Video 23.1: What is Motivation?

• William James; Instinct Theory

  • Motivations are innate, meaning we are born with them

  • They're specific for individual species and they're stereotyped or occur automatically.

• Clark Hull; Drive Reduction Theory

  • Most basic motivations stem from trying to reduce needs in our body.

  • Need (food, water) -> Drive (thirst) -> Drive Reducing Behavior (drinking

• Primary motives - motivations for biological needs related to survival

• Secondary motives - motivations that are based on learned needs (power and achievement)

• Stimulus motives - Intellectual Stimulation and curiosity

Video 23.2: Modern Theories of Motivation

• Homeostatic regulation theory - motivation is related to the body's desire to maintain equilibrium.

• The arousal theory is based on the Yerkes–Dodson law

  • Optimal levels of performance occur when we are at a moderate state of arousal.

  • High level of arousal for easier tasks, and low level of arousal for harder tasks

• Abraham Maslow - Hierarchy of needs

  • Self-actualization is defined as a need to live to our fullest potential.

    • a motivational state marked by creativity, spontaneous living, a fellowship with humanity, and autonomy.

  • Self-transcendence - a motivational state to help others and work beyond your own needs. I

Video 23.3: Physiological Motivators

• Walter Cannon and A. L. Washburn conducted an experiment to see how connected our stomach was to our experience of hunger.

  • The pair matched the timing of the stomach contractions with Washburn's experience of hunger pangs

• When lateral hypothalamus is stimulated, it triggers the feeling of hunger and the motivation to seek out food.

• When ventromedial hypothalamus is stimulated, it triggers the cessation of the motivation of hunger, or the feeling of satiation.

Video 24.1: The Basics of Emotion

• Emotions are defined as both a mind and body experience, complete with facial expressions, body posturing, physiological arousal, and accompanying thoughts.

• Emotions serve a highly adaptive function.

  • They alert us when we should be fearful,

  • They help trigger the fight or flight response

  • They help bond humans in feelings of love and affiliation.

  • The fight or flight response that we discussed as an adaptive function of emotion

• The amygdala is key to processing emotions, especially the emotion of fear.

Video 24.2: Theories of Emotion

• Robert Plutchik proposed that there are eight basic emotions that humans experience as illustrated by Plutchik's Wheel.

  • Plutchik's wheel allows for combinations of emotions to be created when neighboring emotions occur at the same time.

• Common Sense Theory - the emotion triggers the response

• William James and Carl Lange - James Lange Theory - our body based arousal triggers the emotion.

• Walter Cannon and Philip Bard - Cannon Bard Theory - our emotions and body based reactions occur at the same time following a stimulus

• Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer - Schachter-Singer two-factor theory -  a stimulus causes a physiological response that will be cognitively labeled, and then the appropriate emotion will follow.

• Dual pathway for emotions - Sometimes our emotions are triggered in an instant, other times our emotions are more thought directed.

• Richard Lazarus - thought directed as a cognitive appraisal of your environment - More thought-based than just labeling an experience, the appraisal allows for a full assessment and analysis of our surroundings, bringing in past experience and expectations

• Facial feedback hypothesis - states that the emotional expressions we wear on our face may actually contribute to the emotion you experience.

Video 25.1: Understanding Stress

• Microstressors - Small annoying occurrences in daily life

• Eustress - Stress from positive sources

• We also can experience stress when we are faced with a choice or conflict.

  • Approach-Approach is where we have two possible options to choose from and both are equally desirable.

  • Avoidance-Avoidance conflict when you have two possible options and both are undesirable.

  • Double Approach-Avoidance conflict. This is when you have more than one possible option, but each has desirable and undesirable qualities.

Video 25.2: Stress and the Body

• Hans Selye - General Adaptation Syndrome -

  • In the alarm stage, the body responds to the stressor with the action of the sympathetic nervous system.

    • Your heart rate and respiration increase, your pupils dilate, and your digestion slows down – all as your body prepares its fight or flight response.

  • The second stage is called resistance.

    • Your body is functioning in a state of sympathetic energy, and your body is remaining ready to continue the fight or flight response.

  • The final stage in the General Adaptation Syndrome is exhaustion.

    • In this stage, the body returns to a parasympathetic state either because a stressor has been resolved or the body's resources are depleted

• The field of psychoneuroimmunology studies the relationship between stress, your immune system function, your endocrine system function, and your overall mental well-being.

