Psyc 101 Rice University Nicolaou

Psychology

the scientific study of the mind and behavior

Mind

our private inner experience of perceptions, thoughts, memories, and feelings

Behavior

observable actions of human beings and nonhuman animals

H.M. (Henry Molaison)

had a lobotomy to cure his epilepsy; ended up with anterograde amnesia (couldn't create new memories after surgery). taught us that different parts of the brain do different things

Plato

philosopher who believed in nativism

nativism

most basic skills are hard-wired in the brain at birth

Aristotle

tabula rasa, philosophical empiricism

tabula rasa

blank slate

philosophical empiricism

the theory that the origin of all knowledge is sense experience

Genie

woman who grew up in chair without socialization, didn't learn to talk, had limited functioning potential when rescued (teaches us that development periods matter)

Franz Joseph Gall

phrenology

phrenology

specific mental abilities and characteristics are localized in specific regions of the brain.

Paul Broca

Broca's area

Broca's area

damage to this location causes impairments in language production, but not comprehension

Hermann von Helmholtz

physiology, stimulus, reaction time

physiology

the study of biological processes, especially in the human body.

stimulus

sensory input from the environment

reaction time

the amount of time taken to respond to a specific stimulus

Wilhelm Wundt

founded the first psychological laboratory

structuralism, consciousness, introspection

consciousness

a person's subjective experience of the world and the mind

structuralism

a school of psychology seeks to analyze the adult mind (the total sum of experience from birth to the present) in terms of the simplest definable components and then to find how these components fit together to form more complex experiences as well as how they correlated to physical events. To do this, psychologists employ introspection, self-reports of sensations, views, feelings, emotions, etc

introspection

the subjective observation of one's own experience

William James

applied scientific approach to psychology, functionalism

functionalism

a psychological philosophy that considers mental life and behaviour in terms of active adaptation to the person's environment

Jean-Marie Charcot, Pierre Janet

hysteria, multiple conscious "selves"

hysteria

a temporary loss of cognitive or motor functions, usually as a result of emotionally upsetting experiences

Sigmund Freud

u kno who he is

unconscious

the mental processes of which individuals make themselves unaware

challenges for psychoanalysis

Sexual spin on psychology

Pessimistic view

Trapped by unconscious and by forgotten childhood memories

Difficult to study

Freud did not do well with those who questioned his approach

psychoanalysis

a therapeutic approach that focuses on bringing unconscious material into conscious awareness to better understand psychological disorders

maslow and rogers

humanistic psychology

humanistic psychology

emphasizes individuals' inherent drive towards self-actualization, the process of realizing and expressing one's own capabilities and creativity, psychologist and client are equal

john watson

behaviorism, science, Replicable

objective measures observable by others

response

an action or physiological change elicited by a stimulus

B.F. Skinner

animals learn by interacting with their environment- not passive like Pavlov's dogs

"Skinner box"

reinforcement

the consequences of behavior determine whether it will be more or less likely to occur again.

Can shape any behavior with reinforcement

questioned free-will.

Illusions

errors of perception memory, or judgment in which subjective experience differs from objective reality

Gestalt psychology

a psychological approach that emphasizes that we often perceive the whole rather than the sum of the parts

Sir Frederic Bartlett

People remember how a story "should" end rather than how it actually did end

Our memory is influenced by our mind (our knowledge, hopes, aspirations, and desires) rather than a photographic representation of actual events.

computers

model for human mind (both register, store, and retrieve information).

information processing systems

Cognitive psychology

the scientific study of mind and mental function, including learning, memory, attention, perception, reasoning, language, conceptual development, and decision making. The modern study of cognition rests on the premise that the brain can be understood as a complex computing system.

Karl Lashley

Removed parts of rat brains

Observed deficits

Behavioral Neuroscience

Cognitive Neuroscience

Links between cognitive processes and brain activity

Non-invasive "brain-scanning" during mental activities

PET scan

fMRI

John Garcia

Our ancestors' learning histories influence our learning.

Rats learn to associated nausea with food faster than with flashing light

evolutionary psychology

explains mind and behavior in terms of the adaptive value of abilities that are preserved over time by natural selection

Norman Triplett

Cyclists rode faster with peers

Our behavior is influenced by the presence of others

Social psychology

the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.

Culture

the values, traditions, and beliefs that are shared by a particular group of people

cultural psychology

the study of how cultures reflect and shape the psychological processes of their members

Margaret Mead

Anthropologist

traveled to far regions to study cultural differences in behavior and practices

American Psychological Association (APA) 1892-

Faculty positions (Academic)

Research psychologists

Clinical psychologists

Counseling psychologists

School psychologists

Industrial/organizational psychologists

47% of psychologists are...

clinical

Three things that make people especially difficult to study

Complexity

Variability

Reactivity

scientific method?

