Psych Mid-term
−Psych – the science of behav
−the mind was independent free spirit mind as part of brain whose func. is to control behav
−casual events – causes another event to occur
−Areas of Psych Research 1) type of behav. 2) what casual events?
−physiological – organic processes/func. (esp. nervous sys.)
−chemical brain behav
−Comparative – study other speciies similarities/diff w/ humans
−evolutionary adaption behav
−Behaviour analysis- effect of consequences on behav. (learning and motivation)
−law of effect – good-> more, bad ->less
−Behaviour genetics – role of genes on behav
−Cognitive psych – complex behav & mental processes (perception, attention, memory…
−Cognitive neuroscience – physiological + cognitive psych; cog. psych through brain mechanisms
−developmental – how age/experience affects behav
−social - effect of other ppl on ppl (social influences)
−personality – indiv. diff. (temperament & personal history) pattern of behav.
−evolutionary – adaptive adv. of specific behav. during evolution
−natural selection as guiding prin.
−“bad” behav (now) must have had some purpose throughout evoution
−cross-culture – impact of culture on behav
−clinical – investigation & treatment of psych disorders (apply learning of causes to help patient)
−Philosophy Roots
−early on, everything attributed souls – animism (everything that moved had souls, even gravity)
−problem: if humans had soul, can’t be studied scientifically (to be science, must be material)
−Rene Descartes – dualism (humans had both mind and matter (soul & free will)
−non-mechanical mind controlled mechanical body
−human was machine – reflexes are automatic responses to stimulus that didn’t require mind
−John Locke – even the mind is a machines
−empiricism – running experiments
−process of learning: all ideas from experience – babies are blank slate
−Berkeley: learning is through perception
−James Mill – materialism (mind is part of physical world and can be studied)
−Biological Roots
−Luigi Galvani – “dancing frog leg” doesn’t need soul to work
−Muller – doctrine of specific nerve energies
−basic msg sent is same, an electric impulse received diff. led to notion of brain regions
−Flourens – ablation (remove parts to see their function)
−Broca’s region/ theory of Phrenology (touching head to feel size of brain)
−Fritsch & Hitzig – electric stimulation to map brain functions
−Hermann von Helmholtz – speed of nerve impulses (by ppl squeezing hands)
−Weber – ratio with weights (psychophysics)
−Education
−determinism – behav, is the result of prior events
−materialism implies determinism (which is opposed to free will), determinism allows prediction that an outcome will
follow cause
−“Wild Boy of Averyron” Itard (physician) tried to teach boy language
−Pinel – introduced that mental disorders could be treated
−John Dewey – children learn through goals, estab. habits to integrate child into society “Progressive education”
−Throndike – law of effect (repeat behav. after success)
−identify discrete units that make up task to be learnt, based on rewards for learning
−vs. Montessori – exercises matching child’s competency at the stage, physical movement related to learning, rewards
interfered with natural incentive to learn
−Development of Psych
−William Wundt – 1st psychologist – introspection (ppl analyze own inner thoughts)
−ignore complex perceptions, focus on elementary ones
−Structuralism – “structure of the mind” emphasized introspection, structure of inner experience
−died out b/c relied on subjectiveness & psych shifted from study of mind to study of behav.
−Functionalism – thinking was a function, like other functions, produced useful and adaptive behav.
−try to understand behav. in terms of adaptive usefulness
−observable behav. not based on private mental events
−William James (theory of emotion), Darwin
−Differences between Functionalism and Structuralism
1. struc. “what does internal world look like” components of consciousness (ideas and sensations)
func. “what is purpose of internal thoughts/exper. process of conscious activity (perceiving and learning)
2. func. is study of mental operations, not mental processes (mind rmbs, doesn’t contain memory)
3. mental process studied as part of biological activity (process of adaption & evolution)
4. relation b//w enviro. & response of organism to enviro (mind & body were same entity)
−Ebbinghaus – memory using non-words (pt is quantified something abstract like memory)
−Freud – clinical psych – psychodynamic theory
−his theory of mind had structures (but not like Wundt’s)
−structures of ego, superego, id part of unconsciourness (not ava. to introspection)
−emphasized his mental struc. served biological drives and instincts
−guy not “seeing” traumatic event (no physical cause of blindness, cause is psychological cause)
−(N. Amer) Behaviourism –psych research should only be on observable behav. focus on objectivity, study of stimulus and
their consequent behav.
