PS102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Sketchpad, Dysgeusia, Optic Chiasm
PS102- MIDTERM 1 REVIEW
Chapter 1- pages 14-20 & 23-28
Psychoanalysis- the psychology of the unconscious
William Wundt
• Father of psychology
• Study of conscious
Sigmund Freud
• Belief that people’s behaviours are based off unconscious desired and conflicts
• Developed psychoanalysis
• Aimed to resolve unconscious conflicts
Behaviourism
• Psychological research should only focus on behaviour that you can observe
• B.F Skinner
• Freud= unconscious
• Skinner= observable behaviour
B.F Skinner
• Behaviourism
• Developed operant conditioning to shape behaviour
Edward Thorndike
• Proposed research findings from the study of animals that could help explain human behaviour
• Proposed Law of Effect (suggests we are creatures that engage in a behaviour more often when
we have satisfying/rewarding consequences)
Ivan Pavlov
• Dogs could learn to associate a bell with an automatic behaviour such as salivating for food
• Classical conditioning
John B. Watson
• “little albert” experiment
• demonstrated that children (people) could be classically conditioned
• child was trained to be afraid of furry animals
Albert Bandura
• famous for observational learning
• described learning by social observation in children & several species of primates
• Bonobo chimpanzee observing behaviour of an adult
Developmental psychology
• An example of academic psychology
Humanistic Psychology- a new direction
• Humanist psychologists stressed that a person has a capacity for personal growth and the freedom
to choose his/her destiny and positive qualities
• Therapist makes him feel respected and unconditionally supported
• Carl Rogers
o Developed “client centered” therapy
o Said that people are innately good
• Abraham Maslow
o Theory of motivation that consists of hierarchy of needs
Cognitive psychology: revitalization of study of the mind
• Ulric Neisser- coined the term cognitive psychology as the study of information processing
• Role of mental processes in how people process information, develop language, solve problems,
think
• Cognitive psychologists compared the human mind to a computer (when computers became
popular)
Psychodynamics
• Likely to focus on the impact of early childhood experiences
• An approach to psychology that emphasizes systematic study of psychological forces that
underlie human behaviour, feelings, and emotions and how they might relate to early experience
• Often criticized for being unscientific
Psychoanalysis
• Freud: conscious and unconscious
• New therapist helps patient with depression by working to resolve conflict between conscious and
unconscious mind
Psychology today
• Blurred lines between all branches of psychology
• Doctoral degrees awarded in psychology
• Clinical psychology is the most common PhD
Shared values of all psychologists (psychology is…)
• Theory driven
o Theories used to explain behaviour
• Empirical
o Based on research
• Multi-level
o Explained by the brain, individual, social influences (3 levels)
• Contextual
o Based on cultural context
• Past: belief that women talk more than men
• Currently: studies show women and men talk same amount of words
Current trends in psychology
• Growing diversity
o More women and members of minority groups
o Efficacy increases
▪ Drug testing was only conducted based on white males; efficacy was decreased
because they did not include white women
▪ Sample group must be wholesome (world doesn’t consist of only white men)
• Advances in technology
o Development of computers and brain imaging techniques
▪ Leads to new research in fields of cognitive neuroscience and social neuroscience
• New schools of thought
o Positive psychology and positive psychotherapy focus on happiness and other emotions
o Yoga, meditation, exercises
o Helps clinical depression
Collectivist culture
• People from collectivistic cultures would mention their family ties or their nationality
Chapter 2- pages 44-56
Psychology as a science
Research
1. Theory: explains and predicts observed phenomena
2. Hypothesis: falsifiable and testable prediction
3. Confirmation
4. Data: systematic observation
Research methods to achieve goals
1. Descriptive research
o Case studies, naturalistic observation, surveys
o Purpose: observe, collect, record data (meets descriptive goal of psychology)
o Advantages: good for developing early ideas, more reflective of actual behaviour than
other methods, easier to collect data
2. Experimental research
o Manipulation and control variables
o Purpose: identify cause and effect (meets explanation goal of psychology)
o Advantages: allows researchers to have precise control over variables and to identify
cause and effect
o Disadvantages: ethical concerns, practical limits, artificiality of lab conditions,
cofounding variables, research and participant bias
Methods to achieve goals
• Naturalistic and laboratory observations
o Playground (naturalistic) vs. big brother (laboratory)
• Case studies
o Special samples (Genie in linguistic isolation)
• Surveys
o Big samples
o Self-report
o Quasi-experiments
o Experiments
Descriptive statistics (one variable)
• used to give basic information about what we find
• Provides a summary/frequency distribution or table
• Mean/median/mode- measures of central tendency
o Describe where the scores lie
• Standard deviation & range- measures variability
o How much the scores differ from each other
• Normal distribution
o Bell shaped/bell curve
Scores
• Variability- how much variability a score has from the mean
o Little: all bunched up and close to the mean
o Lots: wide curve
• Median
o Middle score
o Falls in the middle of distribution
o Less affected by the outliers
Analyzing data
• Descriptive statistics
o Summarize actual study data
o Determine correlations
• Inferential statistics
o Extend conclusions to larger population
o Determine the hypothesis has been supported or if there is a meaningful difference
between the groups
Reading correlation graphs
• Data points
• Scatterplots
Document Summary
William wundt: father of psychology, study of conscious. Sigmund freud: belief that people"s behaviours are based off unconscious desired and conflicts, developed psychoanalysis, aimed to resolve unconscious conflicts. Behaviourism: psychological research should only focus on behaviour that you can observe, b. f skinner, freud= unconscious, skinner= observable behaviour. B. f skinner: behaviourism, developed operant conditioning to shape behaviour. Edward thorndike: proposed research findings from the study of animals that could help explain human behaviour, proposed law of effect (suggests we are creatures that engage in a behaviour more often when we have satisfying/rewarding consequences) Ivan pavlov: dogs could learn to associate a bell with an automatic behaviour such as salivating for food, classical conditioning. Little albert experiment: demonstrated that children (people) could be classically conditioned child was trained to be afraid of furry animals. Albert bandura famous for observational learning: described learning by social observation in children & several species of primates, bonobo chimpanzee observing behaviour of an adult.