PSY 101 Chp.1-3

1/16/25

/

Chapter 1: What is Psychology?

Barnum/Forer Effect: People give high accuracy rating to descriptions that are genera enough to apply to a wide range of people or in other words “Subjective Validation”

Subjective Validation: A belief that two things have a correlation because of how a situation is set-up. (Ex. The five students went up in front of the class and all got papers from the teacher she thought described them. They actually all got the same paper, but on a four point scale they gave a range of 2-4 in response on how accurately the paper described them with four being very accurate. The statements were vague and widely applicable, but some of them felt the paper accurately described them because they thought the teacher gave it to them based on how she perceived them. Demonstrating the Barnum/Forer Effect.)

Pseudo-psychology: Based on common beliefs, folk wisdom, or superstitions. Gives the appearance of science, but doesn’t follow the basics of the scientific method.

Psychology: The scientific study of behavior and mental processes. (Thought to be the application of philosophy.)

Karl Popper defined what science is and consequently created the category of pseudo-science. In science you’re looking to disconfirm, but pseudoscience looks to confirm. That’s because pseudoscience looks at data points/evidence of the past and uses that to explain their theory/prediction/hypotheses. While science forms a theory/hypothesis/prediction first and then looks at the evidence to see if that hypothesis is proven wrong by that evidence.

How do you detect pseudoscience?

Common characteristics:

• Un-falsifiability

• Absence of self-correction

• Overuse of tactics designed to protect theories from refutation

• Absences of connecting their science to other fields of knowledge

• Unclear language

• Over-reliance on anecdotes and testimonials

• Not peer-reviewed

CRAAP Test:

Currency: Timeliness of information (when it was published, has it been revised since?)

Relevance: Importance of the info for your needs (Target audience, what it means to you)

Authority: Source of info (Who is the author, publisher, credentials, how does this publishing benefit them, etc.)

Accuracy: Reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of content (Where the info comes from and is it supported by known evidence)

Purpose: Reason the info exists (Sales pitch vs. Knowledge Based vs. Getting a “rise” out of you)

Psychology’s Goals

1. Description: The what (Describe a phenomenon to know generally what something looks like. Ex. What behaviors are displayed by a student actively engaging in class?)

2. Explanation: The why (Why is this behavior occurring? Why is a student actively engaging? Nature vs. Nurture)

3. Prediction: The when (Predicting when a future behavior/mental process will occur including under what conditions. Ex. Studies say alcohol makes people aggressive. So, we predict there will be less fights at sporting events if alcohol wasn’t sold there.)

4. Change: How to do it differently (increase, reduce, stop, prevent, etc.) (How do we intervene/what changes do we make to get the desired change/outcome?)

Chapter 2: Psychology’s Scientific Method

Why is research important?

• The goal for psychology research is to understand behavior, the cognitive(mental), and physiological (body) processes underlying behavior and internal mental processes

• Research is a mandatory process in validating claims

• Using the scientific method allows researchers to evaluate whether evidence supports their statements

Deductive Reasoning: Results are predicted based on a general statement or premise. (Ex. All living things require energy, ducks are living so they therefore must require energy.)

Inductive Reasoning: Conclusions are drawn from observation (Ex. You see many fruits grow on trees therefore you assume all fruit grows on trees.)

The Scientific Method

Hypothesis: Tentative and testable statement (prediction) about the relationship between two or more variables. (A testable statement)

Theory: Broad idea or set of related ideas that attempts to explain observations to make predictions about future observations. (A theory is falsifiable)

Step 1: Observing Phenomenon

1. Question about the phenomenon (description, explanation, prediction, change)

2. Review existing evidence about the phenomenon (What do we already know about it? What questions still remain?) (A literature review essentially.)

Step 2: Formulating Hypotheses & Predictions

Hypothesis: An educated guess that derives logically from a theory; a prediction/expectation that can be tested.

