AP Psych Review Vocab Terms

History and Approaches (2-4%)

• Psychology is derived from physiology (biology) and philosophy
• EARLY APPROACHES
  • Structuralism – used INTROSPECTION (act of looking inward to examine mental experience) to determine the underlying STRUCTURES of the mind
  • Functionalism – need to analyze the PURPOSE of behavior
• APPROACHES KEY WORDS
  • Psychoanalytic/dynamic – unconscious, childhood
  • Behavioral – learned, reinforced
  • Humanistic – free will, choice, ideal, actualization
  • Cognitive – Perceptions, thoughts
  • Evolutionary – Genes
  • Biological – Brain, NTs
  • Sociocultural – society
  • Biopsychosocial – combo of above
• PEOPLE:
  • Mary Calkins: First Fem. Pres. of APA
  • Charles Darwin: Natural selection & evolution
  • Dorothea Dix: Reformed mental institutions in U.S.
  • Stanley Hall: 1^st pres. of APA1^st journal
  • William James: Father of American Psychology – functionalist
  • Wilhem Wundt: Father of Modern Psychology – structuralist
  • Margaret Floy Washburn–1st fem. PhD
  • Christine Ladd Franklin – 1^st fem.
• RANDOM TERMS
  • Basic research – purpose is to increase knowledge (rats)
  • Applied research – purpose is to help people
  • Psychologist – research or counseling – MS or PhD
  • Psychiatrist – prescribe medications and diagnose – M.D.

Research Methods

(8-10%)

• EXPERIMENT : Adv: researcher controls variables to establish cause and effect Disadv: difficult to generalize

• • Independent Variable: manipulated by the researcher
    • Experimental Group: received the treatment (part of the IV)
    • Control Group: placebo, baseline (part of the IV)
    • Placebo Effect: show behaviors associated with the exp. group when having received placebo
    • Double-Blind: Exp. where neither the participant or the experimenter are aware of which condition people are assigned to (drug studies)
    • Single-Blind: only participant blind – used if experimenter can’t be blind (gender, age, etc)
  • Dependent Variable: measured variable (is DEPENDENT on the independent variable)
• Operational Definition: clear, precise, typically quantifiable definition of your variables – allows replication
• Confound: error/ flaw in study
• Random Assignment: assigns participants to either control or experimental group at random – minimizes bias, increase chance of equal representation
• Random Sample: method for choosing participants – minimizes bias
  • Assignment and sampling can be done via names in a hat, computer generation
• Validity: accurate results
• Reliability: same results every time
• NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION: Adv: real world validity (observe people in their own setting) Disadv: No cause and effect
• CORRELATION: Adv: identify relationship between two variables Disadv: No cause and effect (CORRELATION DOES NOT EQUAL CAUSATION)
  • Positive Correlation – variables increase & decrease together
  • Negative Correlation – as one variable increases the other decreases

• • The stronger the # the stronger the relationship REGARDLESS of the pos/neg sign
    • 3^rd variable problem – diff. variable is responsible for relationship (breast implants & suicide)
    • Illusory correlation – belief of correlation that doesn’t exist (old man predicts rain from arthritis)
• CASE STUDY: Adv. Studies ONE person (usually) in great detail – lots of info Disadv: No cause and effect
• DESCRIPTIVE STATS:shape of the data
  • Measures of Central Tendency:
    • Mean: Average (use in normal distribution)
    • Median: Middle # (use in skewed distribution)
    • Mode: occurs most often
• INFERENTIAL STATISTICS: establishes significance (meaningfulness)
• STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE = results not due to chance
• ETHICAL GUIDELINES (APA)
  • Confidentiality
  • Informed Consent
  • Debriefing
  • Deception must be warranted

Biological Basis

(8-10%)

