PSYCHOLOGY BY Sir ALMASI

The History and Scope of Psychology

A. What is Psychology?

• Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior
• Psychology is more than common sense
• Why is psychology scientific?
• because it is based on empiricism
• the notion that all knowledge can be acquired through observation, not on reasoning, tradition or common sense

 

• Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior
• mind
• the contents of subjective experience
• sensations, thoughts, and emotions
• behavior
• observable actions
• thought and feelings
• activities of cells

B.     Roots of Modern Psychology

• in the late 1800's both physiologists and philosophers were investigating the mind
• philosophy - "why"
• physiology - "how"
• philosophy - ideas of about the acquisition of knowledge
• physiology - progress in understanding the nervous system, senses, etc
• both came together to create the idea of applying the methods of science to the study of human behavior

C.     The First Schools: Psychology Emerges as a Science

• Wilhelm Wundt
• established psychology as an independent science
• first psychology lab, in Germany (1879)
• defined psychology as the study of conscious experience
• typical questions
• how are sensations turned into mental awareness of the outside world?
• what are the basic elements of thought?

 

• Psychology comes to America
• Wundt's students start labs across USA (1880 - 1900)
• Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Stanford
• UW-Madison Psychology department formed 1888

 

• Structuralism
• Edward Titchner
• analyze consciousness into basic elements and study how they are related
• introspection - systematic self-observation of one's own conscious experiences

 

• Functionalism
• William James (1842 - 1910)
• investigate the function, or purpose of consciousness, rather than its structure
• e.g., bricks and mortar of a house versus its usefulness
• Functionalist activities
• leaned toward applied work and more natural settings
• development in children
• educational practices
• usefulness of memory techniques

 

• Structuralism vs Functionalism
• Structuralism - What? Analyze consciousness into basic elements
• Functionalism - Why? Investigate the function, or purpose of consciousness

 

• Gestalt Psychology
• Max Wertheimer (1880 - 1943)
• phi phenomenon
• reaction against structuralism
• elementary thought particles don't capture experience
• "the whole is different than the sum of its parts"

 

• Behaviorism
• John Watson (1878 - 1958)
• attack on introspection
• psychology, as a science, should focus on observable behavior
• mental processed cannot be studied directly, so don't try!
• often referred to as Stimulus-Response psychology
• B.F. Skinner (1904 - 1990)
• like Watson, all behavior can be explained by stimulus-response pairing
• emphasized the importance of reinforcement and punishment
• Psychology (1920's - 1960's)
• Behaviorism: Psychology is the science of observable behavior
• John Watson: Behavior without reference to thought
• the rat and SR psychology
• BF Skinner: Behaviorism based on consequences
• the pigeon and the Skinner box

D.    Freud and the Humanists: The Influence of the Clinic

• Freud and Psychoanalysis
• The Unconscious
• thoughts, memories, and desires exist below conscious awareness and exert an influence on our behavior
• Psychoanalytic theory
• personality, mental disorders and motivation explained in terms of unconscious determinants of behavior
• unconscious expressed in dreams and "slips of the tongue"
• emphasis on the role of childhood experienced in shaping adult behavior

 

• The Humanistic response
• rejects pessimistic view of Freud
• potential for self-awareness, responsibility and growth
• Carl Rogers' client-centered therapy
• Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs and self actualization

E.    Understanding the Focus of Modern Psychology

• The cognitive revolution (1960's)
• Noam Chomsky and Language
• Advent of computers (late 1950's) provides a new model for thinking about the mind
• a return to the study of learning, memory, perception, language, development and problem solving

 

• Developments in biology
• physiological recording devices - single cell recording, EEG, CT, PET, MRI
• understanding neurotransmitters

 

• Recognizing Culture
• before - searched for universal principles
• now - cross-cultural factors important
• culture - shared values, customs, and beliefs

F.    What Psychologists Do Today

• Research Psychologists
• conduct experiments or collect observations designed to uncover the basic principles of behavior and mind
• Biopsychologists
• investigate the biological basis of behavior
• Personality Psychologists
• study the differences between individuals
• Cognitive Psychologists
• conduct research on memory, language, problem-solving
• Experimental Psychologists
• conduct research on sensation, perception, and basic learning
• Developmental Psychologists
• study human mental and physical growth from conception to death
• Social Psychologists
• study how people influence one another

• Applied Psychologists
• try to extend the principles of scientific psychology to the practical, everyday problems of the world
• School Psychologists
• assist in children's educational, intellectual and social development
• designing programs for special need children
• testing
• teaching
• Industrial/Organizational
• use psychological principles to improve work environment
• predicting job performance, assessing leadership, factors contributing to job satisfaction
• Human Factors/Engineering
• design and engineering of new products
• how best to design new keyboard or telephone touch pad
• best place to put knobs on stove
• Environmental
• the relationship between the physical environment and psychological processes
• functioning of workers in different environments
• people's sense of personal space
• Forensic Psychologists
• interface between psychology and the law
• assisting victims of crime
• profiling criminals
• selecting jurors for trials

 

• Clinical Psychologists
• specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders
• clinical psychologists versus counseling psychologists
• clinical psychologists versus psychiatrists

·  What holds it all together?

• the desire to describe, predict, understand, and control behavior

Psy281
Introductory Psychology

The History and Scope of Psychology

Review Questions

1. What does the word "psychology" mean? What is the current definition of psychology? Why is psychology said to be scientific? What does empiricism mean? How do psychologists define "behavior" and "mind"?

 

2. If you conceive of the mind as a "black box", what are three ways in which you could study the workings of the black box?

3. In what disciplines do the roots of modern psychology lie?

 

4. Describe the basic ideas behind the school of structuralism. Who were the pioneers of this approach?

 

5. What is systematic introspection, and why did the structuralists use it as a method? What are the problems with systematic introspection?

 

6. What is the basic approach of functionalism, and how does this approach differ from structuralism? Who were the pioneers of this approach?

 

7. What effect did functionalism have on the development of psychology?

 

8. What were the basic problems that many psychologists saw with attempting to scientifically investigate consciousness? What are the basic principles behind behaviorism, and who are its pioneering figures?

 

9. What are the basic assumptions in Freud's theory of psychoanalysis? What unique contributions did Freud make to the science of psychology?

 

10. What are the basic ideas behind humanistic psychology, and how is it a reaction against the Freudian approach? What is client-centered therapy?

 

11. Describe the cognitive revolution, how it differs from behaviorism, and some of the factors that led to it.

 

12. In what ways does the computer serve as a model for the mind?

 

13. Relate the strides made in technology and the understanding of brain chemistry to psychology; describe the biological approach.

 

14. Why is culture an important consideration in the study of mind and behavior?

 

15. Describe the three major types of psychologists, and give at least 2 examples of each, describing the type of work they do.

 

16. What the difference between psychiatrists and clinical psychologists? Between clinical psychologists and counseling psychologists (i.e., what types of problems would the two types address)?

What is Your Personal Theory?

Whether or not people study psychology, they develop theories about human behavior. People appear to have a need to categorize people and events to "make sense" of the world.

The following activity should give you an idea about your personal theory of human behavior before you begin your formal study of psychology. Rate, on a scale of 1 to 5, the degree to which you believe in each of the following statements. (1= Absolutely don’t believe, 5 = Completely believe)

1. Even the most subtle behaviors tell you something about the person.
2. Nothing makes you angry; you choose to become angry.
3. Consciousness is the same thing as nervous system activity.
4. Our actions are caused by events in our environment.
5. Criminals sometimes leave evidence because they really want to get caught.
6. You really can't know what goes on in someone's mind. All you can know is how they act.
7. It is important for each individual to develop a clear sense of who they are.
8. People make rational choices by weighing the alternatives.
9. You can change behavior with rewards and punishments.
10. We don't often realize the real reason we do something.
11. Our behavior reflects our thoughts.
12. People process information much in the same way that computers do.
13. To understand behavior, you have to understand how the nervous system works.
14. Much of our behavior is genetically determined.
15. You can discover a lot about your unconscious mind by interpreting the symbols that appear in your dreams.
16. To be happy, you need to live up to your fullest potential.
17. Ultimately, each person is responsible for his or her actions.
18. Sometimes people behave irrationally because they think irrationally.
19. Many times its the behavior that's the problem.
20. To understand emotions, you must understand hormones.

What is Your Personal Theory?

Scoring:

For each of the 5 approaches below, add up the ratings for associated questions. The approach with the highest total would be said to be your primary approach to explaining and understanding human behavior.

Psychoanalytic Approach:   1, 5, 10, 15
Behavioral Approach:  4, 6, 9, 19
Humanistic Approach:  2, 7, 16, 17
Cognitive Approach:  8, 11, 12, 18
Biological Approach:  3, 13, 14, 20

Note that for the purposes of this activity, some of the statements have been classified with one approach, but they could easily have been classified with another. For example, item #11 has been classified as being characteristic of the cognitive approach; it is probably equally representative of the humanistic approach. That is, besides differences, there are many similarities between the various approaches to the study of human behavior.

