Untitled Flashcard Set
Unit | Topic | Content | Study | Keyword | Quick Summary | Student Name | |
Socialcultural | Cultural influences on individual attitudes, identity, and behaviors | Acculturation | Delavario et al 2013 | Acculturation – The process by which individuals adopt the cultural traits or social patterns of another group. | Literature review of nine studies conducted on Hispanic migrants in the U.S analyzed differences in BMI between men and women based on acculturation levels. Men showed an increase in BMI, likely due to exposure to larger portion sizes and unhealthy food choices in the U.S. | Eshal Nishaj | |
Socialcultural | Cultural influences on individual attitudes, identity, and behaviors | Acculturation | Shah et al 205 | Shared Fatness | Shah et al demonstrates Acculturation, comparing UAE workers who stayed in a country with a low BMI and migrant workers who moved to a country with a higher BMI. This results of this study demonstrated that moving to a country with higher rates of obesity will promote unhealthy eating habits through acculturation. | Marilyn Pablo | |
Abnormal | Treatment of Disorders | Assessing the effectiveness of treatment | DeRubeis et al 2005 | Depression, CBT, Therapist, medication | DeRubeis et al. (2005) conducted a randomized controlled trial to compare the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and antidepressant medication in treating moderate to severe depression. Around 240 participants were randomly assigned to receive either CBT, antidepressant medication (paroxetine), or a placebo. The study found that both CBT and medication were significantly more effective than placebo, with no major difference in effectiveness between the two treatments after 16 weeks. However, the results showed that the success of CBT depended heavily on the skill of the therapist, as patients treated by more experienced therapists had better outcomes. Additionally, follow-up data suggested that patients who received CBT experienced lower relapse rates compared to those who were treated with medication alone. Overall, the study supported the use of CBT as a strong alternative to medication for depression when delivered by trained professionals. | Addison Shockey | |
Abnormal | Treatment of Disorders | Assessing the effectiveness of treatment | Kirsch et al 2002 | SSRIs, placebo effect | meta-analysis of clinical trials on antidepressants, placebos were nearly as effective as actual drugs, esprecially for moderate and mild depression. questions biological approach to treating depressiong and advocates for a different way of treating depression. vg | vandana guru | |
Abnormal | Treatment of Disorders | Assessing the effectiveness of treatment | TADS | ||||
Developmental | Developing an Identity | Attachment | Ainsworth-Strange Situation | attachment styles, stranger and mom leave/enter the playroom | Aimed to test a child's separation anxiety regarding isolation from their parents and anxiety when a stranger is introduced. It contained 4 brief stages of where the stranger/mom would leave or enter. Determined that there were 3 main attachment styles in infants: secure, avoidant, and resistant | Saman Khatri | |
Developmental | Developing an Identity | Attachment | Harlow | cloth vs wire mother monkey | Harlow gave baby monkeys an option between a softer, cloth surrogate mother or a mother monkey made of wire that provided sustinance. Aiming to determine if attachment is primarily based upon feeding, the study found that because the monkeys preferred the cloth mother, comfort and security is more important for forming attachment then food. | Jaden Price | |
Cognitive | Reliability of Cognitive Processes | Biases in TDM | Chapman and Chapman | Inkblot Test | looked at psychodiagnosticians how they used the signs on the rorsach ink blot test to diagnoese homosexuality. Basically the psychiatrists beleived that signs that were verbally associated with homosexuality were more indicative of homosexuality than the clinically accepted signs | Roshan Chak | |
Cognitive | Reliability of Cognitive Processes | Biases in TDM | Tversky and Kahneman | Anchoring bias, ascending vs descending order | The aim was to test the influence of anchoring bias (the tendency to give extra weight to the first piece of info in a list). It was an experiment on high school students in which the participants were asked to many questions, including the special question in which they had to guess the product of numbers 1-8 in 5 seconds. Half the participants were told to calculate 1x2x3x4x5x6x7x8, while the other half was told to calculate 8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1. It found that ascending order participants guessed a median of 512, while descending order guessed a median of 2250 | Dylan Warren | |
Abnormal | Treatment of Disorders | Biological treatment of MDD | TADS | SSRIs, combination therapy, depression | the treatment for adolescents with depression study was a longitudinal clinical trial that compared cbt, an ssri, and a combo of both in treating MDD in teens. the combo was most effective, especially in long-term. shows benefit of multimodal treatment approaches. vg | vandana guru | |
Abnormal | Treatment of Disorders | Biological treatment of MDD | Elkin et al 1989 | Imipramine | |||
Developmental | Developing as a learner | Brain Development | Chugani 1999 | PET, Children, brain/biological development | Aimed to test if certain areas of the brain reach mature levels in babies based on the metabolism of glucose It was a cross-sectional study with kids 1 month and younger. The child was injected with glucose that had a radioactive element in order to be picked up by the PET scan. Then, when an area is active, they were injected with more glucose. The child was then scanned again to see which areas showed activity and development as a result. It was found that glucose metabolism was mostly present in the sensory, motor, thalamus, and brain stem. This supports the idea that certain parts of the brain will develop first before other ones do and the fact that most parts were in the limbic system supports the idea of nuerons migrating to support the development of the most important parts of the brain (limbic system.) | Berkley Wiltfong | |
Developmental | Developing as a learner | Brain Development | Werker and Tees | auditory perception, language acquisition | babies have the ability to differentiate between speech sounds from different languages, even languages that are not their native one. this ability, however, goes away before they turn one as they become more accustomed to their primary language. | kitan banjo | |
