History and Approaches

Wave One: Introspection

- Start in year 1879, Wilhelm Wundt set up first psych lab
- Subjects were asked to record their reactions to stimuli
- Aka introspection: looking inward to examine one's own thoughts,
emotions, judgments, and perceptions.
- Structuralism: mind operates by combining emotions and sensations
- William James published first psych textbook, how structuralism changed functionalism
- Mary Whiton Calkins, first woman to earn psych pHD
- Stanley hall, pioneered child development study and first APA president

Wave Two: Gestalt Psych

- Max Wertheimer et al. argued against dividing thought and behavior into different
structures, instead examining person’s experience as a whole
- Perception stuff

Wave Three: Psychoanalysis

- Freud
- Unconscious mind, repression
- To understand thought and behavior, must examine the unconscious mind through
dream analysis, word association, and others
- Unscientific, unverifiable.
- Attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts

Wave Four: Behaviorism

- Watson argued that psych must be limited to observable phenomena, not unobservable
details.
- Behaviorism as dominant paradigm of psych: look at behavior and causes of
behavior, stimuli and response, but not describing elements of mental
processes
- Skinner added reinforcement, environmental stimuli that positively or negatively
affect responses

Wave Five: Current Day, Multiple Perspectives

- Eclectic: drawing from multiple perspectives

Humanistic perspective
- Maslow, Rogers stressed choice and free will
- Idea that human behaviors are guided by physiological, emotional,
or spiritual needs, NOT driven by past conditioning.
- Hard to be tested with scientific method

Psychoanalytic perspective
 - Unconscious mind controls much of our thought and action
- To understand such behavior, we must examine the unconscious mind

Biopsychology/Neuroscience perspective
- Behavior and thought in terms of biological processes
- Cognition and reactions might be caused by genes, hormones, or
neurotransmitters in the brain

Evolutionary (or sociobiologist) perspective

- Examine human thoughts in terms of natural selection
- Some traits might be advantageous for survival, and thus passed down
- Similar to biopsych perspective

Behavioral perspective
- Behavior and thought in terms of conditioning
- Observable behaviors and responses to different kinds of stimuli
- Eg. also look for environmental factors that might have caused such
responses

Cognitive perspective
- Examine human thought and behavior in terms of how we process,
interpret, and remember events
- Study of all cognitive processes

Sociocultural perspective
- How thoughts and behaviors vary between cultures, and how culture
impacts the way we think and act

Biopsychosocial perspective
- Behavior and thinking is a combination of biological, psychological, and
social factors
- Think that other perspectives are too reductionist
Methods

Hindsight bias: after hearing about research findings, people have a tendency to think
they knew it all along.
- Goal of scientific research is to predict what will happen in advance

Applied research: research in order to solve practical problems, real world

applications

Basic research: areas of interest to psychologists, but not real

world/immediate applications

Hypothesis expresses relationship between two variables

- Dependent variable depends on the independent variable
- IV: the characteristic of an experiment that is manipulated or changed by
researchers
- DV: characteristic that stays the same, but is changed by the IV

Valid vs reliable
- Valid: measures what the researcher set out to measure aka. accurate
- Reliable: when research can be replicated, consistent, and produces similar
results when rerun

Experimental methods

- Lab experiment: experiments conducted in lab

- Field experiment: experiments conducted out in the world
- Naturalistic observation: when researchers opt to observe participants in natural
habitats without interacting with them
- Case study: in-depth study of a small group/people

How to prevent differences between groups:

- Group matching

Statistics
- Descriptive statistics: describes a set of data
- Frequency distribution: how many ppl have x this, x that, etc
- Can be turned into line graph called frequency polygons or bar graphs
called histograms
- Central tendency: mean, median, mode
 - When dataset has outliers, mean is not best
- Measures of variability: range, variance, and standard deviation
- Standard deviation = square root of variance
- Z SCORES: DISTANCE OF SCORE FROM MEAN IN UNITS OF STANDARD
DEVIATION
- Below mean = negative, above mean = positive
- Example: if Clarence scored 72 on a test with a mean of 80 and standard
deviation of 8, his z score is -1. If maria scored 84 on the same test, her z
score is +0.5
- Percentiles: distance of a score from 0
- INFERENTIAL STATISTICS
- Determine whether or not findings can be applied to larger population from
which the sample was selected
- P value < 0.05 = significant

Correlation
- Correlation coefficient range from -1 to +1, and gives strength of correlation
Biological Bases of Behavior

neurotransmitter function problems

acetylcholine Motor movement Lack = alzheimers

dopamine Motor movement and Lack = parkinsons

alertness Excess = schizophrenia

endorphins Pain control Involved in addiction

serotonin Mood control Lack = clinical depression

GABA Inhibitory neurotransmitter Seizures, sleep problems

glutamate Excitatory neurotransmitter Migraines, seizures

involved in memory

norepinephrine Alertness, arousal depression

afferent/sensory neurons: info from senses to brain -> interneurons: take info from brain
or spinal cord to elsewhere/efferent neurons -> efferent/motor neurons: take info from
brain to rest of the body

CNS: brain, spinal cord, and all nerves housed within the bone
PNS: all nerves not encased in bones
- Somatic nervous system: voluntary muscle movements
- Autonomic nervous system: automatic functions—heart, lungs, glands, etc
 - Sympathetic nervous system: mobilizes bodies response to stress, carries
messages to systems of organ, glands, muscles
- Parasympathetic nervous system: carries message to stress response
that causes body to slow down after stress, eg. brake pedal vs gas pedal

- reflexes (eg. tapping knee, response to cold/hot) are exceptions to the rule
- Lesioning: removal or destruction of part of brain

Brain structure

Hindbrain: life support system, contains basic biological functions that keep us alive
- Medulla: controls blood pressure, breathing, and heart rate
- Pons: control of facial expressions, connects the three parts of brain
- Cerebellum: coordinates muscle movements

Midbrain: coordinates simple movements with sensory information

- Reticular formation: netlike collection of cells that govern body arousal and focus
ability
- If this doesn’t function = coma

