Psych exam study guide

General Psychology Notes

Laelyn Smith ~ Fall Class ~ 2023~ Sophomore Year

Chapter 1 

Basic Psychology Info

Aug 23, 2023

• Everything that is psychological is biological

• There are many different types of psychology

  • Behaviourism

  • Cognitive

  • Biological Psychology/Neuroscience

  • Psychoanalysis

  • Evolutionary Psychology 

  • Sociocultural Psychology

  • Abnormal Psychology

  • You can use as many as you want, you don’t have to only abide by one (like many people had to in olden days

• Psychology 

  • The scientific study of behaviour and mental processes

  • This field consists of many perspectives and subfields 

  • This course is a survey of the major subfields, including the following:

    • Cognitive psychology

    • Biological psychology

    • Abnormal Psychology

• Psychologists 

  • Scientists who study behaviour and mental processes

  • How do psychologists answer their questions?

    • Basic Research

      • What you think of when you hear research

    • Applied Research

      • Using that research to change something

• The Four Goals of Psychology

  • Describe

    • Observe and report

  • Explain

    • Organize and and make sense of observations

  • Predict

    • Predict behaviours or outcomes on the basis of observed patterns

  • Change

    • Use research findings to modify it change behaviour or mental processes

• The Roots of Psychology

  • Nature vs Nurture

    • Nature - The inherited biological factors that shape behaviours, personality, and other characteristics

    • Nurture - The environmental factors that shape behaviours, personality, and other characteristics

  • Ancient and Medieval Scholars

    • Plato (427-347 BCE)

      • Knowledge exists in babies before they’re born

      • Nature contributes to the human capacity for cognition

    • Aristotle (387-322 BCE)

      • We know reality through our perceptions, and we learn through our sensory experiences (empiricism)

    • Iban al-Haytham (965-1039 CE)

      • Mathematician who embraced Empiricism

        • Called the “father of optics” for his theory of vision

    • Descartes (1596-1650 CE)

      • Dualism - Body and mind interact as separate entities 

        • “I think, therefore I am”

          • You are what you think

          • Your “mind” in this instance is not tangible, but he means to say that your mind is who you are!

  • Psychology started in Europe in Germany

    • Became a field of science that was relevant

  • Psychology is born

    • Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)

      • Found the first psychology laboratory at the university of Leipzig in Germany

      • The “father of psychology”

      • Used the technique of introspection, or the examination of one's own conscious activities

  • Early schools of thought

    • Structuralism 

      • Edward Titchener (1867-1927)

      • An early school of thought that used introspection to determine the structure and most basic elements of the mind

      • Unlike Wundt, participants asked to focus on subjective experiences and provide detailed reports on those experiences

    • Functionalism

      • William James (1842-1910)

      • An early school of psychology that focused on the function of thought processes, feelings and behaviours, and how they help us adapt to the environment.

      • Offered the first psychology classes in the US at harvard university

      • Influenced educational psychology, emotion research, and comparative animal research

  • Those Who Broke Barriers

    • ◦ Mary Whiton Calkins (1863−1930)◦ 

      • Denied PhD from Harvard but established her own lab at Wellesley College

      • Became first female president of APA

    • Margaret Floy Washburn (1871−1939) 

      • First female PhD in psychology 

    • Francis Sumner (1895–1954)

      • First African American to earn a PhD (1920)

      • Founder of Howard University’s Psychology Department

    • Inez Beverly Prosser (1897–1934)

      • Prominent African American female who earned her PhD 13 years after Sumner

    • Mamie Phipps Clark (1917–1983)

      • First Black female PhD from Columbia University; denied faculty position because of gender

      • Explored impact of prejudice and discrimination on child development

    • George Sanchez (1906-1972)

      • First Latino psychologist to earn a PhD (1934)

    • Martha Bernal (1931-2001)

      • First Latina psychologist to earn a PhD (1962

Aug 28, 2023

• Freud and the Psychoanalytic Perspective

  • Focused on “abnormal” functioning of the mind

    • Interested in problems and psychological disorders

  • Personality development is heavily influenced by processes that are set into motion early in life and result from interactions with caregivers

  • Psychoanalysis (talk therapy)

    • Study on unconscious mind

    • Freud wanted to talk about what the person experienced and was experiencing

    • Historical and modern (still around today but was created awhile back)

  • Theories:

    • The unconscious mind

    • Study and development of that babies develop based on experiences, which build personality

  • The “Freud Problem”: Many of his theories lack scientific support

  • Well known followers include Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, and Anna Frued

    • Carl Jung - video games, superheroes, and personality quizzes, dream interpretations, Philosopher and thinker

    • Anna Freud - defense mechanism, Freud’s daughter

  • Freud didn’t take women and women’s problems seriously

• The Beginning of Behaviourism

  • Ivan Pavlov

    • Russian Physiologist

    • Studied digestive processes

    • Reflex can occur with new and unrelated stimulus

    • Conditioned dogs to salivate to metronome

      • When scientists came into the room they salivated

      • Dogs associated people coming in where they were with eating so they salivated

    • Associations with certain thing can lead to change in behaviours

• Behavioral Perspective

  • Believed that behaviors and personality are primarily determine by learning

    • Pavlov

      • Research with dogs established classical conditioning

        • Association

    • Watson

      • Established behaviorism which viewed psychology as the scientific study of behavior that could be seen and or/measured

      • Conditioned Little Albert the infant became afraid of a cute white, fuzzy rat with a loud metallic sounds

      • Didn’t know how to uncondition him

    • Skinner

      • Focused on operant conditioning, which is learning that occurs when behaviours are rewarded or punished

• The Nature vs Nurture Dilemma

  • John B. Watson believed that nurture went above nature, and that he could take an infant and make it into anything

    • Took away free will

  • It’s a combination of both of these things

• Humanistic Perspective

  • An approach suggesting that human nature is by and large positive, and the human direction is toward growth

  • People have free will to choose destiny

    • Early contributors

      • Abraham Maslow

        • Hierarchy of needs

          • People want to self-improve but if they’re something more important in their life (food, housing, etc), they focus on that before self-improvement

      • Carl Rogers

        • All people want to self-improve naturally

    • Self-actualization

      • Achieving one’s full potential or actual self

  • Challenged the rigidity of psychoanalysis and behaviourism

  • Paved the way for the field of positive psychology

• Cognitive Perspective

  • A psychological approach examining the mental processes that direct behavior, including learning, memory, problem solving, decision making, etc.

    • George Miller

      • Researched memory, which provided catalyst for cognitive revolution

      • Short-term memory and long-term memory

    • Cognitive Neuroscience

      • Explores physiological explanations for mental processes and connections between behavior and the human nervous system

• Evolutionary Perspective

  • An approach that believes that behaviors and mental processes are shaped by the forces of evolution

    • Based on the work of Charles Darwin

    • Humans have many adaptive traits and behaviors that appear to have evolved through natural selection

    • Has been used to explain personality traits, intelligence, infidelity, and risk-taking behaviors

    • Thrive, survive, and then reproduce (Charles Darwin’s societies’ goals)

• Biological Perspective

  • An approach that uses knowledge about underlying physiology to explain behaviour and mental processes

    • Varied research focus, ranging from the genetic basis of physical fitness to hormonal influences on children’s brain structure.

    • Neuroscience - study of the brain and nervous system

• Sociocultural Perspective

  • An approach examining how social interactions and cultural influence behavior and mental processes

    • Importance of sociocultural factors noted by influential psychologists Lev Vygotsky and Mamie Phipps Clark

• Biopsychosocial Perspective

  • An approach that explains behavior through the interactions of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors

    • These factors do not exist in isolation but are constantly interacting to shape behaviors and mental processes

    • Frequently employed in health research

    • Example: Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Research and Statistics

Aug 30, 2023

• The Scientific Method

  • Scientific Method: The process scientists use to conduct research, which includes a continuing cycle of exploration, critical thinking, and systematic observation

    • This evidence is often used to support or refute a hypothesis 

    • The scientific method helps to minimize errors in human thinking

  • Experiment: a controlled procedure involving scientific observations and/or manipulations by the researcher to influence participants’ thinking, emotions, or behaviours

  • Five Steps of the Scientific Method

    • Develop a question

      • Interesting observations often give rise to research questions

      •  Scientists also arrive at questions after reading books and articles

      • See if anyone has tried to do it before you and so you can build off their research

    • Develop a hypothesis

      • Sound hypotheses are grounded in theory and are not merely guesses

      • Data will either support or refute the hypothesis

      • What we think the answer will be

      • Being right or wrong still gives information to help move forward!

    • Design study and collect data

      • Operational definitions: the precise manner in which valuables of interest are defined and measured

        • Example

          • Cooperation

          • Drunkenness

        • What problems would result if researchers did not operationally define the characteristics they are measuring?

          • BE SPECIFIC!

      • Gathering data must be done in a very controlled fashion to minimize errors

    • Analyze the data

      • AND DON’T FORGET TO  DRAW YOUR CONCLUSION

      • Use of statistics: descriptive and inferential

        • Descriptive statistics:  Used to organize and present data, often through tables, graphs, and charts

        • Inferential Statistics:  Go beyond simply describing the data set, allowing researchers to make inferences and determine the probability of events occurring in the future

      • Statistics help us answer the question, “Did the results support the hypothesis?”

      • Are the results consistent with previous studies? Do they increase support for a particular theory?

    • Share the findings

      • So other scientists can build off your research

      • Conference  presentations, online discussions, written documentation (e.g., journal articles)

      • The peer-review process, when biased can spread misinformation

        • Example

          • Wakefield et al., 1998

            • Several high-quality studies have found no credible support for the autism-vaccine hypothesis (Honda et al., 2005; Jain et al., 2015; Madsen et al., 2002)

      • Publication allows for replication

• Research Basics

  • Key Terminology

    • Variables

      • Measurable characteristics that can vary over time or across individuals

    • Population

      • All members of an identified group about which a researcher is interested

    • Sample

      • A subset of a population chosen for inclusion in an experiment

      • Two Different Samples

        • Random Sample

          • Subset of the population chosen through a procedure that ensure all members of the population have an equal chance of being selected in the study

        • Representative Sample

          • Group of people with characteristics similar to those of the population of interest

  • Descriptive Research

    • Descriptive research: a type of investigation psychologists use to explore a phenomenon

      • Strength: It is useful for studying new or unexplored topics

      • Limitation: it cannot reveal cause-and-effect relationships

      • Types of descriptive research

        • Naturalistic observation

          • Watching someone in their natural environment

          • Researchers are required to develop operational definitions

          • Researchers must not disturb the participants or their environment

          •  Researchers strive to minimize observer bias

        • Case study

          • An in-depth examination of an individual or small group of people

          • Strength: helpful for studying rare or understudied events

          • Limitation: cannot provide definitive support for a hypothesis nor do they permit generalization

        • Survey Method

          • A type of descriptive research that uses questionnaires or interviews to gather data

          • Strength: fast way to collect data 

          • Limitations: wording and honesty (social desirability), skimming the surface,difficulty obtaining a representative sample due to poor response rates

Sep 6, 2023

• Correlation Method

  • A type of research examining relationships among variables

  • Correlation: An association or relationship between two or more variables

    • Positive correlation 

      • Both variables move in the same directions

      • Ex: The less time parents spend reading to their children, the fewer words the children know.

