PSY141 Lecture Notes PDF

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Lecture 1 – Introduction to Psychological ScienceDefining psychology  Defined as the scientific investigation of mental processes (thinking, remembering and feeling), behaviours, and the interaction between them.  Biology and culture provide possibilities and constraints within which people think,...

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Lecture 1 – Introduction to Psychological Science Defining psychology  Defined as the scientific investigation of mental processes (thinking, remembering and feeling), behaviours, and the interaction between them.  Biology and culture provide possibilities and constraints within which people think, feel and act. Disciplines of Psychology split on method in 1950s  Experimental: effects of manipulating variables to study perception/learning  Correlational: variance amongst organisms to study social/development/individual  Unification was needed to progress. Now they are interchangeable Early Psychological Science  Wilhelm Wundt: Proponent of structuralism o Established the first psychological lab. Used the method of inspection to uncover the basic elements of consciousness – what does consciousness look like?  William James: Proponent of functionalism o Functionalism argued that consciousness is functional and serves a purpose – sought to investigate purpose o Function of consciousness is more important than the structure Perspectives in Psychology  Psychodynamic: focus on unconscious processes, conflict and early experiences o Proposes that people’s actions reflect the way thoughts, feelings and wishes are associated in their minds; that many of these processes are unconscious; and the mental processes can conflict with one another, leading to compromises among competing motives. Although the primary method has been analysing case studies, reflecting the goal of interpreting the meanings hypothesised to underline people’s actions, psychodynamic psychologists are increasingly using experimenting methods to integrate psychodynamic thinking with scientific psychology. o Sigmund Freud developed this theory along with psychoanalysis. Originated his theory on patients whose symptoms were real but not based on “physiological malfunction”.  Humanistic: People are motivated to reach their unique potentials and goals o Emphasises the uniqueness of the individual and focuses on the person’s immediate experience. Humanistic theorists assert that people have free will – the freedom to make choices so that they can fulfil their potential. According to this perspective, people are motivated to achieve personal goals so that they can fulfil their true potential. o Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers are the two key figures in humanistic psychology.  Behaviourist: Behaviour through learning and consequences of actions o Focusses on learning and studies the way environmental events control behaviour. Behaviourists reject the concept of “mind”, viewing mental events as the contents of a black box that cannot be known or studied scientifically. Scientific knowledge comes from using experimental methods to study the relationship between environmental events and behaviours. o “Behaviour follows its consequences” – Behaviourists formula

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o Most systematic behaviourist approach developed be B. F. Skinner. Cognitive: Behaviour based on how people process, store, and retrieve information o Focusses on the way people perceive, process and retrieve information. Cognitive psychologists are interested in how memory, how people solve problems and make decisions, and similar questions. The primary method of the cognitive perspective is experimentation. o The key founder of this perspective was the philosopher Greek Descartes. Evolutionary: Human behaviours evolved because they assisted the survival of our ancestors – can be social behaviours as well as physical functions o Argues that many human behavioural tendencies evolved because they helped our ancestors to survive and reproduce. Psychological processes have evolved through the natural selection of traits that help organisms adapt to their environment. This would explain adaptive behavioural traits that are passed down through generations to help individuals to adapt and survive in their environment. o Much of this perspective stems from Charles Darwin’s work, with emphasise on natural selection.

Lecture 2 – Motivation and Emotion Motivation: the driving force behind behaviour that leads us to pursue some things and avoid others.  Has two components: what people want to do (goals they pursue) and how strongly they want to do it  Reflects biological needs (food) and psychosocial needs (dominance, achievement) Psychodynamic Perspective of Motivation  Emphasises the biological basis of motivation reflecting animal heritage  Freud argued that we are motivated by internal tension states (drives) that build up until they are satisfied  Two basic drives: sex (love, lust, intimacy) and aggression (desire to control or master people and the environment)  Subsequent psychodynamic theorists emphasised the need for relatedness to others (independent to sexual desire) and the need for self-esteem  Concept of wishes and fears closer to more recent clinical data o Wishes – a representation of a desired state that is associated with emotion or arousal o Fears – a representation of an undesired state that is associated with unpleasant feelings  The most distinctive aspect of psychodynamic approach is the distinction between conscious (explicit) or unconscious (implicit) motives o Explicit: motivation that becomes activated when people focus conscious attention on a task or goal. More flexible and controllable and can override unconscious motives. o Implicit: expressed over time without conscious effort or awareness. Behaviourist Perspectives of Motivation  Behaviours are governed by the environment. Needs reflect a requirement (food, water). Drives are states of arousal that accompany an unfulfilled need (hunger, thirst).

