MCAT Psychology

Psychoanalytic Major Theorists

Sigmund Freud

Erik Erikson

Psychoanalytic Emphasis

Childhood experiences and unconscious mind shape personality

Psychoanalytic Major Experiments

Dream analysis, free association and projective tests

Psychoanalytic Buzzwords

Psychosexual stages: ID, Ego, Superego

Superego:

Incorporates the values and morals of society

ID:

Primitive and instinctive component of personality

Ego:

Develops in order to mediate between the unrealistic id and the external real world

Humanistic Major Theorists

Carl Rogers

Abraham Maslow

Humanistic Emphasis

A person is largely shaped by free will and personal growth, not extrinsic factors

Humanistic Major Experiments

Questionnaires

Client-therapist relationship studies

Humanistic Buzzwords

Free will

Self actualization

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Trait Major Theorists

Hans Eysenck

Trait Emphasis

Personality is made up of stable traits that are consisten across a wide range of situations

Trait Major Experiements

Factor analysis

Personality Inventory

Trait Buzzwords

Introversion/Extroversion

Big 5 Factors

Trait Big 5 Factors

OCEAN

Openness

Conscientiousness

Extraversion

Agreeableness

Neuroticism

Social Cognitive Major Theorists

Albert Bandura

Social Cognitive Emphasis

Learning is based on social observation and a persons response is situational

Social Cognitive Major Experiments

Bobo Doll

Major finding: children mimic violent behaviors of adults

Social Cognitive Buzzwords

Reinforcement

Reciprocal

Determinism

Environment

Biological Major Theorists

William James

Biological Emphasis

Personality is primarily influence by a persons genes

Biological Major Experiments

Twin Studies

Brain Scans

Biological Buzzwords

Inheritance

Physiology

Genetic Determinism

Behaviorists Major Theorists

Ivan Pavlov

B.F. Skinner

Behaviorists Emphasis

Behavior is shaped by conditioning and adaptation to the environment

Behaviorists Major Experiments

Pavlov’s Dogs

Skinner Box

Behaviorists Buzzwords

Classical Conditioning (stimulus/response)

Operant Conditioning (reward/punishment)

Jean Piaget Perspective

Engaged in clinical, developmental, and cognitive psychology

Jean Piaget Goal

Was interested in “genetic" epistemology”, the student of the origins of an individuals knowledge set

Jean Piaget Believed That:

• Children develop logical reasoning through a series of stages (not incremental)

• They cannot be compared to adults because their minds work in qualitatively distinct ways

• When it comes to intelligence, the process of learning and reasoning are more important than the facts a person knows

4 of Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

1. Sensorimotor (ages 0-2): Sensation is everything, becoming mobile

2. Preoperational (2-7): Preschoolers (+ 5, 6, 7)

3. Concrete Operational (7-12): Kids playing 4-square on concrete

4. Formal Operational (12-on): Teenagers might attend a formal dance at school

Sensorimotor (ages 0-2) Learn Through:

The 5 senses, manipulating objects, simple trial-and-error

Sensorimotor (ages 0-2) Important Skills To Develop:

• Coordination

• [Intentional] Imitation: not intentional until later infancy

• Object Recognition

• Object Permanence: understanding that people and other items still exist even when they’re out of sight

Preoperational (2-7) Learn Through:

Thinking relationally

Preoperational (2-7) Important Skills To Develop:

• Symbolic Representation: A, B, C…

• Egocentrism: difficulty taking another’s perspective

• Animism: believing objects have human thoughts and emotions (usually their own thoughts and emotions)

• Centration: focusing on one element of a situation or story at the time and ignoring the rest

Concrete Operational (7-12) Learn Through:

Inductive logical reasoning

Concrete Operational (7-12) Important Skills To Develop:

• Conservation: quantitative reasoning

• Classification: separating items by shared qualities and hierarchies

• Reversibility: knowing things can be put back into an original state; able to count backwards

• Seriation: ability to arrange objects according to quantitative value (age)

Formal Operational (12-adulthood) Learn Through:

Abstract thinking

Formal Operational (12-adulthood) Important Skills To Develop:

• Deductive reasoning

• Problem solving

• Hypothetical scenarios

• Constructing arguments

• Metacognition: thinking about the process of though, philosophical reflections

Piaget Criticism

Problematic research methods

• Lack of interrater reliability

• Some date came from studying his own 3 children

Preoperational children are better at perspective-taking than he described

Some mentally capable adults never reach the formal operational stage

C. I and III only

Egocentricism: the boy likes ice cream, so the character does too

Inductive Logic: found in concrete operational phase

Centration: focuses only on the ice cream

Need Definition

Person’s drive is related to the basic elements required for survival, such as water, food, or clothing