Forebrain: controls thought and reason

- Thalamus: responsible for receiving sensory signals coming up spinal cord, and
sending them to areas in rest of forebrain
- Hypothalamus: controls metabolic functions: body temperature, sexual arousal,
hunger, thirst, endocrine system
- Amygdala and hippocampus: a = vital to experiences of emotion, H = vital to
memory system

Cerebral cortex: thin layer of densely packed neurons all around brain
- Hemispheres
- Left hemisphere: controls motor function of right half of body, sensory
messages
- Right hemisphere: controls motor function of left half of body, sensory
messages

- Eight different lobes: four on each hemisphere

- Frontal lobes behind eyes
- Front of lobe is prefrontal cortex
- LH frontal lobe contains broca’s or wernicke’s area
- Back of lobe = motor cortex
 - Parietal lobe
- Located behind frontal lob
- Contains sensory/somatosensory cortex
- Occipital lobe
- Back of brain, furthest from eyes
- Interprets visual signals from visual cortex
- Temporal lobe
- Process sound sensed by ears

Turner’s syndrome: babies are born with only X chromosome in 23rd chromosome pair
area

Klinefelter’s syndrome: extra X chromosome

Down syndrome: extra chromosome on 21st pair

States of Consciousness

Dualism vs monism:
- Dual: humans consist of thought and matter. Thought gives humans free will
- Mono: everything is the same substance, and thought and matter are aspects of
it.

Consciousness: level of awareness about ourselves and our environment

conscious Information about yourself and
environment you are currently aware of

nonconscious Body processes controlled by your mind

that are not aware of. Eg. heartbeat,
breathing, digestion, etc

preconscious Info that you aren't currently thinking of,

but could retrieve

subconscious Information that we arent consciously

aware of but know must exist due to
behavior

unconscious Some feelings/info are unacceptable to

conscious mind, and are repressed to un
conscious

Sleep
Stage one: theta waves get slower and higher in amplitude; REM on RETURN
Stage two: sleep spindles, short bursts of rapid brain waves
Stage three: deeper sleep and less aware of surroundings
Stage four: deeper sleep and less aware of surroundings

NREM Stage 1: lasts only a few minutes, person quickly gains consciousness,
experiences hypnagogic hallucinations, vivid sensory experiences, sometimes/usually
accompanied by a myoclonic jerk that often awakes the person

NREM Stage 2: start of true sleep, sleep spindles in EEG patterns - sudden bursts of
brain activity

NREM Stage 3/4: considered this stage when 20% of brain activity shows delta waves,
referred to as slow-wave sleep
Approximately 90 min stages.

Dreams
- Occur in rem

Freud
- Manifest content: literal content of dream
- Latent content: unconscious meaning of manifest content

Activation synthesis theory

- Dreams are nothing more than brain’s interpretations of whats happening
physiologically during REM sleep

Information-processing theory
- Brain is dealing with daily stress and information during REM dreams,
function may be to integrate info processed during day into memories

Drugs

Psychoactive drugs: chemicals that change chemistry of brain and rest of body, induce
an altered state of consciousness
- Get through blood-brain barrier

Agonists: mimic neurotransmitter

Antagonist: block neurotransmitter

Tolerance: physiological change that produces need for more of same drug in order to
achieve same effect
- Cause withdrawal symptoms

- Stimulants, depressants, hallucinogens, opiates

type Main effect examples

stimulants Arouse ANS Caffeine, cocaine

depressants Slow ANS Alc, barb, tranq

hallucinogens Sensory distortions Marijuana, lsd, mushrooms

opiates Relieve pain, elevate mood Morphine, heroin,
methadone
Sensation and Perception

Sens. adaptation vs habituation

- Adaptation = decreasing responsiveness to stimuli due to constant stimulation
- Habituation = perception is due to how focused we are on them

Cocktail party phenomenon: brain's ability to focus one's auditory attention on a

particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli

VISION
- Light comes through cornea (protective covering)
- Goes through pupil (shutter of camera)
- Iris (muscles that control pupil dilate to let more light in)
- Accommodation: light that enters pupil is focused by lens (flexible and
curved)
- Lens image is projected onto retina, which is like a screen on back of eye
- Transduction: light activates neurons in retina
- Neurons = cones and rods
- Cones = activate by color
- Rods = activate by black
and white
- Fovea = center of retina, has
highest concentration of cones
- If enough cones and rods
fire, they activate bipolar
cells.
- If enough bipolar
cells fire, ganglion
cells are activated. -
AXONS OF
GANGLION CELLS
MAKE UP OPTIC
NERVE
- Info gets sent to LGN, then to visual cortexes
- Spot where the optic nerve leaves the retina is called blind spot.
- Spot where nerves cross each other called optic chiasm
- RIGHT SIDE OF RETINA GOES TO RIGHT SIDE OF BRAIN, LEFT SIDE
GOES TO LEFT. NOT VICE VERSA
- Visual cortex of the brain receives impulses from the retina.
 Trichromatic theory
- Three types of cone in retina: cones that detect blue, red and green

Opponent-process theory
- Sensory receptors come in red/green pairs, yellow/blue pairs, and
black/white pairs. If one sensor is stimulated, its pair is inhibited from
firing. This can explain after imaging and color blindness.

HEARING

Amplitude: height of wave, determines loudness

Frequency: length of wave and determines pitch
● High pitch, high freq.
● Low pitch, low freq

- Sound waves collected in outer ear (pinna)

- Down to the ear canal until eardrum (tympanic membrane). Membrane
vibrates as sound hits, connected to three bones (hammer, anvil, stirrup).
- Three bones collect vibration from membrane, transmit to oval
window.
- Oval window attached to cochlea, and as it vibrates, the cochlea
fluid moves. There are hair cells at the bottom of the cochlea
(basilar membrane) that connect to organ of corti, and when fluid
moves, transduction occurs.

