UBC Psyc 101 Midterm 1

Psychology

The scientific study of the mind (private events) and behaviour (public behaviours)

Philosophical dualism

The idea that the mind and body is separate, and the mind is an immaterial thing, originating from René Descartes, philosophical roots

Philosophical materialism

The view that all mental phenomena is reductible to physical phenomena, that the mind is just a process of the brain, devised by Thomas Hobbes, philosophical roots

Philosophical realism

The belief that what we view is just what was given by our five senses, devised by John Locke, philosophical roots

Philosophical idealism

The idea that our brain makes an interpretation based on what we see, devised by Immanuel Kant, philosophical roots

Philosophical empiricism

The idea that knowledge is only acquired by experience. Came from John Locke, who believed in blank slate or “tabula rosa”, philosophical roots

Philosophical nativism

The idea that some things are innate, also introduced by Kant, introduced nature vs nurture, philosophical roots

Reaction time

The time between a stimulus and a reaction, devised by Heimholtz

Structuralism

The idea that the mind is made of basic elements and there are combinations that make consciousness come true, devised by Wundt. His student Titchener made up scales for people to report their experiences to find the building blocks, late 2000s

Introspection

Analysis of subjective experience by a person examining themselves

Functionalism

The idea that there is a function for everything that a human does, inspired by Darwin’s idea on natural selection, and certain psychological traits were also picked. This came from William James, late 2000s

Hysteria

When there were people with defects that did not come from physical origins

Unconscious

Where we are unaware of what is happening and surpresses memories, proposed by Sigmund Freud

Psychoanalytic theory

The theory that the unconscious and childhood can influence our behaviours and personalities, proposed by Sigmund Freud, early 1900s

Psychoanalysis

A talk therapy used to find out what the unconscious thoughts and feelings do to a person, influences current behaviour

Behaviourism

An approach of psychology where the human behaviour is studied, came from Watson, early 1900s

Principle of reinforcement

Any behaviour that shows rewards will be done repeatedly, no rewards won’t be done again. came by skinner, early 1900s

Gestalt psychology

The idea that the whole is more important than its parts, the mind organizes stimuli, came from Max Wertheimer, early 1900s

Frederic Bartlett

Argues that the mind creates theories for memory from past experiences, early 1900s

Developmental psychology

Studies how the psychological phenomena changes as we grow up, devised by Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, early 1900s

Social psychology

Study of causes and consequences of sociality; how people think about the stimuli rather than being affected by it immediately, came from Kurt Lewin. Ex. primacy effect by Soloman Asch where early words creates a theory, early 1900s

Chomsky

Showed that the behaviourists ideas can’t work after thinking about grammar, late 1900s

Cognitive psychology

The study of human information-processing, late 1900s

John Garcia

Realized rats only reacted to specific stimuli abd not others, late 1900s

Evolutionary psychology

Study how the human mind has been shaped bynatural selection, after Wilson wrote a book, late 1900s

fMRI

Shows brain scans on where blood is flowing to for someone’s brain, early 2000s

Cognitive neuroscience

Shows how mind and brain is related in humans, early 2000s

Behavioural neuroscience

Study between brain and behaviour, early 2000s

Wilder Penfield

Discovered different parts of the brain has different functions, early 2000s

Donald Olding Hebb

Studies brain removals and has a theroy on neural basis of learning, early 2000s

Brenda Milner

Discovers brain basis of long-term memory, discovered how the hippocamus leads to memory, early 2000s

Cultural psychology

How the culture shapes psychology, early 2000s

Psychology is a science

Uses empirical tools and is evidence-based. Uses objective measures for truth and knowledge

3 Points of Scientific Attitude

1. Curiosity

2. Skepticism

3. Humility

Science

Not a dogma, a way to collect information

Aristotle

Interested in the body and the spirit. Thought about the word really hard and made conclusions that were not really right. 

Believes humans are simply a bunch of gears churning away

Descartes, troubling for

1. discourages the notion of the soul

2. Many people were prosecuted with these scientific beliefs

Double Aspect Theory

Postulated by Spinoza, said that the mind is just a different language for the body. Mental world is represented in the physical world.

Difference between sensation and perception

Perception is the organization and interpretation of sensation

Weber

Not attributed for the birth of psychology but more so quantitative approach for psychology. Studying relationship between outside and mental World.

Darwin

Along with Wallus inspired evolution and natural selection, some traits make it more likely for us to survive.

Freud

Invented psychoanalysis, tore why functionalism and structuralism had failed (due to the unconscious)

Watson and Raynor

Started the Little Albert Experiment amidst behaviourism, conditioned Little Albert to cry over large sounds

Skinner

Believed in mind as a blank slate. Influenced parenting during behaviourism and principle of reinforcement

Behavioural terminist

Idea that our actions are completely based on the product of our environment

Humanism

After behaviourism, revived the interst in mental processes and on ways the current environment nurture or limit growth potential and the importance of love and acceptance, not researched based. Led by Carl Rogers and Abraham Muslow. Help people reach their best potential.

