PS 101

Chapter 1:

  • Psychology = scientific study of the mind and behavior, including its deep philosophical roots

  • The Late 1800s:

    • Helmholtz: measured the how fast nerves transmit information to the brain

    • Structuralism: attempt to isolate and analyze the mind’s basic elements

      • → Introspection: technique used analyze subject’s experience by trained observers 

      • Came to an end when scientists concluded there was no way to tell if a person's descriptions were accurate

    • Functionalism: emphasis on adaptive significance of mental processes

      • Charles Darwin’s natural selection arose

  • Early 1900s:

    • Psychoanalysis – where physicians and psychologists meet; general theory that highlights the influence for the unconscious feelings, thoughts, and behaviors

      • Sigmund Freud developed the idea of the unconscious mind, part of the mind that contains information of which people are not aware of

      • Hysteria for patients that had symptoms, but nothing was physically wrong with them; repressed emotions, delusional

      • The therapy of psychoanalysis aimed to give patients insight of what their unconscious mind produced

    • Watson developed behaviorism; observable actions/ behavior

      • Stimulus, then response concept

      • Skinner → worked alongside Watson and furthered this idea of stimulus-response

        • “Skinner Box,” the rat learned to operate environment to produce food → Principle of Reinforcement; any behavior that is rewarded will be repeated and any behavior that isn't rewarded won't be repeated

    • Gestalt Psychology: approach that emphasizes how the mind will create a perceptual experience; “memory is not a simple recording device, but rather, out minds use their theories of how the world usually works to construct our memories of past experience” 

    • Social + Cultural Psychology

      • How people think about the stimuli based on their environment; influence of culture on mental life

      • consequences of the social world; rise to stereotypes, created identities, beliefs, etc.

  • Late 1900s / Early 2000s:

    • Evolutionary Psychology: the study of the ways in which the human mind has been shaped by natural selection → John Garcia’s rat study demonstrated rats association of food with nausea

    • Beginning of Neuroscience: MRI scans used to identify regions of the brain and their activity

      • Cognitive Neuroscience - relationship between the brian and mind

Lecture 2: Sept 5

  • Goals of Psychology

    • Describe 

    • Understand causation

    • Predict 

    • Influence 

    • Apply knowledge 

  • Methods of Acquiring Knowledge (Holmstader, 1970)

    • Tenacity

    • Intuition; “gut feeling”

    • Reference to authority; knowledge gained from other’s experience 

    • Rationalism

    • Empiricism

    • Science 

  • Pre-Scientific Period

    • Phineas Gage (1848,Vermont): set railroad tracks in vermont, and used dynamite to do so → did not move away in time when dynamite was set up, resulting in a rod through his skull; miraculously enough, he survived

      • Although he was healed and survived, his personality was the complete opposite (reserved/ quiet → erratic, aggressive)

      • Brought questions about the brain and its effects when encountering trauma; discoveries about medicine and physiology 

    • Psychophysics – just noticeable difference; how do people perceive that differently, depending on the other conceptual factors

  • Early Psychology

    • Wilhelm Wundt: put psychology on the map after studying the sensation, feelings, images (introspection) of people’s conscious mind 

    • Wiliam James: furthered Wundt’s ideas by studying the function of people’s conscious thoughts; developed the stream of consciousness and concept of self

    • Sigmund Freud: was a medical doctor in Vienna, Austria, especially with patients with anxiety; questioned the unconscious processes 

  • Classical Conditioning

    • Ivan Pavlov: initially was studying dog’s digestive tract, but became interested as to why his dog salivated when he brought out food; stimulus-response

    • John Watson: “Black Box” – we can't verify what was going on in someone's mind at that specific point, but we can quantify the precedent

  • Operant Conditioning

    • B.F Skinner: environmental factors impact behavior; “Skinner Box”

  • Humanistic Psychology: response against psychoanalysis

    • Abraham Maslow – hierarchy of needs; growth toward self-actualization

    • Carl Rogers – self-concepts; client-centered therapy 

  • Applied Psychology 

    • Clinical Psychology  — arose after WWII

    • Counseling Psychology

    • Development / School Psychology

    • Behavioral Medicine

    • Social Psychology

    • Forensic Psychology 

  • Cognitive Psychology

    • Development in children, specifically regarding language development and thoughtfully understanding