-
 Pitch theories
- Place theory: hair cells in cochlea respond to different frequencies of
sound based on location (tonotopic map). We sense pitch because hair
cells move in diff places
- Frequency theory: lower tones are sensed by the rate at which cells fire.
Hair cells fire at different frequencies in the cochlea

Conduction deafness: something goes wrong with system conducting sound to cochlea
nerve/sensorineural deafness: hair cells in cochlea are damaged

TOUCH
- Different types of nerve endings in every patch of skin
- Some respond to pressure, temperature, etc

Gate control theory: some pain messages have higher priority than others

TASTE
- Taste buds are located on papillae (bumps on tongue
- Humans sense sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami
- More densely the taste buds are backed, the more intensely the food is tasted

NERVES INVOLVED IN CHEMICAL SENSE RESPOND TO CHEMICALS RATHER

THAN ENERGY

SMELL
- Molecules of smell settle into the mucous membrane at top of each nostril,
absorbed by receptor cells there. Receptor cells go to the olfactory bulb.
- Info from smell goes straight to the amygdala and hippocampus: powerful trigger
for memories.
- THIS IS UNLIKE ALL OTHERS WHERE IT GOES TO THALAMUS FIRST

Vestibular and kinesthetic

- Vestibular: how body is oriented in space, thanks to fluid of ears
- Kinesthetic: position and orientation of specific body parts
 Energy senses vision Rods, cones in retina

hearing Harilike cells in cochlea

touch Temperature, pressure,

pain nerves in skin

Chemical senses taste Taste buds on tongue

smell Smell receptors connected

to olfactory bulb

Body position senses vestibular Hairlike cells in inner ear

kinesthetic Receptors in muscles and

joints

Perception
Psychophysics: study of interaction between sensations we receive and experience of
them

Thresholds
- Senses are very acute but do have limits
- Absolute threshold: smallest amount of stimulus we can detect
- Stimuli below this is subliminal; not perceived
- Difference threshold aka. JND: smallest amount of change needed in stimulus
before a change is detected
- More intense the stimulus, more it needs to change to notice a difference

Theories:

Signal detection theory: investigates effect of distractions and interference experienced

when perceiving the world. how and when we predict the presence of a faint
stimulus. Takes into how motivated we are to detect certain stimuli and what our
expectations are

Response criteria (or receiver operating characteristics)

- False positive: when we think we perceive a stimulus is not there
- False negative: not perceiving a stimulus that is present
Top down processing: perceive by filling gaps of what we see
- Eg. I _ope yo_ _et a 5 on t__ A_ e_am.
- Uses schemas to fill in gaps of what we perceive
- Can create perceptual set: predisposition to perceiving something in a
certain way

Bottom-up processing (aka feature processing):

- Use features of object itself to build complete perception
- Top-down is faster but more prone to error, bottom-up takes longer but is
more accurate

Principles of visual perception

Gestalt principles:

Proximity Objects that are close together are more

likely to be perceived as belonging in the
same group

Similarity Objects that are similar in appearance are

more likely to be perceived as belonging
in the same group

Continuity Objects arranged in continuous line or

curve are more likely to be perceived as
belonging in same group

Closure Objects that make up recognizable image

are more likely to be perceived as
belonging to same group

Constancy: ability to maintain constant perception of object despite variations in light,

angle, etc

Size constancy Objects closer to eyes produce bigger

images in retinas. Keep constant size in
mind, and know that it doesn't grow or
shrink as it moves closer or father

Shape constancy Objects viewed from different angles

 produce different shapes on our retinas,
but we know shape of object remains
constant

Brightness constancy Perceive objects as being a constant

color even as light changes

Perceived motion

Stroboscopic effect: images in a series of still pictures presented at a certain speed will
appear to be moving

Phi phenomenon: series of lights turned on and off will appear to be one moving light

Autokinetic effect: if spot of light is projected onto one spot in a dark room, it will appear
to have moved

Depth cues

Monocular cues:
- Linear perspective: eg. drawing two lines that converge at top of paper when
drawing a road
- Relative size cue: objects closer to viewer are larger than things in the back
- Interposition cue: objects that block view of others must be closer
- Texture gradient: details in texture close to us but not far away
- Shadowing: depth

Binocular cues:
- Binocular disparity: each eye sees object from a slightly different angle
- Convergence: as object gets closer to our face, eyes must move toward each
other to keep focus on object

Some of these cues are NOT INNATE. Cross cultural studies have shown otherwise
Learning

What can we define learning as?

- Long lasting change in behavior resulting from experience

Classical conditioning
- PAVLOV
- Things can learn to associate neutral stimuli (eg. sounds) with stimuli that
produce involuntary responses (food), and can learn to respond similarly to the
new stimulus as they did with the old one
- ORIGINAL STIMULUS: known as unconditioned stimulus
- RESPONSE TO THIS STIMULUS IS unconditioned response
- NEW STIMULUS: known as conditioned stimulus
- Conditioned response
- We can say learning has taken place when the subject responds to the CS
without the US being presented, and still has the same response. Aka
acquisition

- Think about it with a dog example. The food produces an involuntary response
(aka unconditioned stimulus). The bell is neutral, and produces no response.
When paired together, the dog will learn to associate the bell with the food, and
thus, when the bell is rung, the neutral stimulus will become a conditioned
stimulus, and evoke the same response as the food does.

