Psych midterm sem 1

Empirical evidence

gained through experience and observation

structuralism

analysis of mind in terms of basic elements

Piaget - cognitive perspective

human as thinker - thoughts, perception, memory, attention, anticipation - examines nature of mind and mental processes influence on behaviour

monism

mind and body are one

dualism

mind and body are separate (physical and non-physical)

Freud/Jung - Psychodynamic Perspective

focuses on inner personality dynamics, including role of unconscious impulses and defences

Freud and Free Association

expressed any thoughts/feelings that come to mind

Freud and Psychoanalysis

analysis on internal and unconscious physiological forces

Watson, Pavlov, Skinner - Behavioural perspective

Human reacts to environment - past learning experiences and stimuli in current environment - focuses on role of external environment on our actions

Behaviour modification

therapeutic procedures based on operant conditioning principles, such as positive reinforcement, operant extinction, and punishment

Cognitive behaviourism

suggesting that environment influences our behaviour by affecting our thoughts and giving us info.

Rogers, Maslow - Humanistic Perspective

Human seeking self-actualization - search for personal meaning - driven by choice - emphasizes personal freedom, choice, and self-actualization

Maslow and self-actualization

strive toward realization of one’e full potential

Cognitive Psychology

study of mental processes - why people make decisions, solve problems, form perceptions

Penfield, Lashley - Biological Perspective

human as animal - genetic and evolutionary factors, brain and biochemical processes - role of biological factors in behaviour

Sociobiology

theory of social behaviour that emphasizes role of adoptive behaviour in maintaining one’s genes in the species gene pool

Experimental Psychology

basic processes like learning, sensory systems, perception

Lewin - Sociocultural Perspective

human being social and embedded in culture norms, interactions in cultures/social environment

Psychosurgery

brain surgery in absence of obvious organic damage

what did Moniz introduce

radical prefrontal lobotomy has “calming” effect on violent chimps - thought prefrontal lobe “controls” emotion, therefore separate from the rest of the brain - patients become more docile but IQ problems and can be terminal

3 levels of analysis for explanations of behaviour

cultural and environmental (ie. value system), individual and psychological (ie. learning and cognitive processes), biological factors (ie. neural, hormonal)

Approaches to Psych: funtionalism

focuses on function or significance of behaviour - how does a behaviour help us to adapt - biological and psychological - ex. psychobiology neuroscience, ethology

Approaches to Psych: psychodynamic

focuses on unconicuous experience, the mind - looks for unresolved conflict, importance of personality - level pshycological - ex. brief psychodynamic therapy, unconscious processing

Approaches to Psych:Behaviourism

focuses on behaviour - discusses how conditions change behaviour (reward, punishment) - Skinner - Level Physcological and environmental - ex. learning theory, behaviour modification

Approaches to Psych: gestalt tradition

focuses on perception and experience - how people think and remember - consider everything in context - all levels - ex. cognition, information processing

Approaches to Psych: Humanistic Tradition

focuses on values and choice, helps people fulfill full potential - Asks; what is blocking your progress? - Carl Rodgers - Level Physcological - Ex. Carl Rodgers therapy; the self

Approaches to Psych: Biological Tradition

focus on neural and chemical basis of behaviour - mind is contrasted by brain - Carl Lashley removed part of rat’s brains to test learning - level biological - ex. neuroscience, brain imaging

Approaches to Psych: Sociocultural tradition

humans embedded in culture, norms, group processes- Clarke -level environmental - ex. cross-cultural psych, issues in development, disorders in one population/country and unheard of in next

Rene Descartes

philosopher and mathematician - how people respond to stimulation - reflex arc - dualism

Gustav Fechner

decided change In light levels - studied how physical stimuli relate to our sensations (psychophysics)

Wilhelm Wundt

Structuralist - founded first psychological lab - father of experimental psych

William James

argued he had first lab (did not), wrote first psych textbook, Harvard, founded functionalism - studied how mind helps us adapt to our environment

Mary Calkins

studied memory and self-psychology - became first female president of APA

Freud

psychogenetic problems - founded psychoanalysis; emphasized unconscious mind and childhood experiences

