Psychology University of Minnesota Exam One (1-4)

Psychology

study of the brain, mind, and behavior.

Naive Realism

The idea that humans trust our intuitive perceptions and is the main reason we need scientific safeguards.

Metaphysical Claims

Claims that cannot be tested because they do not physically exist. This includes God, soul, etc

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to seek evidence that supports our beliefs and dismiss evidence against it

Belief Perserverance

The idea that people will reluctantly give up their beliefs even if they are proven wrong.

Pseudoscience

This is any type of science that lacks safeguards against biases. Patternity is a reason why people are drawn to pseudosceince

Patternity

Human minds want to make sense of the disorganized and we try to find patterns within things that have no patterns. We do this because evolution says its better to assume two things are related than to assume they are not. Humans also underestimate the probability for coincedinces and consequitive sequence events.

Ad Hoc Immunizing Hypothesis

people will leave an escape hatch for their hypothesis- this makes it harder to test and disprove.

Signs of pseudoscience

- No peer review

- Use of psychobable

- No connection to other research

- Anecdotal evidence is used a lot

- Exaggerated claims

- Lack of self correction

Harm caused by pseudoscience

1. Direct Harm- causes physical damage

2. Oppurtunity Cost- takes an oppurtunity for treatment or causes indirect harm

3. Inability to think scientifically

Scientific Skepticism

Scientists should consider all claims seriously but should insist on evidence before excepting them. This involves critical thinking which allows us to investigate these claims.

Logical Fallacies

Bandwagon- the idea that if a lot of people believe in it than it must be true

Not me-

Appeal to authority- accepting a claim because someone in power has said it's true.

Genetic- confusing correctness of beliefs with its origin

Antiquity- because its old it must be true

Appeal to ignorance- the idea that it must be true because it's not false

Circular reasoning- basing a claim on a different claim that is slightly reworded

Adverse consequences- do not or wrongly consider real world consequences of an idea

Either/or- forming a question with only 2 answers

Generalization- drawing conclusions with insufficient evidence

Naturalistic- infecting moral judgement from scientific fact

6 rules of scientific skepticism

1. Ruling out rival hypothesis

2. Correlation vs causation

3. Faslsifiability

4. Occams Razor

5. Extraordinary claims

6. Replicability

6 Theoretical frameworks of psychology and their creators

1. Psychoanalysis. Father: Sigmund Freud

2. Structuralism Father: Edward Bradford Titchener, Wilhelm wundt

3. Functionalism Father: William James

4. Behavorism Father: BF Skinner

5. Cognitivism Father:Jean Piget

Structuralism

tries to identify the basic elements of the psychological experience such as memory, images (anything conscious). This type of study stresses systematic observation which is introspection. Weak points of this include: Disagreements on subjective reports- there are not a set of objective basic thoughts and

Important parts of psychology rely on unconscious parts of the mind and affect humans.

Functionalism

how do psychological traits relate to evolution and the reproductive fitness of organisms. This became popular at the same time as Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection became popular.

Behavorism

focuses on uncovering the basic principles of human and animal behavior. This is very scientific and objective psychology and played a huge part in making psychology more scientific. It failed to include study of the brain and body in relation to behavior.

Cognitivism

The idea that individual thinking affects our behavior. This means analyzing someone's perspective or interpretation of different concepts influence how we behave concerning those things. This means we learn by grasping underlying problems through insight. This type of psychology has also helped to establish strong links between brain function and the basis of thinking.

Psychoanalysis

focus on the internal thoughts and processes of which we are unaware. This says that the main drives for behavior are unconscious needs within ourselves (such as sexuality). This relies heavily on examining early childhood experiences and says that symbols in everyday life represent other things.

Clinical psychologists

asses, diagnosis, and treats patients with mental health disorders. They can also conduct research and usually work in hospitals, mental clinics, etc.

Counseling Psychologists

work with people who are having temporary difficulties or self-contained problems in their lives. Most of these people work at hospitals or private practices.

School Psychologists

works with students who are facing behavior, learning, or emotional difficulties.

Developmental Psychologists

study how age groups change over time and this is mostly research.

Experimental Psychologists

use research methods to study human behaviors (memory, language, etc).

Behavioral Psychologists

examine physiological basis of behavior and is mostly research.

Forensic Psychologists

work in jails, prisons, etc to diagnose and use rehabilitation treatment.