Developmental | Influences on Cognitive and Social Development | Childhood Trauma and Resilience | Feldman and Vengrober | Trauma and resilience | The study showed that resilient children had mothers who were attentitve, sensitive, and who themselves had strong systems of social and family support. Shows that tramua can be recovered from to some extent. | Roshan Chak | |
Developmental | Influences on Cognitive and Social Development | Childhood Trauma and Resilience | Genie Case Study | Language acquisition, social isolation, and child abuse | Keerstin Brady | ||
Abnormal | Factors influencing diagnosis | Classification Systems | Cooper 1972 | ||||
Abnormal | Factors influencing diagnosis | Classification Systems | Rosenhan 1973 | ||||
Developmental | Developing as a learner | Cognitive Development | Borke 1975 | PET, Children | PET scans were conducted on all of the children to investigate glucose metabolism. They were injected with radioactive glucose, an injection similar to a normal solution except a scanner can detect it. They were scanned again to see which areas showed sign of activity, thus development. Babies' brains develop connections (white matter) from back to front. Frontal cortex develops last. Glucose metabolism in newborns is 30% lower than adults. From 3-10 years, glucose metabolism (e.g. activity and neuronal growth) is more than double an adult's. Chugani calls this period of maximum neuroplasticity between ages the ages of 3-10 a "window of opportunity". At adolescence (16-18 years old), metabolic rates decrease to adult levels. Little activity in the cerebral cortex (executive function). Activity in the limbic system (amygdala, hippocampus and the cingulate cortex), areas related to emotional processing, memory and bonding. | ||
Developmental | Developing as a learner | Cognitive Development | Piaget and Inhelder | Views, Children, Resonation | 100 children 4-12 years old were studied.The study involved building a model of three mountains where ten pictures of the model were taken from different view points. A wooden doll was given to the children and they were asked to place the shapes to show what the doll could see. Children in the preoperational stage couldn't place the doll in a position where the view matches, they show egocentrism. Children in the concrete operational stage could understand that the doll has a different view if it is in the position that is different to theirs. Towards the end of the pre-operational stage, the children were more able to think about someone else's viewpoint. The 'three mountains' task provided evidence for Piaget's stages of development. | Raahee Singh | |
Socialcultural | Cultural Origins of behavior and cognition | Culture and its influence on behavior and cognition | Berry and Katz | Culture, conformity, individualist vs. collectivist society, Temne vs. Inuit, social norms. | Berry and Katz investigated how culture affects conformity by comparing the Temne people of Sierra Leone (a collectivist, farming society) and the Inuit of Canada (an individualist, hunting society). They used a modified Asch line-matching task, where participants received false cultural "hints" to test if they would conform. The Temne showed higher conformity than the Inuit, showing that cultural values influence social behavior. | Addison Shockey | |
Socialcultural | Cultural Origins of behavior and cognition | Culture and its influence on behavior and cognition | Meeuwesen, van den Brink-Muinen and Hofstede | Power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and medical communication | explores how Hofstede's cultural dimensions (power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity) relate to differences in medical communication across countries. They found that countries with higher power distance tend to have shorter consultations with less room for unexpected information exchange. | Keerstin Brady | |
Developmental | Developing an Identity | Development of empathy and theory of mind | Meltzoff 1995 | theory of mind, children, empathy, cognitive development | Aimed to test if children would reenact the actions of an adult. Children watched an adult try and fail to complete a task before watching an adult successfully complete the task. Then, children watched a machine try and fail to complete tasks and then do them sucessfully. Below 18 months, the children failed to guess what the adult was trying to do. Beyond that, children were able to guess what the person was trying to do when they failed to complete the task. In both cases, the machine was not very effective for inciting empathy in the children. This shows kids develop theory of mind around 18 months and learn better from humans than from machines. | Berkley Wiltfong | |
Developmental | Developing an Identity | Development of empathy and theory of mind | Saxe and Kanwisher | localization, theory of mind, cerebral cortex, fMRI, mirror neurons, TPJ, false beliefs | Saxe and Kanwisher aimed to see if theory of mind is localized in the brain's temporal parietal junction through an experiment. Participants were told to read short stories, some of which included false beliefs and others that didn't. Researchers compared reasoning about true and false beliefs to reasoning about non-social control situations through an fMRI scan. The TPJ region was activited during visuospational reorienting and understanding false beliefs and beliefs of others. Therefore, the TPJ was responsible for oene component of the theory of mind: understanding the beliefs of others. | Alisha Mian | |
Cognitive | Emotion and Cognition | Emotion | Neisser and Harsh 1992 | Challenger Explosion Flashbulb Memories | Participants were given a questionnaire and were asked to write about their memories of when they first heard of the accident (reception context) less than 24 hours after the accident. 2.5 years later, 44 of the original participants answered the questions again. This time they were also asked to rate how confident they were of the accuracy of their memory on a scale of 1 to 5. The interviews were taped and transcribed. The participants were very confident in the accuracy of their memories. confidence had no correlation with accuracy. 25% were wrong about every major detail 2.5 years later. | Charlotte Royer | |