• NEURON: Basic cell of the NS
  • Dendrites: Receive incoming signal
  • Soma: Cell body (includes nucleus)
  • Axon: AP travels down this
  • Myelin Sheath: speeds up signal down axon, protects axon
  • Terminals: release NTs – send signal onto next neuron
  • Synapse: gap b/w neurons
• Action Potential: movement of sodium and potassium ions across a membrane sends an electrical charge down the axon
  • All or none law: stimulus must trigger the AP past its threshold, but does not increase the intensity of the response (flush the toilet)
  • Refractory period: neuron must rest and reset before it can send another AP (toilet resets)
• Sensory neurons – receive signals
• Afferent neurons – Accept signals
• Motor neurons – send signals
• Efferent neurons – signal Exits
• Interneurons – cells in spinal cord responsible for reflex loop
• CENTRAL NS: Brain and spinal cord
• PERIPHERAL NS: Rest of the NS
  • Somatic NS: Voluntary movement
  • Autonomic NS: Involuntary (heart, lungs, etc)
    • Sympathetic NS: Arouses the body for fight/flight (generally activates – sympathetic to you getting eaten by a tiger helps you run away)
    • Parasympathetic NS: established homeostasis after a sympathetic response (generally inhibits)
• NEUROTRANSMITTERS (NT): Chemicals released in synaptic gap, received by neurons
  • GABA: Major inhibitory NT
  • GlutamatE: Major Excitatory NT (get excited when seeing your mates!
  • Dopamine: Reward & movement
  • Serotonin: Moods and emotion
  • Acetylcholine (ACh): Memory
  • Epinephrine & Norepinephrine: sympathetic NS arousal
  • Endorphins: pain control
  • Oxytocin: love and bonding
• Agonist: drug that mimics a NT
• Antagonist: drug that blocks a NT
• Reuptake: Unused NTs are taken back up into the sending neuron. SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) block reuptake – treatment for depression
• AREAS OF THE BRAIN:
• Hindbrain: oldest part of the brain
  • Cerebellum – movement (what does it take to ring a bell)
  • Medulla – vital organs (HR, BP)
  • Pons – sleep/arousal (Ponzzzzzz)
• Midbrain
  • Reticular formation: alertness (if you can’t pay attention, You R F’d)
• Forebrain: higher thought processes
  • Limbic System
    • Amygdala: emotions, fear (Amy, da! You’re so emotional!)
    • Hippocampus: memory (if you saw a hippo on campus you’d remember it!)
    • Hypothalamus: Reward/pleasure center, eating behaviors – link to endocrine system
  • Thalamus: relay center for all but smell (you MUST (thalaMUST) use your thalamus, unless its MUSTY – smell)
  • Cerebral Cortex: outer portion of the brain – higher order thought processes
    • Occipital Lobe: located in the back of the head – vision – mom’s eyes!
    • Frontal Lobe: decision making, planning, judgment, movement, personality
    • Parietal Lobe: located on the top of the head - sensations
    • Temporal Lobe: located on the sides of the head (temples) – hearing and face recognition
    • Somatosensory Cortex: map of our sensory receptors –in parietal lobe
    • Motor Cortex: map of our motor receptors – located in frontal lobe
  • Left hemisphere only – damage results in aphasia (damaged speech)
    • Broca’s Area: Inability to produce speech (Broca – Broken speech)
    • Wernicke’s Area: Inability to comprehend speech (Wernicke’s what?)
  • Corpus Callosum: bundle of nerves that connects the 2 hemispheres – sometimes severed in patients with severe seizures – leads to “split-brain patients”
    • Lateralization: the brain has some specialized features – language is processed in the L Hemisphere
    • Split-brain experiments: done by Sperry & Gazzanaga.
    • Images shown to the right hemisphere will be processed in the left (& vice versa), patient can verbally identify what they saw
• BRAIN PLASTICITY: Brain can “heal” itself
• NATURE VS. NURTURE: ANSWER IS BOTH
  • Twin Studies:
    • Identical twins – Monozygotic (MZ)
    • Fraternal twins – Dizygotics (DZ)
  • Genetics: MZ twins will have a higher percentage of also developing a disease
  • Environment: MZ twins raised in different environments show differences
• ENDOCRINE SYSTEM: sends hormones throughout the body
  • Pituitary Gland: Controlled by hypothalamus. release growth hormones
  • Adrenal Glands: related to sympathetic NS: releases adrenaline
• BRAIN IMAGING:
  • EEG: brain activity – not specific
  • XRAY: not useful, doesn’t show tissues
  • CT / MRI: shows structures
  • PET: glucose shows brain activity (when in doubt pick this one)
  • fMRI: glucose shows activity in real time
  • lesion – brain damage

Sensation & Perception

(6 – 8%)

• ABSOLUTE THRESHOLD: detection of signal 50% of time (is it there)
• DIFFERENCE THRESHOLD (also called a just noticeable difference (JND) and follows WEBER’S LAW: two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum proportion. (Can you tell a change?)
• SIGNAL DETECTION THEORY
• Sensory Adaptation: diminished sensitivity as a result of constant stimulation (can you feel your underwear?)
• Perceptual Set: tendency to see something as part of a group – speeds up signal processing
• Inattentional Blindness: failure to notice something b/c you’re so focused on another task (gorilla video)
• Cocktail party effect: notice your name across the room when its spoken, when you weren’t previously paying attention
• VISUAL SYSTEM:
  • Pathway of vision: light → cornea →pupil/iris → lens → retina → rods/cones → bipolar cells → ganglion cells → optic nerve → optic chiasm → occipital lobe
  • Cornea – protects the eye
  • Pupil/iris – controls amount of light entering eye
  • Lens – focuses light on retina
  • Fovea–area of best vision(cones here)
  • Rods – black/white, dim light
  • Cones – color, bright light (red, green, blue)
  • Bipolar cells – connect rods/cones and ganglion cells
  • Ganglion cells – opponent-processing occurs here
  • Blind spot – occurs where the optic nerve leaves the eye
  • Feature detectors – specialized cells that see motion, shapes, lines, etc. (experiments by Hubel & Weisel)
• THEORIES OF COLOR VISION:
  • Trichromatic – three cones for receiving color (blue, red, green)
    • Explains color blindness - they are missing a cone type
  • Opponent Process – complementary colors are processed in ganglion cells – explains why we see an after image
• Visual Capture: Visual system overwhelms all others (nauseous in an IMAX theater – vision trumps vestibular)
• Constancies: recognize that objects do not physically change despite changes in sensory input (size, shape, brightness)
• Phi Phenomenon: adjacent lights blink on/off in succession – looks like movement (traffic signs with arrows)
• Stroboscopic movement: motion produced by a rapid succession of slightly varying images (animations)
• MONOCULAR CUES (how we form a 3D image from a 2D image)
  • Interposition: overlapping images appear closer
  • Relative Size: 2 objects that are usually similar in size, the smaller one is further away
  • Relative Clarity: hazy objects appear further away
  • Texture Gradient: coarser objects are closer
  • Relative Height: things higher in our field of vision look further away
  • Linear Perspective: parallel lines converge with distance (think railroad tracks)
• BINOCULAR CUES: (how both eyes make up a 3D image)
  • Retinal Disparity: Image is cast slightly different on each retina, location of image helps us determine depth
  • Convergence: Eyes strain more (looking inward) as objects draw nearer
• TOP-DOWN PROCESSING: Whole → smaller parts
• BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING: Smaller Parts → Whole
• AUDITORY SYSTEM:
  • Pathway of sound: sound → pinna → auditory canal →ear drum (tympanic membrane) → hammer, anvil, stirrup (HAS) → oval window → cochlea → auditory nerve → temporal lobes
  • Outer Ear: pinna (ear), auditory canal
  • Middle Ear: ear drum , HAS (bones vibrate to send signal)
  • Inner Ear: cochlea – like COCHELLA (sounds 1^st processed here)
• THEORIES OF HEARING: both occur in the cochlea
  • Place theory – location where hair cells bends determines sound (high pitches)
  • Frequency theory – rate at which action potentials are sent determines sound (low pitches)
• OTHER SENSES:
  • Touch: Mechanoreceptors → spinal cord → thalamus → somatosensory cortex
  • Pain: Gate-control theory: we have a “gate” to control how much pain is experienced
  • Kinesthetic: Sense of body position
  • Vestibular: Sense of balance (semicircular canals in the inner ear effect this)
  • Taste (gustation): 5 taste receptors: bitter, salty, sweet, sour, umami (savory)
  • Smell (olfaction): Only sense that does NOT route through the thalamus 1st. Goes to temporal lobe and amygdala
• GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY: Whole is greater than the sum of its parts
  • Gestalt Principles:
    • Figure/ground: organize information into figures objects (figures) that stand apart from surrounds (back ground)