    • Negative correlation

      • Variables more in opposite directions

      • Ex: As cell phone usage increases, academic performance decreases

  • Correlation Coefficient

    • The statistical measure (symbolized as r) that indicates the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables

    • Value rangers from -1.00 to +1.00

      • The closer the number is to -1 or +1, the stronger the relationship

      • The closer the number is to 0, the weaker the relationship

    • Example: shoe size and creativity

  • Correlations are nice because we don’t interfere or manipulate anything with what is going down, we’re just observing

  • Directionality

    • Cannot determine directionality with correlations

    • Does playing violent video games lead to aggression, or do aggressive people choose to play violent video games?

    • Third variable: some unaccounted for characteristic of the participants or their environment that explains the changes in the two other variables

• Experimental Method

  • A type of research that manipulates a variable of interest (independent variable) to uncover cause-and effect relationships

  • The goal is for every variable except those being manipulated by the researcher being constant and controlled. How?

    • Researchers randomly assign participants to two or more groups that then try to make equivalent with respect to all variables (making sure things are held constant)

    • One key exception: the treatment or manipulation being studied

  • Key Terminology

    • Random assignment

      • The process of appointing study participants to experimental or control groups, ensuring that every person has an equal chance of being assigned to either

      • In some cases, random assignment is impossible so we use a quasi-experimental design

        • Quasi-experimental design (definition from google) - studies that aim to evaluate interventions but that do not use randomization

    • Experimental Group

      • The participants in an experiment who are exposed to the treatment variable or manipulation by the researcher; represent the treatment group

    • Control Group

      • The participants in an experiment who are not exposed to the treatment variable; this is the comparison group

    • Variables

      • Independent Variable 

        • In the experimental method, the variable manipulated by the researcher to determine its effect of the dependent variable

        • May be more than one in an experiment

      • Dependent variable

        • In the experimental method, the characteristic or response that is measured to determine the effect of the researcher's manipulation

        • May be more than one in an experiment

      • Extraneous Variable

        • A characteristics of participants or the environment that could unexpectedly influence the outcome of a study

      • Confounding Variable

        • A type of extraneous variable that changes in sync with the independent variable, making it difficult to discern which one is causing changes in the dependent variable

  • Minimizing Bias in Experiments

    • Conducting double-blind study

      • Type of study in which neither the participants nor the researchers administering the independent variable know which participants are receiving the treatment and which are getting the placebo

    • Power of the placebo effect

      • Placebo - an inert substance given to members of the control group; this fake treatment has no benefit but is administered as if it will

    • Experimenter bias: researcher expectations that influence the outcome of a study

      • Subtle verbal and/or nonverbal communication with the participants, conveying hopes and beliefs about the experiment’s results

  • Validity and Reliability

    • Validity(accurate)

      • Extent to which a test measures, and what it claims to measure

      • Measures whether the extent to which the test claims to measure is achieved

      • There are two types

        • Internal validity - an experiment’s design allows it to measure what it intends to measure

        • External Validity - it’s findings can be generalized to the population of interest

    • Reliability: consistency or stability of a measure (precise)

      • Consistency of the test results

      • Measures whether the test gives consistent results as its outcome

      • There are two type

        • Internal Reliability - A measure based on the correlations between different items on the same test. It measures whether several items that propose to measure the same general construct produce similar scores(google definition)

        • External Reliability -  Assesses consistency of a measure from one use to another (google definition)

  • Strengths and Limitations of Experiment

    • Strengths

      • Ability to establish cause-and-effect

    • Limitations

      • Laboratory settings are unnatural 

        • Knowing one is being observes may change behaviour (hawthorne effect)

      • Costly

      • Time Intensive

      • Sometimes it is not possible (or ethical) to manipulate certain variables

• Summary of research methods

• APA's Ethics Code mandates that psychologists who conduct research should inform participants about:

  • The purpose of the research, expected duration and procedures.

  • Participants' rights to decline to participate and to withdraw from the research once it has started, as well as the anticipated consequences of doing so.

  • Reasonably foreseeable factors that may influence their willingness to participate,such as potential risks, discomfort or adverse effects.

  • Any prospective research benefits.

  • Limits of confidentiality, such as data coding, disposal, sharing and archiving.

• Research Ethics

  • Institutional Review Board 

    • A committee that reviews research proposals to protect the rights and welfare of all participants.

  • Confidentiality 

    • Researchers must take steps to protect research data from misuse or theft. 

    • Enables clients to speak freely about deeply personal issues and ensures that research participants feel protected when they share sensitive information. 

    • Sometimes psychologists are legally obligated to break confidentiality.

  • Informed Consent 

    • Acknowledgment from study participants that they understand what their participation will entail 

    • Also notes that participants are free to withdraw from the study or refuse to do something at anypoint

  • Debriefing 

    • Sharing information with participants after their involvement in a study has ended, including the purpose of the research and any deception used.

    • Why is deception sometimes necessary in psychological research?

Sep 13, 2023

• Statistics in Psychology

  • Statistics: the science of collecting, organizing, analyzing, displaying, and interpreting data

  • Statistics allow psychologists to…

    • Organize data

    • Describe Data

    • Make inferences based upon the data

  • In everyday life, statistics allow is to:

    • Read about the latest scientific research findings

    • Evaluate the news reports 

    • Become wise consumers of information

    • Two types of statistics

      • Descriptive statistics

        • Allows scientist to organize numbers and summarize them so that pattern can be determined

        • Helps one to make sense of the numbers collected during data analysis

      • Inferential Statistics

        • Allow scientists to generalize research findings, make predictions based on relationships among variables, and test hypotheses. 

        • Helps one make statements about confidence in the findings based on data collected.

• Analyze the Data

  • Hypothesis testing

    • In statistics, we use mathematical procedures to determine whether our data supports the hypothesis or is due to chance

  • Statistical Significance

    • The difference in data sets that are larger than chance variation would predict

    • Refers to the confidence we have that our results are accurate and not result of chance

    • Can be determined by:

      • t-test

      • f-test

      • Chi-square

    • P=.05 shows that we can be confident, because there’s a 5% chance your data is random

• Presenting the data

  • Frequency Distribution

    • Displays how often the values in a data set are present

  • Histograms

    • Bar graph, contains an x-axis and y-axis

  • Frequency polygons

    • Uses lines instead of bars to represent the frequency of the values in a data set

    • Helps identify patterns easier

• Distribution Shapes

  • Normal Curve

    • When scores are symmetrically distributed around the mean

  • Skewed Distribution

    • Scores fall to one side or the other of the distribution; asymmetrically distributed

  • Negatively Skewed

    • A concentration of scores that the higher end of the distribution

  • Positively Skewed

    • A concentration of score at the low end of the distribution

• Qualitative Data Displays

  • Frequency Distribution

  • Bar Graph

  • Pie Charts

• Description of Data

  • Measures of Central Tendency

    • Numbers that best represent the most typical score of a frequency distribution

    • Mean (average)

      • The arithmetic average of a distribution of numbers

    • Median (the middle point)

      • The middle score in an ordered distribution of scores, or the mean of the two middle numbers; the 50th percentile

    • Mode (most frequent number)

      • The mode is a measure of central tendency in which the most frequent score is the central measure

• Bimodal Distributions

  • Condition in which a distribution has two models to represent very different groups of data

  • Has two different modes, but only 1 mean and median

• Measures of Variation

  • Measures of variation are used to discover how spread variance or dispersion there are in the data set

  • The more scores cluster around the central scores, the smaller the measure of variability, and the more widely the scores differ from the central scores, the larger the measure of variability

  • Two ways to represent distribution information

  • Range

    • The difference between the highest score and the lowest score in the set of scores

  • Standard Deviation

    • The square root of the average squared deviations from the mean of scores in a distribution.

    • A measurement of how the scores are spread around the mean.

Chapter 2

Biology and Behaviour

Sep 18, 2023

• A Complex Communication Network

  • Nervous System: A communication network that conveys messages throughout the body, using electrical and chemical processes

    • Consist of brain, spinal cord, and nerves

  • Neurons: Specialized cells of the nervous system that transmit electrical and chemical signals in the body

    • Brain consist of approximately 100 billion neurons with an estimated 10 trillion links

• From Bumps to Brain Scans

  • Neuroscience

    • Involves the study of the brain and nervous system

    • Draws upon multiple disciplines, including psychology

  • Biological Psychology

    • A subfield of psychology

    • Focuses on how the brain and other biological systems influence human behavior

  • The brain is considered “the last frontier of scientific discovery” because of technology advancements that happen constantly and the cost of those technological advancements

  • Franz Joseph Gall (1757-1828)

    • Early “brain” scientist and neuroanatomist

    • Phrenology

    • Felt people’s heads to determine things about the brain (false approach but interesting idea)

  • Pierre Flourens (1794-1828)

    • Ablation and physiology

    • Explained that areas of the brain might have particular functions 

  • Optogenetics

    • Manipulating activity of individual brain cells

• Ways to Study Living Brain

  • Structure

    • Computerized axial tomography (CAT)

    • Magnetic resonance (MRI)

  • Function

    • Electroencephalogram (EEG)

    • Position emission tomography (PET)

    • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

• Structure of a Typical Neuron

  • Cell body: The region of the neuron that includes structures that nourish the cell and a nucleus containing DNA

  • Dendrites: Tiny, branchlike fibers extending from the cell body that receive messages from other neurons and send information in the direction of the cell body

  • Axon: skinny tube-like structure of a neuron that extends from the cell body and sends messages to other neurons through its terminals

  • Myelin Sheath: A fatty substance that insulates the axon and speeds the transmission of neural messages. 

  • Synapse: The place where the axon terminal of a sending neuron meets the dendrite of a neighboring neuron or other type of cell receiving its signal; junction between neurons where communication occurs.