  • Neuroscience — electrical stimulation of the brain; right vs. left hemispheres

Chapter 2:

  • Empiricism: accurate knowledge of the world can be acquired by observing it

    • Scientific method: procedure to establish facts; an idea of how the world works

    • Theories: explanations of natural phenomenon 

    • Empirical method: rules for the techniques of observation

    • Methods of observation vs methods of explanation 

  • Operational definition: description of a property in measurable terms

    • Construct validity: the degree to which the operational definition adequately describes the important features being studied

    • Power (presence) vs reliability (absence)

    • Once operational definition is obtained, demand characteristics are introduced, which are the aspects of what is expected from people in their observational setting

      • Naturalistic observation is used to avoid demand characteristics – a technique for gathering information by unobtrusively observing people in their natural environment; privacy, control, unawareness

  • Sometime expectations can influence observations, then influence reality → Observer Bias:  the tendency for observers’ expectations to influence both what they believe they observed and what they actually observed 

    • Double Blind Study: used to avoid observer bias by not informing the researcher nor participants what is expected of them

  • Correlation ≠ Causation: natural correlation between two variables cannot be taken as evidence of casual relationship between them because a third variable might be causing them both

    • → experimentation allows for manipulation and random assignment to determine a casual relationship between variables

  • Drawing Conclusions – drawing from the defined variable, people studies, and likelihood

    • Internal validity: an attribute of an element that allows it to establish causal relationship

    • External validity: an attribute of an experiment in which variable have been operationally defined in a representative way

    • Replication: an experiment that used the same procedure as a previous experiment but with a new sample form the same population ; psychologists replication typically fail to get the same results

  • Ethical Principles of Psychologists – boundaries to show respect for persons involved, while still managing to benefit the research conducted in a just manner

    • Informed consent: verbal agreement to participate in a study made by an adult who has been informed of all the risks that participation may entail 

    • Freedom from coercion, protection from harm, risk-benefits analysis, debriefing, confidentiality 


→ Potential Research Study: do labels/ marketing tactics affect college students' health choices?

Lecture 3: Sept 10

  • Newer Directions in Psychology

    • Evolutionary Psychology: adaptiveness of behavior for the species; attachment theory

    • Positive psychology: response to overfocus on pathology; adaptivity, resiliency

    • Sociocultural model: family, cultural, & societal influences; nested systems 

 

  • Research Methods

    • “Good Samaritan Study:” the fewer people around, the more likely someone would help; compared to there being more people around, the less likely someone is to help

    • Overview of research process:

      • 1. Form hypothesis – scientific inquiry to gain a better understanding of nature

      • 2. Make observations – involved skills in asking and answering questions

      • 3. Refine theory – expand on ideas based on observations

      • 4. Develop theory

    • “Systematic” – obtaining objective and unbiased information

      • Literature review; justification 

      • Data collection

    • Hypothesis testing: independent, dependent, control, confounding variables; null, experimental/ alternative hypothesis

      • P-value: significance level; p <0.05 → acceptable level of error 

    • Sample chosen aids internal validity – experimental group from population; random sample, convenience sample  

      • External validity – how can interest group be generalized among general/ larger population 

    • Correlation is not causation; have to design / conduct true experiment 

      • Criteria: random assignment, manipulate IV, control “group”

    • Ethical and mindful consideration for participants 


Chapter 3:

  • Composition of Neurons:

    • Soma: cell body of neurons that coordinated information-processing tasks and keeps the cell alive

    • Dendrites: receive information from other neurons and relay it to the cell body; “tree”

    • Axon: carries information to other neurons, muscles, or glands 

      • Myelin sheath: insulating layer of fatty material on the axon

        • Glials cells: composes the myelin sheath and supports cells founds in the nervous system

        • Some diseases cause the myelin sheath to deteriorate, slowing down communication of neurons 

    • Synapse: gap between the axon and dendrites or cell body of another 

  • Neurons Specialized by Function:

    • Sensory neurons: receive information from the external world and convey the information to brain, via spinal cord

    • Motor neurons: carry signals from the spinal cord to the muscle to produce movement

    • Interneurons: most of nervous system is composed of interneurons, for they connect sensory neurons, motor neurons, or other interneurons