−Watson estab. as school
−Thorndike’s law of effect (cats and #D mazes – 1st time took long, but eventually learned route), Pavlov’s dog (classical
conditioning – response to stimulus that had never causes such response), BF Skinner
−Margaret Washburn – introspection is form of behav.
−vs. (Europe) Geshalt Psych & Humanistic Psych
−humanistic – focus on human experience, creativity, choice, self-realization, growth
−emphasis on positive human nature, & potential for personal growth
−Geshalt – perception, org’n of cognitive processes, “is there one leg or two legs?”
−cognitive psych (understanding processes underlying behav.)
−uses info processing (info received by senses processed by sys, of neurons in brain)
−model of the brain is a computer
−Against Behaviourism: Neurobiology Donald Hebb
−find out what part of brain does what and their role in behav
−mental processes could be directly related to brain activity (challenge behaviourism notion)
−technology has allowed study of brain in greater detail
−3 types of scientific research:
−naturalistic observation – in natural enviro; clinical observation – observe while undergoing treatment
−case studies (clinical obsev.)
−survey study study of ppl’s responses to standardised ques
−correlational studies - examine b/w 2+ measurements of behav.
−experiments – scientific method
−Scientific Method
1. Identify problem & hypothesis
−tentative statement of c-e relation b/w 2+ behav.
2. Design experiment
−independent and dependent variable
−manipulate – set indep. to see if dep. is affected
−experimental (manipulated indep.) vs. control group (zero-value/natural value of indep)
−operational def. – def. of variable in terms of what is done to measure or manipulate it
−avoid nominal fallacy
−Validity – how appropriate op. def. is for testing hypothesis
−manipulation checks – get 3rd party (ex. lecturer tries to encourage participation, but students not
part. manipulation didn’t work)
−converging evidence – diff. ppl test same hypothesis w/ diff. op. def. for same results
−confounding variables – more than indep. was changed
−counterbalance – switch order (avoid habituation)
3. Perform experiment
−Reliability – how well you can measure
oextraneous factors (ex. poorly scanned images)
oconsistent condition
oobjectivity (not subjective what’s friendliness)
−interrater reliability
−random assignment
−single blind and double studies
−Hawthorne studies – sol: decption
4. Evaluate Results and Hypothesis
5. Comm’n of Results
−replication – can repeat and get same result
−generalization – results apply to general pop. (get good sample)
−more replication better generalizations
−correlational studies – examine relation b/w 2+ measurement of behav.
−correlation doesn’t imply causation!
−matching – match charact. of participants (ex. age, gender) but might still miss out on certain variables
−Ethics (Humans)
−Ethics (Animals) – can do more invasive experiments, must be humane and worthwhile
−Stats
−descriptive stats – summarizes data (ex. mean, median, range)
−central tendency
−variability – degree in which data differs from each other
−range (larger range = larger variability)
−MAD – mean absolute deviation
−standard deviation & variance (V = SD2)
−measure of relations – scatter plot, correlation coefficient (-1 to 1 for linear relations)
−inferential stats – determine if relations are stat sig. (2 sets of data diff. or same diff infer correlation)
−stat. sig. – relation is not due to chance (if no manipulation, how much diff. b/w 2 groups?)
−Darwin – biological evolution ( change over time for better adaptivenss in enviro) – Alfred Wallace
−adaptive significance - effectiveness in aiding organisms to adapt
−ultimate causes – from the past; proximate causes (from current enviro)
−evolutionary psych – how organism’s enviro. history contributes to behav.
−culture – socially transmitted knowledge, customs, behav, common to particular ppl
−how thinking and behaving shaped cultural adaptations?
Document Summary
Psych the science of behav the mind was independent free spirit mind as part of brain whose func. is to control behav casual events causes another event to occur. Areas of psych research physiological organic processes/func. (esp. nervous sys. ) 2) what casual events? chemical brain behav. Comparative study other speciies similarities/diff w/ humans evolutionary adaption behav. Behaviour analysis- effect of consequences on behav. (learning and motivation) law of effect good-> more, bad ->less. Cognitive neuroscience developmental social personality evolutionary cross-culture clinical. Complex behav & mental processes (perception, attention, memory . Physiological + cognitive psych; cog. psych through brain mechanisms. Effect of other ppl on ppl (social influences) Indiv. diff. (temperament & personal history) pattern of behav. Adaptive adv. of specific behav. during evolution natural selection as guiding prin. Bad behav (now) must have had some purpose throughout evoution. Investigation & treatment of psych disorders (apply learning of causes to help patient)