PSYC 1000 Final Exam

What is Social Psychology? Where is the emphasis placed?

Social Psychologists: examine aspects of the situation

social thinking

How we think in relation to other people?

How other people influence not only our thinking but our actions?

How we treat each other, relate to each other?

Attribution?

a conclusion about the cause of an observed behavior/event

What is the fundamental attribution error (FAE)?

When we go too far in assuming that a person's behavior is caused by their personality.

We tend to overemphasize Dispositional_ attribution and underemphasize situational attribution

We may make this error even when we are given correct facts

Williams College Study

Situational Attribution?

factors outside the person doing the action, such as peer pressure

Dispositional Attribution?

the person's stable, enduring traits, personality, ability, emotions

How might the attributions look different in collectivist cultures?

1. The behavior of others is attributed more to the situation

2. Credit for successes is given more to others

3. Blame for failures is taken on oneself.

Asch Line Studies? Who conducted? What did they show?

Conformity

Solomon Asch (1951)

What makes you more likely to conform?

-Made to feel

-incompetent/insecure

-No prior commitments

-Group Size

-Unanimity

-Group status

-Your culture encourages respect for norms.

Asch's Line Judgement Task

-pick the line that is the same

-someone will choose the answer if they see other people picking it

Phillip Zombardo/Stanford Prison Experiment? Who conducted? What did they show?

-Role Playing

-Researchers simulated a prison environment

-Randomly assigned participants to two groups

-"guards" had demeaning views of "prisoners

-"prisoners" had rebellious dislike of the "guards

Stanley Milgram? Who conducted? What did they show?

Stanley Milgram (1933-1984)

Milgram Obedience Experiment

The question: Under what social conditions are people more likely to obey

The experiment: An authority figure tells participants to administer shocks to a "learner"

Factors that increase Obedience

-Authority

-Prestige

-Proximity (Physical and Emotional)

Normative Influence

Pursuit of social approval or belonging (and to avoid disapproval/rejection)

-Example: The Asch conformity studies

Informational Influence

-Their ideas and behavior make sense, the evidence in our social environment changes our minds.

-Example: Sheriff Studies Deciding which side of the road to drive on.

Group Behavior and Influence

Besides conformity and obedience, there are other ways that our behavior changes in the presence of others, or within a group:

-Social Facilitation = Individual performance is intensified when you are observed by others

-Experts vs Novices

-Social Loafing: the tendency of people in a group to show less effort when not held individually accountable

-Group Polarization: When people of similar views form a group together, discussion within the group makes their views more extreme.

-Different groups become MORE different, more polarized, in their views

-Group Think_: In pursuit of social harmony (and avoidance of open disagreement), groups will make decisions without an open exchange of ideas.

-Irony: Group "think" prevents thinking, prevents a realistic assessment of options.

Prejudice

-Unjustified (usually negative) attitude toward a group (and its members)

Discrimination

-Unjustified behavior selectively applied to members of a group.

Stereotypes

-A generalized belief about a group, applied to every member of a group.

Cognitive Roots of Prejudices

Judging Based on Vivid Cases:

Availability heuristic ignores statistics

-Dramatic acts terrorism carried out by people who are Muslim false association

-The stereotype "Muslim = terrorist" sticks in some people's minds even though the vast majority of Muslims do not fit this stereotype.

"Just World" Belief:

-People must deserve what they get Fed by hindsight bias, cognitive dissonance

-Believing that justice generally happens, that people get the benefits and punishments they deserve.

-Implication: If people are rich, privileged, they must have earned it;

-So, if people are poor, outcast, they must not deserve better.

-Believing that justice happens... leads to blaming the victim.

