psy100 term test 1

psyche

life, spirit, soul or mind

logos

explanation or study

what does the mind generate

thoughts, feelings, and beahaviour

thoughts and feelings

internal mental processes which are harder to study as you got to tell researcher first then they’ll study that (ie # of anxious behaviour)

behaviours

observable overt actions which are easier to study

what does science require

1. opened to any idea (possibility

2. Critize and test every idea

3. base views on amount of high quality evidence

simple explanations towards big questions

simple cute funny memorable explanations might be popular but are often incomplete/wrong —> incomplete due to the topic being very complex

“real” answers to complex questions needs research

• collect data via observation under different conditions

steps when collecting data

theory —> test —> data

what does data/observations provide

inform theories that help us understand, predict, and manage thoughts, feelings and behaviour

what causes our behaviour - stimuli

at any time we are exposed to many diff. things (like smells, what we see, feel textures, words or hormones) —> we are invluenced by variety of things

• can act alone or tgt

STIMULI trigger responses

through thoughts feelings or behaviours

stimuli and people

meaning varies across people and contexts (not universal)

individual differences

some people are highly sensitive to certain odors (ie not liking a certain smell —> dogs/cats)

context matters: stimuli

smoke in a kitchen is normal but if you see smoke in a hotel lobby it might cause panic ( when expected vs when not expected)

stimulus influence

conscious awareness isn’t required for a stimulus to be influential

what can we use psychology to do

1. identify, predict and treat maladaptive behaviours (cognitive behavioural therapy)

2. facilitate behaviours (sports psychology)

3. explain and sometimes predict population events (behavioural economics)

psychology in everyday life

• relationshops - marriage councellors

• mental health - psychiatrists

• education system - developmental psychologists

• entertainment and media - video game psychology

• work environment - industrial/organizational psychologist

• law development and enforcement - criminal profiling

branches of psychology

• pure psychology (lab setting)

• Applied psychology (real world settings ie clinical)

pure psychology tends to…

• explore mechanisms through experiments

• abstract concepts and minutiae

• in lab

applied psychology tends to…

• deal with what predicts, changes behaviour (therapeutic context)

• deal with more concrete outcomes (often therapeutic)

• real world

applied psyc and pure psyc’s relationship

they are inter-related ONE INFORMS THE OTHER

3 levels of analysis

1. social clture influences

2. psychological

3. biological

biological factors

• molecular level involving molecules and brain structures

biological factors: what changes our physiology

• eating, fasting and fat storage and more change our physiology

what does physiology in turn affect

hunger and likelihood of eating

biological factors that influences (NUTRIENT RELATED SIGNALS)

blood sugar, insulin, ghrelin, leptin levels all matter

ie. fasting —> ghrelin levels increases apetite and hunger increases (hormonal signals)

leptin —> less eating/appetite but increase body fat increase leptin increase body weight

we can get hungry just by looking at food - CEPHALIC PHASE

the sight smell or though of food can truger phsiological cascade which prepares us for eating

• become hungry by sensory stimuli regardless of fat storage —> salivatic phase increase hunger

biological factors: specific brain areas

ie hypothalamus are involved in eating and energy metabolism (dramatic increase in consumption and weight)

biological factors: genetic factors suggestion

• eating disorders (ie obesity) runs in family

  • specific genes have sometimes (rare) been identified

More biological effects

• marketing

• social

• self control

• emotional

incentive value and hedonic value

Incentive: motivation

hedonic: does it taste good (ie. expect good taste with oreos and gets them even if not hungry)

psychological influence

• mental/neurological leval involving thoughts feelings and emotions

other traits might contibute to psycholoical influence

delay gratification: pass reward now for later

perceptions (mindset) could matter

shake study in which 2 shakes are similar in contents but have different names, they are associated with different “hunger hormone” levels the one on right seems more rich filling food but two are the same

levels of analysis: social culture influence

• social or behavioural level in which you relate to others and personal relationships

social culture influence: learned routines

consistent eating times (dinner at 6) where time may be conditioned/learned cue that increases hunger

social culture influence: influences of marketing

• light foods (food/veggies) marketed to women while heartier foods to men

social culture influence: environment

social facilitation of eating is well known depending on familarity with other people (ie, already eaten but when at function if everyone else is eating you may eat again)

these ideas may be controversial

• its observations not endorsements/disapprovals

• no necessary policy/cultural implications

• society get to discuss these ideas tgt and decide what is worth of action and what that action should be

undertsanding behaviour is tough: multifactorial

many factors influential, each of small effect (some stronger than others but all interact)

psyc is a rigourous discipline

• require scientific approach (takes training)

