General psychology

🧠 Thought and Language

Thinking

• Thinking: Manipulating mental representations.

• Categories: Grouping based on common properties.

• Concept: Mental representation of a category.

Types of Reasoning

• Induction (Specific → General):

  • Example: “This immigrant is a criminal → All immigrants are criminals.”

  • Scientific reasoning: “HM has no hippocampus and no memory → The hippocampus is where memory is.”

• Deduction (General → Specific):

  • Example: “Jews are cheap → I am cheap.”

  • Scientific reasoning: “Gravity makes things fall at the same speed → These two objects will hit the ground at the same time.”

Analogical Reasoning

• Understanding a situation in terms of a familiar one.

• Tip: It’s best to visualize steps rather than focusing only on the end goal.

• Note: Reasoning is not always rational.

Heuristics (Mental Shortcuts)

• Representative Heuristic: Match by prototype.

• Availability Heuristic: Decision based on how easily something comes to mind.

• Anchoring Heuristic: Decision based on immediate prior experience.

Implicit Learning

• People learn covariations unconsciously.

Connectionism (PDP – Parallel Distributed Processing)

• The mind is like the brain: organized in networks, functions in parallel.

• Constraint Satisfaction: When figuring something out, several concepts are activated simultaneously; we narrow down to the best fit.

  • This explains proofreading problems.

• Connection Weight: Strength between two units in the mind; ranges from -1 to +1.

💬 Language

• Thought shapes language or Language shapes thought (Whorf hypothesis).

• Nonverbal Communication:

  • We can predict evaluations of a therapist/teacher after only 30 seconds of silent video (even 2 seconds works to a degree).

  • Animals: Clearly use nonverbal communication. Their use of verbal language is debated.

    • Example: Alex the parrot showed language use. Apes can use sign language.

    🌙 Consciousness

    Definition and Features

    • Consciousness: Subjective awareness.

    • Involves focusing attention on one aspect of experience and selecting it.

    • Unattended info is still processed, as shown by the cocktail party phenomenon.

    • Consciousness:

      • Limited capacity

      • Uses resources

      • Can only do one thing at a time

      • Flexible and controllable

    • Unconsciousness:

      • Fast

      • Efficient

      • Large capacity

    Functions of Consciousness

    • Monitoring: Keep tabs on what we’re doing.

    • Self-Control: Override automatic functioning; highlight what to attend to.

    • Planning

    Theories of Consciousness

    • Psychodynamic:

      • Conscious

      • Preconscious

      • Unconscious

      • The unconscious is dynamic and motivated.

      • Anxiety can motivate repression.

    • Cognitive:

      • Unconscious = processing outside awareness (e.g., implicit memory/learning).

      • Operates in parallel.

💤 Sleep and Dreams

Sleep

• Adults need 6.5–8.5 hours of sleep per night.

• Sleep occurs in 90-minute cycles.

• About 25% of each cycle is REM (approx. 22.5 minutes).

• REM Sleep:

  • Most dreaming takes place.

Theories of Dreams

• Biblical

• Pagan

• Psychodynamic (Freud):

  • Manifest content: Actual dream.

  • Latent content: Hidden meaning.

  • Dreams are about sex and aggression.

  • Modern psychoanalysis: Emotional concerns.

• Cognitive:

  • Dreams use metaphors to represent day-to-day concerns.

• Biological:

  • Random firing of neurons.

  • OR Memory consolidation.

Altered States

• Drugs can alter consciousness.

• Hypnosis is controversial:

  • Some say it’s role-playing.

  • Others say it’s an altered state (supported by hypnosis-assisted surgeries).

⚡ Motivation

What is Motivation?

• Definition: What makes us do what we do.

• Two components:

  • Direction (What the person wants to do)

  • Strength & Persistence (How strongly the person wants to do it)

Theories of Motivation

• Incentive Theory: Motivation pulls us toward what we want.

• Drive Theory: Motivation pushes us to reduce discomfort.

Behaviorism

• Drive Reduction: Do things to reduce bad feelings (e.g., eat because hungry).

• Drive Increase: Do things for pleasure (e.g., eat chocolate because it tastes good).

• Models:

  • Habit × Drive = Behavior (H × D)

  • Habit × Drive × Incentive = Behavior (H × D × K)

Psychodynamic

• Unconscious motives underlie behavior.

• Freud: Motivated by sex and aggression.

• Later views: Add relatedness and self-esteem.

Psychosocial Theory (McClelland)

• Achievement: Compete with self; enjoy moderate risk, puzzles, maps.

• Power: Influence others; prefer leadership, prestige.

• Affiliation: Want to be around others; dislike being alone.

• Intimacy: Seek closeness, mutual dependency.

• Motivation is unconscious.

• Measured using TAT cards (storytelling).

• McClelland: Achievement → economic development.

• Winter: Motives predict presidential behavior.

Humanistic (Maslow)

• Hierarchy of Needs (pyramid):

  1. Physiological – survival (food, water)

  2. Safety – security, shelter

  3. Love – belonging

  4. Esteem – admiration, success

  5. Self-Actualization – fulfill potential

Cognitive

• Expectancy × Value Theory (E × V)

• TOTE Model (Test → Operate → Test → Exit)

Intrinsic Motivation

• Comes from within; naturally enjoyable.

• Can be damaged by external rewards.

❤ Emotion

Definition

• Emotion is an evaluative response with:

  • Physiological arousal

  • Subjective experience

Which Comes First: Emotion or Behavior?

• James: Behavior first → emotion follows.

• Cannon: Emotion first → behavior follows.

Emotional Experience

• We respond positively/negatively automatically, even before full awareness.

Expression and Universality

• Darwin: Even blind people express emotions the same way.

• Ekman: Five universal facial emotions:

  • Anger

  • Fear

  • Happiness

  • Sadness

  • Disgust

• Cultural differences in emotional expression behaviorally.

Emotion and Health

• Pennebaker: Writing about negative experiences improves health.

Jealousy and Sex Differences

• Men: More sensitive to sexual infidelity.

• Women: More sensitive to emotional/relational infidelity.