Prosocial Behavior and Attraction

The Psychology of Attraction:

-Proximity and familiarity

-Physical attractiveness

-Averageness, similarity

-Romantic Love:

-Passionate Love:_: state of strong attraction, interest, excitement, felt so strongly that people are absorbed in each other

-Compassionate Love: Deep, caring, affectionate attachment/commitment

-Lasting Love Relationship:

-Equity: Both giving and receiving, sharing responsibilities, with a sense of partnership

-Self-Disclosure_: Sharing self in conversation increases intimacy

-Positive Interactions and Support: Offering sympathy, concern, laughs, hugs

-Proximity: working or living near the other person

-Exposure/The Exposure Effect: -Merely seeing someone's face and name makes them more like-able

-Evolutionary Roots: This effect probably helped our ancestors survive: Familiar = more trustworthy, safe.

-Modern Age: we are most familiar with is our own; so we are now attracted to people that look like us.

Bystander Effect

-Fewer people help when others are available.

Why?

-Diffusion of responsibility: The role of helper does not fall just on one person.

People in a crowd follow the example of others; which means everyone waiting for someone else to help first.

After a while, people rationalize inaction: "if no one is helping, they must know he's dangerous or faking it."

Describe how psychology has progressed in understanding the causes of psychological disorders. How has this affected treatment (e.g., Demonic Spirits Institutionalization in Asylums Moral Treatment (Phillipe Pinel) Medical Model

Demonic Spirits

-"Treatment": Murder, exorcism, flogging, drowning, burning, starvation, blood-letting, prayer, etc.

Medical Model

-Originally, hospitalization

-1547: St. Mary's of Bethlehem (Bedlam)

-Late 1700s: Philippe Pinel

-Moral Treatment

-Eventually: Therapy and hospitalization

The Medical Model

-Psychological disorders can be seen as psychopathology, an _illness_ of the mind.

-Disorders can be _diagnosed_, labeled as a collection of symptoms that tend to go together.

-People with disorders can be treated, attended to, given therapy, all with a goal of restoring mental health.

Mood Disorders (e.g., Depression, Bipolar Disorder, SAD)

Major Depressive Disorder:

-Depressed mood most of the day

-Markedly diminished interest or pleasure in activities

-Increase or decrease in appetite or weight

-Sleep Difficulty (e.g. Insomnia, sleeping too much, or disrupted sleep)

-Irritability, fatigue

-Fatigue or loss of energy

-Worthlessness, or excessive/inappropriate guilt

-Daily problems in thinking, concentrating, and/or making decisions

-Recurring thoughts of death and suicide

Bipolar Disorder:

-Two polar opposite moods are depression and mania.

-3-7 weeks of depression, 3-7 DAYS of mania

-Mania: a period of hyper-elevated mood that is euphoric, giddy, easily irritated, hyperactive, impulsive, overly optimistic, and even grandiose.

-Depressed mood: stuck feeling "down," with:

-exaggerated pessimism

-social withdrawal

-lack of felt pleasure

-inactivity and no initiative

-difficulty focusing

-fatigue and excessive desire to

sleep

-Mania: euphoric, giddy, easily irritated, with:

-exaggerated optimism

-hypersociality and sexuality

-delight in everything

-impulsivity and overactivity

racing thoughts; the mind won't

settle down

-little desire for sleep

SAD: Seasonal Affective Disorder

-recurring seasonal pattern of depression, usually during winter's short, dark, cold days.

-Suicide and Self-Injury

-Negative Moods and Negative thoughts: Explanatory style

-The vicious cycle: Interaction of bad experiences -> depressive thoughts -> mood changes -> behavior changes -> more sad days

Anxiety Disorders (e.g., Specific Phobias, Social Phobia/Social Anxiety Disorder, Agoraphobia)

GAD: Characterized by excessive and exaggerated worry about many subjects

Emotional-Cognitive symptoms:

-anxious feelings and thoughts

-"free-floating" anxiety

-anxious anticipation interferes with concentration

Physical symptoms:

-autonomic arousal (e.g., trembling, sweating, fidgeting, agitation, and sleep disruption).