  • not common sense and often requires acting against human nature

we’re all subject to biases and fallicies

biases - preferences in judgement

fallacies - errors in logical resoning

• unconscious —> automatically applied without awareness

biases and fallicies

• confirmation bias: looking for info that confirms our beliefs

• illusion of causality

confirmation bias

• overvaluing info that agrees with our beliefs and less info that doesnt

• common/hard to avoid

• affects public attitudes and policies on issues like climate change and drug use

consider ALL sources: meta analysis

• what matters is high quality studies

• eg. determine the strength of macbeth effect, which was studied 14 times

  • use meta analysis we can weight average effect of all these 14 studies

    • pair 14 studies and analyze statisticall (average it)

Illusion of causality

we are hardwired to form relationships between things linked in space and place (eg space time contiguity —> 2 things in similar space associated tgt)

1. clouds and rain

2. coughs and colds

3. blueberries and woods

SOMETIMES WE ARE WRONG

spurious/random relationships

does margarine really cause divorce

• same trends but not good eveidence as sperious relation, misleading

the clustering illusion

we may erroneously infer patterns from small, non-representative amounts of data that are actually random (cant rely on single period on inference need enouh data to infer -→ goes up during feb-march doesnt mean itll continuously do so)

apophenia

have a clear unidirectional bias to detect faces in our environment, we see faces in clouds but never clouds in faces

• only 1 way biases

Fallacies: argument from antiquity

this idea has been around forever, so it must be true

Fallacies: argument to authority

someone important said this, so it must be true (but they might not be credible in this area)

Fallacies: argument to ignorance

this idea has not been refuted yet so it must be true

Fallacies: bandwagon

everyone else cannot be wrong

Fallacies: either/or fallacy *dichotomous/binary thinking)

no appreciation of gradients, degress or complexity (see world in black and white)

Fallacies: not me fallacy

i dont make mistakes others do

why do we cling to certain beliefs: evidence

• many are irrational and dont require evidence

  • paranormal beliefs common, moral views are hard to explain

evidence might not matter for returning beliefs as they were not present in initial belief

why do we cling to certain beliefs: avoid negative affects

beliefs may be maintained if they help us avoid negative affects or bc changing our mind is costly (embarrassment vs certain beliefs that provide us comfort)

Terror management theory

aware death is inevitable (unpredicatable)

• we manage this anxiety through beliefs of continuit —> feel better and manage

cognitive dissonance theory

if beliefs dont match evidence we may become uncomfy and take actions to resolve discomfort ( embarassing to admit you wrong)

perspective

• differ in many ways (eg. assumptions, tools, objectives context)

• apply several perspectives at once to understand an issue

structuralism

• experiences are composed of many diff. elements/ parts

• dont combine automatically but merge into an experience via attention, volition and creativity of the individual

• WUNDT AND TITCHENER

structuralism: introspection

involves verbal reports on experience

• smell of rose and analyze report of 500 other to find consitincy - not much found

proved unreliable and was abandoned

structuralism: mental chronometry

study of decision making time (decision in 2 diff choices)

• still used today

structuralism: pros and cons

• gave credibility to psyc as an experimental science

• HOWEVER, unconcious processing not addressed, practical applications discourages (eg mental health)

• little use of animals

Functionalism

• explain how behaviour served adaptive functions that increased fitness

  • why its useful instead of what pieces were involved

• related to evolutionary theory by darwin (things maintained cause its useful)

• WILLIAM JAMES

Functionalism: key notes

• led to developments of many new theory

• evolutionary psyc that remains today

• transformed public perspectives (good/bad became about context)

• not experimental —> mostly descriptive

Gestalt psychology

• the whole is greater than the sum of parts (stimulis alone may not be best)