Ways of learning in CC
- Delayed conditioning: CS presented first, followed by US IMMEDIATELY after
- Trace Conditioning: presentation of CS, short break, and then US
- Simultaneous conditioning: both CS and US presented at same time
- Backward Conditioning: US first, then CS
Other things that can occur within CC
- Extinction: CS no longer elicits CR. achieved by presenting the CS without the
US
- Even after this, a phenomena called spontaneous recovery can occur,
where response will briefly reappear
- Generalization: respond to similar CS
- Discriminate: tell the difference between various stimuli

Pavlov’s Dog

Acquisition Dog learns to salivate to bell

Extinction Dog unlearns bell-food connection and

doesn’t salivate in response to bell

Spontaneous Recovery After extinction and time has passed, dog

salivates when hearing bell

Generalization Dog salivates to other bell-like noises

Discrimination Dog only salivates to sound of a specific

bell

- Aversive conditioning: associates an unpleasant state (such as nausea) with an

unwanted behavior
- Second order/higher order conditioning: USE CS AS US to condition response
to new stimulus

Biological correlates
- Humans animals are biologically prepared to make certain connections (between
stimuli and response) more easily
- Learned taste aversions: encounter unusual food or drink and then have
negative response, you will develop aversion to food or drink (AKA
GARCIA EFFECT for animals)
- Salience (more salient stimuli create a more powerful conditioned response)

OPERANT CONDITIONING
- A method of learning that alters the frequency of a behavior by manipulating its
consequences through reinforcement or punishment.
Law of effect: if consequences of behavior are positive, S-R connection will be
strengthened and likelihood of behavior will increase. Opposite for unpleasant stimuli
- CAN BE CALLED INSTRUMENTAL LEARNING
- Skinner coined this term

Positive reinforcement = adding something pleasant

Negative reinforcement = removing something unpleasant. INCREASING LIKELIHOOD
BEHAVIOR BY TAKING AWAY NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCE WHEN BEHAVIOR
HAPPENS
- Escape learning: allows one to terminate aversive stimulus
- Avoidance learning: allows one to avoid unpleasant stimulus altogether

IMPORTANT: ANY KIND OF REINFORCEMENT RESULTS IN BEHAVIOR BEING

MORE LIKELY TO BE REPEATED

Punishment: anything that makes behavior LESS LIKELY

- Positive punishment: adding something unpleasant
- Negative punishment: removal of something pleasant

Type Mechanism Examples

Positive Reinforcement Adds something pleasant Parent gives child present

as reward for clearing
room

Negative Reinforcement Removes something Parent stops yelling when

unpleasant child cleans room

Positive Punishment Adds something negative Parent yells when child

comes home after curfew

Negative Punishment Removes something Parent confiscates phone

pleasant when kid comes home
after curfew

Shaping: reinforcing the steps that are used to reach desired behavior
- Aka not just reinforcing when behavior is reached, but along the way as well
Chaining: link together number of separate behaviors into more complex activities

Primary reinforcers: food, water, rest, natural properties are reinforcing

Secondary reinforcers: things learned to value, such as playing a video game or praise

Premack principle: whichever of two activities is preferred can be used to

reinforce activity that is not preferred

REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULES

Ratio Interval

Fixed Reinforcement is delivered reinforces responses after

after set number of a standardized period of
responses time

EG. After buying ten ice EG. every 5 minutes, a

creams, you get one free reward will be given when
the right action occurs

Variable Reinforcement is delivered Reinforcement is delivered

after a variable number of after a behavior is
responses performed following a
variable amount of time
EG. Slot machines pay out
on variable ratio schedules EG. checking for mail
when you don’t know mail
mans schedule

Contingency model of CC
- A is contingent upon B when A depends upon B and vice versa
Cognition

Memory: learning that has persisted over time.

- How can we explain what memories get encoded and remembered or forgotten?
- Through models

three-box/information processing model:

External events processed by sensory memory -> some information is encoded into
short-term (working) memory -> some info is then encoded into long-term memory
- Selective attention determines what sensory messages get encoded from
sensory to short-term

Sensory memory: split second holding take for sensory information

- George sperling demonstrated this by flashing grid of nine letters
- ICONIC MEMORY: split second perfect photograph of a scene
- Echoic memory: BRIEF 3-4 SEC MEMORY OF SOUNDS

Short-term/working memory: temporary, if nothing is done w/ them then they fade in

10-30 seconds. Capicaty generally limited to around seven items, found by george
miller
- Can be expanded through chunking (increases mnemonic devices aka memory
aids), or rehearsal

Long-term memory: permant storage. Unlimited storage as we know. Stored in three

different formats

episodic Memories of specific events, stored sequentially. Eg. remembering last

 time went you on a date

semantic General knowledge of world, stored as facts, meanings, or categories.

Eg. grammar rules, vocab, etc

procedural Memories of skills and their procedure. Sequential, but too difficult to
describe in words

- Explicit or implicit
- Explicit (declarative): conscious memories of facts or events we actively
tried to remember
- Implicit (non-declarative): unintentional memories we might not realize we
have

eidetic/photographic memory, very rare: alexander luria studied

Levels of processing model

Memories are neither short-nor long term: we can examine how deeply the
memory was processed through two terms
- Deeply (elaboratively) processed
- If you study context and research reasons behind the fact, it’s
deeply processed and you will recall it later
- Shallowly (maintenance) processed
- Repeat a fact to yourself and then write it on test as quickly as you
can

Remember things we spend more cognitive time and energy processing

RETRIEVAL
Two different kinds: recognition and recall
- Recognition: matching a current event or fact with one already in memory
- Recall: retrieving a memory with an external cue

This can explain why we can retrieve some memories and we forget others
- Primacy effect: more likely to recall items at start of list
- Recency effect: more likely to recall items t end of list
- Called serial position effect
 Semantic memory theory: brain might form new memories by connecting
meaning and context with meanings alreayd in memory
- Brain creates a web of interconnected memories, each one tied in context
to other memories

Flashbulb memories: importance of event caused encoding of the context surrounding

event.

Mood-congruent memory: likelihood of recalling item when mood matches the modd we
were in when event happened

State dependent memory: recalling events encoded while in particular states of

consciousness

FORGETTING

Decay: because we don’t use a memory or connections to a memory for a longer period
in time
- Relearning effect, memorizing capitals again takes less time than it did the first
time you studied them

Interference: other info in memory competes with what you’re trying to recall

Retroactive interference (looking for old Learning new info interferes with recall of
info) old information. If you study psych at 3
and sociology at 6, you might have
trouble recalling psych info on a test the
next day

Proactive interference (looking for new Older info learned previously interferes
info) with recall of information learned more
recently.

