Psych Ch 1-3

Psychology

Scientific study of mental processes and behaviour

Mental processes

Internal subjective experiences, such as cognition, emotions, etc..

Behaviours

Directly observable actions that and organism does

Empiricism

Scientific fashion that involves controlled observations in hopes of gaining concrete evidence for a theory.

Biases

Errors in thinking, perception or memories

Availability heuristic

Mental phenomena that occurs when someone supports an idea with easily recalled examples. Can imply bias.

Confirmation bias

Bias that occurs when people selectively search for evidence to support an idea.

The main goals of psychology

Describe behaviours and processes, predict when and who will experience the behaviour, explain why it occurs, and to control it by changing, producing or suppressing the behaviour.

hierarchical levels of science

Sociology (populations), psychology ( individual), biology (systems within individual), chemistry (elements within bio systems), physics (forces within chemicals), and math (quantitative forces).

Biopsychoscoial approach

A method of observing mental processes and behaviour by examining the biological causes, such as genes, hormones, natural selection, the psychology of the individual, such as thier personality and cognitive abilities, and the social-cultural influences, such as the individuals cultural background, family, and peers.

Metaphysics

The study of reality. Sparked the mind-body debate.

Mind-Body problem

Metaphysical question that ponders the identity of the mind and the brain. Questions if they are the same or distinct figures, and where mental processes occur if they are separate .

Epistemology

The study of knowledge, Sparked the Nature-nurture debate.

Nature-Nurture debate

Questions that revolve around the origin of knowledge. Arguing whether knowledge is innate (instinctive, inherent in genetics), or gained from experience.

Hippocrates

Philosopher from ancient greek who proposed that the brain is the centre for mental life. Thought that human temperament was caused by a balance of bodily fluids, called humours. These humours included black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm.

Aristotle

Ancient greek philosopher who said that the mind and body are the same, they cannot be seperated. Thought that knowledge comes from the senses, all is learned, nothing is innate.

Plato

Ancient greek philosopher who thought that we were born with certain truths, ie some knowledge is innate , like beauty.

Rene Descartes

A dualist who thought that the brain was controlled by the movement of fluid within tubes than ran throughout the body and connected different parts (Nerves!). Thought that the pineal gland was the source of interaction between the mind and body. Came up with the reflex arc involving these tubes to send signals and cause changes in behaviour.

Dualism

A philosophical perspective following the idea that the mind and body are distinct but interact.

John Locke

British empiricist who said that the mind was a blank slate (Tabula Rasa). Paved the way for the study of learning, cognition psych.

Johannes Muller

Physician who thought that nerves contain specific types of nerve energies that gave rise to each sense. Ex: the optic system has optic nerve energies. Realized that energy influx stops at the organs surface on the body and that nerves carry the signal to the brain.

Herman Von Helmholtz

Psycho physicist who studied the speed of neural impulses and realized that they are not instantaneous, but a slow biochemical process.

Gustav Fechner

Physicist who related math to perception of physical stimuli. Devised new techniques for psychophysical experiments. Stared at candles for a long time to determine how we perceive light.

Wilhelm Wundt

German medical doctor who founded the first psychology laboratory. Focused on the conscious mind and simple processes of the mind. Thought that consciousness was made up many simple components!!

The first psychological laboratory

Founded by Wilhelm Wundt in Leipzig, Germany, 1879

E.B. titchener

American psychologist who emphasized identification and description of structural elements of the mind. Founded the school of structuralism, and the introspection method.

Structuralism

A school of thought that focused on the elements and components that form together to make the mind. Aimed to DESCRIBE the mind by breaking it down into elements through introspective techniques.

Introspection

A psychological technique that involved trained individuals self-reporting elements of their sensory experience when exposed to a complex stimulus. Required intelligent, verbal individuals. Resulted in variability, unverifiable.

William James

American psychologist who was influenced by Darwin to understand how mental processes allow us to survive. Founded the school of functionalism. Considered the dynamic nature of the mind, streams of consciousness.

Functionalism

School of thought pioneered by William James at Harvard. Focused on the function/purpose and survival benefits of mental processes, as opposed to their structure.

Max Wertheimer

German psychologist who was opposed to structuralism. Thought that things were perceived as a whole unit, founding Gestalt psychology. Emphasized mental processes.

Gestalt

School of thought founded by Max Wertheimer. Argued that consciousness cannot be broken down into pieces, rather humans experience things as whole perceptual units. Centred on emergentism, that properties appear when the elements of experience are added together to form a whole.