The Research Process in Psychology

A.  Introduction to Psychological Methods

• What makes psychology a science?
• the methods it uses to ask questions about behavior and mental processes
• empiricism
• systematic investigation

 

• Goal of psychology, as a science
• to find the principles, or laws, which govern behavior

 

• Steps in scientific process
• measure and describe
• predict and understand
• control

 

• Predicting and understanding
• need to explain reasons for behavior
• form a theory to explain behavior
• a set of interrelated ideas used to explain a set of observations
• evaluating a theory
• form and test a hypothesis based on theory
• a tentative statement about the relationship between two or more variables
• example
• develop theory - aggressive behavior is modeled
• form hypothesis - watching violent TV leads to more aggression
• test hypothesis - measure time watching TV and aggressiveness
• refine theory - do data support the theory? revise theory to better fit data

• Research Strategies / Designs
• How does psychology describe, predict and explain behavior and mental processes? I.
• descriptive research
• correlational research
• experiments
• Data Collection Methods
• Observation
• naturalistic
• testing
• reactivity
• external validity
• Self-Report
• questionnaire/interview
• memory/awareness
• self-serving bias

B. Research Strategies

• Descriptive Studies
• Self-report: surveys
• study  a large number of people
• information typically not in-depth and possibility of self-report
• Self-report/observational
• study a small number of individuals in great depth
• individual may not be representative of general population
• sampling bias
• population: large collection of people we want to generalize
• sample: collection of subjects used in a study
• Observational Research: Naturalistic Observation
• behavior is observed, not explained
• good for getting initial ideas about behavior
• time and expense
• reactivity -> external validity questions
• Summary of descriptive research
• can chart unknown - what's out there?
• exploratory - what factors might matter
• can not explain what is found

 

• Correlational research
• is there a relationship between two variables
• e.g., IQ scores and GPA
• scatterplots
• correlation coefficient represents the strength of relationship
• sign (+/-) indicates direction of relationship (positive or negative)
• size of coefficient indicates strength of relationship (.00 to 1.00)
• correlation does not prove causation
• all it shows is a relationship
• don't know if one "causes" the other or if there is a third variable
• summary of correlational research
• determine if a relationship exists
• useful in prediction
• does not indicate causation

 

• Experiments
• determine cause and effect relationship between two variables
• experimental variables
• independent variable (IV)
• condition or event that the experimenter varies
• dependent variable (DV)
• variable thought to be affected by the IV
• extraneous variable
• anything other than the IV that may influence the DV
• confounding variables
• when two variables are linked such that it is difficult to sort out their specific effects on the DV
• internal validity
• if confounding variable are effectively controlled, have internal validity
• i.e., can make conclusions about cause and effect
• random assignment
• one way of eliminating confounds
• all subjects have an equal chance of being assigned to any group or condition
• sources of bias in experiments
• subject expectations
• e.g., the Hawthorne effect
• demand characteristics
• cues in the study that suggest to the subject what the researcher expects to find
• reduce subject expectation effects
• disguise true purpose
• placebo
• experimenter effects
• when the researcher's expectations influence the results
• e.g., Clever Hans
• ways to control experimenter effects
• double-blind experiments
• advantages of experiments
• reliable cause and effect relationships
• control over IVs and DVs
• control over extraneous variables
• disadvantages of experiments
• artificial laboratory setting
• limited set of variables
• may not be appropriate for some research

Biological Basis of Behavior

Part I.   The Human Nervous System

A. The Central and Peripheral Nervous Systems

• Functions of the nervous system
• input of sensory info
• processing and integration of info already stored info
• output of messages to muscles and glands
• The central nervous system
• brain and spinal cord
• blood-brain barrier
• semi-permeable membrane-like mechanism that prevents some chemicals from passing between the bloodstream and the brain
• The peripheral system
• Somatic and autonomic nervous systems
• somatic system
• nerves that connect to voluntary skeletal muscles and to sensory receptors
• afferent pathway
• carry info away from the periphery to the CNS
• efferent pathway
• carry info from the CNS outward to the periphery
• autonomic system
• nerves that connect to the heart, blood vessels, smooth muscles, glands
• sympathetic division
• mobilizes the body's resources for emergencies (e.g., stimulates adrenal gland)
• parasympathetic division
• generally conserves bodily resources (e.g., slows heart rate)

B. Building Blocks of Nervous System: Neurons

• Types of Neurons
• sensory (few million), interneurons (100 billion), and motor neurons (few million)
• sensory (afferent) neurons
• carry messages from sense organs to the spinal cord or brain
• interneurons (association) neurons
• carry messages from one neuron to another
• motor (efferent) neurons)
• carry messages from the spinal cord or brain to the muscles and glands
• glial cells & their functions
• myelin sheath
• protection
• cleansing/scarring
• nutrients
• sensitivity of neurons to neurotransmitters
• The Anatomy of Neurons
• dendrites, soma, axon, myelin sheath, terminal button, synapse
• Neural Transmission: The Electrochemical Message
• stimulation from pre-synaptic neuron
• threshold of excitement
• the level of stimulation which must be exceeded to cause a neuron to fire
• action potential
• neural impulse
• the fiing of nerve cell
• result of action potential
• release of neurotransmitters
• steps in the action potential
• resting potential
• K+ channel open, K+ leaks out
• -70mV charge across membrane
• Na+ channel open, Na+ rushes in
• resting potential reverses (+40 mV)
• Na + channels close, K+ channels remain open, K+ leaks out
• repolarization, Na+/K+ pump, back to -70 mV
• refractory period - no action potential possible
• absolute - a neuron will not fire again no matter how strong the incoming message
• relative - a neuron will fire again only if the incoming message is much stronger than usual
• characteristics
• a brief electrical charge traveling down the axon, like a line of dominos
• propagated
• all or none
• as stimulus intensity increases, the size of the action potential does not change, but the firing rate does

C.  Synaptic Activity

• the synapse
• the space between terminal button of one neuron and the dendrite of next neuron
• chemical process bridges gap between neurons
• nerve impulse reaches synaptic vesicles in terminal button
• synaptic vesicles release neurotransmitters
• neurotransmitters bind with post-synaptic membrane
• neurotransmitters must be removed from synapic cleft
• enzyme inactivation
• re-uptake
• effect of neurotransmitter can be excitatory (causes depolarization) or inhibitory (causes hyperpolarization)
• if sum of effects of inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmitters is greater than threshold then get an impulse
• to get post-synaptic neuron to fire requires multiple excitatory events
• temporal and spatial summation

D.  Effects of Neurotransmitters on Behavior

• 75 substances are clearly neurotransmitters, other chemicals may serve similar function
• specific neurotransmittes work at specific kinds of synapses
• lock and key principle
• acetylcholine
• contributes to attention, arousal, and memory
• decreased supply found in Alzheimer's patients
• found at junction between muscle neurons and voluntary muscles
• curare - antagonist - botulinum toxin
• monamines - dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine
• dopamine
• control of voluntary movements
• degeneration of DA neurons causes Parkinson's
• too much dopamine activity may be related to schizophrenia
• serotonin
• regulation of sleep, wakefulness, and mood
• implicated in depression (as is norepinephrine)
• GABA
• inhibitory effects
• low levels related to anxiety
• e.g., Valium decreases GABA activity
• endorphins
• internally produced chemicals that resemble opiates in structure and effect
• cross blood-brain barrier, bind to specialized receptors in the brain
• neuromodulators - chemicals that influence the activity of specific neurotransmitters
• prevent release of Substance P (neurotransmitter involved in pain)
• not sure how produces pleasure

Part II.  The Brain’s Control of Behavior

A.  Brain Structures and Their Function

• The Hindbrain: Basic Life Support
• medulla - breathing, muscle tone, and regulating circulation
• pons - sleep and arousal
• cerebellum - coordination of voluntary movement and sense of equilibrium

• The Midbrain: Neural Relay Stations
• part of the brainstem between hindbrain and forebrain
• reticular formation - modulates muscle reflexes, breathing and pain perception
• also regulates sleep, wakefulness, and arousal
• sensory reflexes: superior & inferior colliculus
• Parkinson's Disease and substantia nigra (dopamine productioin)

 

• The Forebrain: Higher Mental Functioning
• thalamus - relay station for all sensory info (except smell) to the cortex
• hypothalamus - regulates basic needs fighting, fleeing, feeding, and mating
• limbic system
• involved in regulation of emotion, memory and motivation
• hippocampus & amygdala
• cerebral cortex - one-eight of an inch thick, convoluted outer layer of cerebrum, responsible for learning, memory, thinking, sensation, and consciousness
• 30 billion nerve cells plus 270 billion glial cells
• each nerve cell makes 10,000 contacts each
• approx 300 trillion connections

 