Cognitive | Emotion and Cognition | Emotion | Sharot | 9/11 flashbulb memory | Sharot investigated the role of the amygdala in encoding and retrieving memories of the 9/11 attacks. Conducted 3 years after the events of 9/11, participants were placed in an fMRI scanner and presented with cues relating to either the attacks or their summer holidays (control event). Then were asked to recall specific memories. Findings showed that participants who were in downtown Manhattan when the towers were hit showed significantly higher amygdala activation, suggesting that there is a link between emotion and memory formation. | Jaden Price | |
Socialcultural | Cultural influences on individual attitudes, identity, and behaviors | Enculturaiton | Cohen, Culture of Honor | Honor and Confederates | This study investigated cultural values of the North and South. It hypothesized that due to the culture of honor, when insulted, Southerners would react more aggresively than Northerners. This demonstrated the southern culture of honor in the insult-aggression side, where insults diminish a man’s reputation. | Marilyn Pablo | |
Socialcultural | Cultural influences on individual attitudes, identity, and behaviors | Enculturaiton | Demorest et al 2008 | Cultural Enculturation/Schema | Demorest et al investigated how encultration influences cognition. The study was a quasi experiment with purposive sampling. There were 150 trained and untrained music participants from USA and Turkey. They listened to several novel musical excerpts from both familiar and unfamiliar cultures (Western, Turkish. and Chinese). Afterwards, they completed a recogniton memory task. Overall, participants were significantly better at remembering novel music from their native culture and musical exposure did not correlate with result (ZH) | Zara Hammond | |
Bio | Genetics and Behavior | Evolution | Curtis, Aunger, Rabie | ||||
Bio | Genetics and Behavior | Evolution | LeDoux | Amygdala, thalamus, hormones | Rats were put in a cage and then were played a fear sound being a played in the cage by shocking them moments after the sound was played. The rats went into freeze response and then after the sounds were identified the way they responded were recorded. The electrical activity in a rat's brain showed that when it was scared, it processed its response to fear by sending a signal through to the thalamus, and then on to the amygdala, and the cortex. When he severed the pathway between the thalamus and the amygdala, Ledoux discovered that the rats couldn't be conditioned to the sound being played. | Sheza Mehruf | |
Abnormal | Etiology of abnormal psychology | Explanations of Disorders (Bio-MDD) | Caspi 2003 | molecular genetics | chloe migut | ||
Abnormal | Etiology of abnormal psychology | Explanations of Disorders (Bio-MDD) | Silberg et al 1999 | Twin pair study to compare effects of depression on males and females | Over 1400 different-sex twin pairs were observed over the course of 8 years (ages 8-16) and were regularly assessed for depressive symptoms using the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Review. Additionally, annual ratings of stressful life events were given by the parents of the twins. Even after accounting for some potential confounding variables, girls tended to show more intense depressive symptoms than boys did, suggesting that the intensity of depression may be sex-linked. | Pranay Kolukuluri | |
Etiology of abnormal psychology | Explanations of Disorders (Cog-MDD) | Caseras et al 2007 | Eye-tracking test to see differences in perception of stimuli | Researchers ran a quasi-experiment to see how depression affects how people pay attention to positive and negative stimuli. Two groups were created (participants with depression and participants without depression), and both groups were shown 32 unique pictures, both positive and negative. Researchers used eye-tracking technology to see where and for how long participants looked at aspects of each picture. Results showed that participants who were deemed as having depressive symptoms paid more attention to the negative images (attention bias) than the positive images when compared to those without depressive symptoms. This reflects a tendency to notice more negative stimuli in depressed individuals, which could illustrate a bias towards negativity in other aspects of their lives, such as their self schema and the events around them. | Pranay Kolukuluri | ||
Abnormal | Etiology of abnormal psychology | Explanations of Disorders (SC) | Brown and Harris 1978 | London's women with depresion | james peery | ||
Abnormal | Etiology of abnormal psychology | Explanations of Disorders (SC) | Rosenquist, Fowler, and Christakis 2011 | Do depressed people have depressed friends? | james peery | ||
Bio | Genetics and Behavior | Genetic Similarities | Bouchard and McGue 1981 | Sounds like "Bouquet" of MZ, DZ, and Siblings | Meta-data study of 111 studies, calculated median correlations between IQ score between MZ twins reared togther, MZ twins reared apart, DZ tins reared together, and Siblings reared apart. Found that correlation was 0.85, 0.67, 0.58, and 0.45 respectively. Showed that genetics play role in IQ similarity, but environment also affects. | Aishani Chatterjee | |
Bio | Genetics and Behavior | Genetic Similarities | Scarr and Weinberg 1983 | ||||
Bio | Genetics and Behavior | Genetics | Caspi et al 2004 | 5-HTT gene alleles for serotonin | Longitudinal study with molecular genetics. Small number of participants from age 3 to 26 went through long-term study where they had to record significant life events in a "life calendar". They also had to report if they experienced depressive symptoms, when onset began. They underwent molecular genetic analysis to determine differences in 5-HTT gene, known to play role in expression of serotonin that affects MDD. Researchers found that, if participant has at least one short allele of 5-HTT, and had experienced a significant negative life event, they developed depressive symptoms after about 5 years with more frequency than participants with 2 long alleles of 5-HTT. With relavence to Genes and Behavior, because there was difference in development of depressive behaviors that correlated with different in alleles in participants, showing the effect of genes, specifically alleles, on behavior. | Aishani Chatterjee | |