Damage to hippocampus might have anterograde amnesia: cannot encode new

memories, but can recall events already in memory
- Thus, procedural memory is stored elsewhere

Long-term potentiation: neurons can strengthen connections between each other

through repeated firings. NEURONS THAT FIRE TOGETHER WIRE TOGETHER
LANGUAGE

Phonemes: smallest units of sound

Morphemes: smallest units of meaningful sounds. Language consists of phonemes put
together to become morphemes.

Language acquisition
- Occurs around 4 months of age. Babbling seems to be innate.
- Babies can produce any phoneme from any language in the world.
- Babbling progresses into utterances of words, (holophrastic stage or
one-word stage)
- 18 months, telegraphic speech or two-word stage.
- Meaning is clear, but no syntax. Overgeneralization is misapplication of
grammar rules

Language we use might control and limit our thinking: ling. Relativity hypothesis

PROBLEM SOLVING
Algorithms: rule that guarantees the right solution by using formula or other foolproof
method.

Heuristic: rule of thumb, rule that is generally but not always tree that we can use to
make judgment in situation

Availability heuristic Judging a situation based on examples of

similar situations that come to mind
initially. Might lead to incorrect
conclusions due to variability in personal
experience

Representativeness heuristic Judging situation based on how similar

aspects are to prototypes that person
holds in their mind.

Belief bias: illogical conclusions in order to confirm preexisting beliefs

Belief perseverance: tendency to maintain a belief even after the evidence used to form
the belief is contradicted.

CREATIVITY
- Convergent thinking: thinking pointed toward one solution
- Divergent thinking: thinking that searches for multiple possible answers to a
question.
Testing and Individual Differences

Francis galton: pioneer in study of human intelligence and testing

Key terms:
- Standardized: test items have been piloted on similar population of people who
are meant to take the test aka standardization sample
- Psychometricians (people who make tests)

Reliability vs. validity: CONSISTENCY VS ACCURACY

- Reliability = repeatability or consistency of test as a means of measurement. If
you took an IQ test three times and received 100iq each time, it would be reliable
- Split half reliability: randomly dividing test into two different sections and
correlating people’s performance on the test. Closer the CC is to +1, more
reliable
- Equivalent form reliability: correlation between performance on different
forms of the test
- Test-retest reliability: correlation between a person’s score on one
administration of the test with the same person’s score on a subsequent
administration of the same test
- Validity: measures what it’s supposed to measure (aka accuracy of a test)
- Eg. A personality test should measure one’s personality.
- A TEST CANNOT BE VALID IF IT IS NOT RELIABLE
- Face validity: face validity of an instrument is the extent to which the items
or content of the test appear to be appropriate for measuring something,
regardless of whether they actually are.
- Falls under larger construct of Content validity: how well measure
reflects what its supposed to be testing
- Criterion validity
- Concurrent validity: how much of a characteristic a person has now
- Predictive validity: measure of future performance, does a person
have qualities that would enable something to be x in the future
- Construct validity: the extent to which there is evidence that a test
measures a particular hypothetical construct

Types of tests
- Aptitude tests: measure ability or potential
- Achievement tests: measure what one has learned or accomplished.
- Speed tests: how quickly one can solve problems
 - Power test: gauge difficult level of problems that one can solve, Items of
increasing difficulty levels
- Group tests, individual tests

Intelligence: the ability to gather and use information in productive ways

- Fluid vs crystallized intelligence
- Fluid: ability to solve abstract problems and pick up new information and
skills
- Crystallized intelligence: using knowledge that’s accumulated over time

FLUID DECREASES OVER TIME, CRYSTAL SAYS SAME OR INCREASES

Three main theories of intelligence

Spearman Intelligence can be measured by a single, general ability

Gardner Theory of multiple intelligences: intelligence should be applied to wide

variety of abilities

Sternberg Triarchic theory of intelligence: analytical, practical, and create

intelligence

Intelligence Tests
- Alfred Binet: mental age concept
- Stanford binet-iq test. MENTAL AGE/CHRONOLOGICAL AGE * 100

- Wechsler: tests deviation IQ

- Mean is 100, standard deviation is 15, and scores form normal distribution

Heritability: measure of how much of a trait’s variation is explained by genetic factors;

range from 0 to 1 (environment is totally responsible vs all genetic)
Developmental Psych

Most freq. used methods: cross-sectional or longitudinal

Teratogens: chemicals that cause harm if ingested or contracted by the mother

Reflexes

rooting Touching on the cheek -> baby turns head to where the touch was
felt, and try to put object into mouth

sucking Infant will suck on object placed in mouth

grasping Object placed in palm or foot pad will result in grasping

moro Startling -> baby will fling limbs out and then retract to be as small
as possible

babinski Foot stroking -> spread the toes

Babies born w/ certain visual preferences

- Symmetrical objects and shapes organized in imitation of face
- 12 inches in front of them after birth

5.5 months -> babies can roll over -> 8/9 months -> stand -> 15 months -> walk

Attachment Theory
- Lorenz established principle of imprint on individuals
- Attachment: reciprocal relationship between caregiver and child

Harry Harlow
- Raised baby monkeys with wire frame figures made to resemble mother
monkeys. One had a bottle and one was soft, and monkeys preferred the
soft figure.
- All monkeys who were raised by wireframe became more stressed and
frightened when placed into new situations
Mary Ainsworth
- Placed infants into strange situations where no parents were there
- Infants with secure attachments: able to explore new environment
when parents were present, distressed when the parents leave,
and come to parents when they return
 - Infants with avoidant attachments resist being held by parents
and explore novel environments. Do not go to parents for comfort
when they return after absence.
- Infants with anxious/ambivalent/resistant attachments may
show extreme stress when parents leave but resist being comforted
by them why they return

Parenting Styles
- Diana Baumrind researched parent-child interactions and came up with three
overall categories

Authoritarian: strict standards for children’s behavior and apply punishments for
violations. Punishment, rather than reinforcement.

Permissive: do not set clear guidelines for children

Authoritative: set, consistent standards for children’s behavior, but standards are
reasonable. Discuss with parents.

