Intro to Psych Course Notes PDF

Preview

Summary

Intro to Psych COURSE Notes  1/24  ● iClicker responses track attendance - questions and responses lets professor know you are here and  here on time   ● 98% grade - questions correct were review questions   ● 85% - you ​missed ​ the questions, or you answered them...

Description

Intro to Psych COURSE Notes 1/24 ● ● ● ● ●

● ● ● ● ●

iClicker responses track attendance - questions and responses lets professor know you are here and here on time 98% grade - questions correct were review questions 85% - you missed the questions, or you answered them all incorrectly.  70% - questions left unanswered ○ Not having your iClicker permitted once or twice a semester. Three exams that are NOT cumulative; so no “final” exam. Yay. ○ 35 multiple choice, 10 short-answer, essay questions, etc. ○ Present with iClicker questions will be similar to exam questions (review days) ○ Review sessions for exams Applied assignment is 25% - APA-style Study guides posted prior to exam E-text can be used; don’t carry book around. ○ Textbook is divided based on readings Prep for exam: quizzes and exams in the back ○ REVISIT concepts that are unclear!

 The Evolution of Psychology ● The Emergency of Psychology ● What does psychology mean? ○ A way of thinking. A practical way of thinking about actions, behaviors, phenomenons. ○ Psychologists investigate questions about human behavior in some kind of scientific manner. Being a psychologist doesn’t mean you’re a therapist or clinician! Some are, but many are not. It is merely one way for it to be practiced. ○ As a discipline, it is oversimplified from social media, media, literature and common knowledge. Because of this, there are “myths” that are emerge about mental illness and the field. Let’s break the code and debunk some of the myths. ● The term “psychology” is derived from the “psyche” (the soul) + “logos” (the study). The study of the soul. ● It was first used by scholars to discuss the study of the mind in the 18th century. As a discipline, it’s pretty new. As a discipline to be studied, it emerged only 140 years ago. It is still emerging in many ways. ● Early History: The founder of psych is Sigmund Freud, but Wiliam Wundt (1832-1920), the founder of psychology and established the first psychology lab. He saw psych as the study of conscious experience. ● Actions, behaviors, etc that the individual is aware of. It really began to grow as a field in North America where two different schools of thought emerged - structuralism! ○ STRUCTURALISM consciousness in its most basic element. What is the structure of our mind that allows us to have these experiences? ○ FUNCTIONALISM is based on the belief that pysch should investigate the function and purpose of consciousness; rather than its structures. How does it help us function? “Stream of consciousness”; William James ■ How can individuals adapt behaviors to meet the demands of the real world? ■ Functionalists studied patterns of child development, the impact of educational praxis, gender differences - these questions were first asked by functionalism.

Neither school of thought is all too prevalent, but they have left their mark on how we view and practice psychology! ● Psychoanalytic Theory - Freud; focused on unnatural fears, obsessions and anxiety. Psychoanalysis. Attempts to explain personality, motivation, mental disorders and focused on unconscious determinants of behavior. ● John B. Watson - Behaviorism. Theoretical; premise that scientific psychology should study only observable behaviors. Proposed that psychologists abandon consciousness because it cannot be seen; not worthy of study. The study of behaviors. ○ Underlied different theories of psych - nature vs. nurture ○ Discounted genetics entirely (heredity). Come into the world as a clean slate, and behavior is determined by environment and experience ■ BF Skinner also supported this; although internal mental states do exist, they cannot be studied scientifically (emotions, desires, etc because you cannot see them), but knew they existed and may exert some effect but we cannot study them. Agreed with Watson ● Humanism - theoretical orientation that emphasizes on unique qualities of humans; our freedom and potential for personal growth. Optimistic view of human nature. Fundamentally different from animals; basic need to evolve over time and fulfill our potential. We strive to grow throughout our lives. ● These three bodies of thought continue to influence psychology across the board. PSYCH TODAY ○ The science that studies behavior and the psychological and cognitive processes that underlie behavior. ○ The profession that applies the accumulated knowledge of this science to practical problems. ○ Within psych itself, a multi-faceted field with subfields ■ Biological ■ Clinical ■ Cousneling ■ Cognitive ■ Developmental ■ Education ■ Forensic ■ Health ■ Industrial ■ School ■ Social ■ Sports ● Altruistic about helping people… that’s me. ● SECOND most common undergrad major ● KEY THEMES! ○ Psychology is empirical. Conclusions are drawn based on phenomena that can be tested. ○ Psychology is theoretically diverse - interrelated. Competing schools of thought and that is not a weakness. No one theory can adequately explain everything about human behavior. ○ Psychology evolves in a socio-historical context. ■ Colloquial terms used and ○ Behavior determined by multiple causes - context-based, experimental. No ONE explanation for something, even something as basic as someone being the victim of an attack. Still not as simple as saying that that attack caused their anxiety. OTher people may have been attacked and not developed the same disorder or one at all. There has to be multiple things at play. ●