Industrial organization Psychologist

work in companies to assess employee happiness, worker productivity, and evaluate employee performance.

Basic Research

evaluating how the mind works

Applied Research

examine how we use basic research to solve complex real-world problems

Free Will/Determinism Debate

re our behaviors freely selected or caused by factors beyond our control?

Determinism- environmental influences determine our actions. Actions are triggered unconsciously.

Free Will- everyone must make their own choices.

Nature vs Nuture Debate

are our behaviors due to our genes or the environment that we were raised in?

These ideas/causes of behavior intersect in complex ways

Evolutionary psychology applies the theory of natural selection to behaviors- some behaviors increase the reproductive fitness of organisms better than others. This is hard to falsify because we can never know behaviors of the past.

How did psychology begin?

The first psychology lab opened in 1879 in Germany. They asked basic questions about the human experience and used introspection which is reflectimng on obersvations and reporting them.

What are five challenges to studying psychology?

Actions are multiply determined

Individual differences

Psychological influences are rarely independent

Reciprocal determinism

Behavior is shaped by culture

System one thinking

this is also called snap judgement thinking or intuitive thinking. This is a quick, reflexive mode of thinking and comes from a gut hunch. Our brains are on autopilot and this helps us make quick decisions. This occurs such as when we judge someone based on a first impression.

System two thinking

this is called analytical thinking- this is slow, reflective, and requires mental effort. We use this when we are solving a problem or studying. We can sometimes override system 1 thinking with this type- such as when we assume something about someone but after thinking about it we realize we are wrong. We use this type of system in psychology so that we can critically think about everything.

Heuristic

a mental rule of thumb- simple, rules that we use that are successfull for achieving most short term goals.(Ex. Germans are more likely to correctly guess the biggest city between two american cities because they have heard of only one of them- gut intuition). Intuitive thinking relies on heuristics and this can oftentimes be wrong (Ex. how does one get from reno, Nevada to san diego california).

Types of research designs

Case study

naturalistic obersvation

experimental design

correlation design

self-reported measure

Case Study

this is when researchers examine a person or a group of people for a long period of time (these include things such as repeated interviews, observing behaviors, questionnaires, etc). These studies provide existence proofs- which are examples that a psychological phenomenon can occur (Ex. all we need is one zebra without stripes to say that not all zebras have stripes). But, this can provide interesting perspectives on rare phenomenons that are hard to recreate in a laboratory. Case studies can also help generate hypotheses that can be tested. But, case studies oftentimes only have anecdotal evidence which is not enough to prove something works- these studies are useful for making hypothesis but not for testing them.

Naturalistic Observation

allows scientists to observe participants in real settings without trying to manipulate their reactions. We can better understand situations in which behaviors occur and the range of behaviors that occur- this is usually done for animals or humans. Ex. is studying laughter and the situations/statements/people who are laughing most frequently. This scientific method is high in external validity because it is often easily applicable to the real word. But in this type of experiment we cannot manipulate variables and we do not know what causes what. Naturalistic observations will not work if people know they are being observed as it can affect their behaviors.

Correlation Design

this allows us to predict behavior but does not allow us to infer causation. Measures the extent to which two variables are associated and make predictions from that information. Variables are anything that can be different between individuals and correlate is any variables that have some sort of relationships.

Experimental Design

allow us to infer causation and is high in internal validity, but can be low in external validity.

Self reported measure

to find more about opinions and personality people can take surveys/other self reported measurements. The key to self-report is the random selection of participants- this is the only way that the broader population can be fully represented. It is better to have random sample than a big sample. Non-random selection can lead to wildly misleading results- for example if not everyone responds to a survey than the people who do respond could not be representative of the entire population.

Reliability

relates to the consistency of the measurements (would we get the same results if we did it again? This is called test-retest reliability).

Validity

is the measure of how much our test measures our results ( Ex. is our test really measuring depression or is it measuring anxiety?)

What do we need to ask ourselves when evaluating results of a dependent variable

Are the results valid and reliable.

We need things to be reliable before we can see if they are valid. But reliability does not mean that something has valid results.

Halo Effect

Malingering

The opposite of response sets is to make yourself appear emotionally disturbed in order to achieve a personal goal.

