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what is the definition of psychology

the scientific study of mental activity and behavior

• mental activity as process through which we perceive the world and react to these perceptions

• behavior is an action resulting from these perceptions

What was psychology originally?

• strictly defined as science of behavior

• a part of philosophy

• nature vs nurture origin of behavior

• are the mind and body separate and distinct (mind=product of neurobiological processes)

What are the goals of psychology?

• describe, understand, predict, and control mental processes and behavior

What are subfields of psychology

biological, neurosci, cogsci, developmental, personality, social, clinical, industrial, organizational

What is the Barnum effect?

cognitive bias: occurs when people believe that vague or general statements apply to them

What is an empirical approach to research?

• method of studying through collection and systemic analysis of observable and experimental data

• concepts must be measured

What is a conceptual variable?

• the characteristics we want to measure

• concepts we are interested in, but cant exactly measure

• help form hypothesis

what is an operational definition?

• a statement of procedures the researcher is going to use in order to measure a specific variable

What is observational research? What is its goals?

• researchers systematically observe and record behavior of individuals or groups in their natural setting, no manipulation

• goal: snapshot of current state of affairs

• without establishing causation

What are the advantages of observational research?

• natural setting

• can show complete picture of what is occurring

• study unique situations and people don’t know they’re being studied

What are the disadvantages of observational research?

• no assessment of relationship between variables (no causation or correlation)

what is a falsifiable hypothesis?

• a hypothesis is tested to determine if an event or observation can be proven to be false based on scientific observation or investigation

• theory or hypothesis is falsifiable if it can be logically contradicted by an empirical test

What is correlational research? What is its goal?

• non experimental study that examines the relationship between 2 or more variables by measuring them simultaneously, without manipulating any of them, to determine if there is a statistical association between them, but cannot establish causation between the variables involved

What are the advantages of correlational research?

• testing of expected relationship between variable, making of predictions, can assess relationship in every day life

• demonstrates the existence of relationships

• allows prediction; used in lab, or natural setting

What are the disadvantages of correlational research?

• can’t draw inferences about casual relationship between 2 variables

• cause-and-effect relationship cannot be confirmed

• relationships may be coincidental

What are the hypothesis for correlational research?

• association

• prediction

What are common casual variables?

• variable that is not part of the research hypothesis but that causes both the predictor and the outcome variable and thus produces the observed correlation between them

• can be unknown

What is experimental research? What are the goals?

• scientific method when researcher manipulates one or more independent variables to observe the effect on another dependent variable

• goal: establish cause/effect relationship between them

• ^do this by randomly assigning participants to different conditions and controlling for extraneous factors

What are advantages of experimental research?

• can draw conclusions about casual relationships among variables

What are disadvantages of experimental research?

• can’t experimentally manipulate many important variables

• expensive

• time consuming

• in lab, socially variable can be manipulated

• some natural behavior not easily studied in lab

• can create artificial situations and be difficult to replicate

what is random assignment?

• procedure that ensures participants are placed in groups at random, giving each participant an equal chance of being an in any group

what is a factorial design?

• experimental research design where multiple independent variables (factors) are manipulated simultaneously

  • study interaction between variables

What is external validity?

• the extent to which the results of a study can be generalized and applied to situations, people, and contexts beyond the specific study itself

What is deception?

• when a researcher gives false information to subjects or intentionally misleads them about some key aspect of the research

• this could include feedback to subjects that involves creating false beliefs about oneself, one’s relationship, or manipulation of one’s self concept

what is informed consent?

• a process that ensures potential patients or research participants are fully informed about what to expect and are able to make an informed decision

What is critical thinking?

• systematically evaluating information

• using empirical evidence to reach reasonable conclusions

• scientific method: form of critical thinking based on crucial measurements and observations

• three steps when engaging in critical analysis

  • 1. “What am I being asked to believe or accept?”
    2. “What evidence is provided to support the claim?”
    3. “What are the most reasonable conclusions?”

Steps of scientific method?

1. develop theories from observations

2. derive hypothesis

3. collect data to test hypothesis

4. test hypothesis

5. based on results, revise, or communicate theory

6. formulate and test new hypothesis

What was the beginning of psychology as a science?

• experimental psychology started in 1879 Wilhelm Wundt → father of psychology

  • first psychology lab that identified basic parts of conscious mind

  • methods: reaction time experiments, introspection methods

What are the 7 schools of thoughts?

