Chapter 5: Foundations: History

Chapter 5 Flashcard Set

Prehistory and History of Psychology

Psychology is the study of behavior and the mind.

• Behavior, a natural process subject to natural laws, refers to the observable actions of a person or an animal.

• The mind refers to the sensations, memories, motives, emotions, thoughts, and other subjective phenomena particular to an individual or animal that are not readily observed.

• The ancient Greeks’ speculations on the nature of the mind heavily influenced the pre-history of psychology as a science.

Dualism

• Dualism divides the world and all things in it into two parts: body and spirit.

• Dualism is a theme that recurs often in early psychology, but the distinction between body and spirit prefigures current debates around the difference between the brain (that is, the command center of the central nervous system) and the mind (that is, the sensations, memories, emotions, thoughts, and other subjective experiences of a particular individual).

René Descartes (1596–1650)

• An early modern philosopher, continued the dualist view of the human being.

• He believed that the physical world and all of the creatures in it are like machines, in that they behave in observable, predictable ways.

• Descartes believed that humans were the exception to this rule because they possess minds.

John Locke (1632–1704)

• extended Descartes’s application of natural laws to all things, believing that even the mind is under the control of such laws.

• Locke’s school of thought is known as empiricism—the acquisition of truth through observations and experiences.

• Locke proposed that humans are born knowing nothing; Locke used the term tabula rasa (Latin for “blank slate”) to describe the mind of an infant.

  • It is a philosophical concept that suggests that all people are born with no pre-existing mental content or knowledge and that knowledge is acquired through experience.

    • It is the idea that everyone is a “blank slate” upon entering the world and that their beliefs, attitudes, and perspectives are shaped by the environment and the experiences that they have.

Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679)

• Believed that the idea of a soul or spirit, or even of a mind, is meaningless.

• Hobbes’s philosophy is known as materialism, which is the belief that the only things that exist are matter and energy.

• Charles Darwin (1809–1882) - proposed a theory of natural selection, according to which all creatures have evolved into their present state over long periods of time.

• Evolutionary theory - affected psychology by providing a way to explain differences between species and justifying the use of animals as a means to study the roots of human behavior.

Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920)

• The founder of the science of psychology.

• Wundt was trained in physiology and hoped to apply the methods that he used to study the body to the study of the mind.

Edward Titchener (1867–1927)

• was a student in Wundt’s laboratory and was one of the first to bring the science of psychology to the United States.

• Structuralism, entails looking for patterns in thought, which are illuminated through interviews with a subject describing his or her conscious experience.

William James (1842–1910)

• An American psychologist, opposed the structuralist approach.

• He argued that what is important is the function of the mind, such as how it solves a complex problem.

• James, heavily influenced by Darwin, believed that the important thing to understand is how the mind fulfills its purpose.

  • This function-oriented approach is appropriately called functionalism.

• Dorothea Dix was crucial in advocating for the rights of mentally ill poor people, and she was instrumental in founding the first public mental hospital in the United States.

• Mary Whiton Calkins was the first female graduate student in psychology, although she was denied a PhD because of her gender.

• Margaret Floy Washburn was not only the first female PhD in psychology, she also served as the second female president of the American Psychological Association (APA), an organization formed in 1892.

Approaches

• Approach 1: Biological: Biological psychology is the field of psychology that seeks to understand the interactions between anatomy and physiology (particularly, the physiology of the nervous system) and behavior.

• Approach 2: Behavioral Genetics: Behavioral genetics is the field of psychology that explores how particular behaviors may be attributed to specific, genetically based psychological characteristics.

Approach 3: Behavioralist

• Behaviorism posits that psychology is the study of observable behavior.

  • The mind or mental events are unimportant as they cannot be observed.

• Classical conditioning, first identified by Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936), was one of the behaviorists’ most important early findings.

• John Watson (1878–1958) and his assistant Rosalie Rayner applied classical conditioning to humans in the famed Little Albert experiment: they made loud sounds behind a 9-month-old whenever he would touch something white and furry, and voila: he was afraid of everything white and furry afterwards.

• B. F. Skinner (1904–1990), through the development of his Skinner Box, described operant conditioning, in which a subject learns to associate a behavior with an environmental outcome.

• Approach 4: Cognitive: Cognitive psychology is an approach rooted in the idea that to understand people’s behavior, we must first understand how they construe their environment—in other words, how they think.

Approach 5: Humanistic

• The humanistic approach is rooted in the philosophical tradition of studying the roles of consciousness, free will, and awareness of the human condition.

• Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) proposed the idea of self-actualization, the need for individuals to reach their full potential in a creative way.

• Attaining self-actualization means accepting yourself and your nature, while knowing your limits and strengths.

• Carl Rogers (1902–1987) stressed the role of unconditional positive regard in interactions and the need for a positive self-concept as critical factors in attaining self-actualization.

Approach 6: Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic

• Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) developed a theory of human behavior known as psychoanalytic theory.

• Freud was concerned with individuals and their mental problems.

• Freud drew a distinction between the conscious mind—a mental state of awareness that we have ready access to—and the unconscious mind—those mental processes that we do not normally have access to but that still influence our behaviors, thoughts, and feelings.

• Approach 7: Sociocultural: According to this approach, cultural values vary from society to society and must be taken into account if one wishes to understand, predict, or control behavior.

Approach 8: Evolutionary

• The evolutionary approach draws upon the theories of Darwin.

• Behavior can best be explained in terms of how adaptive that behavior is to our survival.

• Approach 9: Biopsychosocial: The biopsychosocial approach emphasizes the need to investigate the interaction of biological, psychological, and social factors as contributing to a behavior or a mental process.

Domains

• A question that concerns the effect of drugs on behavior refers to the biological domain.

  • But a question that deals with relationships between drug users and their families refers to the social domain.

    • And a question that considers treatment options for someone addicted to drugs deals with the clinical domain.

• Other domains include:

  • Cognitive (What thoughts might someone entertain to justify their drug use?)

  • Counseling (How might a school counselor talk to a student about drugs?)

  • Developmental (At what ages might someone be more susceptible to peer pressure?)

  • Educational (How effective are school-based programs?)

• Yet other domains include:

  • Experimental (dealing with experiments)

  • Industrial-organizational (dealing with workplaces)

  • Personality (dealing with—you guessed it!—personality)

  • Psychometric (dealing with how to measure things in psychology)

  • Positive domain (which focuses on positive aspects and strengths of human behavior).

Chapter 6: Foundations: Methods and Approaches

Chapter 6 Flashcard Set

Experimental, Correlational, and Clinical Research

• An experiment is an investigation seeking to understand relations of cause and effect.

• The manipulated variable is called the independent variable.

• The dependent variable is what is measured.

• The presence of the doll in both groups is the control variable, because it is constant in both groups.

• The researcher identifies a specific population, or group of interest, to be studied.

• Because the population may be too large to study effectively, a representative sample of the population may be drawn.

• Representativeness is the degree to which a sample reflects the diverse characteristics of the population that is being studied.

• Random sampling is a way of ensuring maximum representativeness.

  • Once sampling has been addressed, subjects are randomly assigned into both the experimental and control groups.

Sampling Bias

• The bias of selection from a specific real area occurs when people are selected in a physical space.

• Self-selection bias occurs when the people being studied have some control over whether or not to participate.

• Pre-screening or advertising bias occurs often in medical research; how volunteers are screened or where advertising is placed might skew the sample.

• Healthy user bias occurs when the study population tends to be in better shape than the general population.

• Single-blind design means that the subjects do not know whether they are in the control or experimental group.

• Double-blind studies are designed so that the experimenter does not inadvertently change the responses of the subject, such as by using a different tone of voice with members of the control group than with the experimental group.

• Correlational research involves assessing the degree of association between two or more variables or characteristics of interest that occur naturally.

• If an unknown factor is playing a role, it is known as a confounding variable, a third variable, or an extraneous variable.

• One way to gather information for correlational studies is through surveys.

• Clinical research often takes the form of case studies.

• Case studies are intensive psychological studies of single individuals.

Experimental Design

• Two important features of studies are the conceptual definition and the operational definition.

  • Whereas the conceptual definition is the theory or issue being studied, the operational definition refers to the way in which that theory or issue will be directly observed or measured in the study.

• Internal validity is the certainty with which the results of an experiment can be attributed to the manipulation of the independent variable rather than to some other, confounding variable.

• External validity is the extent to which the findings of a study can be generalized to other contexts in the “real world.”

• A related concept is inter-rater reliability, the degree to which different raters agree on their observations of the same data.

• STATISTICS : Descriptive statistics summarize data, whereas inferential statistics allow researchers to test hypotheses about data and determine how confident they can be in their inferences about the data.

Descriptive Statistics

• The mean is the arithmetic average of a set of numbers.

• The mode is the most frequently occurring value in the data set. (If two numbers both appear with the greatest frequency, the distribution is called bimodal.)

• The median is the number that falls exactly in the middle of a distribution of numbers.

• These statistics can be represented by a normal curve.

• The range is simply the largest number minus the smallest number.

• Variability refers to how much the numbers in the set differ from one another.

• The standard deviation measures a function of the average dispersion of numbers around the mean and is a commonly used measure of variability.

• Percentiles express the standing of one score relative to all other scores in a set of data.

• A positive skew means that most values are on the lower end, but there are some exceptionally large values.

• A negative skew means the opposite: most values are on the higher end, but there are some exceptionally small values. This creates a “tail” or skew toward the negative end.

• The correlation coefficient is a statistic that will give us such information.

• The Pearson correlation coefficient is a descriptive statistic that describes the linear relationship between two attributes.

Inferential Statistics

• Inferential statistics are used to determine our level of confidence in claiming that a given set of results would be extremely unlikely to occur if the result were only up to chance.

• Sample size refers to the number of observations or individuals measured.

• The null hypothesis states that a treatment had no effect in an experiment.

• The alternative hypothesis is that the treatment did have an effect.

• Alpha is the accepted probability that the result of an experiment can be attributed to chance rather than the manipulation of the independent variable.

• A Type I error refers to the conclusion that a difference exists when, in fact, this difference does not exist.

• A Type II error refers to the conclusion that there is no difference when, in fact, there is a difference.

  • The probability of making a Type I error is called the p-value.

Ethics in Research

• Occasionally, psychological experiments involve deception, which may be used if informing participants of the nature of the experiment might bias results.

  • This deception is typically small, but in rare instances it can be extreme.

• Stanley Milgram conducted obedience experiments in which he convinced participants that they were administering painful electric shocks to other participants, when, in fact, no shocks were given.

• Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) assess research plans before the research is approved to ensure that it meets all ethical standards.

• Participants must give informed consent; in other words, they agree to participate in the study only after they have been told what their participation entails.

• After the experiment is concluded, participants must receive a debriefing, in which they are told the exact purpose of their participation in the research and of any deception that may have been used in the process of experimentation.

• Confidentiality is another area of concern for psychology.

Chapter 7: Biological Bases: The Brain and Nervous System

Chapter 7 Flashcard Set

Introduction to Biology and Behavior

• Physiological psychology is the study of behavior as influenced by biology.

• It draws its techniques and research methods from biology and medicine to examine psychological phenomena.

Imaging Techniques

• Imaging techniques allow researchers to map the structure and/or activity of the brain and correlate this data with behavior.

• An EEG (electroencephalogram) measures subtle changes in brain electrical activity through electrodes placed on the head.

• Computerized axial tomography scans, better known as CAT scans, generate cross-sectional images of the brain using a series of X-ray pictures taken from different angles.

• MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) uses extremely powerful electromagnets and radio waves to get 3-D structural information from the brain.

• Functional MRI (fMRI) and PET scans (positron emission tomography) do allow scientists to view the brain as it is working.

Functional Organization of the Nervous System

• The nervous system can be divided into two distinct subsystems:

  • Central nervous system (CNS)—comprising the brain and the spinal cord

  • Peripheral nervous system (PNS)—comprising all other nerves in the body.

• The brain is located in the skull and is the central processing center for thoughts, motivations, and emotions.

• The brain, as well as the rest of the nervous system, is made up of neurons, or nerve cells.

• Nerves sending information to the brain are sensory (or afferent) neurons; those conveying information from the brain are motor (or efferent) neurons.

• Reflexes are quick and involuntary responses to environmental stimuli.

• The PNS can be subdivided into the somatic nervous system and the autonomic nervous system.

  • The somatic nervous system is responsible for voluntary movement of large skeletal muscles.

  • The autonomic nervous system controls the nonskeletal or smooth muscles, such as those of the heart and digestive tract.

• The sympathetic nervous system is associated with processes that burn energy.

  • This is the system responsible for the heightened state of physiological arousal known as the fight-or-flight reaction—an increase in heart rate and respiration, accompanied by a decrease in digestion and salivation.

• The parasympathetic nervous system is the complementary system responsible for conserving energy.

Neuroanatomy

• The brain is divided into three distinct regions that have evolved over time.

• These are the hindbrain, the midbrain, and the forebrain (limbic system and cerebral cortex).