• • • Closure: mentally fill in gaps
    • Proximity: group things together that appear near each other
    • Similarity: group things together based off of looks
    • Continuity: tendency to mentally form a continuous line

States of Consciousness (2 – 4%)

• STATES of CONSCIOUSNESS:
  • Higher-Level: controlled processes – totally aware
  • Lower-Level: automatic processing (daydreaming, phone numbers)
  • Altered States: produced through drugs, fatigue, hypnosis
  • Subconscious: Sleeping and dreaming
  • No awareness: Knocked out
• METACOGNITION: Thinking about thinking
• SLEEP:
  • Beta Waves: awake (you betta be awake for the exam)
  • Alpha Waves: high amp., drowsy
  • NREM (non REM) stages-
  • Stage 1: light sleep
  • Stage 2: bursts of sleep spindles
  • Stage 3 delta waves: Deep sleep
  • Stage 4: extremely deep sleep
  • Rapid Eye Movement (REM): dreaming, cognitive procesing

Entire cycle takes 90 minutes, REM occurs inb/w each cycle. REM lasts longer throughout the night

• CIRCADIAN RHYTHM: 24 hour biological clock
  • Body temp and awareness change due to this
  • Controlled by the Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in the brain
  • Explains jet lag
• SLEEP DISORDERS
  • Insomnia: Inability to fall asleep (due to stress/anxiety)
  • Sleep walking: (due to fatigue, drugs, alcohol)
  • Night terrors: extreme nightmares – NOT in REM sleep – typical in children
  • Narcolepsy: fall asleep out of nowhere (due to deficiency in orexin)
  • Sleep Apnea: stop breathing suddenly while asleep (due to obesity usually)
• DREAM THEORIES:
  • Freud’s Unconscious Wish Fulfillment: Dreaming is gratification of unconscious desires and needs
    • Latent Content: hidden meaning of dreams
    • Manifest Content: obvious storyline of dream
• Activation Synthesis: Brain produces random bursts of energy – stimulating lodged memories. Dreams start random then develop meaning
• HYPNOSIS
  • It Can: Reduce pain, help you relax
  • It CANNOT: give you superhuman strength, make you regress, make you do things against your will
• PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS:
  • Triggers dopamine release in the brain
  • Depressants: Alcohol, barbiturates, tranquilizers, opiates (narcotics)
    • Decrease sympathetic NS activation, highly addictive
  • Stimulants: Amphetamines, Cocaine, MDMA (ecstasy), Caffeine, Nicotine
    • Increase sympathetic NS activation, highly addictive
  • Hallucinogens: LSD, Marijuana
    • Causes hallucinations, not very addictive
  • Tolerance: Needing more of a drug to achieve the same effects
  • Dependence: Become addicted to the drug – must have it to avoid withdrawal symptoms
  • Withdrawal: Psychological and physiological symptoms associated with sudden stoppage. Unpleasant – can kill you.

Learning

(7-9 %)

