Pscyhology Exam 3

Four Steps to Solving a problem

1. Understand the problem
2. Generate potential solutions (not first or easiest, just potential)
3. Test the solution (does it fix the problem)
4. Check results (did it work)
>if #4 doesn't work, have to go back to #1

Framing

the way an issue is presented (makes people infer context)

Algorithm

if you do it right, it always leads to the correct answer (math problem)

Exhaustive Trial and Error

do each possible combination until you get the right answer; repetitive (type of algorithm)

Why don't we use algorithms all the time?

1. They are too hard
2. Not everything has a algorithm
3. We don't want to work that hard

Choice Overload

too many choices; too much information; don't know what to do (causes indecision/anxiety and irrational decisions)

Heuristics

mental short cuts we make to officially solve problems; rules of thumb

Availability Heuristic

more likely you are to hear something the more likely you are to think its true

Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristics

whoever puts out the first reasonably offer, people start negotiating based on that offer

Representativeness Heuristic

you assume people belong to categories based on outward characteristics

Bass-Rate Information

the actual data; the data about the frequency or probability of a given item or event

Sunk Cost Effect

tendency to do something we would otherwise choose not to do just because we spent the money to do it

Overconfidence

belief that our answers are more accurate than they actually are (overconfident when the question is hard; under confident when the question is easy)

Confirmation Bias

Seeking for info that prove you right

Belief perseverance

AKA Belief-Bias Effect; ignoring info that doesn't go along with your beliefs

Fallacy of Positive Instance

tendency to remember uncommon events that seem to confirm our beliefs and forget events that disconfirm our beliefs

Psychology of Gambling

we tend to overestimate our control over chance outcomes (giving people the illusion of control increases their willingness to gamble)

Mental Set

getting stuck on a solution that doesn't work and you just keep doing it

Functional Fixedness

seeing an object and thinking its only good for the one thing it was made for (chairs are for sitting, technically yes, but you can stand on them, prop things on them, etc.)

Cultural Difference

people think differently in different cultures so their approaches will be different

Holistic

focus on wholes

Analytic

focus on pieces

Language

Form of communication; involves using symbols or sounds to represent objects, emotions

4 criteria for language

1. learning an abstract set of symbols
2. using abstract symbols
3. learning complex rules of grammar
4. Generating an endless number of meaningful sentences

Cooing and random vocalizations

6-8 weeks

Distinct babbling

some content; 4-10 months

Jargon

babbling with speech inflections; 8-10 months

Holophrastic Speech

one word to represent an entire sentence; 10 to 15 months

Telegraphic speech

two-word sentences; 18 to 24 months

30 months

Simple if grammatically uneven

3 years

Large (1000) vocabulary and better sentences

4 years

Close to adult facility with speech

Test of Achievement

measures what you know right now (midterm)

Aptitude test

to predict something; to help with potential (career test, SAT/ACT)

Personality Tests

try to give you a number to represent a psychological characteristic

Physical Attributes

early on people notice physical defects (done syndrome, autism)

Mental Processing Speed

faster you think, smarter you are

Physical Response Time

how long it takes you to physically respond to stimuli

Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Theory that there are three distinct forms of intelligence: analytic, creative, and practical

Componential (Analytic)

people who are good at analyzing things; book smarts; efficient info processing (people who can plan, think abstractly)

Experiential (creativity)

the ability to combine unrelated facts in a novel way

Contextual (practical)

street smarts; adapting to environment to maximize strengths and compensate for weakness

Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences

-interact with culture; not born that way; culture can make you better at something
-believes that if you take away one area of intelligence the other ones can work on their own; no one dominant intelligence

Full Scale IQ Score

verbal score and performance scale

Mental Age

the age that you score like; nothing to do with physical age
-Binet

Stern, then Terman

built IQ formula (IQ=mental age/Chronological age x 100)
>formula is old way to do it, now we compare to groups

Flynn Effect

observation that IQ scores have been rising over the last few generations

Average IQ Score

100 +/- 15 (85-115)

Reliable and valid

Test Should be...