Bio | Genetics and Behavior | Genetics | Kaminsky et al 2008 | Kaminsky - sounds like a war general | MZ twin study, Epigenetic mapping. 2 MZ twins had vastly different lives. One twin went into the military, was depoloyed and saw traumatic events, married late and never had children; other twin went into law, had life more in safety, married earlier, had children. Both underwent epigenetic mapping, which analyzes the DNA methylation and histone acetylation patterns of a person's genome to infer higher (acetylation) or lower (methylation) expression of specific genes. Difference found in DNA methylation of DXL1 gene in the war twin, more than law twin; DXL1 is involved in production of neurons in the brain's stress center. | Aishani Chatterjee | |
Socialcultural | The influence of gobalization on individual behavior | Globalization | Adams 2003 | Integration of cultural diversity | Investigated whether cultural values of Canadians would gradually assimilate US values. Results indicated the initial expectations were not confirmed. The cultural value profiles remained distinctly different- and even gained more differences. Globalization outcomes depend on the acculturation strategy. Not dominance over non-dominance. "The Father must be the Master" went from 26% to 18% in Canada big increased from 42% to 49% in the U.S. | Madison Duarte | |
Socialcultural | The influence of gobalization on individual behavior | Globalization | Buchan et al 2011 | Six countries, economics games- personal gain and contributing global/local public goods | Buchan et al. (2011) investigated how globalization influences individual behavior, particularly in terms of cooperation and group identity. In their study, participants from six countries played economic games that involved choosing between personal gain and contributing to global or local public goods. The results showed that individuals with a stronger global identity were more likely to cooperate on a global level, suggesting that globalization can increase prosocial behavior beyond national or local group boundaries. This supports the idea that globalization shapes how individuals see themselves in relation to others, encouraging a broader sense of group belonging and shared responsibility. | Ryder Janik | |
Bio | Hormones and Pheromones and behavior | Hormones | Kosfeld et al 2005 | Oxytocin, interpersonal trust | Male students were randomly put in an oxytocin or placebo group. Everyone was paired anonymously and played the role of an investor or a trustee. Everyone is given 12 monetary units. The investor decides how much to send to the trustee out of four options, and the experimenter triples whatever is sent to the trustee. Then the trustee decides what to send back and at the end of the experiment the total earned units were exchanged for real money. The level of trust in those who got oxytocin was higher than in the control group, so oxytocin reduces risk aversion in general. | Sheza Mehruf | |
Bio | Hormones and Pheromones and behavior | Hormones | Scheele | Oxytocin, Monogamous | Researcher administered either oxytocin or a placebo, and through the "stop-distance paradigm" subjects were positioned at one end of the room while an attractive female was on the other side. The subject was then required to move slowly towards the female and stop wherever he felt uncomfortable. In the second, subjects viewed a series of pictures on a screen with their head close to it, pictures were flashed in four different groups (positive social, positive non-social, negative social, and negative non-social) and asked if they liked the picture. Oxytocin was shown to stimulate men in a monogamous relationship but not single ones, and participants with oxytocin had a slower reaction time to the pictures. | Sheza Mehruf | |
Cognitive | Cognitive Processing in a technological world | Influence of technologies of cognitive processes. Method used to study the interaciton between. | Kaspersky Digital Amnesia Surveys | Telephone | Aim: To find out how heavily people rely on their digital devices rather than their memory. 1000 participants from Europe were asked to remember important phone numbers and discuss how they stored info found online. Results: digital technologies can have a detrimental effect on memory and results in digital amnesia, despite their benefits. | Helen Zhang | |
Cognitive | Cognitive Processing in a technological world | Influence of technologies of cognitive processes. Method used to study the interaciton between. | Rosser et al 2007 | Surgery and Video Games | Researchers analyzed of the performance of 33 surgeons (15 males and 18 females) participating in a "Top Gun Laparoscopic Skills and Suturing Programme." 3 different video game exercises were performed, and questionnaires were completed to assess past experience with video games and current level of play, level of surgical training, number of cases performed and number of years in medical practice. Overall Top Gun score (time and errors) was 33% better for video gamers, and 42% better if they played more than 3 hours a week. Past video gaming experience of more than 3 hours a week was correlated with 37% fewer errors and 27% faster completion of laparoscopic surgery. An overall video game skill scale was highly correlated with laparoscopic skill and suturing ability. | Charlotte Royer | |
Bio | Brain and Behavior | Localization | Sharot | 9/11 Attacks, Flashbulb Memory, Amygdala, Emotion | 24 people who were in New York City on the day of 9/11 were placed in a fMRI machine and shown a series of words on a screen. The word "summer" or "September" was projected along with these words to recall either memories of 9/11 or their summer holiday. Then after the brain scanning session, participants were asked to rate their memories for vividness, detail, confidence in accuracy and arousal and also to write a description of their personal memories. Those who were closer to the World Trade Center had deeper recall/memory and activation of the amyydala was higher. The strength of amygdala activation at retrieval was shown to correlate with flashbulb memories as the amygdala plays a role in connecting emotional and significant experiences. | Oscar Hsieh | |
Bio | Brain and Behavior | Localization | Maguire | spatial navigation, posterior hippocampus, anterior hippocampus, grey matter volume, pixel counting, VBM (Voxel-Based Morphometry), and correlation analysis | The study by Maguire et al. (2000), often referred to as the "London Taxi Driver Study," investigated the impact of spatial navigation experience on the hippocampus. The research found that the posterior hippocampus of taxi drivers was significantly larger than that of control subjects, suggesting that this region is crucial for storing and using mental maps of the environment | Sumukh Kashyap | |