• The Holmes and Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale is a test designed to measure stress in your life by measuring "Life Change Units." These are events that happened within the last year that are either positive sources of stress (eustress) or negative sources (distress).

Video 26.1: Becoming You

• Longitudinal methods - meaning the same group of subjects are studied over a long period of time.

• Cross-sectional research. This is when researchers use groups of different people from a variety of age groups.

• Heredity dictates the physical aspects of a person, such as hair color and eye color, but it can also dictate psychological traits as well.

  • Some behavioral traits such as shyness may be passed through your genes.

• The sperm and egg should each contribute 23 chromosomes to this newly generated cell, for a total of 46 chromosomes

• The prenatal period is divided into three stages: the germinal stage, embryonic stage, and fetal stage.

  • Germinal stage begins at the moment of conception and continues on for the next two weeks.

    • The cell, now called a zygote, will burrow into the walls of a woman's uterus and will trigger their hormone changes of pregnancy to begin.

  • The embryonic stage begins at two weeks after conception and continues through week eight. In this stage, the zygote is now called an embryo.

    • During this time, the embryo will begin developing the structures that will be the brain and central nervous system as well as other internal organs.

  • Fetal stage - From eight weeks after conception until birth, which is typically 38 weeks after conception, the fetus continues to develop. Developing internal organs, brain cells, and sensory organs all according to the instructions written in your DNA

  • Teratogens during the prenatal period are dangerous. Teratogens are substances that can alter the normal course of in-utero development in negative ways.

Video 26.2: Newborns

• Newborns appear to prefer complex patterns with high contrasting colors.

• Born with a preference for looking at faces

• Reflexes are automatic behaviors we are born with that will occur in very specific situations.

  • Rooting - When you touch a newborn on the cheek, they will turn their head in that direction.

  • Grasping - When you place your finger in a newborn's hand, they will hold onto it tightly

  • Moro reflex - Babies throw their arms outward and stretch out their hands if they are startled by a loud noise or sudden change in position.

  • Babinski reflex is when babies will spread out their toes when the bottom of their foot is stroked

Video 27.1: Cognitive Development

• Jean Piaget noticed that children tend to give similar answers to questions when they are the same approximate age, and that their answers reflected a different style of thinking than adults use.

• Equilibration – the idea that humans seek a balance and what they think and know about the world

• Assimilation - children will add newly learned concepts into their existing schema without altering it.

• Accommodation - adjust our existing schema to fit (or accommodate) this new information.

• Schema is your mental framework – the way you organize all of your thoughts.

• Jean Piaget also developed a stage-based theory to explain how children develop cognitively

  • The first stage, occurring from birth to about two years old, is called the sensorimotor stage.

    • One major milestone of this stage is called object permanence, or knowing that an object continues to exist even when it is not visible.

  • The second stage in Piaget's theory is the preoperational stage, which begins at age two and goes to age seven. During this stage, the child begins to use symbolic thought

  • The third stage is the concrete operational stage, which occurs from about age 7 through 11. During this stage, the use of logical thought increases dramatically.

    • The major milestone during this stage is the development of conservation

      • This is the understanding that when the appearance of an object changes, it does not necessarily change the amount or volume of the object.

  • The final stage for Piaget's theory is the formal operational stage, which begins at age 11 and continues on.

    • Children are able to understand abstract principles (such as honor and loyalty) and hypothetical possibilities.

    • They're also better at seeing from other people's perspective rather than just their own.

Video 27.2: Social Development

• Temperament is the term used to describe those aspects of your personality that are present at birth.

• Thomas and Chess conducted longitudinal research of children and found that there are three main temperament types that babies show.

  • Easy babies are usually in a pretty positive mood and handle routine changes well.

  • Difficult babies are generally in a negative mood, cry frequently, and don't deal well at all with changes to their normal routine.

  • Slow-to-warm-up babies tend to be more shy and take longer to adjust to new environments or changes in their routine.

• Konrad Lorenz studied imprinting in goslings, or baby geese.

• Harry Harlow - Contact comfort (warm feeling)

  • Harlow concluded that contact comfort, the warm feeling we get from snuggling, is more important than a food source in developing attachment bonds

• Mary Ainsworth's research examines the attachment bonds that children have with their primary caregiver

  • She put toddlers in a "Strange Situation," meaning a room that was new to them, and then had a stranger walk into the room and had the toddler's mom leave and then return.