• The Cerebral Cortex
• two hemispheres
• lobes
• occipital lobes - visual cortex
• parietal lobes - receives contralateral sensory info
• each hemisphere's primary connections are to the opposite side of the body
• e.g., right side of the brain controls the left side of the body
• frontal lobes
• motor cortex - along central sulcus
• different areas involved in different movements
• prefrontal cortex- thought processes?
• attention
• goal-directed behavior
• temporal lobes - primary auditory cortex
• left hemisphere
• Broca's area - production of speech
• Wernicke's area - comprehension of language

B. The Divided Brain

• corpus callosum
• 200 million nerve fibers that connect left and right hemispheres
• hemispheric specialization
• determined by examining
• effects of brain damage
• imaging of normal individuals
• split-brain patients  - cut corpus collusum
• left hemisphere - right hand touch and movement, speech, language, logic
• right hemisphere - left hand touch and movement, spatial construction, facial recognition, imagery

Electroencephalographic Description of Sleep

Electroencephalogram (EEG) (Electro-Encephlo-gram)

• the most valuable index of sleep
• a recording of neural activity in the brain measured as electrical charge

• process: electrodes placed on subject’s scalp, signals can be stored and a n a l y z e d on a computer or can be used to move pens up and down on a roll of paper

EEG Waves

Beta Waves
-subject is awake, eyes open, and concentrating or is excited
-neurons firing in unsynchronized manner, so their contributions to the EEG cancel each other out
-low amplitude, irregular waves
 

Alpha Waves

• occur when subject is awake, with eyes closed, and not thinking of anything
• waves stem from synchronized pulsing of neurons in thalamus and cerebral cortex
• large, regular waves

        Delta Waves

• waves that occur in the deep sleep stages
• muscle tension, heart rate, and breathing rate decline
• slow, irregular, high amplitude waves

        REM Sleep

• Rapid Eye Movement Sleep, most dreams occur in this period
• unsynchronized neural impulses
• characterized by saw tooth waves and waveforms that have sharp rapid deflections
• relaxed muscles, but high arousal (breathing and heart rate up)

All waves - controlled by neurons in the thalamus that respond in an oscillating manner and synchronize activity of neurons in cerebral cortex

Sleep Cycles

• Stage 1 - person first falling asleep
• Stage 2,3,4 - successively deeper stages of sleep, slow-wave sleep
• REM - emergent stage 1, the onset of a new sleep cycle
• So, as you fall asleep the stages go in this order:
• 1,2,3,4,3,2,REM,2,3,4,3,2,REM,2,3,4,3,2,REM…
• you have 4-5 sleep cycles per night, each lasting for about 90 minutes
• the deepest sleep occurs in the first or second cycle

Functions of Slow-Wave Sleep

Why do we sleep?

• Two compatible theories proposed:

• 1) Restoration Theory

• 2) Preservation & Protection Theory

Restoration Theory

• H: The body wears out during the day, and sleep is necessary to put it back in shape.
• Intuitive, Folk-medicine theory
• ‘Re-Charging the battery’

Predictions of Restoration Theory

• Predicts that our bodies will become more relaxed during sleep as body rests and restores itself
• Predicts that sleep drive will increase after physical exertion
• Mental exertionà exhaustion ?

Scientific Support of Restoration Theory

• Sleep is a time of rest: slower metabolism, relaxed muscles, 10% reduction of neural activity
• Research indicates that exertion is correlated with increased sleep drive:
• King, Et al. 1997: Elderly insomniacs
• Shapiro, Et al. 1981: Marathon runners

Preservation & Protection Theory

• H: Sleep came about in evolution to preserve energy & protect the individual during that portion of each 24-hour day when there is relatively little value and considerable danger in moving about--(Gray, 2002)
• Less intuitive theory
• Benefits viewed through evolutionary lens

Predictions of Preservation & Protection Theory

• Predicts that larger herbivores will sleep less
• Predicts that smaller omnivores will sleep more

Scientific Support of P & P Theory

• Large animals, Ex: large herbivores, spend most of time eating, diet consists of low-calorie grasses, leaving little time for sleep.

• Large size makes locating safe hiding places in which to sleep difficult: better off awake

• Small animals, Ex: rodents , spend less time eating. diet consists of high-calorie insects. Safer hiding themselves in secure locations and sleeping during extra time not spent eating

• Infant Mammals sleep more than adult mammals, since they are provided for by caretakers. Sleep also prevents them from wondering away to danger, and provides caretakers with time to rest.

(Gray, 2002)

Restoration Vs. P & P

• Restoration
• Definitely viable, since we do feel better and more rested after sleeping
• Prolonged continuous sleep deprivation detrimental to health
• Preservation & Protection
• For organisms depending heavily on light, nighttime does tend to be the most dangerous time.
• Recent illumination technology a blip on screen of evolution.

Sleep as a Biological Rhythm: Circadian Rhythm

• Circadian Rhythm: Cyclic changes in temperature, hormone levels, and wakefulness, which occur even in a ‘timeless’ environment without visual or auditory cues.

• Under normal conditions, circadian rhythm resets itself every day with new visual cues.

• Bright fluorescent light can reverse/reset this cycle

Sleep Deprivation & Its Behavioral Effects

• Everson, 1993: Prolonged complete sleep deprivation in rats breaks down tissues, eventually causes death

• In humans, distorted perceptions, extreme irritability

• Surprising small effect on complicated tasks; has large effect on simple, boring tasks.

• Even during sleep deprivation, circadian rhythm continues. Those who stay up all night find it easier to stay awake during the day, after the sun has risen.

Positron Emission Tomography

Individual Variation in Sleep Drive

• Most people sleep 8 hours per night
• Nonsomniacs: require nearly no sleep at all
• Insomniacs: normal desire to sleep, but are unable to do so (often due to anxiety and stress).

Dreams

-"experiences" that are quickly lost from memory once awoken
-Occur during REM sleep
-First Person
-Topography

REM Sleep

• Functions

• Exercise neurons

• Production of dreams as consequence of neural excitement

• Strengthens memories

Controlling Sleep

• Hypothalamus
• Superchaismatic nucleus controls circadian rhythm

• Pineal Gland
• Melatonin
• Produced in sleeping individuals not in awake ones
• Therapeutic uses

Melatonin Signaling Pathway

Drugs that effect sleep

• Cyproheptadine for post traumatic stress disorder ; treats night mares Compr Psychiatry. 1998 May-Jun;39(3):160-4.

• Clonidine decreases incidence of various sleep disorders after anesthesia J. of Clinical Anesthesia 12(1):19-24, 2000 Feb.

• Biosoprol (antihypertensive) induces nightmares Am. J. of Medicine 107(4):390-2, 1999 Oct.

• Fluoxetine and tricyclic antidepressants induce nightmares Sleep 15(3):226-35, 1992 Jan.

• Naproxen (Alleve) may induce nightmares Southern Medical Journal 84(10)1271-3, 1991 Oct.

Sleep Disorders

• Narcolepsy: hypersomnia- inability to control when you fall asleep
• Parasomnia
• Sleep terrors—nightmares
• Somnabulism—Sleep walking
• Enuresis—bed wetting
• Sleep Apnea—most common: occlusive-snoring/ inhibition of breathing
• Insomnia
• Sleeping Sickness (African trypanosomiasis)
• disrupts circadian rhythm
• Decreases cortisol, prolactin, renin, and Human Growth Hormone (HGH)
• Increases melatonin

Learning

A.     Learning

What is Learning?

• A relatively permanent change in an organism’s behavior due to experience

 

How do we learn?

• We learn through Association.
• We connect events that occur in sequence

 

Associative Learning

• Past becomes associated with immediate future
• e.g., Event 1 (Bad Food) is associated with Event 2 (feeling sick)
• Process of learning associations: Conditioning

 

Types of Conditioning

• Classical Conditioning: Process of associating two stimuli (e.g, thunder -> lightening)
• Operant Conditioning: Process of associating a response & its consequence (e.g., pulling arm of candy machine -> getting candy bar)

 

Types of Learning

• Classical
• Operant
• Observational
• First two types studied traditionally behaviorists
• E.g., Watson's Forget the mind…” Psychology should based on observable behavior
• Observational learning can not be easily explained by strictly behaviorist viewpoint

B.    Classical Conditioning

Discovery of Classical Conditioning: Ivan Pavlov

• 20 years studying digestive system
• 30 years studying learning
• 1904 Nobel Prize in Medicine -- but not for discovery of "psychic reflexes"
• Noticed that dogs would drool in anticipation of food
• Decided to examine the phenomenon more objectively using experiments

 

First Experimental Study of Classical Conditioning

• Neutral Stimulus: Tone
• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): Meat
• Unconditioned Response (UCR): Salivation
• Pair Neutral Stimulus with UCS
• Neutral Stimulus Paired With UCS
• Neutral Stimulus becomes Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

 

Summary

• UCS: Meat
• UCR: Salivation
• CS: Tone
• CR: Salivation
• UCR/CR often the same, but not always

 

Causes and Effectsof Classical Conditioning
 

Acquisition

• Timing is everything (almost)
• about half a second between CS and UCS is best
• Ordering
• CS should be presented before UCS

 

Extinction:  Should bond last forever?