Cognitive | Cognitive Processing | Models of Memory (MSM) | Glanzer and Cunitz | short term memory, long term memory, serial position effect | they demonstrated the serial position effect by showing that we recall words at the beginning of (primacy effect) and words at the end (recency effect) better than we do other words. they proved that short and long term memory are in different stores because of the primary and recency effects. | kitan banjo | |
Cognitive | Cognitive Processing | Models of Memory (MSM) | Sperling 1960 | recall, sensory store, iconic memory | he studied the duration of our sensory memory by having participants stare a a screen in a row for a few seconds, and then asking them to recall what was shown. he found that there was a brief time after the screen disappeared in which the participants would be able to recall more information then would have previously been able to. | kitan banjo | |
Cognitive | Cognitive Processing | Models of Memory (Working) | Baddeley 1996 | Aimed to provide supporting evidence for the theoretical function of the central executive in the working memory model. The study's results indicated that counting and reciting the alphabet had no noticeable impact on the randomness of key pressing while engaging in the concurrent alternation task significantly reduced randomness. Provided evidence for the role of the central executive in working memory. | Madison Duarte | ||
Cognitive | Cognitive Processing | Models of Memory (Working) | Baddeley, Lewis, Vallar (1984) | ||||
Bio | Brain and Behavior | Neuroplasticity | Draganski | Juggling, grey matter, Pruning | Aimed to see whether learning a new motor skill can lead to changes in the brain. Longitudinal experiment with 24 non jugglers. All were scanned using an MRI and half were asked to juggle for 3 months while the other half didnt do anything, MRI scanned, then 3 more months of no one juggling. Found that after 3 months the jugglers had increased grey matter while the non jugglers didnt show any change. Then after 3 months the grey matter decreased for jugglers but stayed higher than the baseline. This shows Neuroplasticity since the brain was able to change itself around and then remove areas that arent needed. | Dylan Warren | |
Bio | Brain and Behavior | Neuroplasticity | Maguire | The Knowledge, taxi drivers, increased grey matter | Aimed to examine whether structural changes could occur and be detected in the brains of people with extensive experience with spatial navigation. Measured using MRI scans and tested London taxi drivers before and after taking the knowledge and driving taxis, and showed neurplasticity with increased gray matter | Saman Khatri | |
Bio | Brain and Behavior | Neuroplasticity | Merzenich | Owl monkeys, amputation, cortical remapping, | Investiagated how cortical remapping contributes to hand responses to injuries. Sensory inputs from all the hand digits (fingers) were mapped in the cortex. To do this, electrodes were attached to the part of the cortex known to be responsible for sensations from the hand, then different fingers were stimulated. It was noted which of the electrodes respond to the stimulation. One or seven digits on the monkey's hand were amputated. A mapping was done 62 days after the amputation to see how the cortex adapted to the injury. As a result, the first mapping showed that there were 5 distinct areas in the brain, each responsible for one finger and it was found that the adjacent areas spread/occupied parts of the now unused area. In relation to neuroplasticity, when the middle finger was amputated, the deprived sense of the middle finger corresponds to changes in the brain's organization as finger around the middle finger occupied the unused area. Thus, this highlights the brain's ability to rearrange/adpat its connection so that the nearby fingers can compensate for the lost one (showcasing neuroplasticity) | Oscar Hsieh | |
Bio | Brain and Behavior | Neurotransmitters | Crockett 2010 | Serotonin, neurotransmitter, pro-social behavior, citalopram | The study aimed to determine if serotonin promoted pro-social behavior, specifically, harm aversion. The laboratory experiment had repeated measures design with 2 conditions. The study used volunteer sampling and participants were 30 healthy subjects with a mean age of 30 (13 males and 17 females). Participants placed in the first condition were given a dose of citalopram. Participants in the second condition were given a placebo. The experiment was counterbalanced and double blind. Participants were then given a set of moral dilemmas (personal or impersonal trolly problem) which forced them to chose between a harm averse or utilitarian action. Though there was no significant difference between the control groups and those with citalopram during the impersonal dilemma, participants given citalopram were more likely to chose a harm-averse action during the personal dilemma. Thus, citalopram made individuals less willing to harm one person to save others , and therefore enhanced harm aversion in moral judgement. | Gabriela Aristiguieta Salcedo | |
Bio | Brain and Behavior | Neurotransmitters | Fisher, Aron, Brown | Dopamine, neurotransmitters, romantic love | Aimed to investigate the central role of dopamine in the brain in response to loved ones. The participants had to look at photographs while their brains were being scanned in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner. Firstly, each participant viewed a photo of the person they loved for 30 seconds. They were then given a filler activity in which they had to count back from a certain number for 40 seconds. Following this, the participants viewed a photo of an emotionally neutral acquaintance for 30 seconds, and finally, they had another filler activity for 20 seconds. These steps were repeated 6 times, and the total procedure lasted for 12 minutes. Results showed that in response to the images of their loved ones, activation was observed in the dopamine-rich neural systems, primarily the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and caudate nucleus, of the participants. The areas in which activation was observed are both rich in dopamine and form part of the dopaminergic pathway, which generates and transmits dopamine and increases dopamine related activity in the brain. In this way, it was concluded that dopamine activity in the brain plays a role in romantic love. | Oscar Hsieh | |