• The Neuron Overview

  • Dendrites: receive message

  • Axon: sends messages from cell body to terminals

  • Myelin sheath: speeds communication

  • Axon Terminals: transmit messages to other neurons

• Holding it Together: Goal Cells

  • Glial Cells serve as the “glue” of the nervous system, providing cohesion and support for the neurons. Some classes of glial cells are as follows

    • Microglia

    • Astrocytes

    • Oligodendrocytes

    • Schwann cells

• Communication within neurons

  • Process inside the neuron

    • The neuron is surrounded by and filled with positive and negative electrically charged ions

    • The difference in sum of the positive and negative determines the overall charge

    • Two processes direct ion flow into and out of the cell:

      • Diffusion

      • Electrostatic pressure

    • The summation of negatives and positives produce the voltage neuron difference

  • Resting Potential

    • It represents the electrical potential of a neuron at rest

    • Negative protein ions are only on the inside of the cell

    • Concentration of sodium ions (+) outside the cell is much greater than inside

  • Action Potential

    • If the neuron is stimulated by neighboring cells, channel in its membrane begin to open ip, starting at the dendrites

  • Resting potential is reestablished in order to return the neuron to its “natural” state

  • Excitatory Signals

    • If enough sending neurons signal the receiving neuron to pass along the message, their combined signal becomes excitatory and the neuron fires

  • Inhibitory Signals

    • Inhibit neuron from releasing a signal through the axon

  • All-or-none

    • A neuron either fires or does not fire

• Communication Between Neurons

  • Neurotransmitters

    • Chemical messengers that neurons use to communicate at the synapse

  • Receptor Sites

    • Location where neurotransmitters attach on the receiving side of the synaptic gap

    • The neurotransmitter must fit a corresponding receptor site to convey its message

  • Reuptake

    • Occurs when neurotransmitters are reabsorbed by the sending axon terminal

• Neurotransmitters and Behaviour

  • Researchers have identified approximately 100 different types of neurotransmitters, with many more yet to be discovered

  • Neurotransmitters secreted by one neuron may influence the activity of neighboring neurons, which can affect the regulation of mood, appetite, muscles, organs, arousal, and a variety of other functions.

Sep 20, 2023

• Neurotransmitters and Behavior

  • Researchers have identified approximately 100 different types of neurotransmitters, with many more yet to be discovered

  • Neurotransmitters secreted by one neuron mat influence the activity of neighboring neurons which can affect the regulation of mood, appetite, muscles, organs, arousal and a variety of other functions

  • Types of Neurotransmitters

    • Acetylcholine

      • Relays messages from neuron to muscles, enabling movement

      • Too much = spasms; too little paralysis

      • Low levels in the brain have been linked to Alzheimer’s disease

    • Glutamate

      • Excitatory neurotransmitter

      • Plays a central role in learning and memory

      • Too much = strokes; too little = symptoms of schizophrenia

    • GABA

      • Inhibitory neurotransmitter

      • Plays a role in controlling sleep and wakefulness

    • Norepinephrine

      • It plays a variety of roles, one of which is to prepare the body for stress (STRESS RESPONSE)

      • In the brain, norepinephrine is involved in regulating arousal and sleep

      • High level could lead to overarousal and hypervigilance

    • Serotonin

      • It helps control appetite, aggression, and mood, and regulates sleep and breathing

      • Abnormally low activity is thought to drive depression

      • SSRIs help boost the effects of serotonin

    • Endorphins

      • A group of naturally produced opioids

        • Opioids: a compound resembling opium in addictive properties or physiological effects.

      • Released in response to pain and block pain receptor sites

      • Also released with brisk exercise

    • Dopamine

      • Plays a key role in attention, learning through reinforcement, and regulating body movement

      • Implicated in the abuse of certain substances, including cocaine and amphetamines

      • Parkinson's disease is linked to a deterioration of neurons that produce dopamine

• Relationships: Your romantic Brain

  • What’s Love Got to Do with Dopamine?

    • Areas of the brain where dopamine is active including the ventral tegmental area and parts if the caudate nucleus, become excited when newly- in-love individuals look at pictures of their partners

  • Oxytocin

    • Involved in the early stages of romantic love and social bonding

    • Behaves as both a neurotransmitter and hormone

• Overview of the Nervous System

  • Central Nervous System

    • Major component of the human nervous system that includes the brain and spinal cord

      • Spinal Cord

        • The bundle of neurons that allows communication between the brain and the peripheral nervous system

  • Peripheral Nervous System

    • The part of the nervous system that connect to the central nervous system to the rest of the body

    • All the neurons that are not in the central nervous system

      • Neurons are bundled into collections called nerves

      • Informs the CNS about internal and external environment

    • Two functional branches

      • Somatic Nervous System

        • The branch of the peripheral nervous system that includes sensory nerves and motor nerves

        • Gather information from sensory receptors

        • Controls the skeletal muscles responsible for voluntary movement

      • Autonomic Nervous System

        • The branch of the peripheral nervous system that controls involuntary processes within the body

        • Two divisions that help is respond to and recover from stressful or crisis situations

          • Sympathetic Nervous System

            • Stress!

            • Dilated pupils

            • Increase respiration

            • Increases heart rate

            • Slows digestion (energy diverted  to muscles)

            • Increases blood flow to muscles

          • Parasympathetic Nervous System

            • Recovering from stress and relaxing!

            • Constricts pupils

            • Decreases respiration

            • Lowers heart rate

            • Activates digestive processes

• Types of Neurons

  • Sensory Neurons 

    • Receive information about the environment from the sensory systems to convey it to the brain for processing

  • Motor Neurons

    • Carry Information from CNS to produce movement; provide mechanism regulated by spinal cord and the brain

  • Interneurons

    • Reside in the brain and spinal cord; act as bridges connecting sensory and motor neurons

• Reflex Arc- An automatic response to a sensory stimulus

• The Endocrine System

  • When facing imminent danger, as Brandon did in Fallujah, his body responded through activation of the nervous and endocrine system

  • The communication system that uses glands to convey messages by releasing hormones into the bloodstream

    • Hormones

      • Chemical messengers released into the bloodstream that influence mood, cognition, appetite, and many other processes and behaviours

  • Key structures

    • Pituitary Gland

      • Located in the center of the brain just under the hypothalamus

      • Influences all other hormones (“the master gland”)

      • Plays a role in regulating growth

    • Thyroid gland

      • Located in the throat

      • Regulates the rate of metabolism by secreting thyroxine

    • Adrenal glands

      • Located on the top of the kidneys

      • Involved in responses to stress as well as the regulation of salt balance

• Systems: A Group of something trying to reach a common goal

Sep 25, 2023

• All About the Brain

  • The Two Hemispheres

    • Cerebrum

      • The largest area of the brain

      • Has two distinct hemispheres

    • Corpus Callosum

      • The thick band of nerve fibers connecting the right and left cerebral hemisphere

      • Allows the left and right sides of the brain to communicate and work together to process information

    • Generally speaking, the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body, and the left hemisphere controls the right.

  • Studying the Split Brain

    • To show the left side brain activities versus the right brain activities and when they start to communicate

  • Lateralization: The idea that each cerebral hemisphere processes certain types of information and excels in certain activities

    • Left hemisphere excels at language, and the right hemisphere excels at visual-spatial tasks.

    • However, while there are clear differences in the way the hemisphere processes information, they can also process the same types of information.

  • Roles of the left hemisphere

    • Handedness and Language Dominance

      • The left hemisphere handles language processing in around 95% to 99% of people who are right-handed, but only in about 70% of those who are left handed

    • Broca’s Area

      • A region of the cortex that is critical for speech production

    • Wernicke’s Area

      • Region of the cortex that plays a pivotal role in language comprehension

  • Roles of the Right Hemisphere

    • The right hemisphere is more proficient in 

      • Identifying mirror images and spatial relationships

      • Mentally rotating images

      • Recognizing faces

      • Processing emotions

      • Directing attention

    • Prosopagnosia

      • “Face blindness”

      • Abnormalities in the right fusiform gyrus

  • Neuroplasticity

    • The brain’s ability to heal, grow new connections, and reorganize in order to adapt to the environment

    • Brain scans show when Braille is learned early in life, a region of the brain  that normally specializes in handling visual information becomes activated.

    • In the case of injury, children’s brains show more plasticity than adults’ brains, though this depends on the type and extent of the injury

  • Stem Cells and Neurogenesis

    • Neurogenesis

      • Some areas of the brain are capable of generating new neurons

      • Tied to learning and creating new memories

    • Stem Cells

      • Cells responsible for producing new neurons

      • Promising research using animal models, but large controlled randomized trials are needed to better understand safety and effectiveness in humans

  • The Cortex

    • Meninges

    • Cerebrum

    • Cerebral Cortex

      • The wrinkled outermost layer of the cerebrum, responsible for higher mental function, such as decision making, language and processing visual information

      • Why is the cortex wrinkled? 

        • Doesn't take up as much space

        • Faster communication for neurons

    • The cortex overlaying each hemisphere is separated into different sections or lobes

      • Frontal lobe: organizes information among the other lobes of the brain and is responsible for cognitive functions such as thinking, perception, and impulse control and personality characteristics  

      • Parietal lobe: receives and processes sensory information, such as touch, pressure, temperature, and spatial orientation

      • Occipital lobe: processes visual information

      • Temporal lobe: processes auditory stimuli and language

  • Dogs, Cartoons, and the Motor Cortex

    • Motor Cortex: A band tissue toward the rear of the frontal lobes that works with other brain regions to plan and execute voluntary movements

    • Fristch and Hitzig applied a mild shock to dogs’ cortexes, demonstrating that the motor cortex region is involved in muscle movement

    • Penfield extended this work to humans, creating a map represented by the homunculus cartoon (“little man”)

  • Somatosensory Cortex

    • A band of tissue running parallel to the motor cortex that receives and integrates sensory information from all over the body

  • Temporal Lobes: process auditory stimuli, recognize visual objects, especially faces, play a key role in language comprehension and memory

  • The auditory cortex receives information from the ears and allows us to “hear” sounds

  • Drama Central: The Limbic System

    • Collection of structures that regulates emotions and basic drives like hunger, and aids in the creation of memories

      • Thalamus

        • Processes and relays sensory information

        • A sensory relay station

        • Receives information and directs it to appropriate brain structure and then sends it off to the body

      • Hypothalamus

        • In charge of endocrine system 

        • Responsible for regulating body temperature, hunger, and thirst

        • Maintains internal environment in healthy range; helps regulate sleep-wake cycles, sexual behavior, and appetite

      • Amygdala

        • Responsible for emotional reactions (like fear, happiness, sadness)

        • Processes aggression and basic emotions such as fear, as well as associated memories

      • Hippocampus

        • Responsible for memory, formation of new memories, send information to the place in the brain where memories can be stored

        • Primarily responsible for creating new memories

  • The Brainstem

    • The brain’s ancient core which consists of a stalk-like trio of structures

    • Midbrain: the part of the brainstem involved in levels of arousal; responsible for generating movement patterns in response to sensory input

      • Reticular formation

        • quickly analyzes sensory information on its way to the cortex

    • Hindbrain : areas of the brain responsible for fundamental life-sustaining processes

      • Pons

        • Plays a role in sleep; allows us to go through wake-sleep cycles; idea of arousal

        • Coordinates movement between right and left sides of the body

      • Medulla

        • Govern life sustaining functions (for example, heart beating)

    • Forebrain: largest part of the brain; includes the cerebrum and limbic system

      • Cerebellum

        • A structure located behind the brainstem that is responsible for muscle coordination and balance

        • Latin for “little brain”

Chapter 5

Learning

Sep 27, 2023

• The Dog Whisperer - Cesar

  • Cesar arrived in the United States with no money, no acquaintances, and virtually no knowledge of english

  • Through hard work, motivation, and an innate gift for understanding dogs, he rose from poverty to stardom

  • But Cesar’s life, and the lives of countless dogs and dog owners he had helped, has also been shaped by learning.