• No - learning would be inflexible
• Situation may change
• Must be a way to remove associations when there isn’t a correlation between stimulus and response
• Called "Extinction"
• Tone (CS) presented without presenting meat (UCS)
• CS loses its capacity to generate UCS

Spontaneous Recovery

• Return of CR (salivation) upon presentation of CS (tone) after full extinction of CR (salivation)
• Recovery weaker than original association

 

Stimulus Generalization

• Respond to new stimulus in same way as to old similar stimulus
• Salivation as a function of tone. Original tone in middle
• Example: Little Albert
• Paired white rat (originally no fear)

with hammer striking metal pipe (startle reaction)

• Little Albert was afraid of:
• Rat
• Bunny
• Dog
• Fur Coat
• Santa Claus mask
• Watson’s Hair

Stimulus Discrimination

• As there are more pairings of CS with UCS, the precision of the CS representation increases
• Example: originally all white lab coated people evoke fear; later only the one with needle produces fear

 

Second Order Conditioning

• The CS can be used as an UCS to condition other responses

Updating Pavlov's Understanding
 

• Conditioning (according to the Behaviorists) is do to mindless stimulus-response pairings
• due to repeated pairing of CS and UCS in time
• any response could be conditions
•  
• But its not how OFTEN pairing occurs but how PREDICTABLE CS is of UCS
• get conditioning only if CS reliably presented before UCS and if CS does not regularly occur when UCS is absent
• i.e., animal learns an expectancy

 

• learn association between CS (tone) and UCS (food), then present second CS2 (light) after CS, but won't get pairing between CS2 and CR
• i.e., CS2 does not provide NEW info

 

• No practice is necessary:
• One trial learning - one sufficient score can be enough for robust learning

 

• Timing unnecessary:
• Food Poisoning: animal/human readily learns association between food presented many hours previously and UCR (violently ill)

 

• Biological Constraints
• could we train Little Annie to fear opera glasses instead of white rat
• would be far more difficult
• predisposed biologically to learn to fear certain objects and situations (e.g., snakes and heights)
• we more readily learn to associated certain pairs of stimuli
• taste with illness, tactile stimulus (e.g., touch) with pain
• Example: rats -- everytime drank sugar water, light flashed and clanking sound presented  (i.e., conditioned stimulus = sugar water, light flash, clanking sound)
• one group CS followed by electrical shock (pain)
• other group CS followed by X-rays (nausea/dizziness)
• those who got shock developed aversion to light and soundthose who got nausea developed aversion to water

 

• Summary: “pairing neither necessary nor sufficient for conditioning"
• Solution?  Must consider cognitive representations of time, space, new information from stimulus ...

Applications of Classical Conditioning
 

• Advertising
• Pairing good looking models or celebrities with products

 

• Aversion Therapy
• Taste Aversion
• Antabuse/Alcoholism

C. Operant Conditioning

• But is all behavior a result of classical conditioning?
• If so, why do you study?

 

• B.F. Skinner

 

• Behavior is controlled by its consequences

 

• based on Thorndike’s Law of Effect :  Rewarded behavior is likely to reoccur

 

• Classical Conditioning
• associating different stimuli that the organism does not control (e.g. fear dogs)

 

• Operant Conditioning
• associating your behavior with its’ consequences (e.g., teaching a child to say “Please”)

 

• Rats & Pigeons, Skinner Box, Shaping (rewarding behavior that is progressively closer to the target behavior -- successive approximations)

 

• Principles of Reinforcement

 

• Reinforcer - any event that increases the frequency of the behavior in response to the preceding event

 

• Examples:  Studying;  Bossing people around

 

• Positive and Negative Reinforcement

 

• Positive Reinforcement
• Following response with appealing stimulus will increase likelihood of response

 

• Negative Reinforcement
• Removal of aversive stimulus increases likelihood of response
• E.g., parent gives in to remove embarrassment of child having tantrum in public
• E.g., alarms goes off, you automatically hit button to make loud noise go away

 

• Both positive and negative reinforcement strengthen behavior

 

• Punishment
• Leads to the DECREASE of the behavior
• Positive Punishment
• decrease due to presentation of an event
• Negative Punishment
• decrease due to removal of an event

 

• Negative Reinforce. vs. Punishment
• Response results in reduction of negative consequences; Animal/human motivated to repeat behavior
• Response leads to increase in negative consequences; Animal/human motivated to stop that behavior

 

• Examples of
• Positive Reinforcement
• Negative Reinforcement
• Positive Punishment
• Negative Punishment

 

• Schedules of Reinforcement

 

• Continuous - every time behavior occurs (best for rare behaviors)

 

• Partial - not every time behavior occurs (learning is slower but more resistant to extinction)

 

• Types of Partial Reinforcement Schedules
• Ratio: response based
• Interval: time based
• Fixed: one reward exactly every X
• Variable: one reward on average every X

 

• Examples
• Fixed Ratio: factor worker paid for every 4th shoe
• Var Ratio: slot machine gives payoff on average 1 of 6 turns
• Fixed Interval: coffee break every 2 hours
• Var Interval: big waves come on average every 10 minutes

 

• Ratio Schedules produce the highest rate of responding
• Factory workers: increase prod/pay, increase productivity

 

• Variable Schedules are highly resistant to extinction
• pop-quizzes, re-dialing

 

• Reinforcement schedule best for gambling?

 

• Updating Skinner's Understanding

 

• Latent learning - learning that only becomes apparent when there is some incentive to demonstrate it

 

• Overjustification effects : getting a reward for something one already likes to do -- may now see the reward as motivation (not intrinsic interest)

 

• Biological constraints - instinctive drift

 

• Appying Operant Conditioning

 

• superstitions

 

• training animals thru shaping

 

• training people
• token economies

 

• Phobias
• Have drop in elevator 2 stories, Never enter elevator again, Why?
• Classical + Operant Conditioning
• Classical Conditioning - Learn to pair fear with elevator
• Operant Conditioning - Negative Reinforcement: Avoid elevator, don’t experience fear

E. Observational Learning

• Albert Bandura: "Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do"

 

• modeling: process of observing and imitating a specific behavior

Practice Exam Questions: Classical and Operant Conditioning

1.  Thorndike’s Law of Effect said that animals will learn responses that are

a.  rewarded
b.  reflexive
c.  prompted
d.  preceded by a neutral stimulus

2.  Which one of the following is an example of negative reinforcement

a.  going to the dentist and having a toothache relieved
b.  spanking a child for swearing (negative reinforcement for swearing?)
c.  taking away a child’s favorite toy when the child misbehaves
d.  making a child watch while another child is punished

3.  Suppose that you have taught your dog to roll over for the reward of a dog biscuit. Then, one day you run out of the dog biscuits. Which schedule of reinforcement would keep your dog responding longer without a biscuit?

a.  continuous reinforcement
b.  partial reinforcement
c.  negative reinforcement
d.  noncontingent reinforcement

4.  Which one of the following is a conditioned reinforcer for most people?

a.  money
b.  food
c.  sex
d.  a sharp pain in the back

5.  Operant conditioning, in contrast with classical conditioning, emphasizes events (such as rewards and punishments) that occur

a.  before the behavior
b.  after the behavior
c.  during the behavior
d.  at the same time as another stimulus

Part II. After reading each short description of the following situation, answer each of the questions below to the best of your ability.

1. Linda is taking a psychology course called "Learning." The course has a laboratory component that requires her to work with baby chicks. Her first assignment is to train the chick to peck a red-colored disk for food. The first thing that Linda must do to shape disk pecking in her chick is to

1. teach the chick where the food is located.
2. train the chick to eat from the food hopper.
3. deprive the chick of food.
4. reinforce approaching the food hopper.

2. Once Linda has her chick pecking the disk regularly, she exposes it to a reinforcement schedule. Soon, the chick is pecking the disk at a high rate. After it receives a reinforcer, though, it pauses briefly and then begins responding again at a high rate. Linda has chosen to reinforce her chick's disk pecking according to a __________ schedule.

1. fixed-interval
2. fixed-ratio
3. variable-interval
4. variable-ratio

3. Next. Linda decides to give her chick a choice of two grains. By pecking the red disk, the chick can earn BRAND X and by pecking a second disk, an orange one, the chick can earn BRAND Z. The chick quickly learns to alternate between the two disks to work for food. The fact that the chick learned quickly to alternate between the two disks demonstrates the principle of

1. generalization
2. discrimination.
3. spontaneous recovery.
4. operant conditioning

4. Unbeknown to Linda, the hopper associated with BRAND X (and the red-colored disk) has malfunctioned. Soon, the chick is only pecking the orange colored disk. At first, Linda mistakes this change in the chick's behavior as evidence of a preference for BRAND Z. However, she soon discovers the mechanical failure and realizes that the change in the chick's behavior is due to

1. discrimination.
2. generalization.
3. punishment
4. extinction.

