PSYC100 Midterm 1

McGill Fall 2023

Structuralism

consciousness can be analyzed into a set of constituting elements, Conscious mental states can be analyzed with introspection, Sensations are raw meaningless stimuli that form consciousness

Functionalism

emphasis should be put on the purpose/utility of behavior, the why, F also use decomposing into elements, but do it to see its purpose

Behaviourism

Psychology must be objective, it’s the science of behavior, should predict/control it, no qualitative distinction between human and non human behavior

Gestlat psychology

Founded by Max Wertheitmer, proposes processes that organize our perceptions, you can’t stop them even if you’re aware of their presence

Gestlat principles

Emergence: you connect emergences and your brain creates an non existent scene

Multistability: items can have many perceptions that are all right/interchangeable

Reification: illusory contours make us perceive shapes

Invariance: ability to recognize objects, no matter the angle

Figure ground laws

Law of Closure: tendency to see contours as close, and we fill in empty space

Law of Similarity: similar objects are grouped and seen as a whole

Law of Proximity: objects that are closer as seen together before objects that are apart

Law of Continuity: if the elements aligns with the object, we see it as belonging together

Phi phenomenon

separate stationary stimuli are shown quickly after one another, we perceive movement

Psychophysiological model

attempt to explain behavior by seeing its biological basis, reductionist, everything is formed by physiological processes

Psychodynamic model

Behavior comes from inflexible, inherited drives/reflexes and tension/conflicts, behaviors try to reduce those negative states, actions stop when needs are fulfilled bc there’s no more motivation to act

Psychoanalysis

wants to make unconscious conscious ; assumes that humans are naturally evil and societies need to control this violence to protect humans from themselves

Id

Psyche to avoid pain, increase pleasure, primal drives

Superego

Psyche of morality, conscience, ideals

Ego

Psyche of reason, self

Behaviourist model

ABC of psychology (Antecedent conditions, Behavioral response, Consequences), assumes behavior is made only by A (no need to understand internal states), Humans are neutral, include classic conditioning

Cognitive model

Assumes that cognition (processes like perception, thoughts, memory) is principal subject of psycho, behavior can be explained by analyzing info processing, humans create subjectives realities

Humanistic model

Assumes humans are not motivated by biology/environment, they’re active, good, have free will, seek change/self

William James

North American father of psycho, founded functionalism, wrote one of the first textbooks, in which psycho = science of mental life

Wilhelm Wundt («father» of psychology)

Founded structuralism, believed psycho is studying of conscious experiences, worked to establish psycho as independent discipline and made first psycho research laboratory

John Watson

Founded behaviourism, shifted focus from philo to bio, criticized introspection

Sigmund Freud

Founded psychodynamic model, concept of psyche and psychanalysis, focused on the unconscious as source of behavior

Dualism

body and mind (soul) are composed of differents things, started by Plato

Cartesian Dualism

Variant by Descartes ; mind and body are of different qualities (Mind is non physical and takes no space)

Interaction problem

Only one reality, many POVs, in dualism how can body and mind interact

Idealism or spiritual monism

mind is fundamental, it controls the body

Neutral monism

mental and physical both represent the reality, which is neither

Materialism

the body is fundamental, it creates the mind (most scientists go in this direction)

Hard problem

How can we describe consciousness if it's subjective/private, we can't get it even if we know all about the physical processes

thomas Nagel on consciousness

Impossible to understand it because it’s too subjective and private

David Chalmers

HP: explains how physical processes creates subjective experiences, also easy problems (ex: learning, memory, etc)

Qualia / quale

Introspectively accessible private aspects of our mental lives

Gel face mask experiment

Mask made to disturb normal sensory feedback (works on half of those who wore it). reduced accuracy over face stimuli but not really for non face stimuli

Consciousness definition

No real definition, because it’s a philosophical assumption. N1 is consciousness = state of being aware of our own thoughts/feelings/actions

Philosophical zombies

Humans with same body and behavior, but without qualia. we couldn’t know it because qualia is private

Theory of Panpsychism

Consciousness potentially everywhere, im every system complex enough

Phi score

Level of information integration. The higher the level of integration, the higher the consciousness

Unconsciousness

Mental activities that occur without awareness (ex: Action potentials). Freud says they affect behavior

Free will

explanation/reasoning of an action possibly an afterthought, present in religions

Self

No single definition. William James : self is mix of self that experiences and the body the physical object. Dennett: self is center of our experiences, its not stable but maleable

Self awareness

capacity to be the center of our attention, focusing on internal environment more than the external.

Lipstick stain test

Animal/human is stained with lipstick when asleep then put in front of mirror. if it tries to rub it off, it understands its reflection is itself, therefore have consciousness.

consciousness in sleep

Levels of consciousness are alertness linked to electrical activity ; sleep has minimal consciousness

Gamma waves

learning, high alterness, REM sleep

beta waves

alert, normal consciousness, thinking, REM sleep

Alpha waves

Physically/mentally relaxed

Theta waves

creativity, daydreams, light sleep, reduced consciousness

Delta waves

slow waves, deep sleep (both REM and NREM)

EEG

Measure Brain waves

EOG

measure eyes movements

EMG

Measure muscle tension

stage 1 sleep

alpha to theta, hallucinations, little jerks

stage 2 sleep

sleep spindles, K complexes, up to 65% of night

Stage 3/4 sleep

delta waves, crucial for rest, suppressed by alcohol, 25% of night in adults

Stage 5 sleep

REM, activity similar to wakefulness, vivid dreams

Sleep functions

Restorative functions, lack leads to cognitive deficits, recommendations vary on age (ex: students 9h)

Circadian rythm

Cyclical changes of 24h basis, regulated by neurons in hypothalamus

Sleep in brain

Retina sees darkness and sends to info to the brain, whose neurons releases melatonin

simple Braitenberg vehicle

Two principles: sensor and motor. Excitatory (+ sensor + motor) or inhibitory (

Human behavior questions

Humans want to explain things right away, not making assumptions is difficult, scientists need to control the urge by making objective descriptions

Vehicle 2

2A is same (L-L R-R) 2 B is diff (L-R R-L). 2A is cowarldy (turns away from light, gets slower) and 2B is aggressive (turns toward light, go faster)

Reductionism limitations

Very complex behavior can come from very small principle. Emergent/unpredictable behavior makes it hard to predict what will happen.

Ockham razor

when something has many explanations, the one to trust is the simplest one

Rationalism

Argue that observation is unnecessary and can be misleading (use reason and logical arguments)

Empiricism

Hypotheses need to be confirmed or not by observation

Falsificationism

Hypothesis need to be refuted, tests are used to refute predictions, not confirm theory

Scientific method

Observation, asking a question, forming a hypothesis, make prediction, run an experiment, analyze the outcomes, report/assess results. not 100% free of bias/value

Kuhn cycle

Pre paragdim period (no science), normal science (begins, 1 paragdim, no schools), anomaly (problem solved/shelved in paragdim), crisis (insecurity, new paragdim), revolution (young scientists adhere to new, some old switch), new paragdim replaces, start over

experimenter bias

data has been influenced by the expectations/hopes of the scientist

Hawthorne effect

Knowing you’re being observed influence behavior

Expectancy effect

personal predictions bias others’ behavior

Demand characteristics

Studied is not always passive, can engage actively. leads to respond to confirm the hypothesis to please the researcher

Representativeness

important in population sample, needs to reduce WEIRD

Milgram experiment

Obedience to authority with shocks given to a “student” making mistakes. most ignore his pleas and screams.

Artificiality

Research is in laboratories, with odd tasks. Not clear how the observed behavior reflects the real, natural one.

Correlational research

Exploring how variables are related, allow predictions but dont detect causal relationships

Positive correlation

both variable go in same direction

negative correlation

variables go in other directions

zero correlation

variables are not predictably related

directionality problem

variable relations can be ambiguous, causation can not be determined

third variable problem

Experimental method

Use scientific method to control/explain things, establish cause/effect relationships, can detect causalities, maniputale one or many variable while keeping everything else constant

Independent variable

the one being manipulated by scientist

Dependent variable

The variable unchanged to detect the effects of IV

experimental group

receive a treatment/effect

Control group

receive nothing, or an effect that does not have to do with the IV

design principle

way in which data is collected

Confound

anything that effects DV that varies between IVs (basically third variable)

Control

steps taken to minimize third variable problem

external validity

degree in which the resulte can be generalized to population outside sample

Internal validity

quality of the experiment (ex: control over IV, artificiality, etc)

Population

whole group that benefits/is linked to the experiment

Sample

small group from the population chosen to represent it in an experiment

sampling error

sample that does not properly represents the entire population

descriptive statistic

methods used to summarize and describe the main features of a dataset

Empirical structuralism

opposite to logical structuralisms, claims reality not really exists ; we construct model of reality, what we see is determined by it. Goal of science is to increase knowledge, not claim/debunk theories

Logical empiricism

assumes science comes from objective empirical data independent from the theory

Distribution

spread of data point across range of possible measurements

Histogram

Generated by number of points in bin (categories defined to group data)

Mode

value that occurs the most in dataset

Median

data point in which half are higher and half are lower

Mean

Value of set, adding all values and dividing the sum by number of data points