Incentive Definition

Positive or negative stimulus from the surroundings that can motivate the behavior

Drive Definition

Motivation

Instinct Definition

Fixed pattern of response to a particular phenomenon or situation

Memory Encoding

What types of information can be inputted by humans

Memory Storage

Where and how do we process the information we pay attention to

Memory Retrieval

What enables us to recognize and recall information that we once learned

What is Encoding

The initial process of memory encoding occur rapidly:

• Stimuli → Sense Modalities → Thalamus → Hippocampus

Hippocampus decides if the info should be stored as memories

• Input and storage

4 Types of Encoding and 2 “Complexes”

Basic Encoding

1. Visual, or Iconic: inputting pictures in mind

2. Acoustic, or Echoic: inputting sounds

3. Kinesthetic: inputting body sensations

4. Spatial: inputting a “sense of direction”

4 Types of Encoding and 2 “Abstract”

Abstract encoding relied on VAKS encoding but goes a step further

1. Semantic: encoding meanings, such as words

2. Elaborative: relies on semantic and VAKS. Attaching new information to preexisting memories based on meanings

Result in stronger memories that are easier to retrieve later

Semantic Network Theory

The idea that we encode new information by situating it among conceptual patterns we’ve already formed

• A key process here is “spreading activation”: scanning our brain for memories to help explain new info

• Once we find a particularly dense region of related concepts, we squeeze new idea into the network

Techniques that convert information into the storage unit more easily:

1. Chunking: easier to learn a few thing clumped together than longer strings of distinct themes

2. Mnemonics: memorize patterned ways of inputting information

3. Context-Dependent Learning: more likely to retrieve memories if we inputted that memory in the same environment we were when the memory was formed

4. State-Dependent Learning: when intoxicated it’s harder for memories to be encoded and retrieved and conduct elaborate performances

   1. Mood can help you remember things from the last time you felt that emotion

5. Serial Position Effect: have better recall for information that was encoded in the earliest and latest stages of a series

6. Self-Reference Effect: encode things more effectively if we relate them to ourselves as we’re learning it

7. Spacing Effect: better at recalling information if we input that information over a longer period of time

Memory Storage

1. Sensory Memories (1-2 sec)

2. Working, or Short-Term Memories (30 sec)

3. Long-Term Memories (indefinite)

Sensory Memories

Only last 1-2 seconds and provide a sense of continuity to our experience

Without sensory memories, our actions and awareness would be extremely disjointed

Sensory → Short-Term Memory

If information makes it past the sensory memory, it becomes a short-term memory

Memory Storage

Short-Term Memory: also called “working memory”

Lasts 15-30 seconds

Characteristics of Short-Term Memories

• Limited in capacity (max of 4-9 items can be stored in working memory)

• Limited in duration (15-30 seconds before decay)

• Primarily acoustic (when using our STM, we tend to mutter or hear a voice in our mind)

• Vulnerable to distractions (startled by doorbell ringing)

Long-Term Memories

Short-term memories become long-term memories through various kinds of REHEARSAL

The memory moved from the hippocampus (seat of STM) to neocortex (seat of LTM)

Long-term memories can last indefinitely if the brain isn’t damaged

Broadbent’s Filter

Says stimuli is selectively attended to and processed at varying levels of depth

Not necessarily conscious

Each type of memory is like a funnel for the next

There are types of STMs and LTMs that form in parallel, not sequentially

Processes that convert memories

Sensory Memories → Working (ST) Memories via Selective Attention → Long-Term Memories via Rehearsal

Types of Long-Term Memories

Implicit Memories

• Procedural

Explicit Memories

• Episodic

• Semantic

Implicit Memories

Skills we know but can’t easily articulate

• Procedural: “muscle memory”

Explicit Memories

Also called Declarative Memories

• Episodic: stories

• Semantic: information

Memory Retrieval Definition

The process of converting data from the memory into active consciousness

2 Levels of Memory Retrieval

Recognition: coming across an item and realizing you have encountered it before

Recall: being able to conjure memories into awareness (more involved than recognition)

Eidetic Memories (Photographic)

The ability to recall accurate visual/iconic memories after brief encounters w/ an original scene or object

Most children los it by 6-7 years of age

Language and abstract thinking can interfere with the visual acuity of memories

Serial Recall

People recall information best in the same order that something occurred

Serial Position Effect

When people memorize a list of items and are later asked to recall, they most easily recall the first and last few items (forget the middle)

Cued Recall

People have better recall when they learn information in patterned ways and are given a hint about the pattern