Panic Disorder: "I'm Dying"-- refers to repeated and unexpected panic attacks, as well as a fear of the next attack

-Panic Attack: minutes of intense dread or terror.

chest pains, choking, numbness, other frightening physical sensations. A feeling of a need to escape.

A Specific Phobia: uncontrollable, irrational, intense desire to avoid the some object or situation.

-Some examples:

-Agoraphobia: the avoidance of situations in which one will fear having a panic attack.

-Social Anxiety Disorder (Social phobia): an intense fear of being watched and judged by others

PTSD (Post traumatic Stress Disorder)

-Exposure

-Intrusions/Re-experiencing

-Hyper vigilance

-Negative alterations in thinking and mood: (e.g., the world is bad)

-Avoidance

Which people develop PTSD?

-Sensitive emotion-processing limbic systems

-Relive their trauma as they report it

-Previously traumatized

OCD

Obsessions (cognitions/thoughts): intense, unwanted worries, ideas, and images that repeatedly pop up in the mind.

Compulsion (behaviors): a repeatedly strong feeling of "needing" to carry out an action, even though it doesn't feel like it makes sense.

Schizophrenia

Def: The mind is split from reality, e.g. a split from one's own thoughts so that they appear as hallucinations. End of adolescence into early adulthood is when symptoms are most prevalent.

Psychosis: refers to a mental split from reality and rationality.

Causes of Symptoms:

-Brain: Dopamine overactivity

-Abnormal brain anatomy and activity

-Maternal virus during pregnancy

-Associated genes

Symptoms: disorganized and/or delusional thinking, disturbed perceptions, inappropriate emotions and actions.

Positive Symptoms: presence of problematic behaviors (+) Hallucinations (illusory perceptions), especially auditory. Delusions (illusory beliefs), especially persecutory. Disorganized thought and nonsensical speech.Bizarre behaviors

Negative Symptoms: absence of healthy behaviors (-) Flat affect (no emotion showing in the face), Reduced social interaction, Anhedonia (no feeling of enjoyment), Avolition (less motivation, initiative, focus on tasks), Alogia (speaking less), Catatonia (moving less)

Acute/Reactive Schizophrenia: In reaction to stress, some people develop positive symptoms such as hallucinations. Recovery is likely.

Chronic/Process Schizophrenia: develops slowly, with more negative symptoms. With treatment and support, there may be periods of a normal life, but not a cure. Without treatment, this type of schizophrenia often leads to poverty and social problems.

Subtypes: Paranoid, Disorganized, Catatonic, Undifferentiated, Residual

Personality Disorders (e.g., Antisocial Personality Disorder)

Personality disorders: enduring patterns of social and other behavior that impair social functioning.

There are three "clusters"/categories of personality disorders.

1. Anxious: fear of social rejection (e.g., Avoidant, Dependent, Obsessive-Compulsive)

2. Eccentric/Odd: flat affect, no social attachments, (e.g. Schizoid, Schizotypal, and Paranoid)

3. Dramatic: dramatic and or impulsive behavior (e.g., Histrionic, attention-seeking; narcissistic, self-centered; antisocial, borderline)

Antisocial Personality Disorder:

-Persistently acting without conscience, without a sense of guilt for harm done to others (strangers and family alike).

-The diagnostic criteria include a pattern of violating the rights of others since age 15, including three of these symptoms:

-Deceitfulness

-Disregard for safety of self or

others

-Aggressiveness

-Failure to conform to social

norms

-Lack of remorse

-Impulsivity and failure to plan

ahead

-Irritability

-Irresponsibility regarding jobs,

family, and money

Dissociative Disorders

Separation of consciousness

Dissociative Identity Disorder: Is it real? How could it happen?

Personality Disorders: Severe, enduring problems relating to others

Dissociation: separation of conscious awareness from thoughts, memory, bodily sensations, feelings, or even from identity.

Dissociative disorder: dysfunction and distress caused by chronic and severe dissociation.