Reliable

consistency; will you get the same result each time (if not, its a bad test)

Most common threats to reliability

-low motivation: person doesn't want to be there, drags down score
-High anxiety: drags score down
-Thinking you are stupid

Validity

Does it measure what it says it measures

Concurrent Validity

right now (SAT is supposed to measure college success; give SAT test right now and compare to current college GPA)

Validity Issues

-Does the questions measure "intelligence"
-aptitude vs. achievement

Pygmalion in the Classroom

-the way teachers teach you affects IQ score
-Rosenthal and Jacobson
-Make up a test, tell the scores to teacher's half are lies, when the teachers were lied to about IQ score saying the kids were smarter than they were, IQ improved

Reaction Range

genetics tell you that you are going to be between two intervals, environment tells you exactly where in the range you stand

What an IQ test is good for

-prediction of academic success
-Jobs (confounded)
-Comparisons
-Not good for diagnosis (good for a general idea, not everything)

Francis Galton

Wrote the book Hereditary Genius
-Believed that intelligent people should be with other intelligent people, and discouraged breeding between stupid people
-intelligence is genetic

Eugenics

selective breeding

Stereotype Threat

living up to a negative stereotype about a group to which you are a member of (has to be negative)

Developmental Psych

starts from conception, as soon as there is a fertilized egg
ends at death (womb to tomb)
-only field that looks at time

Nature vs. Nurture

-what makes you who you are, genetics or upbringing
-Peers impact you more than parents

Differences vs. Deficit

differences are only deficits when they are in a context that doesn't match

Deficit

when what you are doesn't match your demands for your context

Continuous Development

emphasizes that development and changes in individuals occur gradually.

Discontinuous Development

Keep getting different, changes in type or quality (ex. tadpole)

Homunculists

believed there were little people in sperm; you didn't get a soul until after you were born

Ovists

examined the female egg; believed there was a little person inside the egg and was waken up by the sperm

Sex Chromosomes

sperm and egg; job is to combine

gametes

reproductive cells; sex cells

Fertilization

when genetic material is combined

zygote

a fertilized egg

Stages of prenatal development

1. Germinal Period
2. Embryonic Stage
3. Fetal Stage

Germinal Period

Fertilization to 2 weeks
-first two weeks after conception
-created zygote
-cell division; sperm keeps diving (copy of itself)
-ends with implantation into wall of uterus

Embryonic Stage

2 to 8 weeks
- Build support structure
-development of major body structures (respiratory, alimentary, and nervous)
-most damage can be done to a baby during this stage

Teratogens

environment agents that can harm the development of the embryo (ex. alcohol, lead, aids, tobacco)

Fetal Stage

8 weeks to birth
-things get bigger, refined and more complex

Age of Viability

age that fetus can live outside of the host body for an amount of time (22 to 28 weeks)

Factors that impact prenatal development

1. maternal weight gain
2. maternal age (35= high risk pregnancy)
3. maternal stress

Adolescence

a transitional phase between childhood and adulthood
-starts at puberty and ends with societal definitions

Puberty

rapid physical growth associated with adolescence
-ends when you are sexual mature (can have a baby)

Menarche

first period for women; when women begin puberty

Spermarche

when men begin puberty

Secular Trend

lowering age at which young people reach adult height, weight, and sexual maturity
-better nutrition and medical care=make babies sooner)

Primary Sex characteristic

just the body parts you need in order to make a baby
female: ovaries, Fallopian tubes, uterus, vagina
males: testicles, penis, scrotum, seminal vesicles, prostate gland

Secondary Sex Characteristic

everything else
females: pubic hair, change in skin, voice, and breast
males: pubic hair, change in skin and voice, broadening of shoulders, facial hair

Ways to measure age

life span and life expectancy

Life Span

longest anyone has ever lived; longest possible

Life expectancy

how long does that average human being live (US is the only country where life expectancy of males is going down)
-YOU PEAK AT 23

Declines as you age

speed
compensation
memory
Brian training

Scheme

the mental representation of the world so you can make sense of what is going on around you
-First ones are physical, reflexes
-Piaget

Equilibrium

balance of what you know; if your schemes can interpret something that makes sense it causes equilibrium
-Piaget (most important to him)

Disequilibrium

unbalanced; can't have development without it

Assimilation

bring it into the scheme we already have (water holder example in class, we thought it was a bottle opener bc it was already in our scheme)

Accommodation

when we have to radically change a new scheme (harder to do)

Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor
Preoperational
Concrete Operational
Formal Operational

Sensorimotor Stage

-0 to 2 years
-mental schemes can only be made from physical attributes and their own interactions
-don't have object permanence, forms gradually over 9-12 months

Object Permanence

knowing something still exists even if you can't see it anymore
-ball rolls under couch, knowing it still exists is object permanence

Preoperational Stage

-2 to 6 years
-before logic
-teach kids how to lie
-CANNOT do conservation
-Symbolic thought
-egocentrism

Symbolic Thoughts

ability to use words, images, and symbols to represent the world; preoperational stage