Psychology 101 Notes PDF

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Psychology 101

Chapter one:

• Psychology- Scientific study of the mental processes and behaviors of humans and animals. • Animals: • Scientific- psychological science collets and evaluates information using systematic observations and measurements • Behavior- anything that can be directly observed (sleeping, talking, etc) • Mental Processes- Things that cannot be directly observed (thoughts, feelings, etc) • Critical Thinking- process of objectively evaluating, comparing, analyzing, and synthesizing information • Dog Goober- Always has a catch for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes dog gets a treat. Now on, after catch, dog lies down and starts to drool. • Dog wakes up 5 minutes before alarm, continues to bark until she gets out of bed and feeds dog. Then after 20 minutes goes and starts to drool. • When dog behaves well after 15-20 minutes, he begins to drool. • Conditioned- when something is repetitive and it becomes natural • Four goals of Psychology: 1. Describe: 1. What is the dog doing?

2. Explain: 2. Why is the dog doing it? Because he is in a routine and it is a repetitive event

3. Predict: 3. If dog starts behaving, you can predict he will drool

4. Influence: 4. ex. Add a treat to a new situation, Take away treat. She originally influenced the behavior.

- Can use these 4 goals to change any behavior • History of Psychology: • Records all the way to Dead Sea Scrolls • Discusses mental disabilities and the brain • 8th Century in Islam, records of Psych hospital • Doctor discovered two types of depression

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Psychology 101 • No organic depression (unknown reasons) • Traumatic Depression • Doctor treated with Art and medication • Seriously pursued in West around 1879 in Leipzig, Germany • Wilhelm Wundt • “Father of Psychology”- First experimental lab • Interested in studying mental life and conscious experience- how we form sensations, images and feelings • Introspection- monitoring and reporting on the contents of consciousness • Skinner • behaviorist (skinner boxes with pigeons)- used boxes for treats • Believed • Ebbinghaus- studies on memory • James and Pavlov – classical conditioning • John B. Watson and Ivan Pavlov • Behavioral Perspective- emphasizes objective, observable environmental influences on overt behavior • Created an experiment where a tube was placed in a dogs mouth to measure the amount of saliva. Made dog smell meat powder and dog began to drool. • Then made dog smell meat powder and rang a bell. • Then just rang the bell and the dogs still drooled. • Stimuli (in environment)- bell • Responses (behavioral actions)- drooling • Freud • Psychoanalysis- talk therapy • believed psychological problems are caused by conflicts between acceptable behavior and unacceptable unconscious sexual or aggressive motives • Ericson (student of Floyd)- covered developmental mentalists • Developed mentalists: • Gestalt Theorists- tend to look at the whole instead of looking at the parts • Gestalt Theory- believes to look at the whole thing (especially when treating patient, instead of just looking at specific instances)

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Psychology 101

• Scientific Method: • Purpose of it- take results and apply them globally • Question: • Hypothesis: Educated Guess • Includes Independent and dependent variables • Experiment: Research and collect data • Surveys- anonymous so people are more honest • Results: Analyze • Conclusion: Accept/reject hypothesis • Theory: Build upon information you already have- replicate experiment

• Four Major Research Methods: 1. Experimental a) Independent variables- one you can change (taste of the cookie) b) Dependent variables- one you cannot change (depends on manipulative variable) (Chips in the cookie-can change amount of Chips) c) Experimental controls (control group, experimental group and extraneous variables) Receives zero variables (1) Single Blind- only one knows what is going on (placebos) (a) Milgram Experiment- shocking people to learn new words (2) Double Blind- Neither participant or researcher knows what is going on (a) Double Bias- everyone wants to be correct (b) Everyone has to be debriefed after experiment 2. Descriptive Research- manipulating variables, controlling the experiment to see cause and effect a) Naturalist observation- watching someone in natural being when they do not know he or she is being watched. (no way to see cause and effect) 3. Correlational Research- statistical analysis to allow prediction 4. Biological Research- study of the brain that deals with all 3 types of research methods

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Psychology 101

• Side notes: • What people don’t say is the most important part of analyzing someone • When people cross their arms they are guarded/uncomfortable • What the I think is more important than anyone else • Don’t give advice to the person because they will become independent on you ____________________________________________________________________________