Examples:

Dissociative Fugue state: Fugue = "Running away"; wandering away from one's life, memory, and identity, with no memory of them

Dissociative Identity Disorder (D.I.D.): Development of separate personalities (formerly "Multiple Personality Disorder)

Different personalities have involved:

-different brain wave patterns.

-different left-right handedness.

-different visual acuity and eye muscle balance patterns.

Patients with D.I.D. also show heightened activity in areas of the brain associated with managing and inhibiting traumatic memories.

Eating related disorders

Eating Disorders

Anorexia and Bulimia

Genes and social causes

These may involve:

-unrealistic body _image_ and extreme body _ideal_

-a desire to control food and the body when one's situation can't be controlled.

-cycles of depression.

-health problems.

Anorexia Nervosa:

-Def: Compulsion to lose weight, coupled with certainty about being fat despite being 15 percent or more underweight

-Prevalence: 0.6 percent meet criteria at some time during lifetime

Bulimia Nervosa:

-Def: Compulsion to _binge_, eating large amounts fast, then _purge_ by losing the food through vomiting, laxatives, and extreme exercise

-Prevalence: 1.0 percent

Binge-Eating Disorder:

Def: Compulsion to _binge_, followed by guilt and depression

Prevalence: 2.8 percent

Family factors:

-having a mother focused on her weight, and on child's appearance and weight

-negative self-evaluation in the family

-for bulimia, if childhood obesity runs in the family

-for anorexia, if families are competitive, high-achieving, and protective

Cultural factors:

-unrealistic ideals of body appearance

What are culture-bound syndromes?

Disorders that only seem to exist within certain cultures

Examples:

-Bulimia Nervosa: binging/purging, in the United States

-Running amok: violent outbursts, in Malaysia

-Hikikomori: social withdrawal, in Japan

Why and how do we classify psychological disorders?

DMS-IV, the most widely used system, classifies disorders by their mental and behavioral symptoms

What are the pros and cons of classifying psychological disorders?

PROS:

enables mental health professionals to

a) communicate w/ each other about the subject matter of their concern

b) comprehend the patholical processes involved in psychiatric illness, and

c) control psychiatric outcomes

CONS: create preconceptions that unfairly stigmatize people and bias our perceptions of their past and present behavior

What is therapy?

refers to how mental disorders are treated, with the help of the knowledge base of psychology

Current forms of Therapy (e.g., Psychotherapy, Biomedical, Eclectic approaches)

Psychotherapy:

interactive experience with a trained professional, working on understanding and changing behavior, thinking, relationships, and emotions

Biomedical Therapies:

use of medications and other procedures acting directly on the body to reduce the symptoms of mental disorders

An Ecletic approach: techniques from various forms of therapy to fit the client's problems, strengths, and preferences

Medications and psychotherapy can be used together

Be familiar with the major perspectives in psychology, the causes of mental illness and their approach towards treatment (e.g., Cognitive Psychology's goal in treatment is to modify automatic thoughts).

Psychoanalysis: Bringing the unconscious into awareness

Humanistic: client-centered

therapy; nurturing positive growth

Behaviorist: changing associations using conditioning

Cognitive: changing unhelpful beliefs and interpretations

Group therapy: mutual support

Family therapy: changing the interactions

(look at PP15 and on slide 24)

What techniques/processes are involved? Psychoanalysis = Resistance, Dreams, Management of Transference and Countertransference

Resistance:

patient seems blocked in speaking about certain subjects

Dreams:

"latent content" behind the plot of a patient's dream

Transference:

patient may have reactions toward therapist based on feelings toward someone from the past

What techniques/processes are involved? Behavioral = Counterconditioning, Aversive Conditioning, Exposure Therapies (e.g., Systematic Desensitization)

Behavioral Therapy: Sometimes, insight is not helpful to recover from some mental health problems. The client might know the right changes to make, but finds that it's hard to change actual behavior.

Goal: to help reduce unwanted responses. Behavior therapy uses the principles of learning, (e.g., classical and operant conditioning)

Classical Conditioning Techniques: linking new, positive responses to previously aversive stimuli.

