Download Test - NotesShare

Cognitive psychology – study of mental processes, views the mind as an info
processor
Developmental – examines physical, psychological and social development through
life
Experimental – focuses on basic processes (learning, sensory, motivational)
Industrial-Organizational – workplace (teamwork, leadership, satisfaction)
Personality – how traits influence one another’s behavior
Social – examines thoughts, feelings and social behavior
Sept. 9 What is Psychology?
 Explanations of Behavior
 Schools of Psychology
 Pioneers
Scientific study of behavior and the mind
Different approaches to psychology
What do psychologists do
Who were the pioneers
Long past, short history – EG Boring
Wilhelm Wundt
Explaining behavior
Biological – neural, hormonal; what’s happening to body/brain (physically)
i.e. aggression – serotonin
Individual/Psychological – learning, cognitive processes; attributed to upbringing
i.e. aggression – learned to be aggressive, environment (triggers)
Cultural/Environmental – value system of society
i.e. aggression – valued or rewarded by society, environmental factors s.a.
temperature or noise
INTERACTIONS through all three. Biology affects psychological make up which
affects culture/environment. Or culture/environment affects psychology which
affects biology.
Different levels of analysis and approaches, all correct.
Functionalism – focus on function or significance of behavior
How does behavior help us to adapt/survive
Primarily biological
Psychobiology, neuroscience, ethology (field study of behavior)
Psychodynamic – focus on subconscious/unconscious
Unconscious experience… the mind
Look for unresolved conflict
Importance of personality
Methods of interacting with this part of the mind
Psychodynamic therapy (takes too long, usually briefed)
Unconscious processing
Behaviorism – focus on behavior, not mind
How behavior changes under varying conditions (payment…)
Primarily environmental
Learning theories
Behavior modification (environmental circumstances i.e. phobias)
Gestalt Tradition (cognitive) – focus on perception and experience
How people think and remember
Consider in context (everything is changed by environment around it)
Biological & environmental
Cognition & information processing (human thought)
Humanist – focus on value and choice
Similar to psychodynamic (mind) but in a positive manner
Help people fulfill potential
Biological & environmental
Carl Rogers – people striving to be their best (let patient talk)
The “self” – who you are and what you want to do
Biological & environmental
Biological – focus on neural & chemical basis of behavior
What’s going on inside body and brain
Brain is mind and everything
Biological (& environmental)
Neuroscience
Brain imaging
Socio-cultural Tradition – focuses on cultural influence
Humans embedded in culture (N.A. individualistic, Asia group oriented)
Norms, group processes
Environmental
Cross-cultural psychology
Issues in development, disorders and thinking
Clinical, developmental, educational, experimental, IO, personality, school, social
Renee Descartes
Human physiology, reflex arc, stimulus response
Hypothesized hydraulics
Gustav Fechner
Problem solving
Measured response speed
Psychophysics
Wilhelm Wundt
First psychological laboratory in Leipzig, Germany
Univ. of Leipzig offers degrees in psychological study
William James
Psychological lab established 8 months after Wundt
Degrees through Harvard medical school
First textbook
Socio-cultural, survival values
Mary Calkins
First female president of APA and graduate of Harvard medical school
Developmental psychologist
Sigmund Freud
Trying to understand things that “don’t exist”
Glove anesthesia – no feeling in hand/fingers but still feeling in upper arms
Unconscious mind
Carl Jung
Went along with Freud until ‘crazy’ [penis envy, wild sexuality]
New psychoanalytic school of thought without sexual
Carl Rogers
Focused on what one is striving to be
Self-actualized, rather than conflict
Ivan Pavlov
Classical conditioning and association
Learning theory
B.F. Skinner
Reinforcement and punishment is learining
Operant conditioning
Jean Piaget
Studied intelligence, worked with Binet on IQ scale
Young kids don’t think the same way as adults (cognitive development)
Researched on his own children
Karl Lashley & Wilder Penfield
Brain surgeons, investigating lesions in brain and their effects
Lashley – animals; Penfield – epilepsy surgery stimulating brain
Wolfgang Köhler
Insight, understanding
Gestalt
Kurt Levin
Social psychology, how people act in a social setting
THEMES
Psychology is empirical
Theoretically diverse (explanation)
Multiple causes for behavior
Heredity and environment jointly influence
Experience is subjective
Evolves in a socio-cultural historical context
Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance
Paid $20 to lie, must have been really bad
Paid $1 to lie, can’t have been too bad
When you do something without justification, you have to bring yourself to
understand why
Scientific Method
Identify problem and formulate hypothesis
Tentative relation statement between 2 or more events
Theory: collection of hypotheses, more general & elaborate explanation
(predictions)
Good theory = testable hypotheses e.g. theory of relativity predicts red-shift,
testable
Freudian theory – not testable (unconscious)
Behavior theory (response) – testable
Design & execute the experiment
IDENTIFY INDEPENDENT AND DEPENDENT VARIABLE
Independent: manipulated
Dependent: measured
Independent -causes? dependent
Without proper control, experiment is confounded (mistake in causal
explanation)
Example: Pepsi & Coke. Order effect. Association effect (red can, M vs. Q). Inaccurate
testing (only test). Unconscious experimenter expectancy (commissioned by Pepsi).
