PSYCH202 Unit 1

Psychology

Scientific study of the mind, includes thought, emotion, and behavior

Introspection

Personal observation of your own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

Psychology family tree roots

1. Philosophy

2. Natural Sciences

Wilhem Wundt

1st psychologist

Structuralism

Edward Titchener, the mind can be broken down into the smallest elements of mental experience

Gestalt Psychology

Gestalt means “form/whole,” they believed that breaking a whole perception into it’s building bricks as advocated by structuralists would result in the loss of important psychological information

Functionalism

William James, viewed behavior as purposeful because it led to survival. Functionalists were more interested in why behavior and mental processes worked in a particular way

Sigmund Freud

Ideas about existence of the unconscious mind, development of sexuality, dream analysis, and psychological roots of abnormal behavior influenced by psych and culture

Humanistic psychology

“third force,” separate from the prevailing behaviors and psychodynamic theories. Client-centered therapy, clients not patients

Behaviorism

Concentrated on observable, measurable behaviors

Pavlov

Used salivating dog experiment to come up w/ classical conditioning, like feeling anxious before taking an exam

Watson

Began experimenting with rats, restricted psychology to observable behavior

Thorndike

Proposed the law of effect, which suggested that behaviors followed by unpleasant or harmful outcomes would be less likely to occur, pleasant or helpful outcomes are more likely to occur

Skinner

Believed that inner, private states such as thinking and feeling existed, but he viewed them as behaviors that followed the same rules as public behaviors like driving a car

Cognitive psychology

Neisser, covers information processing, thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving

Biological psychology

Focuses on the relationships between mind and behavior and their underlying biological processes, including genetics, biochemistry, anatomy, and physiology

Evolutionary psychology

Attempts to answer the question of how our physical structure and behavior have been shaped by their contributions to our species’ survival

Cognitive psychology

Focuses on the processing of information, involves storage of memories

Developmental psychology

Explores the normal changes in behavior that occur across the lifespan

Social and personality psychology

Describes the effects of the social environment, including social and cultural diversity, and individual differences in the behavior of people

Clinical psychology

Seeks to explain, define, and treat psychological disorders. Recently expanded to promote positive psychology and general health/well-being

Scientific method major concepts

Ongoing process and cycle.

1. Systematic methods and observations

2. Avoiding biases

3. Tentative conclusions

3 scientific methods

Each has a different level of control, impacts the conclusion

1. Descriptive

2. Correlational

3. Experimental

Descriptive method

Observe/describe naturally occurring patterns, no intervention or manipulation by researchers. Often a good starting point for research.

What does the descriptive method include

1. Naturalistic observations

2. Case studies

3. Surveys

Naturalistic observations

Observe animals in natural habitat, cell phone use of pedestrians, etc.

Case studies

In-depth study of one person or a small number of people, most applicable to clinical questions (eg. people with brain damage)

Surveys

Ask questions about attitudes, behaviors, etc. from a large number of people. Survey vs. self-report questionare within an experimental study.

Descriptive study pitfalls

1. Hawthorne effect

2. Observer bias

3. Confirmation bias

Hawthorne effect

Manipulations in the factory got the same results because people knew they were being observed

Observer bias

People perform differently when they know they’re being watched. Focus on more noticeable behaviors

Confirmation bias

People seek out information that matches their own opinions/biases

Bias solutions

1. Use systematic data collection techniques

2. Sampling techniques for survey participants

3. Statistical techniques to find larger patterns vs. individual anecdotes

Correlation method

Determine whether a relationship exists between two dependent variables (variables that are measured) (eg. scatterplots)

What can correlations tell us about?

Direction of relationship, strength of relationship

Correlational study pitfalls

1. Correlation does not equal causation

2. Directionality of relationship, there can be “third variables” that influence the relationship

When are correlations useful?

When you can’t manipulate variables or it’s unethical to manipulate, it allows for formation of predictions

Experimental method

One IV and one DV

DV

Measured

IV

Manipulated, puts Ps into groups. Look for difference across IV groups!

DV vs. IV example

Differences in positive feelings about refugees (DV) according to whether Ps are presented w/ postiive or negative visual depictions of refugees

What can you claim with experimental method?

