PSYC 100

mind

all subjective experiences, sensations, perceptions, memories, thoughts, motives, emotions

includes cognitive structures and processes shaping experience and behavior

behavior

observable actions of people or non-humans

social cognition

thinking about yourself or others in relation to others

folk psycology

everyday “common sense”, based on experience and intuition

limitations of personal experience and intuition

1. experience has no control group

2. you can’t generalize from one case

3. illusion of attention notice much less of the world than we think we do

4. our prior expectations shape which events we notice, how we construct them, and how we remember them

5. not impartial in the way we seek and interpret information

6. often unaware of the powerful influences on our behavior

inattentional blindness

failure to perceive event outside focus of ones attention

construal

way people perceive, comprehend, and interpret their world especially acts of others towards them

often automatic and non-conscious

confirmation bias

tendency to seek out, pay attention to and believe evidence that supports what we already confident we know

deterrent theory

threat of punishment can deter people from committing crimes

belief perseverance

people interpret evidence to maintain beliefs and scrutinize contrasting evidence while only accepting confirming evidence

psychology (scientific study)

systematically test hypotheses about human kind and behavior against objective data

theory

integrated set of related principles that explains and generates predictions ab some phenomenon in the wild

hypothesis

testable prediction about what will happen under specific circumstances if theory is true

data

set of observations gathered to evaluate hypothesis

replication study (direct vs conceptual)

repetition of a study with a new group of participants

direct: replications attempt to recreate original experiment exactly

conceptual: replication try to recapture original finding using diff methods or measures

open science movement

initiative movment to make scientific research, data, methods, more accessible and trasparent to increase research reproductivity

meta analysis

combination of results from multiple studies

peer review

critical evaluation of studies quality by trained psych scientists

variable

anything that can take on diff values

manipulated variable

variable intentionally changed by the researcher

measured variable

variable whose values are simply recorded

operational definition/operationalizing a variable

specific description of how a variable will be measured or manipulated in a study

social desirability bias

tendency to answer questions to be viewed favorably by others

can be faking good

or can be self-deceptive enhancement: honestly held but unrealistic self views

self report advantages

• allows us to get inside peoples heads

• easy and relatively inexpensive

limitations to self reporting

• social desrability bias

• self deceptive enhancement

• In some cases, may be difficult to identify and verbalize experience (e.g., how we feel)

• Not always aware of why we do the things we do

• Often relies on retrospective report-memories may be inaccurate or coloured (biased) by current experience

- Can be mitigated by using methods where participants are asked to report their experience soon after it happens (e.g., immediately after, at the end of each day)

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advantages to behavior observation

• more objective then self report

• observes real world behavior

• possible to capture behaviors in their natural context

limitations to behavior observations

• more time and resource intensive

• reactivity: change in behavior bc participant knows their being watched

• can use unobtrusive/recording methods but this can cause ethical issues

indirect measures (pros and cons)

• designed to avoid reactivity and social desirability

• reaction time: time it takes to respond to a stimulus on screen and can be used to assess implicit attitudes (automatic tendancy to associate a given stimulus with positive or negative feelings

• pros: avoid reactity and social desirability

• cons: big gap between construct of interest and operationalization (can we be sure that we are studying what we think we are studying)

physiological responses

body’s reaction to various experiences/stimuli

• autonomic nervous system activity (heat rate, blood pressure etc)

• hormone changes (cortisol, sex hormones etc)

• immune system changes

• brain activity

psychological response measurements pros and cons

pros: interesting in their own right and outside of participants control (so not susceptible to social desirability bias etc)

cons: very expensive meaning smaller sample size, ambiguity in interpretation, could be more invasive depending on the measure

population of intrest

full set of cases the researcher is interested in

sample

group who participated in research and who belong to larger group (population of interest) that the researcher is interested in understanding

random sample

every person in the pop of interest has equal chance of being selected

case study

researchers study one or two individuals in depth often those w a unique condition

correlational research

type of study that measures two or more variables in the same sample of people and then observes relationship between them

ex. relationship between social media use and well being

correlation coefficient (r)