Sigmund freud

Austrian psychologist who studied the unconscious mind, and its influence on our conscious selves. Thought that our conscious and unconscious minds were at battle. Founded psychoanalytical psychology and the psychoanalysis method.

Psychoanalytic

School of thought by Sigmund Freud centred on the unconscious mind and its implications on our consciousness.

Psychoanalysis

A clinical technique made popular by Sigmund Freud. Involves a patient just speaking and the psychologist does not respond, but tries to understand the unconscious beneath the concious thoughts to diagnose individuals. Impersonal.

John B. Watson

American psychologist inspired by Ivan Pavlov and his classical conditioning of animals. Focused on outward behaviour of organisms, creating and popularizing Behavioural psychology. Emphasized experiences and learning.

Behaviourism

School of thought that shifted the focus of psychology in the 1920’s from the mind to outward expression and actions. Argued that psychology should be objective and should ignore the mind as it cannot be accurately studied. Dominated psychology for many decades.

B.F. Skinner

American psychologist during the radical behaviourism era. Used operant conditioning to study learned behaviour and how experiences and their consequences shape behaviour (reward vs punishment). Worked on Thorndikes law of effect.

Abraham Maslow

Psychologist who focused on human potential. opposed to behaviourism. Helped create humanistic psychology.

Humanistic psychology

School of thought that helped the waning of behaviourism. Focused on the growth potential of healthy people and meeting our needs for love and acceptance. Thought that humans could reach a state where all needs are met, called self actualization.

Cognitive psychology

A school of thought that switched studies back to the mind. Gave rise to the cognitive revolution, where focus turned to how we process, store and transmit information in our brains.

Karl Lashley

Pshycopbiologist who tried to determine which areas of the brain are responsible for memory, learning and many other functions. Discovered that the brain regions are interconnected by wires, and that the whole brain communicates and to complete many activities.

Neuroscience

School of thought that studies the neural correlates/causes of behaviour and mental processes, how the brain’s anatomy and special cells work together to perform tasks.

Social-cultural psychology

School of thought that studies how behaviour varies across situations and cultures, and how this affects the psychology of individuals.

Evolutionary psychology

School of thought that examines the adaptive nature of inherited behaviour. Builds off of darwins and william james ideas, along with modern genetic tools.

Main branches of psychology

Clinical and counselling, academic, and applied.

Shared values of psychology

All branches are theory driven, empirical and mutli-level, utilizing the bio psychosocial approach.

Positive psychology

New school of thought that focuses on happiness and other positive emotions. Prominent in psychotherapy. Stemmed from humanism.

Two core tenets of science

Natural laws govern the universe and these laws are discoverable and testable

Hypothetico-deductive model

A scientific method that combines inductive and deductive reasoning to create and test theories of behaviour

Inductive reasoning

A method that involves making generalizations from observations. Used to generate conclusions from experiments.

Deductive reasoning

A method that applies general principles to specific cases. Used to generate hypotheses to test theories through experiments.

Theories

Broad generalizations based on lots of specific observations through inductive reasoning

Hypothesis

A prediction to explain a relationship between two variables derived from theories using deductive reasoning.

Falsifiability

The ability to negate a hypothesis through many experiments that do not support the prediction. Science is only interested in these hypotheses that can be tested and proven wrong.

Variables

Factors that may influence a behaviour or mental state. Measured or manipulated during experiments to determine correlations.

Operational definition

Description of a variable in concrete terms that ensures a study is repeatable. Allows for empiricial measurements of variables during experiments.

Descriptive research

Methods that aim to observe and describe behaviour. Used to determine associations that can be exploited to form predictions. Does not show cause and effect relationships.

Experimental research

Methods aimed at demonstrating a cause and effect relationships between variables.

Case study

An individual is studies in depth due to a rare situation or condition. A description method that allows hypothesis to be made for further studies.

Survey

A descriptive method that involves asking a target population about their behaviour. A representative sample is used to extrapolate results for the whole population. Cons are that people can lie, does not determine cause and effect and word changes have large effects on outcome.

Naturalistic observation

A descriptive method that involves watching and recording the behaviour of organisms in their natural environment. The situation cannot be manipulated, so it can only reveal relationships, nit cause and effect.

Controls

Factors kept constant in both the experimental and control groups of a study to ensure the impact of the independent variable is isolated.

Double blind procedure

A study where neither the participants nor the researchers know who is in which group, the experimental or the control. Eliminates expectation bias.