• What is Learning?

  • Key Terms

    • Learning: a relatively enduring change in behaviour or thinking that results from our experiences

      • Occurs everyday; underlying this process are changes in the brain

      • Different from maturation

        • Maturation: brain’s ability to do something

    • Habituation: basic form of learning evident when an organism does not respond as strongly or as often to an event following multiple exposures to it

      • Being exposed to something, loving it, and then slowly losing interest as time goes on. 

      • New experiences→old experiences

    • Stimulus: event or occurrence that generally leads to a response

  • Many principles of learning have come from animal research

  • Three types of learning

    • Classical conditioning: two different stimuli are associated

      • Involuntary and reflexes

    • Operant conditioning: connections between behaviors and consequences are made

      • Voluntary learning

      • Changing behaviors based on consequences

    • Observational learning: learning occurs by watching and imitating others

      • Learning that happens but not changing immediately

• Classical Conditioning

  • Pavlov’s Dogs

    • As a psychologist, Pavlov set out to study digestion in dogs

    • As his assistant brought food to the dogs, Pavlov realized that the dogs were salivating in response to the assistants footsteps rather than the food

      • The dogs had been conditioned to link certain sights and sounds with eating

    • Pavlov then conditioned his dogs to salivate in response to auditory stimuli such as bells, tones, and ticking metronomes

  • More than salivating dogs

  • Key Terms

    • Neutral Stimulus: stimulus that does not change a relevant automatic or reflexive response

    • Classical conditioning: learning process in which two stimuli become associated with each other; when an originally neutral stimulus is conditioned to elicit an involuntary response

    • Unconditioned Stimulus (US): Stimulus that automatically triggers an involuntary response without any learning needed

      • Stimulus=cause

      • Response=effect

    • Unconditioned Response (UR): reflexive, involuntary response to an unconditioned stimulus

      • Stimulus=cause

      • Response=effect

    • Conditioned Stimulus (CS): Previously neutral stimulus that an organism learns to associate with an unconditioned stimulus

    • Conditioned Response (CR): Learned response to a conditioned stimulus

    • Conditioned: Learned

    • Unconditioned: Natural/Reflex

    • Acquisition: the initial learning phase in both classical and operant conditioning

    • Stimulus Generalization: After an association is formed between the CS and the CR, the learner often responds to similar stimuli as if they are the original CS

    • Stimulus Discrimination:The ability to differentiate between a particular CS and other significantly stimuli and stimulus differentiation

  • Pavlov’s paradigm

    • This meat is always an unconditioned stimulus(US)--- the dog never has to learn how to respond to it

    • The dog’s salivation is initially an unconditioned response (UR) to the meat but eventually  becomes a conditioned response (CR) as well

    • Difference between US and CS

      • The US automatically triggers the response while the CS elicits a response that has been learned by the organism

Oct 2, 2023

• Classical Conditioning Cont.

  • Key Terms Cont.

    • Stimulus Generalization

      • After an association is forged between the CS and the CR, the learner often response to similar stimuli as if they are the original CS

    • Stimulus Discrimination

      • The ability to differentiate between a particular CS and other significantly different stimuli is stimulus differentiation.

      • Able to notice fine details and not respond to similar things

    • Extinction

      • The process by which the conditioned response decreases after repeated exposure to the conditioned stimulus in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus

    • Spontaneous Recovery

      • The reappearance of conditioned response following its extinction

      • Suggests the association is not “forgotten” but rather suppressed

    • Higher Order Conditioning

      • with repeated pairings of a conditioned stimulus and a second neutral stimulus, hat second neutral stimulus becomes a s conditioned stimulus as well

      • Ex: Dogs conditioned to salivate to bell, associate bell to light switch turning on, conditioned to salivate to light turning on

    • Conditioned Taste Aversion

      • A form of classical conditioning that occurs when an organism learns to associate that taste of a particular food or drink with illness

      • Has adaptive value

      • Example: Garcia’s rats

        • Demonstrated that rats linked sick feelings with tastes and smells

        • Importance of biological preparedness

          • Biological Preparedness: The tendency for animals to be predisposed or inclined to form certain kinds of associations through classical conditioning

• Operant conditioning

  • Involves learning that occurs when voluntary actions become associated with their consequences

  • Edward Thorndike

    • Cat, cage, food, escape experiment

    • Law of Effect:

      • When a behavior is followed by a pleasant consequence, that behaviour is likely to be repeated

      • When a behavior is followed by an unpleasant consequence, that behavior is not likely to be repeated

  • Key Terms

    • Reinforcers: events, stimuli, and other consequences that increase the likelihood of a behavior recurring

    • Reinforcement: process of increasing the frequency if behaviours with consequences

      • Positive Reinforcement: The process by which reinforcers are added to presented following a target behaviour, increasing the likelihood of it occurring again.

      • Negative Reinforcement: The removal of an unpleasant stimulus following a target behavior that increases the likelihood of it occurring again.

      • Primary Reinforcers: Satisfies a biological need

        • Examples: food, water, and physical contact

      • Secondary Reinforcers: Does not satisfy a biological need but often gains power through its association with a primary reinforcer

        • Examples: money and good grades

    • Punishment: process of decreasing the frequency of behaviours with consequences

  • Skinner and Behaviourism

    • American psychologist B. F. Skinner is one of the most influential psychologists of all time

    • Skinner believed that all thoughts, emotions, and behaviors (basically all things psychological) were shaped by factors in the environment.

Oct 4, 2023

• Operation Conditioning Cont.

  • Social Media and Psychology

    • Tapping into the brain’s reward circuitry

      • Social media updates (e.g., likes and retweets) serve as reinforcers, making you more likely to post content in the future.

      • Using fMRIs, researchers examined the brains of teenagers who viewed social media with a varying number of likes.

      • Heavily liked photos (especially ones posted themselves) showed heightened activity in the nucleus accumbens.

        • This brain region had also been implicated in drug-seeking behaviours and overeating.

  • Instinctive Drift: the tendency for instinct to undermine behaviours

  • Shaping and Successive Approximation

    • Successive Approximations: method that uses reinforcers to condition a series of small step that gradually approach the target behaviour

    • Shaping: process by which a person observes the behaviours of another organism, providing reinforcers if the organism performs at a required level.

  • Continuous and Partial Reinforcement (Part 1)

    • Continuous reinforcement: Every target behaviour is reinforced

      • Ideal for establishing new behaviours during the acquisition phases

    • Partial reinforcement: Target behaviours are reinforced intermittently, not continuously

      • Works better for maintaining behaviours than establishing behaviours

      • Example: Uber Drivers

      • Partial Reinforcement Effect: The tendency for behaviours acquired through intermittent reinforcement to be more resistant to extinction than those acquired through continuous reinforcement.

      • Parietal Reinforcement Schedules

        • Fixed-ratio schedule

          • Subject must exhibit a preset number of desired responses or behaviors before a reinforcer is given

          • Produces a high response rate, but with a characteristic dip immediately following the reinforcement

        • Variable-ratio schedule

          • Subject must exhibit a specific number of desired responses or behaviors before a reinforcer is given, but the number changes across trials

            • Number fluctuates around a pre calculated average

          • Produces a high response rate and behaviors that are difficult to extinguish

        • Fixed-interval schedule

          • A reinforcer is given for the first target behavior after a specific time interval

          • The target behavior tends to increases as each time interval comes to an end

        • Variable-interval schedule

          • The reinforcer comes after an interval of time has gone by, but the length of the intervals changes from trial to trial (within a predetermined range based on an average interval length)

          • Tends to encourage steady patterns of behaviour

  • Punishment

    • Two Categories

      • Positive punishment: something aversive or disagreeable is applied following a target behavior

        • Example: spanking is a controversial form of punishment

      • Negative punishment: taking away something valuable following a target behavior

        • Example: drunk drivers get their license taken away

    • The goal of punishment is to decrease or stop a behavior

• Observational Learning

  • Observational Learning: learning that occurs as a result of watching the behavior of others

  • Models: an individual or character whose behavior is being imitated

  • Prosocial Behaviours: actions that are kind generous, and beneficial to others

    • Learned by observing models

  • Latent Learning

    • A type of learning that occurs without awareness and regardless of reinforcement

    • The learning is not evident until there is a need to learn it 

  • Cognitive Maps: a mental representation of of physical space

    • We remember locations, objects, and details without realizing it and bring that information together in a mental layout.

    • Learning can occur in the absence of reinforcement

    • The brain processes that enable cognitive map-making may help us form “social maps,” too.

    • Social maps: understanding hierarchies and where people fit in with other people (close friend, good friends, acquaintances)

Oct 9, 2023

• Observational Learning 

  • Albert Bandura’s Boho doll study

    • Seventy-six preschool children were placed in a room one at a time with an adult

    • Some of the children were paired with adults who acted aggressively toward a 5-foot-tall inflatable Boho doll; others were paired with adults who played with toys peacefully

    • At the end of the experiment, all the children were allowed to play with a boho doll themselves.

  • A - M - I - M

    • A - Attention

    • M - Memory

    • I - Imitation

    • M - Motivation

  • Prosocial behaviors: actions that are kind, generous, and beneficial to others

    • Both children and adults can learn these behaviours by obd=serving models

    • Examples: Sesame Street, Dora the Explorer, prosocial song lyrics

    • Environmental forces can push adults to adopt prosocial behaviours as well, such as the wearing of face masks during the coronavirus pandemic.

  • Latent Learning

    • A type of learning that occurs without awareness and regardless of reinforcement

    • The learning is not evident until there is a need to use it

    • Tolman’s rats

      • Groups of rats learned how to navigate a maze at remarkably different rates

    • Cognitive Maps: a mental representation of physical space

      • Like Tolman’s rats, we remember locations,objects, nad details of our surroundings without realizing it, and bring this information together in a mental layout

      • Learning can occur in the absence of reinforcement

      • The brain processes that enable cognitive map-making may help us form “social maps,” too.