  • Some children showed what Ainsworth called a secure attachment bond. These children were distressed when their mom left the room, but were comforted by her when she returned.

  • Other children showed an insecure avoidant bond. These toddlers resist being held by their mom and did not run to mom for reassurance when she returned.

  • Other children showed an insecure ambivalent attachment bond. These children show distress when their mom leaves, and upon her return will run towards her but refuse to be held or picked up for comfort.

• Diana Baumrind's research has found that there are some very distinct parenting styles that can result in personality patterns for their children.

  • Authoritative, permissive and authoritarian parenting

• Erik Erikson's theory of Psychosocial Development begins in the first year of life and continues through old age and to death.

  • The first stage is Trust versus Mistrust, ages 0 to 1 year.

  • The second stage is Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt, ages 1 to 3.

  • The third stage is Initiative versus Guilt, from ages 3 to 6.

  • The fourth stage is Industry versus Inferiority, from ages 6 through 12.

  • The fifth stage is Identity versus Role Confusion, during the adolescent years.

  • The sixth stage is Intimacy versus Isolation, during the early adulthood years.

  • The seventh stage is Generativity versus Stagnation, in middle adulthood

  • The final stage is Integrity versus Despair.

Video 27.3: Sex and Gender

• Sex generally refers to the biological distinction in anatomy, whereas gender refers more to the psychological experience of being masculine or feminine as well as the socially constructed roles associated with masculinity and femininity.

• While the biological elements of our sexuality usually follow a predictable pattern, gender can be more complex.

• We acquire our gender identity, our sense of being feminine or masculine, through a variety of means. Part of our gender is due to the presence of our primary sex hormone, either testosterone or estrogen.

• We also learn gender through a process called "Gender Role Socialization."

  • Set of behaviors that are expected from males and females, and they are strongly tied to the cultural norms.

• Some people naturally display both gender traits.

  • This is called androgyny, and is defined as a person who possesses both feminine and masculine traits as defined by their culture.

• Sandra Bem found that most people have a traditional match of sex and gender. And about 35% of the subjects she tested fell into the androgynous category, with the presence of various traits such as assertiveness, loyalty, self-reliance, affectionate, and gentle.

• Lawrence Kohlberg developed a theory of moral development by asking children of various ages how they would solve the moral dilemma called the "Heinz Dilemma."

  • Young children fall into the preconventional level, where their decision to steal the drug has more to do with whether they will be caught and if they could avoid being punished.

  • The second level is the conventional level, where children decide to steal the drug based on how other people will perceive them – as a hero or a thief.

  • The third level is the postconventional level, where people finally begin using their own, self-defined, sense of morality in the decision making.

• Kohlberg only included boys in his research, but Carol Gilligan believed it would be different if he included girls

• Carol Gilligan’s research found that there were gender differences in moral decision making and that boys tend to make decisions based on the idea of absolute justice, where girls tend to focus on the situational elements and on compassionate relationships.

Video 28.1: Basics of Personality

• Self Concept - Your understanding of your own personality

• Some of your personality traits may be inherited as in our temperament - the personality traits we are born with.

• Self-esteem is a term used to describe how much you love and value yourself.

• Personality tests are usually described as being either projective or objective.

  • Projective tests are ones that attempt to reveal the test takers unconscious elements of their personality.

  • Objective personality assessments are ones that will give you the same results regardless of the scorer.

Video 29.1: Psychoanalytic Theories

• Freud believed that our personality is in part shaped by the intrapsychic conflict, a battle between the id, ego, and the superego of the mind.

• Freud described the id as a process of the mind that is impulsive, focused on instant gratification and innate urges.

  • The id is driven by our life instincts (Eros) and our death instincts (Thanatos).

  • The id is fueled by the pleasure principle, a force that urges us to act in ways that will bring us joy regardless of the consequences

• The superego is fueled by the morality principle.

  • This reminds us of times where we have to be rewarded for doing the right things and punished for doing the wrong thing, called the ego ideal and the conscience.

• The ego is the process of our mind that must mediate between the wants and demands of the id and superego.

• The ego works mostly in our consciousness while the id is mostly in our unconscious.

• The ego uses something called defense mechanisms to help protect the mind from threatening or damaging thoughts.

  • Denial – where we fail to see things that are right in front of us.

  • Repression – burying thoughts into the unconscious, such as forgetting the name of a boyfriend or girlfriend because of a bad breakup.

  • Projection – believing your thoughts are the same as other people around you.