Abnormal | Factors influencing diagnosis | Normality versus abnormality | Cooper 1972 | schizophrenia vs. depression, American & British psychologists diagnosis | Investigated the reliability of diagnosis of depression and schizophrenia based on videotapes of clinical interviews. New York psychiatrists were 2x likely to diagnose schizophrenia than London psychiatrists, who were 2x likely to diagnose depression or mania. | Saman Khatri | |
Abnormal | Factors influencing diagnosis | Normality versus abnormality | Rosenhan 1973 | Validity of diagnosis – Whether psychiatric labels accurately reflect a person’s mental state. | eight pseudo-patients feigned mental illness to gain admission to mental hospitals to investigate the validity of psychiatric diagnoses and whether professionals could reliably distinguish between sane and insane individuals. All pseudo-patients were diagnosed with schizophrenia and hospitalized. | Eshal Nishaj | |
Bio | Hormones and Pheromones and behavior | Pheromones | Cutler, Friedman, McCoy | Men sociosexual behaviorial calendar | Male heterosexual volunteers were asked to use their regular aftershave lotion after every shave during the study, and were given a behavioral calendar that had to be filled out daily (petting, affection, masturbation, sex, etc). After a two week baseline period, a technician added either ethanol or a synthesized pheromone with ethanol to their aftershave lotion, to determine if synthesized pheromones could increase the sociosexual behavior of men. Based on the results, it was concluded that the men's attractiveness was increased through the use of synthesized pheromones. | Jaden Price | |
Bio | Hormones and Pheromones and behavior | Pheromones | Hare et al 2017 | human sex pheromones– steroids androstadienone (AND) and estratetraenol (EST) | participants completed two computer-based tasks twice (on two consecutive days) while being exposed to a control scent on one day and a putative pheromone (AND or EST) on the other. The first task tested perceptions of gender and the second task assessed perceptions of attractiveness and faithfulness to investigate the effects of the putative sex pheromones AND and EST on perceptions of facial gender, attractiveness, and unfaithfulness. Results found that exposure to AND or EST had no effect on gender perception. | Eshal Nishaj | |
Developmental | Influences on Cognitive and Social Development | Poverty and Socio-Econominc Status | Brooks-Gunn and Duncan (1997) | ||||
Developmental | Influences on Cognitive and Social Development | Poverty and Socio-Econominc Status | Dickerson and Popli (2016) | episodic poverty, persistent poverty, indirect effect of poverty | Dickerson and Popli aimed to study the effects of episodic and persistent poverty. The participants were 19000 children born in the UK. The experimenters conducted face-to-face interviews to find out about the child, family, etc and cognitive assessments regarding verbal and spatial skills. The study found that children in early poverty scored lower on cognitive test scores and that cognitive development is more affected by poverty the earlier it occurs. Therefore, persistent poverty has a more detrimental effect than episodic on development. | Alisha Mian | |
Abnormal | Etiology of abnormal psychology | Prevalence Rates of Disorders | Payne 2012 (cultural) | cultural bias, diagnostic bias, ethnic disparities | this study investigates how cultural and racial factors affect diagnoses. african american patients were more likely to be misdiagnosed with schizophrenia compared to white ppl, shows cultural bias and suggests that ethnicity can influence diagnostic decisions, leading to overdiagnosis or incorrect treatment. | vandana guru | |
Abnormal | Etiology of abnormal psychology | Prevalence Rates of Disorders | Silberg et al 1999 (gender/sex) | teenage girl depression | Jame peery | ||
Abnormal | Treatment of Disorders | Psychological Treatment of MDD | DeRubeis et al 2005 | ||||
Abnormal | Treatment of Disorders | Psychological Treatment of MDD | Goldapple et al 2004 | ||||
Cognitive | Reliability of Cognitive Processes | Reconstructive Memory | Loftus and Palmer | Car crash, change in wording | Experiment meant to study whether info supplied after an event influences an eyewitness' memory. independent measures design with a sample of 45 university of washington students. they were all shown the same 7 film clips of a traffic accident and then write an account of the accident. Then they were asked to answer some questions and one of the questions asked at what speed did the cars ______. The highest average recorded speed was the word "smashed" while the least was "contacted". In other words, it proved reconstructive memory was malleable. | Dylan Warren | |
Cognitive | Reliability of Cognitive Processes | Reconstructive Memory | McCloskey and Zaragoza 1985 | response bias, memory | challeneged the idea that memory is easily disorted by misleading information, similar to Loftus and Palmer. In their partiicpants watched a video of a man stealing a wallet and were later asked misleading questions. But in the final test, particpants were asked to choose between the correct object and an unrealted object instead of a misleading one. Most participants correctly idenititfed the object, suggesting yhat misleading inormation did not overwrite the original memory. This lead McCloskey and Zaragoza to argue that memory may be more reliable than proved by preovuis studies. Also, that errors in other studies may have been due to confusiin rather than actual memory distortion. Their results challenege the idea that reconstuctivememory as entirly malleable and irignal memories remain intact. | Jasmine Din | |
Abnormal | Factors influencing diagnosis | Role of Clinical Biases Diagnosis | Chapman and Chapman | Inkblot Test | Investigate how clinicians may form illusory correlations between symptoms and disorder, like associating specific Rorschach test responses with schizophrenia without scientific basis. They found that both naive participants and trained clinicians incorrectly believed certain signs were linked to schizophrenia, this showed how confirmation bias can influence diagnosis. | Ruhi Shanbhag | |
Abnormal | Factors influencing diagnosis | Role of Clinical Biases Diagnosis | Payne 2012 | Clinical biases | Aim: to investigate clinical biases when diagnosing depression. Researchers showed clinical workers and therapists 4 clinical videos and asked them to make diagnostic judgments. In 2 videos, an actor played the role of a depressed man with MDD symptoms. In the other 2 videos, the actor displayed culturally expressed African American symptoms of depression. (Actors were either African American or Caucasian). Results: African American and and Caucasian clients would express their symptoms differently, but clinicians tend to be insensitive to these cultural differences which results in bias and misdiagnosis. | Helen Zhang | |
