0

Inferential statistics  Used to establish the casual relationship between variables  Manipulation  Create an artificial pattern of variation in a variable to determine its casual powers Drawing conclusions  The odds that the results are not due to chance  Not accepted unless that chanced is less than 5%  Internal validity  are there any errors in the experiment  External validity  are the variables representative of the real world Canadian code of ethics for psychologists  Principal I  respect for the dignity of persons o non-discrimination o informed consent o freedom of consent o fair treatment/due process

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o vulnerabilities o privacy o confidentiality Principle II  responsible caring o competence/ self-knowledge o risk/ benefit analysis o maximize benefits o minimize harm o offset and correct harm o care of animals Principal III  integrity in relationships o accuracy/ honesty o objectify/ lack of bias o straight forwardness/ openness o avoidance of deception o avoidance of conflict of interest o reliance on the discipline Principal IV  responsibility to society o development of knowledge o beneficial activities o respect to society o development of society

Other unethical studies  Stanford prison study  Little Albert  taking an orphan and exposing him or her to furry things like rabbits  Milgram study  electric shock in its effects to learning  David/ Brenda Reimer study  infant boy lost penis due to circumcision experiment  Tuskegee syphilis study  wanted to see what would happen to an African American man if they left syphilis untreated. treatment was available but participants were never informed CHAPTER 8 – Memory Memory  The ability to store and retrieve info overtime  An active, selective, manufactured, and reconstructive Definitions:  Encoding  mental representation in memory based on information processing. Info is recognised but not yet stored for long term  Storage  retention of encoded info over time  Retrieval  recovery of info over time  Sensory memory  allows large amount of info to be stored for very brief durations  Iconic memory  brief sensory memory in the visual domain  Echoic memory  brief sensory memory in the auditory domain  George Sperlings  studies of sensory memory

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Immediate memory  mechanism for focusing cognitive resources on a small set of mental representations for just a few seconds George miller  discovers that it has a limited capacity of fi plus or minus 2 items of info Chuncking  grouping info based on similarity or some other organizing principal reduces the load on immediate memory. Chunk is a meaningful unit of info Working memory  immediate memory put to work. Not just short-term storage 1. Visuospatial sketchpad  stores visual and spatial info (ex. appearance and location) 2. Phonological loop  encodes, rehearses, and hold auditory info (ex. persons phone number) 3. Episodic buffer  holds integrated episodes and provides a limited capacity storage system 4. Central executive  controls the other three components by balancing the info flow and controlling attentional processes Long term memory  memory that is stored for minutes, hours, days, or years Recent memory  long term memory from the recent past, like mins, hours, days ago Remote memory  long term memory from the distant past like months or years ago Procedural  memory for how you do things, the way you remember how to get things done Declarative  recollection of facts or events Episodic memories  memory for things you have personally experienced Semantic memories  general categorical memories. Not linked to specific episodes where memory way obtained (ex. brushing your teeth)

Craik and Lockhart  The deeper the information is processed when it comes in, the better it is remembered  Structural (physical appearance) – shallow  Phonemic (sound) = intermediate  Semantic (meaning) = deep CHAPTER 4 & 5 – Neuroscience and Behaviour Genetics & Evolution  Evolutionary psychology  is a field of psychology that emphasizes how evolutionary mechanisms may explain common patterns in human thinking, development, emotion, social behaviour and more  Soft inheritance (Lamarck)  Lamarck believed organisms could. Evolve more complex characteristics during their lifetime. And pass these on  Darwin  described theory of natural selection. Species that adapt to the environment and survive better will continue to exist while the other more primitive die off  Hard inheritance (Darwin)  the “fittest” species pass their genes on to their offspring which gives them that advantage  Sexual selection (Darwin)  why some organisms have some characteristics that don’t seem necessary for survival  Intersexual  selection by the opposite sex for mating purposes  Intrasexual selection  same sex individuals compete for a partner of the opposite sex  Lamarck vs Darwin  difference was Darwin didn’t talk about same generations adaptations  Epigenetics  involve changes in expression of genes, influenced by the environment. It is as if chemical “tags” turn genes on or off. Evidence suggests these tags can be passed on ‘  Allele  a form of a gene. Can be dominant or recessive  Homozygous dominant  two dominant alleles combine  Homozygous recessive  two recessive alleles combine