  • Neuron’s Electrical Properties

    • When a neuron is at rest, some ion are negatively or positively charged inside or outside the neuron’s cell membrane  

      • Resting Potential: the difference in electric charge between the inside and outside of a neuron’s cell membrane (70 mV)

    • An electrical impulse can travel down the axon in a wave when an axon is stimulated with an electrical shock

      • Action Potential: an electric signal that is conducted along the length of a neuron’s axon to a synapse 

      • All or None: electric stimulation below a certain threshold fails to produce an action potential, while electric stimulation at / above the threshold will always product action potential at same strength; no half action potential 

      • Refractory Period: time following an action potential during which a new action potential cannot be initiated; brief period of inactivation 

        • Needed because without them, action potentials could fire whenever; leads to chaos in brain

        • Allows you to process and respond to one thing at a time

  • Chemical Signaling

    • Neurotransmitters: located in terminal buttons ( branches from axon), chemical that transmit information across the synapse to a receiving neurons’ dendrites 

      • Synapses take the electrical impulse and covert it into chemicals

      • Synaptic Transmission: sending and receiving of chemical neurotransmitters → ultimately induces your thoughts, emotions, behaviors

      • Autoreceptios: detect how much of a neurotransmitter has been released into a synapse and may stop the release of more 

    • Receptors: part of the cell membrane that receive the neurotransmitter and either initiate or prevent a new electric signal 

    • Agonists: drugs that increase the action of a neurotransmitter

    • Antagonist: drugs that diminish the function of a neurotransmitter

  • Structure of the Brain:

    • Hindbrain: an area of the brain that coordinates information coming to and out of the spinal cord; in charge of the basic functions of life such as respiration, alertness, and motor skills

      • Medulla: extension of the spinal cord into the skill that coordinates heart rate, circulation, and respiration

      • Reticular Formation: regulates sleep, wakefulness and levels of arousal

      • Cerebellum: large structure of hindbrain that controls fine motor skills; proper sequence of movements 

      • Pons: a structure that relays information from the cerebellum to the rest of the brain

    • Midbrain: sits on top of the hindbrain, orients you toward or away pleasurable or threatening stimuli in the environment

      • Tectum: orients an organism in the environment by receiving stimulus input from the eyes, ears, and skins

      • Tegmentum: involved in movement and arousal; help to orient an organism toward sensory stimuli

    • Forebrain: controls complex cognitive, emotional, sensory, and motor functions

      • Cerebral cortex: outermost layer of the brain and is divided into two hemispheres, right and left hemispheres 

        • Corpus callosum: connects large areas of the cerebral cortex on each side of the brain and supports communication of information across hemispheres; around hemispheres

        • Occipital lobe: processes visual information

        • Parietal lobe: processes information about touch; somatosensory cortex

        • Temporal lobe: responsible for hearing and language; primary auditory cortex

        • Frontal lobe: specialized areas for movement, abstract thinking, planning, memory, and judgment; motor cortex coordinates movements of muscle groups throughout the body 

        • Association areas: composed of neuron that help provide sense and meaning to information registered in the cortex

      • Subcortical structure: areas of the forebrain housed under the cerebral cortex near the center of the brain

      • Thalamus: relays and filters information from the senses and transmits the information to the cerebral cortex

      • Hypothalamus: regulates body temperature, hunger, thirst, and sexual behavior; natural desires

      • Hippocampus: critical for creating new memories and integrating them into a network of knowledge so that they can be stored indefinitely in other parts of the cerebral cortex

      • Amygdala: located at the tip of each horn of the hippocampus and plays a central role in many emotional processes, mainly emotional memories

      • Basal ganglia: set of subcortical structure that directs intentional movement and plays a role in reward processing

    • Endocrine system: network of glands that produce and secrete into bloodstream chemicals known as hormones, which influence a wide variety of functions (metabolism, growth, sexual development)

      • Pituitary gland: the master gland of the body’s hormone-producing system, which releases hormones that direct the functions of many other glands in the body

    • Mirror neurons: active when an animal performs a behavior, like reading or manipulating an object, and also activated when another animal observes that animal performing the same behavior

  • Brain Plasticity: function that were previously assigned to certain areas of brain can accommodate and change input from the environment 

