Psych 100 Final

psychology

the scientific study of mind and behavior

empiricism

approach that says that all knowledge comes from experience or needs experience for validation

monism

the brain and the mind are one

dualism

the brain and mind are separate but interact

epiphenomenalism

brain activity produces mind activity, but the mind can’t influence brain activity

interactionism

mind and brain can influence each other

materialism

monism: brain and mind are one

structuralism

consciousness can be analyzed into a set of basic, constituting elements using introspection

introspection

a technique requiring intensive training to analyze conscious experience into its basic elements (sensations and feelings)

functionalism

the position that the emphasis in psychology should be on the purpose and utility of behavior, not structure

Gestalt psychology

we perceive whole forms, not the parts of which they are constructed; what we perceive depends on the context in which it is embedded

behaviorism

psychology must be purely objective and its goal should be to predict and control behavior

cognitive revolution

cognition overtaking behavior as the subject matter of psychology

psychophysiological model

a form of reductionism, the attempt to explain behavior by recourse to its biological basis; explores the relations between behavior and processes and structures of the central nervous system

psychodynamic model of mind

all behavior can be explained in terms of drives or other intra-psychological forces; behavior arises from either inherited drives and reflexes or the attempt to solve the conflict between the needs and wants of the individual and society’s need for socially adapted behavior

psychoanalysis

aims to make the unconscious conscious, so that its influence on behavior can be controlled

id

the unconscious part of the psyche that attempts to avoid pain and increase pleasure

ego

the part of the psyche that is reason and self-control, it tries to mediate between the id and the superego

superego

the part of the psyche that emphasizes morality, conscience, ideals, aspirations (your perfect self)

behaviorist model of mind

tries to determine what factors in the environment control behavior, inner factors aren’t considered because they can’t be observed

cognitive model of mind

assumes that cognitions (mental processes) are the principal subject matter of psychology

humanistic model of mind

assumes that humans are neither motivated by strong deterministic biological drives nor environmental factors, rather, they are active beings, naturally good and equipped with free will

William James

Harvard professor who inspired functionalism

Wilhelm Wundt

father of structuralism

John Watson

father of behaviorism

Sigmund Freud

father of psychoanalysis

Rene Descartes

proponent of dualism

cartesian dualism

the mind is non-physical and takes up no space while the brain is physical and takes up space

interaction problem

how do the mind and the brain interact?

idealists

believe the mind is fundamental, aka spiritual monists

neutral monists

mental and physical are two different ways to represent the same reality, which is neutral (neither physical nor mental)

materialists

most popular among scientists: matter/brain is fundamental

the hard problem

how do materialists account for consciousness? how can matter give rise to mind?

phenomenality

consciousness as a subjective, private experience

mind-body problem

how are brain and mind related?

easy problem

perception, learning, memory, attention, sleeping v waking

quale/qualia

the term referring to the introspectively accessible, phenomenal, private aspects of our mental lives

consciousness

no agreed upon definition; the state or faculty, or a particular state, of being aware of one’s thoughts, feelings, actions etc.

unconsciousness

being unaware of one’s thoughts, feelings, actions etc.

self-awareness

the capacity to become the object of one’s own attention

self: I vs me

self can be separated into “I” (the self that experiences) and “me” (the self that extends outwards in space and time and can be perceived as an object)

self: dynamic self-concept

the center of narrative gravity

EEG (electroencephalograms)

records electrical activity in the brain

electrooculograms

records eye movements

electromyograms

records muscle tension

alpha waves

physically and mentally relaxed

beta waves

alert, normal alert consciousness, active thinking, REM sleep

delta waves

slow wave/deep sleep, NREM and possibly also parts of REM

theta waves

creativity, insight, daydreams, reduced consciousness, NREM light sleep

REM sleep

brain activity similar to wakefulness, becomes longer as the night goes on, many vivid dreams occur, rapid eye movements

stage 1 sleep

transition from alpha waves to theta waves, hypnagogic imagery (or hallucinations), myoclonic jerks

stage 2 sleep

sleep spindles and K-complexes, as much as 65% of total sleep

stage 3 and 4 sleep

delta waves (slow wave sleep), crucial to feel rested, suppressed by alcohol, 40% of sleep in children, 25% in adults