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Drive reduction theory argues that we behave in order to satisfy needs and reduce drives. There are two types of drives o Primary (innate) – hunger, thirst, sex o Secondary (learned) – learned through conditioning and other learning mechanisms such as modelling. Criticised for not explaining pleasure seeking or exploration, and also boredom. Drive reduction theory summarised:

Cognitive Perspective of Motivation  Expectancy-value theory: motivation is a function of the value people place on an outcome AND the extent to which they can achieve it.  Outcomes are viewed as goals which are established through social learning. The core proposition of goal-setting theory is that conscious goals regulate much of human behaviour, especially performance on work tasks.  Extrinsic motivation (external rewards) can have a negative effect on intrinsic motivation (interest and enjoyment of a task for its own sake) and stifle intrinsic pleasure in learning.  The effect of a reward on motivation depends on how the individual perceives the situation. o If the reward is seen as compromising their self-determination, the effect on intrinsic motivation will be negative o If the reward is seen as praise for indication of their competence and not as a bribe, the effect will be positive.  Self-determination theory suggests that people have three innate needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness to others – and that intrinsic motivation thrives when these three are met rather than compromised.  Related to self-efficacy (confidence) and attributions  Conscious goals regulate much of human behaviour rather than implicit motives Humanistic Perspective of Motivation: the process of satisfying certain needs that are required for long-term survival and development. Expressed in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

o Lower levels of the pyramid need to be fulfilled before the higher-level needs guide a person’s behaviour o Self-actualisation needs are motives to express oneself and grow, or to actualise one’s potential.  ERG theory condenses Maslow’s Hierarchy into three levels of need: existence, relatedness and growth. Evolutionary Perspectives of Motivation  Early theorists suggested behaviour was governed by instincts: fixed pattern of behaviour produced without learning  Key assumption is that motivational systems may have evolved in response to particular evolutionary pressures  Contemporary theorists argue that there are multiple motivational systems related to: Survival and Reproductive Success Psychosocial Motives  Attachment motivation refers to the desire for physical and psychological proximity to another for comfort and pleasure (unlike sex)  Two major clusters of goals people pursue are o Relatedness: referring to motives for connection with others o Agency: motives for achievement, autonomy, mastery, power and selforientated goals)  Less biological but rooted in evolution o Intimacy: is closeness characterised by self-disclosure, warmth and mutual caring (adult relationships) o Affiliation: is interaction with friends or acquaintances (communication and support) Individual differences in mastery/performance goals  Performance goals are motives to achieve a particular outcome (extrinsic motive) o Performance-approach goals: motivated to attain goal to demonstrate competence o Performance-avoidance goals: motivated by fear of not attaining goal (least effective)  Mastery goals are motives to increase skills and competence (intrinsic) – generally the most effective  Most effective goals are specific, proximal, related to mastery not performance, and related to doing well not avoiding failure Approach-oriented Avoidance-oriented

Mastery Goals

Performance Goals

Motivated to truly master academic task

Motivated to demonstrate more ability than others

Motivated to seek to avoid misunderstanding

Motivated to avoid appearing incompetent to others

Emotion: States characterised by physiological arousal and changes in facial expressions, gestures, posture, and subjective feelings  Emotion is an evaluative response to a situation that typically includes: o Physiological arousal – includes heart rate, blood pressure, perspiration, and other bodily responses o Subjective experience – private emotional experience o Behavioural or emotional expression – outward signs of what a person is feeling Theories of Emotion  James-Lange theory – emotional feelings follow bodily arousal and come from awareness of such arousal  Cannon-Bard theory – the thalamus causes emotional feelings and bodily arousal simultaneously  Contemporary Model of Emotion:

