PSYCH 100 Exam 1 Study Notes

Topic: Psychology as a Science - Core idea: Psychology as a scientific study of behavior and mental processes, integrating empirical methods with theories about mind and brain. - Early roots and illustrative cases:- Phineas Gage: famous neuropsychology case showing how frontal lobe damage can alter personality and behavior, linking brain regions to function. - Aristotle: emphasized empirical observation and the mind–body relationship foundational for later science of psychology. - Descartes’ dualism: proposed mind and body as distinct substances; interact via the pineal gland; influenced thinking about mental phenomena and mechanistic explanations of behavior. - Founding figures and movements in psychology’s formation as a science:- Wilhelm Wundt: established the first psychology laboratory; promoted experimental methods to study conscious experience. - Structuralism (Edward Titchener): aimed to identify the structure of the mind through introspection; method relied on trained observers reporting their conscious experiences. - Problems with introspection: subjective reports; variability across people and even within the same person; difficult to verify and replicate; limited to reported experiences rather than observable behavior. - Functionalism (William James): focused on the functions and purposes of consciousness and behavior; influenced by Darwinian thinking and the idea that mental processes help organisms adapt to environments; broader and more practical than structuralism. - Mary Calkins: prominent early psychologist; contributed to memory research; broke gender barriers in the field (though not awarded a PhD from Harvard at the time). - Margaret Floy Washburn: first woman to earn a PhD in psychology; studied animal behavior and cognition; author of "The Animal Mind." - Behaviorism: John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner; emphasized observable behavior and environmental determinants; minimized or rejected focus on unobservable mental states; classical conditioning (Pavlov) and operant conditioning (reinforcement/punishment) as core mechanisms. - Freudian psychology (psychoanalysis): Sigmund Freud; emphasized unconscious processes, defense mechanisms, and psychosexual development; influential in clinical settings and popular culture, though criticized for limited empirical support. - Humanistic psychology: Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow; emphasized human potential, self-actualization, and client-centered therapy; reactive to determinism of behaviorism and pathologizing of mental life; stressed subjectivity, growth, and free will. - Cognitive psychology and the cognitive revolution: renewed focus on internal mental processes (perception, memory, language, problem solving); information-processing framework; eventual integration with neuroscience (cognitive neuroscience). - Modern definition of psychology: the science that studies behavior and mental processes, including perception, cognition, emotion, motivation, brain functions, and social influences. - Levels of analysis and research orientations:- Levels of analysis: biological (neuroscience), psychological (thoughts and feelings), and social-cultural (environment and culture) perspectives. - Basic vs applied research: basic seeks fundamental understanding; applied seeks practical solutions to real-world problems. - Subfields of psychology (sample of major areas):- Clinical and counseling psychology - Cognitive neuroscience - Industrial/organizational psychology - Developmental psychology - Social psychology - Other subfields (e.g., educational, health, sports, forensic, etc.) ## Biases, Scientific Method, and Research Design - Biases and pitfalls in scientific thinking (Golding and Rouse, 2000):- Overconfidence bias: overestimating the accuracy of one’s beliefs or judgments. - Cognitive biases/limitation s: systematic errors in thinking that affect decisions and interpretations. - The empirical scientific method (an emphasis in psychology):- Theory: an integrated set of principles that organize observations and predict outcomes. - Hypothesis: a testable statement derived from a theory. - Observation: systematic collection of data to test hypotheses. - Operational definition: precise, observable, and measurable definitions of variables. - Research designs: plans for collecting and analyzing data to address research questions. ## Descriptive, Correlational, and Experimental Designs - Descriptive methods (to observe and describe behavior):- Case study: in-depth study of a single individual or small group. - Naturalistic observation: observation of behavior in natural settings without intervention. - Survey and interview: collecting self-report data from a sample. - Random sampling: selecting participants so that each member of the population has an equal chance of being included. - Correlational methods:- Positive correlation: as one variable increases, the other tends to increase. - Negative correlation: as one variable increases, the other tends to