stage 5 sleep

REM sleep

sleep functions

serves a restorative function

circadian rhythm

cyclical changes that occur on a roughly 24 hour basis, like hormone release, body temperature, and brain wave activity

hypnosis

a relaxed state of mind in which a person is especially receptive to suggestions made by a hypnotist and feels her actions and thoughts are happening to her rather than being produced voluntarily

hypnotic analgesia

a reduction in pain perception caused by a hypnotic suggestion

dissociation

a splitting of conscious awareness; in the case of hypnosis, one stream of awareness stays connected to the hypnotist’s suggestions whereas another stream observes the person’s experiences in a disconnected way

selective attention

the act of focusing one’s awareness onto a particular aspect of one’s experience, to the exclusion of everything else

inattentional blindness

a failure to perceive information that is outside the focus of one’s attention

change blindness

a form of inattentional blindness, in which a person fails to notice changes in a visual stimulus

default mode network

an interconnected system of brain regions that are active when the mind is alert and aware but not focused on any particular task, such as during mind wandering

global workspace hypothesis

the hypothesis that conscious awareness arises from synchronized activity, from across brain regions, that is integrated into coherent representations of an experience

mind wandering

when the focus of your awareness drifts away from your current activity and seems to wander, sometimes in fairly uncontrolled ways

braitenberg vehicles

thought experiment based on simple vehicles

Ockham’s razor

the simplest answer must be the truth

rationalism

observation is not only unnecessary, but potentially misleading

scientific method

observation → question → hypothesis → experiment → analysis → report → repeat

inductivism

several observations are used to induce theories, which are used to deduce hypotheses, leading to more observations, eventually to arrive at laws

falsificationism

tests are designed to refute the predictions, not confirm a theory

scientific process according to Kuhn

preparadigm period → normal science → anomaly → crisis → revolution

observer effects

experimenter bias, demand characteristics, representativeness, and artificiality

experimenter bias

bias because of who the experimenters are

demand characteristics

participants responding in ways to confirm the assumed hypothesis, in order to please experimenters

representativeness

WEIRD: Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic

artificiality

unclear to what extent the observed behavior reflects the normal operation of the brain in natural situations and under natural conditions

descriptive methods

researchers measure one variable at a time

naturalistic observation

an observational research method in which psychologists observe the behavior of animals and people in their normal, everyday worlds and environments

Hawthorne effect

being observed can lead participants to change their behavior because people often act in particular ways to make positive impressions

response bias

bias caused by different approaches to when to respond

correlational study

a type of study that measures two (or more) variables in the same sample of people, and then observes the relationship between them

directionality problem

causations cannot be determined, so it remains unclear whether a positive or negative correlation results from the increase in one or the other measured variable

positive correlation

both variables move in the same direction

negative correlation

variables have an inverse relationship, thus moving in different directions (as one variable increases, the other decreases)

zero correlation

the variables are not predictably related

third variable problem

a basic problem of all correlational studies, the relationship between the two measured variables might be dependent on a third, not measured variable

internal validity

the ability of a study to rule out alternative explanations for a relationship between two variables; one of the criteria for supporting a causal claim

external validity

the degree to which it is reasonable to generalize from a study’s sample to its population of interest

mode

the value that occurs most often in a dataset

median

the data point in a dataset for which half of all data points are higher in value, and half of all data points are lower in value

mean

the average value of a set of data

logical empiricism

assumed that science can rest on a secure base of pure, objective empirical observations that are independent of the observer and of theory: what truly exists can actually and accurately be discovered by human observation

empirical structuralism

external validity does not exist as a concept and is not useful when it comes to evaluating the goodness of a theory

nature

genes etc.

nurture

environment

interactionism

certain basic abilities and knowledge is innate, but can be influenced by experience, which in turn can change what innate behaviors are expressed, which influences what will be experienced

nativism

knowledge of the world is mostly innate and determines certain abilities; associated with the idea that nature determines behavior

empiricism

at birth, mind is tabula rasa, nothing in terms of behavior and knowledge is inherited, all is learned; associated with the idea that nurture determines behavior

proximate causation

explains how an animal produces a behavior