Chapter 6

Memory

Oct 18, 2023

• The Conductor

  • Clive Wearing was a well-respected conductor and musical producer

  • In 1985 he developed a brain infection – viral encephalitis – that nearly took his life

  • Though he recovered physically, the virus ravaged his memory system.

• Memory: An Introduction

  • What is memory?

    • Brain processes involved in the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information

    • No universally accepted model of theory, but agreement on general processes

    • While memory is an essential human attribute, it is not always accurate

    • Learning and memory go together; in order to learn, you have to be able to remember

  • General Processes of memory: encoding, storage, retrieval

    • Encoding: the process through which information enters our memory system

      • Occurs when stimuli associated with events are converted to neural activity that travels to the brain

      • Involves two possible paths: enters into the memory system entry or information is lost

    • Storage: the process of preserving information for possible recollection in the future

      • Clive Wearing’s ability for long-term storage of new memories was destroyed

    • Retrieval: the process of accessing information encoded and stored in memory

      • Sometimes information is encoded and stored, but we have difficulty accessing it (Retrieval error)

• How deep are your memories?

  • Levels of processing framework states:

    • There are different depths of information processing.

      • Shallow

      • Intermediate

      • Deep

    • Deeper levels of processing helps create stronger memories

    • Application: the testing effect

• Stages of Memory

  • Atkinson and Shiffrin’s information-processing model

    • Memory flows through three stages

    • Each stage differ in capacity and duration

    • Sensory Memory -> Short-Term Memory -> Long-Term Memory

      • Sensory Memory

        • Sensory Memory can hold vast amounts of sensory stimuli for a sliver of time

        • The first stage of the information-processing model

          • Iconic memory

            • Visual impressions that are photograph-like in their accuracy but dissolve in less than a second

            • Helps visual system view surroundings continuously

              • Lasts long enough for brian stem to evaluate importance

          • Echoic memory

            • Exact copies of the sounds we hear

            • Allows memory to remain long enough for meaningful conversation 

              • Capacity

                • Limited to what can be heard at any one moment

                • Smaller than capacity of iconic memory

              • Duration

                • Lasts longer than iconic

                • 1-10 seconds

          • Eidetic Imagery

            • Ability to “see” an image or object sometimes long after it has been removed from sight, describing its parts with amazing specificity

            • Similar to the concept of photography memory

            • Occurs primarily in children

      • Short-term Memory

        • Short-term memory can temporarily maintain and process limited information for longer periods (about 30 seconds with no distractions).

        • DEFINITION: A stage of memory that temporarily maintains and processes a limited amount of information 

          • Duration is about 30 seconds

          • Can extend duration with Maintenance rehearsal, which is the technique of repeating information to be remembered.

            • Does not work well if you are distracted

        • What is the capacity of short-term memory?

          • Miller’s (1956) “magical number seven, plus or minus two”

            • Can remember 5-9 items at a time

          • Chunking: grouping numbers, letters, or other items into recognizable subsets as a strategy for increasing the quantity of information that can be maintained in short-term memory

        • The digit span test is a simple way to assess memory. Participants are asked to listen to a string of numbers grows longer as the test progresses

      • Long-term Memory

        • Long-term memory has essentially unlimited (immeasurable) capacity and can hold onto information indefinitely.

Oct 25, 2023

• Stages of Memory Cont.

  • Working Memory: The active processing of information in short-term memory (STM); the maintenance and manipulation of information-processing model that focuses on what is going on in STM 

    • Consists of 4 components

      • Phonological loop 

        • Works with verbal information

      • Visuospatial sketchpad

        • Works with visual and spatial information

      • Episodic buffer

        • Brings info together allowing us to solve problems

        • Forms the bridge between memory and conscious awareness

      • Central executive

        • Directs attention, makes palms, and coordinates activities

        • Determines what information is used and what is ignored

    • ACTIVELY USING INFORMATION

• 3 Stages of Memory

• Long Term Memory

  • Explicit Memory: Memories you are aware of

    • A type of memory you are aware of having and can consciously express in words or declare, including memories of facts and experiences

    • Two different types

      • Semantic memory: General facts

        • The memory of information theoretically available to anyone, which pertains to general facts about the world

      • Episodic memory: Personal experiences

        • The record of memorable experiences or “episodes,” including when and where an experience occurred

  • Implicit Memory: memories outside of awareness

    • A memory of something you know how to do, which may be automatic, unconscious, and difficult to bring awareness and express

    • Different types:

      • Procedural memory: How to perform actions

        • Unconscious memory of how to carry out a variety of skills and activities

      • Classical Conditioning

      • Other types of implicit memory

  • Flashbulb Memory: a detailed account of circumstances surrounding and emotionally significant of shocking, sometimes historic, event

    • A specific type of episodic memory og experiences associated with learning about an event rather than “firsthand memories” or experiencing the event

    • Many people have flashbulb memories of 9/11

• What’s the best way to make memories?

  • Use mnemonics 

    • First letter technique, acronyms, method of loci

      • Ex: ROYGBIV, Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge (EGBDF)

  • Put in effort

    • Encoding and storage information with conscious effort or awareness

    • Elaborative rehearsal: connecting incoming information to knowledge in long-term memory

  • Spacing is key

    • Distributive practice: spreading out study sessions over time with breaks between

• Retrieval and Forgetting

  • Retrieval Cues: stimuli that help in the retrieval of stored information that is difficult to access

  • Priming: the stimulation of memories as a result of retrieval cues in the environment

    • Made possible by implicit memory

  • Recall: the process of retrieving information held in long-term memory without the help of retrieval cues

    • More difficult than recognition

  • Recognition: the process of matching incoming data to information stored in long-term memory

  • Serial position effect: the ability to recall items in a list depends in where they are in the series

    • Primacy Effect: The tendency to remember items at the beginning of a list

    • Recency Effect: The tendency to remember items at the end of a list

  • Retrieval and Memory

    • How does your environment impact your ability to retrieve memories?

      • Encoding specificity principle: Memories are more easily recalled when the context and cues at the time of encoding are similar to those at the time of retrieval

      • Context-dependent memories are easier to access when encoded and retrieved in the same context

Oct 29, 2023; (review at home)

• Culture

  • Collectivist societies

    • Prioritize needs of family and community over individual

  • Individualistic cultures

    • Focused on independence and “me” orientation

• Mood and memory

  • State-dependent memory: remembering things is also easier when physiological and psychological conditions, including moods and emotions are similar at the time of encoding and retrieval

  • Mood congruence: Retrieval is also easier when the context of a memory corresponds to our present emotional state

• Memory Savings; Easier the second time around

  • Relearning

    • Material learned previously is acquired more quickly in subsequent exposures

  • Ebbinghaus’ Curve of Forgetting

• Types of Failures

  • Encoding Failure: when data never enters out memory system

  • Retrieval Failure: we know we have knowledge of something but just can't pull it out of storage (tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon)

    • Proactive Interference: The tendency for information learned in the past to interfere with the retrieval of new material

    • Retroactive Interference: The tendency for recently learned information ot interfere with the retrieval of things learned in the past

    • Storage Failure: Memory decay

• Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM)

  • The uncanny ability to recollect an abundance of detail pertaining to autobiographical experiences

    • Intense recollection can interfere with other cognitive activities

• Reliability of Memory

  • Reconstructionist model of memory

    • Memories are understood as a creative blending of fact and fiction

  • Misinformation Effect

    • The tendency for new and misleading information to distort one’s memory of an incident

  • Drunk witnesses remember a surprising amount

    • Implication: Intoxicated witnesses should be interviewed sooner rather than later

  • False memories: memories that never actually happened

    • Rich false memories: Detailed recollections of events that never occurred, which are expressed with emotion and confidence

    • Malleability of memory, combined with suggestive interrogation techniques, can lead to false confessions

• The Biology of Memory

  • Exploring the causes of memory failure helps is understand biological basis of memory

  • Amnesia (memory loss) can result from either a physical or psychological condition

    • Two different types of amnesia

      • Anterograde

        • The inability to “lay down” or create new long-term memories, and is generally caused by damage to the brain resulting from surgery, alcohol, head trauma, or illness.

      • Retrograde

        • An inability to access memories created before damage to the brain occurred.

  • Memory Trace: The Physical spot where memories are etched in the brain (AKA the engram)

  • Connectionism: a model the suggests our memories are distributed throughout the brain in a network of interlinked neurons

  • LOOK AT THE SLIDE BELOW FOR INFO ON THE HIPPOCAMPUS

  • Memories in the brain: a micro perspective

    • Long-term Potentiation: The increased efficiency of neural communication over time, resulting in the learning and formation of memories

      • May be biological basis for learning

      • Much of what we learned has come from research with sea slugs

  • Alzheimer's Disease: A progressive, devastating brain illness that causes cognitive decline, including memory, language, and thinking problems

    • Neurofibrillary tangles: when neurons in the brain become tangled

      • Result from twisted protein fibers accumulating inside brain cells

    • Amyloid plaques: protein clumps that build up between neurons

    • Causes:

      • Inherited (APOE4 gene)

      • Factors each as diet and exercise can influence the development and progression of the disease

  • Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE): A neurodegenerative disease that leads to atypical deposist of tau protein throughout various regions in the brain as a result of repeated mild traumatic brain injury

    • Symptoms: significant memory issues, impulsivity, aggression, insomnia, and depression. 

    • CTE os progressive.

    • Research on CTE in athletes.

    • Stages of Memory

      • Stage 1: Tau protein accumulates locally in the cortex

        • Symptoms: headaches, and difficulty maintaining focus

      • Stage 2: The damage spreads to surrounding areas

        • Symptoms: short-term memory impairment, mood swings, depression, explosive temper, and continued headaches and trouble focusing

      • Stage 3: Damage continues to spread, reaching areas such as the hippocampus, amygdala, and brainstem.

        • Symptoms: memory loss, difficulty planning and carrying out tasks, “visuospatial abnormalities: and ongoing difficulties with mood and attention.

      • Stage 4: Widespread damage across many regions of the brain, including the medial temporal lobe, hypothalamus, and thalamus.

        • Symptoms: worsening of existing symptoms, along with language difficulties and paranoia, severe memory loss.

the method of loci: This is a mnemonic involving placing items to be remembered along a mental journey

echoic memory: This consists of exact copies of the sounds we hear.

semantic memory: This is the memory of information theoretically available to anyone, which pertains to general facts about the world.

