exam study guide

1. Can We Influence Behavior with Hidden Messages?

  • Subliminal Messages:

    • Subliminal messages are hidden signals that can nudge cognitive processes by making certain information more mentally available, influencing word association and perception.

    • However, they cannot make people perform complex actions or significantly change their behaviors.

    • Example: A subliminal message might make a word come to mind more easily, but it won't make someone quit smoking without other influences.

2. Altered States of Consciousness

  • Types of Altered States:

    • Coma: A state of prolonged unconsciousness, typically due to injury or illness.

    • Hypnosis: A state of focused attention, heightened suggestibility, and vivid fantasies.

    • Meditation: A practice in which individuals train their mind to achieve a heightened state of awareness and inner calm.

    • Sleep: A natural, recurring state where the body rests and regenerates.

    • Drugs: Substances that can alter consciousness by changing brain chemistry.

How Hypnosis Alters Consciousness:

  • Hypnosis:

    • A state of focused attention and relaxed awareness where individuals may respond to suggestions that influence their perceptions, memory, and voluntary actions.

    • Hypnotherapy: The use of hypnosis as a therapeutic tool to help people change habits or address mental health conditions (e.g., to quit smoking or lose weight).

    • Posthypnotic Suggestions: Behaviors or thoughts initiated after the hypnosis session ends, often in response to certain triggers.

Theories of Hypnosis:

  1. Sociocognitive Theory:

    • Hypnosis is not an altered state of consciousness. People are behaving the way they think they should, consistent with societal expectations.

    • Example: Pete sees children acting like barnyard animals at a party and attributes it to them acting how they think they’re supposed to under hypnosis.

  2. Dissociation Theory:

    • Hypnosis creates a split in consciousness; awareness is separated from other aspects of consciousness. This allows individuals to dissociate themselves from certain thoughts or behaviors.

    • Example: George sees his friend hypnotized and crowing like a rooster, believing this to be evidence of an altered state.

Hypnosis for Pain Management:

  • Hypnotic Analgesia: Hypnosis can be used to reduce the perception of pain. It does so by changing how pain is interpreted in the brain and creating a sense of detachment from pain.

    • It supports the dissociation theory, where hypnosis separates the perception of pain from emotional responses.

Meditation:

  • A mental practice that leads to heightened awareness and deep calmness, often described as an altered state of consciousness.

  • Types of Meditation:

    • Concentration Meditation: Focus on a single point (e.g., breathing or a mantra).

    • Mindfulness Meditation: Focus on being present and aware of thoughts and feelings without judgment.

  • Benefits: Improvements in health outcomes, stress reduction, cognitive processing, and brain function.

3. How Drugs Alter Consciousness

  • Psychoactive Drugs: Mind-altering substances that impact neurochemistry by affecting neurotransmitter systems. These can be used medically or recreationally.

Classes of Drugs:

  1. Stimulants:

    • Examples: Amphetamines, Methamphetamine (meth), Cocaine, Nicotine, Caffeine.

    • Effects: Increase mental and physical activity by stimulating the dopamine and norepinephrine neurotransmitter systems.

    • Mental and physical effects: Increased alertness, faster heart rate, and elevated mood.

  2. Depressants:

    • Examples: Alcohol, Benzodiazepines (e.g., Xanax, Klonopin).

    • Effects: Decrease nervous system activity, leading to a sense of relaxation and reduced anxiety.

    • Neurotransmitter: GABA.

    • Alcohol: The most commonly used depressant. It acts as a social lubricant but can impair judgment and memory, especially at higher doses.

  3. Opioids:

    • Examples: Heroin, Morphine, Codeine, Fentanyl.

    • Effects: Relieve pain and induce feelings of euphoria.

    • Neurotransmitter: Endorphins.

    • Addiction risk: Opioids are highly reinforcing, making them very addictive.

  4. Hallucinogens:

    • Examples: LSD, Peyote, Psilocybin mushrooms, MDMA (Ecstasy), Cannabis.

    • Effects: Alter perceptions, thoughts, and emotions by acting on serotonin systems (for LSD and mushrooms) and dopamine systems (for MDMA).

    • Can produce sensory distortions and hallucinations.

Drug Tolerance & Homeostasis:

  • Tolerance: Over time, the body adapts to drug use, requiring higher doses to achieve the same effect. This is due to biological changes such as:

    • Reduced receptor sensitivity or number.

    • Increased metabolism of the drug.

    • Lower natural neurotransmitter production.