• CLASSICAL CONDITIONING: PAVLOV!
  • Unconditioned Stimulus (US): brings about response w/o needing to be learned (food)
  • Unconditioned Response (UR): response that naturally occurs w/o training (salivate)
  • Neutral Response (NS): stimulus that normally doesn’t evoke a response (bell)
  • Conditioned Stimulus (CS): once neutral stimulus that now brings about a response (bell)
  • Conditioned Response (CR): response that, after conditioning, follows a CS (salivate)
  • Contiguity: Timing of the pairing, NS/CS must be presented immediately BEFORE the US
  • Acquisition: process of learning the response pairing
  • Extinction: previously conditioned response dies out over time
  • Spontaneous Recovery: After a period of time the CR comes back out of nowhere
  • Generalization: CR to like stimuli (similar sounding bell)
  • Discrimination: CR to ONLY the CS
• CONTINGENCY MODEL: Rescorla & Wagner – classical conditioning involves cognitive processes
• CONDITIONED TASTE AVERSION (ONE-TRIAL LEARNING): John Garcia – Innate predispositions can allow classical conditioning to occur in one trial (food poisoning)
• COUNTERCONDITIONING: Little Albert and John Watson (father of behaviorism) – conditioned a fear in a baby (only to countercondition – remove it- later on)
• OPERANT CONDITIONING: SKINNER!
  • LAW OF EFFECT (Thorndike): Behaviors followed by pos. outcomes are strengthened, neg. outcomes weaken a behavior (cat in the puzzle box)
• PRINCIPLES OF OPERANT COND:
  • Pos. Reinforcement: Add something nice to increase a behavior (gold star for turning in HW)
  • Neg. Reinforcement: Take away something bad/annoying to increase a behavior (put on seatbelt to take away annoying car signal)
  • Pos. Punishment: Add something bad to decrease a behavior (spanking)
  • Neg. Punishment: Take away something good to decrease a behavior (take away car keys)
  • Primary Reinforcers: innately satisfying (food and water)
  • Secondary Reinforcers: everything else (stickers, high-fives)
    • Token Reinforcer: type of secondary- can be exchanged for other stuff (game tokens or money)
  • Generalization: respond to similar stimulus for reward
  • Discrimination: stimulus signals when behavior will or will not be reinforced (light on means response are accepted)
  • Extinction / Spontaneous Recovery: same as classical conditioning
  • Overjustification Effect: reinforcing behaviors that are intrinsically motivating causes you to stop doing them (give a child 5$ for reading when they already like to read – they stop reading)
  • Shaping: use successive approximations to train behavior (reward desired behaviors to teach a response – rat basketball)
  • Chaining: tie together several behaviors
  • Continuous Reinforcement schedule: Receive reward for every response
  • Fixed Ratio schedule: Reward every X number of response (every 10 envelopes stuffed get $)</li><li><strong>Fixed Interval schedule:</strong> Reward every X amount of time passed (every 2 weeks get a paycheck)</li><li><strong>Variable Ratio schedule:</strong> Rewarded after a random number of responses (slot machine</li><li><strong>Variable Interval schedule:</strong> Rewarded after a random amount of time has passed (fishing)</li><li><strong><em>Variable schedules are most resistant to extinction</em> (</strong>how long will keep playing a slot machine before you think its broken?)</li></ul></li><li><strong>SOCIAL (OBSERVATIONAL) LEARNING: <em>BANDURA!</em></strong></li><li><strong>Modeling Behaviors: </strong>Children model (imitate) behaviors. Study used BoBo dolls to demonstrate the following<ul><li><strong>Prosocial –</strong> helping behaviors</li><li><strong>Antisocial –</strong> mean behaviors</li></ul></li><li><strong>MISC LEARNING TYPES</strong><ul><li><strong>Latent learning (<em>Tolman!)</em> – </strong>learning is hidden until useful (rats in maze get reinforced half way through, performance improved<ul><li><strong>Cognitive maps –</strong> mental representation of an area, allows navigation if blocked</li></ul></li><li><strong>Insight learning (Kohler!) – </strong>some learning is through simple intuition (chimps with crates to get bananas)</li><li><strong>Learned Helplessness (Seligman!) </strong>– no matter what you do you never get a positive outcome so you just give up (word scrambles)</li></ul></li></ul><p>Cognition</p><p>(8 – 10$. No happiness
  • Career – work for advancement. Some happiness
  • Calling – work because you love it. Lotsa happiness

Development

(7-9%)

• Prenatal Development:
  • Zygote: 0 – 14 days, cells are dividing
  • Embryo: until about 9 weeks, vital organs being formed
  • Fetus: 9 wks to birth, overall development
  • Teratogens: external agents that can cause abnormal prenatal development (alcohol, drugs, etc)
    • Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS): large amount of alcohol leads to FAS, causes deformities, mental retardation, death
• Physical Development:
  • Maturation: natural course of development, occurs no matter what (walking)
  • Reflexes: innate responses we’re born with
    • Rooting, sucking, swallowing, grasping, stepping
  • Habituation: after continual exposure you pay less attention – used to test babies
  • Eyes have the most limited development, takes till 1 year
    • Visual cliff: babies have to learn depth perception, so they will cross a “cliff”
  • Other senses are fairly developed
  • Brain development continues for a few years
• JEAN PIAGET’S COGNITIVE DEV.
• Schemas – concepts or frameworks that organize info
• Assimilation: incorporate new info into existing schema (aSSimlation – same stuff)
• Accommodation: adjust existing schemas to incorporate new information (ACcommodation - All Change)
• Sensorimotor Stage: Birth to 2 years: focused on exploring the world around them
  • Lack Object Permanence: Objects when removed from field of view are thought to disappear (peek-a-boo)
  • Dev. Sense of Self: by 2 yrs can recognize themselves in the mirror
• Pre-operational Stage: 2 – 7 years: use pretend play, developing language, using intuitive reasoning
  • Lack Conservation: recognize that substances remain the same despite changes in shape, length, or position (girls with juice in glasses)
  • Lack Reversibility: cannot do reverse operations (count out both 4+2 and 2+4)
  • Are egocentric: inability to distinguish one’s own perspective from another’s – think everyone sees what they see
• Concrete Operational Stage: 7-11 yrs: use operational thinking, classification, and can think logical in concrete context
• Formal Operational Stage: 11-15 yrs: use abstract and idealist thoughts, hypothetical-deductive reasoning
• Problems with Piaget’s theory: stages to discrete, dev. differs b/w kids
• VYGOTSKY’S THEORY: cognitive development is a social process too, need to interact w/ others
  • Zone of Proximal Development: gap b/w what a child can do on their own and w/ support. Need scaffolding (teachers)

SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

• Temperament: patterns of emotional reactions and babies (precursor to personality)
• Imprinting: baby geese believe the first thing they see after hatching is their mom – happens during a critical period (from LORENZ)
• HARRY HARLOW: discovered that contact comfort is more important than feeding (monkeys fed on wire or cloth mothers). Monkeys raised in isolation couldn’t socialize
• MARY AINSWORTH: developed the strange situation paradigm (children left alone in a room w/ a stranger, then reunited w/ mom – determines your attachment style
  • Secure attachment (60% of infants): upset when mom leaves, easily calmed on return. Tend to be more stable adults
  • Avoidant attachment (20% infants): actively avoids mom, doesn’t care when she leaves
  • Ambivalent attachment(10% infants): actively avoids mom, freaks out when she leaves
  • Disorganized attachment (5%): confused, fearful, dazed – result of abuse
• BAUMRIND: parenting styles
  • Authoritarian: rules & obedience, “my way or the highway” – kids lack initiative in college
  • Permissive: kids do whatever – no rules – kids lack initiative in college
  • Authoritative: give and take w/ kids – kids become socially competent and reliable
• KOHLBERG’S MORAL DEV
  • Preconventional morality: Children: they follow rules to avoid punishment
  • Conventional morality: adolescents: follow rules b/c rules exist to keep order
  • Postconventional morality: adults: they do what they believe is right (even if it goes against society)
• Carol Gilligan: said moral reasoning and moral behaviors are two different things (what you say isn’t always what you do)
• ERIKSON’S SOCIOEMOTINAL DEV. : 8 stages, each stage represents a crisis that must be resolved, results in competence or weakness
  • Trust vs Mistrust (birth – 18 months): if needs are dependably met infants dev basic trust
  • Autonomy vs shame&doubt (1 -3 yrs): toddlers learn to exercise their will and think for themselves
  • Initiative vs guilt (3-6 yrs): learn to initiate tasks and carry out plans
  • Industry vs inferiority (6 yrs to puberty): learn the pleasure of applying themselves to tasks
  • Identity vs role confusion: (adolescence thru 20s): refine a sense of self by testing roles and forming an identity
  • Intimacy vs isolation: (20s—40s): form close relationships and gain capacity for love
  • Generativity vs stagnation: (40s-60s): discover sense of contributing to the world, thru family & work
  • Integrity vs despair: (60s and up): reflect on your life, feel satisfaction or failure
• PUBERTY! (rapid skeletal and sexual maturation)
  • Primary sex characteristics: necessary structures for reproduction (ovaries, testicles, vagina, penis)
  • Secondary sex characteristics: nonreproductive characteristics that dev during puberty (breasts, hips, deepening of voice, body hair)
  • Frontal lobe continuous dev (not fully developed till 25)
• GENDER DEVELOPMENT: sex = chromosomes, gender = what you identify yourself as
  • Gender roles: expected behaviors (norms) for men/women
  • Social learning theory: we learn gender roles and identity from those around us
• AGING:
  • Cellular clock theory: cells have a maximum # of divisions before they can’t divide anymore
  • Free-radical theory: unstable oxygen molecules w/in cells damage DNA
  • Over time skills decrease (reaction time, memory)
• CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY: studies ppl of different ages at the same point in time
  • Adv: inexpensive & quick
  • Disadv: can be differences due to generational gap
• LONGITUDINAL STUDY: studies same ppl over time
  • Adv: eliminates groups differences, lots of detail
  • Disadv: expensive, time consuming, high drop out rates
• Problem-focused coping: solving or doing something to alter the course of stress (planning, acceptance)
• Emotion-focused coping: reducing the emotional distress (denial, disengagement)

Personality

(5-7%)

PSYCHODYNAMIC EXPLANATION

SIGMUND FREUD said personality was largely unconscious.

• Conscious: immediate awareness of current environment
• Preconscious: available to awareness (phone #s)
• Unconscious: unavailable to awareness
• id: our hidden true animalistic wants and desires – operates on the pleasure principle, all about rewards and avoiding pain (devil on your shoulder – entirely unconscious)
• superego: our moral conscious (angel on your shoulder, all 3 consciousness)
• ego: reality principle, has to deal w/ society, stuck mediating b/w the id and superego (its you! – conscious and preconscious)

When ego cannot mediate b/w the id and superego, we use defense mechanisms

• Repression: push memories back into the unconscious mind (sexual abuse is too traumatic to deal w/ so you repress it)
• Projection: attribute personal shortcomings & faults on to others (man who wants to have an affair accuses his wife of having one)
• Denial: refuse to acknowledge reality (refuse to believe you have cancer)
• Displacement; shift feelings from an unacceptable object to a more acceptable one (can’t tell at teacher, go home and yell at the dog)
• Reaction formation: transform unacceptable motive into his opposite (woman who fears sexual urges becomes a religious zealot)
• Regression: transform into an earlier development period in the face of stress (during exam week you start to suck your thumb)
• Rationalization: replace a less acceptable reasoning with a more acceptable one (don’t get into your college – justify it was a sucky college anyway)
• Sublimation: replace unacceptable impulse w/ a socially acceptable one (man w/ strong sexual urges paints nudes. Dexter)

FREUD’S PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES

• Oral stage (0-18 months): pleasure focuses on the mouth (id)
• Anal stage (18 – 36 months): pleasure involves eliminative functions (ego forms)
• Phallic stage (3 – 6 yrs): pleasure focuses on genitals (superego forms)
  • Oedipal complex: young boys learn to identify w/ their father out of fear of retribution (castration anxiety)
  • Electra complex: young girls learn to identify w/ their mother b/c they cannot with their father (penis envy)
• Latency stage (6 yrs to puberty): psychic time out – personality is set
• Genital State (adulthood): sexual reawakening – oedipal and electra “feelings” are repressed, turn sexual wants onto an appropriate person
• FIXATION: can become “stuck” in an earlier stage – influences personality (oral stage smokes/drinks, anal is “anal retentive”, phallic is promiscuous)

What’s wrong w/ Freud theory? – unverifiable, descriptive not predictive

What’s good about it? – 1^st theory about personality, sparked psychoanalysis

How do we test this approach?

• Psychoanalysis: analyze a person’s unconscious motives thru the use of:
  • Free Association: say aloud everythying that comes to mind w/o hesitation
  • Transference: looks for feelings to transferred to psychoanalyst
  • Dream interpretation: analyze the manifest (seen message) and latent (hidden messages) content
  • Projective Tests: ambiguous stimuli shown to look at your unconscious motives (THESE SUCK B/C THEY ARE VERY SUBJECTIVE)
    • Thematic apperception test (TAT) : tell a story about a picture (when someone has a tattoo (tatt) you ask what it means
    • Rorschach inkblot: show an inkblot

NEO-FREUDIANS

• CARL JUNG: believed in the collective unconconcious (shared inherited reservoir of memory – explains common myths across civilizations & time)
• KAREN HORNEY: said personality develops in context of social relationships, NOT sexual urges (security not sex is motivation, men get womb envy)

TRAIT PERSPECTIVE

• Traits are enduring personality characteristics, people can be described by these – have strong or weak tendencies. They are stable, genetic, and predict other attributes.
• Use factor analysis to find these: statistical procedure used to identify similar components
• TRAIT THEORIES:
• Big Five: (by Costa & McCrae) (acronym OCEAN) You vary on each of these
  • Openness : imaginative, independent, like variety
  • Conscientiousness: organized, careful, disciplined
  • Extraversion: sociable, fun-loving, affectionate (opoosite it introversion: shy, timid, reserved)
  • Agreeableness: soft hearted, trusting, helpful
  • Neuroticism (emotional stability): calm, secure

What’s wrong with trait theory? – ignores the role of the situation in behavior

What’s good about it? - identifying traits gives us perspectives about careers, relationships, health

How do we test this approach?