Response Sets

Others will not answer the survey truthfully and they instead engage in response sets which is the way that people turn their answers into questions that paint them in a positive light. Psychologists can find these people through asking questions that people do not normally respond positively to (such as I never get upset with other people).

Rating data

when people around us rate our abilities/behavior and it is found to be correct more often than self-reporting. But, this reporting can oftentimes be skewed- the halo effect is the idea that if one trait is desirable about a person than other traits about that person may appear more desirable (physically attractive=smarter+funnier, etc). (Horns effect also occurs when you associate all bad things with someone you dislike).

Types of correlation

Positive- if a variable goes in one direction so does the other variable (up and up or down and down)

Negative- if one goes up the other goes down

Zero- variables are not related

illusory correlation

when we see a correlation between two variables that does not exist (such as that eating chicken before a baseball game helps you do better). We do this because these correlations are most memorable to us- seeing a black cat before something bad happens is more dramatic in our heads than when we see one and something bad does not happen- that is called a nonevent.This leads to superstitions. Correlational design helps us control illusory correlation (when we expect two things to go together) and fights our intuition.

operational definition

confounding variable

any variable that differs between two test groups besides the independent variable and can affect the results.

Placebo effect

the improvement from just the mere expectation of improvement. Oftentimes people in the control group receive a placebo or a false treatment in order to account for how much people will randomly improve when they are given treatment.

Blind Experiment

naware that they are receiving a placebo.

Double-Blind Experiment

neither the researchers nor the participants know who is receiving what treatment and this fights confirmation bias.

John Henry Effect

people will realize their treatment is fake and try to outperform those who are taking the real variable in order to one-up the researchers.

experimenter expectancy effect or Rosenthal effect

when researchers hypotheses unintentionally lead them to influence the results of the study. This led to the development of a double-blind study in which neither the researchers nor the participants know who is receiving what treatment and this fights confirmation bias.

Psychological Debriefings

informs the subjects of the deception after the study in order to reduce their psychological distress or help them learn from the experience.

IRB

Institutional review boards that insist on something called informed consent which is that researchers must tell the subjects about what they will experience during the study and answer any questions. Certain levels of deception may be necessary in order to test the variable researchers want to measure accurately (eliminates demand characteristics). When considering whether to engage in deception two things must be considered: does the study require deception and do the costs outway the benefits? These boards are in place to protect subjects.

Descriptive statistics

this describes the data and there are many different types of this statistic

Central tendency

tells us where the main data points tend to cluster or center around. We can measure these as either the mean, mode, or median.

practical significance

account which evaluates if something makes any difference in the real world.

inferential statistics

tell us how much we can generalize our results in the normal population. We need to conduct statistical significance tests in order to see if our results are meaningful to the entire population.

Neurons

nerve cells specialized in communicating with each other. There are many of them that make connections with each other- around 160 trillion per person.

Parts of a neuron

Dendrites, soma, myelin sheath, axon, axon terminal, synapse.

Soma

the cell body

Dendrite

Synapse

This is a tiny fluid-filled space between the neurons. The synapse is made up of the synaptic cleft which is where the neurotransmitters are released from the axon terminal. The gap of the synapse is surrounded by the membranes of the axon of the first terminal and the dendrites of the next neurons.

Glial cells

They are a protective structure held for the neurons by the synapses. Two types of cells include astrocytes and oligodendrocytes.

Astrocytes

astrocytes which are shaped like stars and interact with neurons. Their main functions include communicating with neurons, increase accuracy of signal transmission, control blood flow of the brain, and help with the development of the embryo. They are also thought to be involved with memory, thought, and the immune system.

oligodendrocyte

helps form new neural pathways and releases chemicals to help with healing. This is the type of cell that makes up the myelin sheath which is the insulating wrapper around axons of the neurons. The sheath contains nodes all the way down the axon which help it to conduct the electric signals more efficiently (electric signals jump from node to node).

blood-brain barrier

protective shield that insulates the brain from bacteria, poison, and other intruders. Tiny blood vessels in this barrier layer are wrapped with fatty coating which blocks highly charged molecules, large molecules, and molecules from dissolving, but it allows fat to dissolve and is made up of astrocytes.

Resting Potential

When there are no neurotransmitters acting on a neuron

action potential

When the electrical charge on the inside of the neuron reaches a high level similar to the outside called the threshold it triggers an electrical signal called the action potential.

