Psychology Unit 2

Drugs 

Psychoactive drugs: Chemical substance that alters perceptions and moods 

Substance use disorder: characterized by continues substance craving and use despite significant life disruption and/or physical risk 

• Overall effects depend on biological effects (chemical hooks) and expectancy effects (placebo effects)

Tolerance: with repeated use, the desired effect requires larger doses – brain chemistry adapts to offset of drug effect

• Ex: methamphetamine and dopamine 

Addiction: compulsive craving of drugs or certain behaviors (ex: gambling, sex) despite known harmful consequences/disruptions to ‘normal’ daily living 

Withdrawal: discomfort and stress that follow the discontinuation of additive drug or specific behavior 

Symptoms of substance use disorders

• Impaired control: refers to a reduced ability to regulate or manage behaviors, emotions, or actions, often despite negative consequences

• Social disruption: refers to a disturbance or breakdown in the normal functioning of a society, community, or social system

• Risky behavior 

• Physical effects of tolerance and withdrawal 

• Other symptoms exist, these are the most prominent 

What are depressants and what are their effects? 

Depressants drugs that calm neural activity and slow body functions 

• Alcohol acts as a disinhibitor, “A drunk man's words.. A sober mans thoughts” 

  • In any amount — alcohol is a DEPRESSANT 

  • Slows neural processing 

  • Disrupts memory and has long-term effects on the brain and cognition; impairs growth of synaptic connections 

  • Reduces self awareness and self-control 

  • Before sexual assaults on campus’ - 80% make assailant and 70% female victim had been drinking (Camper, 1990)

Disordered drinking shrinks the brain 

• MRI scans show brain shrinkage in women with alcohol use disorder compared with women in a control group 

Barbiturates (tranquilizers): depress the activity of the CNS, reducing anxiety but  impairing memory and judgment 

• Slow fight/flight/freeze responses 

• Can impair memory/judgment 

• Potentially lethal when combined with alcohol (both depressants, too much can cause brain death) 

• Commonly used for sleep aid and lessen anxiety

Depressants Cont. 

Opiates AKA narcotics “pain killers” 

• Include opium and its derivatives, VERY addictive 

  • Ex: codeine, morphine, and heroin

• hydrocodone/heroin

• Constrict the pupils, slow breathing, cause lethargy 

• Depress neural activity, temporarily lessening pain and anxiety 

• Cause withdrawal when ingestion is stopped 

What are stimulants and what are their effects? 

Stimulant drugs: excite neural activity and speed up body functions 

• Include caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines, cocaine, ecstasy, meth (speed)

• Dilation of pupils, increased HR and BR, rise in blood sugar, and drop in appaetite 

• Often increase energy and self-confidence 

  • Possibly worsens anxiety symptoms 

Nicotine: the stimulating and highly addictive psychoactive drug in tobacco 

• Signals the CNS to release a flood of NTs 

  • dopamine , endorphins, serotonin, etc.

• Diminished appetite, boosts alertness and mental efficiency, calms anxiety, adn reduces sensitivity to pain 

• Produces challenging acute craving and withdrawal symptoms that contribute to relapse after attempts to quit use 

Physiological effects of nicotine: nicotine reaches the brain within 7 seconds, twice as fast as intravenous heroin 

• Within minutes, the amount in the blood soars

• Depending on duration of use, withdrawal cravings may last as long as 6 months 

Cocaine: produces a quick rush of euphoria – injected, snorted, or smokes (legal/illegal implications) – crash of agitated depression occurs within 15-30 minutes after neurotransmitter levels drop 

• Powder cocaine: 5 years for trafficking/possessing 500g 

• Crack cocaine: 5 years for 5g 

  • Psychological effects depend on dosage, form, and expectations/personality (placebo effect)

  • Increased anxiety, paranoia, cardiac arrest, respiratory failure, etc. 

