Psychology Notes

Ally Newman

Lecture 3 - Emotion & Motivation - Jan 22

Emotions

• Involves a temporary state that includes unique subjective experiences and physiological activity, and that prepares people for action

• Does not reside in any location in brain; no single way to measure it

• Has mental and physical feature

• Is response to appraisals: conscious or unconscious evaluations and interpretations of the emotion-relevant aspects of a stimulus or event

The James-Lange Theory

• Feelings are simply the perception of one’s own physiological responses to a stimulus

Cannon & Bard (James-Lange Theory)

• Some of our emotional experiences happen before our bodily responses do.

• Lots of things can cause bodily responses without also causing emotions.

• Every human emotion would have to be associated with a unique set of bodily responses

Amygdala

• Threat detector

• Appraisal: evaluation of the emotion-relevant aspects of a stimulus

• Fast: thalamus → amygdala (takes priority)

• Slow: thalamus → cortex → amygdala

Darwin

• The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872)

• Major contributions to the study of emotions:

  • Emotions are separate entities that vary on attributes such as Intensity of acceptability

  • The primary focus on the face with regard to emotion

  • Facial Expression of emotion are universal

  • Emotions are not unique to humans

  • Darwin’s explanation of why particular movements signal a particular emotion

Basic Emotions (Ekman)

• Happiness

• Sadness

• Fear

• Disgust

• Anger

• Surprise

Display Rules

• 1. De-intensify the appearance of clues to a given emotion

• 2. Over- intensify the felt emotion

• 3. Appear affectless or neutral

• 4. Mask the emotion

Alexithymia

• the inability to recognize emotions and their subtleties and textures

Motivation

• Internal causes of purposeful behaviour (William James & Instincts)

Drive

• Internal state generated by departments from physiological optimality

• Homeostasis: tendency for a system to take action to keep itself in a particular state

Hedonic Principle

• Notion that all people are motivated to experience pleasure and avoid pain

• Emotional experience can be thought of as a gauge that ranges from bad to good.

• The primary motivation—perhaps even sole motivation—is to keep the needle on the

Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs

• Abraham Maslow (1908–1970)

• People are motivated to fulfill a hierarchy of needs.

• Some needs are more pressing than others.

• These must be satisfied before satisfying less pressing needs (e.g., the need to have friends)

Motivation

• Intrinsic: Motivation to take actions that are themselves rewarding (tend to be more satisfying)

• Extrinsic: Motivation to take actions that are not themselves rewarding but that lead to a reward (may undermine intrinsic rewards)

• Conscious: motivation of which one is aware

• Unconscious: motivation of which one is not aware

• Need For Achievement: the motivation to solve worthwhile problems

Approach & Avoidance

• Approach: motivation to experience positive outcomes

• Avoidance: motivation to not experience negative outcomes (tend to be more powerful, people take more risks to avoid loss)

• Loss Aversion: the tendency to care more about avoiding losses than about achieving equal-size gains

Change

• Prochaska and DiClemente (1983) developed the Transtheoretical model

• Originally developed for health care

• Regularly used in conjunction with a technique for interacting with - Motivational Interviewing

Transtheoretical Model Of Change

Limitations

• Social Context

• Criteria to move from one stage to the next

• Time

• Model makes assumptions about decision-making

Lecture 4 - Intelligence

Intelligence

• Intelligence is the ability to use one’s mind to solve novel problems and learn from experience

1857–1911

• Alfred Binet (1857–1911) and Theodore Simon (1872–1961) developed the first intelligence test to identify children who needed remedial education. 

1871–1938

• William Stern (1871–1938) coined the term mental age

• Ratio IQ: statistic obtained by dividing a person’s mental age by his physical age then multiplying by 100

Negative Feedback

• Non-related factors can influence test performance

• Important that test-takers are evaluated according to norms that are applicable to their geographical, cultural, and racial backgrounds

• Types

• General: High positive correlation between different tests of cognitive ability

  • High verbal, high mathematics

• Multiple: Certain brain areas have been found to distinctively map with certain cognitive functions

  • High verbal, low mathematics

Hierarchy Of Ability

• Charles Spearman (1863–1945) set out to discover if there was a hierarchy of abilities

• He found correlations (though not perfect) amongst many cognitive tasks

• Two-factor theory of intelligence

Thurstone’s Primary Mental Abilities

• Louis Thurstone (1887– 1955) felt that the clustering of correlations disproved 

  • instead argued for a few primary mental abilities that were stable and independent

• Later confirmatory factor analyses showed that both Spearman and Thurstone were correct; correlations between scores on different mental ability tests are best described in a three-level hierarchy. 

