Exam 3- Psychology 101

Fear Memory

\-In the amygdala

\-Being exposed to something you’re afraid of

\-Slowly not becoming afraid of it after different stages of exposure

Key Memory Functions

\-Encoding, storing, and retrieving information

Encoding

\-Transforming perceptions into memory 

\-Sensory -- Working Memory-- Long Term Memory

Storage

Maintaining info over time

Retrieval

Recalling previously stored info

Encoding and Prior Knowledge

\-Memory is better for info that releases to prior knowledge

Fornix

 is a white matter tract that connects the hippocampus to several subcortical brain regions and is pivotal for episodic memory functioning

Levels of Processing Effect

\-The more deeply you process info during encoding, the more likely you are to remember the info later

Storage

\-Consolidation: Transferring new memory into long long-term storage

\-Sleep & Synapses

\-Concussions disrupt consolidation

“Tip of the Tongue”

\-Problem with retrieval

Recall Methods

\-Free call: essay questions

\-Cued Call: Matching

\-Recognition: Multiple Choice

Encoding: Mere Exposure

\- a psychological phenomenon whereby people feel a preference for people or things simply because they are familiar. For example, babies smile at the people who smile at them more

Encoding: Prior Knowledge

\-Prior knowledge is defined as all the knowledge one has before learning about a particular topic

Encoding: Deep Processing

\-Deep processing is a way remembering in which you try to make the information meaningful to yourself

Storage: Consolidation

\-transferring new memory info into long-term storage

Storage: Forgetting Curves

\-The same person can have a good memory for one experience and a poor memory for another

\- For example, a science fiction enthusiast who remembers every detail of a movie a month later who can't remember a math concept they learned yesterday

Problems With Memory: DRM Procedure

\-Is a false memory paradigm in which subjects are presented with lists of semantically related words (e.g., nurse, hospital, etc.) at encoding. After a delay, subjects are asked to recall or recognize these words

Childhood Amnesia

\-Being unable to recall memories from before the ages of 3-4

\-Misattributed story as memory

Retrograde and Anterograde Amnesia

Retrograde: amnesia where you can't recall memories that were formed before the event that caused the amnesia

Anterograde: Losing the ability to retain or learn new information

Construction

\-A tool used to facilitate understanding of human behavior

Reconstruction

\-the review and examination of past events which have resulted in current emotional problems

\-for example: recalling your day at the beach and describing the scenery and what you were doing

Eyewitness misidentification

\-a type of evidence in which an eyewitness to a crime claims to recognize a suspect as the one who committed the crime. In cases where the eyewitness knew the suspect before the crime, issues of the reli- ability of memory are usually not contested.

Misinformation Effect

\-The misinformation effect is a term used in the cognitive psychological literature to describe both experimental and real-world instances in which misleading information is incorporated into an account of an historical event.

Repressed memories

\- memories that we unconsciously avoid thinking about, usually because of a traumatic experience

Recovered Memories

\-the subjective experience of recalling a prior traumatic event, such as sexual or physical abuse, that has previously been unavailable to conscious recollection

\-Before recovering the memory, the person may be unaware that the traumatic event occurred

Transience

\-the decreasing ability to reach memory over time

\-happens naturally with aging

\-injury to the hippocampus can cause it

\-dementia and Alzheimers can cause it

Misattribution

\-means to incorrectly assign the origin, cause, or source of something

\- For instance, you remember that someone made great coffee for you. You thought that it was your friend Amy so, you ask her to make it for you again. However, it turned out that it was actually your friend, Sam.

Persistance

\-refers to a personality trait that causes a person to persevere in a task despite obstacles or frustrations rather than simply giving up

Perceptual Developement

\- how children start taking in, interpreting, and understanding sensory input

\-for example, those skills can be observed when an infant gazes into a caregiver's eyes or distinguishes between familiar and unfamiliar people

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Motor Development

\- the growth in the ability of children to use their bodies and physical skills

\-infants learn to control their bodies from head to feet and from center to periphery

\-skills emerge in a strict sequence, not a strict timetable

Cognitive Development

\-Emergence of the ability to think and understand

\-__Infants learn:__

* How the world works
* How their minds represent it
* How others minds represent it 

Stage 1:Sensorimotor

\-Infants in this stage acquire knowledge through sensing and moving

Sensorimotor 1: Schemas

\- theories about how the world works and that allows them to predict what will happen next

Sensorimotor 1: Assimilation

\-Applying schemas in novel situations

\-Gravity works in all situations

Sensorimotor 1: Accommodation

* Revising schemas in light of new information
* Gravity doesn’t work on dad?