Double-blind procedure. “More than half?”
Determine the “truth”
Do results support the hypothesis? Are there any real differences?
-Statistics
Communicate results
Publish report
Present verbal description at a convention
Discuss several related experiments in book chapter
Perspectives – different ways of viewing people
Mind-Body Dualism – belief that mind is a spiritual entity, not subject to physical
laws that govern the body. Believed by early philosophers. Descartes suggested
interactions were through pineal glands of brain. No physical research on the body
or brain could reveal anything about the mind
Monism – mind and body are one. Mental events correspond to physical events in
the brain
British Empiricism – all ideas and knowledge are gained empirically
Physiology – linking sections of the brain to movement and behavioral/mental state
Next time: Chapt.2 p. 65-73 (Methods and Bio Bases)
Causes of behavior, using scientific method to investigate causal relations
Research Methods
Observation – (Unobtrusive, non-participant or participant)
Naturalistic observation
i.e. one way window
Studying subjects from afar or within
Survey – Survey/Questionnaire
Answer questions to learn more about population’s behavior
People can lie
Case Study – In-depth study of one individual
Luria’s “S” is a case-study on one individual (‘mnemonist’)
Correlation – determining the degree of relationship between 2 or more variables
Correlation =/= Causation
Could be additional variable/cause
Experimental – manipulate variables to determine effect on some behavior
i.e. the effect of Vitamin B12 deprivation on maze learning
Example – TV violence cause aggression
1. Observation – No control, correlation evidence, not causation
2. Experiments –
a. Between group design (2 different groups used)
i. Group 1: Violent TV show
ii. Group 2: Non-violent TV show
iii. Group 3: No TV control
b. Within group design (same groups used)
i. Stages of experimentation on same subjects
Measure Aggression
- Self-report (social desirability/self-enhancement)
- Verbal attack
- Physical attack
- ‘Safe’ attack
How do we validate claims?
Internal Validity – experiment supports causal conclusion
External Validity – results can be generalized
Demand Characteristics –
(suggestions)
cues in experiment convey hypothesis to participants
they “help” experimenter
Experimenter Expectancy – experimenter ‘conveys’ hypothesis to participants
i.e. Intons-Peterson map experiment
Double Blind Study – neither experimenter nor participants know hypothesis (I.V.)
Lab experiment = controlled, not real-life
(Random subject sampling and) Random assignment takes care of differences btw
people
How do you design an experiment?
What are advantages of experimental method?
Between Groups/Between Subjects: different groups of subjects used
Repeated Measures/Within Subjects: same group exposed to both conditions,
potential order effect. Need to counterbalance.
Placebo effect: those expecting results from drugs, procedure etc. will experience
them from fake drugs, procedure etc.
Descartes – Reflex Arc:
Stimuli travel from periphery to brain and back
“Animal Spirits” – gaseous hydraulics
Pineal glands – receives signals
Swammerdam’s Experiment – frog leg jerk response in jar of water, no volume incrs.