Causation

Ideal experiment for experimental method

Manipulate one IV, hold everything else constant w/ control variables. If we see changes in DV according to IV, we can better claim causation

Way to decipher IV vs. AV

Random assignment test

Random assignment

Each P in sample has equal chance of getting into any Tx group

Random assignment test

Is it possible to randomly assign Ps to your chosen IV? If yes, then it is a true IV and experimental method. If no, then it’s an AV and falls under the quasi-experimental method

Quasi-experiment

Cannot claim causation with AVs, because you’re back to not having control over the variable so you can only measure correlation

What are experiments NOT determined by?

Whether or not a control group is used

Operational definitions

Detailed definitions for IV and DV. Can somebody else use your variables in the exact same way you did, and is there a quantifiable measurement for DV?

Operational definitions for DV

1. Physiological

2. Behavioral

3. Self-report

Examples of operational definitions for DVs

Measurement of Aggression:

1. Physiological: activity of amygdala

2. Behavioral: Number of hits a child makes to a Bobo doll

3. Self-report: Measure feelings of aggression w/ questionare

Methodological issues

1. Validity

2. Replication

3. Meta-analysis

Validity

Are you measuring what you think you’re measuring

Reliability

Are your measures consistent?

Replication

Can experimental results be repeated?

Meta-analysis

Larger view of replication, analyze results of many studies with same topic and variables. They look at overall patterns, ex: mathematical ability and gender, individual studies show differences

Methods for understanding brain structure and function

1. Effects of brain damage (stroke, lesions, etc.)

2. Observing the brain in action (PET, fMRI, etc.)

fMRI

Observes brain activity while performing different tasks

MRI

Observes brain anatomy

Coronal plane

Vertically in 1/2

Horizontal plane

Horizontally in 1/2

Sagital plane

Left to Right

Subcortical structures

Basic drives and emotions

Brainstem (survival type functions)

1. Medulla

2. Pons

3. Midbrain

Medulla

Vital in voluntary functions

Pons

Sleep, connects cerebellum to the rest of brain

Midbrain

Sensory reflexes/involuntary movement, pain orientation in environment

Reticular formation

Sleep, arousal, attention, runs through brainstem

Cerebellum

Balance and coordination, evolutionarily ancient structure

Forebrain

Highest level of brain, complex cognitive, emotional, sensory, and motor functions

Subcortical structures

Limbic system, motivation/emotion/memory. Separates older/newer parts of the brain, newly evolved

Limbic system

1. Thalamus

2. Basal ganglia

3. Amygdala

4. Hippocampus

5. Hypothalamus

6. Nucleus accumbens

Thalamus

Sensory relay, conciousness

Basal ganglia

Voluntary movement

Amygdala

Fear, disgust, aggression

Hippocampus

Memory formation

Hypothalamus

Homeostasis, “pleasure center,” activity of ANS

Nucleus accumbens

Reward, pleasure, social inclusion

Cerebral cortex

1. Motor cortex

2. Somatosensory cortex

3. Broca’s area

4. Wernicke’s area

5. Auditory cortex

6. Visual cortex

Motor cortex

Voluntary motor functions

Somatosensory cortex

Orientation/space, sense of touch

Broca’s area

Aphasia causes difficulty producing speech, but they can still understand what’s being spoken to them

Wernicke’s area

Aphasia causes them to lack awareness of what they are saying, more like nonsense

Auditory cortex

Hearing

Visual cortex

Sight

Language processing

Speaking a written word involves 5 neocortical areas, coordination of actions

Hemispheric specialization

Specialization of left vs. right hemispheres. Hemispheres are separated by corpus calosum which allows the two to communicate

Right brain

Facial recognition, spatial and perceptual tasks

Left brain

Language center

Contralateral processing

Info goes into both eyes/optic nerves, left visual field goes to the right hemisphere and vise versa. Also applies to limbs

Split brain research

Surgical splitting of corpus callosum (often to relieve epileptic seizures)

Neuroplasticity

Interplay of genes and environment during development wires the brain

The brain can remap itself

Phantom limb syndrome, blindness/deafness, recovery from illness, injury, brain surgery

Nervous system

Central and peripheral nervous systems

CNS

Brain and spinal cord

PNS

Somatic and autonomic nervous systems

Somatic

Skeletal muscles

Autonomic

Visceral muscles, includes sympathetic, parasympathetic and enteric

Sympathetic NS

Activation functions (fight/flight)

Parasympathic NS

Deactivating functions (rest and digest)