  • Displacement – redirecting your inappropriate thoughts or feelings to an alternate person.

  • Sublimation – redirecting your inappropriate thoughts or feelings to alternate outlets, such as when you are mad at your parents and go for a jog or paint a picture.

  • Reaction formation – acting in a way that is opposite of what you actually believe.

  • Rationalization – coming up with excuses to justify your behavior or thoughts.

  • regression – acting as if you were a child again, like having a tantrum when you did not get your way.

• Stages of Psychosexual Development

  • The first stage is the oral stage, which occurs from ages zero to one.

  • The second stage from ages one to three is the anal stage.

  • The third stage is the phallic stage, from ages three to six.

  • Finally, there is the genital stage beginning at puberty, where Freud believed people would begin focusing on more appropriate mates as their love interest.

• Alfred Adler is one of the neo freudian psychologists who focused on the inferiority complex as a motivator of behavior as we strive for superiority.

  • also studied the influence of birth order on personality development.

• Carl Jung was another well known Neo-Freudian. While Jung was a strong supporter of the idea of the unconscious, he differed from Freud in that he believed that there were two parts to it.

  • Jung described the personal unconscious as unique to you.

  • Jung then described the collective unconscious as a set of unconscious memories and thoughts that are shared with all humankind.

Video 29.2: Humanist Theories

• Maslow believed strongly in the power of free will.

• Because of this, he felt all humans were capable of reaching self-actualization.

• This quest for self-actualization in turn shapes our personality.

• Self Actualized people are

  • Accepting of their flaws

  • Have a purpose in life

  • Are humble and grateful

• Carl Rogers - Believed that humans need someone to offer unconditional positive regard to help them reach their fullest potential.

  • Unconditional positive regard is an unwavering acceptance and love for a person regardless of what they say or do.

• Rogers also discussed the importance of our own self-concept, or the understanding of your own personality.

  • He believed that the various elements of the self can sometimes be out of alignment.

  • Roger said if our self-image (how you see yourself), your true self (how you actually are in the world), and your ideal self (what you would like to be)  are not matched, Rogers said you are in a state of incongruence.

  • Incongruence can alter the personality in a variety of ways, including lowered self-esteem and a greater likelihood of anxiety and a depressed mood

Video 29.3: Social Cognitive Theories

• Albert Bandura - Reciprocal Determinism, which states that your internal and personal factors (your thoughts and feelings) , your behaviors, and your environment all interact with each other to shape your personality.

• Julian Rotter - Rotter's theory centers around the importance of Locus of Control in Personality formation.

  • If you have an internal Locus of Control, it means that you feel like you have the power to control and shape the environment around you.

  • An external Locus of Control means that you feel that your life is left more up to chance, and that you cannot control or change the outcome. Having an external locus of control can be frustrating, as you feel nothing you do matters

Video 29.4: Trait Theories

• trait theories - group of personality theories that describes the characteristics you possess, as opposed to explaining how you developed them.

• Our traits tend to be relatively stable over our lifetime and are consistently displayed in our behaviors.

• Gordon Allport developed one of the early trait theories.

  • Allport stated that some people have a "cardinal trait," a trait that is clear and obvious in all that we do.

  • While Allport believed only some people have this cardinal trait, we all have central traits. These are traits that are of the foundation blocks of our personality.

  • Allport also believed that there are secondary traits that are a bit less consistent and are seen just occasionally in our personality.

• Raymond Cattel - Cattell found Allport's theories cumbersome in the number of traits he outlined. Using factor analysis, Cattell narrowed down the traits to a total of 16.

  • Factor analysis is a statistical technique to quantify a set of qualitative data.

  • Cattell called the 16 traits in his list source traits. These are the underlying characteristics that are reflected in what Cattell called surface traits, more observable ones.

  • Cattell also created a personality assessment to measure these source traits called the 16 Personality Factor (or 16 PF).

• Hans Eysenck - His theory measured personality based on two dimensions: your level of introversion or extroversion, and your level of emotional stability or neuroticism.

• Big Five from McCrae and Costa

Video 30.1: Intelligence Defined and Measured

• Intelligence is the global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally and to deal effectively with his environment.

• Sir Francis Galton, a prominent English psychometrician, defined intelligence as being related to two things: your capacity for labor (which he called energy) and your sensitivity to physical stimuli.