Carl Jung

developed analytical psych - emphasized archetypes and the collective unconscious

Carl Rodgers

humanistic approach - free-will, self growth, unconditional positive regard

Ivan Pavlov

measured salvation - food association, classical conditioning

BF Skinner

instrumental conditioning, associations between reward and pounichsment, developed operant conditioning; behaviour is shaped by rewards and punishments - radical behaviourism

Jean Piaget

try to measure intelligence - cognitive development - difference between young and adult thinking

Wilder Penfield

corpus colloquy cut to stop epliepsy - maps out cortex by touching people’s brains - mapped brain functions by stimulating areas of the brain

Wolfgang Kohler

Gestalt psychologist - studied insight learning especially in chimps

Kurt Lewin

social psychologist - behaviour influenced by the person and their environment

Karl Ashley

studied brain localization and memory - developed ideas of mass action and equipotentiality (suggests that different parts of the brain can sometimes take over a function if another part is damaged)

Watson

founded behaviourism - focus on observable behaviour rather than thoughts and feelings

Scientific process

1. identify problem and form hypothesis

2. design and execute experiment

3. determine truth

4. communicate results

Darley and Latane discovery

presence of multiple by-standers produces diffusion of responsability - psychological state where ppl feel less responsible to intervene because someone else will - by-stander effect

2 approaches to understanding behaviour

hindsight (after-the-fact), and understanding through prediction, control, and theory building

Hind-sight (after-the-fact) approach in understanding behaviour

bias

related to past events can be explained in many creative and sometimes contradictory ways

Understanding through prediction, control, and theory building approach to understanding behaviour

“what causes what”

if we understand cause, we can predict, control, and produce

Operational definition

a variable in terms of the specific procedures used to produce or measure it

4 ways to define and measure variables

self-reports and reports by others (social desirability bias!), measures of overt behaviour (recording directly observable behaviour), psychological tests (personality, intelligence, neuropsychological tests), physiological measures (heart rate, blood pressure)

Methods of research

Descriptive - describes how organisms behave (natural settings)

Correlational - measures 2 or more naturally occurring variables and examine if they are statistically related

Descriptive Research

• case-study

• naturalistic observation

• survey

correlational research

3 components

researcher measures one variable

researcher measures second variable

researcher statistically determines if they are related

• must consider bidirectionally and third-variable problem (another factor responsible for what looks like relationship)

correlation coefficient

statistic that indicates strength of a reaction between 2 variables

positive and negative (higher=higher and higher equals Lower)

Cause and effect

manipulating independent variable and measures if changes dependent

between groups design and repeated measures design

• Between-groups = different people between groups.

• Repeated-measures = repeat the experiment with the same people.

experiment group and control group

experiment group: exposed to independent variable

control group: not exposed to treatment - used for comparison

Threats to Validity

cofounding - intertwining of variables - prevents ppl from telling which is responsible

placebo - change in behaviour because of expectation

experimental expectancy - unintentional influence on participants to confirm hypothesisf

Demand characteristics - converts hypothesis to participants

• all internal validity

• external is a threat as well

Ethics

1. protect and promote welfare

2. avoid doing harm

3. don’t carry out study unless probable benefit is greater than risk

4. provide informed consent

5. consent not given under coercion

6. ensure privacy and confidentiality

Pseudoscience

ideas/claims that pretend to be scientific but lack reliable evidence

double-blind experiment

participant and experimenter don’t know

meta-anaylsis

combining results of different studies that examine same topic to test overall significance of findings

cross-cultural replication

do findings generalize across different cultures

counterbalancing

participants are exposed to all conditions: the order of conditions varies so no condition has advantage relative to others

Festinger

Festinger's experiment demonstrated cognitive dissonance theory — people may change their attitudes to reduce the discomfort of inconsistency between their beliefs and actions. - $1 vs $20 experiment

All extra variables should be ______, otherwise, experiment is _______

controlled, cofounded

Between Groups Design

• Between-groups design: Different participants in each group.

Within Groups Design

• Within-groups design: The same participants experience all conditions.