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Heterozygous dominant  one dominant and one recessive allele combine Genome  the full set of genes in each cell of an organism DNA  deoxyribonucleic acid (contained in nucleus of cells) Genes  are contained within DNA Autosomal  not on the sex chromosomes Genotype  the genetic structure on organism inherits form its parents Phenotype  observable characteristics Twin studies  identical monozygotic twins = identical genotypes Fraternal dizygotic twins  about 50% shared genetic material Genetic determinism (nature)  the idea that genetics explain the exitance of a given trait Environmental determinism (nurture)  the idea that environmental factors are the fundamental reason for the existence of a given trait

The Brain and Behaviour  The Nervous System  includes the brain and nerves. Has 2 major divisions called the central and peripheral nervous systems. These divisions are connected  Central Nervous System  made up of the brain and spinal cord  Peripheral Nervous System  made up of nerve fibers. Connects the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body  Somatic Nervous System  regulates the actions of the sensory receptors, or muscles attached to the skeleton. Soma= body  Autonomic Nervous System  subdivision of the peripheral nervous system that regulates the internal organs and glands. Has 2 major divisions: sympathetic division and the parasympathetic division  Sympathetic Division  governs responses to emergency situations. Responsible for our fight or flight response  Parasympathetic Division  monitors the routine operation of the body’s internal functions (ex. breathing, heart rate, digestion) Layers of the brain  Cerebrum  topmost, outermost region  Cerebellum  underneath cerebrum and behind brain stem. Has 2 hemispheres. Coordinates body movements. Controls posture, maintains balance, involved in learning sequence of movements. Damage results in incoordination and jerky movement  Cerebral lobes  can be divided into 4 lobes: frontal, temporal, parietal, occipital  Frontal lobe primary motor cortex. Involved in cognitive activities such as planning, decision making, and goal setting  Pre- Frontal Cortex  the. Foremost portion of the frontal lobes. Executive functions of the frontal lobe. Doesn’t include the primary motor cortex  Motor Cortex -> strip of frontal lobe devoted to movement  Parietal lobe  primary somatosensory cortex. Responsible for sensation of touch, pain, temp.  Somatosensory cortex  a strip of the parietal lobe dedicated to sensation and perception  Temporal lobe  primary auditory cortex. Responsible for hearing (processes sound)  Occipital lobe  primary visual cortex  Limbic system  middle, interior region. Structures include hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus. Involved with motivation, emotion, and memory. Beneath the cerebrum and wrapped around brainstem

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Thalamus  sits on top of brainstem. Channels incoming sensory info from the body to appropriate area of cerebrum. Described as relay sensory Hippocampus  largest limbic system structure. Involved with acquisition of memory Amygdala  involved in emotional control. Especially involved in understanding threat and danger. Involved in forming emotional memories Hypothalamus  regulates motivated behaviour, manages the bodies internal state, regulates endocrine system (pituitary glands) Brainstem  lowermost interior region. Involved in regulating medulla processes such as heartbeat, breathing, swallowing and digestion. Medulla  a brain stem structure that regulates breathing, blood pressure, heartbeat Pons  directly above the medulla and provide input to brain stem and cerebellum Reticular formation  is a dense network of neurons at the core of the brainstem and tells the brain how to react to new info Midbrain involved in vision, hearing, motor control, sleep/wake, alertness, and temperature regulation. Disorders in this area are Parkinson’s and Tourette’s Corpus Callosum  helps the two hemispheres exchange info Neuron  a type of cell that is the basic building block of the nervous system. Brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves are all made up of neurons. Carry info in the form of electrochemical signals Dendrites  cytoplasm that branches out from the cell body receive information from many other neurons. Allow more cells to connect with the neuron and increase surface area Axon  a single extension of the body that is responsible for sending info to 1 or more neurons. Only one per cell. The end of it is called the terminal button. Allow neurons to send electrochemical messages to other cells Synapse  the pint at which 1 neuron can transmits info to another Resting potential  negative charge, more potassium inside, sodium outside Action potential  positive charge, reaching threshold causes influx of sodium

Neurotransmitters  Dopamine  very important to movement. Higher than normal levels are found in the brains of persons with schizophrenia. Lower than normal levels are found in the brains of person with Parkinson’s disease  Norepinephrine  seems to be involved in some form of depression. Some anti-depression medication act to increase levels of this neurotransmitter. This relieves depression  Serotonin  seems to be involved in depression, common class of antidepressants

CHAPTER 6 – Sensation and Perception Sensation vs Perception  Sensation o Stimulation of sense organs o Light hitting retina, sound waves hitting ear o Converted to neural impulses- transduction  Perception o Selection, organization, interpretation of sensory input

Perception  Perception is constructed o prior experience o expectations o attention Cross-Modal Perception  most of...