Summary Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour lectures 1-11 PDF

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Summary

Very detailed lecture/chapter notes for all the chapters studied in this unit, based on the book, Psychology: the science of mind and behaviour. I did this unit online therefore there was only one lecture every week. Lecturer was Sharon...

Description

Chapter 1: 

Psychology is the scientific study of: – behaviour (observable actions and responses) – mind (unobservable thoughts and feelings)

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It relies on scientific methods to gain empirical evidence and achieve four central goals: 1. Describe how people behave, think and feel 2. Understand and explain why people act the way they do 3. Exert control by designing research to test whether explanations are accurate 4. Apply psychological knowledge to enhance human welfare and experience

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Empirical evidence is evidence gained through experience and observation, including evidence obtained from manipulating with things and then observing what happens. These observations needs to be systematic, i.e. conducted according to a system of rules or conditions so that they will be as unbiased and precise as possible.

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Subfields of psychology: 1. Biopsychology or behavioural neuroscience – focuses on the biological influences on behaviour. It looks at how the brain processes information, and how genes and hormones influence our actions, thoughts and feelings. 2. Development psychology – focuses on human physical, psychological and social development across your lifetime. 3. Experimental psychology – focuses on basic processes like learning, sensory systems (e.g. hearing, vision), perception and motivational states (e.g. sexual motivation, hunger, thirst). 4. Industrial-organisational (I/O) psychology – looks at people’s behaviour at the workplace. 5. Personality psychology – focuses on the study of human personality. Tries to determine core personality traits and the way different traits relate to one another and influence behaviour. 6. Social psychology – looks at people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviour related to society, i.e. how people influence one another, how they behave in groups and form attitudes and impressions. It also involves studying social relationships like love and prejudice.

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Types of Research in Psychology: 1. Basic – ‘basic research’ examines how and why people behave, think and feel the way they do. Basic research can be carried out in labs or in real life settings, with human participants or other species. 2. Applied – ‘Applied research’ involves psychologists designing interventions using basic scientific knowledge. E.g. designing and implementing HIV/AIDs prevention programs based on research findings.

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Levels-Of-Analysis Framework 1. Mind-body interactions – the relationship between mental processes in the brain and the functioning of other bodily systems. E.g. from a mental picture of a favourite food, you may trigger feelings of hunger. 2. Nature and nurture – just as our biological capacities (nature) influence how we behave and experience the world, our experiences (nurture) influence our biological capacities.

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Mind-body dualism – the belief that the mind is a spiritual entity not subject to physical laws that govern the body. Monism – the belief that mind and body are one and that the mind is not a separate spiritual entity. Psychophysics – the study of how psychologically experienced sensations depend on the characteristics of physical stimuli, e.g. how the perceived loudness of a sound changes as its physical intensity increases). Structuralism – the analysis of the mind, in terms of its basic elements, i.e. studying the mind by breaking it down to its basic components. Structuralists used the method of introspection in their experiments, where participants were exposed to all sorts of sensory stimuli e.g. lights, sounds, tastes, and asked to describe their inner experiences. Functionalism – analysis of the functions of consciousness rather than its elements. Consider your hands – a structuralist would try to explain their movement by studying how muscles, tendons and bones operate. Whereas, a functionalist would ask, ‘why do we have hands? How do they help us adapt to the environment?’ Cognitive psychology - studies mental processes. Evolutionary psychology – emphasises the adaptiveness of behaviour. Perspectives in Psychology: 1. Psychodynamic perspective – determines the causes of behaviour based on the inner workings of our personality (our unique pattern of traits, emotions and motives), emphasising the role of unconscious processes. Sigmund Freud developed the 1st and most influential psychodynamic theory. Freud was convinced that an unconscious part of the mind influences behaviour, thus developing the theory and a form of psychotherapy called:  Psychoanalysis – the analysis of internal and primarily unconscious psychological forces. Freud also claimed that humans have powerful inborn sexual and aggressive drives and that because these desires are punished in childhood, we learn to fear them and become anxious when we are aware of its presence, leading us to develop defence mechanisms.  Defence mechanisms – psychological techniques that help us cope with anxiety and the pain of traumatic experiences. Types of defence mechanisms include: a) Repression – a primary defence mechanism, protects us by keeping unwanted/unacceptable impulses, feelings and memories in the unconscious depths of our minds.  The difference between Freud’s version of psychodynamics and modern day psychodynamic theories is that modern day theories downplay the role of hidden sexual and aggressive motives and focuses more on how early relationships with family members and other caregivers shape the views that people form of themselves and others.  Freud’s experiment on psychoanalysis – Freud, a young doctor, had patients coming in with illnesses that did not appear to be caused by any obvious physiological causes. So he concluded that it might be from psychological causes. He concluded that the causes are hidden from awareness, thus unconscious. He treated his patients using a technique called ‘free association’ where the patients were asked to express any thoughts that came to mind. Patients