Abnormal | Treatment of Disorders | Role of culture in treatment | Kinzie et al 1987 | ||||
Abnormal | Treatment of Disorders | Role of culture in treatment | Naeem et al 2012 | ||||
Developmental | Influences on Cognitive and Social Development | Roles of Peers and Play | Csikszentmihalyi and Larson | Researchers used an experience sampling method to track how much time adolescents spend with their peers. Results showed that participants spent 29% of their waking time with peers (excluding classroom/instruction time), which is far greater than the amount of time they spent with adults (13%). This indicates that peers play a crucial role in development during the adolescent stage of a child's life, especially as friendships place a greater emphasis on emotional intimacy at this point in time. | Pranay Kolukuluri | ||
Developmental | Influences on Cognitive and Social Development | Roles of Peers and Play | Howes 1992 | social roles, negotiating rules, and developing empathy | Howes (1992) explored how peer interactions and different types of play influence children’s cognitive and social development. She identified stages of peer play—from parallel play to more complex cooperative play—and emphasized that as children’s play becomes more interactive, it supports the development of perspective-taking, emotional regulation, language skills, and problem-solving. Howes highlighted that peer play provides unique opportunities for practicing social roles, negotiating rules, and developing empathy, all of which are crucial for healthy cognitive and social growth. | Ryder Janik | |
Cognitive | Cognitive Processing | Schema | Anderson and Pichert | Schema theory, house-buyer vs. burglar's perspective, encoding. | Anderson and Pichert studied how schemas affect memory by giving participants either a homebuyer or burglar perspective when reading a story about a house. They found that participants remembered different details based on their perspective, and that switching perspectives later helped them recall new information, supporting the idea that schemas influence both encoding and retrieval of memories. | Addison Shockey | |
Cognitive | Cognitive Processing | Schema | Bransford and Johnson | rschema theory, mental reprentation, cognative strutures | Investigated how schemas affect cognative processing and memory. Particpants were asked to listen to a vague passage, another group recives a relevant context image before hearing the passage, another group saw the image after, and the control group saw no image at all. The results show that particiants who saw the image before the passage remembered significantly more information. This supports schema theory becuase having a schema activated beforehand helps people organize and encode the new infromation more effectively. The study demonstrates that schemas influence understanding and memory, and the cognative processing in more efficent when relevent prior knowledge is activated in advance. | Jasmine Din | |
Socialcultural | The Individual and the Group | Social Cognitive Theory | Williams and Williams (2010) | Aggression because of TV | Aim: to study children's behavior before and after introduction to tv and compare the behavior with that in other towns; observational longitudinal study; children became twice as aggressive after watching tv, their iqs dropped as well | Eva Gassert | |
Socialcultural | The Individual and the Group | Social Identity Theory | Bandura | Bobo doll | His famous Bobo doll experiment (1961) demonstrated how children learn aggressive behaviors through observational learning—by watching adults act violently toward a doll, children were more likely to imitate that behavior themselves. This showed that social behavior is influenced by modeling within a group context, emphasizing how individuals internalize group norms and behaviors through observation. | Ryder Janik | |
Socialcultural | The Individual and the Group | Social Identity Theory | Steele and Aronson | Stereotype threat, social identity, academic performance, self-fulfilling prophecy, test anxiety, cultural stereotypes. | How stereotype threat can affect acadaemic performance among African American students. They found that when students believed a test measured intelligence, African Americans performed worse than White participants, but when the test was presented as nondiagnostic, the performance gap disappeared, this showed how stereotypes can impair performance. | Ruhi Shanbhag | |
Socialcultural | The Individual and the Group | Social Identity Theory | Tajfel | British students, in-group favoritism, out-group discrimination, point allocation, social categorization, intergroup behavior | Investigated how being assigned to a group can lead to in-group favoritism and out-group discrimination, even without any real conflict or competition. Using the minimal group paradigm with British boy students, the study showed that participants consistently favored their in-group when allocating points, this supported social identity theory. | Ruhi Shanbhag | |
Socialcultural | The Individual and the Group | Social Identity Theory | Taylor and Jaggi | Ultimate Attribution error, Hindu-pakistan conflict | Aimed to investigate how Hindu participants attributed the behaviors of both in-group (Hindu) and out-group (Muslim) members, focusing on whether they attributed positive or negative behaviors to internal or external causes. Results suggested Hindu participants were more likely to attribute positive behavior of their ingroup to internal factors and negative behavior to external factors while they attributed positive behavior of the outgroup to internal factors 50% of the time. This study seems to support Pettigrew's (1979) ultimate attribution error (UAE) an extension of the fundamental attribution error (FAE). It describes our tendency to attribute negative behavior of members of an outgroup to internal factors and therefore perpetuate stereotypes | Madison Duarte | |
Socialcultural | The Individual and the Group | Stereotypes | Rosenthal and Jacobson | Self-fullfiling prophecy and stereotypes | Aim: to study how the teachers' expectations on students will directly affect their intellectual performance in the class; students who were treated as "bloomers" gained moRE IQ Points than the other group of students. | Eva Gassert | |