• MMPI – helpful for mental health and job placement
• Myer’s Briggs – gave you 4 letter combo

What’s wrong w/ these tests?

• They’re long, social desirability can be an influence, and they’re too broad

HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE

• Emphasized personal growth and free will. You don’t like yourself? So change!
• CARL ROGERS: talked about our self-concept (idea of who we are). Your self-concept is the center of your personality
  • Actual (social) self: what others see
  • Ideal (true) self: who you WANT to be
  • A positive self-concept makes us perceive the world positively (optimist)
  • A negative self-concept makes us feel dissatisfied and unhappy

What wrong with humanistic theory? - too optimistic about human nature, abstract concepts are difficult to test

What’s good about it? – emphasizes conscious experiences and change

• Individualistic Cultures: give priorities to own goals over group goals. Define your identify in terms of you (American society)
• Collectivistic Cultures: give priority to the goals of the group, your identity is part of that group (China)

SOCIAL-COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE

• Behavior is a complex interaction of inner process and environmental influence – which influences personality
• Emphasizes conscious awareness, beliefs, expectations, and goals
• BANDURA! Talked about RECIPROCAL DETERMINISM: interaction of behavior, cognitions, and environment make up you.

{I’m outgoing (behavior), I choose to teach b/c it lets me be outgoing (environment), and I have thought this through which is why I teach despite making less money (cognitive)}

• Self-efficacy: belief that one can succeed, so you ensure you do
• Internal locus of control: you control your own fate
• External locus of control: chance / outside forces control your fate

What’s wrong with social-cognitive? – Too specific, cannot generalize

What’s good about it? – Highlights situations, and cognitive explanations of personality

How do we test it? – Observations & interviews (time consuming)

Testing &

Individual Differences

(5-7%)

Individual Theories about Intelligence

• GALTON: 1^st to suggest intelligence was inherited. Intelligence based on muscle strength, size of head, reaction time, etc.
• CATTELL: 2 clusters of mental abilities
  • Crystalized intelligence: reasoning and verbal skills - what you learn in school – the cold hard (like crystals!) facts
  • Fluid intelligence: spatial abilities, rote memory, things that come natural to you – can’t learn in school. Also decrease over time
• SPEARMAN’S G FACTOR: said a general intelligence (g) underlies all mental abilities (typical IQ of today)
• GARDNER: multiple intelligences (8): linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal (self), interpersonal (social), naturalist
• STERNBERG: TRIARCHIC THEORY
  • Analytical: mental components to solve problems, what IQ tests assess (book smarts)
  • Practical: ability to size up new situations and adapt to real-life demands (street smarts)
  • Creative: intellec tual and motivational processes that lead to novel solutions, idea, products
• BINET: developed 1^st intelligence test, combined with TERMAN – developed the STANFORD-BINET IQ TEST

• • Chronological age = actual age
  • Mental age = tested age compared to other of that age
  • 100 is average
• WECHSLER: developed the WAIS and WISC – most commonly used today
• FLYNN effect: IQ has steadily risen over the past 80 years – probably due to education standards and better IQ tests
• Extremes of Intelligence: high IQ = above 135; mentally retarded = below 70
• Causes of mild retardation:
  • PKU – liver fails to produce an ezyme needed to breakdown chemicals – leads to brain damage
  • Down syndrome – extra copy of 21^st chromosome
  • Fragile X – higher chance in boys due to ONE X chromosome
• Influence on IQ:
  • Genetics: MZ twins have similar IQ, adopted kids more similar to biological parents
  • Environment: early neglect leads to lower IQ, good schooling to higher IQ
• Types of Tests:
  • Aptitude: predicts your abilities to learn a new skill (ASVAB)
  • Achievement: tests what you know(SAT)
• TEST CREATION:
  • Standardization: administer a test to a representative sample of future test takers to establish a basis for meaningful comparison (test it out 1^st)
  • Should be reliable: same results over time
    • Split-half reliability: compare two halves of the test
    • Test-retest reliability: use the same test on 2 different occasions
  • Should be valid: test is accurate – measures what it is intended to
    • Content validity: test measures what you want it to (an IQ test actually measures IQ)
    • Predictive validity: test is able to accurately predict a trait (high math scores predicts good engineer)
• Standardized tests establish a normal distribution
• Standard deviations are used to compare scores.
• Standard deviation measures how much the scores vary from the mean. The percentages stay the same in every curve

Abnormal Behavior

(7 – 9%)

• Defining abnormal behavior:
  • Requires “clinically significant” disturbance in cognition, emotional regulation or behavior AND
  • Significant distress or disability social situations, occupations or other important activities
• Historical causes: biology, psychological issues, supernatural issues (demons)
• Medical model: emphasizes treatment of disorders, as they have a biological origin. Came through the reformation of institutions in U.S. (DORTHEA DIX)
• Biopsychosocial model: currently used model – stress biological, psychological, and social causes
• Diagnosing abnormal behavior:
  • DSM: manual listing all currently accepted psychological disorders. Classifies them based on criteria – provides no explanation of causes or treatments

ANXIETY DISORDERS

Most common disorders in the U.S.