Behavior is shaped by culture. Norms, institutions, community, etc within and across generations. What is normal or abnormal is dictated by the culture in which one lives ■ Heredity and environment jointly influence behavior. Sometimes highly contingent on one “side”. Experiences of the world are highly subjective and need to be considered and validated because there is no one way of experiencing things, and because even if there was, what matters is how it felt to the person. ■

○

1/26 ●

Research Methods ○ Scientific Method measures and describes behavior in our environment - understand and predict phenomenon and behavior. Using this behavior by applying or helping control certain situations. ○ Measurement and description ○ Understanding and ○ Application. ■ Always begin with a HYPOTHESIS! ● This Theory needs to be translated into something that can be tested. It used integrated a set of ideas. Any system of interrelated ideas used to explain a set of observations and predicts behaviors or events. ● Some hypotheses lend themselves to better ones than others. ■ Operation definition: statement of procedure used to define research variables ● Weather and aggression: what do you mean by the variables? Define it! ● The way you design your study will define your results. ● Not all research in psychology is quantitative. Sometimes can be qualitative.

 ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Formulate your hypothesis Design the study Collect the data Analyze it Disseminate the findings

 ●

Descriptive Research ○ The starting point of any form of science is description. ○ Researchers can observe and describe these objectively and systematically. ■ Case studies are an in-depth investigation of one individual. ● These are used to analyze not just ONE person, but the case studies can be compared to other individuals to generate conclusions based on such a pattern. ● They want to describe behavior! Clinicians frequently use these. The root of mental illness or efficacy of a treatment is found through case studies. They “go back in time”. ○ They can reveal what is happening within an individual over time and can reveal things that the client or participant is not even aware of. ○ Suggesting directions for future research. ○ BUT… they can be highly subjective! The researcher can focus on what they intend to see, picking up one piece of information and letting others to go to the wayside. Just because 10 people who suffer from depression might have had a traumatic experience in kindergarten, this doesn’t mean that all who have such an experience will have depression as well.

○

These are good with hypotheses that researchers don’t know where to go with. ■ Naturalistic - observing them as they naturally unfold. ● Not only observing behaviors as they unfold but they avoid any contact with participant. They should not know someone is observing them. ● If boys act more aggressive than girls, then hanging out by the playground and watching them and notating their behavior, they should have no idea, thus not changing their interactions at all ● Often used in the exploratory phase of a project- not the only form of data connected, but a good “first step”. ● Allow researchers to explore phenomenon in its natural environment. A “snapshot” of everyday life. ● BUT… If they get wind of the fact that they are being observed, they will become reactive. ● Not always RANDOM people over ONE DAY ○ Reactivity dissolves ● We cannot control the outside factors that occur. ● Their day may have altered their reactions ● USed in descriptive research, but NOT Q  UANTITATIVE!! ■ Surveys and interviews - gathering information about background, beliefs and behaviors ● Look at background, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. ● Help you gather information about things difficult to observe. ○ EX: Someone’s political beliefs can be discovered through a questionnaire or to interview, you cannot just observe someone’s background. ● Gathering information from large samples. ● BUT… we tend to lie!!! Controversial subjects make us appear much better than we are. ● Even about stuff that doesn’t matter, we lie because it makes us feel better. NOT CAUSE AND EFFECT, just DESCRIBE PHENOMENA