Episodic memory: memory of one's personal experiences

Procedural Memory: This is the unconscious memory of how to carry out a variety of skills and activities

Iconic memory: like photograph (visual memory)

working memory:This is the active processing of information in short-term memory.

Episodic buffer: This is the part of working memory where information from the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and long-term memory can be brought together temporarily.

Visuospatial sketchpad: This is an aspect of working memory where visual and spatial data are briefly stored and manipulated.

Implicit Memory: Memories outside awareness

Oct 30, 2023

• Retrieval and Forgetting

  • Hermann Ebbinghaus

    • Using single subject design, he was the first to quantify relearning

    • Noted the reduced time taken in relearning 

    • Also established the forgetting curve

  • Encoding Failure

    • Forgetting due to the information having never entered your memory system

    • Apple logo example

  • Storage Failure

    • Memoires can decay over time

    • Even if we can access them, memories may be distorted or inaccurate,

  • Retrieval Failure

    • Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

  • Retrieval is influenced, or in some cases blocked, by information we learn before and after a memory is made (interference)

    • Proactive interference: the tendency for information learned in the past to interfere with the retrieval of new material

    • Retroactive interference: the tendency for recently learned information to interfere with the retrieval of things learned in the past

• Reliability of Memory

  • Loftus and the reconstructionist model of memory: “Memories are understood as creative blendings of fact and fiction”

    • Sometimes, we unknowingly edit our memories, incorporating bits and pieces of information learned after the fact

  • Misinformation effect: tendency for new and misleading information to distort one’s memory of an incident

    • Eyewitness accounts of accidents, crimes, and other important events might become altered by factors that come into play after the event occurs.

  • Rich false memory: recollections of events that never occurs, which are expressed with emotions and confidence and include details

    • About 25% of participants in rich false memory studies are able to “remember” an event that never happened

    • The “Lost in the Mall” study (Loftus &PIckrell, 1995)

• Biology of Memory

  • Studying amnesia, or memory loss, can help us understand the biological basis of memory

    • Amnesia can have physical or psychological causes

    • Amnesia varies by type (nature of impairment) and degree (severity).

      • Anterograde amnesia: a type of memory loss; an inability to create new memories following damage to the brain

      • Retrograde amnesia: a type of memory loss; an inability to access memories formed prior to damage to the brain

  • Brian structures involved in memory:

    • Hippocampus: plays a vital role in memory

      • Explicit memory formation

      • Infantile amnesia: we don’t make permanent long term memories while were young (until around age 5-6)

    • Yet, Lashley discovered the memory trace (engram) is distributed throughout the brain

    • Amygdala: makes implicit memory formation, emotional memory formation

    • Cerebellum: implicit memory formation (makes sense because of muscle coordination and movement and balance)

  • H.M.: the most famous patient

    • To treat his severe epilepsy, he underwent surgical removal of parts of the brain, including the hippocampus

    • Resulted in profound anterograde amnesia and mild retrograde amnesia

    • Maintained implicit memory

  • Alzheimer’s disease

    • A progressive, devastating brain illness that causes cognitive decline, including memory, language, and thinking problems

    • Significant features

      • Neurofibrillary tangles

      • Amyloid plaques

    • Proposed causes

      • Genetics

        • Lifestyle risk factors: diet and exercise

Chapter 10

Personality

Nov 1, 2023

• What is Personality?

  • Personality: The unique, core set of characteristics that influence the way one thinks, acts, and feels and that are relatively consistent and enduring throughout the lifespan

    • Not the same as character

  • Temperament: Distinct patterns of emotional reactions and behaviors observed early in life

    • Remains somewhat stable across the life span but can molded by the environment

    • An important, stable aspect of personality

• Psychoanalytic Theories of Personality

  • Psychoanalytic Theories: Overview

    • Childhood is the prime time for personality development

    • We are greatly influenced by processes of which we are unaware

      • Internal conflicts

      • Aggression

      • Sexual urges

    • Psychoanalysis: Derived from psychoanalytic theory

    • It is important to note that Freud’s ideas were (and are) controversial and lack scientific support

  • Freud’s Three Levels of Consciousness (Topographical Model)

    • Conscious: the state of being aware of oneself, one’s thoughts, and or/the environment

    • Preconscious: mental activities outside your current awareness but that can be brought easily to your attention

    • Unconscious: level of conscious outside of awareness, which is difficult to access without effort or therapy

  • Freud’s Structural Model of the Mind

    • Id: the most primitive structure of the mind, the activities of which occur at the unconscious level and are guided by the pleasure principle

    • Ego: The structure of the mind that uses the reality principle to manipulate situations, plan for the future, solve problems. And make decisions to satisfy the needs of the id.

      • Use the reality principle to negotiate between the id and the environment

    • Superego: the structure of the mind that guides behavior to follow the rules of society, parents, or other authority figures

• Iceberg Theory Image Explained

  • Ego - monitors demands of ig and superego

  • Superego - internalized rules. “Conscience”

  • ID - psychic energy; impulsive and illogical

  • Conscious level - everything you are aware of at the moment (mostly ego, some superego)

  • Preconscious - mental activity that can easily been brought to awareness (superego and ego)

  • Unconscious - activity well below level of awareness (all ID)

• Psychoanalytic Theories of Personality

  • Ego Defense Mechanisms: distort our perceptions and memories of the “real” world, without our awareness, to reduce the anxiety created by the conflicts among the id, ago, and superego

    • They are not necessarily a bad thing, as they reduce anxiety, but we need to be careful not to overuse them

    • Repression: The way in which the ego moves uncomfortable thoughts, memories, or feelings from the conscious level to the unconscious

    • Sublimation: form of displacement where unacceptable urges are redirected into more appropriate activities

    • Identification: identifying ego-driven anxiety 

    • Displacement

    • Repression

    • Rationalization

    • Projection

    • Denial: Refusing to accept real events because they are unpleasant

• Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of Development

  • According to Freud, humans pass through psychosexual stages of development, from birthhood to adulthood, each of which has an erogenous zone as well as a conflict that must be dealt with

    • Oral

    • Anal

    • Phallic

      • Oedipus Complex: when a boy loves his mother and resents his father

      • Electra Complex: when a girl loves her father and resents her mother

        • Penis envy

    • Latency period

    • Genital

Nov 6, 2023

• Psychoanalytic Theories of Personality

  • Non-Freudians

    • Alfred Adler

      • We are motivated by the need to feel superior; this drive originates in childhood when we realize we are dependent on and inferior to adults

      • His theory of individual psychology focuses on each person’s unique struggle with feelings of inferiority

        • Inferiority complex: feelings of incompetence, vulnerability, and powerlessness

          • If we don’t develop confidence and capableness as a child, it can possible still feel that way as an adult, affecting relationships

      • Influence of birth order and differential environmental pressures

      • Birth Orders effect on personality

        • Popular stereotypes about birth order and personality

          • Firstborns

            • Conscientious 

            • High-achieving

            • Play by the rules

            • Excel in school

            • Leaders in the workforce

          • Middle children

            • Get lost in the shuffle

            • Learn to be self-efficient

          • Youngest children

            • Favored and coddled by their parents

            • Grow up to be gregarious and rebellious

        • Correlational research exists to support these relationships, yet correlation doesn't equal causation

        • When controlling for confounding variables, birth order does not strongly correlate to the presence of any specific personality characteristics

    • Carl Gustav Jung

      • Analytic psychology

      • Collective unconscious: Universal experiences of humankind passed from generation to generation, including memoires and archetypes

        • Archetypes: feminine and masculine qualities

      • Personal unconscious: similar to preconscious and unconscious

      • Did a lot with personality types

    • Karen Horney

      • Role of child — caregiver relationship emphasized

      • People use three strategies

        • Moving toward people

        • Moving away from people

        • Moving against people

    • Eric Erikson

      • Developmental Psychologist - studied how people grow and develop throughout the lifespan

        • Psychosocial theory

        • Trust vs mistrust

          • If babies needs are met, they’ll trust the world more than babies whose needs were ignored

• Humanistic Perspective

  • The Humanistic Perspective

    • Gained popularity in the 1960s and 1970s in opposition of the mechanistic view (behaviorism, psychoanalytic theory)

    • People are innately good and in control of their destinies

    • Positive aspects of human nature drive personality development

    • The Third Force

  • Abraham Maslow

    • Believed that psychologists should study human creativity, growth, and healthy functioning, not just mental illness and maladaptive personality traits

    • Self-actualizers: people who are continually seeking to reach their fullest potential

      • Self actualization looks different for everyone and can change in individuals

  • Carl Rogers

    • Developed client-centered therapy

      • Focuses on what client wants to think and talk about

    • We all have an innate urge to move toward situations and people that will help us grow and away from those that could inhibit growth.

    • Importance of self-concept

      • Problems occur when we experience incongruence between our self concept and our lived experiences

      • Self-concept: I think I am _____

        • Based off of what people tell you

      • Ideal self: the version of the self we aspire to be 

    • Unconditional positive regard

      • When someone loves you regardless of anything you've done, thought, said, or anything else

      • It is very important to be loved, respected with no strings attached

      • Conditional positive regard: I love you if______

• Behavioral perspectives of personality

  • Personality is a collection of behaviors, all of which have been shaped through learning

    • Observational learning and modeling

    • Operant conditioning — certain aspects of our personalities are strengthened when they are reinforced

• Social-cognitive perspectives of personality

  • Julian Rotter

    • Locus of control is a key component of personality 

      • Internal locus of control

        • Outcomes within your control - determined by your hard work, attributes, or decisions

      • External locus of control

        • Outcomes outside your control - determined by “fate” and independent of your hard world or decisions

    • Expectancy: a person’s predictions about the consequences or outcomes of behavior

  • Albert Bandura’s Social- Cognitive Perspective

    • Personality results from relationship and other environmental factors (social) and patterns of thinking (cognitive)

    • Self-efficiency: belief about our ability and effectiveness in reaching goals

    • Reciprocal determinism: multidirectional interactions among cognition, behaviors, and the environment

Nov 8, 2023

• Trait Theories of Personality

  • Traits: the relatively stable properties that describe elements of personality

  • Trait Theories: theories that focus on personality dimensions and their influence on behavior; can be used to predict behaviours

    • Allport

      • Gordon Allport

        • One of the first trait theorists who created a comprehensive list of traits to be used to operationalize terminology used in personality research

        • Started with 17,953 words, ended with 4,504

          • Personality traits (primary focus)

          • Temporary states

            • Feeling grumpy or excited will change your mood, so your temporary state will change, and that will affect how you act

          • Social evaluations

            • What is a negative or positive trait?