Step 3: Testing w/ Empirical research

Variable: Phenomena of interest (what is being studied) that is anything that can change or vary

Operational Definition: Precise, objective description of what actions and operation will be used to measure study variables (Ex. In the marshmallow experience success was defined as the high SAT scores of the children who waited the full fifteen minutes later in their life. Ex. Stress is operationally defined sometimes as increased heart rate which is measured by a heart rate monitor.)

*Different operational definitions lead to different study types and analysis*

Ex.

1/21/24

Descriptive Research:

• Observing and recording behavior and mental processes in the natural state or habitat.

• Chief benefit: you see the participant behave on their own and not as a rxn to something.

• Chief Con: Lack of control over variables in the study and time consuming.

• Often use case studies. Which has the con of we can’t be sure that what we observe of the participants in the case study is applicable to others outside the study who meet the same conditions, so the results need to be replicated. Another con is they are open to recall bias

Correlational Research:

• Research method in which variable are observed or measured (but not manipulated) to ID the relationship between two variables

• R-Values indicate the directions and strength of the relationship between two values between -1.0 and +1.0. A positive value means as one thing increases or decreases so does the other value. A negative value means as one value increases the other decreases and vice-versa. The closer the r-value is to -1.0 or +1.0 the stronger the relationship is between two variables.

Correlation does not prove causation. That’s because there could be a third variable that accounts for the relationship between the two variables we measured and calculated a possibly high r-value for.

Illusory Correlations: The belief that a relation exists between variables when really no relation exists. Ex. The full moon and odd behavior that night.

Experimental Research:

• A carefully controlled scientific procedure that involves the manipulation of variables to determine the cause and effect. Key features are dependent variables (dv), independent variables (IV), a control group, and an experimental group(s).

• Multiple biases probable. Experimenter bias: researcher skews the results in the expected direction (the researchers notices the data/results they want to see more than what is actually present.). Sample Bias: A bias that occurs when research participants are unrepresentative of the larger population. Participation Bias: The participants' expectations skews the results. Placebo Effect: People’s expectations influence their experience in a given situation.

• Solutions to Biases. Random Assignment: All participants have an equal chance of being in the experimental or control group. (That way the characteristics of one individual may be cancelled out by similar characteristics of another individual who is in a different group.) Blind Observers: Researchers collecting the DV data don’t know the study’s hypotheses or details (avoid experimenter bias). Single Blind Study: The researcher is the only one who knows who is in the experimental or control group (limiting participant). Double-Blind Study: Neither the researcher or participants know who is in the control or experimental groups. (Negating experimenter and participant bias.)

Step 4: Drawing Conclusions

• Multiple methods can be used to collect the data related to the variables of interested

• Data collection must involve measures that are reliable and valid. Reliability: Consistently getting the same result from what is measured. Validity: Accuracy of measuring what we need to. Ex we wouldn’t measure bp with a blood test.

Analyses (determined by research method)

Quantitative Analysis: Analysis of data by use of numbers.

Qualitative Analysis: Analysis of non-quantitative data (Ex. interview data, observation)

• Descriptive Statistics: Mathematical procedures used to summarize numerical data in a meaningful way.

• Inferential Statistics: Math methods used to indicate whether the data sufficiently supports a research hypothesis. Ex. P-value being less than 0.05 to indicate statistically significant results.

• Statistical Significance: A statistical statement on how likely a study’s results occurred by chance.

Step 5: Evaluating Theory

• Academic publications,via peer reviewed journals, panels, etc.

1/23/25

Chapter 3: Biological Foundations of Behavior

Nervous System Characteristics:

• Complexity (Demonstrated by the coordination of billions of nerve cells to talk, move, text, think, while performing automatic functions such as breathing, digesting food, etc.)

• Integration

• Adaptability (neuroplasticity) (Such as adjusting to external stimuli such as with pupil dilation with light as well as internal stimuli such as detecting dehydration.)

• Electrochemical transmission (Powers the nervous system.)