    • Exercise, culture, practice (instrument, e.g.) all influence plasticity 

  • Electroencephalograph: a device used to record electrical activity in the brain →  structural brain imaging provides information about the basic structure of the brains, allowing clinicians / researchers to see changes or abnormalities in brain structure

Lecture 4: Sept 12

  • Psychological Research Methodology

    • Levels of Research Measurement

      • Nominal – categorical

      • Ordinal – rank ordered; certain benchmarks 

      • Interval – arbitrarily assigned numbers; no zero point

      • Ratio – actual numbers that correspond to something in real world; can manipulate zero point

    • “By Products:” increase understanding of phenomenon in nature, assessment to develop ‘norms’

    • Reliability → consistency

      • Test-retest

      • Alternate forms; mix up the order of questions/ answers, but essence of the test is the same

      • Split half; is the test itself reliable

      • Inter-rater; observational data

    • Validity → meaningfulness

      • Face; content validity

      • Predictive; extending that validity 

      • Criterion; setting a future benchmark / date

      • Construct; abstract ideas with no clear definition 

  • Neuroscience & Behavior

    • Neuron: building block of central nervous system

      • “All or none” – the neuron can decide to fire the signal or not; must reach the critical threshold

      • The more intense a stimulus is, the more action potentials you’ll see

      • Lifting weight → stimulus is high, action potential will match

    • Dendrites: branches that pull in information into cell body

      • If enough information is coming in from dendrites, the cell body will fire

    • Synapse: space where two neurons meet; electrical signal makes in to the bottom, the change in polarity goes to the synaptic vessel

    • SSRIs: inhibit uptake by leaving neurotransmitters in synapses for longer;  typically come in form as antidepressants

    • Neural Impulses: 

      • Resting potential: stable negative charge; cellinactive (-70mV)

      • Action Potential: brief shift in electrical charge, traveling along axon; positively charged (+45mV)

      • Absolute Refractory Period: minimum time between action potentials; (1-2 milliseconds) 

    • Neurotransmitters Chemical Couriers: Excitatory + Inhibitory

      • Acetylcholine – motor neurons; memory, attention

      • Dopamine – reward pathway

      • Norepinephrine –mood and arousal

      • Serotonin – sleep/ attentiveness, eating, aggressions

      • GABA – inhibitory transmitter; anxiety, sleep

      • Endorphins – pain/ stress relief; addiction 

    • Nervous System

      • Central Nervous System → brain and spinal cord

      • Peripheral Nervous System → everything else 

        • Somatic Nervous System: 

          • Afferent Nerve Fibers take information up to the brain 

          • Efferent Nerve Fibers exit the body

        • Autonomic “Automatic” Nervous System – e.g we don't have to tell heart to beat

          • Sympathetic Nervous System respond to power itself

          • Parasympathetic Nervous System reverts us back to baseline after surge of adrenaline; e.g. queasiness after almost-car accident


Lecture 5: Sept 17

  • Medulla takes care of internal organs; involuntary actions

  • Cerebellum → motor skills, coordinated movements/ sequences, muscle/body memory

  • Reticular activating system is located in the Pons → permits sleep, alertness

  • Limbic System – Mammalian Brain: communicative properties

    • Pituitary glands → sends hormones that tells other glands/ hormones what to do

    • Hypothalamus → natural desires for body’s homeostasis

    • Thalamus → relays and filters information from the senses and transmits the information to the cerebral cortex; train station of the limbic system that ensures messages arrive where needed

    • Amygdala → regulates emotions such as danger, aggression 

    • Hippocampus → episodic memory

    • Olfactory Lobe → processes sense of smell; connects aromas to memories and can evoke certain emotions

  • Cerebral Cortex

    • Corpus Callosum → band of fibers that holds left and right hemispheres together, allowing them to communicate between each other

    • Occipital Lobe → in the rear end of the brain where vision gets processed through the two optic nerves for the right and left eyes

      • Two eyes permits more depth perception, compared to just one

      • Processes colors and waves of light so it can make sense to us

    • Temporal Lobe → on sides of brain that processes waves of sound and language; auditory information

    • Parietal Lobe → across top of brain that processes senses of touch; somatosensory cortex