          • Metaphorical and doubtful words

            • Words that may or may not describe personality

    • Cattel

      • Raymond Cattel

        • Grouped lost of personality traits into two major categories:

          • Surface traits: what is naturally and easily observable

          • Source traits: underlying traits that cause surface traits

        • With factor analysis, a list of 16 personality facts was produced, considered primary source traits

          • Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF)

    • Eysenck

      • Hans Eysenck

        • Proposed three dimensions of personality

          • Introversion – extraversion

          • Neuroticism

          • Psychoticism

        • Worked to find biological basis for dimensions

        • High reactivity related to the reticular formation

      • Although Eysenck contributed a great deal to our understanding of personality, he had been accused of serious scientific misconduct.

    • Big Five

      • The Big Five-Factor Model

        • McCrae and Cost proposed five dimensions to describe personality

          • Openness to experience

          • Conscientiousness

          • Extraversion

          • Agreeableness

          • Neuroticism

        • Empirical support for this model has been established using cross-cultural testing

          • One possible explanation for these cross-cultural similarities is that the five dimensions are rooted in biology

          • Three decades of twin and adoption studies point to a genetic basis for the five factors

          • Longitudinal studies suggest that these characteristics are generally stable over time, for periods as long as 40 years

• Personality Assessments

  • Two categories of personality tests

    • Subjective: based on intuition, clinical judgment, opinion, or interpretation

      • Interviews

        • Unstructured

        • Semi-structured

        • Structured

        • Strengths

          • Allows views of client on natural, realistic setting

        • Weakness

          • May involve lying, misrepresenting, sharing distorted memories to interviewer

          • May be influenced by interviewer bias

    • Objective: administered and evaluated using standardized procedures

  • Are personality tests reliable and valid?

    • Reliability: the degree to which an assessment produced stable and consistent results

      • Test-retest reliability

        • How consistent results are when a person takes a test more than once

      • Interrater reliability

        • The degree of consistency across people scoring an assessment

    • Validity: the degree to which a test measures what it is intended to measure

      • Predictive validity

        • Tests can predict future scores (possibly on extraversion)

  • Projective Personality Tests

    • Assessments that present stimuli without a specified meaning to test takers, whose responses can then be interpreted to undercover underlying characteristics

      • Rorschach Inkblot Test

        • Most well-known projective personality test

        • Developed by Rorschach and updated by Exner in 1970

        • Responses to inkblot systematically compared with answers given by others who have known personality characteristics and diagnoses

      • Thematic Apperception Test

        • Development by Murray and colleagues

        • Assumes that the test taker will project underlying conflicts onto the ambiguous stimuli of the picture, with the job of the test administrator being to unearth them

  • Objective Personality Test

    • Use a standardized set of questions with answer choices (true/false, multiple choice, circle the number) and have clear scoring instructions that are identical for everyone taking the test

    • Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2)

      • Contains 10 clinical scales as well as validity scales

      • Used to identify disorders and abnormal behaviours

    • 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF)

      • Based on Cattell

      • 185 questions

      • Creates a profile

    • Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

      • Four dimensions: extraversion vs introversion; sensing vs intuiting; thinking vs feeling; judgment vs perception

Chapter 13

Disorders

Nov 13, 2023

• What’s Normal, What’s Not

  • Psychological Disorder: A set of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive symptoms that are significantly distressing and disabling terms of social functioning, work endeavors, and other aspects of life

  • Abnormal Psychology: An academic field devoted to the study of psychological disorders

  • Abnormal Behavior: Behavior that is atypical, dysfunctional, distressful, and/pr deviant

• The Three D’s

  • Dysfunctional

  • Distress

  • Deviance

• Historical Context

  • Conceptions of abnormality and definitions of psychological disorders have changed over the course of history

    • Ex: Women’s hysteria in the 18th century

• It’s a Continuum

  • Anyone can have experiences similar to symptoms of psychological disorders

  • There is a cominuum for behaviours and feelings, ranging from normal to abnormal

    • Healthy

      • Normal Functioning

    • Mild

      • Common and reversible distress

    • Moderate

      • Significant functional impairment

    • Severe

      • Severe and persistent functional impairment

• Psychological disorders and Abnormality

  • Consider the Culture

    • Many disorders are universal, meaning they occur throughout the world and have a strong biological foundation

    • There are also cultural syndromes whose symptoms and attributions appear to be unique to particular societies

      • In Japan, taijin kyofusho is anxiety about and avoidance of interpersonal situations due to the thought, feeling, or conviction that one’s appearance and actions in social interactions are inadequate or offensive to others

• Think Critically: The Insanity Plea

  • Insanity

    • A legal determination of the degree to which a person is responsible for criminal behaviors

    • Those deemed legally insane are thought to have little or no control over understanding of their behaviors at the time they committed their crimes

      • Therefore, they are given psychological treatment in a locked psychiatric facility rather than criminal punishment such as imprisonment or the death penalty

    • In America, 45 states offer a form of the insanity defense

      • A 2020 Supreme court ruling gave states the green light to “effectively eliminate” the insanity plea

• What is Stigma?

  • Stigma: A negative attitude or opinion about groups of people based on certain characteristics they have

    • Leads to discrimination, stereotypes, and negative characteristics

    • Some evidence suggests that stigma begins to take root in childhood

    • What are some of the stigmas surrounding mental illness?

      • People with psychological disorders are not usually violent

    • Combating stigma

      • Use first-person language

      • Eliminate inappropriate, derogatory language

      • Educate others

  • Problems

    • Prejudicial laws and policies, unfair hiring practices, housing discrimination, non inclusive cultures

    • Stereotypes, demeaning labels, social exclusion, negative media portrayals of mental illness

    • Negative self-stereotypes and shame (both barriers to seeking treatment), low self-esteem the “why try” attitude associated with undervaluing oneself

• Classifying Psychological Disorders

  • The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental DIsorders (DSM–5-TR)

    • An evidence-based classification system of mental disorders

    • PUblished by the American Psychiatric Association

    • Current edition identifies 157 disorders

    • Benefits and drawbacks

      • Benefits

        • helps therapists develop treatment plans

        • Enables clients to obtain reimbursement form their insurance companies

        • Facilitate research and communication among professions

      • Drawbacks

        • Labeling people can lead to the formation of expectations

  • Abnormal, but not uncommon

• Pandemic Anxiety

  • Psychological disorders were common before the pandemic, but COVID-19 appears to have driven the numbers upwards

  • A meta-analysis of 68 studies conducted on participants from 19 countries found evidence of depression or anxiety in approximately one third of adults

  • Factors associated with a high risk included:

    • Female gender

    • Low socioeconomic status

    • Younger age (less than 35 years old)

    • More time spent in front of screens

    • Greater vulnerability to COVID-19 (because of a preexisting condition or local infection rates)

Nov 15, 2023

• Classifying Psychological Disorders

  • Comorbidity: The occurrence of two or more disorders art the same time

    • In one study, being diagnosed with one disorder was associated with an increased risk of developing yet another disorder

      • Evidence for a common underlying genetic basis for psychological disorders

• What causes psychological disorders?

  • Models commonly used to explain the etiology (cause) of psychological disorders:

    • Medical Model: explains psychological disorders from a biological standpoint, focusing on genes, neurochemical imbalances, and problems in the brain

      • Problems in the brain: anything structural or functional

      • Biological model

    • Psychological Factors Model: proposes cognitive factors of personality characteristics contribute to the development and maintenance of disorders or that ways of learning or childhood experiences lay their foundation

      • Thoughts

    • Sociocultural Factors Model: centers on social factors, such as poverty and community support systems and their role in the development and course of disorders

    • Biopsychosocial Model: psychological disorders result from a complex interaction of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors

      • Uses all other models combined into one

      • Best model to use

• Anxiety Disorders, OCD, and PTSD

  • Anxiety Disorders

    • People who suffer from Anxiety Disorders have extreme anxiety and/or debilitating irrational fear

      • How is an anxiety disorder differentiated from normal anxiety?

        • Degree of dysfunction caused

        • Distress created

        • Degree of interference with everyday behavior

        • Is it typical, distressing, dysfunctional, deviant?

      • The coronavirus pandemic appears to have sparked new levels of anxiety in the US, as the number of people reporting symptoms tripled between early 2019 and early 2020

    • Types of Anxiety Disorders

      • Panic Disorder: a psychological disorder that include recurrent, unexpected panic attacks and fear that can cause significant changes in behavior

        • Panic Attack: Sudden extreme fear or discomfort that escalated quickly, often with no evident cause

        • Affetcs 2% to 3% of the population

        • Heritability estimates of 40% to 48%

        • Women are twice as likely to be diagnosed as men

        • Etiology of Panic Disorder

          • Biology and Panic Disorder

            • Involvement in the hypothalamus (fight-or-flight response)

            • Irregularities in the size or shape of the amygdala

          • Learning and Panic Disorder

            • Some researchers propose that classical conditioning may be involved in the development of panic disorders

      • Specific Phobia: a psychological disorder characterized by a distinct fear or anxiety related to an object or situation

        • Etiology can be explained using principles of learning

          • Classical conditioning can leaf to acquisition

          • Observational learning can also lead to acquisition

          • Operant conditioning can explain maintenance (negative reinforcement from avoiding the feared object or situation).

        • Evolutionary perspectives of specific phobias

        • Agoraphobia: A distinct fear or anxiety related to public transportation, open spaces, retail stores, crowds, or being alone and away from home in general

          • May result in panic-like symptoms

          • Often need another person to accompany them on outings because they are unsure they can cope on their own

      • Social Anxiety Disorder (Social Phobia): An intense fear of social situations and scrutiny by others

        • What situations might elicit this fear?

        • Often stems from a preoccupation with offending someone behaving in a way that reveals one’s anxiety, and frequently includes an overestimation of the potential undesirable consequences of behaviours

      • Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A psychological disorder characterized by an excessive amount of worry and anxiety about activities relating to family, health, school, and other aspects of daily life

        • Psychological distress is accompanied by physical symptoms such as muscle tension and restlessness

        • Influenced by both nature and nurture

          • Irregularities in parts of brain associated with fear (the amygdala and hippocampus)

          • Environmental factors such as childhood adversity and overprotective parents

  • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): 

    • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): A psychological disorder characterized by obsessions and/or compulsions that are time-consuming and cause a great deal of distress

      • Obsession: A thought, urge, or an image that happens repeatedly, is intrusive  and unwelcome, nad often causes anxiety and distress

      • Compulsion: Behavior or “mental act” that a person repeats over and over in an effort to reduce anxiety

        • Compulsions often aim to thwart unwanted situations and thereby reduce anxiety and distress

        • Frequently reported obsessions and compulsions

          • Contamination and cleaning

          • Safety and checking

Nov 20, 2023

• Anxiety Disorders, OCD, and PTSD pt. 2

  • Obsessive COmpulsive Disorder

    • The biology of OCD

      • Abnormal activity in neurotransmitters

        • Reduced serotonin activity

        • Locations in basal ganglia, cingulate gyri, and orbital frontal cortex

      • Genetic Base

        • First degree relative with OCD diagnosis–twice the risk of developing disorder

    • The Role of Learning in OCD

      • Compulsions negatively reinforce by reduction of fear

  • Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

    • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A psychological disorder characterized by exposure to or being threatened by an event involving death, serious injury, or violence; can include disturbing memories, nightmares, flashbacks, and other distressing symptoms

      • In professions with ongoing exposure to trauma (e.g. firefighters), rates of PTSD can be as high as 37%

      • A study of Italians hospitalized with COVID-19 found 30.2% had symptoms of PTSD

      • Over the course of a lifetime, most people will experience an event that qualifies as a “psychological trauma,” yet the majority will not meet the diagnostic criteria for PTSD.