  ●

Correlation ○ We CANNOT talk about causation - x does y, but IF there is a relation between the variables, or a correlation. ○ A measure of the extend to which two factors vary together. Positive or negative. ○ POSITIVE CORRELATION. When variables move in the same direction (one goes up, the second goes up as well). Exploring that there is a POSITIVE correlation and studying. More studying = better GPA. Eating less = weighing less, STILL POSITIVE! They move in the same direction. ○ NEGATIVE CORRELATION. Co-vary in multiple directions. If a decrease in sleep causes anxiety to rise, this is a negative correlation. ○ Direction of correlation of the reaction is determined by the sign. ○ Strength measured by correlation coefficient. Varies between -1 and +1 ■ A 0 shows NO RELATION between variables. ■ The closer to one, the stronger the relation. ■ Values do not matter: the closer to one. ○ When we say two variables are correlated, what do we mean? ■ As ice cream sales increased, the higher of individuals with polio increased. OK, does this mean that ice cream causes polio or that polio commands ice cream?

Ice cream is highest when the weather is, just as polio’s spread. Not directly related, instead, there was a THIRD variable at play. They SHARED a variable, but were not directly related. Correlations do NOT indicate cause. You must always be mindful that this correlation does not indicate something leading to another. ● Studying DOES NOT mean you get a higher GPA. MAybe people who study harder have a higher IQ, etc… This is limiting. Just because something is related, not much can be concluded. ●

○  ●

● ● ●

Experimental Research ○ In discussing cause and prediction… ○ The only research design in which we discuss CAUSE. Researcher manipulates a variable under controlled conditions and observes as that variable changes, if another does as well. ○ Variable X → Variable Y ○ Reading to children → language development. ○ Does a change in the amount of reading impact language development? ■ Reading is independent because we can control it. We are manipulating it. ■ The language development is dependent. We are looking to see what happens to it when we do it. To be influenced from independent variable. ○ There will be two groups of participants. ■ Experimental Group ● Receive special treatment of independent variable. EX, trained to read children in certain way. ■ Control Group ● No special treatment (normally). ○ THEY CANNOT DIFFER in any other way or they are confounding variables. ○ If my group was mothers and daughters and other was mother and son - confounding variable would be gender. The results would stem from the differences in gender (?) ■ Researchers use random assignment. ○ The “gold star” in research. ○ Allows researchers to conclude about cause and effect relations. The tight control provides problems… ○ BUT… Many research questions cannot be answered in a true experimental design. Does smoking cause lung cancer? It would be difficult and unethical to actually measure that. Everyone must have equal chance of being placed in experimental or control. So if we’re testing smoking, you would randomly have to assign your participants to SMOKE!!! Unethical. Your very hypothesis could lead them to lung cancer itself! ■ If you’re looking to see whether SES impacts children’s academic trajectory from PRE-K on, how can you randomly assign that? ■ Quasi-experimental uses somewhat random assignment. ■ Sometimes seen as artificial  ● You bring kids into a lab and conduct an experiment and add a third variable: watching violence ● You create this environment Are people’s attitudes about capital punishment related to their social class? ○ Survey. Survey a group of different classes. Can presence of food-related cues cause an increase in amount of food? ○ Experiment. DOES IT CAUSE? Do people who suffer from anxiety disorders share similar early childhood experiences?

●

●

○ Case study. We need to know their background. Potential Pitfalls ○ If we do X, Y will occur. ○ Sampling bias: the sample of participants is not representative of the population from which it was drawn. ○ Placebo effect: When participant’s expectations lead them to experience change even when they did not receive effective treatment. ○ Social desirability - participants provide what they see as socially desirable responses to present themselves positively ○ Halo effect: one perception of one train of a person, object or institution influences how we view it in its entirety ○ Experimenter bias - researcher’s expectations or preferences about outcome of a study influence the actual results. This can be controlled - blind and double blind studies. Neither researcher nor participants know who is in what group. Anyone “on the ground” collecting data not subjective will have NO idea group assignments. Research Ethics ○ The use of deception - highly debated issue in psychology. We don’t tell participants the true story, or any story. ■ People cannot be coerced into study. ■ Participants cannot be subjected to harmful conditions ■ If deception is used, participants must be debriefed ■ Maintain confidentiality of participants (even birth dates).