Cognitive Psychology

Emerged when Tallman put rats in maze with no rewards yet they still learned it, and that life is more than rewards. Infers the mental processes using behaviourism

Cognitive neuroscience

Inferring mental processes whilst studying the brain

Mental processes

Too subjective to be measured upon as it is internally experienced, only a certain group of participants is measured upon

WEIRD

Acronym for the participants chosen to infer their mental processes. Includes Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic Countries. Need to consider different cultures and genders.

Evolutionary psychology

Rigorous perspective on functionalism thanks to behaviourism and cognitive psychology. How humans are alike due to biology and genetics.

Positive psychology

Humans become philosophers in humanism. Came from Martin Seligman. How we live a good life.

Nature and nurture

Historically framed as vs. we are usually seen as a product of our many experiences.

Nature

Believed by Plato, Descartes, and Darwin

Nurture

Believed by Aristotle and Locke

Bio-social model behaviour

Essentially need to examine psychology from different lenses

1. biological

2. psychological

3. social-cultural

Peer-review journal process

Essentially a process that research goes through afterwards. Includes editor deciding if level of expertise is good, send to other people with similar credentials, and re-write.

How can we acquire information about the world?

1. Authority

2. Intuition

3. Observe

4. Test

Authority

A way to understand the world. The weakest form of knowledge as it is solely based on trust.

Difficulties with authority

Someone could be acting like they know what they are talking about, and some credentials can be easily gotten by simply applying online, overextending authority, differentiate from BS

Overextending authority

Sometimes people with credentials don’t know everything

Intuition

A way to gain information about the world. Oftentimes a starting point for science, drew from own experiences and wisdom

Problems with intuition

1. See a relationship when it doesn’t exist, data might not represent anything

2. Sense a relationship but it doesn’t tell us anything about the relationship

3. Eugenics - natural selection, some traits are selected

4. Dunning-Kruger effect, confidence graph

5. Confirmation bias

6. Hindsight bias

7. Ability to do a thing is not the same as knowing a thing

8. Making sense of information despite them being contradictory

Third variable problem

When measuring two variables but discounting that there could be another variable that is invevitably changing the experiment

Observation

A way to know more about the world. Relies on empiricism, which is good for science. Works best with objective measures and ideas with more than simply observing. 

Pre-fontal lobotomy

A technique that was performed due to the fault of observation.

Scientific Skepticism

Question authority and have doubts, but be careful of extreme skepticism

Scientific method

Idea, research, hypothesis, study, data, analyze, repeat if necessary, consider implication, drive more science

Universalism

Use objective measures to observe the world, observations are systematic, use universally agreed upon the same measurement tools

Communality

Your methods and results should be available to everyone so people can repeat the study, don’t gatekeep discoveries

Disinterestness

Not caring for the results of the experiment, but simply the truth so that it is not biased

Organized skepticism

Evaluate science based on the quality of the research, not on authority

Theory

Describes or organizes a bunch of scientific information together in a systematic order, is falsifiable, can lead to new information

if there is a simpler explanation, the simpler one is usually correct

Pseudoscience

something that looks scientific but isn’t scientific at all

• no scientific method

• fake expertise

• not falsiafiable claims

• not a lot of evidence

• no peer review

• disregards contrasting evidence

• vague claims

• lead to societal norms

• no further research

Goals of psychological research

1. Describe behaviour

2. predict future behaviour

3. think about mechanism underlying behaviour

4. change or control someone’s behaviour

5. lead to governing structure change

6. think about the world to make life better

Types of research

Foundational research and applied research

Foundational research

Basic research that looks unimportant

Applied research

Research that creates something to help us

Variable

Something that has varying amounts

Conceptual variable

Psychological construct like love, key thing is to observe behaviour and turn it into a measured variable

Operational variable

turn conceptual variable to measured variable, standing in and representing conceptual variable

Four categories of variables

Independent, dependent, situational, participant

No true assignment

Sometimes you can’t truly have a random variable with random assignment

Positive correlation

Positive slope

Negative correlation

Negative slope

No correlation

No difference in slope, flate line

Non linear correlation

Has a curve

True experiments

Graphs are scatterplots, and correlation range from -0.3 to 0.3 due to noise

Perfectly designed experiment

Has the following:

1. Independent variable

2. Causality of temporal precedence,

3. No more plausible alternative explanations

4. Confounding variables

Temporal precedence

Cause has to happen before the effect

No more plausible alternative explanation

The includes null hypothesis and other competing ideas that need to be eliminated systematically

Confounding variable

Uncontrollable variable that moves along the independent variable

Single blind procedure

Participants don’t know what they are being tested for

Double blind behaviour

Researchers and participants both don’t know what they are being tested for, as this can lead to confirmation bias and acting so that the participants guess what they want

Open label study

Everyone knows they are being tested for due toethical reasons

Animals models for research

Only choose this if no other alternatives are availablem, data is similar to humans, ethical considerations must always be made

Ethical considerations in human research

Includes informed consent, ethical approval, someone participating despite being a researcher, not emotionally stressful, debrief at the end

Between subject design

Participants only test for one experimental condition and researchers test for results, ex: just coke

Within variable design

Participants receive all the different experimental conditions, ex: both coke and pepsi

Correlation

Use r² the overlap of variance. If r²=0.09, then 9% of what is happening is related to other variables