Stage Theory
Continuity vs discontinuity:
- Do we develop continually from birth to death, or is development discontinuous,
happening in fits and has some periods of rapid development and some of little
- We know how this happens biologically, but not psychologically

Vygotsky’s ZPD: range of tasks the child can perform independently and those the child
needs assistance with. Authority figures can provide scaffolds for students to help them
accomplish such tasks, and that helps cognitive development.

Freud psychosexual stages

Stage Focus

Oral (0-18) Pleasure centers on mouth

Anal (18-36) Bowel and bladder elimination

Phallic (3-6) Coping w sexual feelings

Latency (6 to puberty) Dormant sexual feelings

Genital (puberty on) Maturation of sexual interests

Erikson Psychosocial Stage Theory

Trust vs mistrust Babies learn whether or not they can trust
caregivers. This trust or mistrust will carry
on throughout rest of lives

Autonomy vs shame and doubt Autonomy = control over own body, and
toddlers begin to exert will over their own
bodies

Initiative vs guilt Children feel a natural curiosity about the

world, ask many questions. If people
scold us, we might learn to feel guilty
about asking questions

Industry vs inferiority Beginning of formal education. Asked to

produce work that's evaluated. If we
realize that we aren’t ahead, we feel
inferiority complex

Identity vs role confusion Adolescence. Discover what social

identity we are most comfortable with

Intimacy vs isolation Figure out how to balance ties between

work and relationships with other people

Generativity vs stagnation Critically at life path, seize control of our

lives at this point

Integrity vs despair Decide if we are satisfied with life or not

Piaget:
Sensorimotor — babies start exploring world through senses, no object permanence

Preoperational — acquire object permanence, speak language. Egocentric

Concrete operational — demonstrate conservation, more complex relationships

between different characteristics of objects

Formal operational — abstract reasoning and thinking.

Kohlberg stage theory: morality

Preconventional: making the decision most likely to avoid punishment, egocentric

reasoning—limited to how the choice affects themselves

Conventional: move past personal gain or loss and look at moral choice through others’
eyes. Make moral choice based on conventional standards

Postconventional: self-defined ethical principles/individuals rights and values involved in

the choice
Motivation and Emotion

Drive reduction theory:

- Theory that behavior is motivated by biological needs. Body seeks homeostasis,
and when out of homeostasis, we have a need that creates a drive.
- Primary drive: biological needs
- Secondary drives: learned drives

Arousal theory:
- We seek an optimum level of excitement of arousal.
- Most people perform best with optimum level of arousal.
- Yerkes dodson law: performance increases with mental arousal but only up
to a point

Opponent process theory:

- People are usually at a normal/baseline state. We might perform an act that
removes us from baseline state, but we get an opponent process, which is a
motivation to return to baseline state.
- Withdrawal can also move us away from baseline, which creates a cycle
with physically addictive substances

Incentive theory:
- Learn to associate some stimuli with awards and some with punishment, and we
are motivated to seek the rewards.

MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS, TOP TO BOTTOM

Self-actualization Fulfill unique potential
needs

Esteem needs Achieve and gain approval and recognition

Belongingness and To be accepted and belong

love needs

Safety needs To feel safe and secure

Physiological needs Satisfy drives for hunger, thirst, and sex

Bottom needs must be met to move up
Biological Basis of Hunger

Hypothalamus: monitors and helps control body chemistry, and thus makes us feel
hungry when we need to eat
- Lateral hypothalamus: causes animal to eat
- Ventromedial hypothalamus: causes animal to stop eating
- If these areas functionally normally, these two areas oppose each other and
signal impulses to eat and not eat at certain times
- Set-point theory: hypothalamus wants to maintain certain optimum body weight.
When we drop below that, lateral hypo is activated and lowers metabolic rate.
Vice versa.

Psychological Factors in Hunger Motivation

Externals: some are more motivated to eat by external food cues, such as
attractiveness or availability of food

Internals: respond more often to internal hunger cues, less from presence and
presentation of food

Garcia effect: can affect what foods make us hungry by pairing a response with a
stimulus

Sexual motivation

Sexual desire is not motivated strictly by hormones

- Four phases of sexual response

Prenatal exposure to certain chemicals or hormones may change brain structure and
influence sexual orientation

Social Motivation

Achievement motivation: examines desires to master complex tasks and knowledge and
to reach personal goals

Extrinsic vs intrinsic motivation

 - Extrinsic: motivators we get for accomplishments from outside ourselves (aka
grades, money)
- Intrinsic: rewards we get internally (satisfaction, enjoyment)
- Obviously, intrinsic > extrinsic for maintaining a pattern of behavior for a
long time

Conflicting motives
- Approach-approach: choose between two desirable outcomes
- Avoidance avoidance: two unattractive options
- Approach-avoidance: one event has both unattractive and attractive features
- Multiple approach-avoidance: must choose between two or more things that have
both unattractive and attractive features

Theories about Emotion

James-Lange: emotion is felt because of biological changes caused by stress

Cannon-Bard: thalamus receives info -> sends signals to cortex and autonomic nervous
system, creating emotion
Two-factor theory: both physical responses and schemas combine to cause particular
emotional response

Measuring stress: SRRS

General adaptation syndrome

Alarm Heart rate increases, blood diverted away
from body functions to muscles needed to
react

resistance remains physiologically ready, hormones

released

exhaustion PNS returns physiological state to normal

can be vulnerable in this stage to external
stimuli
PERSONALITY

Personality: unique attitudes, behaviors, and emotions that characterize a person

Type A vs Type B
- Type A: tend to feel a sense of time pressure, easily angered. Competitive,
ambitious, work hard, play hard.
- Tybe B: relaxed and easy going

Freudian Personality Theory

- Personality consists of id, ego, and superego
- Id = unconscious, contains instincts and psychic energy
- Instincts = eros (life) and thanatos (death)
- Id is propelled by pleasure principle, wants immediate gratification
- Entirely unconscious
- Ego: negotiate between desires of id and limitations of environment, and is thus
partly unconscious and conscious
- Superego: acts as a conscience and mediator between id and superego

Reaction formation: expressing the opposite of how one truly feels

Sublimation: channeling one’s frustration towards a different goal

Psychodynamic theories
- Jung: unconscious consists of personal unconscious and collective unconscious
- Personal consists of painful or threatening memories that the person does
not wish to confront (aka complexes)
- Collective is passed down through species and explains similarities we
see throughout cultures. Contains archetypes.
- Adler: focused on conscious role of the ego

Trait Theories
- We can describe people’s personalities by specifying their main characteristics.
- Nomothetic approach: same basic set of traits can be used to describe all
people’s personalities
- Hans Eysenck classified people with introversion extroversion and
stable unstable scale
- Raymond Cattell: 16 PF test to measure what 16 basic traits were
 - However, nowadays Costa and Mccrae have established the Big Five
personality traits: extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness,
openness to experience, and emotional stability
- Factor analysis: use correlations between traits to see which traits can cluster
together as factors. For instance, if we have punctuality, diligence and neatness,
and a correlation is found, then we could say that they are a common factor
- Idiographic theorists: using the same set of terms to classify all people is
impossible
- Gordon allport: some common traits, full understanding was impossible
w/o looking at one’s personal traits.
- Cardinal dispositions: traits that play a pivotal role in everything
they do
- Central dispositions: large influence of personality, describe more
significant aspects of personality
- Secondary dispositions
- Issue with these theories? Context is not taken into account

Biological Theories
- Little evidence exists for heritability of certain personality traits.
- Much evidence suggests that genes play a role in people’s temperaments.
- Sheldon’s somatotype theory, identified three body types and associated certain
personality traits with those types

Behaviorist Theory: behavior is personality, and personality is determined by

environment.

Social-Cognitive Theories:
- Bandura: personality is created by interaction between traits, environment, and
person’s behavior
- Based on idea of triadic reciprocality aka reciprocal determinism + each of
these three factors influence both of the others in constant looplike fashion
- Example: brad is friendly, which makes him talk to a lot of people.
As such, he goes to parties a lot (environment). This environment
reinforces brad’s nature
- Kelly: personal-construct theory, in attempts to understand the world, people
develop individual system of personal constructs. These are opposites
(fair-unfair), and then they use constructs to evaluate world
 - Fundamental postulate: people’s behavior is influenced by their cognitions
and that by knowing how people have behaved in the past, we can predict
how they’ll act in the future
- Rotter: locus of control
- Internal locus: feel responsible for what happens to them
- External locus: luck and other forces determine their destinies

Humanistic Theories
- View people as innately good and able to determine their own destinies through
the existence of free will.
- Therefore, personality roots from their subjective feelings about self

Assessment techniques
Projective tests: asking people to interpret ambiguous stimuli
- Rorschach inkblot test
- TAT (thematic apperception test): consists of person in ambiguous situation and
asked to describe whats happening.
Self report inventories: questionnaires that ask people to provide information about
themselves
- MMPI: minnesota multiphasic personality inventory: self-report inventory, people
may not be completely honest in answering questions

Barnum effect: people have tendency to see themselves in vague descriptions of

personality.
PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS

Defining psych disorders:

- maladaptive/disturbing to the individuals
- Disturbing to others
- Unusual—aka not shared by many members of population
- Irrational; doesn’t make sense to average person
Psychologists use DSM to determine whether or not someone has psychological
disorder

Insanity applied: people who cannot be held entirely responsible for their crimes

Different perspectives on causes of psych disorders

Perspective Cause of disorder

psychoanalytic/dynamic Internal, unconscious conflicts

humanistic Failure to strive toward one's potential or

being out of touch with one's feelings

behavioral Reinforcement history, the environment

cognitive Irrational, dysfunctional thoughts or ways

of thinking

sociocultural Dysfunctional society

biomedical Organic problems, biochemical

imbalances, genetic predispositions

Anxiety disorders
- Phobias, generalized anxiety disorder, and panic disorder
- Specific phobia: intense unwarranted fear of situation or object. Falls
under anxiety because contact with the feared object or situation results in
anxiety
- Agoraphobia: fear of open, public spaces
- Generalized anxiety disorder: experiences constant, low-level anxiety
- Panic disorder: acute episodes of intense anxiety without any apparent
provocation
Somatic symptom and related disorders
- Somatic symptom disorder: when a person manifests a psychological problem
through a physiological symptom. Aka, physical problem with no identifiable
physical cause
- Conversion disorder: experience severe physical problem but no physical
reasons for the problem can be identified

Dissociative Disorders
- Dissociative amnesia: a person cannot remember things and no physiological
basis for the disruption in memory can be identified
- DID: a person has several personalities rather than one integrated personality.
Commonly have history of some childhood trauma

Depressive Disorders
- Major depressive disorder criteria:
- Unhappy for more than two weeks in the absence of a clear reason
- Loss of appetite, fatigue, change in sleeping patterns, lack of interest in
normally enjoyable activities
- SAD
- Bipolar disorder: involves both depressed and manic episodes

Schizophrenic Disorders
- Fundamental symptom: disordered, distorted thinking often demonstrated
through delusions, hallucinations, disorganized language, and/or unusual affect
and motor behavior
- Delusions:
- Persecution: people are out to get you
- Grandeur: belief that you enjoy greater power and influence than
you do
- Hallucinations:
- Perceptions in absence of any sensory stimulation
- Odd uses of language:
- Neologisms (make up own words)
- Clang associations (string together a series of nonsense word that
rhyme)
- Inappropriate affect ( might laugh in response to hearing someone
has died) or have flat affect
 - Catatonia:
- May remain motionless in strange postures for hours at a time,
move jerkily and quickly for no apparent reason, or alternate
between the two
- Positive and negative symptoms
- Positive: excesses in behavior
- Negative: deficits in behavior
- Double binds: person is given contradictory messages
- Diathesis stress model: environmental stressors can provide circumstances
under which a biological predisposition can express itself