  • Like Spearman’s general factor (g) and specific factors (s), and Thurstone’s group factors

Lecture 5 - Personality

Personality

• Individuals characteristics style of behaving, thinking, and feeling

• Personality can predict or anticipate behaviour

Measuring

• Self-Report Data: directly asking someone their opinion about their own personality (questionnaire, interview, survey)

  • Advantages: large amounts of information, access to internal information, definitional truth (we cannot argue a persons feeling about themself), causal force, simple, inexpensive

  • Disadvantages: unwilling to tell, cannot tell you, too simple

• Informant Data: ask people who know the personal well to describe them (personal interviews or questionnaires)

  • Advantages: large amounts of data, real world bias, common sense, definitional truth, causal force

  • Disadvantages: working with judgements not facts, limited behavioural information, no access to private information, error, bias

• Behavioural Data: observation, watch and record, laboratory or natural settings

  • Advantages: range of contexts, appearance of objectivity

  • Disadvantages: difficult, expensive, uncertain interpretation

• Social Media: historically what they post, comment, like, etc

  • Advantages: more personal insite

  • Disadvantages: not accurate, may not have access

Trait

• Characteristics that describe the ways in which other people differ from one another

• Cannot use traits to predict behaviour, actions, etc

• Traits just simply describe us

Conceptualized By Psychologists

• Dimensions: people differ on these dimensions and range from low to high on any given dimension

• Categories: people are described by a limited number of personality types

Two Schools Of Thought

• Internal & Casual: traits are connected to our desires, in part, guide behaviour

• Descriptive: traits should be used to simply and purely describe a person in a particular situation

Trait Approaches

• Gordon Allport:

  • Cardinal: traits that dominate a person's life

  • Central: a handle of words that describe someone's overall personality

  • Secondary: traits that are present but less noticeable and less consistent

• Raymond Cattell: refined Allport's model and developed a 16-trait model that removed uncommon traits and grouped similar ones

• Hans Eysenyk: developed a 3-factor theory of universal traits

  • Psychoticism, extraversion & neuroticism 

The Big Five (Costa and McCrae)

• Openness To Experience:

  • High Score: creative, imagination, new experiences, resist conformity

  • Low Score: narrow or common interests, plain, straightforward, resistant to change

• Conscientiousness:

  • High Score: avoid trouble, planning, persistence, perfectionist

  • Low Score: unreliable, aren't ambitious, make poor impulsive decisions that lead to trouble

• Extraversion:

  • High Score (Extraverts): enjoy being with others, energy, positive emotions, talk with others

  • Low Score (Introverts): less energy, lower activity level, quiet and disengaged from social situations (not associated with shyness or depression)

• Agreeableness:

  • High Score: get along with others, considerate, caring, helpful, willing to compromise 

  • Low Score: self-interest comes before getting along with others, not likely to extend a willing hand, suspicious, unfriendly, uncooperative

• Neuroticism: 

  • High Score: emotionally reactive, emotional responses, view is dangerous, emotions last longer

  • Low Score: not easily upset, low level of emotional reaction, calm, relaxed and experience few negative emotions

Context

• People don't behave the same way in every situation, people are inconsistent

Person-Situation Debate

• Situationist:

  • There is a limit to how well we can predict behaviour based on personality

  • Situations are more important in determining behaviour than traits

  • Personality measures are wrong - we overestimate consistency in personality

• Personality Trait Psychologist: 

  • The literature review was unfair and not comprehensive

  • Situations are no better at predicting behaviour than traits

  • These measures are used because they consistently report particular traits and our perceptions of traits are valid and useful

• If a person is highly neurotic and if they are in a crisis situation then they are likely to panic

Psychodynamic Theories Of Personality (Frued)

• Mental Life (Structural Model): the 3 functions of the mind (ego, superego, id) in Freud's structural model interact with the 3 levels of mental life (conscious, unconscious, pre-subconscious

• The ID: operates entirely in the unconscious, pleasure principle

  • Food, water, elimination, warmth, affection, sex 

• The Ego: primarily conscious, reality, planning, decision making (secondary thinking process), derives all of its energy from the id, blocks out pleasure seeking of the id, makes safe, socially acceptable choices for satisfaction

• Superego: roughly as conscious, values, morals, avoids disapproval, develops throughout childhood, idealistic principle, superego is present in all 3 levels of consciousness

• Personality: the behaviour of the human being is a complex interplay of these 3 parts of the psyche

  • Each of the parts are vying for the achievement of their goals, goals cannot always be reconciled

The Psychosexual Stages Of Development

• Oral: birth - 1 yr, operating solely on the id, mouth is the best way to explore, emotional bonding

• Anal: 18 months - 3.5 yrs, self control and obedience, power structures in relationships, testing boundaries

• Phallic: 3.5 yrs - 7 yrs, feelings of love, hate, jealousy, conflict, may identify with their same sex parent

• Latency: 5/6 yrs - puberty, learning and cognitive development, culturally valued skills and values are acquired