Correlations

An analysis of the strength and nature of a relationship between two variables. Can be used to predict behaviour.

Correlation coefficient → r

Statistical value that is calculated to mathematically describe a relationship between two variables. The value shows the strength whilst the sign shows the direction. Ranges from -1 to 1

Positive correlation

When scores on one variable increase, scores on the other increase also. Direct relationship

Negative correlation

When one variable increases, the other decreases. An indirect/inverse relationship

Scatterplots

Graphs used to depict correlations. Each dot is a single subjects score.

Vulnerability theory

The idea that low self esteem increases an individual’s chances of developing depression.

Scar theory

The idea that a depressed individual may be affected long-term by the disorder, resulting in low self esteem.

Descriptive statistics

Used to organize and summarize sets of data, includes measures of central tendency and variability.

Measures of central tendency

Statistics that describe the most typical scores. Includes the mode (most frequent), median (middle value) and the mean (calculated average)

Measures of variability

Describes how spread out scores are within a dataset. Includes range and standard deviation

Range

The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a dataset. Susceptibility to outliers/ extreme values.

Standard deviation

The average distance of scores from the datasets mean. Increases as scores spread out, leading to more uncertainty of the data. Useful to determine if differences between groups are statistically significant.

Inferential statistics

Statistic tests to determine if differences between groups are reliable (statistically significant) or due to chance.

Statistical significance

Differences between groups are analyzed and the probability that the difference observed is due to chance is less than 1 in 20 (5%, p< 0.05). If this is seen, then the hypothesis is accepted.

Research ethics boards

Research oversight group that evaluates research to protect the rights of study participants

Ethical guidelines

In all studies, participation mist be voluntary, informed consent must be given as the participant understands risks and benefits involved, confidentiality is protected and débriefing is provided after to inform participants of info that was previously withheld.

Canadian council on animal care

Oversees research involving animals as subjects

Animal research guidelines

They are only used if there is no other alternative, the research promises significant benefit to life, humane methods are used, the smallest possible number is used, and all pain and distress is limited.

Materialistic monism

A scientific perspective that believes that the brain and the mind are one and the same. Mental experience cannot occur without the brain and its many parts.

David Chalmers

A modern philosopher who questions how the brain causes mental states and consciousness.

The Aware study

A study that discovered 10-20% of people who go through cardiac arrest report lucid, well structured thoughts, reasoning, memories and detailed events.

Methods to study the nervous system

Autopsy tissue, neuropsychological assessment, recording brain electrical activity, neuroimaging and animal studies

Limitations of autopsy tissue

Can only be examined post mortem, so function during life cannot be seen. Descriptive, cannot imply causation

Neuropsychological assesment

Clinical diagnosis of brain damage through psychological and behavioural tests. Ex: the clock test showing dementia

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

Scalp electrodes record and amplify neuronal activity in the brain cortex. Cannot pinpoint electrical activity, but can diagnose epilepsy and sleep disorders.

Event related potentials (ERP)

Detects changes in electrical activity during EEG analysis following presentation of a stimulus. Used to diagnose sensory or information processing deficits, like language deficits,

Structural imaging

technology that provides pictures of brain only, not activity.

Functional imaging

Technology that reveals areas of brain activity as well as pictures of the brain.m

Computerized Axial Tomography (CT)

Structural imaging that takes detailed X ray images from multiple angles. Can show sizeable abnormalities like tumours and nails.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Uses strong magnetic fields and radio waves that detect Hydrogen atoms to produce structural images of soft brain tissue. Useful for tumour diagnosis and bulging disks.

Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI)

Uses water molecules to make structural images of neuronal white matter(axon) pathways in brain. Can show injuries, like strokes and concussions, and alzheimer’s diease.

Positron emission tomography (PET)

Functional imaging technology that records the consumption of radioactive glucose in the brain. More active parts of the brain consume more glucose, showing where brain is active. Used for clinical diagnosis of cancer, parkinson’s, etc.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

Functional imaging that monitors oxygen utilization in the brain. Highly active brain areas require more oxygen.

Lesion

The localized destruction or removal of brain tissue, by electric, heat or chemical methods. Allows researchers to understand indirectly the function of the missing area.

Stimulation

The activation of specific regions of the brain via electrical and chemical means. Includes ontogenetics, the stimulation specific genes to see changes in bheaviour.

Neurons

Main nervous cell that generates action potentials, forms synapses with others, and releases chemicals.