5. Linda has her apparatus repaired and soon has the chick pecking at both disks again. Her final lab assignment is to assess the effects of a shrill tone on her chick's behavior. Now, every time the chick pecks the orange disk, a shrill tone sounds. Soon, the chick no longer pecks the orange key. To this chick, the shrill tone apparently serves as a

1. conditioned reinforcer
2. punisher
3. negative reinforcer
4. discriminative stimulus.

 
 

Answers:

Part I.  1. a, 2. a, 3. b, 4. a, 5. b
Part II. 1. a, 2. b, 3. a, 4. a, 5. a

Topic:  Memory

A.  What is memory?

• The capacity to preserve and recover information

 

• What is stored in long-term memory?
• Episodic Memories
• Semantic Memory
• Procedural Memory
• Episodic versus Semantic Memories
• Is context part of the memory?
• Do you have an experience of "remembering"?
• How useful is the memory?
• It is likely to be forgotten?
• Did it take a while to retrieve this information?

 

• Memory Involves
• 1. Encoding: Putting things into memory (attention impt)
• 2. Storage: Maintaining information in memory over time
• 3. Retrieval: Recovering information from memory

 

• Questions we will address
• How do we best store new information?
• How do we retrieve information once it stored?
• Why do we forget once stored information?

B. How do we best store new information?

• We Process Information in 3 Key Ways (assuming we first attend to it):
• Organization
• Meaning
• Visualization

 

• Organization
• the more organization you can impose on the to-be-remembered info the better
• organizing information and encoding
• chunking (magical number 7 +/- 2)
• hierarchies (broad concepts first, details next)
• semantic networks
• often provides more durable memory by relating new material with existing knowledge (i.e., relates to its meaning)
• Meaning
• We encode and remember only specific aspects of stimuli
• e.g., an item’s meaning but not its shape, color, sound, etc
• we do this irregardless of intent to remember
• Levels of Processing Theory
• The idea that the deeper the level of processing the longer-lasting the memory (even with unintentional learning)
• Shallow-encoding (shape) leads to poor recall later
• Intermediate-encoding (sound) leads to immed recall later
• Deep-encoding (meaning) leads to best recall later
• Remembering through visualization
• Visual imagery - the process used to construct an internal image
• Easier to recall concrete words than abstract words
• Balloon vs Process

 

• Mnemonic devices
• Memory tricks make use of visual imagery and elaboration (organization and meaning)
• Link Method
• Method of Loci
• Imagine items to be remembered interacting with a series of well-known, frequented, locations, sites
• Peg-Word Technique
• One is a bun, Two is shoe, Three is a tree, Four is a door, Five is a hive, Six is a stick, Seven is heaven

 

• How Should Material be Presented?
• Serial Position Curves
• primacy and recency effects
• Effect of Repetition
• Distributed Practice

C. Retrieving Memories

• Recovering Information From Cues

 

• Retrieval - the process of recovering previously stored memories
• is guided by retrieval cues
• The Importance of Retrieval Cues
• Cued Recall versus Free Recall

 

• Encoding-Retrieval Match
• The effectiveness of a retrieval cue depends on how well the cue matches the memory that was encoded
• Encoding Specificity Principle
• a specific connection between the cue and the to-be-remembered material must be made at encoding
• I.e., retrieval cues only work if they fit the organization imposed when the memory was originally stored
• Example
• List A (Chirping Cardinal, Roast Ham, Homing Pigeon, Lamb Chop)
• List B (Church Cardinal, Karate Chop, Stool Pigeon, Theatrical Ham)
• Probability of recalling "pigeon" given retrieval cue "bird"
• Applying Encoding Specificity Principle
• State Dependent Memory
• recall of information depends on similarity between encoding and retrieval environments, both physical and psychological
• e.g., context dependent memory - recall best if recall takes place in same physical environment as material was learnt
• e.g., mood dependent memory and the never-ending circle of depression

• Reconstructive Remembering

 

• remembering can be affected by our previous beliefs and expectations and by new information added after the effect to be remembered

 

• Memory Schema
• Schemas are knowledge structures comprised of large clusters of related facts about some person, place, thing or activity that guide memory
• use of schemas can result in distorted (yet confidently held) memories

 

• Misinformation Effect
• Example
• Robbery Shown (no gun)
• Control group - 15% recalled gun
• Experimental: Did he shoot anyone? How did he hold the weapon?
• After just 3 misleading questions, 40% of experimental group recalled gun
• One week later 60% of experimental group recalled gun
• Causes of
• Overwriting?
• Retrieval interference?
• Source-monitoring errors?

D.  Forgetting

• Most "forgetting" isn’t really forgetting at all (encoding failures)

 

• But assumed that the info was indeed encoded, how quickly do we forget?
• Forgetting curves

 

• Why Do We Forget
• retrieval failure
• decay
• interference - learning some items may interfere with learning other items
• Proactive Interference Something learned earlier disrupts something learned later.
• Retroactive Interference Something learned later disrupts something learned earlier.

 

• The Neuroscience of Forgetting

 

• Amnesia
• Retrograde - unable to recall information (episodic) learned prior to incident leading to amnesia
• Anterograde - unable to store new memories since incidence leading to amnesia
• H.M.
• Korsakoff’s syndrome

E.  Where are memories stored

• hippocampus - formation and storage (consolidation) of new memories
• memories are not stored in hippocampus, but need hippocampus to first process material before it is stored
• no single structure responsible for remembering and forgetting

Topic: Intelligence
 

A.  What is Intelligence?

• Autistic savants- Are they intelligent?
• individuals who suffer from autism
• below average IQ
• but have an amazing ability - typically in art, music, memory, or calculating

 

• What is Intelligence?
• getting an A on a calculus exam?
• writing a great symphony?
• discovering a cure for a disease?
• easy to recognize, hard to define

 

• "Intelligence, operationally defined, is the aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with his environment."
• David Weschler

B.  History of Intelligence Tests

• first intelligence tests date back to China ( 2200 BC )
• first subject of scientific study - Sir Francis Galton’s Anthropometric Laboratory at the 1884 International Health Exhibition in London
• Sir Francis Galton
• Measured head size, reaction time, & sensory acuity of 9000 + visitors
• influenced by cousin Charles Darwin
• better physical (sensory/motor) = more intelligent
• intelligence = biological capacity
• "Social hindrances cannot impede men of high ability from being eminent .. [and] social advantages are incompetent to give that status to a man of moderate ability."
• Looked for correlation between various measures
• results disappointing

 

• Binet-Simon Test (1905)
• 1881 French law
• identify students who required special classes
• worked with Theodore Simon (psychiatrist) to develop the test
• Binet’s ideas regarding intelligence opposite to that of Galton
• collection of higher-order mental abilities loosely related to one another
• is nurtured through environment
• questions related to language, reasoning, arithmetic to children
• kept questions which differentiated the age groups
• developed concept of mental age
• Mental Age : chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance
• child who does as well as the average 8-year-old is said to have a mental age of 8
• But mental age sometimes misleading
• 10 year old with MA = 8; 6 year old with MA = 4
• Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
• German psychologist W. Stern suggested the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100
• IQ = ma/ca x 100
• ma = 8, ca = 10, IQ = 80
• ma = 4, ca = 6, IQ = 67

 

• Stanford-Binet Test (1916)
• Lewis Terman - psychologist at Stanford - created revised version suitable for American children
• also made version for adults
• revised 1937, 1960, 1972, 1986
• still used today

 

• Weschler Scales
• Verbal and non-verbal scales (1939)
• Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) ages 6 to 16
• W. Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
• Weschler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) 4 to 6.5

 

• Sample Items from the WAIS

 

• Weschler Scales
• a method of assessing an individual’s mental aptitudes and comparing them to those of others, using numerical scores
• with Weschler versions, taker receives a verbal IQ, performance IQ, and an overall IQ score

 

• ratio IQ not suitable for adults
• mental age does not increase much for adults
• e.g., 15 yr old with MA = 20, thus IQ = 133 (gifted)
• later at age 40, MA = 20, IQ = 50

 

• Weschler replaced ratio IQ with standardized IQ
• compares person’s IQ test score with the mean score of age peers
• if exactly the same as average of peers then IQ = 100
• normal distribution (mean = 100, stand dev = 15)
• 68% of population between 85 and 115
• 95% of population between 70 and 130

 

• Summary:
• The first intelligence tests: how did each figure define & measure intelligence?
• Modern intelligence testing: Stanford-Binet vs. Wechsler tests
• standardized scoring -- what is “average?”