-If you have been conditioned to fear stores because you have had panic attacks there, you could be led into a store and then helped with relaxation exercises. The goal is to associate stores with relaxation, a state incompatible with fear.

Exposure Therapies: A conditioned fear can worsen when avoidance of the feared situation gets reinforced by a quick reduction in anxiety.

Guided exposure to the feared situation can reverse this reinforcement by waiting for anxiety to subside during the exposure.

The person can habituate to (get used to) the anxiety itself, and then the feared situation.

Examples:

-virtual reality therapy: This involves exposure to simulations, such as flying (below) or snakes.

-Systematic desensitization: Beginning with a tiny reminder of the feared situation, keep increasing the exposure intensity as the person learns to tolerate the previous level.

Aversive Conditioning: can associate the drug with a negative response.

Operant conditioning: shaping of chosen behavior in response to the consequences of the behavior.

-Behavior modification shaping a client's chosen behavior to look more like a desired behavior,

-Applied behavioral analysis/application: used with nonverbal children with autism.

-Rewards behaviors such as sitting with someone or making eye contact

-Punishes self-harming behaviors.

-Token economy: uses coins, stars, or other indirect rewards as "tokens" that can be collected and traded later for real rewards.

What techniques/processes are involved? Cognitive = CBT

Goal: helps people alter the negative _thinking__ that worsens depression and anxiety.

Errors in thinking

Recognize Thought Error Test Belief -> Change thinking

Evaluating: Cognitive therapies are highly effective treatments for depression, anxiety disorders, bulimia nervosa, anger management, addiction, and even some symptoms of schizophrenia and insomnia

Schools of Cognitive Therapy:

-Rational-emotive behavior therapy: (RET; Albert Ellis)

challenging irrational beliefs and assumptions

-Cognitive & Cognitive-Behavioral therapy for depression (CBT; Aaron Beck)

correcting cognitive distortions

-Stress Inoculation therapy (SIT; Donald Meichenbaum)

practicing healthier thinking before facing a stressor, disappointment, or frustration

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): change both cognitions and behaviors that are part of a mental health disorder.

Cognitive: Rational Emotive Therapy

If you receive a poor performance evaluation at work, you might directly attribute your bad mood to the negative feedback. Psychologist Albert Ellis would argue that the self-talk ("I always mess up") between the event and the feeling is what actually upsets you. Furthermore, ruminating on all the other bad things in your life maintains your negative emotional state, and may even lead to anxiety disorders, depression, and other psychological disorders.

To treat these disorders Albert Ellis developed an A-B-C-D approach: A stands for activating event, B the person's belief system, C the emotional and behavioral consequences, and D disputing erroneous beliefs. During therapy, Ellis helped his clients identify the A, B, C's underlying their irrational beliefs by actively arguing, cajoling, and teasing them—sometimes in very blunt, confrontational language. Once clients recognized their self-defeating thoughts, he worked with them on how to dispute these beliefs and how to create and test out new, rational ones. These new beliefs then change the maladaptive emotions—thus breaking the vicious cycle.

Be familiar with the major drug classes, how they work, and be familiar with examples (e.g., Antidepressants improve mood by increasing serotonin levels in the body, examples include Zoloft and Prozac)

-Antianxiety drugs (Valium, Ativan) generally are used to treat anxiety disorders,

-Antipsychotic drugs (Thorazine, Haldol) treat the symptoms of psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia

-Mood-stabilizer drugs (Tegretol) can help patients with bipolar disorder

-Antidepressant drugs (Prozac, Effexor) treat depression, anxiety disorders, and eating disorders.

Interventions in the brain and body can affect mood and behavior.

Biomedical therapies: physically changing the brain's functioning by altering its chemistry with medications, or affecting its circuitry with electrical or magnetic impulses or surgery.

Psychopharmacology: refers to the study of drug effects on behavior, mood, and the mind.