September 2, 2015

Chapter Two: • Neurons- cell transmitting nerve impulses. Responsible of every impulse of the body (millions of neurons throughout the body) • All information travels through Neurons • Synaptic Gap- Gaps between Neurons transfers impulses through each neuron • People with disorders have a synaptic gap issue. The problem is either the impulses flood the gap or does not have enough. (Example- depression) • Neurotransmitter- Dopamine, testosterone, estrogen • Nervous System: • Central Nervous System • So important it is encased in bone • Damage is usually permanent • Brain • Can still suffer brain injuries (concussions- I, II, III) • Forebrain- Fine Motor Control, perception, language, decision making • Cerebral Cortex- most complex behaviors and higher mental processes • Alcohol blocks part of the brain in a few to mid drinks

• Midbrain- “buffer” between the two. Controls Gross muscle movement • Mid drinks affects extremities- start to lose balance

• Hindbrain- All involuntary reflexes (breathing, digestion, heart rate), fine muscle movement and balance

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Psychology 101 • The closer you get to Hindbrain the body goes into self-defense. Stop drinking, throw up, passing out- All telling you that you need to stop drinking • Non-normal drinking- drinking as fast as possible to get drunk • Body can only get rid of 1 ounce of alcohol an hour

• Frontal Lobe- front portion of brain that receives and coordinates messages from all other lobes of the cortex • Higher functions (thinking, personality emotions), speech, motor control • Parietal Lobe- bodily sensations- pain, touch, temperature • Temporal Lobe- language comprehension, memory, emotional control • Occipital Lobe- back portion on brain responsible for vision • Spinal Cord • connects brain to every part of the body • Brain to Spinal Cord, Spinal Cord to Peripheral Nervous System • Ends in Nerve Fibers- do sensory relay • Peripheral Nervous System- Functions outside CNS • Main Function: carry information to and from CNS • Links every other part of body (muscles, nerves, etc) to Brain and Spinal Cord • Somatic Nervous System • All of nerves that connect to sensory receptors and control skeletal muscles • Autonomic Nervous System • “self-governing” NS. Responsible for all involuntary processes (heart rate, digestion, etc.) • Sympathetic NS- ‘Fight or Flight” arouses body for action (heart rate and breathing increases, digestion ceases)

• Parasympathetic NS- Works in opposition to Sympathetic Nervous System• Returns body to Homeostasis once the “Fight or Flight” in complete • Cerebral Cortex- higher mental processes • 1) Frontal Lobes- Charged with Motor control, speech production, higher-functioning function (thinking, personality, memory) • 2) Parietal Lobes- Sensory Processing (pressure, pain, touch, temperature)

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Psychology 101 • 3) Temporal Lobes- Audition, language, comprehension, memory, small portion of emotional control • 4) Occipital Lobes- vision, visional perception • Corpus Callosum- Connections left and right hemisphere of brain so information can travel between the two. • “Split Brain”- cut brain in half to reduce amount of seizures. Will make one hemisphere more dominant than other hemisphere

• Glial Cells- holds the neurons in place. Makes up 90% of brain’s cells • Dendrites- receive electrochemical information from other neurons and transmits it to cell body • Cell Body (soma)- accepts incoming messages then passed on to axon • Axon- carried information away from cell body • Myelin Sheath- insulates and speed neural impulses

Chapter Three: Stress • Several different sources of stress 1. Life change- college, getting married, having a baby 2. Chronic stressors- on-going stress- (college work) 3. Hassles- small everyday things that happen/pile up (pet-peeves, traffic) 4. Occupation burnout- emotional impact of a job 5. Frustration- negative emotional state where your goals are blocked (top player injures himself before season)

6. Conflict- negative emotional state from two or more incompatible goals

- Approach, Approach- conflict between two desirable things/goals (choosing college, girlfriend)

- Avoidance, Avoidance- conflict between two undesirable things (doing homework in two different classes)

- Approach, Avoidance- Conflict/choice between a desirable and undesirable (T.V. or homework) • Effects of Stress:

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Psychology 101 • Messes with sleep pattern- Sleep more or sleep less • Indigestion- either they don't eat or over eat (comfort food) • How to deal/reduce with Stress: • Need to recenter- where you want to be • Need to learn of ways to cope/manageable with stress- physical activity • Close eyes, gently massage scalp • Grabbing skin between index finger and thumb • Imagining a place you want to be • Yell Stop very loud then close eyes and focus on the smallest sound you can here • Catastrophising- When people worry about the “what if’s” • Take whatever the stressor is, saying what is the worst possible outcome and find solution • Side notes: • With time and therapy, the brain can heal itself. Although some times the brain may not heal itself, people adapt to it.