C.  Issues in Intelligence Testing (we won't cover this in class...)

• Standardization
• Refers both to the establishment of performance norms and to the uniformity in how the test is administered and scored

 

• Reliability- the extent to which a test yields consistent results
• assessed by consistency of scores on:
• two halves of the test
• alternate forms of the test
• re-testing the same individual
• Stanford-Binet and Weschler scales both have test-retest corrletions of at least .9
• I.e., are deemed very reliable

 

• Validity - Does test measure what it’s intended to measure?
• Does test correlate with other measures of same construct?
• School achievement
• IQ tests (I.e., S-B and the Wechsler) correlate highly with academic acheivement, especially in elementary school
• On-the-job performance & other work-related variables? The results are not quite so clear cut

• Biases (may or may be covered by group presentation)
• American blacks score on average 10-15 points lower
• 1979 California banned use of IQ scores to place black children in classes because greater prop of black children were placed in classes for mentally handicapped
• But arguments that IQ tests are NOT biased because they have good predictive validity -- same legal argument presented roughly at same time in Chicago -- this time use of IQ scores said to be appropriate for class placement
• obviously, its become a political issue
• "perpetuating discrimination" verus "killing the messenger"
• Compromise - use tests that are not affected by cultural background (e.g., Raven's Progressive Matrices test)
• emphasize perceptual and spatial ability
• avoid items which presume an extensive background of particular culture
• "in light of the effectiveness of current IQ tests to predict school performance, it is ironic that tests have been outlawed for the very purpose for which they were designed -- to prevent subjective judgement and prejudice from being the basis for assigning students to special classes or denying them certain privileges" (Weinberg, 1989)
• The IQ test was invented to predict academic performance, nothing else. If we wanted something that would predict life success, we’d have to invent another test completely." Social psychologist Robert Zajonc (1984)

D.  Theories of Intelligence

• What is intelligence?
• What do the "Experts" Say?
• all- abstract reasoning, problem solve, capacity to acquire knowledge
• half - memory, creativity, adaptation to envir, mental speed, general know
• one fourth - sensory acuity, goal directedness, achievement motivation
• Is intelligence a general characteristic that affects all facets of behavior or are there different kinds of intelligence, each affecting a specific facet of behavior?
• Galton - a single entity (mental speed)
• Binet - a collect’n of different abilities, but yet one IQ score
• But can you really summarize intelligence with a single number?

 

• Factor Analytic Theories
• Galton - look for correlations among scores of different tests
• intelligence defined as a single underlying mental capacity
• results were discouraging because of crude measurements and analysis techniques
• Charles Spearman (1863-1945)
• better tests - memory, visual perception, logic, verbal fluency
• factor analysis - determines the degree of correlation between performances on various tasks
• All tests correlated with one another
• g - "general intelligence factor"
• But not perfect correlations, performance on each test depended to lesser extent on specific factors
• s - "specific intelligence factor"
• Raymond Cattell (1905 - )
• student of Spearman’s
• modified Spearman’s intelligence theory
• thought that general intelligence was not one factor but two
• Cattell’s Fluid intelligence - ability to perceive relationships without previous specific experience
• matrices tests or verbal analogies
• Cattell’s Crystallized intelligence- mental ability derived from previous experience
• word meanings
• use of tools
• cultural practices
• Change over years due to decline in fluid knowledge
• Problems
• depends on tests initially used
• assume that intelligence reflects primarily those abilities to do well in school

 

• The Triarchic Approach
• Robert Sternberg
• asked "joe-average" what is intelligence?
• good verbal skills
• good problem-solving skills
• good social judgement
• Componential Intelligence - cognitive - academic performance
• Experiential Intelligence - experiences - automatic/creativity
• Contextual Intelligence - culture - street smarts

 

• Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
• logical mathematical
• linguistic
• musical
• spatial
• bodily-kinesthetic
• interpersonal
• intrapersonal

Practice Questions

1. One of Binet’s great ideas was that of mental age, which was defined as:

1. the average age at which normal individuals achieve a particular score on an intelligence test.
2. an individual’s biological age plus the score he/she achieves on a mental test
3. an individual’s level of emotional maturity, as judged by the examiner
4. the variability of scores seen when an individual is tested repeatedly.

2. You have tested a 12-year old child and found that she has a mental age of 15. Using the original IQ formula, what is her IQ?

1. 75
2. 100
3. 115
4. 125

3. The problem with the original IQ formula is that it gave a distorted picture of the intellectual abilities of

1. adults
2. children
3. retarded persons
4. gifted persons

4. If intelligence is a normally distributed characteristic, then you would expect to find it

1. to be different abilities in different people
2. to be spread throughout the population, but with most people clustered near the middle of the range
3. to a significant degree only in people whose IQ scores are above 100
4. to be determined entirely by hereditary factors

5. What has happened to IQ scores worldwide during recent decades?

1. they have decreased significantly.
2. they have not changed significantly
3. they have increased significantly
4. they initially increased and are now decreasing significantly

6. If genetic factors have a stronger influence on intelligence than environmental factors, then the best response would be to

1. abandon any useless efforts to change someone’s intelligence
2. modify the environment so each person reaches his or her maximum potential
3. create separate environments for people of different levels of intelligence

7. In Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence, the ability to use one’s capability in a specific situation is ________ intelligence, while the ability to apply information one has learned from the world is ________ intelligence.

1. componential; experiential
2. experiential; contextual
3. contextual; experiential
4. experiential; componential

8. According to Spearman, our ability to perform any and all cognitive tasks is most dependent on

1. crystallized intelligence
2. fluid intelligence
3. s factor
4. g factor

9. Garner argued that conventional views of intelligence were limiting, and should include the idea that there are __________ intelligences

1. single
2. multiple
3. general
4. functional

10. If you develop a test to measure good study skills and when evaluated, it is determined that it actually measures good study skills, the test is said to be

1. valid
2. standardized
3. reliable
4. objective
   
   
   
   

1. a, 2., d, 3. a, 4. b, 5. c, 6. b, 7. d., 8. d, 9. b, 10. a

Human Development

Chapter 11 (pages 409-435)

A. Developmental Psychology

• What shapes the way we change over time?
• Focus on psychological changes across the entire life span
• Every area of psychology can be looked at from this perspective
• biological development
• social development
• cognitive / perceptual development
• personality development

B.  Fundamental Issues in Developmental Psychology

• Nature vs. Nurture
• What is role of heredity vs. environment in determining psychological makeup?
• Is your IQ inherited or determined by nutrition and early environment?
• Is there a ‘criminal’ gene or does poverty lead to criminal behavior?
• Is Development Continuous?
• Two views of human development
• stage theories: there are distinct phases to intellectual and personality development
• continuity: development is continuous
• Stage Theorists in Development
• Piaget - Cognitive Development
• Kohlberg - Moral Development
• Erikson - Psychosocial Development
• Freud - Psychosexual Development
• Critical Period in Development
• Are there periods when an individual is particularly sensitive to certain environmental experiences?
• Are the first hours after birth critical for parent-child bonding?
• Is first year critical for developing trust?
• Easier to learn a language before age 10?

C.  Physical and Psychological Development Related

• Physical dev’t begins at conception
• Physical maturity sets limits on psychological ability
• Prenatal environment can have lifetime influence on health and intellectual ability (e.g., good nutrition, terratogens)
• Physical Development of the Brain
• after birth - debate over development of new neurons
• brain development continues far beyond once believed
• Plasticity - the brain’s capacity for modification
• e.g., brain reorganization following damage
• especially in children
• but even in adults (e.g., amputees)
• Axonal regrowth
• Interaction of maturation and environment
• e.g., physical development - need experience
• Rats reared in an environment enriched with playthings show increased development of the cerebral cortex

D.  Cognitive Development

• Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
• Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Swiss psychologist
• "children are active thinkers, constantly trying to construct more advanced understandings of the world"
• These "understandings" are in the form of structures he called schemas
• Development of Schemas
• schema - unit of knowledge, mental picture, concept
• Accommodation
• Create new schemas
• Change existing schemas
• Assimilation
• Integrate new stimuli into existing schemas
• Example
• Accommodation -- dog
• Assimilation -- new breed of dog
• Accommodation -- cat
• Piaget’s approach
• Primary method was to ask children to solve problems & to question them about the reasoning behind their solutions
• Discovered that children think in radically different ways than adults
• "If we examine the intellectual development of the individual or of the whole of humanity, we shall find that the human spirit goes through a certain number of stages, each different from the other" (1930)
• Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
• Sensorimotor stage (birth-2)
• Information is gained through the senses and motor actions
• Child perceives and manipulates but does not reason
• Object Permanence - The understanding that objects exist independent of one’s actions or perceptions of them
• Before 6 months infants act as if objects removed from sight cease to exist
• Preoperational Stage (2 to 7)
• Emergence of symbolic thought - use mental representations & language to describe, remember, and reason about the world
• Concrete-Operational Stage (7 to 11)
• can attend to more than 1 thing at a time
• can understand other point of view
• Principles of Conservation: Concept that basic amounts remain constant despite superficial changes in appearances.
• Formal Operational Stage (age 12 - adulthood)
• Abstract reasoning
• Adolescent egocentrism illustrated by the phenomenon of personal fable and imaginary audience
• Neo-Piaget -  Post-Formal
• Ability to handle ambiguities and contradictions
• Dialectical thinking
• Criticisms of Piaget’s Theory
• Piaget underestimated the cognitive ability of infants
• Do show object permanence
• 1 month old babies suck one of two pacifiers without ever seeing them, When shown both pacifiers, infants stared more at the one they had felt in their mouth
• Baby Mathematics - Shown a numerically impossible outcome, infants stare longer
• Cognitive milestones are reached sooner than Piaget believed
• Lack of evidence for qualitatively different stages
• Overestimates age differences in thinking
• Vagueness about the process of change

 

• Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Perspective
• Piaget underestimated the role of the social environment
• Vygotsky emphasized the child’s interaction with the social world (other people) as a cause of development
• children learn in situations where parents present them with cog’ve tasks slightly too difficult
• learn from social interaction and dialogue in such sit’ns
• Piaget - focused on children’s interaction with the physical world; Vygotsky - children learn from interactions with other people
• Piaget believed language was a byproduct of thought; Vygotsky believed language to be the foundation for social interaction and thought

Personality
 

What is personality?