Nervous System Pathways:

• Afferent/Sensory Nerves: Carry info from external nerves to spinal cord to brain

• Efferent nerves: Carry info from the brain to the spinal cord to the rest/targeted part of the body

Nervous System Organization:

1. Central Nervous System (CNS):

• Includes spinal cord and brain

• Processes and organizes info

1. Peripheral Nervous System (PNS):

• PNS connects the CNS to the rest of the body

• Sub-categorized into somatic and autonomic nerve system

• Somatic: Voluntary actions

• Autonomic: Involuntary/life functions (breathing, digesting, heart beating, body temp control.)

Autonomics Nervous System (ANS):

• Subdivided into sympathetic and parasympathetic

• Sympathetic: Arouses the body(Startle/stress), responsible for fight, flight, or freeze response, pupil dilation, HR increases, sweating increase, etc.

• Parasympathetic: Calms the body(Preserves E/Balance), pupils contract, HR slows, no sweating, lungs constrict. Helps to maintain our homeostasis.

Central Nervous System (CNS):

• Main parts are spinal cord and brain

• Brain has many passageways for functions in different parts of the brain

• Spinal cord responsible for reflexes.

Neural Basis of Behaviors

Building Blocks of a Brain:

Glial Cells (Glia)

• Responsible for structural, nutritional, and other support for the neurons as well as communication around the nervous system (make up about 90% of nerve cells in the brain.)

• Also function as a “clean-up” crew to clear out chemicals between synapses that aren’t reuptaken

• Insulate the neurons from one another so messages aren’t “scrambled”.

Neurons Structures:

• Dendrites: Receive/collect information by picking up the chemical transmitters from the other neurons near them.

• Soma/Cell Body: Collect chemicals received by dendrites and if enough excitatory signals are received in the cell body and electrical impulse is passed on to the axon

• Axon: Carries an electrical pulse to the neuron’s terminal buttons.

• Myelin Sheath: Fat, interrupted, covering of the axon to increase the speed/efficiency that the electrical pulse flows through the axon.

• Terminal Endings/Buttons: Forms a junction with other neurons to send messages to other neurons by releasing neurotransmitters/chemical messages into the synapse.

Communication within the Brain:

1. Electrical

• Occurs Inside neurons

• In neurons the electrical impulse that occurs on the axon is also called an action potential.

• Action potentials occur when enough excitatory signals are received by the nerve to trigger the action potential

• The action potential then triggers the release of chemicals from the terminal buttons

or

1. Chemical

• Occurs between neurons

• Using chemical messages called neurotransmitters

Neurotransmitters:

Excitatory

• Increases the activity/activation of a neuron

Inhibitory

• Decreases the activity/activation of a neuron

Both are crucial for behaviors and mental processes. They also both follow the all or nothing law of the action potential (reaching a minimum -55mV for an action potential to occur.)

*All action potentials have the same strength, but they vary by frequency/occurence.

How do we study the brain?

1. Lesion Studies: Used to find where certain functions were localized in the brain by damaging/removing certain parts of it and observing its effect. (Ex. Phineas Gage the pipe went through the frontal and pre-frontal cortex and a personality change was observed.)

2. Electrical Recording: Using electroencephalography (EEG), single-unit recording. This records the level of activity in regions of the brain using a cap and attached nodes.

3. Brain Imaging: CT scan, PET scan, MRI, and fMRI (This allows us to see structures of the brain, but blood flow as well to see how each structure is functioning)

Functional Specialization: Each function is correlated to a “neuron cluster” aka neural networks.

Neural Networks:

• Interconnected pathways of nerve cells that are strengthened the more they’re used.

• Integrate sensory input and motor output

• They develop as we age, practiced, and strengthening

• Storage of Information: Doesn’t involve a single neuron, but is spread over multiple connections of neurons for function specialization.

Parts of the Brain

HindBrain:

• Evolutionary, the most rudimentary and most similar to other mammalian animals.

• Made up of the pons, cerebellum, and medulla

• Coordinates our basic life functions (breathing, HR)

• Medulla: Controls heart rate, breathing, reflexes

• Pons: waking, sleeping, dreaming, respiration, and functions as a bridge between the higher and lower levels of the brain.

• The pons and the medulla together make the brain stem.