The Hindbrain

• The oldest part of the brain to develop, in evolutionary terms

• Composed of the cerebellum, medulla oblongata, reticular activating system (RAS), and pons

• Cerebellum—controls muscle tone and balance

• Medulla oblongata—controls involuntary actions, such as breathing, digestion, heart rate, and swallowing (basic life functions)

• Reticular activating system (RAS)—controls arousal (wakefulness and alertness).

  • This is also known as the reticular formation.

• Pons—Latin for “bridge,” the pons is a way station, passing neural information from one brain region to another.

  • The pons is also implicated in REM sleep.

The Midbrain

• The midbrain is a region of the brain that helps to control vision, hearing, and other functions related to movement.

• It also plays an important role in processing sensory information from the body and sending it back to other parts of the brain.

• The midbrain is located between the forebrain and hindbrain, forming a bridge between them.

• Major components of the midbrain are the tectum and the tegmentum

  • These two act as the brain’s roof (tectum) and floor (tegmentum).

• The tectum and tegmentum govern visual and auditory reflexes, such as orienting to a sight or sound.

The Forebrain

• The forebrain is the part of the brain located at the front of the head, consisting mainly of the cerebrum.

• The forebrain is responsible for higher-level thinking such as abstract thought and decision making.

• It also plays a role in learning, memory formation, and language processing.

  • Additionally, it controls many bodily functions like movement and coordination.

• Contains the limbic system, or emotional center of the brain

• Composed of the thalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus

• Thalamus—relays sensory information; receives and directs sensory information from visual and auditory systems

• Hippocampus—involved in processing and integrating memories.

• Amygdala—implicated in the expression of anger and frustration

• Hypothalamus—controls the temperature and water balance of the body; controls hunger and sex drives; orchestrates the activation of the sympathetic nervous system and the endocrine system; and it can be divided into the lateral hypothalamus and ventromedial hypothalamus, the combination of which regulates eating behaviors and body weight.

• Also contains the cerebral cortex, or the wrinkled outer layer of the brain

• This area receives sensory input (sensory cortex) and sends out motor information (motor cortex).

• The cortex covers two symmetrical-looking sides of the brain known as the left and right cerebral hemispheres.

  • These hemispheres are joined together by a band of connective nerve fibers called the corpus callosum.

• The left hemisphere is typically specialized for language processing, as first noticed by Paul Broca, who observed that brain damage to the left hemisphere in stroke patients resulted in expressive aphasia, or loss of the ability to speak.

  • This area of the brain is known as Broca’s area.

• Another researcher, Carl Wernicke, discovered an area in the left temporal lobe that, when damaged in stroke patients, resulted in receptive aphasia, or the inability to comprehend speech.

  • This is called Wernicke’s Area.

• Roger Sperry demonstrated that the two hemispheres of the brain can operate independently of each other.

  • He did this by performing experiments on split-brain patients who had their corpus callosums severed to control their epileptic seizures.

• Damage to these association areas can lead to a variety of dysfunctions, including apraxia, the inability to organize movement; agnosia, a difficulty processing sensory input; alexia, the inability to read; and agraphia, the inability to write.

Neural Transmission

• Nerves are bundles of neurons, the basic unit of the nervous system.

  • Neurons are cells with a clearly defined, nucleated cell body, or soma.

  • Branching out from the soma are dendrites, which receive input from other neurons through receptors on their surface.

  • The axon is a long, tubelike structure that responds to input from the dendrites and soma.

• Some neurons have a fatty coating known as a myelin sheath surrounding the axon.

• The myelin looks like beads on a string; the small gaps between the “beads” are known as the nodes of Ranvier.

• The axons end in terminal buttons, knobs on the branched end of the axon.

  • The gap between them is known as a synapse.

• A terminal button releases neurotransmitters, chemical messengers, across the synapse, where they bind with receptors on subsequent dendrites.

• Leak channels are channels that are open all the time and that simply allow ions to “leak” across the membrane according to their gradient.

• An action potential, also referred to as a nerve impulse, is a disturbance in this membrane potential.

• Excitatory neurotransmitters serve to excite the cell or cause the neuron to fire.

• Inhibitory neurotransmitters inhibit (or stop) cell firing.

• Michael Gazzaniga has not only done pioneering research in this area, focusing on split-brain patients, but also published works in cognitive neuroscience for the general reader.

Endocrine System

• The endocrine system provides another way by which various parts of our bodies relay information to one another.

  • This system works through groups of cells known as glands, which release substances called hormones.

• The primary gland is the pituitary gland, which is also known as the master gland.

• Stressful situations cause the pituitary to release adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), which stimulates the adrenal glands, resulting in fight-or-flight reactions.

• The adrenal glands secrete epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline).

• The thyroid gland, located at the front of the neck, produces thyroxine, which is important for regulating cellular metabolism.

Heredity and Environment: Behavioral Genetics

• Traits are distinctive characteristics or behavior patterns that are determined by genetics.

• Genes are the basic biological elements responsible for carrying information about traits between successive generations.

• A dominant trait is more likely to be expressed in offspring than is a recessive trait.

• A genotype is the genetic makeup of a cell or of an organism.

  • The genotype is distinct from the expressed features, or phenotype, of the cell or organism.

• Down syndrome occurs when there are three copies of the 21st chromosome, which generally causes some degree of intellectual disability.

• Huntington’s chorea is a genetic disorder that results in muscle impairment that does not typically occur until after age 40.

Chapter 8: Biological Bases: Consciousness

Chapter 8 Flashcard Set

Consciousness

• Consciousness is defined as the awareness that we have of ourselves, our internal states, and the environment.

• A state of consciousness enables us to evaluate the environment and to filter information from the environment through the mind, while being aware of the occurrence of this complex process.

• Alertness and the associated state of arousal involve the ability to remain attentive to our surroundings.

• It is something that we often take for granted; however, many patients who arrive in an emergency room are not alert for various reasons, arriving in a so-called altered state of consciousness.

• William James spoke of a stream of consciousness.

• The cognitive psychologist Robert Sternberg refers to consciousness as a mental reality that we create in order to adapt to the world.

• The unconscious level commonly refers to automatic processes, such as breathing or the beating of the heart.

• The preconscious level contains information that is available to consciousness but is not always in consciousness.

• Consciousness exists on a continuum—starting from controlled processing, where we are very aware of what we are doing, and moving on to automatic processing, where we perform tasks mechanically, such as brushing our teeth.

Sleep and Dreaming

• Sleep is an altered state of consciousness.

• Researchers have discovered some neurochemicals, notably melatonin, that play a role in sleep, yet a definitive cause-and-effect relationship between a brain chemical and the control of sleep has not been demonstrated.

• One 24-hour cycle without sleep is tolerable, but the second such cycle is considerably more difficult.

• By the third 24-hour cycle, hallucinations can begin, as well as delusions.

• Four 24-hour cycles of sleep deprivation can lead to paranoia and other psychological disturbances.

• Our body temperature and other physiological markers follow a day-to-night pattern, known as a circadian rhythm.

• Photoreceptors send signals to the brain’s pineal gland, which is the region responsible for the production of melatonin.

• Brain waves are usually measured with electroencephalograms (EEGs), which provide a picture of the electrical activity of the brain.

  • When we are awake and focused, beta wave activity is happening.

  • While still awake but more relaxed, we drift into alpha waves.

    • Then, when we drift off to sleep, theta wave activity takes over.

• In stage 2 sleep, a pattern of waves known as sleep spindles appears.

  • These spindles are occasionally broken up by K complexes, which are large, slow waves.

• In stages 3 and 4, delta waves are most common, with a larger proportion of delta waves occurring during stage 4 sleep.

• The last stage of sleep is called REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.

• Researchers Eugene Aserinsky and Nathaniel Kleitman discovered that the eyes move vigorously during the REM stage.

William Dement

• studied the effects of the deprivation of REM sleep.

• By depriving participants of REM sleep (waking them every time they entered a REM period) and then allowing them to sleep normally after the experimental period, participant’s REM periods increased from the normal 90 minutes of REM per night to 120 minutes of REM sleep in the period immediately following the deprivation.

  • This is known as REM rebound, and it helps reinforce the idea that we need to sleep.

• In psychoanalytic theory, the manifest content, or storyline and imagery of the dream, offers insight into and important symbols relating to unconscious processes.

• The latent content is the emotional significance and underlying meaning of the dream.

• The activation-synthesis hypothesis of dreaming postulates that dreams are the product of our awareness of neural activity due to sensory input while we are sleeping.

• The problem-solving theory of dreaming holds that dreams provide a chance for the mind to work out issues that occupy its attention during waking hours.

• A nightmare is an elaborate dream sequence that produces a high level of anxiety or fear for the dreamer.

• Dyssomnias are abnormalities in the amount, quality, or timing of sleep, and they include insomnia, narcolepsy, and sleep apnea.

• Insomnia is the most common of the sleep disorders and represents the inability to fall asleep or to maintain sleep.

• Narcolepsy is the inability to stay awake.

• Sleep apnea is a disorder in which a person repeatedly stops breathing while sleeping, which results in awakening after a minute or so without air.

• Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) may also be linked to sleep apnea.

• Parasomnias involve abnormalities of movement during deep sleep; they include sleepwalking (or somnambulism) and night terrors.

Hypnosis

• Hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness in which the hypnotized person is very relaxed and open to suggestion.

• According to Hilgard’s theory of the hidden observer, hypnosis somehow divides or dissociates the mind into two parts.

  • One part obeys the hypnotist, while the other part, referred to as the hidden observer, silently observes everything.

Meditation

• Meditation refers to a variety of techniques, many of which have been practiced for thousands of years, and which usually involve learning to train one’s attention.

• Meditators may focus intensely on a single thing, such as their breathing, or they may broaden their attention and be aware of multiple stimuli, such as anything in their auditory field.

Psychoactive Drug Effects

• Dependence occurs when an individual continues using a drug despite overarching negative consequences in order to avoid unpleasant physical and/or psychological feelings associated with not taking it.

  • (This term has generally replaced the term addiction in psychological and health circles.)

• A person has developed tolerance to a drug when increasingly larger doses are needed in order for the same effect to occur.

• Withdrawal refers to the process of weaning off a drug one has become dependent upon; this often involves physical and psychological symptoms of a highly unpleasant nature.

Chapter 9: Sensation and Perception

Chapter 9 Flashcard Set

Introduction to Sensation and Perception

• To study sensation is to study the relationship between physical stimulation and its psychological effects.

• Sensation is the process of taking in information from the environment.

• Perception refers to the way in which we recognize, interpret, and organize our sensations.

Thresholds

• In psychophysics, the branch of psychology that deals with the effects of physical stimuli on sensory response, researchers determine the smallest amount of sound, pressure, taste, or other stimuli that an individual can detect.

  • Psychologists conducting this type of experiment are attempting to determine the absolute threshold—the minimum amount of stimulation needed to detect a stimulus and cause the neuron to fire 50 percent of the time.

• Gustav Fechner (1801–1887), the founder of psychophysics, in addition to contributing to Weber’s Law determined that the perceived brightness/loudness of a sensation is proportional to the logarithm of its actual intensity.

• Another approach to measuring detection thresholds involves signal detection theory (SDT).

  • Detection thresholds are the levels of a signal or measurement that must be met before being considered valid.

  • This theory takes into consideration that there are four possible outcomes on each trial in a detection experiment: the signal (stimulus) is either present or it is not, and the participants respond that they can detect a signal or they cannot.

    • Hit—the signal was present, and the participant reported sensing it.

    • Miss—the signal was present, but the participant did not sense it.

    • False alarm—the signal was absent, but the participant reported sensing it.

    • Correct rejection—the signal was absent, and the participant did not report sensing it.

• Another type of threshold is the discrimination threshold, which is the point at which one can distinguish the difference between two stimuli.

  • The minimum amount of distance between two stimuli that can be detected as distinct is called the just noticeable difference (JND) or difference threshold.

• Subliminal perception is a form of preconscious processing that occurs when we are presented with stimuli so rapidly that we are not consciously aware of them.

  • There was some preconscious processing, known as priming, occurring even if we were not aware of it.

• Another Example of preconscious information processing can be seen in the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon, in which we try to recall something that we already know is available but is not easily available for conscious awareness

Receptor Processes

• Sensory organs have specialized cells, known as receptor cells, which are designed to detect specific types of energy.

• The area from which our receptor cells receive input is the receptive field.

  • Receptive field refers to the area of an image or representation that a neuron can respond to.

• Through a process called transduction, the receptors convert the input, or stimulus, into neural impulses, which are sent to the brain.

  • Transduction is a process in which energy from one form is transformed into another.

• Transduction takes place at the level of the receptor cells, and then the neural message is passed to the nervous system.

• Olfaction, or the sense of smell, travels in a more direct path to the cerebral cortex, without stopping at or being relayed by the thalamus.

  • It is mediated by specialized sensory cells, located in a small patch of tissue in the nose called "the olfactory epithelium".