decrease. - Correlation coefficient: a statistic that measures the strength and direction of a relationship between two variables. - Mathematical form (population): $r =\frac{\text{cov}(X,Y) }{ \sigma<em>X \sigma</em>Y }$ - Mathematical form (sample): $r =\frac{\text{sum}<em>{i=1}^n (x</em>i - \bar{x})(y<em>i - \bar{y}) }{ \bigg[ \text{sum}</em>{i=1}^n (x<em>i - \bar{x})^2 \bigg]^{1/2} \bigg[ \text{sum}</em>{i=1}^n (y_i - \bar{y})^2 \bigg]^{1/2} }$ - Correlation does not imply causation; spurious correlations can occur due to third variables or coincidence. - Experimental designs:- Independent variable (IV): the factor that is manipulated by the experimenter. - Dependent variable (DV): the outcome measured. - Confounding variables: variables that vary along with the IV and could account for observed effects; need to be controlled. - Ethical issues in research:- Tuskegee syphilis study as a historical example of unethical research. - Institutional Review Board (IRB): oversight to ensure ethical treatment of participants. - Guidelines for ethical research: informed consent, confidentiality, minimizing harm, and right to withdraw. ## Nature, Nurture, and Human Diversity: Behavior Genetics - Core concepts:- Nature vs nurture: the roles of genetics and environment in shaping behavior and traits. - Genetic determinism: the view that genes alone determine behavior; often an oversimplification; environment can influence gene expression. - Trait: a characteristic that can be inherited or shaped by environment. - Environment: includes prenatal conditions, upbringing, culture, learning experiences, and societal factors. - Human genome: complete set of genetic material in humans. - Chromosome: thread-like structures containing DNA; humans have 23 pairs. - DNA: deoxyribonucleic acid; the molecule carrying genetic information. - Genes: units of heredity that influence traits. - Single gene effect vs. multiple gene effect: some traits influenced by one gene; most complex traits involve multiple genes. - Twin studies as a method to disentangle genetics from environment:- Identical (monozygotic) twins: share nearly all their genes. - Fraternal (dizygotic) twins: share about 50% of their segregating genes. - Classic comparisons: higher similarity for identical twins than fraternal twins suggests genetic influence; twin studies in different environments show environmental effects. - Gottesman (1991) and schizophrenia: research using twin studies to examine genetic contribution to schizophrenia; findings indicate substantial heritability but not determinism, with environment also playing a role. - Twins raised in different homes: evidence for environmental influences on trait expression while still showing genetic contributions. - Epigenetics: how environmental factors influence gene expression without changing the DNA sequence; mechanisms include DNA methylation and histone modification; gene–environment interactions help explain variability in behavior and disease risk. ## Evolutionary Psychology - Core idea: many human behaviors and cognitive processes are shaped by evolutionary pressures and natural selection. - Natural selection: differential survival and reproduction favoring traits that enhance fitness in ancestral environments. - Peppered moth example: industrial melanism; in polluted environments, darker moths had higher camouflage and survival; with cleaner environments, lighter morphs regained advantage; classic demonstration of natural selection in response to environmental change. - Sexual selection:- Intra-sexual selection: competition within the same sex (e.g., male-male competition). - Inter-sexual selection: selection by mate choice (e.g., female choice). - Leads to traits that enhance mating success, sometimes at costs to other survival aspects. - Evolutionary adaptations: mental and behavioral toolkits that solved recurrent problems faced by ancestors (e.g., mate choice, parenting, cooperation). - Perceptual and cognitive phenomena:- Trichromatic color vision: human color perception based on three types of cone photoreceptors (short, medium, long wavelengths) enabling discrimination across a wide color spectrum. - Face perception: specialized processing for recognizing and interpreting faces, important for social interaction and threat detection. - Infant schema (baby schema): facial and body features of infants (e.g., big eyes, round face) that trigger caregiving and protective responses. - Culture, gender, and environmental influences on psychology:- Experience and brain development: environment shapes neural connections and brain maturation. - Rosenzweig et al., 1962: enriched environments increase brain development in animals (e.g., thicker cortex, more synapses) compared to deprived environments; supports the role of experience in neural development. - Habituation: a simple form of learning where response to a repeated, benign stimulus decreases over time. - Synaptic pruning: age-related reduction of unused synaptic connections, streamlining neural networks based on experience.