• Genital: puberty - adulthood, successful completion = warm, well balanced and caring adult, creation and enhancement of life

Freud's Criquies

• Complexity, case studies, vague definitions, sexist

Humanism

• Unique view of reality, the mind is aware and opinionated, 

• Meaning of life: selfish vs altruistic

• Goal: to understand awareness, free will, happiness, etc that gives meaning to life 

Lecture 6 - Human Development

Prenatal

• Germinal Stage: 2 week period that begins at conception; brief lifetime of zygote

  • Zygote: fertilized egg that contains chromosomes from both a sperm and an egg

• Embryonic Stage: week 2 - 8

• Fetal Stage: week 9 - birth

  • Myelination: formations of a fatty sheath around the axons of the neuron begins

Prenatal Environment

• Placenta: is the organ that links the bloodstream of the mother to the unborn baby, which permits the exchange of materials

• Teratogens: agents, such as drugs and viruses, that pass from the mother and impair the process of development

• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: developmental disorder that stems from heavy alcohol use by the mother during pregnancy

Newborns

• Poor vision, 8-12 inches, can see squares, triangles, diagonal lines

• Habituate to visual stimuli; respond less to repeated exposure of the same stimuli

• Can mimic facial expressions within the 1st hour of life

• Attend and respond to facial features and other human objects

Motor Development

• Motor Development: emergence of the ability to execute physical action

• Motor Reflexes: specific patterns of motor response that are triggered by specific patterns of sensory stimulation (innate)

• Cephalocaudal rule: “top-to-bottom” rule that describes the tendency for motor skills to emerge in sequence from the head to the feet 

• Proximodistal rule: “inside-to outside” rule that describes the tendency for motor skills to emerge in sequence from the center to the periphery

Cognitive Development

• Cognitive Development: emergence of the ability to think and understand

• Sensorimotor Stage:

  • Acquire information about the world through the senses

  • They go through a process whereby they develop schemas, apply their schemas and then revise their schemas 

  • Object Permanence

• Preoperational Stage (2–6 years):

  • Preliminary understanding of the physical world.

• Concrete Operational Stage (6–11 years): 

  • Actions or operations can affect or transform concrete objects

  • Conservation

• Formal Operational Stage (11 years +): 

  • Abstract thinking

Moving Beyond Ourselves

• Egocentrism: failure to understand that the world appears different to different observers; observed during preoperational stage

• False-Belief Task: Young children fail to realize that other people don’t necessarily see or know what they know

• Desires & Emotions: difficulty understanding different emotional reactions in others

• Theory Of Mind: understanding the mind produces representations of the world and that these representations guide behaviour

Jean Piaget

• Theory: cognitive development describes how children learn and think through stages

• Assimilation: Applying existing knowledge to new situations

• Accommodation: Modifying existing knowledge to fit new situations

• Schemas: Mental templates that help children understand the world

• Stages: Universal stages of development that occur in a specific order

Criticisms Of Jean Piaget

• Newer theories propose the stages as continuous, not discrete

• Children may acquire abilities earlier than proposed

Moral Development

• Lawrence Kohlberg

  • Preconventional Stage (Childhood): obedience and punishment, individualism, exchange

  • Conventional Stage (Adolescence): interpersonal relationships, maintaining social order

  • Postconventional Stage (Adults): social contrasts, universal principles

• Criticisms:

  • Stages not as discrete as proposed

  • Development of moral reasoning reflects Western societies

  • Moral reasoning only part of moral development

Attachment

• Emotional bonds between individuals

  • Pattern A: anxious/avoidant

  • Pattern B: secure

  • Pattern C: anxious/ambivalent

Outcomes

• As a result of interactions with their primary caregivers, infants develop a set of beliefs about the way relationships work (internal working model)

• Securely attached children have better: academic achievement, cognitive functioning, psychological well-being, success in adulthood, emotional adjustment

Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Development

• Marked by a major task, process determined by performance in earlier stages, developmental tasks or crises

Adolescence (11/14 - 18/21)

• Period of development that begins with the onset of sexual maturity (about 11–14 years of age) and lasts until the beginning of adulthood (about 18–21 years of age)

• Primary and secondary sex characteristics, changes in brain

• Considerable variation in the onset of puberty (between genders, cultures, time periods/eras) 

• Improved diet and health

• Chemicals (especially those that mimic estrogen in females)

• Age of puberty has decreased, but age of adulthood responsibility has increased

• Adolescence marks a shift in emphasis from family relations to peer relations.

• Struggle for autonomy

Adulthood (18/21 - death)

• Changes in physical, cognitive, emotional

• Abilities and health peak in the 20s and begin to deteriorate between 26 and 30 years of age

• Physical changes lead to psychological consequences (cognitive decline)

• Older brains compensate by calling on other neural structures

• There is less bilateral asymmetry in the prefrontal cortex of older brains.