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): person is generally anxious, all the time, for NO REASON
• Panic Disorder: person is prone to frequent panic attacks (feeling like you’re having a heart attack). Can come w/ agoraphobia: anxiety about being in places you cannot escape (fear of public spaces / people)
• Phobias: irrational fear that disrupts your life

CAUSES OF ANXIETY DISORDERS:

• Psychodynamic: repressed thoughts & feelings manifest in anxiety and rituals
• Behaviorist: fear conditioning leads to anxiety, which is then reinforced. Phobias might be learned through observational learning

Biological: natural selection favored those with certain phobias (heights). Twins often share disorders. Often see less GABA in the brain

• Obsessive-compulsive Disorders (OCD): person sf overwhelmed with both:
  • Obsessions: persistent unwanted thoughts (did I leave the stove on?)
  • Compulsions: senseless rituals (hand washing)
• Post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD): characterized by flashbacks, problems w/ concentration, and anxiety following a traumatic event (war, natural disasters)

SOMATOFORM DISORDERS

• Psychological disorders w/ no apparent physical cause
  • Conversion disorder: loss of feeling or usage of a limb or body part (sight) – absolutely no physiological cause though
  • Illness Anxiety Disorder: person interprets normal symptoms as a major disease – must disrupt their life

DISSOCIATIVE DISORDERS

• Dissociative Identity Disorder: formerly multiple personalities – person fractures into several distinct personalities who normally have no awareness of each other. NOT SCHIZOPHRENIA!
  • Usually caused by traumatic childhood abuse
  • Legitimacy is doubted by some, more common in those w/ good health insurance
  • Treatment involves integration of the personalities
• Dissociative Amnesia + Fugue: following a traumatic event a person leaves, taking on a whole new life & personality w/ no memory of the previous one

DEPRESSIVE DISORDERS

• Major depressive disorder: extreme sadness and despair, apathy towards life, w/ no known cause
• Disruptive mood regulation disorder: Frequent temper tantrums inconsistent with developmental level
• Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): form of depression that occurs typically winter – found mostly in Northern areas (Alaska, Ireland) UNIQUE TREATMENT = LIGHT THERAPY

BIPOLAR DISORDERS

• Bipolar disorder: bouts of severe depression & manic episodes
  • Mania: heightened mood, characterized by risky behaviors, fast talking, flights of ideas

CAUSES OF DEPRESSIVE AND BIPOLAR DISORDERS

• Biology: lower levels of serotonin & norepinephrine linked to depression, higher levels of norepinephrine linked to mania. Runs in families suggesting GENES. Twin studies also support this.
• Cognitive: negative thought patterns leads to depression

SCHIZOPHRENIA

NOT MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES! THEY HAVE ONE PERSONALITY!

• SYMPTOMS
  • Positive Symptoms (not good – means something added))
    • Hallucinations: sensory experiences w/o sensory stimulation (seeing and/or hearing things)
    • Delusions: fixed, false beliefs (people are out to get them, grandiose thoughts (I am God)
    • Disorganized thinking
    • Disorganized speech
  • Negative Symptoms (something taken away)
    • Flat affect: lack ability to show emotions
    • Impaired decision making, inability to pay attention
  • Catatonia: become frozen over periods of time (exhibit waxy flexibility: can move them into new positions)
• CAUSES OF SCHIZOPHRENIA
  • Brain abnormalities: enlarged ventricles (atrophy), smaller frontal cortex
  • Genetics: runs in families, MZ twins at higher risk
  • Dopamine hypothesis: too much dopamine in the brain
  • Diathesis – Stress: individual has a genetic predisposition, disease must be “turned-on” by environmental stimuli (like stress) – explains why it is most commonly developed during college years

PERSONALITY DISORDERS

• Marked by disruptive, inflexible, enduring behavior patterns – makes this very difficult to treat!
  • Antisocial: NOT “avoidant of socialization” – more like “anti-society” – disregard for others, manipulative, breaks laws
  • Borderline: instable interpersonal relationships & self-image, “I hate you, don’t leave me”
  • Histrionic: excessive emotionality & attention seeking
  • Narcissistic: need for admiration & lack of empathy (who cares about everyone else – look at me!)

Treatment of Psychological Disorders (5-7%)

• PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH: SEE PERSONALITY SECTION
• HUMANISTIC APPROACH:
  • Client-centered therapy: (developed by CARL ROGERS) techniques include active listening, accepting environment, focuses on patient growth (you figure out what needs to change and do it)
• COGNITIVE APPROACH:
  • Rational-emotive therapy: (developed by ELLIS) techniques include analyzing self-defeating behaviors to change thought patterns – and then change behaviors associated w/ said patterns
    • Best for anxiety disorders
    • Very confrontational
  • Cognitive therapy: (developed by BECK) illogical thoughts → psychological problems, challenges those thoughts
    • Best for depression
    • Self-directed – you figure out your errors
• BEHAVIORAL APPROACH (typically used for anxiety disorders / phobias)
  • Classical Conditioning:
    • Counterconditioning Little Albert & Watson
      • Aversive conditioning: associate an unpleasant experience (e.g. nausea) w/ an unwanted behavior (e.g. drinking alcohol)
    • Exposure therapy: slowly expose people to whatever it is that makes them anxious
      • Systematic desensitization: associate a pleasant relaxed state w/ gradually increasing anxiety triggering stimuli (create a desensitization hierarchy – ex. List of things about flying that makes you nervous – step through each one till you can do it)
      • Intensive exposure therapy (Flooding): force someone to experience the fear (afraid of drowning, throw you in a pool)
  • Operant Conditioning: use behavior modification (reward good behaviors w/ token reinforcers ). Used in schools, w/ autistic children, etc.
• OTHER THERPAIES:
  • Family therapy: treats the family as a system, individual behaviors are influenced by family dynamics
  • Group therapy: therapy through a group – lets patients see “they’re not alone”
• BIOLOGICAL APPROACH: CALLED BIOMEDICAL THERAPIES
  • Drug therapies (psychopharmacology):
    • Anti-psychotics: decrease dopamine: treats schizophrenia
      • Side effects: TARDIVE DYSKINESIA: hand tremors (similar to Parkinson’s- due to lack of dopamine), worsening of negative symptoms, extreme sedation
      • Drug names: thorazine, clozapine
    • Anti-depressants: increase serotonin through REUPTAKE inhibition
      • Side effects: drowsiness, anxiety, can increase suicide risk in teens
      • Drug names: SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) like Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil. SNRIs (selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors) Cymbalta, Effexor
    • Mood stabilizers: used in the treatment of BIPOLAR disorder : LITHIUM
    • Anti-anxiety drugs: depress the central nervous system (dangerous in combo w/ alcohol) Xanax, Ativan
  • Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT): send electricity into the brain to induce minor seizures. Used (rarely) to treat depression (when nothing else works). Thought to “reboot” the brain
  • Psychosurgery (frontal lobotomy): frontal lobe is surgically destroyed. Used to treat depression or violent individuals – almost never used anymore