EX: dad flipping and balloons floating

Sensorimotor 1: Object Permanence

* Infants in this stage develop __**object permanence**__: just because an object isn’t visible doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist

EX: babies think that when you play peek-a-boo that your face is gone

Pre-operational stage 2

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* Children in this stage are becoming less __**egocentric**__, the belief that the world appears to other people as it appears to them
* Measured through the __**false belief task’**__

Pre-operational Stage 2: Egocentric

\-children havingdifficulty thinking outside of their own viewpoints (ages 2-7)

Pre-operational stage 2: False Belief Task

\-a type of task used in theory of mind studies in which children must infer that another person does not possess knowledge that they possess

\-For example, children shown that a candy box contains pennies rather than candy are asked what someone else would expect to find in the box

Pre-operational stage 2: Theory of Mind

\-the ability to understand and take into account another individual's mental state or of “mind-reading”

Concrete Operational Stage 3

* Children learn __**conservation**__, the idea that the quantitative properties of an object remain unchanged despite changes in appearance

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\-Taking two glasses of juice with the same amount and pouring one into a taller glass making it look like there is more than the original glass

Stage 4: Formal Operational

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* Children begin applying abstract logic to concepts such as hypotheticals and counterfactuals

Cultural Learning

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* Vygostsky (1896-1934) believed infants develop by interacting with member of their culture 

Neurological Development

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* Human’s prolonged development means much of our development is finished by nurture, rather than nature

Critical Periods

* Windows of opportunity for acquiring certain brain functions, result from __**synaptic pruning,**__ where connections not used are last. 

EX: speaking a different language

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Synaptic pruning

the brain eliminates extra synapses

Physical Development

* Adolescence begins at the onset of sexual maturity and lasts until the beginning of adulthood
* __**Puberty:**__ **Bodily changes associated with sexual maturity**
* **Primary and secondary sexual** 

Sex Differences

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* It is innate for boys and girls to have preferences in their toys because the boys prefer more masculine toys and girls prefer to play with more feminine toys 
* There are hormones in the prenatal environment and that causes them to be male or female which causes them to prefer either masculine or feminine toys. 

Sex Differences in Cognition

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* Men are better at visual-spatial performance (math, geometry, mazes, standardized tests)
* Women are better at verbal performance (better in quantitative class grades and motivation)

Sex Fantasies

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* Men tend to be attracted to younger women and virgins
* Women tend to be more attracted to sex in relationships 

Sexual Arousal

\-men are more sexually aroused by visual stimuli, but women are more sexually aroused by concrete, auditory, olfactory, touch and emotionally relevant sexual stimulation

Sexual Orientation

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* 95 percent say they are attracted to the opposite sex
* 2 percent say mostly opposite sex
* Only 1 percent say they are bisexual
* Only 1 percent say the are attracted to the same sex 
* There is a large part of genetics in sexuality

Sexual Orientation: Nature v. Nurture

__**Epigenetics:**__ a predisposition for a certain trait is inherited (via a gene) but not expressed until an environmental influence

* We are born with the trait and the environment influences it

Sexual Orientation: Genetics

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* There is a large part of genetics in sexuality

Nature V. Nurture

\-Nature refers to how genetics influence an individual's personality, whereas nurture refers to how their environment (including relationships and experiences) impacts their development

Attachment

\-An emotional bond with another person. Bowlby believed that the earliest bonds formed by children with their caregivers have a tremendous impact that continues throughout life

Parenting Styles

Authoritarian: an extremely strict parenting style. It places high expectations on children with little responsiveness

Permissive Parenting: being nurturing and warm, but reluctant to impose limits. Rejecting the notion of keeping their kids under control

Authoritative Parenting:  the parents are nurturing, responsive, and supportive, yet set firm limits for their children

Helicopter Parenting: Parenting that pays excessive attention to children's every move and experience. Helicopter parents are highly involved, overprotective parents who tirelessly oversee every aspect of their children's lives and sometimes even act on their behalf.