• An individual’s unique patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that persists over time and across situations.

Approaches to Conceptualizing and Measuring Personality

• Trait
• Psychoanalytic
• Cognive-social Learning
• Humanistic

I.  Measuring Personality:  The Trait Perspective

• goal: to describe an individual’s personality in terms of a set of distinct dimensions or traits
• relatively little emphasis on how the personality developed
• approaches
• Factor Analytic Approach (What are the basic traits)
• Empirical Approach (Can we differentiate different groups)
• Factor Analysis
• Cattell's 16 Personality Factors
• used factor analysis to summarize over 4500 different terms used in the English language to describe personality traits
• found 16 source traits/factors
• Esyenck’s Tri-dimensional Theory
• extroversion - how outgoing or social
• neurotism - emotional stability - degree of anxiety, worry or moodiness
• psychotism - tendency to be insensitive, uncaring, or cruel
• The Big-Five Theory
• neuroticism < > emotional stability
• introversion < > extroversion
• nonopenness < >openness to experience
• antagonism < > agreeableness
• undirectedness < > conscientiousness
• Why 5 instead of 3 or 16?
• depends on how apply factor analysis
• almost all personality terms correlate highly with one or more of the factors
• cross-cultural similarities
• high predictive validity
• Empirical Approach
• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
• designed to diagnose personality disorders (1943)
• 11,000 statements tested on 770 people (true / false / can not say )
• revised 1980's
• still very popular today
• Evaluating the Trait Perspective
• People can fake desirable responses
• many include "lie" scales
• Example: Eysenck’s ENP
• MMPI Lie Scales
• Cannot say - # items not answered
• Lie - trying to make pos’ve impress
• Frequency - try to be seen as abnormal
• Defensiveness - personal shortcomings
• Situational influences on behavior
• correlations between isolated measures of behavior and associated personality traits low
• if sample many different behaviors higher correlations
• Biological Foundations of Traits
• Level of arousal of extroverts and introverts (Eysenck’s)
• 25- 60% heritability of traits, esp. emotional stability and extroversion

II. Determining How Personality Develops

• Psychodynamic Approach
• Cognitive-Social Learning Approaches
• Humanistic Approaches

A.  Psychoanalytic Approach

• Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
• Austrian physician
• patients with no neurological cause (hysteria)
• Psychoanalysis is both a treatment and a theory of personality
• Assessing the Unconscious
• free association
• slips of the tongue
• dream analysis
• projective tests
• Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
• Rorschach Inkblot Test
• Freud’s Personality Structure - Three levels to a person’s personality
• id, superego, ego
• Id
• source of all energy
• functions entirely in unconscious
• represents instinctual drives present at birth
• does not distinguish between reality and fantasy
• operates according to the pleasure principle
• Superego
• represents internalized social and parental standards
• strives toward unrealistic perfection
• responsible for guilt
• Ego
• the largely conscious, "executive" part of personality
• mediates among the demands of the id, superego and ego
• operates on the reality principle
• Personality Development
• "personality forms during the first few years of life, rooted in unresolved conflicts of early childhood"
• psychosexual stages
• Oral Stage (birth - 1 year)
• Mouth, lips, tongue are associated with sexual pleasure
• Weaning a child can lead to fixation if not handled correctly
• Fixation can lead to oral activities (including "biting" humor) in adulthood
• Anal Stage (1 - 3 years)
• Anus is associated with pleasure
• Toilet training can lead to fixation if not handled correctly
• Fixation can lead to anal retentive or expulsive behaviors in adulthood
• Phallic Stage (3 - 5 years)
• Focus of pleasure shifts to the genitals (masturbation)
• Oedipus complex & Electra complex: A child’s sexual attachment to parent of the opposite sex and jealousy toward the parent of the same sex.
• Fixation can lead to excessive masculinity in males and the need for attention or domination in females
• Latency Stage (5 - puberty)
• Sexuality is repressed
• Children participate in hobbies, school and same-sex friendships
• Genital Stage (puberty on)
• Sexual feelings re-emerge and are oriented toward others - usually marked by mature sexuality.
• Healthy adults find pleasure in love and work, fixated adults have their energy tied up in earlier stages
• Personality Development
• Fixation
• A partial or complete halt as some point in the individual’s development
• an attempt to achieve pleasure as an adult in ways that are equivalent to how it way achieved in these stages
• Identification
• Defense Mechanisms
• Repression - the basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness
• Regression - an individual retreats, when faced with anxiety, to a more infantile psychosexual stage where some psychic energy remains fixated
• Reaction Formation - the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites; people may express feelings that are the opposite of their anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings
• Projection - people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others
• Rationalization - offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions
• Displacement - shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person; as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet

Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective

• Criticisms: too vague to test, little experimental support, focus on disorder, negative view, does not take into account individual control
• Praise:  unconscious forces, internal conflict, defense mechanisms, childhood events

B.  Social Learning Theories

Reciprocal Determinism

• interacting influences between personality and environmental factors

Bandura’s Contribution

• personality shaped thru learning
• expectancies: What a person anticipates in a situation or as a result of behaving in certain ways.
• self-efficacy: The expectancy that one’s efforts will be successful.

Personal Control

• Internal locus of control: One can control his/her own fate.
• External locus of control: One’s fate is determined by chance, luck, or the behavior of others.

Learned Helplessness

Evaluating Social Learning Perspective

• fails to consider unconscious motives and individual disposition
• is perhaps the predominant approach to explaining human behavior

 

C.  The Humanistic Perspective

Stresses the fundamental goodness of people and their striving toward higher levels of functioning

Maslow & Self-Actualization

• Studied healthy, creative people:  Abe Lincoln, Tom Jefferson &  Eleanor Roosevelt
• Self-Actualized Individuals are: Self-Aware & Self-Accepting, Open & Spontaneous, Loving & Caring, Problem-Centered not Self-Centered

Rogers’ Person-Centered Approach

• Given the right environmental conditions, we will develop to our full potential
• self concept and degree of congruity with experience
• unconditional positive regard

Evaluating the Humanistic Perspective

• Concepts often vague
• May promote self-indulgence and lack of concern for others
• Does not address reality of human capacity for evil
• has impacted popular ideas on child-rearing, education, management, etc.

Topic:  Psychological Disorders

What is Abnormal ?

• Inability to function or Personal distress
• Internal Source
• Involuntary
• Behavior is outside of social norms

Approaches to Psychological Disorders

• psychoanalytic model
• biological model
• diathesis-stress model
• cognitive-behavioral model
• systems approach

But who’s to judge what is abnormal?

• Goals of Diagnostic Classification
• Describe a disorder
• Predict its future course
• Imply appropriate treatment
• Stimulate research into its cause
• APA’s Diagnostic & Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) (4th ed.)
• classifies over 230 psychological disorders into 16 categories
• multiple axes
• Axis I: Clinical Syndromes
• e.g., Mood Disorders, Anxiety Disorders, Somaform Disorders,Dissociative disorders, Schizophrenic Disorders
• 
  Axis II: Personality Disorder
• e.g, schizoid, antisocial, avoidant
• 
  
  Axis III: General Medical Conditio
• Axis IV: Psychosocial &  Environ
• Axis V: GAF

 

Axis II: Personality Disorders

• inflexible & enduring behavior patterns that impair social functioning
• three clusters of personality disorders
• cluster A: odd or eccentric behavior (schizoid, paranoid)
• cluster B: dramatic, emotional, or erratic behavior (narcisstic, borderline, antisocial)
• cluster C: anxious or fearful (dependent, avoidant)

 

• Schizoid Personality Disorder
• withdrawn and lacks feelings for others; the classic "loner"

 

• Paranoid Personality Disorder
• inappropriately suspicious and mistrustful of others

 

• Narcissitic Personality Disorder
• exaggerated sense of self-importance; needs constant admiration

 

• Borderline Personality Disorder
• Marked instability in self-image, mood, and interpersonal relationships

 

• Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)
• A pattern of violent, criminal, or unethical and exploitative behavior and an inability to feel affection for others.
• common characteristics
• failure to conform to social norms
• deceitfulness
• impulsivity
• irritability and aggressiveness
• reckless disregard
• consistent irresponsibility
• lack of remorse
• Possible Causes of ASPD
• biological predisposition
• learning and attention
• unhealthy social environment
• abnormal levels of certain neurotransmitters

 

• Dependent Personality Disorder
• Unable to make choices and decisions independently
• Cannot tolerate being alone
• Underlying fear of being abandoned or rejected.