Substance Use Disorders:

  • Addiction: Compulsive drug use despite negative consequences. Dopamine activity in the limbic system plays a significant role in addiction development.

  • Withdrawal: Symptoms such as anxiety and cravings occur when a person stops using a drug after dependence has developed.

4. Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

  • Schemas: Cognitive structures or mental models used to organize and interpret information.

    • Assimilation: Incorporating new information into existing schemas.

    • Accommodation: Modifying schemas in light of new information.

Stages of Development:

  1. Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to 2 years):

    • Infants learn through sensory experiences and motor actions.

    • Key development: Object permanence – understanding that objects continue to exist even when out of sight.

  2. Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 years):

    • Children use symbols to represent objects but lack logical reasoning.

    • Tend to be egocentric and struggle with the concept of conservation (the understanding that quantity remains the same despite changes in shape or appearance).

  3. Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 12 years):

    • Begin to think logically about concrete events.

    • Understand the concept of conservation.

    • Can solve problems but struggle with abstract thinking.

  4. Formal Operational Stage (12 years to adulthood):

    • Capable of abstract thinking and hypothesis testing.

    • Can think about hypothetical situations and use deductive reasoning.

Modern Take on Piaget:

  • Piaget underestimated the ages at which children develop certain skills, and current research shows cognitive development as more continuous rather than in strict stages.

5. Physical and Psychosocial Development in Adulthood

Emerging Adulthood (18-25 years):

  • A developmental stage marked by the transition from adolescence to full adulthood, where individuals face challenges related to establishing independence, relationships, and career paths.

Physical Changes:

  • Early Adulthood (20-40 years): Gradual decline in muscle mass, bone density, eyesight, and hearing.

  • Cognitive Changes: Decline in fluid intelligence (ability to solve new problems), though crystallized intelligence (knowledge accumulated over time) remains stable.

Marriage & Relationships:

  • Marriage: Most people marry, and long-term relationships bring benefits, especially for men.

    • Men report higher happiness in marriage, while women tend to prioritize the quality of the relationship for happiness.

  • Children: Couples with children report more stress and lower marital satisfaction, as children demand significant time, money, and emotional resources.

Older Adulthood:

  • Cognitive Aging: Longer time to learn new information but effective use of it once learned. Difficulty with tasks requiring multitasking or working memory.

  • Dementia: A decline in intellectual capacity, often due to Alzheimer’s disease (5% of people aged 70-75, 6.5% after age 85).

    • Early symptoms include minor memory loss; progresses to more severe impairments.

6. Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages in Later Life

  • Intimacy vs. Isolation (Young adulthood): The challenge of forming committed, long-term relationships.

  • Generativity vs. Stagnation (Middle adulthood): The challenge of leaving behind a legacy and contributing to future generations.

  • Integrity vs. Despair (Old age): The challenge of reflecting on life with a sense of fulfillment and wisdom.

Finding Meaning in Later Life:

  • Older adults tend to focus on emotionally meaningful goals and experiences, such as reflecting on life and sharing memories, as they perceive time as more limited.

7. Sensory Systems & Perception

Vision:

  • How Light is Processed:

    1. Light enters through the cornea and pupil.

    2. The iris controls the amount of light.

    3. The lens focuses the light onto the retina at the back of the eye.

    4. The retina contains rods (for low light, black-and-white vision) and cones (for bright light and color vision).

  • Color Vision Theories:

    1. Trichromatic Theory: Cones are sensitive to red, green, and blue wavelengths of light.

    2. Opponent-Process Theory: Color is processed in pairs of opposites (e.g., red-green, blue-yellow).

Taste:

  • Five Main Tastes:

    • Sweet, Salty, Sour, Bitter, and Umami (savory).

  • Taste buds contain receptors for detecting these different tastes, which signal the brain via the gustatory cortex.

Touch & Pain:

  • Touch Receptors: Specialized receptors in the skin detect pressure, temperature, and texture.

  • Pain:

    • Fast fibers transmit sharp, immediate pain (e.g., cutting your finger).

    • Slow fibers transmit chronic, dull pain (e.g., muscle soreness).

8. Perception: Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up Processing

  • Top-down Processing: Perception is influenced by prior knowledge, experiences, and expectations.

    • Example: You recognize a word in a sentence even if some letters are missing because of your familiarity with the language.

  • Bottom-up Processing: Perception is driven by the sensory input, with the brain interpreting raw data.

    • Example: You perceive an object as a tree because the shape and color match your mental representation of a tree.