Download BUILDING THE ESSAY DRAFT

INTRODUCTION TO
PSYCHOLOGY
FINAL EXAM REVIEW
Chapter 7
Memory

What is acquisiton?

Includes any instance of new
intentional (like memorizing) or
incidental learning. Attention and
engagement with to-be-remembered
material is very important;
acquisition is not passive
Chapter 7
Memory


How many different types of memory
are there, why?
There are two types of memory;
working memory (Short-term)
which holds instantly accessible
information and long-term memory
which holds less instantly accessible.
It contains everything you know. It is
storage for information that is not
used right now but may be needed
later.
Chapter 7
Memory

What is the difference between
working memory and long term
memory in terms of storage
capacity?

Long-term memory capacity is infinite.
Working memory capacity is more modest
Memory span: way of measuring working
memory capacity
 Random, unrelated information: we can
store about 7, plus or minus 2, items (5
– 9 items)’
 Referred to as “the magic number 7”

Chapter 7
Memory



Are the working memory and long
term memory independent of
eachother?
No, they are dependent. Long term
memory must be “loaded” or “pass
through” WM
How is it transformed into Long term
memory?
 Rehearsed
 Chunked
Chapter 7
Memory


What is Deep processing?
It is meaning based attention;
connecting new information to
already-learned material
Material that “makes sense” will
be encoded more efficiently
 Results in superior recall

Chapter 7
Memory

What is Retrograde Amnesia?

Forgetting the past, but being able to
make new memories.

What is context reinstatement?

Re-creating or re-minding oneself of
the context in which one originally
learned something increases
likelihood of being able to retrieve it
later
Example: Studying for an exam in the
same room you will take the test;
Chapter 7
Memory

What are Memory failures?

Inadequate encoding: Forgetting can often
be traced to poor or missing strategies for
encoding
Forgetting: we knew it once, but no longer
 Passage of time
Decay: a process that occurs on a cellular
level by normal metabolic “wear and tear” on
cells involved with memory
Interference: New learning interferes –
independent of the passage of time





Passage of time not a powerful factor in explaining
forgetting
Number of intervening events a more useful
variable to examine to explain forgetting
Chapter 7
Memory





What are retrieval errors?
The “tip of the tongue”
phenomena
Misinformation Effect
Intrusions from general
knowledge
Misplaced familiarity

Difference between recollection
memory and familiarity
Chapter 7
Memory

What is anterograde amnesia?

Anterograde means ‘in a forward direction’.
It is an inability to learn anything new/make
new memories.

What was patient H.M’s amnesia?
He could read and write. His long-term
storage is completely closed to new
memories. His memories before the
operation remain intact. He can function
and comment intellectually on events. It
turns out these anterograde amnesia
patients can acquire some new memories.
For example H.M. plays the piano and
each time he plays a piece, he plays it
more skillfully.
Chapter 7
Memory


Does memory for emotional events differ in
any systematic way?
Emotional events: remembered…
 More vividly
 More completely
 More accurately
… than memories for emotion-neutral
events as it focuses on immediate and
personal details
They are likely to involve people we love
and care about.
Some emotional memories are particularly
long-lived, so that people claim to
remember events from years and years
ago “as if it were yesterday”.
Chapter 11
Social Development




What is attachment?
A firm, close, enduring emotional
bond between the baby and the
primary caregiver
What is “seperation anxiety”, what
does it show?
Baby becomes upset when CG
leaves room/goes out of sight.
Implies that formation of attachment
has occurred
Chapter 11
Social Development

What was Harry Harlow’s experiment
about?

Do babies attach to caregivers on the basis
of nutrition?

What was the result of Harry
Harlow’s experiment?

In times of stress/fear/uncertainty, monkeys
always went to terry-cloth “mother” -- not
the “mother” where they had been
fed

Contact comfort: more important than
where/how fed for purposes of attachment
Chapter 11
Social Development




What does Mary Ainsworth’s
experiment called?
Strange situation
What were the results of Mary
Ainsworth’s “strange situation” test?
Different patterns of ways that
children form bonds with parents
differ with parental style:




Securely attached
Anxious / resistant attachment
Anxious / avoidant attachment
Disorganized attachment
Chapter 11
Social Development


What is the role of parenting in
children’s socialization?
Most important source of
socialization for children is
through the parenting they
receive, including:
How do we interpret the social
world?
 What are our belief systems?