Social

(8-10%)

SOCIAL THINKING

• Attribution theory: we explain others behaviors by crediting the situation or the person’s disposition (they only passed b/c they cheated)
• Fundamental attribution error (very similar to Actor-observer bias): tendency for observers to underestimate the importance of the situation and overestimate the impact of personal disposition (that guy cut me off b/c he’s a jerk – not that his wife could be in labor)

ATTITUDES AND ACTIONS

• Central route to persuasion: change people’s attitudes through logical arguments and explanations. Leads to long term behavior change
• Peripheral route to persuasion: change people’s attitudes through incidental cues (like a speaker’s attractiveness). Leads to temporary behavior changes
• Foot in the door phenomenon: complying w/ a small request then leads to going along w/ a larger request (can I have $5? Yes. Now can I have $25?)
• Door in the face phenomenon: a large request is turned down, when then leads you to be more likely to comply w/ a small request (can I have $100? Heck no! How about $20? Okay)
• STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT (ZIMBARDO): classic “experiment” where individuals were assigned to be guards / prisoners. w/in days they took on their roles and went too far. Highly unethical
• Cognitive dissonance (FESTINGER): two opposing thoughts conflict w/ each other, causing discomfort (dissonance), which makes us find ways to justify the situation (cult that was going to be abducted by aliens, smokers)

SOCIAL INFLUENCE

• Conformity: classic experiment done by ASCH – showed lines of different lengths, confederates gave wrong answers to see if others would go along w/ it
  • Normative social influence: we conform to gain approval or to not stand out from the group (be part of the norm
  • Informational social influence: we conform to others b/c we think their opinions must be right
• Obedience: classic experiment done by MILGRAM: participants were to “teach” another individual using shocks. 60% of participants would administer lethal shocks to another person simply b/c they were told to

GROUP INFLUENCE

• Social facilitation: perform better on simple or well learned tasks in the presence of others
• Social loafing: tendency for ppl in a group to exert less effort when pooling their effort together (tug of war)
• Deindividuation: loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity (mob mentality)
• Group polarization: the more time spent w/ a group the more similar (polarized) their thoughts / opinions will become
• Groupthink: desire for harmony w/in a group leads to everyone going along w/ the same thinking, ignoring other possibilities or bad ideas
• Risky shift: groups make riskier decisions together rather than alone

PREJUDICE

• Ingroup: “US” – ppl w/ whom we share a common identity
• Outgroup: “them” – ppl perceived as different or not part of the group
• Ingroup bias: tendency to favor our own group
• Scapegoat theory: prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone else to blame
• Ethnocentrism: tendency to see your own group as more important than others
• Just-world phenomenon: tendency for ppl to believe that the world is just and therefore ppl get what they deserve (homeless ppl)

AGGRESION

• Genetic influence: runs in families, can breed for in animals
• Lower serotonin, higher testosterone
• Environmental influence: social learning theory (BANDURA) – observing violence in others makes us more violent for a time
  • Also: pollution, crowding, heat, humidity
• Frustration-aggression hypothesis: frustration creates anger, which leads to aggression

ATTRACTION

• Mere exposure effect: repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them (the more time you spend around something the more you like it)
• Physical attractiveness: pretty ppl are thought to be more credible, less likely to do bad things
• Similarity: we prefer ppl similar to us

ALTRUISM

• Altruism: unselfish regard for the welfare of others
• Bystander effect: the more ppl around the less likely we are to help someone in need (Kitty Genovese)
• Social exchange theory: social behavior (helping) is an exchange process – aim is to maximize benefits and minimize cost
• Reciprocity norm: we give so we can get

CONFLICT

• Social trap: conflicting parties pursue their own best interests, which can result in destructive results (prisoner’s dilemma – game theory)
• 
• Approach approach conflict: win – win situation; conflict is which win you have to choose (you can eat out at ONE of your two favorite restaurants – you can only choose one though)
• Approach avoidance conflict: win – lose situation; outcome has positive and negative aspects (marriage)
• Avoidance avoidance conflict : lose – lose; both outcomes are bad but you have to choose one (clean your room or do your homework)
• Multiple approach avoidance conflict: two (or more) win-lose situations; conflict is which to choose (College A is good for your major but no scholarship, College B is bad for your major but has a scholarship)

SOCIAL SELF

• Self-concept bias: what we consider important in ourselves is what we consider important in others
• False-consensus effect: we overestimate the degree to which everyone else thinks / acts the way we do
• Self-fulfilling prophecy: a belief that leads to its own fulfillment (I expect you all to pass, you know this, you study – fulfilling my prophecy)
• Self-serving bias: readiness to perceive ourselves as favorably
• Spotlight effect (self-objectification) : tendency of an individual to overestimate the extent to which others are paying attention to them