• Cerebellum: Important for fine motor coordination, balance, some perception & cognition.

Midbrain:

• Helps coordinate movements patterns, sleep, and arousal(alertness and calmness).

• Reticular Formation: Helps screen incoming info, controls arousal, and stereotyped behavior patterns (walking, startling at a noise). (Helps decide if external stimuli is important enough to go to the higher brain for alertness/awareness.)

• Substantia Nigra: Dopamine-producing neurons that play a role in the reward/behavior phenomenon.

Forebrain:

• Responsible for higher-level functions (decision-making)

• Includes the Cerebral Cortex, Thalamus, Hypothalamus, and the Limbic System.

• Cerebral Cortex: Governs higher mental processes and most complex human behavior (outermost layer of the human brain.)

• Hypothalamus: Controls basic drives such as hunger, dehydration, temp. Regulation, emotions (since it’s connected to the pituitary gland that controls all hormones)

• Limbic System: Involved in emotions, drives, and memory, Sub-structures are the amygdala (emotional recognition/integration and discriminates between objects for survival or adaptation), and hippocampus (forms and recalls memories).

• Thalamus: Brain’s sensory switchboard, essentially sends the arriving info to the appropriate parts of the brain to be processed and responded to.

• Basal Ganglia: Coordination of voluntary movements

Cerebral Cortex:

• Has four lobes: Frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital.

• Occipital: Processes and interprets visual stimuli.

• Temporal: Processes hearing, language stimuli, verbal communication, and plays a role in memory.

• Frontal: Intelligence, personality, and voluntary muscles (pre-frontal: planning, reasoning, an self-control)

• Parietal: Spatial location, attention, and motor control.

Frontal Lobe:

• Very front (behind eyebrows) is the prefrontal cortex, the edge of the lobe before parietal is the motor cortex.

• Brocha’s area: Speech production

Parietal Lobe:

• Front of parietal lobe is is the somatosensory cortex allowing us to received and interpret touch

Temporal Lobe:

• Wernicke’s Area: Only on the left temporal lobe, involved in language comprehension.

Association Areas:

• “Quiet areas” in the cerebral cortex involved in integrating, interpreting, and acting on information from other parts of the brain

Corpus Callosum:

• Long axons that connect both sides of the brain to each other and send and receive info from one hemisphere to another.

• This was discovered by Split-Brain Research, where the corpus callosum is cut and the effects are observed.

Hemispheric Specialization of Function

Left Hemisphere:

• Verbal processing, speech, and grammar.

• Brocha’s and Wernicke’s Area

Right Hemisphere:

• Spatial perceptions, visual recognition, and emotion.

Primarily though we have redundancy/function of things on both sides of the brain.

Brain Damage, Plasticity, & Repair

Recovery from brain damage depends on:

• The age of an individual (younger kids have higher neuroplasticity)

• Extent of damage

Other Repair Options:

• Collateral Sprouting: Nearby neurons take over the function of the other damaged neurons.

• Substitution of Function: The function is taken over by secondary structures that were also involved in the function originally.

• Neurogenesis: Develop new neurons w/ time.

• Brain Tissue Grafts: Implanting stem cells into the area of injury, so they specialize/convert into the cells that were damaged in order to perform the function they did.

Action Potentials

1. Resting potential:
   The neuron is at a stable, negative membrane potential (-70mV), with more potassium ions inside(which has an overall negative charge) the cell than sodium ions (outside the cell which has an overall positive charge).

2. Depolarization:
   When a stimulus reaches the threshold potential (-55mV), voltage-gated sodium channels open, allowing a rapid influx of sodium ions, making the inside of the cell more positive. 

3. Peak:
   The membrane potential reaches its most positive value, exceeding the equilibrium potential for sodium. 

4. Repolarization:
   Voltage-gated sodium channels close, and voltage-gated potassium channels open, allowing potassium ions to flow out of the cell, bringing the membrane potential back towards its resting state. 

5. Hyperpolarization:
   A brief period where the membrane potential becomes even more negative than the resting potential due to the continued efflux of potassium ions.