2/19/25

meth(anmpphetamines): psychological effects depend on the dosage and form consumed and the user’s expectations and personality 

• Triggers mass dopamine release

• Powerfully addictive

Ecstasy (MDMA): party drug – synthetic stimulant and mild hallucinogen, produces euphoria, but with short-term health risks and longer-term harm to mood and cognition 

• Oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin release 

• Why people ger lovey and use it at parties 

• Dehydration effects 

• Potential therapeutic effects 

Hallucinogens 

Hallucinogens: AKA psychedelics (man manifesting) – distort perceptions without sensory input 

Subjective experience largely moderated by environment (physical and psychological0 – “good vs. bad trip”

Marijuana: contains THC – when smoked or eaten, produce increased sensitivity to colors, sounds, tastes, and smells 

• Lingers in the body – a different form of tolerance 

• Relax, impair motor and perceptual skills, and diminish reaction time 

• Alleviates chronic pain and chemo therapy-related nausea 

• Not associated wiith tobacco-related cancers, such as lung cancer 

• Predictive of traffic accidents, chronic  bronchitis, psychosis, social anxiety disorder, and suicidal thoughts 

LSD: emotions of tripping range from euphoria to detachment to panic (its called trip for a reason) 

• High doses – feelings of death/ego dissolution 

• Experiences sometimes associated with extreme personal growth 

• No lethal dose has EVER been documented

Consciousness 

Consciousness: subjective awareness of themselves and their environment

• Reflect on past, adap to present, plan for future 

• Coping strategies 

• Focus attention 

• Long term goals vs hedonism 

• Interpretation of events and emotion 

Cognitive neuroscientists: explore and map conscious cortex funciton 

• Cortex activation patterns 

• Neuroscientists can “read your mind” via associations with activated areas and correlated behavior 

Selective attention: focusing conscious awareness on a particular stimulus – between 5 senses 

• So that we do not get overstimulated

Cocktail party effect: ability to focus on one voice 

Inattentional blindness: failure to see visible objects when attention is directed elsewhere 

Change blindness: failure to notice changes in the environment, a form of inattentional blindness

Dual processing: information is often simultaneously processed on separate conscious and unconscious tracks 

Blindsight awareness: a person can respond to a visual stimulus without consciously experiencing it

Parallel processing: implicit – enables the mind to engage in routine behaviors. Requires little cognitive effort 

Sequential processing: explicit – focusing conscious awareness on a particular stimulus – step by step 

2/24/25

Sex and gender

Pruning process: early stages of development

• Unused neural connections gradually degenerate 

• If certain abilities are not used, they will fade (especially in early childhood)

• Brain development does not end with childhood

Brain maturation: as we age, neural networks develop and become more complex 

Culture: behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by different populations; whose practices are passed down across generations 

Culture shock: feeling lost about which behaviors are appropriate (transition between highschool and college) 

Individualist cultures: prioritize personal goals, define identity in terms of personal traits, seek for personal control and achievement 

Collectivist cultures: deep connections to family, clans, companies, focus on benefiting a larger collective, rather than the self, define identity in communal terms 

Primary sex characteristics: reproductive organs and genitalia  

Secondary sex characteristics: non reproductive sexual organs/traits 

Intersex variance: general term used for various conditions whereby an individual is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that does not align with traditional male/female anatomy 

• Not the same as transgender 

• Generally no health concerns 

Gender: the physical, social, and behavioral characteristics that are culturally associated with make and female roles and identity 

X chromosome: sex chromosome found in both males and females

Y chromosome sex chromosome found in only males 

Testosterone sex hormone, stimulates growth of the males sex organs in the fetus during puberty

Estrogens: sex hormone, stimulates growth of the female sex organs in the fetus and during puberty

Gender role: the set of societal expected behaviors for males or for females 

Gender identity: the personal sense of being male or female 

Social learning theory: observation and imitation of others ‘like us’ regarding gender related activities 

• Reinforced through social reward and punishment 

Gender typing: more than imitation is involved; children gravitate toward “what feels right” (social reward/punishments) 

2/26/25

Developmental psychology

Developmental psychology: examines physical, cognitive, and social development throughout lifespan 

Nature v nurture: how does our genetic inheritance interact with our experiences to influence our development 

Continuity and stages: which parts of development are gradual and continuous, and which parts change abruptly?

Stability and change: which of our traits persist through life? How do we change as we age?