Structuralism, functionalism, behavioralism, gestalt, psychoanalytic, humanistic, cognitive, cognitive neurosci

What is structuralism?

• Edward Titchener, student of Wundt

• analyzes the mind by breaking it down into its simplest components and studying how they work together

  • conscious experience can be broken down into underlying blocks (building blocks) to understand ppl’s experience

• method: introspection → self reflection

• ½ earliest schools of thoughts

• goal: identify the basic parts, structures, of the conscious mind

What is functionalism?

• William James

• theory of mind that focuses on the role of mental states in helping people adapt to their environment

• function of mind/behavior, how conscious mind adapts to environment

• evolutionary theory, darwin

• mind is more complex than its elements, cannot be broken down

• ½ earliest schools of thoughts

• goal: describe how the conscious mind aids adaption to an environment

What is behavioralism?

• John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner

• focuses on how people learn and behave through their interactions with their environment

• all ideas are learned through conditioning, reward, reinforcement and punishment

• dominated in the 1960s

• goal: describe behavior in response too environmental stimuli

What is gestalt?

• Max Wertheimer and Wolfgang Kohler

• theory of perception that emphasizes the processing that seeks to understand how the human brain perceives experiences. it suggests that structures, perceived as a whole, have specific properties that are different from the sum of their individual parts

  • ex. when reading a text, a person perceives each word and sentence as a whole with meaning, rather than seeing individual letters, the greater meaning of the text depends on the arrangement of the letters into a specific configuration

• goal: study subjective perceptions as a unified whole

What is psychoanalysis?

• Sigmund Freud

• treat unconscious mental forces that conflicted w/ acceptable behavior/psychological disorders

• type of therapy that aims to treat mental issues by exploring the relationship between the conscious and unconscious mind

• goal: understand how unconscious thoughts cause psychological disorders

What is humanistic?

• Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers

• a psychological perspective that focuses on the person and their experience

• based on the idea that people are unique beings and should be treated as such

• it emphasizes the individual’s capacity to make choices, create their own style of life, actualize themselves

• how people grow and become to happier and more fulfilled and focus

• positive psychology

• goal: investigate how people become happier and more fulfilled; focus on the basic goodness of people

What is cognitive psychology?

• George Miller

• study of how people think, perceive, remember, learn, and make decisions

• explore internal mental processes that influence behavior

• cognitive neuroscience as an interdisciplinary field

• goal: explore internal mental processes that influence behavior

what is positive correlation?

• move in the same direction

• if i study more, i get good grades

what is negative correlation?

• opposite direction/relationship

• ex. as temp rises, the cost to heat a home generally goes down

What are the 4 regions of the brain? (CNS → brain and spinal cord)

• hindbrain, midbrain, forebrain, pre frontal lobe

Hindbrain

• controls survival, vital functions and coordinates movement

  • breathing, heart rate, hearing and balance, facial movement, swallowing, bladder control

• located at the lower back of the brain and is made up of the brain steam, cerebellum, and the upper part of the spinal cord

Medellua (hindbrain)

• survival functions

• breathing, heart rate

  • cardiovascular and respiratory systems

• sensory

• lowest part of the brain stem and connects to the spinal cord (just above the pons)

Pons (hindbrain)

• sleep, arousal, coordinates movement on L & R sides of the body

  • eye and face movements

  • hearing

  • balance

  • facial sensations

  • nuclei that relay signals from the forebrain to the cerebellum

• connects brain to the spinal cord and medulla

Cerebellum (little brain, hindbrain)

• bodily balance

• body movements, body accuracy

• timing, temporal predictions, attention, and learning

• back of the brain, between the cerebrum and the brain stem

Midbrain

• controls motor movement and reflexes, including eye and eyelid movement, and involved in processing visual and auditory signals

• connects forebrain and hindbrain, and relays sensory information to the brain

• substantia nigra

Substantia nigra (midbrain)

• initiation of voluntary motor activity, reward functions

  • sends signals to initiate or inhibit movements and rewards

• apart of the basal ganglia

• produce dopamine neurons → deaths of substantia nigra cells is connected to parkinsons disease

Forebrain

• largest part of the brain, and contains the entire cerebrum

• plays a central role in the processing of information related to complex cognitive activities, sensory and associative functions, and voluntary motor activities

• subcortical structures

  • thalamus

  • hypothalamus

  • amygdala

  • basal ganglia

  • cerebral cortex

  • corpus callosum

  • cerebral hemi 4 lobes: occipital, parietal, temporal, and frontal

Thalamus

• sensory info before that info reaches the cortex

• relay station: 30 nuclei that transmit specific kind of cognitive (sensory, motor, auditory, touch, etc) information to cortex

  • except smell

• sends motor signals from cerebral cortex to the spinal cord and PNS

Hypothalamus

• regulating bodily functions; influences our basic motivated behaviors

• motivated behaviors including eating, ex, arousal, and stress

  • During stress maintain body temp and sleep/wake cycle → circadian rhythm

  • Sits above pituitary gland: pea sized gland, influences glands to release hormones for growth, metabolism, and reproduction

•  (center for motivation): motivated behaviors including hunger, sex, and thirst 

Hippocampus

• memories, learning, spatial navigation, emotional processing

• Hippocampus is a brain region critical for the storage and retrieval of episodic memories 

• Hippocampus is involved in contextual fear and plays an important role in fear

• hold short term memories and transfer them to long-term storage in our brains, also plays a role in emotional processing including anxiety and avoidance behaviors

Amygdala - subcortical, frontal cortex

• recognizes signs of threats and emotional significance

  • fight, flight, stress

• Fear learning depends upon the amygdala

• role in our learning to associate things w/ emotional responses and in processing emotional info

• may cause symptoms of parkinson’s disease

Basal Ganglia

• motor planning and movement, reward

  • modify movements and automaticity

• collection of brain regions critical for voluntary movements 

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Cerebral cortex

• outer layer of the forebrain, divided into 2 halves (L&R)

  • fissures and sulci: longitudinal fissure (separates two hemispheres)

• sensory, motor, higher cognitive process

  • awareness, comm, memory, understanding, vision, lang, voluntary movements

  • receives info from the body about touch, pressure, temperature, and pain

• outermost layer of nerve cell tissue, gray matter

Corpus callosum

• bridge b/q hemisphere w/ millions of axons

• bundle of nerve fibers that connects the brains L&R

  • ensure both sides communicate and send signals

Occipital (cerebral cortex)

• vision processing

  • visuospatial processing, distance and depth perception, color determination, object and face recognition, and memory formation

• back region

Parietal (cerebral cortex)

• touch/spatial info → picturing the layout of spaces in our environment

• sensory perception and integration, management of taste, hearing, sight, touch, and smell

• somatic sensory cortex

• tactile

• middle top

Temporal (cerebral cortex)

• hearing

• perceiving objects/faces

• middle bottom

• managing emotions, processing information, storing and retrieving memories, and understanding language

Frontal lobe (cerebral cortex)

• movement, rational thought, attention, and social processes

• voluntary movement

• higher level executive functions

Prefrontal cortex (frontal lobe → cerebral cortex)

• responsible for understanding social norms

• allows us to exhibit self-control and avoid doing what is socially acceptable

• damage results in decreased ability to get along w/ others in many ways

• important for deciding which actions to perform, inhibiting inappropriate actions and directing purposeful movements like planned saccades (frontal eye fields) 

• behavior inhibition, working memory

• can control automatic functions and break the automatic rhythm (holding breath, chewing gum)

Electroencephalograph EEG

• Records electric signals using electrodes on scalp - cells communicate with electrical impulses (brain activity is shown in wave)

  • Action potentials

• electrodes on spinal cord, records the brain’s electrical activity. Synchronized EEG (sleepy)  desynchronized EEG (alert).

• non invasive

fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging)

• detects the blood oxygen level-dependent changes (bold)

  • small changes in blood flow that occur with brain activity

• can reveal what part of the brain is active during specific functions

• It may be used to examine which parts of the brain are handling critical functions, evaluate the effects of stroke or other disease, or to guide brain treatment.