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eventually described painful and long-forgotten childhood experiences, and once they had relived these traumatic experiences, their symptoms often improved. 2. Behavioural perspective – focuses on the role of the external environment in influencing our actions. i.e. our behaviour is jointly determined by previous experiences and by stimuli in our immediate environment.  Researcher Pavlov claimed that learning occurs when events are associated with one another. He found that dogs automatically learned to salivate to the sound of a new stimulus such as a tone, if that stimulus was repeatedly paired with food.  Researcher Thorndike claimed that organisms learn through the consequences of their actions. ‘law of effect’ – responses followed by satisfying consequences become more likely to reoccur, than those followed by unsatisfying consequences.  Behaviourism – a school of thought that emphasises environmental control of behaviour through learning. a) Watson, a behaviourist, proposed that the proper subject matter of psychology is observable behaviour, not unobservable inner consciousness. He said that humans are a product of their learning experiences. b) Skinner, another behaviourist, believed that the real causes of behaviour reside in the outer world – ‘a person doesn’t act upon the world, the world acts upon him.’ He based his research on rats and pigeons, under controlled laboratory conditions, and examined how behaviour is influenced by the rewarding and punishing consequences that it produces. His approach is known as radical behaviourism. His research later inspired techniques known collectively as ‘behaviour modification,’ which aimed at decreasing problem behaviours and increasing positive behaviours by manipulating environmental factors. c) Cognitive behaviourism – claims that learning experiences and the environment influences our expectations and other thoughts and, in turn, that our thoughts influence how we behave. 3. Humanistic perspective (humanism) – emphasised free will, personal growth and the attempt to find meaning in one’s existence.  Humanistic theorist Maslow proposed that each of us has an inborn force towards ‘self-actualisation’ – the reaching of one’s individual potential. Humanism emphasises the importance of personal choice, responsibility, personal growth and positive feelings of self-worth. It emphasises the human ability to overcome obstacles in the drive towards self-actualisation.  Belongingness- the basic human need for social acceptance and companionship.  Humanist Rogers identified key aspects of psychotherapy that led to constructive changes in clients.  Positive psychology movement – emphasises the study of human strengths, fulfilment and optimal living. 4. Cognitive perspective – examines the nature of the mind and how mental processes influence behaviour. In this view, humans are information processors whose actions are governed by thought.

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 Gesalt psychology – examines how the mind organises elements of experience into a unified or ‘whole’ perception. It argues that perceptions are organised so that the ‘whole is greater than the sum of its parts.’  Cognitive psychology – focuses on the study of mental processes and embodies the cognitive perspective. Cognitive psychologists study how people reason, make decisions, solve problems, form perceptions, and produce and understand language. Many also study memory and the factors that distort it.  Cognitive neuroscience – uses sophisticated electrical recording and brainimaging techniques to examine brain activity while people engage in cognitive tasks. 5. Sociocultural perspective – examines how the social environment and cultural learning influences our behaviour, thoughts and feelings.  Social norms – rules (often unwritten) that specify what behaviour is acceptable and expected for members of a certain cultural group.  Socialisation – the process by which culture is transmitted to new members and internalised by them. 6. Biological perspective – examines how brain processes and other bodily functions regulate behaviour.  Behavioural neuroscience (physiological psychology) – examines brain processes and other physiological functions that underlie our behaviour, sensory experiences, emotions and thoughts.  Behaviour genetics – the study of how behavioural tendencies are influenced by genetic factors.  Natural selection – if an inherited trait gives certain members an advantage over others, these members are more likely to survive and pass these characteristics to their offspring.  Evolutionary psychology – seeks to explain how evolution shaped modern human behaviour. Chapter 3:    

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Heritability – the extent to which genetic individual differences contribute to individual differences in observed behaviour ( or phenotypic individual differences). Genotype – the specific genetic make-up of an individual. It is present from conception in the womb. Phenotype – An individual’s observable characteristics. It can be affected by other genes as well as by the environment. Chromosome – found in the nuclei, the material of heredity, a double-stranded and tightly coiled molecule of DNA. Every cell in the body carries 23 pairs of chromosomes (43 chromosomes), each containing numerous genes that regulate every aspect of cellular functioning. The sex cell contains 23 chromosome. At conception, the 23 chromosomes from the egg combine with the 23 chromosomes from the sperm to form a new cell called a ‘zygote,’ containing 46 chromosomes. All the information of heredity is encoded in combinations of four chemical bases – adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. Genes – biological units of heredity. The average gene has 3000 ATGC base pairs. Each gene carries the ATGC codes for manufacturing specific proteins, as well as when and where in the body they will be made.