____________________________________________________________________________ September 9, 2015

looking to apply things we learned- SIX STEPS OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Chapter 4: Sensation and Perception • Sensation- passive process of bringing information from the outside world into the body and to the brain • Getting smacked in the back of the head- feeling the sensation on the back of the head • Perception- Active process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting the information brought to the brain by the senses • Understanding why she hit me. • Other people are affected- shocked, confused • How sensation and perception work together: Sensation comes into the body and perception interpret

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Psychology 101 • Sensory organs absorbs information and then perception follows by the brain taking the information, organizing it, then translates it into something meaningful (having purpose, feeling: • Selective Intent- process of being able to discriminate of what is important and what is irrelevant. • Perceptual expectancy- how we perceive the world is a function of our past experiences, culture, and biological make-up) • How we are brought up, what we see, burning hand on stove, racism, different views on gender • Psychophysics- all the above is under this • study of how physical stimuli are translated into psychological experience • In order to measure experiences we use: • Thresholds- dividing line between what has detectable energy and what does not • If we sit in this room and don't move, the light would go off because there is no detectable energy, but if we move the light will go on • Difference Threshold- minimum amount of stimulus intensity change needed to produce a noticeable change • If handed 5 and 10 pound weight we can tell difference • If handed 100 and 105 pound weight we cannot tell difference • Signal Detection Theory- detection of a stimulus that involves a decision-making process as well as a sensory process • This process also influenced by other factors • Noise focusing on something harder • Criterion- level of assurance that you decide must be met before you take action • set criterion on previous expectations/experiences • we are at a party, order pizza, waiting for bell, Signal detection theory is waiting closer to the door and listening harder to ear doorbell. • Pain perception- some people have higher pain tolerance • How quickly you feel pain not how long • Fast pathway- sharp pain and information is related immediately to brain • When you're not expecting something- Stubbing toe on door, getting hit in genitals • Slow pathway- Takes two seconds; when pain happens, goes through limbic system then to brain

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Psychology 101 • Shaving and not realizing until you see blood, cutting hand • Athletes have a higher pain tolerance. Neurotransmitters make pain “duller” until the game is over. • Sensory Adaptation- ability to notice things (touch, taste, smell) also ability to adapt to them • Ability to knock out senses that are constantly occurring (clothes that are brushing against your skin, specific smells [house, people]) • Brain needs to pick up senses that are new- don’t have time and space to focus on continuous senses. • Sensory Reduction- reticular information learns to screen out specific/certain messages • Absolute threshold- smallest amount of stimulus needed (seeing a candle 30 miles away) • Difference threshold- minimal different needed to detect stimulus (2 teaspoons of sugar in 2 gallons of water) • Coding- different physical stimuli are interpreted as distinct sensations because their neural impulses travel by different routes and arrive at different parts of the brain

• Video: • Our brain recognizes objects by shapes (and colors) ____________________________________________________________________________

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Psychology 101 Chapter 12: Motivation and Emotion • Motivation- 3 theories behind motivation • Biological Theory• Instinct- emphasizes inborn genetic components in motivation • Spiders leave mother as soon as they are born- instinct • Reflexes- instinct to survive (able to eat) • Arousal- organisms seek optimal levels of arousal that maximizes their performance (competitive nature) • Beat fastest speed at a race. Focus on other people that are faster than you • Drive-reduction- Internal tensions push an organism to satisfy basic needs (thirst, hunger, shelter, sex) • motivated to get out of bed to eat so you don't starve • Psychosocial Theory• Incentive- emphasizes the pull of environmental stimuli • motivation to go to work- money; need money in order to survive • Cognitive- emphasizes the life and death • Life is short so do everything • Biopsychosocial Theory- (Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs) basic needs need to be done/ must be met before you can do anything else because you're constantly trying to reach the top of the pyramid “self actualization”- being comfortable in your skin • People who made this up were high in social class QUESTION ON EXAM: What is motivating you to sit in this classroom and not leave?