Electrodes

measure the potential difference between the inside and the outside of the neuron. The basis of all electrical responses depends on the uneven distribution of charged particles across the membrane surrounding the neuron.

absolute refractory period

Neurons only fire occasionally but they can fire up to 100-1000 times per second. Each action potential in a neuron is followed by an absolute refractory period which is a brief interval during which another action potential cannot occur.

receptor sites.

After neurotransmitters are released by synaptic vesicles they attach to the dendrites of another neuron at their receptor sites. Different neurotransmitters can only bond to one receptor kind of like a lock and key.

reuptake

when synaptic vesicles reabsorb their neurotransmitters- this is done as a sort of recycling process.

Types of neurotransmitters

GABA and Glutamate, Acetylcholine, Monoamine, Anandamide, Neuropeptides

GABA and Glutamate

he most common neurotransmitter in the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord). Glutamate excites neurons which increases the odds of communicating via neurotransmitters and is associated with more attentive learning and memory. GABA is what inhibits neurons which means they are less likely to communicate with each other.

Acetylcholine

Deals with arousal, selective attention, sleep, and memory. Acetylcholine medication helps boost levels of memory in alzheimer patients.

Monoamine

neurotransmitters include dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine and are called such because they contain only one amino acid. These chemicals activate or deactivate certain parts of the brain and also are released when we achieve something- as an award center.

Anandamide

plays roles in eating, motivation, sleep, and memory (binds to the same receptors as THC).

Neuropeptides

are strings of amino acids but act kind of like neurotransmitters. Endorphins are a type of neuropeptide and regulate things like hunger, memory, and learning. Opiods do the same things in our brain as this type of neurotransmitter.

psychoactive

medications to inhibit or target the production of certain neurotransmitters

agonists

increase receptor binding activity and they also mimic endorphins by binding to cells and dulling our pain receptors

antagonists

decrease receptor binding activity ( they fool the brain into thinking they are dopamine even though they really are not- AKA fake neurotransmitters). This is used in illnesses such as schizophrenia.

plasticity

This is influenced by our genetics and life experiences. Scientists use the term plasticity to describe the nervous systems ability to change over time such as in response to damage. Few human traits are hardwired- most of them can be changed even if we are genetically predisposed to one condition or ability.

potentiation

We can also improve current synaptic connections so that neurotransmitters produce a longer and stronger response from neighboring neurons called potentiation.

Neurogenesis

the creation of neurons in the adult brain, but Fred Gage and Elizabeth Gould discovered that this process can occur. This could one day be used to make the brain heal itself and currently plays a useful role in learning.

Stem cells

cells that have not specialized to be a certain type of cell so they have the potential to be any type of cell. Stem cells can help fight neurodegeneration such as when a scientists implants stem cells in a new nervous system and they grow and replace damaged cells. Scientists can also genetically engineer stem cells to provide replacement genes for someone.

Four Main ways the brain changes

1. Growth of dendrites and axons

2. Synaptogenesis- growth of new synapses

3. Pruning- the death of certain neurons and the retraction of neurons whose pathways are no longer useful.

4. Myelination- the insulation of the axon with the myelin sheath

central nervous system

composed of the brain and the spinal cord and sensory information comes into these and decisions are made.

peripheral nervous system

composed of all the nerves that extend outside of the cns.

Two parts of the peripheral nervous system

Somatic-voluntary

Autonomic- involuntary

6 parts of the CNS

1. Cortex

2. Basal Ganglia

3. Limbic system

4. Cerebellum

5. Brain stem

6. Spinal Cord

corpus callosum

A bunch of fibers called corpus callosum connect the hemispheres and allow them to communicate.

Parts of the cerebral cortex

Frontal lobe, temporal lobe, parietal lobe, and occipital lobe.

frontal lobe

ies at the front of the cerebral cortex and assists in motor function, memory, and language. It also oversees and organizes other brain functions which is a process called executive functioning.The motor cortex lies next to the central sulcus and each part of the cortex controls a specific part of the body. In front of the motor cortex lies the prefrontal cortex which assist with thinking, planning, and language. One area of this is called Broca's area after scientists paul broca (who found that when his patients could not speak it was mostly due to damage in one specific area-Broca's area). The prefrontal cortex also contributes to mood, personality, self-awareness, and communicates with other parts of the brain.