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Allele – alternative forms of a gene that produce different characteristics. i.e. there is an allele that produces blue eyes and a different one that produces brown eyes. Dominant vs Recessive gene:  If a gene in the pair received from the mother and father is dominant, the particular characteristic that it controls will be displayed. E.g. in humans, brown eyes is a dominant gene. If a child inherits a dominant gene for brown eyes and recessive gene for blue eyes, he will have brown eyes. However, the blue-eyed trait will remain hidden in his genotype and may be passed on to his offspring.  If the gene is recessive, the characteristic will not show up unless the partner gene inherited from the other parent is also recessive. E.g. a person will only have blue eyes, a recessive gene, if both his parents contributed recessive genes for blue eyes. Polygenic transmission – where, a number of genes pairs combine their influences to create a single phenotypic trait. The human genome consists of 25000 genes. Behaviour genetics – studies how heredity, and environmental and social factors influence psychological characteristics. i.e. they try to determine the relative influence of genetic, environmental and social factors in accounting for individual differences in behaviour. The probability of sharing any particular gene with your parents is 0.5 or 50%. If you have siblings, then you have a 0.5 or 50% chance of sharing the same gene with them. You have a 0.25 or 25% chance of sharing any particular gene with your grandparents. If you are an identical twin then u have a 1.00 or 100% chance of sharing any particular gene with your twin. Research methods used to estimate the influence of genetic contribution:  Family studies – researchers study relatives to determine if genetic similarity is related to similarity on a particular trait.  Adoption studies – researchers study people who were adopted early in life and compare some of their characteristics with those of their biological parents, with whom they share a genetic endowment, as well as compare it with their adoptive parents, with who they share no genes but a common environment.  Twin studies – compares trait similarities in identical (monozygotic) and fraternal (dizygotic) twins. Monozygotic twins develop from the same fertilised and egg and therefore genetically identical. Dizygotic twins develop from two different fertilised eggs, so they share 50% of their genetic endowment. We can compare concordance rates (trait similarities) in samples of identical and fraternal twins. Although it appears that identical twins share far more similar traits than fraternal twins due to genetic endowment, it may also be influenced by the similar environmental factor that they are exposed to. Thus, researchers have taken to studying identical twins raised under different environmental conditions for a better and more accurate basis for their evaluation. Heritability coefficient – estimates the extent to which differences, or variation, in a specific phenotypic characteristic within a group of people can be attributed to their differing genes. Heritability only applies to differences within particular groups. Ethology – Ethologists based their research on animal behaviour in the natural environment and argued that because of evolution, every species comes into the world biologically prepared to act in a certain ways, in order to survive. They focused on the functions of behaviour, particularly its adaptive significance – how behaviour influences an organism’s chances of survival and reproduction in the natural environment.

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Fixed action pattern – an unlearned response automatically triggered by a particular stimulus. E.g. a newborn herring gull chick will peck at a red dot on their parents’ bill for food, upon which the parents’ respond by regurgitating their food into their chick’s mouth. This action is so prewired that the newborn chic will peck at any red dot on a long object continuously. Shared environment – people who reside in them experience many of their features in common. Unshared environment – experiences that are unique to us. Heritability of intelligence – the more genes people have in common, the more similar their IQs tend to be. However, analysis of the human genome shows that there is no single ‘intelligence’ gene. Environmental factors also influence intelligence potential, e.g. a richer learning environment will help an individual reach their potential. Heritability of personality – one prominent personality trait theory is called the five factor model, which claims that individual differences in personality can be accounted for by variation in five broad personality dimensions; extraversion-introversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. Evidence shows personality is heritable but not so much. Traits come in packages, with some being adaptive and others maladaptive. This explains why genes carrying diseases like Cystic Fibrosis and Sickle-cell anaemia didn’t die out. How the environment can influence gene expression:  Reaction range – the range of possibilities for a genetically influenced trait – the upper and lower limits – which the genetic code allows. E.g. to say intelligence is genetically influenced is not to say intelligence is fixed at birth. Instead it means that an individual inherits a range for potential intelligence that has upper and lower limits. Environmental effects will then determine where the person will fall within these genetically determined boundaries. How genes can influence the environment:  Genetically based characteristics may influence aspects of the environment to which the child is exposed. i.e. influence aspects of parent-produced environment.  Evocative influence – a child’s genetically influenced behaviours may evoke certain responses from others. E.g. an outgoing child may influence people around them to respond to them positively.  Genetically based traits may influence the environments that we select and these environments are likely to be compatible with our traits. E.g. an aggressive person may be attracted to competitive sports with lots of physical contact, like rugby. Biologically based mechanisms – mechanisms that enable us to take in, process and respond to information, predisposing us to behave, to feel and think in certain ways. Evolution – a change over time in the frequency with which particular genes – and the characteristics they produce – occur within an interbreeding. Mutations in genes make evolution possible. Natural selection – characteristics that increase the likelihood of survival and reproduction within a particular environment will be more likely to be preserved in the population and thus become more common in the species over time. Adaptations – products of natural selection, physical or behaviour changes that allow organisms to meet reoccurring environmental challenges to their survival, thereby increasing their reproductive ability.

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Sexual strategies theory – mating strategies and preferences reflect inherited tendencies, shaped over the ages in response to different types of adaptive problems that men and women faced. Social structure theory – maintains that men and women display different mating preferences not because nature impels them to do so, but because society guides them into different social roles. Strategic pluralism – the idea that multiple – even contradictory – behavioural strategies (e.g. introversion and extraversion) might be adaptive in certain environments and would therefore be maintained through natural selection.

Chapter 4: 

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Neurons – specialised cells, the basic building blocks of the nervous system. Each neuron has three main parts: a cell body, dendrites and an axon.  The cell body (or soma) contains the biochemical structures needed to keep the neuron alive and its nucleus car...