• Emotion • Physiological- arousal, increased heart rate, respiration (automatic nervous system) • Cognitive- thinking process (thoughts, values, expectations) • Behavioral- expressions (smiles, frowns, running • James Lang Theory- feelings are interpreted but the interpretation comes after arousal • Events occurs, there is arousal (heart rate) interpreted based on physiological and then have an emotion • Spider crawls in, emotional response is fear

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Psychology 101 • Cannon-Bard Theory- Event occurs and simultaneously after seeing event you have an arousal and emotion at the same time • Schachter’s Two-Factor- very similar to James Lang, except he points out emotion depends on two factors: • Physical arousal • Labeling • Event occurs, arousal, then reasoning for arousal, then emotion • Spiders crawl in, think they are going to bite you, then run out • Facial-Feedback- need to pay attention to facial muscles moving that actually cause specific emotions • doesn't evolve around event- evolve around facial expressions

____________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 6:

**What is learned can be unlearned** NS = CS: Neutral stimulus is always the Conditioned Stimulus UCR = CR: Unconditioned Response is always the Condition Response UCS = ALWAYS ALONE: Unconditioned Stimulus is ALWAYS by itself Ex: Pavlov’s Experiment: - NS = CS: the bell - UCR = CR: the dog’s saliva - UCS: the meat powder *NS and CS are the causes of the responses both conditioned and unconditioned* Ex: A researcher flashes a light then blows a puff of air into a participant’s eye. The participant automatically blinks. After a few trials, just a flash of light would make the participant blink. - NS = CS: flash of light - UCR = CR: blinking - UCS: puff of air

Voluntary: subject is active. Operant conditioning: Skinner and Thorndyke

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Psychology 101 Operant Conditioning: organisms learn through the consequences. When responses are reinforced they are strengthened and likely to increase. When punished they are weakened and likely to decrease. Primary Reinforcer: basics needs (food, water, sleep, sex) Secondary Reinforcer: things learned to reinforce behavior (money) Reinforcers: always INCREASING the likelihood of a behavior Positive Reinforcement: ADDS something that INCREASES the likelihood of the response Negative Reinforcement: TAKES AWAY something that INCREASES the likelihood of a response Positive Punishment: ADD something that decreases the likelihood of a response Negative Punishment: TAKES AWAY something that decreases the likelihood of a response *Increasing= reinforcementDecreasing= punishment* ____________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 7: • Memory• Four Memory Models: • Information Processing- memory being a process. Process that is very similar to a computer; take info, encode it, store it, retrieve it [when needed] all in the brain • Parallel Distributed Processing- theory states that memory is distributed across network of neurons that are working simultaneously • Memory comes into brain, goes across/is spread across neurons • Like you are spreading salt on food

• Levels of Processing• Traditional Three-State Memory***- memory that comes to us in short-intervals. • Short-intervals are sensory memory and we hold that info for a short amount of time. • If it is relevant then we transfer it to “short-term memory” (working memory- how much you can hold at one time- approximately 5 minutes)

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Psychology 101 • If very significant then you will pass it to “long-term memory”- memory that is not forgotten (permanent memory)

• Why do we forget? • Decay- memory deteriorates overtime • Interference- memories are forgotten due to: • pro-active interference -old info interferes with new info • Retroactive- new info interferes with old info; overrides old info that we have • Motivated Forgetting- Willfully forget painful, threatening, or embarrassing memories • Encoding Failure- when going from short-term memory to long-term memory fails and does not encode correctly • Retrieval Failure- memories are there but temporarily not there • Taking a test and know the memories but blank out (brain-fart)

Read about retrograde interior-grade amnesia: occurs because of brain injury -People have tendency to have memories that are unreliable If someone ran in and ran out, 10 people would give 10 different answers about what color shirt he was wearing

Problems with forgetting Serial Position Effect Source Amnesia Sleeper Effect Spacing of Practice Formation and location of memory Biology ...