(PP15 slide 38&39)

What three factors are involved in clinical decision making?

Evidence-based practice: use of outcome research about the effectiveness of different techniques to select therapeutic interventions.

1. Patients Values, characteristics, preferences, circumstances

2. Clinical expertise

3. Best available research evidence

How do we know that therapy works? How does prognosis differ for treated individuals in comparison to those who go without treatment?

-whether the client is satisfied

-whether the client senses -improvement in themselves

-whether the therapist sees improvement

-whether there has been an observable, measured change in initial symptoms

(PP15 slides 44&45)

How might therapists work with clients with diverse cultural backgrounds?

Therapists differ from clients in beliefs, values, cultural background, conversational style, and personality.

Ways to serve diverse clients

-Therapists should be receptive, respectful, curious, and seek understanding rather than assuming it.

-Therapist and client do NOT have to have similar backgrounds for effective therapy and a good therapeutic relationship. It is more important to have similar ideas about the function and style of therapy.

What is a correlation? What the components make up a correlation?

General Definition: two traits or attributes are related to each other

Scientific definition: a measure of how closely two factors vary together, or how well you can predict a change in one from observing a change in the other

Correlation coefficient: number representing how closely and in what way two variables correlate (change together).

Strength of the relationship, how tightly, predictably they vary together, is measured in a number that varies from 0.00 to +/- 1.00.

Direction of the correlation can be positive (direct relationship; both variables increase together) or negative (inverse relationship: as one increases, the other decreases).

What is an action potential?

Action Potential: electrical signals help to send chemicals down the axon

-All or nothing

-Threshold of Excitation

-Absolute Refractory

What are neurotransmitters?

Serotonin:

-Function: Mood*, hunger, sleep, and arousal

-Problems Caused by Imbalances: Too little = depression

Dopamine:

-Function: Movement*, learning, attention, and emotion

-Problems Caused by Imbalances: Too much = schizophrenia,

Too little = decreased mobility/Parkinson's disease, ADHD

Norepinephrine, Epinephrine:

-Function: alertness and arousal

-Problems Caused by Imbalances: Too little= depressed mood and/or ADHD-like attention problems

Endorphins- elevate mood, ease pain (Function)

Trait theories of personality

Gordon Allport

_Trait_: An enduring quality that makes a person tend to act a certain way.

Trait theories of personality: we are made up of a collection of _traits_, behavioral predispositions that can be identified and measured. Traits _that differ_ from person to person

Dimensions and factors

2-Factor/Dimension Theory (Eysenck's)

Multi-Dimensional

4-Factor MBTI (Myers-Briggs)

5-Factor CANOE/OCEAN

Assessment: MMPI

Eysencks' Personality Dimensions (2-Factor Theory):

-Factor Analysis: Identifying factors that tend to cluster together.

-Hans and Sybil Eysenck: traits are a function of two basic dimensions along which we all vary.

-Genetic Links

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

4 Traits/Factors:

-Energy: Extraversion vs. Introversion

-Learning: Senses vs. Intuition

-Decisions: Thinking vs. Feeling

-Relating: Judging vs. Perceiving

-4 Letter Code: "ENTJ" = Good executive

The "Big Five" Personality Factors:

5 Traits/Factors

-Current cross-cultural research and theory supports the expansion from two dimensions to five factors:

-Conscientiousness: self-discipline, careful pursuit of delayed goals

-Agreeableness: helpful, trusting, friendliness

-Neuroticism: anxiety, insecurity, emotional instability

-Openness: flexibility, nonconformity, variety

-Extraversion: Drawing energy from others, sociability

Psychoanalytic theory of personality

-Personality Structure: Id, Ego, Superego

-Psychosexual Stages: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital

-Defense Mechanisms

-The Neo-Freudians: Jung, Adler, Horney

-Assessment: Free Association, Projective Tests

-Critiques/Limitations: Only studied people who were dysfunctional, unfalsifiable, hindsight bias, biased

(PP12)

Attachment Style: Secure

-mild distress when mother leaves, seeking contact with her when she returns

Attachment Style: Insecure (anxious)

-not exploring, clinging to mother, loudly upset when mother leaves, remaining upset when she returns

attachment styles: insecure (avoidant)

-seeming indifferent to mother's departure and return

Parenting styles: Permissive

-"Too Soft"

-Parents submit to kids' desires, not enforcing

limits or standards for child behavior.