        • Distressing, disturbing, and spontaneously recurring memories of an event 

        • Dreams with content or emotions associated with the event

        • “Dissociative reactions” that include feeling as if the event is happening again (flashbacks)

        • Extreme psychological distress when reminded of the event

        • Obvious physical reactions to cues related to the event

      • Many people with PTSD try to avoid environmental cues (people, places, or objects) linked to the trauma

• Mood Disorders

  • Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)

    • A major depressive episode is evident if five or more symptoms:

      • Occur for at least 2 consecutive weeks and represent a change prior to functioning

      • Cause significant distress or impairment

      • Not due to medical or drug-related condition

      • Symptoms:

        • Depressed mood that might involve feeling sad or hopeless

        • Reduced pleasure in activities almost all of the time

        • Substantial loss or gain in weight, without conscious effort

        • Changes in appetite

        • Sleeping excessively or not sleeping enough

        • Feeling tired, drained of energy

        • Feeling worthless or extremely guilt-ridden

        • Difficulty thinning or concentrating

        • Persistent thought about death or suicide

      • Symptoms of depression, and the words used to describe it, vary by culture.

    • Diagnosing MDD can be challenging

      • The clinician must be able to distinguish the symptoms from normal reactions to a “significant loss.”

    • MDD is one of the most common and devastating psychological disorders

      • In the U.S., the lifetime prevalence is between 16.6% and 20.6%

      • Beginning in adolescence, rates of this disorder are 1.5 to 3 times higher for females

      • For Americans ages t5 to 44, MDD is one of the main causes of disability

        • Time away from work

        • Underperformance at work (“presenteeism”)

    • What role does biology play in Depression?

      • Genes

        • Twin studies find about 37-50% of the variability of major depression disorder in the population can be attributed to genetic factors

      • Hormones

        • High levels of cortisol and hyperactivity of the HPA system are linked to major depressive episodes

      • Neurotransmitters and the Brain

        • Abnormal activity of 3 neurotransmitters – norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine

        • Disruptions in neural pathways involved in processing emotions and rewards

        • Shrinking of the hippocampus

    • What role do psychological factors play in depression?

      • Learned helplessness: a tendency for people to believe they have no control over the consequences of their behaviors, resulting in passive behavior.

        • Seligman’s dos research presented an animal model for human depression

      • Beck’s Cognitive Triad

        • Negative views of experiences, self, and the future

        • Rumination

  • Suicide

    • Around 9% of adults in 21 countries confirm they have harbored “serious thoughts of suicide” at least once and around 3% have attempted suicide

    • In the U.S., suicide rates have been on the rise, increasing 35% between 1999 and 2018

      • In the US, someone commits suicide every 12 minutes.

    • Why do people have thoughts of suicide?

      • Having a genetic predisposition for suicidality, coupled with a particular sequence of enviiorm=nemtnal assaults on one’s will to live, leads some people to try to make the pain stop

        • Forty-three percent of the variability is linked to genetics, 57% is attributable to environmental factors 

        • We often don’t understand the reasons for our depression, which leads us to make misattributions (e.g., it’s because of what others said or did).

        • Our situations often look different months later, due to medication, change in circumstances, or gained perspective

  • Bipolar Disorders

    • Manic Episodes

      • Manic episodes: State of continuous elation that is out of proportion to the setting and can include irritability, very high and sustained level of energy, and an “expansive” mood

      • During manic episodes, a person exhibits three or more of the following symptoms:

        • Grandiose or extremely high self-esteem

        • Reduced sleep

        • Increased talkativeness

        • A “flight of ideas” or the feeling of “racing” thoughts

        • Being easily distracted

        • Heightened activity at school or work

        • Psychical agitation

        • Displaying poor judgment and engaging in activities that could have serious consequences

    • Bipolar disorder 1 - Episodes of mania that include “abnormally persistently elevated expansive or irritable mood and persistently increased activity or energy that is present for most of the day, nearly every week day, for a period of at least one week. This may be preceded by hypomania or depression.

    • Bipolar 2 Disorder - At least one major depressive episode (lasting at least 2 weeks) as well as a hypomanic episode (lasting a minimum of 4 days)

    • Bipolar Cycling

      • Some people with bipolar disorder cycle between extreme highs and lows of emotion and energy that last for days, weeks, or even months.

      • Periods of mania and depression may be brought on by life changes and stressors

      • Some research suggests that it is only the first episode that tends to be triggered by some form of life event

Nov 27, 2023

• Schizophrenia

  • A disabling psychological disorder that can include delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and abnormal motor behaviour

    • Psychosis: loss of contact with reality that is severe and chronic

    • Delusions: strange or false beliefs that a person firmly maintains even when presented with evidence on the contrary

    • Hallucinations: perception-like experiences that an individual believes are real, but that are not evident to others

    • People often confuse schizophrenia with dissociative identity disorder (“split personalities”).

  • Symptoms Overview

• Diagnostic Criteria

  • Must display symptoms for the majority of days in a 1-month period

  • Must experience significant dysfunction in work, school., relationships, or personal care for at least 6 months

• Prevalence

  • .3-1% lifetime risk

  • Equal risk for men and women

  • Although men and woman appear to face equal risk, the onset of the disorder tends to occur earlier in men

  • Schizophrenia disproportionately affects people of lower socioeconomic classes.

• Example

• Diathesis-Stress Model

  • Suggests that developing schizophrenia involves genetic predisposition and environmental triggers

• Schizophrenia and the Brain

  • Thinning of cortex, enlarged ventricles, and reduced size–may be tied to cognitive control

  • Caution: Brain changes may be due to long-term medication used to treat schizophrenia rather than schizophrenia itself

• Neurotransmitter Theories

  • Dopamine Hypothesis: a theory suggesting that the synthesis, release, and concentrations of the neurotransmitter dopamine plat a role in schizophrenia

    • Drugs that block receptor sites for dopamine often successfully treat schizophrenia

  • Emerging evidence points to irregularities in glutamate and GABA as well

• Environmental Triggers

  • Exposure to virus in utero (i.e., human papilloma virus)

  • Complications at birth, social stress and cannabis abused related to slightly increased risk of schizophrenia onset

• Autism Spectrum Disorder

  • Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): “is characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple context and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities”

    • Affects Approximately 1 in 59 American children

    • Four times more common in boys

    • Begins in childhood and typically persists into adulthood, though symptoms can improve with age, therapy, and support from others

    • The causes of ASD are stull under investigation, but research demonstrates that the disorder runs in families

• Personality Disorders

  • Personality Disorders: Someone with a personality disorder exhibits behaviors that deviate substantially in the following areas

    • Cognition, including perceptions of self, others, and events

    • Emotional responses

    • Interpersonal functioning 

    • Impulse control

  • To be diagnosed with a personality disorder, one must struggle in at least two of these four categories

  • Antisocial and Borderline Personality Disorders

    • Antisocial personality disorder

      • Antisocial Personality Disorder: A psychological disorder distinguished by unethical behavior, deceitfulness, impulsivity, aggressiveness, disregard for others, and lack of remorse

        • Who is diagnosed?

          • One to four percent of American adults

          • More common in men that women

          • According to some studies, up to 50% of prison inmates have received the diagnosis

        • Etiology

          • Hereditary, but no single gene implicated

          • Irregularities in frontal lobes 

          • Complex interaction of genes and environment

    • Borderline personality disorder

  • The DSM-5 includes 10 personality disorders

Nov 29, 2023

• Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)

  • Borderline Personality Disorder: A psychological disorder distinguished by an incomplete sense of self, extreme self-criticism, unstable emotions, and feelings of emptiness

    • Who is diagnosed?

      • 75% of those with a diagnosis are female

    • Biopsychosocial model of development

      • Childhood trauma: trauma, overprotective parents

      • Temperament that includes impulsive behavior and emotional sensitivity

• Dissociative Disorders

  • Dissociative Disorders: Psychological disorders distinguished by disturbances in normal psychological functioning; may include problems with memory, identity, consciousness perception, and motor control

  • Dissociation: A disturbance in the normally integrated experience of psychological functions involved in memory, consciousness, perception, or identity

    • Described as feeling detached from one’s body

  • Types of Dissociative Disorders

    • Dissociative Amnesia

      • Psychological disorder marked by difficulty remembering important personal life information

      • Some also experience dissociative fugue, where they wander about in a confused and unexpected manner

    • Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

      • Psychological disorder that involves the occurrence of two or more distinct personalities within an individual

      • Often a reported gap in remembering day-to-day events and personal details 

      • When it comes to understanding dissociative states, clinicians must consider cross-cultural and religious difference

• Eating Disorders

  • Eating Disorders: serious dysfunctions in eating behaviour that can involve restricting food consumption, obsessing over weight, or body shape, eating too much, and purging.

  • Usually begins in the early teens and typically affect girls, though a substantial proportion of those affected are boy

  • Categories

    • Anorexia Nervosa

      • Characterized by self-imposed restrictions on calories needed to maintain a healthy weight

      • Often have a distorted sense of body weight and figure

      • Fail to recognize the severity of their condition

      • Has one of the highest death rates of all psychological disorders

    • Bulimia Nervosa

      • Involves recurrent episodes of being eating, followed by purging to prevent weight gain

      • Carries serious health risks such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes

      • 23% percent of deaths associated with bulimia nervosa result from suicide

    • Binge-Eating Disorder

      • Characterized by episodes of excessive food consumption

      • As in bulimia, one feels unable to control the binging, but the excessive weight control and purging behaviors are not present

      • Psychological effects may include embarrassment about the quantity of food consumed, depression, and guilt after overeating

Gestalt psychology: Max Wertheimer

Gestalt psychology is a school of thought that looks at the human mind and behavior as a whole. When trying to make sense of the world around us, Gestalt psychology suggests that we do not simply focus on every small component. Instead, our minds tend to percieve objects as elements of more complex systems.