 

• Avoidant Personality Disorder
• Person’s fears of rejection by others leads to social isolation
• Different from schizoid personality disorder

Axis I: Clinical Syndromes

• Mood Disorders
• major depressive disorder - Experience prolonged hopelessness & lethargy, eventually rebounding to normality
• symptoms: Poor Appetite, Insomnia, Lethargy, Feelings of Worthlessness, Loss of Interest in Family, Friends & Activities, Longer than 2 weeks without cause
• bipolar disorder (manic-depressive) Alternate between depression and mania (overexcited & hyperactive state)
• Overtalkative, Overactive, Little Need for Sleep, Elated, Grandiose Optimism & Self-Esteem
• mild manic-depression may lead to increased creativity
• Causes of Mood Disorders
• Biological
• Genetics - 65 % concordance rate among identical twins
• Chemical imbalances - decreased norepinephrine and serotonin
• Behavioral - learned helplessness
• Cognitive - negative self-talk

 

• Anxiety Disorders
• Disorders in which anxiety is a characteristic feature or the avoidance of anxiety seems to motivate abnormal behavior.
• Phobias
• Simple Phobia
• intense, paralyzing fear of some object or thing
• snakes, heights, mice, etc
• Social Phobia (Social Anxiety Disorder)
• Excessive, inappropriate fears connected with social situations or performances in front of other people
• agoraphobia: multiple, intense fear of crowds, public places, and other situations that require separation from a source of security
• Panic Disorder
• recurrent panic attacks: A sudden, unpredictable, and overwhelming experience of intense fear or terror without any reasonable cause.
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder
• prolonged vague but intense fears that are not attached to any particular object or circumstance.
• free-floating, unrealistic, > 6 months
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
• a person feels driven to think disturbing thoughts (obsessions) and/or to perform senseless rituals (compulsions).
• 80% OBD patients suffer both
• Obsessions
• concern with dirt, germs, or toxins 40
• something terrible happening 24
• symmetry, order, or exactness 17
• Compulsions
• excessive handwashing, bathing 85
• repeating rituals (in/out of a door) 51
• checking doors, locks, appliances 46
• Causes of Anxiety Disorders:
• Behavioral
• Conditioned responses
• Example: Have drop in elevator 2 stories, now avoid elevators
• Phobia = Classical + Operant Conditioning
• Classical Conditioning - Learn to pair fear with elevator
• Operant Conditioning - Neg’ve Reinforcement: Avoid elevator, don’t experience fear
• prepared responses: responses that evolution has made us biologically predisposed to acquire through learning
• Biological
• Neurochemical - decreases in GABA activity and serotonin activity
• Genetic - may be small tendency to inherit predisposition
• Cognitive
• people who suffer from anxiety disorders may chronically overestimate the severity of a perceived threat

 

• Dissociation Disorders
• Disorders in which some aspect of the personality seems separated from the rest
• Dissociative Amnesia
• loss of memory for past events without organic cause; may result from an intolerable experience
• Dissociative Fugue
• flight from home and perhaps the assumption of a new identity, with amnesia for past identity and events
• Dissociative Identity Disorder
• two or distinct personalities that emerge at different times
• physiological evidence
• increased popularity
• used to be called "multiple personality disorder"

 

• Schizophrenic Disorders
• Severe disorders in which there are disturbances of thoughts, communications, and emotions, including delusions and hallucinations.
• Symptoms
• delusions: false beliefs about reality that have no basis in fact.
• hallucinations: Sensory experiences in the absence of external stimulation.
• Types of Schizophrenic Disorders
• disorganized schizophrenia: Bizarre and childlike behaviors are common.
• catatonic schizophrenia: Disturbed motor activity is prominent.
• paranoid schizophrenia: extreme suspiciousness and complex, bizarre delusions.
• undifferentiated schizophrenia: clear schizophrenic symptoms that do not meet the criteria for another subtype of the disorder.
• Possible Causes of Schizophrenia
• genetics (46% concordance rate between identical twins)
• excessive amounts of dopamine
• enlarged ventricles in the brain
• abnormal pattern of connections between cortical cells
• family relationships
• stress

 

• Somatoform Disorders (will not be covered in class but is briefly covered in your textbook)
• Psychosomatic vs. Somatoform
• psychosomatic: Disorders in which there is REAL physical illness that is largely caused by psychological factors such as stress and anxiety.
• somatoform: Disorders in which there is an APPARENT physical illness for which there is no organic basis.
• Somatization Disorder
• A somatoform disorder characterized by recurrent vague somatic complaints without a physical cause.
• Conversion Disorder
• Somatoform disorders in which a dramatic specific disability has no physical cause but instead seems related to psychological problems.
• Hypochondriasis
• A somatoform disorder in which a person interprets insignificant symptoms as signs of serious illness in the absence of any organic evidence of such illness.
• Body Dysmorphic Disorder
• A somatoform disorder in which a person becomes so preoccupied with his or her imagined ugliness that normal life is impossible.
• Some Potential Causes of Somatoform Disorders
• Personality Factors
• people with histrionic and neurotic personality traits seem to be more susceptible to the somatoform disorders
• Behavioral Factors
• people who have previously received a lot of attention because of illness may begin to find reward in the somatoform disorders

Topic: Psychological Therapy

A. History of Therapy

• 16th & 17th C - labelled as "witches" tortured/killed or institutionalized in chains
• 18th & 19th C - Pinel (France) and Dix (America) - humane methods of treatment

B. Biomedical Therapies

• Antipsychotic Drugs
• Thorazine - Calms (+) symptom
• Clozaril - May "awaken" (-) symptom
• How? By occupying Dopamine receptor sites at neuron and blocking it’s activity

 

• Antianxiety Drugs
• Work by depressing CNS activity
• Drugs like Valium & Librium reduce tension and anxiety without causing excessive sleepiness.
• Psychological dependence

 

• Antidepressant Drugs
• Increase availability of Norepinepherine or Seratonin
• Prozac blocks reuptake/removal of seratonin from the synapse
• Bipolar Disorder: Lithium - simple salt

 

• Therapies of Last Resort
• Electroconvulsive Therapy
• Limited to severely depressed patients
• How does it work? Good Question
• Psychosurgery
• Lobotomy - cut nerves connecting frontal lobes with inner brain (fad of ‘40s & ‘50s)
• Today – seizures and OC

C. Insight Therapies

• Psychoanalysis
• psychological problems = unresolved unconscious conflicts
• goal = bring them into consciousness
• Tools used during psychoanalysis
• Free Association
• Dream Interpretation
• Transference
• Problems with Psychoanalysis
• time-consuming
• expensive
• not suitable for serious disorders

• Humanistic Therapies
• All emphasize
• the present
• awareness of feelings
• conscious thoughts
• taking responsibility
• promoting growth
• Client/Person-Centered Therapy
• Carl Rogers
• focus is one client's self-perceptions, not interpretations of the therapist
• necessary "ingredients" for successful therapy: honesty, empathy, unconditional positive regard
• goal: provide psychological mirror
• active listening: echoing, restating, clarification, and acknowledgment of client's feelings
• Gestalt Therapy
• getting in touch with oneself
• unconscious feelings and moment-to-moment feelings
• e.g., empty chair technique
• much more direct than client-centered therapy

 

• Cognitive Therapies
• thinking affects our feelings -- change patterns of thinking and you change feelings (esp for major depression and general anxiety)
• Rational-Emotive Therapy
• many problems arise from irrational thinking
• show client the absurdity of their ideas and they will realize that their problems aren't really problems
• common cognitive distortions
• Dichotomous Thinking
• The Mental Filter
• Mind Reading
• Catastrophic Exaggeration
• Control Beliefs
• confrontational style

D.  Behavioral Therapies

• Behaviors are the the problems (pah on self-awareness)
• Q: Does knowing why you are afraid of heights make you not afraid of heights? A? NO...So why bother with "WHY"?
• Learning principles are used to eliminate unwanted behaviors
• Counter-Conditioning
• Pairing the CS with a new response
• Systematic Desensitization
• Aversion Conditioning
• Operant Conditioning
• behaviors are influenced by their consequences
• rewards used to modify behavior varies (e.g., attention, praise, food, money)
• token economies
• Observation Learning
• Modeling

E.  Evaluating Psychotherapies

• Treatment works as compared to no treatment
• Differentiating various types of treatments
• type of treatment doesn't seem to matter in general
• some appear to be better for particular disorders
• Biomedical Therapy often needed in addition to Insight Theory
• De-Institutionalization