  1/31 ● Social desirability - what do our peers do? ● -1 to +1 - correlation coefficients Biological Bias of Psychology ● This class and the next class are going to the densest classes and the technicalities. ● THE NERVOUS SYSTEM (our primary focus) ○ There are two main categories of cells in the nervous system. ■ Glia ● Provide nourishment and oxygen to neurons. Support. More glia that neurons; ratio is 10:1. ■ Neurons ● Basic building block of the nervous system. ● Most information processing probably comes from neurons. ● NEURONS! ○ Individual cells in nervous system that receive, integrate and transmit information. Cell body (soma), branching fibers (dendrites). They receive messages and conduct impulses within the SOMA. Axon fibers pass messages from the soma of one neuron to another neuron as well as muscles and glands. ○ Myelin sheath: fatty tissue layer that insulates axon and allows greater transmission. Speed up information transmission from one neuron to another. ○ Terminal buttons. ■ Synapse. Neurons inner-connect. The junction and meeting point of axon tip. Information is meeting at dendrites (the receiving), through the soma, the cell body, along the axon (speaking and sending) and is transmitted to other cells/meeting points. ■ Neurons separated by the synaptic cleft. The “gap”.

■

■

■

Neurons transmit messages when stimulated by signals from our senses. See, smell, touch, hear, taste something… OR by a chemical signal from another neuron! NEURON or SENSE INFO. Neurons signals an impulse (action potential) - brief electrical charge that travels down the axon. Generate electricity from chemical changes. Process involves the exchange of ions (electrically charged atoms). ● Fluid interior of resting axon has excess of negatively charged ions, whereas fluid outside of axon has more positively charged ions ● Positive outside, negative inside ● Resting potential ○ When a neuron fires, channels in its membrane open. Allowing positive sodium ions to rush in. ○ For a second, it goes from negative to positive. ○ This action potential, fleeting moment ○ Action potential Neurotransmitters. ● Action potential stimulates the release of neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft. ● They are chemicals that transmit information from one neuron to another. There are dozens of different neurotransmitters. Just a couple of them: ○ Acetylcholine (ACh) ■ Plays critical role in learning and memory. Affects people with alzheimer’s. If we understand what’s causing certain conditions, we can work on interventions. ■ Messenger between motor neurons and skeletal muscles to contract. ■ Some forms of anesthesia - receptor cells (ACh in your body) are being blocked, so they can’t move. Mimic paralysis. ■ Botox treatment, used for wrinkles: blocks ACh in synapses between voluntary muscles. Paralyzes m  uscles. ○ Endorphins ■ Brain’s naturally occurring opiates. ■ Linked to pleasure and control. Acupuncture; enhance endorphin receptors at parts of our body. ○ Dopamine - Parkinson’s, addiction disorders, schizophrenia ○ Gaba - Anxiety ○ Glutamate - anxiety ○ Norepinephrine - depressive disorders ○ Serotonin - depressive, OCD, eating. SSRI (Selective Serotonin Reuptake). Block receptors that reabsorb.

 Nervous System ○ The body’s electrochemical communication network. Breaks down into ■ Central Nervous System (Brain and spinal cord) ■ Peripheral Nervous System (Sensory receptors, muscles and glands) Peripheral ○ Travels through axons bundled through electrical cables called nerves. The optic nerve bundles a million axon fibers into the single cable with messages that each eye sends to our brain. Grouping of a lot of axons. ●

○ ○

Somatic Nervous System ■ Enables voluntary control of our skeletal muscles Autonomic Nervous System ■ Controls glands and muscles of internal organs. Glandular activity, heart rate, digestive system… It has two components. ● Sympathetic Nervous System and Parasympathetic ○ Sympathetic: Arousal. Accelerate heart rate, raise your blood pressure, slow down digestion, raise blood sugar, increase breathing, cause you to perspire. They help you get into a state of alertness or arousal within seconds. ○ Parasympathetic: Calms us down.

Central ○ ○

Spinal cord - connects peripheral nervous system to brain. The brain enables us to think, act and feel. ■ Communicates with the rest of the body through nervous system and endocrine system. Glands that secrete chemical messengers that are known as hormones into the bloodstream.

■ Nervous System: neurotransmitters, faster, more specific (text) ■ Endocrine system: hormones, slower, less targeted. (letter) ●

Which ones last longer? End...