Subjective Experience: emotional intensity varies along a bell curve  At the upper end are people with severe personality disorders (intense anger or sadness)  At the lower end are people who appear to not have emotional states (Alexithymia: a condition in which a person does not experience emotional states) Facial expressions and emotion  There are evolutionary links between the experience of emotion and facial expressions of emotion (facial expressions serve to inform others of our emotional state)  Different facial expressions are associated with different emotions  Facial expressions can alter the emotional state (participants being asked to make a fearful or happy face and recording the related feelings)  Cross-cultural studies have identified six facial expressions recognised by people of every culture that was examined: surprise, fear, anger, disgust, happiness and sadness.  Gender differences in emotional expressions may reflect differing socialisation patterns. Women may: experience more intense emotional states, be better able to read emotional cues, and express emotions more intensely and openly than men.  Men who understand others well have a higher tendency to be more socially successful, therefore greater chance at finding a mate. Thus, males may have pressure to both feel and not to feel. Psychodynamic theory of emotion:

people can be unconscious of their own emotional experience, and that unconscious emotional process can influence thought, behaviour and health. Cognitive perspective  Schachter-Singer theory: When people experience a state of non-specific physiological arousal (anger, happiness, sadness) they try to figure out what the arousal means.  Thus according to this theory, emotion involves two factors: physiological arousal and cognitive interpretation Evolutionary perspective on emotions: they serve as an adaptive purpose and are important to signal to other members of other species.  Basic emotional expressions are wired into the organism and are recognised crossculturally and cross-species. 

Lecture 3.1 – Biological basis of mental life and behaviour Neurons are the basic units of the nervous system  Sensory neurons: transmit information from sensory cells in the body called receptors to the brain. Neurons that send information to the brain about the sensations perceived. Sometimes called afferent neurons.  Interneurons: nerve cells that connect other neurons to one another  Motor neurons: transmit commands from interneurons to the glans and muscles of the body. They carry out voluntary and vital functions. Sometimes called efferent neurons. Anatomy of a neuron  Branch-like extensions called dendrites receive inputs from other cells.  Cell body includes nucleus containing the genetic material which determines how the neuron manipulates the received signal  The axons central function is to transmit information to other neurons. Most are covered in a myelin sheath that is comprised of lipids and facilitates transmission of information to other neurons. It also increases speed of transmission of messages. o Nodes of Ranvier attracts the fired messages from the neurons where the message is conducted form node to node.  At the end of an axon is the terminal buttons, which send signals from neuron to adjacent cells.  Connections between neurons occur at synapses. Neuron potentials  When a neuron is at rest (resting potential), it is polarised with a negative charge inside the cell membrane and a positive charge outside. When a neuron is stimulated it's cell membrane is either depolarised or hyper polarised. The spreading voltage changes along the cell membrane that occur as one neuron is excited by other neurons are called graded potentials. If the cell membrane is depolarised by enough graded potentials, the neuron will fire (action potential). Neurotransmitters  Excitatory neurotransmitters depolarise the postsynaptic cell membrane making an action potential more likely  Inhibitory neurotransmitters hyperpolarise the membrane, reducing the likelihood that the postsynaptic neuron will fire. Types of neurotransmitter  Glutamate: excitation of neurons throughout the nervous system. Important role in learning