Personality Disorders
- Antisocial personality disorder: have little regard for other people’s feelings, view
world as hostile place where people need to look out for themselves
- Histrionic personality disorder: overly dramatic behavior

SUMMARY OF PSYCH DISORDERS

Category Major Symptoms Examples

Anxiety disorders Anxiety—autonomic Phobias, GAD, panic

arousal, nervousness disorder

Somatic symptom Physical complaints Conversion disorders

disorders without any organic cause

Dissociative disorders Disruption in DID, psychogenic amnesia

consciousness

Mood disorders Disturbances in mood Major depressive disorder,

bipolar disorder

schizophrenia Delusions, hallucinations

Personality disorders Maladaptive ways of Antisocial, narcissistic,

behaving obsessive
Treatment of Psychological Disorders

Trephining: making holes to let harmful spirits escape

Preventative efforts are typically categorized into one of three levels

- PRIMARY: Efforts attempt to reduce the incidence of societal problems that can
give rise to mental health issues
- SECONDARY: working with people at risk for developing certain problems
- TERTIARY: aim to keep people’s issues from becoming more severe

Types of Therapy
- Psychotherapy = psychoanalytic, humanistic, behavioral, cognitive psychologists
- Somatic treatments = biomedical

Psychoanalysis: view the cause of disorders as unconscious conflicts, so their focus in

on identifying the underlying cause of the problem
- Other methods of therapy may rid a client of a certain symptom, but don’t
address the true problem
- Aka symptom substitution
- Three main strategies to delve into the unconscious minds of patients. These rely
heavily on interpretations of therapists and are criticized for their subjectivity
- Hypnosis: altered state of consciousness, people are less likely to repress
troubling thoughts
- Free association: say whatever comes to mind without thinking
- Dream analysis: ask patients to describe their dreams
- Manifest content: what patient reports
- Latent content: revealed only as a result of the therapist’s interpretative work
- When patients disagree with therapists’ interpretations, this is called
resistance
- Transference: patients begin to have strong feelings towards their therapists
- These are sometimes referred to as insight therapies

Humanistic therapies: focus on helping people understand and accept themselves, and
strive to self-actualize.
- Client-centered therapy/person-centered therapy (created by rogers)—hinges on
the therapist providing client with unconditional positive regard
- Generally non-directive and encourage clients to took a lot (active
listening)
 - Gestalt therapy, developed by Perls: encourage clients to explore feelings of
which they may not be aware and get in touch with their whole selves
- Existential therapy: help clients achieve a subjectively meaningful perception of
their lives.

Behavior therapies: base therapies upon principles of behaviorism

- Counterconditioning: developed by jones, in which unpleasant conditioned
response is replaced with a pleasant one.
- Think a kid crying when visiting a doctor—mom might bring candy
everytime they go to the doctor
- Systematic desensitization: teach client to replace the feelings of anxiety with
relaxation
- Teach client to relax, then construct an anxiety hierarchy (rank-ordered list
of what the client fears, starting with the least frightening and ending with
the most frightening.)
- In vivo desensitization, client confronts actual feared objects or situations
- Covert desensitization, client imagines fear inducing stimuli
- Flooding: involves client addressing the most frightening scenario first
- Modeling: have a client watch someone else interact with a fear
- Aversive conditioning: pairing a habit a person wishes to break with an
unpleasant stimulus
- Token economy: desired behaviors are identified and rewarded with tokens.

Cognitive therapies: methods combat unhealthy thought patterns

- Attributional style is a way of explaining positive or negative events
- Cognitive therapy: involves trying to get clients engaged in pursuits that will bring
them success
- Cognitive triad: people’s beliefs about themselves, their worlds, and their
futures.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapies: combines ideas and techniques of cognitive and

behavioral psychologists
- Rational emotive behavior therapy, ellis: look to expose and confront
dysfunctional thoughts of their clients. Focuses on what clients think and do.

Group Therapy
- Less expensive for clients and also offers feedback and insights of peers

Somatic Therapy
- Psychopharmacology or chemotherapy aka treating conditions with drugs
Chemotherapy
Type of Disorder Type of Drugs

Anxiety Barbiturates, benzodiazepines

Unipolar MAO inhibitors, tricyclic antidepressants,

SSRIS

Bipolar lithium

Schizophrenia Antipsychotics (neuroleptics)

ECT (electroconvulsive therapy): current is run through the brain, causing brief seizure.
Used for severe cases of depression.

Psychosurgery: purposeful destruction of part of brain to alter a person’s behavior

Social Psychology
- Broad field that studies the way people relate to others
- Social cognition: as people go through their daily lives, they act like scientists,
constantly gather data and making predictions about what will happen next so
they can act accordingly

Attitude: set of beliefs and feelings

Mere exposure effect: more one is exposed to something, the more one will come to like
it

Persuasive messages processed in two ways:

- Central route: deeply processing content of the message
- Peripheral route: involves the other aspects of the message including the
characteristics of the person giving the message (think celebrity endorsement)

Relationships between Attitudes and behavior

- Lapiere: attitudes do not direct behaviors

Festinger and carlsmith: cognitive dissonance theory

Compliance
- Foot-in-the-door phenomenon: get people to agree to a smell request, more likely
to agree to follow-up large request
- Door-in-the-face: highball and lowball

Norms of reciprocity
Attribution theory:
- Explains how people determine the cause of what they observe
- dispositional/person attribution: aka charley getting a good score on his
math test, so you think he is very good at math
- Situational attribution: attributing charley’s success to taking an easy test
- Attribution is a stable one = stable, attribution is something temporary
(Like studied for a test) = unstable.

People make attributions based on three kinds of information: consistency,

distinctiveness, consensus
- Consistency: how similar individual acts in same situation over time
- Distinctiveness: How similar this situation is to other situations in which we have
watched charley
- Consensus: how other people in similar situations have responded
False-consensus effect—overestimate number of people who agree with them
Self-serving bias: tendency to take credit more good outcomes than for bad ones

Combating prejudice
Contact theory: contact between hostile groups can alleviate prejudice