• ranges from -1 to 1

• closer to -1 or 1 stronger correlation, closer to 0 weaker

whats needed to establish causality

1. two values must be correlated

2. one variable must precede the other

3. must be no reasonable alternative explanation for correlation

experimental research

A study in which one variable is manipulated, and the other is measured (while all other variables are kept constant)

independent variable

manipulated variable in an experiment

dependent variable

measured variable in an experiment

random assignment

participants likely to be assigned one condition as to another

moderator vs mediator variable

moderator variable: effect of IV on DV is conditional on value of the moderator (ex. social media only detrimental for younger individuals so age=moderator)

mediator variable: IV exerts its effect on DV through some other variable (ex. social media use increases upward social comparisons which leads to depression so upward social comparison=mediator)

measurement validity

are you measuring what you think you’re measuring?

reliability

do you get the same results every time you administer the measure

internal validity

can we rule out alternative explanations in an experiment (threatened by presence of confounds)

confound

alternative explanation for a relationship between two variables

occurs when two experimental groups accidentally differ on more than just the independent variable

placebo effect

some may experience improvement after recieving inert substances or inactive treatments

double blind experiment

neither the experimenters nor participants know who is in experimental and whos in control group

reduces bias

observer expectancy effect

• expectations of an observer can influence subject being observed

• experimenter may lead the participants to confirm their expectations (confirmation bias)

• subtle cues (demand characteristics) from the experimenter may give participant sense of what is expected of them - which can cause them to conform to experimenters expectations

differential attrition

participants drop out from experimental and control groups at diff rates

external validity

1. can our results be generalized to other samples? (such threats to external validity are often tolerated in research claims are properly stated

2. can our results be generalized to other situations

difficult to establish high external and internal validity in the same study

statistic

numerical value derived from data set that can help us describe the data or evaluate our research hypothesis

descriptive statistics

summarize sets of data (ex. mean median mode sd etc)

effect size

• values describing the strength of an association or magnitude of the effect (ex. r coefficent)

• r coefficient: strength of association between two variables

• cohens d: diff between (ex. experimental and control) expressed in terms of standard deviation, not just by absolute diff between groups but also spread

inferential statistics

help us asses whether there is sufficient ev to support claim or hypothesis

allow us to make inferences ab the population from our sample using rules of probability

ex. hypothesis testing

null hypothesis

if there is no effect of IV on DV

p-values

• tells us the probability of getting a result as extreme as the one we observed if there rly was no diff between two groups/ no relationship between two variables

• takes on value between 0 and 1

• if p value < .05 we reject the null (could be correlation)

• if p value > .05 we don’t reject the null (no correlation)

institutional review board (IRB)

panel tasked with evaluating whether research study meets ethical standards of:

• autonomy: informed consent, decide if they want to be in study

• beneficence: obligation to promote well being and minimize harm, benefits of the study must outweigh the risks of harm

• justice: fairness in distribution of benefits and burdens of research, representative of the pop who will benefit from research, no groups unfairly exploited or excluded

behavioral genetics

establishing the degree of heritability for a given trait

study strength of genetic influences on a behavior/trait

evolutionary psycology

examining why certain genetically-encoded behaviors and traits emerged

candidate gene studies

compare individuals w the candidate gene with the individuals without on a given trait or disorder

gene knockout

remove or deactivate gene

gene knockdown

make gene less active

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS)

instead of looking at single gene or small set, scan entire genome and look for associations with a particular phenotype

limitations: run risk of false pos, biological relevance often not clear, still correlational

diathesis-stress model

some individual have a predisposition (diathesis) that makes them more vulnerable to negative envr influences

differential susceptibility model

some individuals are more sensative to both negative and positive envr influences

epigenetic change

• type of change to structure of DNA that affects gene expression w out altering underlying DNA sequence