Personality

\-the long standing traits and \n patterns that propel \n individuals to consistently \n think, feel, and behave in \n certain ways

Psychodynamic Approach

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Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) \n • Id – most primitive drives and \n urges present at birth; our bodily \n needs, wants, desires and \n impulses \n • Superego –acts as our conscious \n • Ego – rational part of our \n personality

Psychosexual Development

Oral (0-1) Mouth: weaning off breast or bottle

Anal: (1-3) Anus: toilet training

Phallic: (3-6) Genitals: oedipus/electra complex

Latency: (6-12)

Genital: (12+)

Trait Theories

\-Relatively stable ways of behaving

• Gordan Alport \n • Raymond Cattell \n • Big 5

Gordan Alport Theory

\-personality came about like a series of building blocks; referred to here, of course, as traits. He further believed that personality was biologically determined but could be shaped by someone's environment

Raymond Cattel Theory

\-integrates the intellectual, temperamental, and dynamic aspects of personality in the context of environmental and cultural influences

Big Five (O.C.E.A.N)

**Openness to experience**: Imagination, open-minded, wide range of interests, independent

**Conscientiousness**: competence, self-discipline, thoughtfulness, goal-driven

**Extroversion**: sociability, assertiveness, emotional expression

**Agreeableness**: cooperative, trustworthy, good-natured

**Neuroticism**: tendency toward unstable emotions

Biology and Personality:

Heritability: proportion of difference among people that is attributed to genetics

Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart \n (1979-1999)

Leadership, obedience to authority, sense of well- \n being, alienation, resistance to stress and \n fearfulness

Social-cognitive theory

• Reciprocal \n Determinism \n • Observational \n Learning \n • Self-efficacy

Example: you may have learned altruistic behavior from seeing your parents bring food to a homeless person

Humanistic Approach

• Self-Concept \n • Ideal Self \n • Real Self \n • Congruence vs Incongruence

\-a perspective that emphasizes looking at the the whole person, and the uniqueness of each individual

Measuring Personality

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**Self-Report Inventories** \n • Intentionally or unintentionally more socially desirable, exaggerated, biased \n or misleading \n **• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)** \n - Projective Testing \n - Rorshach Inkblock Test \n - Thematic Apperception Test \n - Rotter Incomplete Sentence Black \n - Contemporized-Themes Concerning Blacks Test \n - TEMAS Multicultural Thematic Apperception Test

Congruence

\-a condition in therapeutic relationship that refers to accurate matching of a person's experience with awareness

Temperament

an aspect of personality concerned with emotional dispositions and reactions and their speed and intensity; the term often is used to refer to the prevailing mood or mood pattern of a person.

Individualistic v. Collectivistic Culture

\-In individualistic cultures, people behave according to self-interest and personal preferences and consider independence and self-sufficiency very important

\-In collectivist cultures, groups are of primary importance—individuals are secondary

Situationism

Situationism: our behavior and actions \n are determined by our immediate environment and surroundings

dispositionism 

our behavior is determined by internal \n factors

Fundamental Attribution Error

overemphasizing internal factors as \n explanations for situations

Actor-observer bias

attributing our own behavior to situational forces \n and attributing other people's \n behavior to internal

In other words, actors explain their own behavior differently than how an observer would explain the same behavior

Self-serving bias

when we attribute positive events and successes to our own character or actions, but blame negative results to external factors unrelated to our character

Just-world hypothesis

 people have a strong desire or need to believe that the world is an orderly, predictable, and just place, where people get what they deserve

Self-presentation

 how people attempt to present themselves to control or shape how others (called the audience) view them

social role

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pattern of behavior that is expected of a person in \n a setting our group

social-norms

group's expectation of what is appropriate and \n acceptable behavior

script

person's knowledge about the sequence of events \n expected in a specific setting

cognitive dissonance

psychological discomfort arising from holding two or \n more inconsistent attitudes, behaviors, or cognitions

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Justification of Effort

value goals and achievements that we put a lot of effort \n into

Persuasion

process of changing our attitude toward something \n based on some kind of communication

Conformity

changing your behavior to get along with the group

Compliance

going along with a request or demand

obedience

changing your behavior to please an authority figure to avoid aversive consequences

stereotyping

overgeneralized beliefs about people that may lead to prejudice

discrimination

holding stereotypes and harboring prejudice may lead to excluding, avoiding, and biased treatment of group members

aggression

seeking to harm another person

prosocial behavior

people benefit others

groupthink

within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome