Psych Exam 2

Sex (in psychology)

The biologically influenced characteristics by which people define males and females

Gender

The physical, social, and behavioral characteristics that are culturally associated with male and female roles and identities

Gender typing

The instinctive drive to fit into traditional male and female roles

Gender roles

The behaviors expected of people related to their identity as men or women (President’s spouse being assumed to be a woman- ‘First Lady’)

Androgyny

Displaying both traditional masculine and feminine psychological characteristics

How social learning theory accounts for gender identity of children

States that we learn gender roles and identity through imitation and rewards/punishments that shape our behavior

Gender differences in psychopathology

Males

• Four times more likely to commit suicide

• More likely to have a childhood diagnosis of autism, color deficient vision, and ADHD

• More likely to struggle with antisocial personality disorder

• More physically aggressive

Females

• Start puberty earlier and live 5 years longer

• Express emotions more freely

• Twice as at risk for depression

• Ten times more at risk for an eating disorder

• More verbally/relationally aggressive

Gender differences in play

Males

• Prefer more active play (more competitive)

Females

• Prefer more conversational and connective play (more social)

How nature and nurture contribute to gender differences in aggression and connectedness

Nature

• Men are more likely to be diagnosed early with certain biological disorders (autism, color deficient vision, ADHD)

• Women are prone to starting puberty sooner which can impact height and cause insecurity

Nurture

• Men are raised to be more dominant and are more physically aggressive than women, their connectedness comes through activity and competition

• Women are raised to express emotion more freely and they connect through social play/conversation

Biopsychosocial approach to understanding gender differences and similarities (and sexual behavior)

Biological- genetic makeup (XX or XY), sexual maturity, sex hormones (especially testosterone), sexual orientation

Psychological- exposure to stimulating conditions, sexual maturity

Social-Cultural- family and society values, religious and personal values, cultural expectations, the media

Sexual response cycle (William Masters and Virginia Johnson)

Excitement —> Plateau —> Orgasm —> Resolution

Sexual dysfunction

Problems with completing the sexual response cycle- erectile dysfunction, low sexual desire, lack of orgasm response (can be improved with behavioral therapy, psychotherapy, or medication)

Paraphilia

Sexual arousal from fantasies, behaviors, or urges involving nonhuman objects, the suffering of self/others, and/or non consenting persons (necrophilia, exhibitionism, pedophilia)

Sexual orientation

The enduring sexual attraction to the same sex (homosexuality), opposite sex (heterosexuality), or both sexes (bisexuality)

Fraternal birth-order effect

If a woman gives birth to one son and then has another son later in life, the second son has a higher chance of being gay/homosexual

Pubertal development

Time of sexual maturation (girls hit puberty before boys usually- growth spurts hit)

Adolescent sexuality

Adolescents start to engage in sexual behavior; risks for teen pregnancy and STI’s are increased; sex rates vary among families, cultures, and historical periods

Primary sex characteristics vs. secondary sex characteristics

Primary- directly involved with the reproduction of a species (ovaries, testes)

Secondary- not directly involved with reproduction (voice, hair)

Factors relating to abstinence

• High intelligence test scores (consider the consequences and their futures)

• Religious beliefs and involvement

• Presence of a father at home

• Participation in service projects and abstinence programs

Evolutionary psychology explanation for gender differences in sexual behavior

• Natural selection has passed on desirable traits in males and females (promiscuity vs. no promiscuity)

• Men tend to look for females with fuller figures and at childbearing age; women look for males who are loyal and have physical/social power (ensures stability and survival of offspring)

John Locke

Held the empiricist view that our senses are the source of all the knowledge we have

Emmanuel Kant

Held the nativist view that we have the natural ability to decipher what we encounter in the world (we are active participants in perceiving)

Transduction (part of process of sensation)

Process of converting stimulus energy into neural impulses

Signal detection theory and it’s applications

• Sensory and decision making process that’s influenced by stimulus intensity and higher order mental processes (listening for a baby to cry after waking up from a nap)

• Applications- judicial system (suspect identification, jury deliberation), security concerns (detecting an enemy, police work)

Signal detection outcomes

Hit- stimulus present, yes response

Miss- stimulus present, no response

False alarm- stimulus absent, yes response

Correct rejection- stimulus absent, no response

Sensory adaptation and role of expectations

When we become less sensitive to the environment around us

Psychophysics

Relationship between the physical properties of external stimuli and the sensory experience they produce (light=brightness, sound=volume, pressure=weight, sugar=sweet)

Absolute threshold vs. difference threshold

Absolute threshold- minimum intensity necessary to detect a stimulus half (50%) of the time

Difference threshold- minimum amount of change in stimulus intensity that can produce a ‘just noticeable difference’ (jnd)

Weber’s Law

The amount of change in a stimulus intensity that yields a ‘just noticeable difference’ is a constant fraction of that stimulus (for a difference to be perceptible, two stimuli must differ by a constant proportion rather than amount)

Weber’s Law example

Weight —> 1/50

1/50 = 2%

100 lb person —> 2% of 100 = 2 lbs (that’s the' ‘just noticeable difference’)

Weber’s Law conclusion

The greater the intensity of stimulus energy, the more change is needed to produce a jnd

Opponent-process theory (color vision)

Receptor cells receive pairs of antagonist colors (red-green, blue-yellow, and black-white). Receptors can only perceive one color at a time so the opponent color in the pair is blocked

Pain perception

Perceive pain through nociceptors (sensory receptors whose signals are translated by the brain as pain)

Can feel others’ pain through empathy and social contagion

Gate-control theory

Theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological ‘gate’ that block pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain

Figure-ground organization

Figure- object of interest

Ground- context of the object (the environment the object is in)

Perceptual sets

A predisposition to perceive or notice some aspects of available sensory data and ignore others

Gestalt principles

Proximity- stimuli that are closer together in a physical space are perceived as belonging together (8 octagons or 4 sets of 2)

Similarity- similar stimuli are perceived as belonging together (grouping smileys together and circles separately)

Continuity- stimuli with a continuous form are perceived as belonging together (lines that form the letter ‘t’)

Closure- we tend to fill in the gaps to complete an object (filling in the gaps of shapes)

Common fate- stimuli moving in the same direction at the same speed are perceived as belonging together (lines of lightning bolts)

Common region- stimuli within a boundary are perceived as belonging together (red smileys and blue smileys each in their special enclosed areas)

Pattern recognition

Involves bottom-up and top-down processing

Bottom-up processing

Taking sensory information and then assembling, classifying, and integrating it (data-driven) (templates, prototypes, feature nets)

Top-down processing

Using background knowledge, models, ideas, and expectations to interpret sensory information (knowledge-driven)

Feature detection and bottom-up processing

Allows us to perceive faces and body features through objective, surface-level lenses

Depth perception

The ability to see objects in three dimensions, even though the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional (involves binocular & monocular cues)

Binocular cues

How our two eyes help with perception of depth (retinal disparity)

Monocular cues

Depth cues available to each eye alone

Monocular perception cues

Interposition- when an object blocks part if our view of another, we assume the first object is closer to us

Texture, haze, and horizon

Shading- shadow at the top appears concave, shadow at the bottom appears convex

Perspective- objects appear smaller as they recede into the distance (ponzo illusion)

Motion parallax- judging how close objects are by the speed they’re moving in the opposite direction

Perceptual constancy (size constancy)

Perceiving objects as unchanging, even as illumination and retinal images change (a door is still a door even at different angles)

Attention

The process of directing certain psychological resources to specific stimuli

Overt vs. covert orienting of attention

Overt- physically redirecting the eyes and attention to a stimulus

Covert- mentally shifting attention without physical movement

Characteristics of attention

Improves mental processing, effortful and limited, and has a selective nature

Structure of the ear

Outer ear- collects sound and funnels it to the eardrum

Middle ear- conducts vibrations from outer ear to middle ear (the messenger)

Inner ear- contains hair receptor cells that sense vibrations and transport nerve impulses to create sound

Conduction hearing loss vs. sensorineural hearing loss

• Conduction- middle ear isn’t conducting sound well to the cochlea (treatment: hearing aids amplify sounds striking the eardrum)

• Sensorineural- receptor cells aren’t sending messages through auditory nerves (treatment: cochlear implant does the work of the hair cells in translating sound waves into electrical signals to be sent to the brain)

Habituation as a form of learning

Decreased tendency to respond to stimulus that has become familiar

Classical conditioning

Learning to associate two stimuli together and anticipate events

Classical conditioning attributes

Unconditioned stimulus- unconditioned reflex/object that is a product of biology (yummy dog food)

Unconditioned response- natural response to the US (dog salivates)

Neutral stimulus- a stimulus that has not been paired with the US and elicits no response (sound of a bell)

Conditioned stimulus- conditioned reflex which is a product of learning (dog starts associating the bell with food) **the NS becomes the CS after conditioning occurs**

Conditioned response- new learned response to the CS (dog salivates at the sound of the bell) **UR and CR will always be the same**

Higher order (second-order) conditioning

Introducing a second neutral stimulus (light) paired with the CS (bell) without the US (food) in order to make another CS (light)

Extinction

The diminished CR when a US no longer follows the CS (overcoming your fear of heights by climbing mountains multiple times and realizing there’s nothing to be afraid of)

Spontaneous recovery

The reappearance of a CR after a pause; suggests that extinction suppresses the CR rather than extinguishing it (fear of heights returns after hearing a scary news story about someone falling off a cliff)

Generalization

Once a response has been conditioned, the tendency to respond in a similar way to similar stimuli to the CS (baby has a fear of white mice and is also scared of white rabbits, stuffed animals, and fur coats)

Discrimination

The learned ability to distinguish between a CS and other similar stimuli (baby calling its dad ‘dada’ but not saying it to other men)

Operant conditioning

Association between behavior and its consequences

Shaping

Rewarding successive approximations of desired behavior or actions that approach the desired behavior

Positive vs. negative reinforcement

Positive reinforcement- introducing a pleasant stimulus (getting a sticker for good behavior)

Negative reinforcement- removing an unpleasant stimulus (removing homework for good behavior)

Positive vs. negative punishment

Positive punishment- introducing an aversive stimulus (getting a parking ticket

Negative punishment- withdrawing a desirable stimulus (revoked drivers license)

Thorndike’s law of effect

Rewarded behavior is likely to recur (cats figuring out how to escape box for food)

Primary vs. secondary reinforcers

Primary reinforcers- naturally reinforcing (food, water, affection)

Secondary (conditioned) reinforcers- effective through learned association with primary reinforcers (money, good grades)

Applications of learning principles

Therapeutic- treating phobias through extinction processes

Dealing with unhealthy habits- drug users may avoid triggering environments and people which could act act CS’s and trigger cravings for the drug (CS)

Immune system response- could be classically conditioned

Schedules of reinforcement

Fixed-ratio: reinforces behavior after a set number of responses (buy 10 coffees, get the 11th free)

Variable-ratio: reinforces behavior after an unpredictable number of responses (slot machine gambling)

Fixed-interval: reinforces the first response after a fixed time period (quarterly exams)

Variable-interval: reinforces the first response after varying time periods (surprise quizzes)

Bandura’s social learning

He studied observation, imitation, and acquisition of behavior (used the classic bobo doll experiment)

Memory process

Encoding —> storage —> retrieval

Automatic processing (encoding)

Encoding process that is effortless and unintentional (concerns space, time, and frequency)

Systematic processing (encoding)

Encoding process that is effortful and requires attention/rehearsal

Hermann Ebbinghaus

Used nonsense syllable experiment to discover that fewer repetitions are required to relearn a previous list

Spacing effect

Information learned over time is retained better

Atkinson and Shiffrin’s three-stage model of memory

Sensory memory —> short-term (working) memory —> long-term memory

Sensory memory

Responsible for the immediate recording of information that enters the brain fleetingly (involves iconic and echoic memory)

Short-term (working) memory

Responsible for processing and maintaining information

Long-term memory

Responsible for encoding information later to be retrieved (extremely large storage capacity)

Iconic memory

Memories processed visually

Sperling’s partial-report procedures

Letters flashed quickly in a grid and participants are told to repeat a certain line

Capacity of the working memory

7 (±) 2 chunks

Characteristics of working memory

Uses maintenance and elaborative rehearsal (duration is up to 20 seconds)

Types of long-term memory

Explicit memory (breaks into episodic and semantic) and implicit memory (breaks into procedural and conditioning)

Explicit (declarative) memory

• Processes facts, stories, and meanings

• Involves frontal lobes (retrieve/use memories) and hippocampus (encodes/stores memories)

• Breaks down into episodic memory (personal experiences) and semantic memory (factual knowledge)

Implicit (non-declarative) memory

• Processes skills, procedures, and conditioned responses

• Involves cerebellum (forms/stores our conditioned responses) and the basal ganglia (controls movement, forms/stores procedural memory and motor skills)

• Breaks down into procedural memory (motor skills) and conditioning memory (conditioned responses)

Procedural memory

Stores information about our movements and motor skills

Serial position effect

When learning information in a long list, we are more likely to recall the first items (primacy effect) and the last items (recency effect)

Mnemonic techniques used for enhancing memories

Chunking and hierarchical organization

Chunking

Creating meanings from long lists by reducing/chunking the amount of things to remember (acronyms)

Hierarchical organization

Breaking down information into easy organization (lists, mind maps)

Memory failure

Happens due to disease, amnesia, or the passage of time

Memory decay

memory fades/decays if information is never used, recalled, or restored

Tip of the tongue phenomenon (availability vs. accessibility)

Idea that some stored memories seem just below the surface (information is available but feels inaccessible)

Priming effect

Triggers a thread of associations that bring us to a concept (the mind works by having one idea trigger the next and maintains flow of thought)

Retrieval failure

Occurs when we cannot retrieve certain information (can be combatted by linking memorization material to images, rhymes, categories, initials, and lists)

Infantile amnesia

Implicit memory from infancy is retained; explicit memory is not retained until about age 3

Explanations of infantile amnesia

Encoding- memories from this age aren’t stored since the hippocampus is one of the last brain parts to develop

Forgetting/retrieval- adult minds think in a more linear/verbal narrative so the mind has trouble accessing preverbal memories

Long-term potentiation

Signals are sent across the synapse more efficiently and therefore strengthens neuron connections

Context-dependent memory

Our recall ability is improved when we’re in the same context as the initial experience (ex- taking a test in the same room where the information was learned)

Role of cerebellum (in memory)

Forms and stores conditioned responses

Role of basal ganglia (in memory)

Controls movement and forms/stores our procedural memory and motor skills