• factors that affect whether gene is read or not

• reversible but can have log-lasting effects

methylation

process by which a methyl group attaches too some of the parts in DNA, generally shuts off gene

heritability

how much variation in phenotype across people can be attributed in variation in genotype

functionalist approach

explains behvaioral, mental, emotional, physiological processes by their utility

distal explanations

what role did behavior paly in survival and reproduction over evolutionary time

proximate explanations

immediate triggers of the behavior

sensory neurons

carry messages from the sensory organs (ex. eyes tongue skin) to spinal cord and brain

motor neurons

carry messages from the brain and spinal cord to muscles and glands

interneurons

within the brain and spinal cord collect integrate and retrieve messages from various sources

dendrites

receives chemical messages from other neurons

cell body/soma

collects neural impulses

contains the nucleus

sustains cell functions

axon

transports electrical impulses to other neurons via the terminal branches

axon/terminals/terminal branches

convert electrical signals into chemical messages for other neurons

myelin sheath

fatty layer that insulates the axons and speeds up transmission of electrical signals

Glia

nervous system cells performing in a variety of critical support functions:

• provide structural support and scaffolding for neurons

• clean up debris

• form blood-brain barrier

• facilitating neurons between neurons and pruning unneeded connections

• nutrient supply

• insulation (myelin sheath)

action potential

neurons fire electrical impulses to communicate with each other

generated at the junction between the axon and cell body then down the length of axon to its terminal where they signal release of chemical messages to next cells

cell membrane

• thin fatty “skin” enclosing the neuron

• separation between the intracellular fluid inside the neuron and extracellular fluid outside the neuron

• intra and extra cellular fluid contains various electrically charged particles (ions) sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium

• cell membrane selectively permeable allowing for passage of certain ions and not other

restring potential

• electrical charge across the membrane (~70 millivolts)

• neuron cant fire action potential in this state

• at rest more neg-charged particles inside cell relative to outside

depolarization

when electrical charge across membrane begins to reverse

ion channels opening the cell membrane at end of axon

channels allow positively charged sodium ions to enter

voltage threshold

critical level which a neurons membrane potential much be depolarize to initiate action potential (~55 mV)

repolarization

as depolarization occurs channels that were letting sodium pass through close but potassium channels remain open and flow out of the cell

refractory period

temporary dip below resting potential, hard to get neuron to fire again during this period

synaptic cleft

gap separating neurons, neurotransmitters act as chemical messengers from pre to postsynaptic neuron

receptor

channel in membrane of a neuron that binds neurotransmitters

diffusion

neurotransmitters drift out of synapse

degradation

neurotransmitters are broken down in the synapse

reuptake

neurotransmitters are reabsorbed into the presynaptic terminal branches

excitation

receiving neuron slightly depolarized, moves it closer towards voltage threshold and increases likelihood of initiation of action potential

inhibition

receiving neuron slightly hyper polarized, moves it further from threshold and reduces likelihood of action potential

ex. coordination between muscle contractions (excitatory inputs) and muscle relaxation (inhibitory inputs) required for coordination

gaba

• most common inhibitory neurotransmitter

• down regulation of stress anxiety fear

• many sedative drugs act by targeting gaba receptors

• alcohol also promotes activity at gaba receptors

acetylcholine

• can trigger both excitatory and inhibitory signals

• commonly found in neuromuscular junction

• drugs that interfere with ACh used as bioweapon resulting in paralysis and death

• also plays key role in autonomic nervous system which carries commands from brain to glands and organs, regulates cardiac activity

• brain circuits involved in learning and memory (low levels associated w dementia of alzhemier’s)

norepinephrine

• important for fight or flight response

• contributes to arousal and vigilance

• in excess can contribute to high blood pressure and anxiety

serotonin

contributes to regulation of sleep appetite mood and aggression

thought to play in depression tho still debated

dopamine

involved in movement planning and aspects of reward

most addictive drugs stimulate increased activity in dopaminergic circuits

excess levels associated with schizophrenia, low levels with parkinson’s disease