Bell – Types of nerves: afferent  sensory
efferent  motor
interneuron  relay btw neurons
Bell & Müller – Different transmission types have specific energy patterns
Nerve impulses are not instantaneous
Reaction Time – Maskelyne & Kinnebrook: GMT monitors have different RT’s
The Neuron
Shape
Bipolar has two poles (dendrites separate)
Unipolar has one long pole with cell body attached at the side
Multipolar has dendrites branching out of cell body (normal)
Semi-permeable membrane – ions can’t flow
Action Potential (Axon)
High concentration of Na+ outside (resting potential = -70mV)
Stimulation = depolarization, Na+ gates open
Threshold potential = -55mV
Full depolarization, lots of Na+ flows in, +40mV
Repolarization [absolute refractory period], K+ pumped out until hyperpolarization
Na+-K+ pumps exchange ions and return to resting potential [relative refractory]
Neuron can fire only during relative refractory, only if strong signal
Neural Communication – electrical  chemical  electrical
All-or-none – either fires or doesn’t fire, and to same level
Intensity  frequency of firing (or recognizing thresholds of individual neurons)
Absolute refractory period limits frequency (intensity)
Sherrington’s Experiment
Flexor response speed: 200ft/sec
Reflex arc: 2ft
Latency calculated: 10 msec
Real latency: 100 msec
Inferred existence of synapse – neurons aren’t touching (chem. signal slow)
Vesicles in synaptic knob are excited and release neurotransmitter
Reuptake as much NT back in so neuron can fire again, MAO clears out most of the
rest
Excitatory – Na open, ready to fire
Inhibitory – K open, not ready to fire
Monoamines
Norepinephrine (NE) – Inhibitory & excitatory (depends on receptor site,
whether it opens Na or K); arousal & eating
Dopamine (DA) – voluntary movement, arousal
Serotonin (5-HT) – sleep, thermoregulation, aggression
Acetylcholine (ACh) – memory, motor, behavioral inhibition
Gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) – Inhibitory; motor behavior
Inhibitory/Excitatory Neurons: Different transmitter, receptor sites
Excitatory – EPSP (opens Na+) and increases resting potential
Inhibitory – IPSP (opens K+) and hyperpolarizes (decreases potential)
Graded potential – IPSP and EPSP are additive across space and time
Constant inhibition – neuron constantly fires inhibitory chemicals to hyperpolarize
Disinhibition – Inhibit inhibitory neuron and allow other neuron to fire
Psycho-drugs: Increase or decrease amount of transmitter, terminate transmitter
action, stimulate or block receptor sites
Cocaine: Stimulates release of DA and prevents reuptake
Curare: Blocks ACh receptor sites, paralyzes all muscles incl. heart
Black Widow Venom: Stimulates release of ACh, muscles move rapidly, heart rate
incrs.
Botulism Toxin: Blocks release of ACh
Nicotine (agonist – increase activity in PS membrane): Stimulates receptor
molecules, “duplicates” ACh effects
Caffeine (antagonist): Blocks Adenosine receptor sites
Finish chapter 3
Pg 92-97
Amygdala – emotional signals, kept in check by pre-frontal cortex
Corpus callosum – fiber bundle joining two hemispheres of brain
Medulla – bundle around brainstem, relay from spinal cord, heart & lungs
Pons – relay medulla and thalamus, sleep
Thalamus – relay centre from cerebrum, pain reception
Cerebellum – motor movement and balance
Basal Ganglia – control fine movements through inhibitory control
Hippocampus – memory storing, processing and recollection
Hypothalamus – hunger, thirst, temperature and other basic drives; releases certain
releasing hormones
Pineal gland – secretions and hormones
Cerebral Cortex
Frontal Cortex – language, higher order thinking, personality; front to central fissure
Motor area found at back
Parietal Lobe – taste, smell, somatosensory area found at front
Occipital Lobe – vision
Temporal Lobe – hearing, smell
Topographic Representation – specific parts of brain control specific parts of body
Contralateral control – Left controls right and vv
Functional Assignment of Space – less space given to less vital parts
How do we know?
Scan intact brain – MRI, PET, CAT, Angiogram
Brain damage extrapolation
Cortex stimulation
Angiogram – X-ray with contrast dye (blood vessels)
CAT scan – 360º X-ray; computerized, allows for ‘slicing’; can see ventricles
PET scan – radioactive glucose injected, usage (activity) scanned in brain
MRI – electron displacement and reassembly to form image; best for structure
How are cortical areas organized? What happens if they are damaged?
Is there a separate consciousness in each hemisphere?