• Clark Wissler reviewed tests based on Galton's idea of intelligence and found no correlation to the test results and the academic success of college students at Columbia University and Barnard College.

• Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon created the first intelligence test. Their assessment measured the mental age of children, or the age that describes their thinking style regardless of their actual age.

• The test was later revised by Lewis Terman, a professor at Stanford University in California, who renamed this newly adapted test the "Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test."

• William Stern's Ratio IQ is measured by taking the mental age, divided by the chronological age (or your actual age), then multiplied by 100.

Video 30.2: Quality Control in Test Design

• Some tests are designed to measure achievement, or how much you've learned or accomplished.

  • These are called achievement tests

• Other tests are designed as aptitude tests. These tests are measuring your potential.

• Some of the tests are said to measure your potential in college, as well as how much you've learned. In this way, it's said to be both an aptitude and achievement test.

• Four of the standards in good test design include:

  • Validity

    • Content validity is whether the test measures how much you know about a specific subject matter or skill.

    • Predictive validity is that the test should measure how you will do in the future.

    • Concurrent validity is whether or not the test measures both the content required and predictive abilities

    • Face validity is a measure of how the test takers view the exam.

  • reliability

    • Test-retest reliability, ensuring you get close to the same results if the test is taken again.

    • Alternate-forms reliability ensures that a different version of the same test will yield the same results.

    • Inter-rater reliability means the score will be the same no matter who grades it

  • Standardization - ensuring that all test takers are given the same exam environment, amount of time, materials, instructions, and so on.

  • Norms - Normative scores help compare your raw score (the number you answered correctly) with the average scores for all test takers.

Video 30.3: Theories of Intelligence

• Charles Spearman describes a more general measure of intelligence that is not based on how much you have learned, or what you have memorized.

  • His theory describes this as the "G-Factor," or your general intelligence.

  • The G-Factor is described as a single factor that pervades all of your thinking abilities.

  • Spearman also took into account that we have other, more specific forms of knowledge, that he called as S-Factors, or specific factor.

  • So while you have a measure of your general intelligence (G-Factor), you also have S-factors for the particular subject matters you know, such as music, math, history, and so on.

• L. L. Thurstone believed that our general intelligence was made up of seven factors he called "Primary Mental Abilities."

  • The Primary Mental Abilities included: Verbal comprehension, verbal fluency, inductive reasoning, spatial visualization, numbers, memory, and perceptual speed.

• Raymond Cattell also proposed a theory focused on the difference of what he called Fluid versus Crystallized Intelligence.

  • Fluid intelligence is our ability to problem solve and learn new skills.

  • Crystallized intelligence is the knowledge that we build up over our lifetime

• Research has discovered that our Fluid Intelligence may decline over our lifetime, but our Crystallized Intelligence may actually increase.

• Robert Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence proposes three main types of intelligence: Analytic Intelligence, Creative Intelligence, and Practical Intelligence.

• Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Gardner's theory, like Sternberg, proposes that there are several different intelligences that we may excel in.

Video 30.4: Extremes of Intelligence

• Intelligence is in part derived from our environment, beginning before we were even born.

  • Proper prenatal health care and vitamins can give babies a better start in developing their brain and nervous system.

  • Growing up in an enriched environment, one that is deliberately more complex and novel, can help build intelligence.

• Intelligence is also in part due to our genetics. This link is measured as heritability, or the extent to which a trait is transmitted through genes.

• Studies of identical and fraternal twins, raised together and apart, show a strong link between intelligence and genetics. Identical twins often have strikingly similar IQ scores. The correlation is not nearly as high for fraternal twins or siblings.

• The combined influence of nature and nurture might also explain the Flynn Effect. The Flynn Effect, named for the researcher who calculated the effect, is the yearly rise of IQ scores that has occurred in the 20th century.

• Intellectual disabilities, formerly referred to as mental retardation, is diagnosed when the individual has an IQ score of below 70 as well as having low self-care and adaptive abilities.

• Phenylketonuria (PKU) and congenital thyroid abnormalities are two types of these organic causes of intellectual disabilities, or biological causes. Both can be treated if caught early through newborn screening and regular visits with pediatricians.

• The other end of the intelligence range spectrum is giftedness. Giftedness is the term used for those people with IQs over 130 and genius may be used as the scores go even higher.

• Lewis Terman began a longitudinal study of gifted children from California. The sample included around 1,500 children with IQs over 135. These children, cleverly called termites, were followed into adulthood to track their progress and success in life.