    • Frontal Lobe → front of brain that recognizes executive functioning and motor cortex (voluntary movement)

      • Helps recognize and manage emotions

      • Decision making, concentration

      • Wrinkles on brain increases surface area indicating ability to process more 

    • Somatosensory and Motor strips are next to each other; correspond incoming sensory information and outgoing motor responses

  • Cerebral Specialization – Left / Right Brain

    • Left hemisphere → verbal processing, logical sequential tasks

    • Right Hemisphere → nonverbal processing, spatial, musical, artistic, emotional

  • Endocrine System – chemicals secreted by endocrine glands

    • The pituitary gland is the primary gland

      • Four Fs → Flight, Fight, Freeze, Fuck

      • Adrenal gland → stress response; on top kidneys at back

      • Oxytocin → nurturing, attachment; reproduction, parenting, comforting

  • Genetics & Heredity – polygenic traits

    • Biological and psychological influences

    • Do the traits from your biological parents influence your personality / behavior

    • Family, twin, adoption studies

  • Evolutionary Bases of Behavior

    • “Survival of the fittest”

    • Mating behaviors, avoidance of dangers, protection / safety in groups, caring


Chapter 7: 

  • Learning → the acquisition, experience, of new knowledge, skills or response in a relatively permanent change

    • Sensitization: presentation of a stimulus leads to an increased response to a later stimulus

    • Habituation: general process in which repeated or prolonged exposure to a stimulus results in a gradual reduction in responding

  • Classical Conditioning: pairs a neutral stimulus with a meaningful event or stimulus

    • Unconditioned stimulus: something that reliably produces a naturally occurring reaction in an organism 

    • Unconditioned response: a reflexive reaction that is reliably  produced by an unconditioned stimulus 

    • Conditioned stimulus: a previously neutral stimulus that produces a reliable response in an organism after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus

    • Conditioned response: a reaction that resemble an unconditioned response but is produced by a conditioned stimulus 

  • Operant Conditioning: reinforcements increases the likelihood of behavior and punishments decrease the likelihood of behavior 

    • Operant Behavior: behavior an organism person that has some impact on the environment

  • Observational / Modeling: gathering information from world around them

  • Implicit Learning: process that detects, learns, and stores patterns without explicit awareness by the learner

Lecture 6: Sept 19

  • Classical Conditioning → acquired through pairing/ association; behavior is almost always involuntary behavior; Evoked

    • Unconditioned stimulus (food) will bring an unconditioned response (salivation)

    • Conditioned stimulus (tone) will provide a conditioned response (salivation)

    • Involuntary, elicited response

    • Acquisition: acquiring response/stimulus (pairing)

    • Extinction: stimulus/response (pairing) no longer present

    • Spontaneous recovery: thought you were over a food that make you sick once, but then it made you sick again

    • Stimulus Generalization: associating characteristics of stimulus with other similar characteristics; Little Albert scared of white

    • Stimulus Discrimination: differentiating between similar stimuli to and respond to only the correct one 

    • Higher order conditioning: light → bell → food; eventually just light will produce response

  • Operant Conditioning → voluntary behavior; Emitted 

    • Consequence of the behavior will either increase or decrease the outcome of that behavior again 

    • “Operating on your environment” 

    • Shaping: rewarding successive approximations

    • Continuous Reinforcement: rewarding for everything you do

    • Intermittent Reinforcement: sometimes rewarded for what you do

    • Schedules of Reinforcement

      • Fixed ratio (4 coffees, 5th is free) 

      • Variable ratio (slots)

      • Fixed interval (biweekly paycheck)

      • Variable interval (speed ticket)

Lecture 7: Sept 24

  • Negative reinforcement is removing something that is unpleasant, while Positive reinforcement is giving something 

    • Positive reinforcement is a process that strengthens the likelihood of a particular response by adding a stimulus after the behavior is performed, while negative reinforcement also strengthens the likelihood of a particular response, but by removing an undesirable consequence

    • Hone in target behavior, then ask if it is increasing or decreasing the behavior as a result of what is given or taken away 

  • Observational Learning Experiment – Bandura & “Bobo” Doll Modeling

    • Half of the group of kids acted aggressive after seeing adults act aggressive, while the other half was more peaceful

    • Highlights the prevalence of mimicking behavior