  • contrasts with structuralism)

• visual perception (not perfect)

  • assume GESTALT but you autocompleted the letters

• WERTHEIMER, KOHLER AND KOFFKA

Gestalt psychology: key notes

• Reconsider reductionist approach (the whole always matters, stimuli are interpreted in context)

• identified key perceptual principles

• visual only (what happened but cant tell you why) - descriptive

psychoanalysis

• unconscious through various methods (free association, dream)

• importance of childhood

• freud and jung

psychycoanalysis: key notes

• popularized psyc and revolutionized mental health care

• importance of unconcious processing

psychycoanalysis: cons

• fixation on case studies (generalized concerns —> small pop cant rep all ppl)

• many theories untestable, others not supported

• overvalued enviornment influences

• overemphasized sexual function and early childhood conflict/ development

behaviourism

• focused on what was believed that the mind and mental processes could not be easily examines

  • contrast with psycoanalysis just behaviour and how its affect by enviornment

• WATSON AND SKINNER

behaviourism: key notes

• experimental rigor (used animals)

• identified learning principles and informed mental health care

behaviourism: cons

• overvalued environ influence

• undervalued importance of interpretation and mental processes’

• cant explain certain behaviours (language)

• lack consideration for species differences (animals not always good)

cognitivism

• direct contrast to behavioursim (mental processes)

• innovative models experimental designs and approches

• PIAGET

cognitivism: key notes

• mental processes rather than just on behaviours

• accomanying roles of emotion interact

• accompanied by neuroimaging

social/cultural psychology

• study how social situations and culture influence decision making

• understand contextx cultures and ppl better

• broad implications

• LEWIN, FESTINGER, AND SCHACHTER

bystander effect

• reduced tendency to help when in environment with many ppl present

social/cultural psychology: cons

• low effect sizes are common

• lab environments artificial

what is a variable

an attribute that assumes different values across ppl, places, and timepoints

• eg. Thoughts, feelings and behaviors or height, weight

different variations

Variations between people (individual differences) and within people

• within —> 1 year gap

psychological variable are NOT able to be

• easily measured

• easily comparable between individuals

• can be held/ seen

conceptual variables

• cannot prove they are real but pretend they are bc its useful to do so

• look for things associated with conceptual variables and measure them instead (i.e., intelligence)

measuring intelligence

• conceptual

• to approximate intelligence, find measuring qualitys that we think are associated with it (ie cognitive behaviour)

  • study things we think smart ppl do

more than 1 way to define variable: standardized tests

effective definitions rely on criteria validated by the community

• comfortable with this choice as its done by many

more than 1 way to define variable: operational definition

in a given study we choose one definition

• test you pick over everything else.

operational definition comprise choice

this choice is a compromise between validity, cost and convenience

one variable, many operational definitions

eg. employee satisfaction: # of days per month that employee shows up to work on time to rate job satisfaction from 1 - 9

• not perfect cause always being late will get you fired

sample: personality questionnaire

valid test but time is money and ppl might not complete this if its too long

for certain tests: biases

• positive impression management - exaggerate positive traits

• malingering - exaggerate/manufacture problems (make it much worse then it is)

for certain tests: accuracy varies

• self rating: high for extroversion, low for anxiety (mostly overstated anxiety),

• rating of others is better, not perfect

halo effect/horns effect

• person has particular characteristic, you tend to infer other characterisitcs uncontinously

  • ie more attractive criminal gets less time —> precieved as better person

for certain tests: framing

• wording of the question matters

• acedemic problem: major in change in 2 options

  • save 200/600

  • 400/600 will be lost

• same options worded diff but ppl will pick 1

test test reliability

everytime we do the test, we get a similar result/ similar value (ie when you step on a scale its normally around the same weight)

inter rater reliability

no matter who is scoring the test, we get similar results

construct validity

degree to which construct (our test) measures what it claims to be measuring

• you give definition, test results will have to match it

  • ie. test for intelligence must actually work

operational definition

specific test of the conceptual variable (intelligence ex)

construct validity

does you test result predict the relevant things in the real work

• eg. intelligence test results predict GPA, income…

validity and value

if a test doesnt have validity, it doesnt have real value