Retrieval Difficulties Common Causes

1. Shallow Processing of Information

2. Certain Drugs

3. Sleep Deprivation

4. Stress of Trauma

5. Brain Damage

6. Aging

Shallow Processing of Information

Memories are more resilient when they’re rehearsed over time with plenty of semantic and elaborate encoding

Certain Drugs

Many drugs inhibit memory formation and retrieval while high

Long-term difficulties:

• Strongly linked to high quantities of alcohol and nicotine

• Somehow linked to high quantities of benzos and opioids

• Potentially linked to high consumption of cannabis, other hallucinogens, cocaine, and methamphetamines

Sleep Deprivation

Sleep strengthens synaptic connections in the hippocampus

• REM sleep strengthens procedural memories

• Non-REM sleep strengthens declarative memories

Stress of Trauma

Trauma strengthens some memories via amygdala involvement but also diminishes retrieval of other memories

Brain Damage

Injuries and neurodegenerative conditions damage parts of the hippocampus and cortex that process and house memories

• Anterograde amnesia: not being able to retrieve memories that were formed after the damage occurred

• Retrograde amnesia: forgetting what occurred before damage, especially immediately before

Aging

• Diminished circulation in brain; exercise can assist memory processing and retrieval

• Hormonal changes, especially higher cortisol levels

• The cortex begins shrinking around age 30, although memory problems don’t begin until most people are in their 40s

• Neurons in the hippocampus shrink or atrophy

• Pathways to the hippocampus become damaged

Tip-Of-The-Tongue Phenomenon

The partial recall of an item accompanied by the feeling that you are on the brink of fully retrieving it

Becomes more frequent after age 40

Mid-60s: harder to recall information that it used to be

This is the same age range (40s-60s) when vision and hearing begin to decline

Memory Interference

1. Retroactive Interference: difficultly recalling an older memory because you have memorized a similar item more recently

   1. More prone in young people

2. Proactive Interference: difficulty to recall new memories because a similar but older memory is more firmly entrenched

   1. More prone in older adults

Source Monitoring

Attributing a memory to a particular source, whether correctly or not

Can be internal or external

People’s assumptions about the source of a memory are often wrong

The mistakes often reflect preexisting biases and attitudes

As people age, their source monitoring contains more errors

D. Anterograde Amnesia

External Source Monitoring

Remembering where the memory came from

Differentiating among external events

Internal Source Monitoring

External world vs your own mind

Descriptive Research

Reports details about populations/situations

• Quantitative: numerical descriptions, statistics

• Qualitative: direct quotes, vignettes, ethnographics

• Methodologies: archival records or media, observational, interviews, focus groups

Survey Research

Administration questionaries (written, spoken, digital)

• Open-ended: answers are descriptive/narrative

• Close-ended: multiple choice, yes/no, check boxes, Likert scales

Correlational Research

Measuring two or more variables and assessing statistical relationships

• Case Control: two or more groups are compared retrospectively to investigate potential causes

• Cohort Research: a longitudinal student where a group of people is followed across time

Intervention Research

Researchers manipulate an independent variable and one or more dependent variables are measured

• Experiments, quasi-experiments

C. Cohort

“Life expectancy” indicates researching dead people (so no interview/survey)

Cohort studies people over years

Intervention Research Definition

A parameter is manipulated by researchers (IV) and the effect is observable on other conditions (DV)

Intervention Research Steps

1. Make Observation

2. State Problem

3. Identify Variables

4. Formulate Hypothesis

5. Design Experiment

6. Collect Data

7. Draw a Conclusion

Intervention Research Benefits

• Provides evidence about causal properties of the IV

• Results of study can be duplicated

Intervention Research Drawbacks

• Expensive and time consuming

• Many aspects of health can’t be manipulated

Intervention Research Goal

To isolate the IV while holding other variables steady

Facilitated by:

• Control groups

• Sampling

• Random assignment

• Blinding

Control Groups

Researchers run two or more parallel simultaneous experiments: a treatment group (subjected to the manipulated IV) and control group

Negative Control

The control group is exposed to all the experimental conditions except the treatment; sometimes placebos are given

Positive Control

The control group is exposed to an alternate treatment that is already known to have an effect on the dependent variable

Sampling

Selecting the group that you will actually collect data from in your research

Probability Sampling

Uses statistics to recruit

• Systematic: selected at intervals

• Clusters: population is divided into groups that get randomly selected

• Simple Random: all names in the pool, researchers randomly draw X many

• Stratified: people divided into demographic groups; names randomly drawn from those)

Non-probability Sampling

• Convenience sampling: first come, first serve

• Judgmental: researchers hand pick participants

• Quota: sample is curated to include specific proportions of demographic characteristics

• Snowball: participants recommend people they know to the researchers to serve as additional participants in the study