Prenatal development 

Zygote: (fertilized egg) when one sperm cell unites with an egg to form a zygote 

• The zygote enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division 

Embryo: (2 weeks after conception - 2 months) the zygotes inner cells become the embryo, outer cells become the placenta: transfers nutrients and oxygen from the mother to embryo via umbilical cord 

• Organs form and begin functioning - heart begins beating 

Fetus: in the next 6 weeks, body organs begin to form and function 

• By 9 weeks, the fetus is recognizable human 

• 6th month: responsive to sound - mothers voice 

• Recognizing familiar language/voices

Teratogen: an agent that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm (ex: smoke of any kind, alcohol - can lead to fetal alcohol syndrome)

Infancy and childhood

Newborn: born with automatic reflexes supporting survival 

• Rooting reflex: when cheeks are touched, head turns, and sucking begins 

• Grasping reflex: helps infants stay close to caregivers 

• Searches for sights and sounds linked to other humans, especially mother 

Research equipment: eye-tracking machines and pacifiers wired to electronic gear, tracks attention and oral movements 

Habituation: measurement of decreases in responding due to repeated stimulation (evidence of learning)

Preferences: newborns prefer face-like images and the smell of the mothers body

• Measured via sustained attention 

Motor development 

Motor skills: develop as the NS and the muscles mature 

• Universal in sequence, but not in timing (individual differences)

• Roll, sit up, steps, fall, steps, walk, run 

Infantile amnesia: hippocampus still developing, no conscious understanding of language yet 

• But… still capable of learning (mobile studies) 

Sensitive periods (AKA critical periods): an optimal period where certain events must take place in a certain time frame for proper development (speech, walking, developing language)

Critical periods: rapid pruning of essential neural connections to develop skills related to cognitive and physical abilities 

Jean piaget: believed that children are active thinkers, they are not dumb, and that the mind develops through universal………

• Sensory motor stage: (birth - 2 years) infants understand the world in terms of their own sensory impression s and motor activity, before 6 months, children lack object permanence

• Preoperational stage (2-7): children learn to use language but cannot yet perform the mental operations concrete logic, lack of conservation skills: properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in shapes

  • Egocentrism: childs difficulty perceiving things from another's point of view

  • Build schemas: a concept or mental framework that organizes and interprets information 

    • Assimilation: interpreting our new experiences in terms of old experiences 

    • Accommodations: adapting our current understanding (schemas) to incorporate new information 

-  concrete operational stage: (7-11) children begin to think logically, understand changes in logical knowledge based on experiences, but struggle with abstract thinking, begin understanding conversation 

- formal operational stage (12+): children are no longer limited to concrete reasoning based on actual experience, they can think abstractly and consider hypothetical situations (if X, then Y) 

Testing theory of mind 

Theory of mind: involves the ability to read the mental stage of others, between ages 3.5-4.5, children worldwide use theory of mind to realize others may hold false beliefs 

• By age 4-5, children anticipate false beliefs of friends 

Social development 

Infant attachment: emotional tie with another person – shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver, and showing distress on separation 

Stranger anxiety: begins around 8 months, fear of strangers commonly displayed by infants 

Deprivation of attachment: most individuals cope and adjust later in life, but not all do, learning to love and trust after deprivation is hard 

Bodily contact: important for early attachment between infants and caregivers 

2/28/25

Adolescence

Physical development: the transition from puberty to social independence 

• Begins with puberty, but onset and duration varies 

  • Physical beeginnings of sexual maturity 

• Ends with social achievements related to adult status

• Increased hormone release 

  • Body changes, impulsivity, risky behavior, emotional storms 

• Frontal lobe continues to develop, but slower than limbic system (issues with emotion regulation) 

Early maturation differences between genders

Boys

• Sex characteristics continue developing 

• Who are stronger and more physically developed

  • More socially popular

  • Self-assured and independent 

  • Higher risks of alcohol use, delinquency, premature sexual activity

Girls 

• Sex characteristics continue developing 

• When physical body appearance and age-related emotionality are out of sync with peers

  • Unhappy with body or emotional maturity

  • Seeking out older peers, similar to them physically 

  • Can lead to teasing

Erikson's stages of psychosocial development 

Erik Erikson: each stage of life has its out psychosocial task 

• Developed 8 stages throughout life

• A “crisis” that needs resolution 

1. Trust vs Mistrust (0-1) 

2. Autonomy vs Shame (1-3)

3. Initiative vs Guilt (3-6)

4. Industry vs Inferiority (6-12)

5. Identity vs Role Confusion (12-19)

   1. In adolescence

      1. Who am i? What is my role in life? Who do I want to be?

      2. Gender, race, religion, abilities, hopes, desires, fears

      3. This is what makes you, YOU

   2. Social identity: the “we” aspect of self-concept that comes from group memberships 

      1. How do we behave across different social situations different 

      2. School, work, in front of parents vs friends vs grandparents 

6. Intimacy vs Isolation (19-25)

7. Generativity vs Stagnation (25-64)

8. Integrity vs Despair (64+)

In western/individualistic societies: adolescence try to from their own identities, separate from our parents 