Theory

Hypothesis

Gather Evidence

Modify Theory

ways to collect data

Case Study

Observational Study

Psychological Tests (Assessments)

Surveys

Case Studies

Detailed description of an individual

Observations, formal psychological testing, drawings, clinical interviews, questionnaires, family interviews

Example: Genie

Gerneralizability

Information is often missing and hard to interpret

Observer Bias

observational study

Researcher observes, measures, records behavior while trying to avoid intruding on the people being observed

Studying many people

Naturalistic Observation: observe people in natural setting (home, school)

Laboratory Observation: researchers have more control over situation

Problems with Observational Studies

Mere presence of researchers and equipment will change how people behave

only correlational and not causal

Do heavy drinkers seek groups to drink with or do groups cause people to drink more

Do infants miss their parents, fear stranger, or learn that crying brings mom with a hug

Psychological Tests (Assessments)

Measure personality traits, emotional states, IQ, abilities

objective tests (inventories)

Objective tests (Inventories): measure beliefs, feelings, or behaviors of which people are aware

projective tests

In psychology, a projective test is a personality test designed to let a person respond to ambiguous stimuli, presumably revealing hidden emotions and internal conflicts projected by the person into the test.

standardized tests

scores based on NORMS

reliability (tests)

produce same result across time, place, and scorer

Test-retest reliability

the variation in measurements taken by a single person or instrument on the same item, under the same conditions, and in a short period of time (But people tend to do better the second time)

Alternate-forms reliability:

the authenticity stablished by carrying out two different forms of the same test to the same individuals, multiple choice vs. true/false

valid

it must measure what it sets out to measure

Construct validity

items broadly represent the trait in question

job satisfaction: have you reached a dead end at work? Are you bored with your assignments? versus How do you feel about your salary?

Predictive validity

ability to predict other measures of the trait in question, related traits

high school GPA predict college GPA

Power

???

surveys

Surveys are questionnaires and interviews that gather info by asking people directly about their experiences, attitudes, opinions.

NEED Representative sample: a group of participants that accurately represents the larger population the researcher wishes to describe.

Age, sex, ethnic groups, etc.......

Problems with Surveys

Volunteer bias

.

(Call radio station, social anxiety study)

People lie

People want to be seen in a good light, they can misinterpret question or misremember the past

Researchers bias

can phrase questions (or leave questions out) based on biases

correlational study

a descriptive study that looks for a consistent relationship between two phenomena

correlation

a measure of how strongly two variables are related to one another

Strength of a relationship (IQ & income)

Positive Correlation: high and high

GPA and SAT scores

Negative Correlation: high and low

Average family income and dental disease

Uncorrelated: shoe size and IQ

Coefficient of Correlation (+1.00 to -1.00)

Correlation does not establish causation

A does not necessarily cause B

TV watching causes attention problems

Attention problems cause TV watching: these children are more attracted to TV

Inattentive kids have more stressed parents who may be more likely to resort to using TV to calm kids

experiment

a controlled test of a hypothesis in which a researcher manipulates one variable to discover its effect on another.

Can draw conclusions about what causes what

Smoking & Driving Experiment

Have participants smoke before getting into car seat

Real cigarette OR placebo cigarette

Then have them drive simulated car

Record number of collisions

Control Group

Need a control group to be sure that the behavior you are interested in would not have occurred anyway

Random Assignment

A procedure for assigning people to experimental and control groups in which each individual has the same probability as any other of being assigned to a give group

Experimenter Effects

Experimenters can influence the results of a study (facial expressions (smile), tone of voice)

Rosenthal (1966)

"maze bright" and "maze dull" rats

Participants want to please

Participants may act in ways that they ordinarily would not

Single-blind study

participants don't know which group they are in (still have EEs)

Also helpful for participants NOT to know purpose of study

double-blind study

neither participants NOR researcher know which group participants in

Descriptive statistics

statistical procedures that organize and summarize data

Arithmetic mean

an average that is calculated by adding up a set of quantities and dividing the sum by the total number of quantities in the set

Standard Deviation

a commonly used measure of variability that indicates the average difference between scores in a distribution and their mean.

How clustered or spread out the scores are around the mean

Inferential Statistics

allow researchers to draw inferences about how statistically meaningful a study's results are.

Significance test

show how likely it is that a study's results occurred merely by chance

By convention, psychologists consider a result to be significant if it would be expected to occur by chance 5 or fewer times in 100 repetitions of the study (p< .05)

Cross-sectional

A study in which subjects of different ages (or any groups) are compared at a given time.

IQ at age 20, 40, 60, 80

Different groups compared at one time.

Longitudinal

A study in which subjects are followed and periodically reassessed over a period of time.

Test a person's IQ 4 times in their life

Same group compared at different times.

informed consent

a written agreement to participate in a study made by an adult who has been informed of all the risks

debriefing

a verbal description of the true nature and purpose of a study that psychologists provide to people after they have participated in the study

Neuron

cells in the nervous system that communicate with one another to perform information-processing tasks

cell body

coordinates information-processing tasks and keeps the cell alive

dendrites

receives information from other neurons and relays it to the cell body

axon

transmits information to other neurons, muscles, or glands

myelin sheath

insulating layer of fatty material

nodes of Ranvier

increase efficiency of signal transmission (myelin sheath)

synapse

the junction or region between the axon of one neuron and the dendrites or cell body of another

Sensory neurons

TO BRAIN

receive information from the external world travel through spinal cord convey to brain

Motor neurons

TO BODY

spinal cord to the muscles induce movement.