Chapter 11
Social Development
What are four different parenting
styles?
Authoritative: Quite demanding but
also quite responsive
Authoritarian: Quite demanding but
not responsive
Permissive: Not demanding but quite
responsive
Uninvolved: Neither demanding nor
responsive

Chapter 12
Social Cognition and Emotion




What is social cognition?
How we perceive and think about
ourselves and each other; how we
process and make meaning about
our encounters
What is Kelley’s theory of attribution?
We specifically look for ways that
events co-vary: “cause and effect”

Or: Causal attributions
Chapter 12
Social Cognition and Emotion





What are the types of attributions?
Situational attributions and
Dispositional attributions
Do attributions vary by culture?
Individualistic cultures: Focus on
individual. Tries to accmplish
personal achivements
Collectivist cultures: focus on
family, social groups and traditions,
rather than individualism
Chapter 12
Social Cognition and Emotion



What is “fundemental attribution
error”, does it change from culture to
culture?
In an individualistic culture, the most
common error made is the
fundamental attribution error: a bias
to explain others’ behavior by
attributing it to their disposition, our
own to our situation
In collectivistic cultures: focus on
group actions / contextual cues to
explain behavior
Chapter 12
Social Cognition and Emotion


What is “stereotypes”?
One type of schematic thinking



Stereotypes often are used when we
think about identified groups of people:
e.g., Greeks, women, old people, etc.
Origins of stereotypes: explicitly and
implicitly communicated to us by
others
Used more often when we have little
or no exposure in daily life to that
group
Chapter 12
Social Cognition and Emotion


What are the effects of stereotypes?
Self-fulfilling prophecies


We often pick up on others’
expectations for us (dictated by a
stereotype) and behave in that way
Stereotype threat


When a stereotype about us is made
salient, in a “performance” situation, we
often feel under threat – which holds
performance down
Poor performance then may confirm
stereotype
Chapter 12
Social Cognition and Emotion

What is an “attitude”?

Belief, feeling, predisposition to act in a
certain way. Cover a wide range of topics
about which we may feel quite strongly

How does attitude formation occur?



Classical conditioning
 Advertising for expensive car always
accompanied by beautiful
surroundings/people
Operant conditioning
 If a reward given for behavior, attitude for
that behavior will change
Observational learning
Chapter 12
Social Cognition and Emotion




What is “cognitive dissonance”?
If a belief, idea we have is opposite
of another belief/idea that we hold,
than cognitive dissonance occurs.
What is “insufficient justification?
The notion that we try to justify our
own behavior; if we cannot justify it,
we experience dissonance between
beliefs and actions
Chapter 12
Social Cognition and Emotion

What is James-Lange theory of
emotion?

We see a dangerous object (attacking
bear); this triggers a bodily response
(running, pounding heart), and the
awareness of this response is emotion
(fear).

What is Cannon-Bard theory of
emotion?

A stimulus (such as a bear) triggers
changes in the brain, and this brain activity
then causes changes in both physiology
and experience
Chapter 12
Social Cognition and Emotion





What are functions of emotions?
Help set up the body for reaction
to threat/danger: “fight or flight”
reaction and the accompanying
emotion of fear
Help recover from stress
Aid in marking important
memories
Signal social intent/connection
Chapter 13
Social Influences and
Relationships
 What are the three types of
social influence?
 Conformity, obedience and
compliance


What is conformity?
It occurs when people change
their behaviors because of a
social pressure
Chapter 13
Social Influences and
Relationships

What was Asch’s classic experiment
about conformity?

Individuals given a card with a vertical line
printed on it. Participants asked to then
look at another card with three lines on it:
two did not match, one did. The task was to
select the line that matched the length of
the line on the original card; correct
answer was clear. However, individuals
often chose a clearly wrong option if
confederates first chose a wrong option
Chapter 13
Social Influences and
Relationships
 Why do we conform?
 Two influences: informational
and normative
Informational: We seek others’
opinions on what is correct if we
suspect they might know better
than we do
 Normative: We want to fit in, be
liked, avoid looking foolish

Chapter 13
Social Influences and
Relationships

What are the factors that affect Social
Conformity?
Size of Group: Conformity tends to increase as the
size of the group increases.
Anonymity (i.e. secrecy): When participants could
write their answers down rather than announce
them in public, conformity dropped.
Ambiguity (i.e. uncertainty) / Difficulty of Task:
When the (comparison) lines (e.g. A, B, C) were
made more similar in length it was harder to
judge the correct answer and conformity
increased. The more difficult the task the greater
the conformity.
Status and Knowledge: If someone is of high
status (e.g. your boss) or has a lot of knowledge
(e.g. your teacher), they might be more
influential, and so people will conform to their
opinions more. The higher the status the higher
the conformity
Chapter 13
Social Influences and
Relationships
 What is obedience?
 It occurs when people change
their behavior because
someone tells them to.
 What are the possible sources
of obedience?
 Dispositional trait of obedience
and situational aspects
Chapter 13
Social Influences and
Relationships

What is Milgram’s classical
obedience experiment about?