Socialcultural | The Individual and the Group | Stereotypes | Steele and Aronson | Stereotype Threat | Steele & Aronson investigated stereotype threat affects test performance in African Americans. The study was an experiment with a control and experimental condition. Participants were given a 30 minute standardized test of verbal ability similar to the SAT. Participant in experimental condition told that the test diagnosed intelllectually did poorly because they believed it was a test of ability. But those told it was for the purpose of research did just as well as white Americans. (ZH) | Eva Gassert | |
Bio | Brain and Behavior | Techniques to study the brain | Maguire | MRI scan, neuroplasticity, hippocampus | Investigated whether cultural values of Canadians would gradually assimilate US values. Results indicated the initial expectations were not confirmed. The cultural value profiles remained distinctly different- and even gained more differences. Globalization outcomes depend on the acculturation strategy. Not dominance over non-dominance. "The Father must be the Master" went from 26% to 18% in Canada big increased from 42% to 49% in the U.S. | Gabriela Aristiguieta Salcedo | |
Bio | Brain and Behavior | Techniques to study the brain | Sharot | fMRI, amygdala, brain activation, brain imaging, memory retrieval, and flashbulb memory | Sharot et al.'s (2007) study on flashbulb memories demonstrated the role of amygdala activation in vivid recall, particularly for those who experienced the 9/11 attacks firsthand. Strengths: It provides evidence for the biological basis of flashbulb memory and the amygdala's involvement in emotional memory consolidation. Weaknesses: The study's correlational design and artificial environment limit its ability to establish causation and its ecological validity | Sumukh Kashyap | |
Cognitive | Cognitive Processing | Thinking and Decision Making | Albarracin et al 2001 | Condoms | Metastudy on Condoms and the use of protection/contraceptives in anticipation of sexual intercourse. Showed that thinking about doing something led to a higher chance of actually doing it (the people who considered using condoms were more likely to actually use them than people who hadn't premeditated use of contraceptives) | Marilyn Pablo | |
Cognitive | Cognitive Processing | Thinking and Decision Making | Luce, Bettman and Payne | Charities for Poor Kids | 27 undergrad students were asked to imagine they were members of a charity that provides children with financial support. Their task was to choose only one child from five with five different attributes. Importance of each attribute was explained, making all of them sound appealing (e.g. willingness to learn, personality, age, family size, living conditions) and they all conflict. Participants could only open one box at a time to see information, alternative based transitions vs attribute based transitions, were split into two groups: higher emotion- participants found out more about child's background; lower emotion- background was more superficial. Participants in higher emotion group opened a larger number of boxes and spent more time on the task, and engaged more frequently with attribute-based transitions (showing they were avoiding emotionally difficult trade-offs between options). | Charlotte Royer | |
Abnormal | Factors influencing diagnosis | Validity and Reliability of Diagnosis | Cooper 1972 | ||||
Abnormal | Factors influencing diagnosis | Validity and Reliability of Diagnosis | Rosenhan 1973 | pseudopatient, DSM2, schizophrenia, | In this study, 8 pseudopatients were sent to psychiatric hospitals claiming to hear voices . Once they were admitted they behaved normally y | chloe migut | |
Bio | Animal Research in understanding human behavior | Value of animal models (Brain/behavior) | LeDoux | Amygdala, conditioning, thalamus | He conditioned each rat to fear a sound being played in the cage by shocking them moments after the sound was played. The rats went into the freeze response when the sound was played. Afterwards, Ledoux used tracer chemicals to stain the brain (specifically the neurons) and thus show where they branched out. electrical activity in a rat's brain showed that when it was scared, it processed its response to fear by sending a signal through to the thalamus, and then on to the amygdala and the cortex. When he severed the pathway between the thalamus and the amygdala, Ledoux discovered that the rats couldn't be conditioned to the sound being played. | Riya Jumledar | |
Bio | Animal Research in understanding human behavior | Value of animal models (Brain/behavior) | Merzenich | Neuroplasticity | Electrodes were attached to parts of the cortex responsible for sensations from the hand, then different fingers were stimulated. One of the monkey's hand were amputated. Remapping after 62 days to see how cortex adapted to the injury. Showed 5 distinct areas in the cortex and once amputated, the unused area of the sensory cortex would be occupied by adjacent intact fingers | Riya Jumledar | |
Bio | Animal Research in understanding human behavior | Value of animal models (Genetics) | LeDoux | LeDoux used rats to study how the amygdala is involved in fear conditioning. By creating lesions in specific brain areas, he found that the amygdala plays a key role in linking sensory information with emotional responses, especially fear. The study shows how animal models help us isolate brain functions and understand the genetic basis of behavior. | Jackson | ||
Bio | Animal Research in understanding human behavior | Value of animal models (Genetics) | Weaver et al 2004 | Weaver studied rats to show that maternal behavior (e.g., licking/grooming) affects gene expression in offspring. Pups raised by nurturing mothers had reduced stress responses and more active glucocorticoid receptor genes. This wasn’t due to genetics alone—epigenetic changes (gene expression influenced by environment) were responsible. | Jackson | ||
Bio | Animal Research in understanding human behavior | Value of animal models (Hormones &Pheromones) | Romero 2014 | Dogs | Aimed to study the role of oxytocin in promoting social bonds in mammals. Dogs were sprayed intra-nasally with oxytocin or a placebo and were placed in a room with their owner and another dog. The dog's behavior towards its owner and the other dog was recorded across 1 hour. Results: Dogs with oxytocin showed higher affiliation (licking, nuzzling, following, etc) towards their owner and they engaged in similar behaviors toward the other dog. Oxytocin faciliates social bonds in mammals. | Helen Zhang |