Parenting styles: Authoritative

-"Just Right"

-Parents enforce rules, limits, and standards

but also explain, discuss, listen, and express

respect for child's ideas and wishes.

Parenting styles: Authoritarian

-"Too Hard"

-Parents impose rules "because I said so"

and expect obedience.

Schemas

a mental container to hold info about our world (multiple)

Assimilation

all the same

Accommodation

changing or modifying schemas

Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development: Stage 1

-Stage 1

-(0-2 yrs)

-Experiencing the world through the senses and actions (looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping

Object Permanence: objects exist even when they can't be seen

Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development: Stage 2

-Stage 2

-(2-5/7 yrs)

-Representing things with words and images, but lacking logical reasoning

Egocentrism: incapable of seeing the world through other's eyes

Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development: Stage 3

-Stage 3

-(7-12 yrs)

-Thinking logically about concrete events; grasping concrete analogies and performing arithmetical operations

Conservation: a quantity is does not change even when it is arranged in a different shape.

Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development: Stage 4

-Stage 4

-(12-15 yrs)

-Abstract reasoning

-Abstract logic

-Potential for mature moral reasoning

Compare and Contrast Classical and Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning:

-B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)

-Thorndike's Law of Effect:

behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely

Classical Conditioning:

-Ivan Pavlov (Late 1800's)

-A previously neutral stimulus gets associated with a physiological or emotional response

ex:

Bell = no response;

Food = salivation

Bell + Food= salivation

Bell = salivation

(PP7 slide 42)

What are the components of classical conditioning?

Stages:

1st Phase: _Acquisition_

The initial stage of learning/conditioning

Period in which the NS is paired with the UCS and becomes the CS

2nd Phase: _Extinction_

the diminishing of a conditioned response.

The time during which we stop giving the UCS with the CS

3rd Phase: _Spontaneous recovery_ return of the conditioned response despite a lack of further conditioning

Factors: Timing, Amount of learning, Obviousness of the UCS

What are the components of operant conditioning?

_Shaping:_ guiding a creature toward the behavior by reward behavior that comes closer and closer to the desired behavior.

Discrimination:_ ability to become more and more specific in what situations trigger a response.

Shaping can increase discrimination, if reinforcement only comes for certain discriminative stimuli__

Schedules of Reinforcement:

-Continuous reinforcement_: giving a reward after the target every single time

-Partial/intermittent reinforcement_: giving rewards part of the time

Schedules of Partial/Intermittent Reinforcement:

-Interval of time:

-Fixed interval schedule:

Every so often

-Variable interval schedule:

Unpredictably

often

-Ratio of rewards per number of instances of the desired behavior.

-Fixed ratio schedule:

Every so many

behaviors

-Variable ratio schedule:

After an

unpredictable

number of

behaviors

Fixed ratio: _high_ rate of responding

Variable ratio: high, consistent responding, even if reinforcement stops (resists extinction)

Fixed interval: _slow_, _unstained responding

Variable interval: _Slow, consistent responding

Classical: UCS, CS, NS, UR, CR

Unconditional Stimulus_: naturally produces a response

_ Unconditional Response_: response that occurs naturally to the UCS

_Neutral Stimulus__: originally causes no response

_Conditioned Stimulus _: NS causes a response (after pairing)

NS + UCS causes UR; repeat several times

Then, NS becomes CS, CS causes a _conditional response_

CR same as UR, but caused by CS (rather than UCS)

Operant: Negative and positive reinforcement, Negative and positive punishment

_Reinforced:_behavior is more likely to be tried again (strengthened) (Increase)

_Punished:__ behavior is less likely to be chosen in the future. (diminished/weakened) (decrease)

-Reinforcement: feedback from the environment that makes a behavior more likely to be done again.