• parent/child arguments become more common: what were some things you fought with your parents about 

• Chores, homework, curfew 

• With sons: behavior problems, acting ouut and hygiene 

• With daughters: interpersonal relationshionships, boys, dating 

Code switching: adjusting your language based on your environment and who you are talking to 

Positive parent-teen relationships and positive peer relationships 

• Very strong correlation 

• Associated with better health and school performance 

Social media findings: teens prefer photos that will get likes – even when displaying risky behvaiors 

• Feelings of acceptance/connectedness – we crave attention 

• May contribute to lower self-esteem via social comparisons 

• Social media addiction… every swipe, like, favorite, meme (dopamine release) 

Ending of adolescence

Emerging adulthood: includes the time from 19 to the mid-twenties; a not-yet-settled phase of life 

• Identity exploration, experimentation, negativity, feeling “in-between” adolescence and adulthood, more self-focused vs other-focus 

• May involve living with and still benign emotionally dependent on parents 

adulthood

Physical development:

•  early adulthood (20-30ish) muscular strength, reaction time, sensory keenness, cardiac output 

• Middle adulthood (30-65ish) physical vigor is more closely linked to health and excersice than age 

  • Physical decline is gradual 

  • Menopause: end of menstrual cycle around 50

• Late adulthood: (65+) life expectancy worldwide is now 71 years. Advancements in medicine and technology (1950 - 46.5 yrs)

  • Cells die without replacement 

  • Accelerated by smoking, obesity, and stress

  • Chromosome tips shorten (telomeres), leading to aging related physical changes

  • Eyesighnt and hearing weakens, distance perception and stamina diminish 

  • Pupils shrink and become less transparent, impacts retina 

  • Less sensitive to sound pitch 

Neurocognitive disorders: dementia, acquires disorders marked by cognitive deficits 

• Related to alzheimer's diseases, brain injury or disease, or substance abuse 

• Results in erosion of mental abilities 

Adulthood social development: commitments - “love and work” 

• Intimacy vs isolation 

  • Forming close relationships - not always romantic. Harder with age) 

• Generativity vs stagnation 

  • Supporting future generations 

• Pair bonding: evolutionary perspective – cooperative parents for nurturing children, higher chance of genes being passed down 

  • Indicator of marital success 

    • 5:1 ratio of positive to negative encounters 

  • Post Launch honeymoon: when the nest is empty, the parents will play 

3/3/25

Research on grief: those who express the strongest gried, do not purge grgief more quickly than others 

• Not everyone experiences stages of grief in the same order 

Sensation and perception 

Sensation: process by which sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from the environment 

Perception: process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful object and events 

Bottom up processing: analysis of stimulus beginning at sensory level and working up to higher levels of processing 

• Stimulus → sensory detection → interpretation → “what am I hearing?”

  • Begins with sensory receptors 

  • Ex: processing a new album 

Top-down processing (not stimulus based): constructs perceptions from sensory information by drawing on experiences 

• Higher processing constructs understanding of sensory input 

  • Ex: Processing an album you have already heard before 

All our senses

1. Receive: sensory information via receptor cells

2. Transform: that stimulation into neural impulses

3. Deliver: the neural information to our brains via nervous system 

Transduction: converting one form of energy (light energy, soundwaves)  into another (neural impulses) 

Signal detection theory: theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus amid background stimulation 

• Assumes there is no single absolute threshold (individual differences)

• Detection depends on strength of stimulus, experiences, expectations, motivations, ad alertness 

Absolute threshold: minimal stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 

Subliminal stimuli: intensity of a stimulus is below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness 

Priming: the activation of certain associations, thus predisposign ones perception, memory or response 

Difference threshold: the minimum difference a person can detect between any two stimuli 

Weber’s law: to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage 

• Exact percentage varies between stimuli (music, volume and weights)

Sensory adaptation: diminished sensitivity resulting from constant stimulation 

• Increasing focus by reducing background noise 

• If we stare at an object without flinching, why does it not disappear?