Participants were told they would be
delivering shocks in a learning
experiment .No shocks were ever
actually delivered as confederates were
actors. Shock level: dials labeled mild
to deadly: 15 to 450+ mv. “Teacher”
(participant) and “Learner”
(confederate) separated into 2 cubicles,
but could hear each other. “Teacher”
instructed to shock “learner” in
increasing amounts of voltage,
whenever learner made a mistake
Chapter 13
Social Influences and
Relationships

What were the results of Milgram’s
experiment and why was it
important?

No one actually stopped below the level of
intense shock. 22.5% stopped at 315v
(extremely intense). 65% continued up until
the maximum shock of 450v.
The experiment was important to show that
“situation” is the prime factor in obedience,
and even normal, decent people can
become brutal beings by the power of the
situation.

Chapter 13
Social Influences and
Relationships

What is “compliance”?

It occurs when people change their
behavior because someone merely asks
them to.

What are the two techniques related
with compliance?

“Door in the face” technique: If a large
request is followed up by a smaller request,
compliance with request increases
dramatically: “You conceded, now I have
to concede”
“That’s-not-all” technique: “freebie”
offered after initial offer tendered, and price
seems more reasonable than if both were
initially included in the offer

Chapter 13
Social Influences and
Relationships
 What is “social facilitation”?
 “Mere presence” effect: we
compete harder when others are
nearby


What is “Social inhibition”?
The opposite effect – we
sometimes perform more poorly
when others are near
Chapter 13
Social Influences and
Relationships
 What is “social loafing”?
 What if no one is the “audience,”
and therefore all must perform?
Ringelmann (1913): in a group of
men, each pulled less hard than if
pulling solo
 Latane (1981): “social loafing”

People work less hard in groups
 Consistent across cultures, across
many variables

Chapter 13
Social Influences and
Relationships

What is “deindividuation”?

Sometimes: others’ presence drastically
changes our behaviors
 Riots, lynch mobs, etc.: behavior can
become disinhibited, cruel, vicious
 Deindividuation: we lose awareness of
ourselves as individuals, feel less
responsible for our behavior
 Role we play: may obscure our
individuality as well
Chapter 13
Social Influences and
Relationships
 What is Group polarization?
 Groups decisions are more
extreme than those we make on
our own


What is “Risky shift”?
Greater willingness for a group
to take risks than when we are
acting as individuals
Chapter 13
Social Influences and
Relationships
 What is “pluralistic ignorance”?

Our understanding of the situation
influences our decisions on acting
or not acting. If others are not
doing anything, probably nothing
needs to be done. But the problem
is that; others are using the
same reasoning…
Chapter 13
Social Influences and
Relationships

What is the Bystander Effect?

Diffusion of responsibility: we feel
less compelled because we feel less
responsible. Each bystander feels
increasingly less responsible if there
are many bystanders
We weigh the costs of helping as
well as the benefits:


Physical danger weighed as well as
psychological cost – i.e., being late if
one stops to help
Chapter 16
Psychopathology

What are the structures of
personality according to Freud?
Id: all other aspects of personality
emerge from this basic, primitive,
pleasure seeking part of our personality
Ego: deals with reality and its demands;
copes with demands from Id and …
Superego: society’s rules and parents’
rules, internalized and imposed on the
ego- MORAL side
Chapter 16
Psychopathology




What is “repression”?
Keeping distressing thoughts &
feelings buried in the
unconscious
What is “denial”?
Refusing to recognize some
anxiety arousing event/piece of
information.
Chapter 16
Psychopathology




What is “rationalization”?
Creating false but plausible
excuses to justify unacceptable
behavior
What is “displacement”?
Diverting emotional feelings
from their original course to a
safer substitute target.
Chapter 16
Psychopathology






What is “reaction formation”?
Behaving in a way that is exactly
opposite of one’s true feelings
What is “projection”?
Attributing one’s own thoughts,
feelings or desires to someone else
What is “regression”?
Reverting to immature patterns of
behavior.
Chapter 16
Psychopathology

What is neurosis?

A neurosis is a diagnosis for a relatively mild
mental or emotional disorder. In general,
neurotic conditions do not impair normal day
to day functions. One with a neurosis is
aware of his disorder, can differentiate
between what is real and what is not

What are most common neurotic
disorders?