Association areas are located to primary sensory area – i.e. visual association area
close to visual sensory cortex
Integrate and Interpret information from sensory area
Apraxia – inability to perform smooth actions (neurological, action sequence)
Motor cortex works, but association area doesn’t
Agnosia – inability to perform sensory information
i.e. visual cortex works (can see), but assoc. area doesn’t (can’t interpret image)
Prosopagnosia – inability to interpret faces
Fusiform [facial] gyrus – facial processing area at bottom of brain
Aphasia – Broca: difficulty in stringing words together in long sentences
– Wernicke: difficulty in understanding messages and responding
Broca – frontal lobe – pre-motor cortex, association
Wernicke – temporal lobe – auditory association
Lateralization
Left
Verbal
Language
Reading
Logical thought
Right
Non-verbal
Space, form
Synthesis
Emotion
Hemi-Spatial Neglect: Results from damage to parietal and temporal on one side
-Ignores signals from one side (contralateral spatial field-usually visual)
-Very rarely cause by damage to left ignore right; more freq. damage right ignore left
-In humans only b/c humans have language centre in left and spatial is only the right
Images in right field of view (Right-Handed): express what is seen [language]
Images in left field of view: general information (logical thought), point with left
hand
Karyotype: genetic blueprint of species – all chromosomes laid out
(Genome: all genes on a set of chromosomes)
Humans – 22 autosomal pairs and one sex chromosome pair
Genes “for” something – protein synthesis
i.e. “gene for intelligence”, coding for myelin
Environment can influence protein synthesis, and degree of expression
Genotype cannot be inferred from phenotype
Phenotype can be predicted from genotype
Locus: location of gene along chromosome
Allele: different form of gene (homo/heterozygous)
Heritability = h2 = (variance due to genes) / (total variance) *est.*
h = 0  everything due to environment
h = 1  everything due to genes
no variance = no heritability (h=0)
‘h’ taps the relative contribution of genes to overall variation in population
Applies to groups, not individuals
Family Relationship Studies: identical twins (100%); fraternal twins & siblings,
parents (50%); grandparent, uncle, aunt (25%); 1st cousin (12.5%)
Bouchard: separated twin studies; similar psychological traits
Jim Lewis & Springer: similar interests (subject, pastimes, cars, jobs, dog name, wife
name, 2nd wife name, son name, vacationing, same brand of cigarettes)
Galton – Believed intelligence was heritable, unitary (one thing), related to reaction
time
Found that identical twins have different reaction times
Cyril Burt – study of twins, suggests intelligence is approaching heritability of 1.0
Convinces schools to adopt ‘streaming’
Faked data
Bouchard Twin Studies – correlation coefficient values
Identical apart – 0.72
Together – 0.86
Fraternal together – 0.6
Siblings – 0.47
Adopted siblings – 0.34
Same person tested twice – 0.87
Eysenck – argues that personality differences are linked to differences in brain
development and function
Environmental similarities for identical twins not taken into account for heritability
calculations
Labeled as identical, leads to greater similarity (cognitive & personality tests)
Early estimates: 100,000 genes
Genome project: 25,000 genes
5-7 genes are “defective”, can cause problems
Single-Gene Disorders
PKU (chr12, recessive); 1 in 10,000; lack of enzyme that converts Phe to Tyr
Brain damage and intellectual impairment, treated by diet
Tay Sachs (chr15, recessive); 1 in 3,600 in E. Europe; lack of enzyme that breaks
down fatty acids, 1 in 30 French Canadians are carriers
Probability of offspring acquiring disorder
Detection possible through gene mapping
Sex-Linked Disorder
Men are more susceptible because Y chromosome has less DNA
50% chance of defective in males, unaffected by Y
Baldness, Red-Green color blindness, hemophilia
Any Y chromosome will cause individual to be phenotypically male
XYY  super male syndrome, believed to cause aggression but just carelessness
Down Syndrom – nervous system abnormality, mild to moderate retardation,
shorter life expectancy. Due to accumulation of Amyloid protein (like Alzheimer’s),
intense cognitive stimulation can alleviate symptoms
Not hereditary – caused by faulty meiotic division
Incidence related to age, risk is 1/1000 or 6/1000 if over 40
Evolutionary causes:
Distal – evolutionary history, individual DNA, inherited traits
Proximal – social development, emotional reaction/info processing,
phenomenological experience
Functional approach to Evolution
All traits are due to gene
Phenotype ≠ genotype
Traits not necessarily due to natural selection
Genetic drift (lost alleles)
Founder effect, chance
Correlates of Structure: other related trait selected (i.e. larger hand unneeded, but
cam along with larger/opposable thumb)
Freud:
Eros – good energy, happy
Thanatos – anger, vengeance, murderous intentions
Aggression is redirection on thanatos energy to non-murderous intentions
Lorenz:
Hydraulic model – aggression builds up until triggered by external stimuli (i.e.
releaser, fixed-action pattern)
Bighorn Sheep – releaser triggers fixed-action pattern of butting heads
Build up of energy? Not consistent
Releasers? High variability
Probability of aggression increased with time? Species specific
Berkowitz’s Weapon effect – anything associated with aggression is a releaser
Frustration-Aggression hypothesis
i.e. (Turner) gun in pick-up truck gun rack is a releaser for honking aggression
i.e. (Boyanowsky) open-holster weapons effect on road-side questioning
Stats:
Trait
.42
.48
.49
.54
.59
Statistics
SD - units are distance from mean
Z score = (score – mean) / SD
Z scores have a mean of 0 and SD of 1
68% of Z scores are between ±1 SD
96% are between ±2 SD
Heritability
Extroversion
Neuroticism
Conscientiousness
Agreeableness
Openness to experience
STUDY Thorndike, Maslow, Watson; Psychology professions
Throndike’s Law: reward and punishment reflect on behavior repetition
0.72 heritability intelligence estimated by Bouchard
Mate preference (pages in Ch 4)
Altruism
Freud – Eros & Thanatos
Lorenz – releasers and fixed action pattern
Structuralism – experience perception, introspective & self-report
Functionalism – significance (of behavior)