Perceptual sets: a set of mental tendencies and assumptions that affects, top-down perceptions of the world 

3/10/25

Learning: process of obtaining new information and adapting behaviors through experience 

• Associative learning: events occurring together

  • Stimulus: any event that evokes a response 

  • Respondent behavior: automatic response to stimulus

Classical conditioning: associate two stimuli to anticipate an event 

Operant conditioning: associate a behavior with a consequence 

Observational learning: learning via others’ experience 

Ivan pavlov: russian physiologist studying digestive system 

• Not a psychologist  

• Won Russia's first Nobel prize for digestion work 

• Demonstrate associative learning through salivary conditioning 

John b eatson: influenced by Pavlovs work, believed goal of psychology should be to predict and control behavior 

• Creation of behaviorism 

Behaviorsim 

• School of psychology should…

1. Be objective science… no subjectivity 

2. Study behavior without reference to mental processes/coonsciousness

3. Most psychologist today agree with 1 but not with 2

Unconditioned stimulus: UCS (food) stimulus that naturally and automatically evokes an unconditioned response 

Unconditioned response: UCR (salivation) an unlearned and naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus 

Neutral stimulus: N (bell) a stimulus that by itself does not elicit a response, always becomes CS 

Acquisition: initial state of learning associations or response/consequence relationships 

• Conditioned stimulus: CS (bell) the stimulus that is paired with the UCS to later elicit a conditioned response without the previous UCS

• Conditioned response: CR (salivation) a learned behavioral response to a previously neutral stimulus (but now conditioned) 

Extinction: diminished response that occurs when the CS is no longer paired with the UCS 

• bell/clap without name 

Spontaneous recovery: reappearance of a weakened CR after a paise of an extinguished CS after repairing the N and UCS 

3/14/25

PR: add a desirable stimulus

NR: remove an aversive stimulus

PP: administer an aversive stimulus

NP: take away the good

Do physical punishment correct undesired behavior?

• Often suppressed, not forgotten

• Negatively reinforces a parent's punishing behavior, why?

• Teaches discrimination 

• May increase aggression may increase aggression by modeling violence as a way of coping with problems 

Applications of operant conditioning 

School: immediate or partial delay in feedback – increases performance 

Sports: shaping

Work: use of rewards as reinforcement, do good at your job or else fired (punishment)

Religion: ideas of heaven and hell - believed reward/punishment 

Changing your own behavior: 

1. State a realistic and measurable/realistic terms and announce it 

2. Decide how, when, and where you will work toward your goal 

3. Monitor how often you engage in your desired behavior 

4. Reinforce the desired behavior 

5. Reduce the rewards gradually 

Biological and cognitive differences in learning 

Psychological influences: previous experiences, predictability of associations, generalization, discrimination, expectation 

Biological influences: genetic dispositions, unconditioned responses, adaptive responses, neural mirroring 

Socio-cultural influences: culturally learned preferences, motivation affected by presence of others, modeling 

Biological constraints: limit the degree to which an animal can be conditioned

• Preparedness: each species predispostiiton for associations is enhanced by survival function 

  • Humans – potty training before control over bowels doesnt work 

  • Rats at birth – taste aversion – identifying bad food 

  • Bottom line – certain conditioning is influenced/limited by biology 

Biological limits on operant learning: biological constatins perdispose organisms to learn associations that are naturally adaptive 

• More easily to retain behaviors that reflect biological predispositions 

  • Pigs rolling items vs carrying in mouth 

Cognitive influences on conditioning: 

• Animals can learn predictability of an event 

  • Shocking rats, lights/sounds and safe zones 

• Associations influence attitudes

  • Cartoon characters and ice cream vs cartoon characters and vegetables 

Cognitive maps: mental representations of the layout of ones environment 

• Latent learning: learning is not apparent until incentive is presented to decmonstrate the learning 

Extrinsic motivation: driven my external incentives 

Intrinsic motivations: driven my personal desire/interest 

Bobo doll experiment: children exposed to violent actions vs no violent actions were more likely to repeat what they saw 

Vicarious reinforcement/punishments: operant learning via observing behavioral consequences of others 

Mirror neurons: fire when we perform certain actions or observe others doing