 GABA: Inhibition of neurons in the brain.  Dopamine: Emotional arousal, pleasure and reward, voluntary movement, attention.  Serotonin: Sleep and emotional arousal, pain regulation, mood regulation  Acetylcholine: Learning and memory  Endorphins: Pain relief and elevation of mood Endocrine system  Collection of glands that secrete chemicals (hormones) directly into the bloodstream  Hormones bind cell receptors but travel through the blood stream and can activate many cells simultaneously  Pituitary gland: “master gland” releases many hormones which stimulate and regulate other glands. Most connected to the CNS  Thyroid gland: releases hormones that control growth and metabolism. Affects energy levels. Has links to depression in people that have thyroid deficiencies  Adrenal glands: Located in the kidneys and secrete adrenaline and other hormones during emergencies (fight or flight system)  Gonads: Influence sexual development and behaviour. Male gonads are the testes and release testosterone. Female gonads are ovaries and produce estrogen. The peripheral nervous system: consists of neurons that convey messages to and from the CNS.  Somatic Nervous System: transmits sensory information to the CNS and carries out motor commands. Referred to as the voluntary nervous system due to its involvement in intentional actions.  Autonomic Nervous System: Conveys information to and from internal bodily structures that perform basic life processes. Consists of sympathetic nervous system – typically activates fight or flight response, and parasympathetic nervous system – supports more routine activities (rest and digest response) The CNS consists of the brain and spinal cord and is involved with the majority of the electrical signals that are produced by the body.  Spinal cord: carries out reflexes (automatic motor responses), transmits sensory information to the brain and transmits messages from the brain to the muscles and organs The brain  Hindbrain includes medulla oblongata, cerebellum and reticular formation. o Medulla regulates vital physiological functions and forms a link between spinal cord and brain. o Cerebellum is the lowest brain structure involved with movement, but parts appear to be involved in learning and sensory discrimination. o Reticular formation involved in consciousness and arousal.  Midbrain consists of the tectum and the tegmentum o Tectum involved in orienteering to visual and auditory stimuli o Tegmentum involved in movement and arousal. o Also, a part of neural circuits that help humans learn to approach or avoid stimuli associated with reward and punishment  The forebrain is involved in complex sensory, emotional, cognitive and behavioural processes. Consists of o Hypothalamus: helps regulate wide range of behaviours including eating, sleeping, sexual activity and emotional experience. o Thalamus: processes incoming sensory information and transmits this information to higher brain centres.

o The limbic system consisting of the septal area, amygdala and hippocampus. Septal area has unknown function but appears to be involved in learning to act in ways that avoid pain and produce pleasure. The amygdala is crucial to experience of emotion. Hippocampus plays important role in committing new information to memory. o Basal ganglia structures are involved in control of movement and play a role in automatic responses and judgements that may normally require little conscious attention

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Cerebral cortex o 1. Allows flexible construction of sequences of voluntary movements involved in activities. 2. Permits subtle discriminations among complex sensory patterns. 3. Makes possible symbolic thinking – ability to use symbols such as words or pictorial signs to represent an object or concept with complex meaning. o Primary areas – process raw sensory information or initiate movement. Association areas – involved in complex mental processes such as forming perceptions, ideas and plans o The cortex consists of two hemispheres, each consisting of four lobes.  Occipital lobes – involved in vision  Parietal lobes – involved in sense of touch, perception of movement and location of objects in space.  Frontal lobes – variety of functions such as coordinating and initiating movement, attention, planning, social skills, abstract thinking, memory and aspects of personality. Broca’s area - Frontal lobe specialised in language, and movements of the mouth and tongue. Employed in the use and understanding of grammar  Temporal lobes – important in hearing, language and recognition by sight. Wernicke’s area - Left temporal lobe important in language comprehension and understanding

Some psychological functions are lateralised or processed primarily by one hemisphere. Left is generally more verbal and analytic, and right is specialised for non-linguistical functions Genetics and behaviour  Gene – unit of hereditary transmission  Chromosome – strands of paired DNA that helix where genes are arranged along  Degree of relatedness – the probability of sharing genes amongst relatives  Heritability coefficient – quantifies the extent to which variation in a trait across individuals can be accounted for by genetic variation  Heritability – refers to genetic influences on variability among individuals 

Lecture 3.2 – Sensation and Perception Sensation – the process by which the sense organs gather information about the environment and transmit this information to the brain for initial processing. Perception – the process by which the brain organises and interprets these sensations.  Sensations are immediate experiences of qualities. Perceptions ...