  • These cells can detect specific molecules in air, such as those from food or flowers, and send signals to our brain that allow us to perceive different smells.

Sensory Mechanisms

• Sensory coding is the process by which receptors convey such a range of information to the brain.

• Every stimulus has two dimensions: what it is (its qualitative dimension) and how much of it there is (its quantitative dimension).

  • The qualitative dimension is coded and expressed by which neurons are firing.

  • Quantitative dimension is a way of measuring an object or phenomenon by counting, measuring, or estimating its size.

• The quantitative information is coded by the number of cells firing.

  • Bright lights and loud noises involve the excitation of more neurons than those brought on by dim lights and quiet noises.

• Single-cell recording is a technique by which the firing rate and pattern of a single receptor cell can be measured in response to varying sensory input.

Visual Mechanisms

• Visual sensation occurs when the eye receives light input from the outside world.

  • Note that the object as it exists in the environment is known as the distal stimulus, whereas the image of that object on the retina is called the proximal stimulus.

• First, light passes through the cornea, which is a protective layer on the outside of the eye.

  • Just under the cornea is the lens.

    • The curvature of the lens changes to accommodate for distance.

      • These changes are called, logically, accommodations.

• The retina is at the back of the eye and serves as the screen onto which the proximal stimulus is projected.

  • The retina is the innermost layer of the eye, located just behind the lens and in front of the choroid layer.

    • The retina is covered with receptors known as rods and cones.

• After light stimulates the receptors, this information passes through horizontal cells to bipolar and amacrine cells.

  • Bipolar cells are neurons in the eye that carry signals from photoreceptors to ganglion cells.

  • Amacrine cells are interneurons in the retina that modulate visual responses and help relay information between bipolar cells, ganglion cells, and other retinal neurons.

• The stimulation then travels to the ganglion cells of the optic nerves.

  • Optic nerves are the neural pathways that connect the eye to the brain.

    • Where the optic nerve exits the retina, humans have a blind spot because there are no photoreceptors there.

• The optic nerves cross at the optic chiasm, sending half of the information from each visual field to the opposite side of the brain.

• Serial processing occurs when the brain computes information step-by-step in a methodical and linear matter, while parallel processing happens when the brain computes multiple pieces of information simultaneously.

• Feature detector neurons “see” different parts of the pattern, such as a line set at a specific angle to the background.

• Information becomes more complex as it travels through the sensory system, is known as convergence and occurs across all sensory systems.

• David Hubel (1926–2013) and Torsten Wiesel (1924–), through experiments with cats, determined that mammals, including humans, will develop normal vision along these lines so long as any impairments are corrected during the critical period, the first months after birth.

• Young-Helmholtz or trichromatic theory - According to this theory, the cones in the retina of the eye are activated by light waves associated with blue, red, and green.

• Another theory, known as opponent process theory, contends that cells within the thalamus respond to opponent pairs of receptor sets—namely, black/white, red/green, and blue/yellow.

• Afterimage is an optical illusion in which an image continues to appear in one's vision after the exposure to the original image has ceased.

  • It is usually caused by the eye's continued stimulation by the color and brightness of the original image.

• Dichromats are people who cannot distinguish along the red/green or blue/yellow continuums.

• Monochromats see only in shades of black and white (this is much more rare).

Auditory Mechanisms

• Auditory input, in the form of sound waves, enters the ear by passing through the outer ear, the part of the ear that is on the outside of your head, and into the ear canal.

• The outer ear collects and magnifies sound waves.

• The vibrations then enter the middle ear, first vibrating the tympanic membrane.

  • This membrane abuts the ossicles, the three tiny bones that comprise the middle ear.

  • The last of the three ossicles is the stapes, which vibrates against the oval window.

• The inner ear is also responsible for balance and contains vestibular sacs, which have receptors sensitive to tilting.

• Place theory asserts that sound waves generate activity at different places along the basilar membrane.

• Frequency theory in hearing states that we sense pitch because the rate of neural impulses is equal to the frequency of a particular sound.

• Deafness can occur from damage to the ear structure or the neural pathway.

• Conductive deafness refers to injury to the outer or middle ear structures, such as the eardrum.

• Impairment of some structure or structures from the cochlea to the auditory cortex results in sensorineural, or nerve, deafness.

Other Sensory Mechanisms

• Olfaction (smell) is a chemical sense.Deep in the nose, scent molecules reach the olfactory epithelium.

  • Scent molecules touch receptor cells here.

  • These receptors' axons reach the brain's olfactory bulbs.

  • The limbic system and olfactory cortex receive information.

  • Smells evoke memories because the amygdala and hippocampus are connected to olfactory nerves.

• Gustation (taste) is also a chemical sense.

  • Papillae cover the tongue.

  • Taste buds are on the papillae.

    • Sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami (savory). Reasons may explain these five flavors.

    • Sweetness frequently comes with calories.

    • Most toxic plants taste bitter, which we dislike.

    • Taste buds provide information to the medulla oblongata, then the pons and thalamus.

    • The hypothalamus, limbic system, and gustatory cortex receive this information.

• The skin has cutaneous and tactile receptors that provide information about pressure, pain, and temperature.

  • Cutaneous receptors are those that detect sensations of touch, pressure and temperature.

  • Tactile receptors are specialized nerve endings in the skin that detect light touches, vibrations and even pain.

• Other senses include the vestibular sense, which involves the sensation of balance.

  • This sense is located in the semicircular canals of the inner ear.

• Kinesthesis, found in the joints and ligaments, transmits information about the location and position of the limbs and body parts.

• Synesthesia is a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sense leads to automatic activation of another sense; for example, one might “hear” colors.

Sensory Adaptation

• Adaptation is an unconscious, temporary change in response to environmental stimuli

• Habituation is the process by which we become accustomed to a stimulus, and notice it less and less over time.

• Dishabituation occurs when a change in the stimulus, even a small change, causes us to notice it again.

Attention

• The term attention refers to the processing through cognition of a select portion of the massive amount of information incoming from the senses and contained in memory.

• A good example of attention in action is selective attention, by which we try to attend to one thing while ignoring another.

• An example of selective attention is called the “cocktail party phenomenon,” which refers to our ability to carry on and follow a single conversation in a room full of conversations.

• Shadowing - The participant is instructed to repeat only one of the conversations.

• Filter theories propose that stimuli must pass through some form of screen or filter to enter into attention.

• Attentional resource theories, in contrast, posit that we have only a fixed amount of attention, and this resource can be divided up as is required in a given situation.

• Divided attention, trying to focus on more than one task at a time, is most difficult when attending to two or more stimuli that activate the same sense, as in watching TV and reading.

• Inattentional blindness, also known as change blindness, demonstrates a potential weakness of selective attention.

Perceptual Processes

• Perceptual processes—how our mind interprets these stimuli.

• Bottom-up processing achieves recognition of an object by breaking it down into its component parts.

• Top-down processing, by contrast, occurs when the brain labels a particular stimulus or experience.

• Visual perception is quite complex.

• Monocular depth cues are those that we need only one eye to see.

• Relative size refers to the fact that images that are farther from us project a smaller image on the retina than do those that are closer to us.

• Interposition, also known as occlusion, which occurs when a near object partially blocks the view of an object behind it.

• Linear perspective is a monocular cue based on the perception that parallel lines seem to draw closer together as the lines recede into the distance.

• Aerial perspective, another perceptual cue, is based on the observation that atmospheric moisture and dust tend to obscure objects in the distance more than they do nearby objects.

• Relative clarity is a perceptual clue that explains why less distinct, fuzzy images appear to be more distant.

• Motion parallax is the difference in the apparent movement of objects at different distances, when the observer is in motion.

• Binocular depth cues rely on both eyes viewing an image.

• Stereopsis refers to the three-dimensional image of the world resulting from binocular vision.

• Retinal convergence is a depth cue that results from the fact that your eyes must turn inward slightly to focus on near objects.

• The complement to stereopsis is binocular disparity, which results from the fact that the closer an object is, the less similar the information arriving at each eye will be.

• The Gestalt approach to form perception is based on a top-down theory.

  • This view holds that most perceptual stimuli can be broken down into figure-ground relationships.

• Some basic Gestalt principles of figure detection include the following:

  • Proximity— the tendency to see objects near each other as forming groups

  • Similarity— the tendency to prefer grouping like objects together

  • Symmetry— the tendency to perceive forms that make up mirror images

  • Continuity— the tendency to perceive fluid or continuous forms, rather than jagged or irregular ones

  • Closure—the tendency to see closed objects rather than those that are incomplete

• The Law of Prägnanz is a Gestalt psychology principle which states that the mind will attempt to simplify and organize complex stimuli into the simplest and most organized form possible.

  • This principle is used to explain why people tend to perceive objects in their simplest form, rather than as a collection of individual parts.

• Constancy is another important perceptual process.

• One of the most complex abilities we have is motion detection.

• (phi phenomenon); a motion picture, where still pictures move at a fast enough pace to imply movement (stroboscopic effect); and still light that appears to twinkle in darkness (autokinetic effect).

Chapter 10: Learning

Chapter 10 Flashcard Set

Learning: An Overview

• Learning is a relatively permanent or stable change in behavior as a result of experience.

• Learning occurs by various methods, including classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning.

• Cognitive factors are also implicated in learning, particularly in humans.

Nonassociative Learning

• Nonassociative learning occurs when an organism is repeatedly exposed to one type of stimulus.

  • Two important types of nonassociative learning are habituation and sensitization.

• Desensitization refers to a decreased responsiveness to an aversive stimulus after repeated exposure.

  • This phenomenon may occur on its own or in the context of desensitization therapy.

Classical Conditioning

• Classical conditioning was first described by Ivan Pavlov and is sometimes called Pavlovian conditioning.

  • Classical conditioning occurs when a neutral stimulus, paired with a previously meaningful stimulus, eventually takes on some meaning itself.

• Psychologists use specific terms for the various stimuli in classical conditioning.

  • The conditioned stimulus (CS) is the initially neutral stimulus—in our example, the light.

  • The unconditioned stimulus (US) is the initially meaningful stimulus.

    • In our example, the US is food.

  • The response to the US does not have to be learned; this naturally occurring response is the unconditioned response (UR).

• Forward conditioning, in which the CS is presented before the US, can be further divided into delay conditioning, in which the CS is present until the US begins, and trace conditioning, in which the CS is removed some time before the US is presented.

• Albert showed that he was afraid of other white fluffy objects; the closer they resembled the white rat, the more he cried and cringed.

  • This is known as generalization.

  • If Albert could distinguish among similar but distinct stimuli, he would be exhibiting discrimination.

• Acquisition takes place when the pairing of the natural and neutral stimuli (the loud noise and the rat) have occurred with enough frequency that the neutral stimulus alone will elicit the conditional response (cringing and crying).

• Extinction, or the elimination of the conditioned response, can be achieved by presenting the CS without the US repeatedly (in other words, the white rat without the loud noise).

• Spontaneous recovery, in which the original response disappears on its own, but then is elicited again by the previous CS at a later time, is also possible under certain circumstances.

• Contiguity approach is a method of teaching that involves linking new information to existing knowledge.

  • It is based on the idea that learning is more effective when new information is connected to what the learner already knows.

• Contingency approach is a management theory that suggests that the most effective way to manage a situation is to assess the needs of the situation and then tailor the management approach to those needs.

  • It emphasizes the importance of adapting management styles to the specific needs of the situation.

Operant Conditioning

• Operant conditioning (also called instrumental conditioning) involves an organism’s learning to make a response in order to obtain a reward or avoid punishment.

• B.F. Skinner pioneered the study of operant conditioning, although the phenomenon first was discovered by Edward L. Thorndike, who proposed the law of effect, which states that a behavior is more likely to recur if reinforced.

• Differential reinforcement of successive approximations is a type of operant conditioning that involves reinforcing a behavior that is gradually getting closer to the desired behavior.

  • It is used to teach complex behaviors by breaking them down into smaller, more manageable steps.

• Food is a form of natural reinforcement; you don’t have to learn to like it.

  • These types of natural reinforcers, such as food, water, and sex, provide primary reinforcement.

• Secondary reinforcement is provided by learned reinforcers.

• Positive reinforcement is a reward or event that increases the likelihood that a particular type of response will be repeated.

• Negative reinforcement is the removal of an aversive event in order to encourage the behavior.

• Omission training also seeks to decrease the frequency of behavior by withholding the reward until the desired behavior is demonstrated.

• A schedule of reinforcement refers to the frequency with which an organism receives reinforcement for a given type of response.

• In a continuous reinforcement schedule, every correct response that is emitted results in a reward.

• Schedules of reinforcement in which not all responses are reinforced are called partial (or intermittent) reinforcement schedules.

• A fixed-ratio schedule is one in which the reward always occurs after a fixed number of responses.

• A variable-ratio schedule is one in which the ratio of responses to reinforcement is variable and unpredictable.

• A fixed-interval schedule is one in which reinforcement is presented as a function of fixed periods of time, as long as there is at least one response.

• Variable-interval schedule, reinforcement is presented at differing time intervals, as long as there is at least one response.

• Punishment is the process by which a behavior is followed by a consequence that decreases the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated.

• Behavior modification - A combination of reinforcers and punishers designed to alter behavior.

• Token economy— an artificial economy based on tokens.

• Learned helplessness occurs when consistent efforts fail to bring rewards.

Biological Factors

• The biological basis of learning is of great interest to psychologists.

• Neuroscientists have tried to identify the neural correlates of learning.

• Experiments were conducted in which some rats were raised in an enriched environment, while others were raised in a deprived environment.

• Donald Hebb proposed that human learning takes place by neurons forming new connections with one another or by the strengthening of connections that already exist.

• Eric Kandel, a neuroscientist, examined classical conditioning in Aplysia.

  • Kandel found that when a strong stimulus, such as a shock, happens repeatedly, special neurons called modulatory neurons release neuromodulators.

• Neuromodulators strengthen the synapses between the sensory neurons (the ones that sense the touch) and the motor neurons (the ones that withdraw the gill) involved.

• Long-term potentiation (LTP) - A physiological change that correlates with a relatively stable change in behavior as a result of experience.

Social Learning

• A third kind of learning is social learning (also called observational learning), which is learning based on observing the behavior of others as well as the consequences of that behavior.

  • Because this learning takes place by observing others, it is also referred to as vicarious learning.

• Albert Bandura conducted some of the most important research on social learning.

• In a classic study, Bandura had children in a waiting room with an adult confederate (someone who was “in” on the experiment).

• Observational learning is a phenomenon frequently discussed in the debate over violence in the media.

• Building on recent views that there are multiple types of intelligence, including emotional intelligence, a number of schools have developed programs in social and emotional learning.

Cognitive Processes in Learning

• The behaviorist view, championed by Skinner, is that behavior is a series of behavior-reward pairings, and cognition is not as important to the learning process.

• One more recent view of learning posits that organisms start the learning process by observing a stimulus; then they continue the process by evaluating that stimulus; then they move on to a consideration of possible responses; and finally, they make a response.

• An example of classical conditioning worthy of special mention is conditioned taste aversion (CTA), also known as the Garcia effect, after the psychologist who discovered it.

• Stimulus generalization is a process in which a response that has been learned in response to a particular stimulus is also given in response to similar stimuli.

  • Stimulus generalization is a form of learning in which an organism learns to respond to a new stimulus in the same way as it responds to a previously learned stimulus.

• Biofeedback refers to people learning to alter their physiological processes by various cognitive control techniques.

• Insight learning - This occurs when we puzzle over a solution to a problem, unsuccessfully, and then suddenly the complete solution appears to us.

Chapter 11: Cognitive Psychology: Memory, Language, and Problem-Solving

Chapter 11 Flashcard Set

Memory

• According to the modal model, memory is divided into three separate storage areas: sensory, short-term, and long-term.

• Each type of memory has four components: storage capacity, duration of code, nature of code, and a way by which information is lost.

Sensory Memory

• Sensory memory is the gateway between perception and memory.

• Information in sensory memory is referred to as iconic if it is visual and echoic if it is auditory.

  • The iconic store lasts for only a few tenths of a second while the echoic store lasts for three or four seconds.

• Visual persistence - A quickly moving fan also may generate such a perception.

• In 1960, researcher George Sperling experimented on memory and partial report.

  • He first presented participants with a matrix of three rows of four letters each for just milliseconds.

  • Sperling called this ability to recall these lines of letters iconic memory or short-term visual memory.

    • This suggests that the capacity for iconic memory is quite large, but the duration is incredibly short, and the information is not easily manipulable.

Short-Term Memory (STM)

• Short-term memory holds information from a few seconds up to about a minute.

• Psychologist George Miller found that the information stored in this portion of memory is primarily acoustically coded, despite the nature of the original source.

• Maintenance rehearsal is simple repetition to keep an item in short-term memory until it can be used (as when you say a phone number to yourself over and over again until you can dial it).

• Elaborative rehearsal involves organization and understanding of the information that has been encoded in order to transfer the information to long-term memory (as when you try to remember the name of someone you have just met at a party).

• Effortful processing, when we make a conscious effort to retain information.

• Automatic processing - can occur unconsciously when we are engaged with well-practiced skills, like riding a bicycle.

• Another useful mnemonic device is to use short words or phrases that represent longer strings of information.

• The dual-coding hypothesis indicates that it is easier to remember words with associated images than either words or images alone.

• One aid for memory is to use the method of loci.

  • This involves imagining moving through a familiar place, such as your home, and in each place, leaving a visual representation of a topic to be remembered.

• Self-reference effect - It is also easier to remember things that are personally relevant.

• Items in short-term memory may be forgotten or they may be encoded (stored and able to be recalled later) into long-term memory.

  • Items that are forgotten exit short-term memory either by decay—that is, the passage of time—or by interference—that is, they are displaced by new information.

• One type of interference is retroactive interference, in which new information pushes old information out of short-term memory.

• The opposite of retroactive interference is proactive interference, in which old information makes it more difficult to learn new information.

• Primacy (remembering the first items)

• Recency (remembering the last items) effects.

• Serial position effect - The recency effect tends to fade in about a day; the primacy effect tends to persist longer.

• Chunking - Grouping items of information into units.

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

• Long-term memory is the repository for all of our lasting memories and knowledge, and it is organized as a gigantic network of interrelated information.

• Evidence suggests that information in this store is primarily semantically encoded—that is, encoded in the form of word meanings.

  • However, certain types of information in this store can be either visually encoded or acoustically encoded.

• Episodic memory, or memory for events that we ourselves have experienced.

• Semantic memory, also known as declarative, which comprises facts, figures, and general world knowledge.

• Procedural memory—that is, memory consisting of skills and habits.

• Declarative (or explicit) memory is a memory a person can consciously consider and retrieve, such as episodic and semantic memory.

  • In contrast, nondeclarative (or implicit) memory is beyond conscious consideration and would include procedural memory, priming, and classical conditioning.

• Recalling items in long-term memory is subject to context-dependent memory.

• State-dependent memory also applies to states of mind, meaning that information memorized when under the influence of a drug is easier to access when in a similar state than when not on that drug.

• Spreading activation - The activation of a few nodes can lead to a pattern of activation within the network that spreads onward.

• A phenomenon that many psychologists believe occurs in the long-term store is the flashbulb memory, which is a very deep, vivid memory in the form of a visual image associated with a particular emotionally arousing event.

• Memory reconstruction occurs when we fit together pieces of an event that seem likely.

• Source confusion is one likely cause of memory reconstruction.

• Elizabeth Loftus and other psychologists are studying the existence of false or implanted memories.

• Framing - Repeated suggestions and misleading questions can create false memories.

• Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850–1909) studied the phenomenon of forgetting.

  • His “forgetting curve” showed that most forgetting occurs immediately after learning, and he then showed that this could best be addressed by spaced review of materials.

Language

• Language is the arrangement of sounds, written symbols, or gestures to communicate ideas

• Phonemes are the smallest units of speech sounds in a given language that are still distinct in sound from each other.

  • Phonemes combine to form morphemes, the smallest semantically meaningful parts of language.

• Grammar, the set of rules by which language is constructed, is governed by syntax and semantics.

• Syntax is the set of rules used in the arrangement of morphemes into meaningful sentences; this can also be thought of as word order.

• Semantics refers to word meaning or word choice.

• Prosody is the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech.

• Holophrases are single terms that are applied by the infant to broad categories of things.

• Overextension - It results from the infant not knowing enough words to express something fully.

• Underextension is when a child thinks that his or her “mama” is the only “mama.”

• Telegraphic speech - This speech lacks many parts of speech.

• Noam Chomsky postulated a system for the organization of language based on the concept of what he referred to as transformational grammar.

• Surface structure of language— The superficial way in which the words are arranged in a text or in speech

• Deep structure of language—The underlying meaning of the words.

• Language acquisition device, which facilitates the acquisition of language in children.

• Critical period for the learning of language.

• B.F. Skinner, a noted behaviorist, countered Chomsky’s argument for language acquisition.

  • Skinner explored the idea of the “language acquisition support system,” which is the language-rich or language-poor environment the child is exposed to while growing up.

• Benjamin Lee Whorf, in collaboration with Edward Sapir, proposed a theory of linguistic relativity, according to which speakers of different languages develop different cognitive systems as a result of their differences in language.

Concepts

• A concept is a way of grouping or classifying the world around us.

• Typicality is the degree to which an object fits the average.

• Prototype - An image emerges in our brain.

• A superordinate concept is very broad and encompasses a large group of items, such as the concept of “food.”

• A basic concept is smaller and more specific—for example, “bread.”

• A subordinate concept is even smaller and more specific, such as “rye bread.”

Cognition

• Cognition encompasses the mental processes involved in acquiring, organizing, remembering, using, and constructing knowledge.

• Reasoning, the drawing of conclusions from evidence, can be further divided into deductive and inductive reasoning.

• Deductive reasoning is the process of drawing logical conclusions from general statements.

• Syllogisms are deductive conclusions drawn from two premises.

• Inductive reasoning is the process of drawing general inferences from specific observations.

Problem-Solving and Creativity

• Problem-solving involves the removal of one or more impediments to the finding of a solution in a situation.

• Divergent thinking - If many correct answers are possible.

• Convergent thinking - If the problem can be solved only by one answer.

• The availability heuristic means that the conclusion is drawn from what events come readily to mind.

• The representativeness heuristic also can lead to incorrect conclusions.

• Heuristics contrast with algorithms, which are systematic, mechanical approaches that guarantee an eventual answer to a problem.

• Insight is the sudden understanding of a problem or a potential strategy for solving a problem that usually involves conceptualizing the problem in a new way.

  • Problems requiring insight are often difficult to solve because we have a mental set, or fixed frame of mind, that we use when approaching the problems.

    • Mental set refers to the tendency for people to approach problems in a certain way based on their prior experiences and beliefs.

• Confirmation bias, the search for information that supports a particular view, hinders problem-solving by distorting objectivity.

• The hindsight bias, or the tendency after the fact to think you knew what the outcome would be, also distorts our ability to view situations objectively.

• Belief perseverance affects problem-solving.

  • In this mental error, a person sees only the evidence that supports a particular position, despite evidence presented to the contrary.

• Framing, or the way a question is phrased, can alter the objective outcome of problem-solving or decision-making.

• Creativity can be defined as the process of producing something novel yet worthwhile.

Chapter 12: Cognitive Psychology: Intelligence and Testing

Chapter 12 Flashcard Set

Standardization and Norms

• Standardization is accomplished by administering the test to a standardization sample, a group of people who represent the entire population.

  • The data collected from the standardization sample is compared against norms, which are standards of performance against which anyone who takes a given test can be compared.

• The Flynn effect supports the need to restandardize because the data indicates that the population has become smarter over the past 50 years.

Reliability and Validity

• Reliability is a measure of how consistent a test is in the measurements it provides.

  • In other words, reliability refers to the likelihood that the same individual would get a similar score if tested with the same test on separate occasions (disallowing for practice effects or effects due to familiarity with the test items from the first testing).

• The two sets of scores are compared and a correlation coefficient is computed between them.

  • This is called the test-retest method.

• Validity refers to the extent that a test measures what it intends to measure.

  • Validity is calculated by comparing how well the results from a test correlate with other measures that assess what the test is supposed to predict.

• Internal validity is the degree to which the subject’s results are due to the questions being asked and not another variable.

• External validity is true validity—that is, the degree to which results from the test can be generalized to the “real world.”

Types of Tests

• Tests used in psychology can be projective tests, in which ambiguous stimuli, open to interpretation, are presented, or inventory-type tests, in which participants answer a standard series of questions.

• The Rorschach is a sequence of 10 inkblots, each of which the participant is asked to observe and then characterize.

• The TAT is a series of pictures of people in ambiguous relationships with other people.

• Power tests gauge abilities in certain areas.

• Achievement tests assess knowledge gained; the Advanced Placement exams are of this type.

• Aptitude tests, which evaluate a person’s abilities.

Intelligence

• Intelligence can be defined as goal-directed adaptive thinking.

  • Such thinking is difficult to measure on a standardized test.

• The anthropologist Francis Galton had attempted to measure intelligence by means of reaction time tests.

  • This reflects the notion that speed of processing is an essential component of intelligence.

• Alfred Binet was a French psychologist who first began to measure children’s intelligence for the French government.

  • Binet’s test measured the “mental age” of school-age children so that children needing extra help could be placed in special classrooms.

• An American psychologist and Stanford University professor named Lewis Terman modified Binet’s test to create a test commonly referred to as the Stanford-Binet Test.

• Most modern psychologists measure an aspect of intelligence, called the IQ or intelligence quotient.

• The most common intelligence tests given to children today are the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV).

  • There is also a version of the Wechsler specifically geared toward adults, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS).

• In the early part of the 20th century, Charles Spearman proposed that there was a general intelligence (or g factor) that was the basis of all other intelligence.

  • Spearman used factor analysis, a statistical measure for analyzing test data.

• Robert Sternberg proposed that intelligence could be more broadly defined as having three major components: analytical, practical, and creative intelligence.

• Louis Thurstone, a researcher in the field of intelligence, posited that we need to think of intelligence more broadly because intelligence can come in many different forms.

• The most famous proponent of the idea of multiple intelligences is Howard Gardner of Harvard University.

  • Gardner has identified the following types of intelligence: verbal and mathematical (these are the two traditionally measured by IQ tests) as well as musical, spatial, kinesthetic, environmental, interpersonal (people perceptive), and intrapersonal (insightful, self-awareness).

• Daniel Goleman, a psychologist at Rutgers, has done recent work on the importance of emotional intelligence (being able to recognize people’s intents and motivations) and has created programs for enhancing one’s emotional intelligence.

• One distinction often made is between fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence.

  • Crystallized intelligence is accumulated knowledge.

  • Fluid intelligence is the ability to process information quickly and to solve new problems.

Heredity/Environment and Intelligence

• Nature and nurture interact in the formation of human intelligence.

• One way to measure the influence of inheritance on IQ is through a heritability coefficient.

  • The heritability coefficient, also known as the heritability index, is a measure of how much an individual's traits are determined by genetics.

• Heritability is sometimes computed by comparing the IQs of identical twins who were raised separately.

Human Diversity

• An IQ in the 99th percentile (higher than about 135) is considered “gifted,” although there is no set standard.

• Intellectual disability refers to low levels of intelligence and adaptive behavior.

  • Intellectual disability can be categorized by severity ranging from mild, with an IQ range of 50–70, to profound, characterized by an IQ lower than 25.

• Savant syndrome is a rare phenomenon in which individuals with low IQ scores display certain specific skills at a very high aptitude.

Ethics in Testing

• Those who are involved in psychometrics, or psychological testing, must be sure that they follow certain guidelines.

  • Confidentiality must be protected.

    • The purposes of the test must be clear to those administering and those taking the test.

• An issue that has received a great deal of attention in recent years is stereotype threat.

  • This occurs when a message is sent, intentionally or unintentionally, to a group of people that their group tends to perform below average on a given measure.

Chapter 13: Developmental Psychology

Chapter 13 Flashcard Set

Life-span Approach

• The life-span approach to developmental psychology takes the view that development is not a process with a clear ending.

• It is important to differentiate between life-span psychologists and child psychologists.

• Although both study development, the child psychologist has decided to focus on a particular earlier portion of the typical life span.

• Erik Erikson was the first to successfully champion the view that development occurs across an entire lifetime.

Research Methods

• Research methods in developmental psychology vary according to the questions being asked by the researcher.

• Some developmental psychologists are interested in studying normative development, which is the typical sequence of developmental changes for a group of people.

• Normative development is often studied using the cross-sectional method.

  • The cross-sectional method seeks to compare groups of people of various ages on similar tasks.

• To research the developmental process, many developmental psychologists use the longitudinal method.

  • The longitudinal method involves following a small group of people over a long portion of their lives, assessing change at set intervals.

Developmental Issues

• Developmental psychology, like most aspects of psychology, must deal with the so-called nature-nurture debate.

• Maturationists emphasize the role of genetically programmed growth and development on the body, particularly on the nervous system.

• Maturation can best be defined as biological readiness.

• The opposing position is the learning perspective, and adherents to this position are sometimes referred to as environmentalists.

• There are other issues to be considered when studying development.

  • One is whether development is continuous or discontinuous—gradual or stage-oriented.

• A critical period refers to a time during which a skill or ability must develop; if the ability does not develop during that time, it probably will never develop or may not develop as well.

• Culture also impacts development in important ways.

  • A collectivist culture is one in which the needs of society are placed before the needs of the individual.

  • Individualist cultures promote personal needs above the needs of society.

Developmental Theories

• Developmental theories can be divided into two broad classes: those that conceptualize development as a single, continuous, unitary process and those that view it as occurring in discrete stages.

• Stages are patterns of behavior that occur in a fixed sequence.

  • Each stage has a unique set of cognitive structures, or sets of mental abilities, that build on the cognitive structures established in the previous stage.

• Psychologists typically agree that the edges of stages are blurred and may overlap for various domains within a stage.

Physical Development

• Physical development starts at conception.

  • The zygote, or fertilized egg, goes through three distinct phases of gestation prior to birth.

  • The first stage is the germinal stage, in which the zygote undergoes cell division, expanding to 64 cells and implanting itself in the uterine wall.

    • This stage lasts about two weeks.

  • The embryonic stage consists of organ formation and lasts until the beginning of the third month.

  • In the fetal stage, sexual differentiation occurs and movement begins to develop.

  • Growth is rapid in this stage.

  • Various harmful environmental agents, known as teratogens, may affect fetal development.

  • Some fetuses exposed to alcohol develop fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), resulting in physical abnormalities and cognitive deficiencies.

• Rudimentary movements serve as the first voluntary movements performed by a child.

• The fundamental movement stage occurs from age 2 to age 7; during this time, the child is learning to manipulate his or her body through actions such as running, jumping, throwing, and catching.

• During the transitional substage, a combination of movements occurs; for example, grasping, jumping, and throwing are combined to take a shot in basketball.

  • The application substage is defined more by conscious decisions to apply these skills to specific types of activity.

• It is important to note that although perceptual and motor development depend on the development of the nervous system, the development of the nervous system depends on environmental interaction on the part of the child.

• Cognitive Development - Cognitive development refers to the development of learning, memory, reasoning, problem-solving, and related skills.

Piaget

• Jean Piaget proposed an influential theory of the cognitive development of children.

  • Piaget’s developmental theory is based on the concept of equilibration.

  • Equilibration is a child’s attempt to reach a balance between what the child encounters in the environment and what cognitive structures the child brings to the situatrationion.

• According to Piaget, children go through a series of developmental stages.

Stages:

• Sensorimotor Stage.

  • This stage usually occurs during the first two years of life and is typified by reflexive reactions and then circular reactions, which are repeated behaviors by which the infant manipulates the environment

  • Object permanence, which develops during this stage, is the knowledge that objects continue to exist when they are outside the field of view.

• Preoperational Stage.

  • The preoperational stage typically occurs from ages two to seven.

  • Children generally begin this stage with the development of language.

  • Language represents a shift to symbolic thinking, or the ability to use words to substitute for objects.

  • Other characteristics of the stage are egocentrism, seeing the world only from one’s own point of view, artificialism, believing that all things are human-made, and animism, believing that all things are living.

• Concrete Operational Stage.

  • Typically occurring from ages seven to eleven, this is the stage when children develop the ability to perform a mental operation and then reverse their thinking back to a starting point, a concept called reversibility.

  • Another important concept is conservation—the idea that the amount of a substance does not change just because it is arranged differently.

• Formal Operational Stage.

  • This stage begins at about age 12.

  • At this level, children are fully capable of understanding abstractions and symbolic relationships.

  • They are also capable of metacognition, or the ability to recognize one’s cognitive processes and adapt those processes if they aren’t successful.

Theory of Mind (TOM) and the False Belief Task

• A key cognitive ability that develops in childhood around the age of four is theory of mind.

• TOM allows children to understand that other people see the world differently than they do.

• It is the opposite of egocentrism.

Vygotsky

• Vygotsky believed that much of development occurs by internalization, the absorption of knowledge into the self from environmental and social contexts.

  • Vygotsky also proposed the concept of a zone of proximal development, which is the range between the developed level of ability that a child displays and the potential level of ability of which the child is actually capable.

• Actual development rarely lives up to its potential because ability depends on input from the environment, and environmental input is rarely truly optimal.

• Scaffolding is the support system that allows a person to move across the zone of proximal development incrementally, with environmental supports, such as teachers and parents.

• In the later years, many adults show a decrease in fluid intelligence—that is, the ability to think in terms of abstract concepts and symbolic relationships.

  • This decrease, however, is accompanied by increased crystallized intelligence, or specific knowledge of facts and information

Social Development

• Social development involves the ability to interact with others and with the social structures in which we live.

• Erik Erikson's psychosocial theory attempted to reflect social development's intricacies.

  • This theory described the developmental process as a sequence of stages distinguished by the resolution of specific developmental "tasks" and was the first to claim that development is a life-span activity.

• Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development include the following.

Trust versus Mistrust

• The first year of life is this stage.

• If they can believe their basic needs will be supplied, infants decide if the world is friendly or hostile.

• Positive stage resolutions foster trust and hope.

Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt

• Between one and three, the child must learn to manage their body and environment.

• This stage requires potty training, walking, and other self-control skills.

Initiative versus Guilt

• At three to six years old, children enter a wider social world.

• At this age, kids must take charge and assert themselves socially without overstepping.

• This stage creates purpose.

Industry versus Inferiority

• Six-to-12-year-olds are here.

• They now receive feedback in school.

  • Thus, people must feel proud of their work.

• They realize their abilities.

• This stage gives you confidence.

Identity versus Role Confusion

• This period comprises adolescent identity quest.

• Adolescents begin to establish their own ideals and wonder who they are.

• This stage ends with self-fidelity.

Intimacy versus Isolation

• In early adulthood, we seek loving, long-term relationships.

• This stage teaches mature, giving love.

• If this stage fails, feelings of isolation or lack of intimacy may occur.

Generativity versus Stagnation

• Middle adulthood is characterized by the fight to be useful at work and home and to pass on ideas and potentially children.

• Generativity involves these activities.

• We try to "mark" the world at this stage.

• Unresolved issues might lead to stagnation or solitude.

Integrity versus Despair

• In old age, one struggles to accept both triumphs and disappointments.

  • Wisdom comes from this stage, but bitterness and despair might result from failure.

• Beginning in the 1930’s, Konrad Lorenz posited that much child attachment behavior is innate.

  • Lorenz was an ethologist: he studied animal behavior and he based his ideas about attachment on his observations of imprinting in animals.

• In the 1950s, Harry and Margaret Harlow demonstrated that rhesus monkey infants need comfort and security as much as food.

  • Harlow ascertained that these infants become more attached to soft “mothers” without food than to wire ones with food.

• Attachment is defined as the tendency to prefer specific familiar individuals to others.

  • John Bowlby is considered the father of attachment theory.

• In the 1970s, Mary Ainsworth studied human infant attachment.

• Using the strange situation, in which a parent or primary guardian leaves a child with a stranger and then returns, Ainsworth recognized four attachment patterns.

  • Secure—The child is generally happy in the presence of the primary caretaker, is distressed when he or she leaves, but can be consoled again quickly after he or she returns.

  • Avoidant—The child may be inhibited in the presence of the primary caretaker, and may pretend to not be distressed when he or she leaves. (Blood pressure and cortisol analyses show that the child is in fact quite stressed out.)

  • Ambivalent—The child may have a “stormy” relationship with the primary caretaker, is distressed when he or she leaves, and has difficulty being consoled after his or her return.

  • Disorganized—The child has an erratic relationship with the primary caretaker and with other adults.

    • This attachment style is more common in cases of severe neglect and/or abuse.

• Diana Baumrind has identified the following three types of parenting styles.

  • Authoritarian—Parents have high expectations for their child to comply with rules without debate or explanation.

  • Authoritative—Parents also expect compliance to rules but explain rules and encourage independence.

  • Permissive—Parents have few expectations and are warm and non-demanding.

• Another theory of social development concerns the stages of death and dying developed by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross.

  • She identified the following ways people tend to come to terms with terminal illnesses—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

• Moral Development - The most influential theory of moral development was advanced by Lawrence Kohlberg, who expanded on an early theory proposed by Piaget.

Kohlberg’s Level I

• Level I encompasses ages seven to ten and is the level of preconventional morality.

  • Preconventional morality is a two-stage system of moral judgment.

    • In the first stage, it is based on avoiding punishment and receiving rewards.

    • In this stage, children often will mention a fear of being punished as a reason why rules should not be broken.

Kohlberg’s Level II

• Level II typically occurs from about ages 10 to 16 and sometimes beyond.

  • This is the stage of conventional morality.

    • Conventional morality is the internalizing of society’s rules and morals.

Kohlberg’s Level III

• Level III occurs from age 16 and onward.

  • This is the level of postconventional morality.

    • At this level, societal rules are still important, but an internal set of values has developed that may generate occasional conflict with societal values.

Sex Roles, Sex Differences

• Psychosexual development is the development of an awareness of one’s own sexuality, including the identification of the self with a particular gender.

• Children develop gender identity, the awareness that they are boys or girls, by age two or three.

  • The acquisition of sex-related roles, called gender typing, also occurs very early, from the ages of two to seven.

  • This age range is also when children come to understand that there is gender constancy—that is, that gender is a fixed, unchangeable characteristic.

• Androgyny may develop as children begin to blur the lines between stereotypical male and female roles in society.

• Sigmund Freud elaborated a theory of psychosexual development.

  • This is a stage theory in which attention was given to parts of the body that were especially significant for the developing person.

  • During the oral stage, from birth to about two, the primary source of pleasure for the infant comes from sucking, as well as using the voice to cry out for caretakers.

  • During the anal stage, from about two to three, toddlers learn that they are praised when they do well with toilet training, and are not praised (or even scolded) when they do not.

  • During the phallic stage, from about three to six, children realize that they are boys or girls, and begin to puzzle out what that means.

  • During the latency stage, from about six to twelve, there is no one particular part of the body that has the most importance for the developing mind.

    • Children in this stage are partly focused on gender identification, which is why many boys associate primarily with other boys, and many girls associate primarily with other girls, and the two groups regard each other with a mixture of interest and suspicion.

  • During the genital stage, from about twelve until death, the genital region becomes the primary source of sensual/sexual pleasure, unless traumas in prior stages have resulted in fixations.

• Another theory of how sex roles develop has been proposed by Albert Bandura.

  • Bandura felt that, like violent behavior, sexual roles could be acquired through social or vicarious learning.

• In the 1950’s, Alfred Kinsey did extensive, and very widely-read, work on the attitudes and behaviors of American adults pertaining to sexuality.

  • He did this by conducting numerous subjective interviews.

  • Among his important contributions was the Kinsey Scale, which posited that sexuality is not binary, either exclusively heterosexual or homosexual; rather, it exists along a continuum of attractions and practices.

  • Kinsey’s books played a role in liberalizing Americans’ attitudes toward sexuality in the next decades.

Chapter 14: Motivation and Emotion

Chapter 14 Flashcard Set

Biological Bases

• Motivation is defined as a need or desire that serves to energize or direct behavior.

• Evolutionary theory states that animals are motivated to act by basic needs critical to the survival of the organism.

• Hunger, thirst, sleep, and reproduction needs are primary drives.

• The desire to obtain learned reinforcers, such as money or social acceptance, is a secondary drive.

• The interaction between the brain and motivation was noticed when Olds and Milner discovered that rats would press a bar in order to send a small electrical pulse into certain areas of their brains.

  • This phenomenon is known as intracranial self-stimulation.

• Instinct theory, supported by evolutionary psychology, posits that the learning of species-specific behavior motivates organisms to do what is necessary to ensure their survival.

• Arousal theory states that the main reason people are motivated to perform any action is to maintain an ideal level of physiological arousal.

  • Arousal is a direct correlate of nervous system activity.

• The Yerkes-Dodson law states that tasks of moderate difficulty, neither too easy nor too hard, elicit the highest level of performance.

• The opponent process theory is a theory of motivation that is clearly relevant to the concept of addiction.

• The drive-reduction theory of motivation posits that psychological needs put stress on the body and that we are motivated to reduce this negative experience.

• Homeostasis is a state of regulatory equilibrium.

• When our nutrient supply is replenished, a signal is issued to stop eating.

• The common analogy for this process is a home thermostat in a heating-cooling system.

  • It has a target temperature, called the set point.

• The job of the thermostat is to maintain the set point.

  • If body weight rises above the set point, the action of the ventromedial hypothalamus will send messages to the brain to eat less and to exercise more.

  • When body weight falls below the set point, the brain sends messages to eat more and exercise less through the lateral hypothalamus.

Hunger, Thirts, and Sex

• The homeostatic regulation model provides a biological explanation for the efficacy of primary reinforcers such as hunger and sex.

  • The brain provides a large amount of control over feeding behavior.

  • Specifically, the hypothalamus has been identified as an area controlling feeding.

    • The hypothalamus is a small part of the brain located just beneath the thalamus.

• Leptin plays a role in the feedback loop between signals from the hypothalamus and those from the stomach.

  • Leptin is released in response to a buildup of fat cells when enough energy has been consumed.

• The feedback loop that controls eating can be broken by damaging the hypothalamus, but the operation of this mechanism raises the question of what is actually monitored and regulated in normal feeding behavior.

  • Two prime candidates exist.

    • The first candidate hypothesis is blood glucose.

    • This idea forms the basis for the glucostatic hypothesis.

  • Glucose is the primary fuel of the brain and most other organs.

  • When insulin (a hormone produced by the pancreas to regulate glucose) rises, glucose decreases.

• A second candidate hypothesis is called the lipostatic hypothesis.

  • As you might have guessed, this theory states that fat is the measured and controlled substance in the body that regulates hunger.

• There are several disorders related to eating habits, body weight, and body image that have their roots in psychological causes.

  • Anorexia nervosa, which is more prevalent in females, is an eating disorder characterized by an individual being 15 percent below ideal body weight.

  • Body dysmorphia, or a distorted body image, is key to understanding this disorder.

  • Another related eating disorder is bulimia nervosa, which is characterized by alternating periods of binging and purging.

• Like the motivations to eat and drink, the motivation to reproduce relies on the hypothalamus, which stimulates the pituitary gland and ultimately the production of androgens and estrogens.

  • Androgens and estrogens are the primary sexual hormones in males and females, respectively.

Theories of Motivation

Biological Theory

• As discussed in the “biological bases” of motivation, early theories on motivation relied on a purely biological explanation of motivated behavior.

• Animals, especially less complex animals, are thought to be motivated by instinct, genetically programmed patterns of behavior.

Humanistic Theory

• Abraham Maslow proposed a hierarchical system for organizing needs.

  • This hierarchy can be divided into five levels.

  • Each lower-level need must be met in order for an attempt to be made to fill the next category of needs in the hierarchy.

• Self-actualization occurs when people creatively and meaningfully fulfill their own potential.

  • This is the ultimate goal of human beings according to Maslow’s theory.

Cognitive Theories

• Cognitive psychologists divide the factors that motivate behavior into intrinsic and extrinsic factors: that is, factors originating from within ourselves and factors coming from the outside world, respectively

• Extrinsic motivators are often associated with the pressures of society, such as getting an education, having a job, and being sociable.

• Intrinsic motivators, in contrast, are associated with creativity and enjoyment.

  • Over time, our intrinsic motivation may decrease if we receive extrinsic rewards for the same behavior.

    • This phenomenon is called the overjustification effect.

  • An important intrinsic motivator is the need for self-determination, or the need to feel competent and in control.

• Related to the concept of self-determination is self-efficacy, or the belief that we can or cannot attain a particular goal.

• Also closely related to this is achievement motivation, the need to reach realistic goals that wintrinsic motivatore set for ourselves.

• Henry Murray believed that, although motivation is rooted in biology, individual differences and varying environments can cause motivations and needs to be expressed in many different ways.

Social Theory

• Another cognitive theory of motivation concerns the need to avoid cognitive dissonance.

• Kurt Lewin classified conflicts into four types.

• In an approach-approach conflict, one has to decide between two desirable options, such as having to choose between two colleges of similar characteristics.

• Avoidance-avoidance is a similar dilemma.

  • Here, one has to choose between two unpleasant alternatives.

• In approach-avoidance conflicts, only one choice is presented, but it carries both pluses and minuses.

Theories of Emotion

• Emotions are experiential and subjective responses to certain internal and external stimuli.

• Emotion consists of three components: a physiological (body) component, a behavioral (action) component, and a cognitive (mind) component.

  • The physical aspect of emotion is one of physiological arousal, or an excitation of the body’s internal state.

  • The behavioral aspect of emotion includes some kind of expressive behavior.

  • The cognitive aspect of emotion involves an appraisal or interpretation of the situation.

• James-Lange theory posits that environmental stimuli cause physiological changes and responses.

• The Cannon-Bard theory arose as a response to the James-Lange theory.

  • The Cannon-Bard theory asserts that the physiological response to an emotion and the experience of emotion occur simultaneously in response to an emotion-provoking stimulus.

• The two-factor theory, proposed by Schachter and Singer, adds a cognitive twist to the James-Lange theory.

  • The first factor is physiological arousal; the second factor is the way in which we cognitively label the experience of arousal.

• A scientist and pioneer in the study of emotions, Paul Ekman observed facial expressions from a variety of cultures and pointed out that, regardless of where two persons were from, their expressions of certain emotions were almost identical.

• Darwin’s ideas also led to the facial feedback hypothesis, the idea that a person’s facial expression can influence the actual emotion being experienced.

The Role of the Limbic System in Emotion

• The limbic system is a collection of brain structures that lie on both sides of the thalamus; together, these structures appear to be primarily responsible for emotional experiences.

• The amygdala plays an especially key role in the identification and expression of fear and aggression.

Emotion, Memory, Decision-Making, and the Autonomic Nervous System

• Emotional experiences can be stored as memories that can be recalled by similar circumstances.

  • The limbic system also includes the hippocampus, a brain structure that plays a key role in forming memories.

• Similar circumstances to a traumatic event can lead to recall of the memory of the experience, referred to as flashback.

• The prefrontal cortex is critical for emotional experience, and it is also important in temperament and decision-making.

  • It is associated with a reduction in emotional feelings, especially fear and anxiety, and is often activated by methods of emotion regulation and stress relief.

• The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is responsible for controlling the activities of most of the organs and glands, and it controls arousal.

• The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) provides the body with brief, intense, vigorous responses.

• The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) provides signals to the internal organs during a calm resting state when no crisis is present.

• An increase in these physiological functions is associated with the sympathetic response, or fight-or-flight response.

Stress

• Stress causes a person to feel challenged or endangered.

  • Although this definition may make you think of experiences such as being attacked, in reality, most stressors (events that cause stress) are everyday events or situations that challenge us in more subtle ways.

    • Some stressors are transient, meaning that they are temporary challenges.

• The physiological response to stress is related to the fight-or-flight response, a concept developed by Walter Cannon and enhanced by Hans Selye into the general adaptation syndrome.

• Alarm refers to the arousal of the sympathetic nervous system, resulting in the release of various stimulatory hormones, including corticosterone, which is used as a physiological index of stress.

• Resistance is the result of parasympathetic rebound.

• If the stressor persists for long periods of time, the stress response continues into the exhaustion phase.

• Richard Lazarus developed a cognitive theory of how we respond to stress.

• The Type-A pattern of behavior is typified by competitiveness, a sense of time urgency, and elevated feelings of anger and hostility.

• The Type-B pattern of behavior is characterized by a low level of competitiveness, low preoccupation with time issues, and a generally easygoing attitude.

Chapter 15: Personality

Chapter 15 Flashcard Set

Personality Theories and Approaches

• Personality can be defined as a person’s enduring general style of dealing with others and with the world around them.

• Personality theories can be divided into four broad categories: psychoanalytic, humanistic, social-cognitive, and trait theories.

Psychoanalytic Theories

• Sigmund Freud and those who followed his basic beliefs and practices typify psychoanalytic theories of personality.

  • The term psychodynamic means a psychological approach based on a marriage of Freudian concepts, such as the unconscious, with more modern ideas.

• In free association, a therapist actively listens, while the patient relaxes and reports anything that comes into his mind, no matter how absurd it might seem.

• The id is the source of mental energy and drive.

  • It encompasses all of the basic human needs and desires, including those for food and sex.

  • The id operates on the pleasure principle, which is the desire to maximize pleasure while minimizing pain.

• The superego is the internal representation of all of society’s rules, morals, and obligations.

  • The superego represents the polar opposite of the id.

• The ego, according to Freud, is the part of the mind that allows a person to function in the environment and to be logical.

  • It operates on the reality principle, which is that set of desires that can be satisfied only if the means to satisfy them exists and is available.

• Repression is the process by which memories or desires that provoke too much anxiety to deal with are pushed into the unconscious.

• Displacement is a defense mechanism that directs anger away from the source of the anger to a less threatening person or object.

• Reaction formation is another defense mechanism by which the ego reverses the direction of a disturbing desire to make that desire safer or more socially acceptable.

• Other defense mechanisms include the following:

  • Compensation—making up for failures in one area through success in others

  • Rationalization—creating logical excuses for emotional or irrational behavior

  • Regression—reverting to childish behaviors

  • Denial—the refusal to acknowledge or accept unwanted beliefs or actions

  • Sublimation—the channeling or redirecting of sexual or aggressive feelings into a more socially acceptable outlet

• According to Horney’s theory, basic anxiety, or the feeling of being alone in an unfamiliar or hostile world, is a central theme in childhood.

  • The interactions between the child and the parent, as the child deals with this anxiety, form the basis for adult personality.

• Carl Jung formulated another theory of personality that was, in part, a response to Freud’s theory.

  • Jung believed that the mind comprises pairs of opposing forces.

  • Jung believed that all of the opposing forces and desires of the mind were balanced by a force called the Self.

  • Jung proposed that each of us has a personal unconscious comprised of repressed memories and clusters of thought and a collective unconscious of behavior and memory common to all humans and passed down from our ancient and common ancestors.

• Archetypes are the behaviors and memories in the collective unconscious.

• Alfred Adler, like other psychoanalytic psychologists, believed that childhood is the crucial formative period.

  • He also thought, however, that all children develop feelings of inferiority because of their size and level of competence.

Humanistic Theories

• Humanistic theories of personality emphasize the uniqueness and richness of being human.

  • These theories arose partially in response to behaviorism

• Self-actualization is becoming, in a creative way, the person you are capable of being.

• According to humanistic theories, self-actualization is the ultimate purpose for existence.

• Two humanistic theorists whose work typifies this school of thought are Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.

• Our self-concept is our mental representation of who we feel we truly are.

• Rogers believed that conditions of worth, or other people’s evaluations of our worth, distort our self-concept.

• Humanistic theories also address the distinction between collectivistic and individualistic cultures.

• A collectivist culture stresses the importance of community, while an individualistic culture prioritizes personal independence and autonomy.

Social-Cognitive Theories

• Social-cognitive theories of personality are based on the assumption that cognitive constructs are the basis for personality.

• A representative example of a social-cognitive theory of personality was developed by Albert Bandura.

  • Bandura focuses on the concept of self-efficacy as central to personality.

  • Self-efficacy refers to a person’s beliefs about his or her own abilities in a given situation.

• People have different explanatory styles, or ways in which people explain themselves or react in different situations.

  • Explanatory styles can be either positive or negative.

• Another important social-cognitive theory is the locus of control theory.

• Julian Rotter proposed that the extent to which people believe that their successes or failures are due to their own efforts plays a major role in personality.

• People who have an internal locus of control believe that successes or failures are a direct result of their efforts, whereas people with an external locus of control are more likely to attribute success or failure to luck or chance.

Trait Theories

• Trait theories of personality provide quantitative systems for describing and comparing traits or stable predispositions to behave in a certain way.

• A relatively recent and influential theory focuses on the Big Five personality traits, which are introversion-extroversion, neuroticism-stability, agreeableness-antagonism, conscientiousness-undirectedness, and openness-nonopenness.

• Two ways of researching traits are by nomothetic and idiographic analysis.

  • Nomothetic traits such as the Big Five are thought to be universal.

  • Idiographic traits are those that are unique to the individual, such as openness or curiosity.

• Gordon Allport, a trait theorist, identified three types of traits: cardinal (traits that override a person’s whole being), central (the primary characteristics of the person), and secondary (traits that constitute interests).

• Raymond Cattell saw traits differently because he believed that 16 source traits were the basis of personality.

• Walter Mischel recognized that traits are not necessarily consistent across various situations but often vary depending upon the circumstances.

Assessment Techniques

• Techniques used for assessing personality vary.

• The psychoanalytic approach has traditionally involved the classic one-on-one therapist and patient relationship.

Trait Theory Assessments

• If there were a competition among the various kinds of theorists as to who had the most complete tools for assessment, the trait theorists would win hands down.

• Hans Eysenck developed the Eysenck Personality Inventory, a questionnaire designed to examine people’s personalities based on their traits.

• Cattell named his assessment tool the 16 PF (Personality Factor) Questionnaire, signifying the 16 traits or personality factors it measures.

Self-Concept, Self-Esteem

• Self-concept refers to how we view ourselves, whereas self-esteem refers to how much we value ourselves.

• The me is comprised of the following:

  • The physical self—our bodies, names, and the like

  • The active self—how we behave

  • The social self—how we interact with others

  • The psychological self—our feelings and personalities

• Young children also make errors of self-evaluation due to the halo effect, which refers to the error by which we generalize a high self-evaluation from one domain to another.

• Self-esteem is also related to whom we compare ourselves to, which is posited by Leon Festinger in his social comparison theory.

Temparament

• Temperament is the early appearing set of individual differences in reaction and regulation that form the “nucleus” of personality.

• According to developmental psychologist Mary Rothbart, temperament is generally assessed on three scales: surgency (amount of positive affect and activity level), negative affect (amount of frustration and sadness), and effortful control (ability of a child to self-regulate moods and behavior).

• Jerome Kagan’s work on the physiology of young children showed that children classified as low in effortful control were more likely to have higher baseline heart rates, more muscle tension, and greater pupil dilation.

Chapter 16: Clinical Psychology: Disorders

Chapter 16 Flashcard Set

Definitions of Disorder

• The definition of disordered behavior is composed of four components.

  • First, disordered behavior is unusual—it deviates statistically from typical behavior.

  • Second, disordered behavior is maladaptive: that is, it interferes with a person’s ability to function in a particular situation.

  • Third, disordered behavior is labeled as abnormal by the society in which it occurs.

  • Finally, disordered behavior is characterized by perceptual or cognitive dysfunction.

Theories of Psychopathology

• Sigmund Freud engaged in careful observation and analysis of people with varying degrees of behavioral abnormalities.

• Freud and the psychoanalytic school hypothesized that the interactions among conscious and especially unconscious parts of the mind were responsible for a great deal of disordered behavior.

• The humanistic school of psychology suggests that disordered behavior is, in part, a result of people being too sensitive to the criticisms and judgments of others.

• The cognitive perspective views disordered behavior as the result of faulty or illogical thoughts.

• The behavioral approach to disordered behavior is based on the notion that all behavior, including disordered behavior, is learned.

• The biological view of disordered behavior, which is a popular one in the United States at the present time, views disordered behavior as a manifestation of abnormal brain function, due to either structural or chemical abnormalities in the brain.

• The sociocultural approach holds that society and culture help define what is acceptable behavior.

Diagnosis of Psychopathology

• The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) is the American Psychiatric Association’s handbook for the identification and classification of behavioral disorders.

  • The DSM-5 calls for the separate notation of important social factors and physical disabilities, in addition to the diagnosis of mental disorders.

Neurodevelopmental Disorders

• The term neurodevelopmental refers to the developing brain.

• Related disorders manifest early in development, and may be due to genetic issues, trauma in the womb, or brain damage acquired at birth or in the first years of life.

• Intellectual disability (formerly known as mental retardation) is characterized by delayed development in general mental abilities (reasoning, problem-solving, judgment, academic learning, etc.).

• Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder that often manifests early on in childhood development.

• Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is described as patterned inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity.

• Other neurodevelopmental disorders include communication disorders such as language disorder, speech sound disorder, and fluency disorder (stuttering); motor disorders such as developmental coordination disorder, stereotypic movement disorder, and tics; and specific learning disorders.

Schizophrenia Spectrum and other Psychotic Disorders

• Although the term schizophrenia literally means “split brain,” these disorders have nothing to do with what used to be called Multiple Personality Disorder.

• Delusions are beliefs that are not based in reality, such as believing that one can fly, that one is the president of a country, or that one is being pursued by the CIA (assuming that these things are not true).

• Hallucinations are perceptions that are not based in reality, such as seeing things or hearing voices that are not there, or feeling spiders on one’s skin (assuming they are not really there).

• Disorganized thinking and disorganized speech are typical.

• It is important to distinguish between positive symptoms and negative symptoms.

  • A positive symptom of schizophrenic disorders refers to something that a person has that typical people do not.

  • A negative symptom refers to something that typical people do have, but that one does not have.

Bipolar and Related Disorders

• Bipolar disorders, as the name suggests, involves movement between two poles: depressive states on the one hand, and manic states on the other hand.

• Because manic states often have psychotic features, the DSM-5 now regards bipolar disorders as a bridge between the psychoses and the major depressive disorders.

Depressive Disorders

• Unlike the everyday-language use of the term (“I’m so depressed about that test”), depressive disorders involve the presence of a sad, empty, or irritable mood, combined with changes in thinking and bodily functioning that significantly impair one’s ability to function.

Anxiety Disorders

• Fear is an emotional response to something present; anxiety is a related emotional response, but to a future threat or a possibility of danger.

• Physical effects of anxiety may include but are not limited to muscle tension, hyperalertness for danger signs, and avoidance behaviors.

• Panic disorder is an anxiety disorder characterized by recurring panic attacks, as well as the constant worry of another panic attack occurring.

• Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by an almost constant state of autonomic nervous system arousal and feelings of dread and worry.

• Phobias, or persistent, irrational fears of common events or objects, are also anxiety disorders.

• Agoraphobia, for example, is the fear of being in open spaces, public places, or other places from which escape is perceived to be difficult.

Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders

• As the name suggests, these disorders involve obsessions and/or compulsions.

  • Obsessions are intrusive (unwanted) thoughts, urges, or images that plague the individual.

  • Compulsions are repetitive behaviors (or mental acts) that one feels compelled to perform, often in relation to an obsession.

• OCD is characterized by involuntary, persistent thoughts or obsessions, as well as compulsions, or repetitive behaviors that are time consuming and maladaptive, that an individual believes will prevent a particular (usually unrelated) outcome.

Trauma-and Stressor-Related Disorders

• By definition, these disorders follow a particularly disturbing event or set of events (the trauma or the stressor), like war or violence.

• The best-known such disorder is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which can involve intrusive thoughts or dreams related to the trauma, irritability, avoidance of situations that might recall the traumatic event, sleep disturbances, diminished interest in formerly pleasurable activities, and social withdrawal.

• Other disorders include reactive attachment disorder, which can occur in seriously neglected children who are unable to form attachments to their adult caregivers, and adjustment disorders, or maladaptive responses to particular stressors.

Dissociative Disorders

• In many cases, these disorders appear following a trauma, and may be seen as the mind’s attempt to protect itself by splitting itself into parts.

  • Thus, one might experience derealization, the sense that “this is not really happening,” or depersonalization, the sense that “this is not happening to me.”

• Significant gaps in memory may be related to dissociative amnesia, an inability to recall life events that goes far beyond normal forgetting.

  • Perhaps the most extreme of these disorders is dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder), in which one may not only “lose time,” but also manifest a separate personality during that lost time.

Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders

• Soma means “body.”

• Somatic symptom disorder involves, as one might expect, bodily symptoms combined with disordered thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviors connected to these symptoms.

• Related worries appear in illness anxiety disorder, in which one worries excessively about the possibility of falling ill.

• Conversion disorder (formerly known as hysteria) involves bodily symptoms like changed motor function or changed sensory function that are incompatible with neurological explanations.

• Factitious disorder, in which an individual knowingly falsified symptoms in order to get medical care, or sympathy or aid from others.

Feeding and Eating Disorders

• Anorexia nervosa (commonly called anorexia) involves not only restriction of food intake, but also intense fear of gaining weight and disturbances in self-perception, such as thinking one looks fat, when one does not.

• Bulimia nervosa (commonly called bulimia) involves recurrent episodes of binge-eating: eating large amounts of food in short amounts of time, followed by inappropriate behaviors to prevent weight gain, such as self-induced vomiting (purging), using laxatives, or intense exercising.

• Binge-eating disorder might be thought of as bulimia without purging.

• Pica refers to regular consumption of non-nutritive substances (plastic, paper, dirt, string, chalk, etc.).

Personality Disorders

• A personality disorder refers to a stable (and inflexible) way of experiencing and acting in the world, one that is at variance with the person’s culture, that starts in adolescence or adulthood, and leads to either personal distress or impairment of social functioning.

• Cluster A includes paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal personality disorders.

  • Schizoid personality disorder is marked by disturbances in feeling (detachment from social relationships, flat affect, does not enjoy close relationships with people), whereas schizotypal personality disorder is marked by disturbances in thought (odd beliefs that do not quite qualify as delusions, such as superstitions, belief in a “sixth sense,” etc.; odd speech; eccentric behavior or appearance).

• Cluster B includes antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic personality disorders.

  • Terms like psychopath or sociopath have been used to describe people with antisocial personality disorder, which is characterized by a persistent pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others.

  • Borderline personality disorder involves a very stormy relationship with the world, with others, and with one’s own feelings.

  • Histrionic personality disorder involves a pattern of excessive emotionality and attention-seeking, beyond what might be considered normal (even in a “culture of selfies”).

  • Narcissistic personality disorder involves an overinflated sense of self-importance, fantasies of success, beliefs that one is special, a sense of entitlement, a lack of empathy for others, and a display of arrogant behaviors or attitudes.

• Cluster C includes avoidant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders.

  • Avoidant personality disorder involves an enduring pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and hypersensitivity to real or perceived criticism, which lead to avoidance behavior in relation to social, personal, and intimate relationships.

  • Dependent personality disorder is marked by an excessive need to be cared for, leading to clingy and submissive behavior and fears of separation.

  • Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) is marked by a rigid concern with order, perfectionism, control, and work, at the expense of flexibility, spontaneity, openness, and play.

Chapter 17: Clinical Psychology: Treatment

Chapter 17 Flashcard Set

Insight Therapies: Psychoanalytic and Humanistic Approaches

• The psychoanalytic approach to the treatment of disordered behavior is rooted in the concept of insight.

• Insight into the cause of the problem, according to this theory, is the primary key to eliminating the problem.

Psychoanalysis

• Psychoanalysis, or psychoanalytic therapy, as it is sometimes called, was first developed by Freud and focuses on probing past defense mechanisms of repression and rationalization to understand the unconscious cause of a problem.

• Countertransference may occur if the therapist transfers his or her own feelings onto the patient.

Humanistic Therapy

• The humanistic school of psychology takes a related, yet different approach to the treatment of disordered behavior.

• Client-centered therapy was invented by Carl Rogers and involves the assumption that clients can be understood only in terms of their own realities.

  • The client-centered therapist approaches this differently from the Freudian.

• The therapist is honest, open, and emotional with the client (an active listener).

  • Rogers called this client-relationship genuineness.

• The next key for successful client-centered therapy, according to Rogers, is unconditional positive regard.

  • Unconditional positive regard is a term used in psychology to refer to an attitude of acceptance and warmth towards another person, regardless of their behavior or beliefs.

  • The therapist provides this unconditional positive regard to help the client reach a state of unconditional self-worth.

• The final key to successful therapy is accurate empathic understanding.

  • Accurate empathic understanding is the ability to accurately understand and identify what someone else is feeling.

• Rogers used this term to describe the therapist’s ability to view the world from the eyes of the client.

• This empathy is critical to successful communication between the therapist and client.

• A different type of approach toward treatment is Gestalt therapy, which combines both physical and mental therapies.

• Fritz Perls developed this approach to blend an awareness of unconscious tensions with the belief that one must become aware of and deal with those tensions by taking personal responsibility.

Behavioral Therapy

• Behavioral therapy stands in dramatic contrast to the insight therapies.

• Counterconditioning is a technique in which a response to a given stimulus is replaced by a different response.

• Counterconditioning can be accomplished in a few ways.

  • One is to use aversion therapy, in which an aversive stimulus is repeatedly paired with the behavior that the client wishes to stop.

  • Another method used for counterconditioning is systematic desensitization.

  • This technique involves replacing one response, such as anxiety, with another response, such as relaxation.

• Other forms of behavioral therapy involve extinction procedures, which are designed to weaken maladaptive responses.

  • One way of trying to extinguish a behavior is called flooding.

  • Flooding involves exposing a client to the stimulus that causes the undesirable response.

• Implosion is a similar technique, in which the client imagines the disruptive stimuli rather than actually confronting them.

• Operant conditioning is a behavior-control technique that we discussed in the chapter on learning.

  • A related approach is behavioral contracting, in which the therapist and the client draw up a contract by which they both agree to abide.

• Modeling is a therapeutic approach based on Bandura’s social learning theory.

  • This technique is based on the principle of vicarious learning.

Cognitive Therapy

• Cognitive approaches to the treatment of disordered behavior rely on changing cognitions, or the ways people think about situations, in order to change behavior.

• One such approach is rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT) (sometimes called simply RET, for rational-emotive therapy), formulated by Albert Ellis.

• Another cognitive approach is cognitive therapy, formulated by Aaron Beck, in which the focus is on maladaptive schemas.

• Maladaptive schemas include arbitrary inference, in which a person draws conclusions without evidence, and dichotomous thinking, which involves all-or-none conceptions of situations.

Biological Therapies

• Biological therapies are medical approaches to behavioral problems.

• Biological therapies are typically used in conjunction with one of the previously mentioned forms of treatment.

• Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a form of treatment in which fairly high voltages of electricity are passed across a patient’s head.

  • This treatment causes temporary amnesia and can result in seizures.

• Another form of biological treatment is psychosurgery.

  • Perhaps the most well-known form of psychosurgery is the prefrontal lobotomy, in which parts of the frontal lobes are cut off from the rest of the brain.

• Psychopharmacology is the treatment of psychological and behavioral maladaptations with drugs.

  • There are four broad classes of psychotropic, or psychologically active drugs: antipsychotics, antidepressants, anxiolytics, and lithium salts.

• Antipsychotics like Clozapine, Thorazine, and Haldol reduce the symptoms of schizophrenia by blocking the neural receptors for dopamine.

• Antidepressants can be grouped into three types: monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors, tricyclics, and selective reuptake inhibitors.

• MAO inhibitors, like Eutron, work by increasing the amount of serotonin and norepinephrine in the synaptic cleft.

• Tricyclics, like Norpramin, Amitriptyline, and Imipramine increase the amount of serotonin and norepinephrine.

• The third class of antidepressants, selective reuptake inhibitors (often called the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, for the neurotransmitter most affected by them) also work by increasing the amount of neurotransmitter at the synaptic cleft, in this case by blocking the reuptake mechanism of the cell that released the neurotransmitters.

• Anxiolytics depress the central nervous system and reduce anxiety while increasing feelings of well-being and reducing insomnia.

• Benzodiazepines, which also include Valium (Diazepam) and Librium (Chlordiazepoxide), cause muscle relaxation and a feeling of tranquility.

• Lithium carbonate, a salt, is effective in the treatment of bipolar disorder.

Modes of Therapy

• Group therapy, in which clients meet together with a therapist as an interactive group, has some advantages over individual therapy.

• Twelve-step programs are one form of group therapy, although they are usually not moderated by professional psychotherapists.

• Another form of therapy in which there is more than a single client is couples or family therapy.

  • This type of treatment arose out of the simple observation that some dysfunctional behavior affects the afflicted person’s loved ones.

Chapter 18: Social Psychology

Chapter 18 Flashcard Set

• Social psychology refers to the study of psychology within the context of social or interpersonal interactions.

• Sociology is the study of cultures and societies, and these have a large effect on an individual’s environment, which can influence cognition and behavior.

Identities and Groups

• Societies, organizations of individuals, have a shared culture, a common set of beliefs, behaviors, values, and material symbols.

  • Therefore, identities begin to form as collective social identities that are placed upon individuals by others, and individuals form their own personal identities about themselves.

• Personal identities are generally words that describe personality, such as kind, generous, thoughtful, insightful, etc., while social identities are how individuals are seen in the context of their society.

• Social identities can be related to religion, work, appearance, disability, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, or any other label that societies have come to understand through their shared culture.

• Individuals hold multiple social identities, and the effects and nature of these overlapping identities is referred to as intersectionality.

• The closest group that individuals create with one another is called the primary group, which usually consists of family and close friends.

• Most others fall into a secondary group, a group of friends and acquaintances who perhaps have shared interests or values.

• Within societies, these identities form the idea of sameness and difference, which generate in-groups and out-groups.

  • In-groups refer to groups of individuals with a shared identity.

  • An out-group is a group that someone does not identify with or belong to.

• Ethnocentrism refers to holding the values or beliefs of one’s own in-group as better than those of another’s, which can lead to conflict, prejudice, and more.

• Cultural relativism is the idea that the beliefs and values of one’s in-group may be different than those of another, but that they are not necessarily better or worse: just different.

• Individuals who do not shed their former identities, but rather keep elements of their own culture and take on elements of their new culture show multiculturalism.

• As individuals immigrate or emigrate, study abroad, or even visit other societies and cultures, they may experience culture shock or cultural lag.

  • Culture shock refers to the way in which behaviors and values can be seen differently across cultures.

  • Cultural lag refers to the time it takes for cultures to catch up to technological innovations or practices.

• Role conflict occurs when two or more of these roles are at odds with each other: imagine the man described receives a phone call at work to say that his child went home from school sick.

• Role strain can occur within the same role: college students are in college to study, but are also at school to meet friends from around the world and learn to take care of themselves on their own.

• Role exit occurs when a person leaves behind a role to take on another: graduating from college and starting off in the workforce means the person leaves the role of student and takes on the role of employee.

Social Institutions

• In societies, there are a variety of social institutions designed to promote and transmit social norms to its members through a variety of constructs.

• Institutionalized discrimination is a particular type of discrimination that refers to unfair treatment of certain groups by organizations.

• Closely related to institutionalized discrimination are the concepts of availability and accessibility.

  • Availability refers to whether something even exists for a person to use.

  • Accessibility refers to whether a person can actually use the tools and resources that are available to them.

Group Dynamics

• Group dynamics is a general term for some of the phenomena we observe when people interact.

• Social facilitation is an increase in performance on a task that occurs when that task is performed in the presence of others.

• Social inhibition, which occurs when the presence of others makes performance worse.

• Another effect that occurs when people interact in groups is social loafing, or the reduced effort group members put into a task as a result of the size of the group.

• Another interesting effect of being in groups is the exaggeration of our initial attitudes.

  • This effect is known as group polarization.

• Another effective technique is GRIT (Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction).

  • This approach encourages groups to announce intent to reduce tensions and show small, conciliatory behaviors, as long as these reduced tensions and behaviors are reciprocated.

Attribution

• Attribution refers to the way in which people assign responsibility for certain outcomes.

• Dispositional attribution assumes that the cause of a behavior or outcome is internal.

• Situational attribution assigns the cause to the environment or external conditions.

• A self-serving bias sees the cause of actions as internal (or dispositional) when the outcomes are positive and external (or situational) when the results are negative.

• Some attributions actually affect the outcome of the behavior, as in the case of the self-fulfilling prophecy.

Interpersonal Perception

• Psychologists have studied interpersonal attraction, the tendency to positively evaluate a person and then to gravitate toward that person.

• Interpersonal attraction is obviously based on characteristics of the person to whom we are attracted, but it may be subject to environmental and social influences, as well.

• Positive evaluation refers to the fact that we all like to be positively evaluated, and therefore, we tend to prefer the company of people who think highly of us.

• Shared opinions as a basis for interpersonal attraction are typically thought of as a form of social reinforcement.

• Mere exposure effect, which states that people tend to prefer people and experiences that are familiar.

Conformity, Compliance, Obedience

• Conformity is the modification of behavior to make it agree with that of a group.

• Solomon Asch performed studies on the nature of conformity.

• Compliance is the propensity to accede to the requests of others, even at the expense of your own interests.

• Another method is reciprocity, which involves creating the appearance that you are giving someone something in order to induce that individual to comply with your wishes.

• foot-in-the-door phenomenon, which involves making requests in small steps at first (to gain compliance), in order to work up to big requests.

• The opposite of this phenomenon is called the door-in-the-face phenomenon, in which a large request is made first, making subsequent smaller requests more appealing.

• One reason is because people have been exposed to a weak version of an argument and are, therefore, inoculated to further attempts to get them to comply.

  • This theory is known as the inoculation hypothesis.

  • Another reason people resist is because they feel that they are being forced against their will to comply, which is known as psychological reactance.

• Obedience was studied by Stanley Milgram in a series of famous experiments.

Attitudes and Attitude Change

• Attitudes are combinations of affective (emotional) and cognitive (perceptual) reactions to different stimuli

• Cognitive dissonance occurs when attitudes and behaviors contradict each other.

• Leon Festinger studied this phenomenon and came to the conclusion that people are likely to alter their attitudes to fit their behavior.

• Persuasion is the process by which a person or group can influence the attitudes of others.

  • The efficacy of persuasion derives in part from the characteristics of the persuader.

• The elaboration likelihood model explains when people will be persuaded by the content of a message (or the logic of its arguments), and when people will be influenced by other, more superficial characteristics like the length of the message, or the appearance of the person delivering it.

• The two cognitive routes that persuasion follows under this model are the central route and the peripheral route.

  • Under the central route, people are persuaded by the content of the argument.

  • The peripheral route functions when people focus on superficial or secondary characteristics of the speech or the orator.

Attraction

• It has been found in research that people who are in close proximity with each other are more likely to be attracted to one another.

• They are more often exposed to one another and therefore can more readily develop attraction.

• Proximity can also lead people to places of shared interest.

Altruism and Helping Behavior

• Altruism can help reduce the tendency toward the bystander effect.

• Altruism is selfless sacrifice, and it occurs more frequently than it might appear.

• Altruism has been explained in terms of an empathic response to the plight of others.

Organizational Psychology

• The equity theory proposes a view whereby workers evaluate their efforts versus their rewards.

• Human factors research deals with the interaction of person and machine.

• The Hawthorne effect indicates that workers being monitored for any reason work more efficiently and productively.

Aggression/Antisocial Behavior

• Antisocial behavior, behavior that is harmful to society or others, can be divided roughly into two kinds: prejudice and aggression.

• Prejudice is a negative attitude toward members of a particular group without evidentiary backing.

• Bias simply refers to a tendency or preference, and biases are not necessarily negative.

• Whereas prejudice refers to a belief, discrimination refers to an action

• Stereotypes are prototypes of people.

• One assumption we tend to make is outgroup homogeneity: that is, that every member of a group other than our own is similar.

• A false conclusion is illusory correlation, in which we tend to see relationships where they don’t actually exist.

• Aggression is behavior directed toward another with the intention of causing harm.

• Hostile aggression is emotional and impulsive, and it is typically induced by pain or stress.

• Instrumental aggression, in contrast, is aggression committed to gain something of value.

• As Albert Bandura’s work has demonstrated, aggression has a strong learned component.

• We have the ability to view the victims of violence as somehow less than human, a process called dehumanization.