-Positive + reinforcement: reward is _adding_ something desirable

-Negative - reinforcement: reward is _ending_ something unpleasant

Reliability

A test or other measuring tool is _reliable_ when it generates consistent results

Test-Retest Reliability: The test gives the same result if administered again.

Validity

A test or measure has _Validity_ it accurately measures what it is supposed to measure.

Content Validity: The test correlates well with the actual trait being measured

Predictive Validity: The test accurately predicts future performance

Aptitude vs Achievement Tests

Achievement Tests: measure what you already have learned. Examples include a literacy test, a driver's license exam, and a final exam in a psychology course.

Aptitude Tests: attempt to predict your ability to learn new skills.

-SAT, ACT predict

your academic

success

What is cognitive dissonance?

Cognitive Dissonance: When our actions are not in harmony with our attitudes.

The Cognitive Dissonance Theory: the observation that we tend to resolve this dissonance by changing our attitudes to fit our actions.

Leon Festinger (1918-1989): When confronted with new (and challenging) information we may explain away our behavior as a means to preserve our current understanding

What is the serial position effect? Primacy & Recency?

-in which people tend to recall the first & last items but not the middle/central items

-Primacy Effect=Remember the earlier items

-Recency Effect=Remember the last items(recent)

What is stress?

the process of appraising and responding to events which we consider threatening or challenging

Problem vs Emotion Focused Coping

Problem-focused coping: reducing the stressors

-Risk: magnifying emotional distress

Emotion-focused coping: reducing the emotional impact of the stressor

-Risk: ignoring the problem

Type A vs Type B Behavior and health consequences for Type A

_Type A_ personality:

impatient,

verbally aggressive,

push themselves and others to achieve

_Type B_ personality:

"Go with the flow"

In one study, heart attacks ONLY struck people with Type A traits

Standford Binet IQ calculation

IQ= mental age/chronological age X 100

Lewis Terman from Stanford University adapted Alfred Binet's test

- extended age range

- Developed norms

What is the biopsychosocial approach?

-mental health looks at the way both internal and external factors influence our mental state.

- This model acknowledges that we should look at the 'whole' patient and all of their circumstances when trying to support and understand their mental health.

The deep level, _Biology:_

genes, brain, neuro-transmitters, survival, reflexes, sensation

In the middle, _Psychology:_ thoughts, emotions, moods, choices, behaviors, traits, motivations, knowledge, perceptions

The outer level, Environment: Social Influences, culture, education, relationships

Types of Memory: Sensory

Sensory:

-First phase of Encoding and Processing

-the immediate, very _brief_ recording of sensory information before it is processed into short-term or long-term memory.

Types of Memory: Implicit

the ones we are not fully aware of and thus don't "declare"/talk about.

Automatic processing: (without our awareness that we are building a memory) and without processing in working memory.

Types of Memory: episodic

Episodic memory represents our memory of experiences and specific events in time in a serial form, from which we can reconstruct the actual events that took place at any given point in our lives. It is the memory of autobiographical events (times, places, associated emotions and other contextual knowledge) that can be explicitly stated. Individuals tend to see themselves as actors in these events, and the emotional charge and the entire context surrounding an event is usually part of the memory, not just the bare facts of the event itself.

Types of Memory: explicit

acts and experiences that we can consciously know and recall.

Effortful Processing: Studying, rehearsing, thinking about, and then storing information in long-term memory.

Types of Memory: Short-term

Short term Memory:

-average person, free from distraction, can hold about:

-7 digits, 6 letters, or 5

words.

-After 12 seconds, most memory of the consonants had decayed and could not be retrieved.

Types of Memory: Long-Term

Long-Term Memory:

-the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences