Lecture Notes, Lectures 1-6 - Professor: Dr. Eastwood PDF

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Professor: Dr. Eastwood...

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09.14.15

Prologue What is Psychology?   

Asks questions about human behaviour o Differs from natural sciences Answers them in a structured way o Differs from humanities “Science of behaviour and mental processes” o Science of behaviour and mental processes o Process of collecting knowledge  Systematic and controlled measurements  Psychology is the way we collect answers (systematic experiments and controlled studies) o Deals with repeatable and observable phenomena  Not morals, values, past events  E.g., spanking, abortion  We cannot say if it is good or bad but we can say what will mentally happen if you were to be spanked as a child o Observable actions  E.g. lie detection o Infer internal experiences from behaviour  E.g., memory o Case example: Depression  We can infer how it will impact us but we cannot see it (i.e. depression. You can not tell if someone is depressed simply by looking at them. Depression is a concept not a visible object)  We see the behaviors that are a result of depression but not the subject of depression itself

Psychology Pioneers  

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Aristotle and Plato o Observations & guesses about psyche Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) o First psychology laboratory o First controlled observations Edward Titchener (1867-1927) o Structuralism – discover mind’s structure  – tried to break the mind into certain structures o Introspection; unreliable William James (1842-1910) o Functionalism – purpose of minds’ functions  worry less about structures, worry more about how it works and why it works that way

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Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) o Focused on mental disorders  Tried to understand why people get depressed, anxious o The unconscious and childhood experiences  How does our childhood impact who we are today Mary Calkins (1863-1930) o First female APA president o Denied PhD due to gender

Historical Trends 

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Behaviourism (1920’s - ) o Focus only on observable behaviour  Let’s focus on what people do because we can see it rather than the mind because we cannot see peoples thoughts o Classical & operant conditioning Humanism (1960s - ) o Thriving vs. surviving o Reach full potential Cognitive Revolution (1960s - ) o Re-focus on internal processes o Perceive, process, remember information  How does our memory work? How are we able to recall things? Today: range of topics and subfields o Overlap with other disciplines o Growing and globalizing

Psychology’s Biggest Question 

Nature vs. Nurture o Traits inherent or developed? o Ancient debate o E.g., intelligence, gender o “Nurture works on what nature endows  NHL players are not normal one day and stars the next – work is a factor as well as genes o Biology PLUS environment

Current Perspectives

Perspective

Focus

Response (Depression)

Neuroscience

Brain Structure and Circuitry

Lack of Serotonin

Evolutionary

Natural Selection and Survival

Benefits of depression

Behavioural Genetics

Heritability of Traits

Mother had depression

Psychodynamic

Unconscious Drives and Conflicts

Childhood abuse

Behavioural

Learning and Behaviour Modification

Learned helplessness

Cognitive

Encoding, Processing, and Storing Information

Negative interpretations

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Strengths and Limitations  

Psychological knowledge is influential o E.g., mental disorders, memory o Your mind will never be the same! However, has limitations o Relatively young field o Doesn’t deal with ultimate questions

09.21.15

Thinking Critically Need for Psychological Science?   

Isn’t it all just common sense? We should just use intuition Useful, but often wrong  Common sense can be useful but when it comes to objective decisions it is often wrong

November 23rd, 2015

Lecture 8 – Developmental Issues in Developmental Psychology Nature vs. Nurture

- How do genes and experience guide development over our lifetime? - How much of who we are today and who we are going to be is from our genetics and how much is from how we were raised/what has happened to us?

Change and Stability - In what ways do we change as we age, and in what ways do we stay the same? - Over time, through adolescence, how much do we stay the same person vs how much do we change. (Ex. Attitudes, beliefs, personality traits) Continuity vs. stages – Is development a gradual change or are there some leaps to a new way of thinking or behaving? - Can we break people down into steps of development, or is it a more gradual change over time? - Some processes are gradual, and some of them are in stages Ways of Categorizing Development (Erik Eriksson) The theory for this method is the issue must be solved within each stage in order for us to develop properly and move forward to the next stages. Stage (Approximate Age)

Issue

Infancy (to 1 year)

Trust vs. Mistrust

Toddlerhood (1-3 years)

Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

Preschool (3-6 Years)

Initiative vs. Guilt

Elementary (6- puberty)

Competence vs. Inferiority

Adolescence (Teens – 20’s)

Identity vs. Role Confusion

Young Adulthood (20’s – 40’s)

Intimacy vs. Isolation

Middle Adulthood (40’s – 60’s)

Generativity vs. Stagnation

Late Adulthood (60’s and up)

Integrity vs. Despair

Description of Task If needs are dependably met, infants develop a sense of basic trust Toddlers learn to exercise their will and do things for themselves, or they doubt their abilities Preschoolers learn to initiate tasks and carry out plans, or they feel guilty about their efforts to be independent Children lean the pleasure of applying themselves to tasks or they feel inferior Teenagers work at refining a sense of self by testing roles and then integrating them to form a single identity, or they become confused about who they are Young adults struggle to form close relationships and to gain the capacity for intimate love, or they feel socially isolated In middle age, people discover a sense of contributing to the world, usually through family and work, or they may feel a lack of purpose

Reflecting on his or her life, an older adult may feel a sense of satisfaction or failure

Beginnings  Conception – Fertilization  Fetus – 9 weeks  Dangers – Teratogens – alcohol  Learning – Sounds – mothers voice What happens within the 9 months of pregnancy can have a large impact on the developmental process of the child while in the womb and for the rest of his or her life. Newborn  Several inborn skills o Rooting reflex – If you touch a babies cheek they will turn toward you and look for food o Sucking reflex – Babies do not have to be taught to suck, they are born with that ability o Crying when hungry 

Innate abilities o Prefer Faces – If a baby is shown two images and one even slightly represents a face, they will prefer looking at that specific image

Maturation  Biologically driven growth o Not “Learning” o You cannot teach a baby to walk at 8 months because they physically are not able to 

Motor stages o Sit, Crawl, Walk o Babies will typically sit unsupported at 6 months, crawl at 8-9 months, begin walking at 12 months and walk independently at 15 months

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Brain development o Begin neural networks o Infantile amnesia – because of the way the brain is developing in the memory areas, majority of people cannot remember anything before 3 years old in relation to life experiences by the time they reach adulthood o Procedural memory – They are able to remember body movements but not episodic memories

Cognitive Development  Children think differently – Children may do many things that we as adults find amusing because they do not fully understand certain concepts o Scale – They do not understand the difference in sizes

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Create schemas – categories that we make up in order to help us understand the world around us o Organize information

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Assimilation Accommodation

Piaget’s Steps Typical Age Range Birth to nearly 2 years

About 2 to 6 or 7 years

About 7 to 11 years

About 12 through adulthood

Description of Stage Sensorimotor Experiencing the world through senses of actions (looking, hearing, touching, mouthing and grasping) Preoperational Representing things with words and images; using intuitive rather than logical reasoning Concrete Operational Thinking logically about concrete events; grasping concrete analogies and performing arithmetical operations Formal operational Abstract reasoning

Developmental Phenomena  Object permanence  Stranger anxiety  

Pretend play Egocentrism

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Conservation Mathematical transformations

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Abstract logic Potential for mature moral reasoning

Social Development: Attachment  Emotional tie o Based on physical contact o Animals – imprinting 

Attachment Style o Secure o Insecure – anxious o Insecure – avoidant

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Impact of deprivation o Often – resilient o Prolonged – long term effects

Parenting Styles Style Authoritarian “Too Hard” Permissive “Too Soft” Authoritative “Just Right”

Response to Child’s Behavior Parents impose rules “because I said so” and expect obedience Parents submit to kids’ desires, not enforcing limits or standards for child behaviour Parents enforce rules, limits, and standards but also explain, discuss, listen, and express respect for a child’s ideas and wishes

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Authoritative – Positive outcomes o Self-reliance, social competence, etc o Cause and effect? – Does the child cause the parenting style or vice versa?

Adolescence  Physical Changes o Puberty 

Brain development o Rewiring and pruning o Crucial learning period

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Frontal Lobe last o Risky Behaviour  What were you thinking??

Moral Development  Consider moral issues o Preconventional (...