• non invasive

Transcranial magnetic simulation

• uses a fast and powerful magnetic field to momentarily disrupt activity in a specific brain regions

• uses magnetic fields to treat a number of conditions including depression and PTSD

• noninvasive

George Herbert Mead (1863-1931)

• psychologists, philosopher, sociologist

• theory of the social self

  • how the idea of self is developed

• self arises from social experience

• self arises from language and interactions with others

bio psychology

• study how biological systems give rise to mental activity

cognitive psyc/neuro

• study attention, perception, memory, problem solving, and language, often based on brain processes

developmental psychology

• study how people change through life, from conception to old age and death

personality psych

• study enduring characteristics that people display over time and across circumstances

social psych

• study how people influence and are influenced by others in the context of society and its rules

clinical psych

• study the factors that cause psychological disorders and the best methods to treat them

industrial/organizational psychology

study issues pertaining to industry and the workplace

Psychological research being

• defining problems and proposing hypotheses. Next, researchers gather evidence, test hypotheses, and publish results

What are the 4 psychological levels of analysis

biological, individual, social, and cultural level

Define biological level of analysis

• how physiological aspects affect our thoughts and behavior

Define individual level of analysis

• how individual characteristics and mental processes affect individual perception and understanding

Define social level of analysis

• how group affect people’s interactions and people’s influence on each other

Define cultural level of analysis

• how people’s thoughts, feelings, and actions are similar or different across cultures

Women in psychology

• Margaret Washburn: phD in psych in 1894

• Mary Calkins: President of APA in 1905

• Christine Ladd-Franklin: Among 50 most important psychologists in the U.S. in 1908 with research on color vision

descriptive research

• provides a systematic and objective description of what is occurring

• goal: to describe behavior

• collection of information regarding thoughts, feelings or behavior

• no purposeful alteration of factors by research

• types of descriptive methods

  • cross-sectional study (one time) or longitudinal study (repetitive) collection of data

  • observational studies, self reports, and case studies

case studies

• intensive examination of the experiences/behavior of a very small set of individuals

• not conclusive

self reports

• questionarre: large sample with limited cost and time

• interviews: more detailed information and exploration

• issues with self-report bias

control is necessary to….

determine causality

random assignment

• every participant having an equal chance of being in either the experimental group or the control group

descriptive research pons

• given an almost complete picture of what is occurring at a give time

• much information gathered

• allows the refinement/development of questions for further study

descriptive research cons

• does not assess relationships among variables

• potential impact of the presence of the observer

• observations might be biased

• may be unethical if unaware of being observed

Ethical guidelines

• psychologists must carry out investigations with respect for the people who participate and with concern for their dignity and welfare

• Institutional review boards (IRB)

Brain and psychology

• brain is responsible for all our thinking

• brain allows all of our behavior

• the brain lets us feel all our emotions

• all psychological processes are the results of how our brain function

Nervous system

• a network of billions of cells in the brain and the body responsible for all aspects of what we feel, think, and do

  • 3 basic functions

    • receive sensory input from the world through vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell

    • process the information in the brain by paying attention to it, perceiving it, and remembering it

    • respond to the information by acting on it

• receives and integrates info and transmits signals. this is done through neurons, neurotransmitters, and synapses

Central Nervous System (CNS)

• brain and spinal cord

• processes info in the brain and the spinal cord

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

• enables nerves to connect the CNS to the muscles, organs, and glands

• spinal nerves and cranial nerves that communicate with brain from the periphery]

Neurons

• basic units of the nervous system

• form neural networks

• cells that receive, integrate, and transmit information in the nervous system

• operate through electrical impulses

• communicate with other neurons through chemical signals

Structure of neuron (how info passes)

• dendrite → cell body → axon → axon terminal → synapse

dendrite

branchlike extensions with receptors that detect information from other neurons

cell body (soma)

part where information from thousands of other neurons is collected and integrated

axon

long, narrow outgrowth of a neuron that enables it to transmit information to other neurons

Synapse

• site of communication b/w neurons

three phases of communication

• neuron pass signals to receiving neurons

• neurons receive signals from neighboring neurons

• neurons assess the incoming signals

action potential

• electrical impulse that travels along the axon and causes the release of neurotransmitters into the synapse

  • sodium and potassium ions enter/leave the neuron

  • neurons either fire and ap or not

• sweep across axons (dominoes) each entry of Na+ along the axon causes depolarization to open the next Na+ channel

A neuron’s resting state is…

when the electrical charge inside the neuron is slightly more negative than the electrical charge outside

• resting potential: -70, means that inside is 70mV more negative compared to outside of neuron 

Neurons do not touch one another they….

communicate chemically at the synapse

Neurotransmitters

chemical substances that carry signals from one neuron to another

Receptors

• specialized sites that specifically respond to certain types of neurotransmitters