Panic attacks, Phobias, Obsessive
Compulsive, Generalized Anxiety, Post
Traumatic Stress Disorders, Dissociative
Disorders
Chapter 16
Psychopathology




What is psychosis?
Refers to any mental state that
impairs thought, perception, and
judgement. A psychotic person loses
contact with reality and experiences
hallucinations or delusions.
What are most common psychotic
disorders?
Schizophrenia, unipolar, bipolar
(mani – depression)
Chapter 16
Psychopathology



What is schizophrenia?
Abnormal disintegration of
mental functions. 1-2% of
population exhibits this disorder.
Usual onset is in late
adolescence/early adulthood.
Contact with reality is lost.
Chapter 16
Psychopathology


What are positive and negative symptoms of
schizophrenia?
“Positive symptoms” (too much of something)




Negative symptoms (not enough of something)





Delusions (fixed idea or belief, obviously untrue or
unlikely)
Hallucinations (seeing or hearing something others
don’t)
Disorganized speech/behaviors
Blunted/limited emotion
Poverty of speech
Poverty of language
Unable to persist in tasks
Social withdrawal
Chapter 16
Psychopathology





What are the factors that cause
schizophrenia?
Heredity/genetics
Environment plays an important role;
environment is not identical even if
genetic material is identical
Stressors from much later in life may
play a role
Parent or parents who also suffer
from mental disorder
Chapter 16
Psychopathology



What are bipolar and unipolar disorders?
Each pole: a different mood state
At “manic” pole: feelings of “ease, intensity, power,
well-being, financial omnipotence and euphoria” (Kay
Redfield Jamison, 1995, p. 67)




At the other pole;
Depressive states:





Hypomania: milder form of mania; hard to sustain
Mania: unable to function, loss of one’s ability to
maintain rationality, or to complete goal-directed
activity, fear/paranoia set in.
Guilt, shame, dread
Hopelessness, loss of interest and pleasure in life
Sleeping / eating problems (too little or too much)
Thoughts of death, dying, suicide; plans or attempts or
completed suicide
Alternating between Mania and Depression: Bipolar
Disorder (from one pole to the other)
Chapter 16
Psychopathology







What are phobias?
An irrational, over exagurated fear of an object,
event, etc
What are types of phobias?
Social phobia: fear of public scrutiny or public
judgment, emerges most commonly in
adolescence
 Avoid many common social/public
experiences
 Common to use/abuse substances to manage
fear
Specific phobia: irrational fear of some object,
situation, event: bridges, heights, spiders
Blood/injury/injection: Sight of blood  loss of
blood pressure, fainting not uncommon
Agoraphobia: fear of public places, common
areas, distant places
Chapter 16
Psychopathology


What is “panic disorder”?
sudden onset of full fight/flight symptoms,
including …






In panic disorder, one experiences panic
attacks either out of the blue, or unpredictably
in response to certain stressors/events
Attempts to avoid any further panic attacks
are hallmark of the disorder


feelings of choking, dizziness, lightheadedness
heart pounding, sweating,
dread, “need” to run or escape
Panic attacks not uncommon in general public!
the “fear of fear”
Over time, increased attention to symptoms
develops; this increases number of attacks

“Agoraphobia” then may result
Chapter 16
Psychopathology



What is “generalized anxiety
disorder”?
Continuous anxious feeling
No real trigger; trivial worries can
intensify


Symptoms: constant sense of dread;
gut/intestinal upset; inability to focus;
increased heart rate; excessive
sweating; constant worry
Common disorder; around 3% of
population
Chapter 16
Psychopathology




What is “obsessive compulsive
disorder”?
Obsessions: unwanted, intrusive
thoughts (“If I step on this crack I will
cause my mother to die”)
Compulsions: irresistible urges to
engage in certain behaviors (“I must
repeat this phrase 20 times to keep my
mother from dying”)
Usually, thoughts increase anxiety;
compulsions feel as though they will
directly decrease the anxiety

Typically, compulsions decrease anxiety
only temporarily
Chapter 16
Psychopathology



What is “post traumatic stress
disorder”?
Diagnosed only after one month has
passed
Other symptoms:






increased startle reflex,
inability to focus/concentrate;
problems with memory and attention;
intense irritability;
avoidance of memories of event;
continued problems with flashbacks and
nightmares
Chapter 16
Psychopathology




What is Dissosiative Disorders?
Dissociation: distancing of the self
from what is occurring; dissociation
between an on-going event from one’s
sense that one is experiencing it;
sense of “watching from a distance”
What is “dissosiative amnesia”?
Inability to remember discrete period of
one’s life, one’s identity, aspects of
one’s biography or one wanders away
from home for a time, then suddenly
“comes back to one’s senses” with no
memory for that period of time
Chapter 16
Psychopathology



What is “dissosiative identity
disorder”?
Two or more distinct
personalities can be identified or
take action in one’s life
Can differ by gender, age,
interests, etc.