Repeated Measures Design

• Repeated-measures design: The same participants are measured multiple times, often at different times or under different conditions.

Internal validity

Degree to which experiment supports casual conclusion

External validity

How well the results generalize to other people, settings, and situations.

Neurons

basic building blokes of nervous system

3 main parts of neurons

cell body, axon, and dendrites

cell body (soma) functions

contains structures needed to keep neuron alive

nucleus contains genetic info. that determines how the neuron develops and functions

Dendrites function

receiving units

[rpvode input for cell body from neighbouring neurons

axon functions

conducts electrical impulses away from cell body to other neurons/muscles/glands

glial cells

surround neurons and hold them in place

manufacture or transport nutrients

form myelin sheath around some axons

absorb toxins

play important role in brain development - as new neurons form, glial cells send out fibres that guide neurons to their eventual place in the brain

create and maintain blood/brain barrier, which prevents toxins from entering brain

Neurons do 2 important things:

generate electricity (nerve impulses)

release chemicals that allow them to communicate with other neurons and with muscles and glands

fluid outside neuron

positive sodium ions

negative chlorine ions

really positive!

fluid inside axon

large negative protein molecules

postive potassium ions

really negative!

internal difference of neuron compared to surrounding fluid is called _________ ___________, and the neuron at rest is in a state of___________

resting potential, polarization

Generating an action potential

a) resting potential - inside negative outside positive - -70mv inside

b) action potential - in response to stimulation of a neuron - sodium floods in - 40mv in axon - deploarized (inside positive compared to outside)

c) resting restored - k moves in as impulse moves down - -70 restored

all or none law

neuron either fires with max intensity or doesn’t fire at all. always 40 mv action potential

must reach -50 to generate action potential

myelin sheath

derived from glial cells

in axons with it: electrical conduction can skip from node to node (of Ranvier), moves faster and fewer action potential tails need to be produced - insulates

in axons without it : action potential travels right down - slower

where do neurons communicate

at a synapse - the microscopic space between neurons where an impose is biochemically transmitted

synaptic cleft - the gap

neurotransmitters

chemicals that carry messages across the synapse

excitatory transmitters create depolarization

inhibitory transmitters hyperpoilarizes (more negative inside)

chemical communication

1. synthesis - chemicals formed inside neuron

2. storage -n chemicals stores inside chambers called synaptic vesicles in axon terminal

3. release - when action potential, vesicles move to surface of axon terminal and release into fluid-filled space between axon and membrane of postsynaptic

4. binding - bind to receptor sites - large proteins in cell membrane - lock and key

5. deactivation - once neurotransmitter binds to receptor, it continues to activate/inhibit until its actions are stopped, until it is deactivated

2 ways a neurotransmitter is deactivated

1. transmitter molecule deactivated by other chemicals located in synaptic space

2. reuptake: transmitter substances taken back into presynaptic neuron so they don’t continue ro stimulate postsynaptic neurons

Glutamate

• excitatory

• controls all behaviours

• learning and memory

• Alzheimers, Parkinsons, Huningtons, stroke, epilepsy, fibromyalgia. schizophrenia, depression, autism, bipolar, ocd

GABBA

• inhibitory

• controls all behaviours

• anxiety and motor control

• Huningtons’s disease

Ach

• excitatory ay synapses involved in muscular movement and memory

  • Alzheimers (undersupply), muscle contractions, convulsions (oversupply)

Norepinephrine

• excitatory and inhibitory

• neural circuits controlling memory, learning, wakefulness, and eating

• depression (undersupply), stress and panic (oversupply)

Serotonin

• inhibitory

• mood, sleep, eating, arousal, pleasure/pain

• depression, sleep, and eating disorders

Dopamine

• inhibitory/excitatory

• voluntary movement, emotional arousal, learning, motivation, pleasure

• Parkinsons (undersupply), Schizophrenia (oversupply)

Endorpghins

• inhibit transmission of pain impulses

• insensitivity to pain (oversupply), pain hypersensitivity, immune problems (undersupply)

Neuromodulators

neurotransmitter substances released by neurons and circulate within nervous system to affect sensitivity of many neurons to their natural transmitter substances