PSYC 1150 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Cortisol, Sleepwalking, Temporal Lobe
26 Jun 2018
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Textbook Summaries
Chapter One: Psychology and Scientific Thinking
What is Psychology?
- Psychology is the scientific study of the mind, brain and behaviours.
- To fully understand psychology, we must consider multiple levels of analysis.
- Ranging from molecules to brain structures to thoughts, feelings and emotions as
well as social and cultural influences.
- Human behaviour can be hard to predict because the majority of our actions are multiply
determined. Culture also places limitations on the generalizations that psychologists can
draw. As well, people influence each other.
- A psychologist who studies culture from the perspective of an outside is using an
etic approach.
Psychology’s Past and Present: What a long, Strange Trip it’s Been
- Five major theoretical orientations have played key roles in shaping the field:
- Structuralism: amined to identify the basic elements of experience through the
method of introspection.
- Functionalism: hoped to understand the adaptive purposes of behaviour.
- Behaviouralism: grew out of the belief that psychological science must be
completely objective and derived from laws of learning.
- The Cognitive View: emphasized the importance of mental processes in
understanding behaviour. (rewards and punishments are crucial part of
behaviour).
- Psychoanalysis: focuses on unconsciousness processes and urges as cause of
behaviour.
- There are five main types of psychologists:
- Clinical and counselling: conduct therapy
- School psychologists: develop intervention programs for school children.
- Industrial/Organizational psychologists: work in companies and business;
maximize employee performance.
- Forensic psychologists: work in prison and court settings.
- Research psychologists: conduct research (ie. on biological basis of behaviour).
- Nature vs. Nurture debate continues to shape field of psychology; acts whether our
behaviours are attributed to mostly our genes (nature) or to our rearing environments
(nurture).
- Free Will-determinism debate; asks to what extent our behaviours are freely selected
rather than caused by factors outside of our control.
Science Versus Intuition
-Naive realism is the error of believing that we see the world precisely as it is. It can lead
us to false beliefs about ourselves and our world (ie. such as believing that our
perceptions and memories are always accurate.
-Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypotheses
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and deny, dismiss or destroy evidence that does not.
-Belief perseverance is the tendency to cling to our beliefs described contrary evidence.
- The scientific method is a set of safeguards against these two errors.
Psychological Pseudoscience: Imposters of Science
- Pseudoscientific claims appear scientific but they don’t play by the rules of science. In
particular, pseudoscience lacks the safeguards against confirmation bias and belief
perseverance that characterize science. (ie. Three simple steps will change your love life
forever!
- Exaggerated claims, overreliance on anecdotes, absence of connectivity to other
research, talk of proof instead of evicde, lack of review by other scholars (peer
review).
- We are drawn to pseudoscientific beliefs because the human mind tends to perceive
sense in nonsense and order in disorder.
Scientific Thinking: Distinguishing Fact from Fiction
- Scientific skepticism requires is to evaluate all claims with an open mind but to insist on
compelling evidence before accepting them.
- Scientific skeptics evaluate claims on their own merits and are unwilling to accept
them on the basis of authority alone.
- Six key scientific thinking principles are:
- Ruling out rival hypotheses
- Correlation versus causation
- Fasifiability
- Replicability
- Extraordinary claims
- Occam’s Razor
- Psychological research has shown how psychology can be applied to such diverse fields
as advertising, public safety, criminal justice system and education.
Chapter Five: Consciousness
Biology of Sleep
- Sleep and wakefulness vary in response to circadian rhythm that regulates may bodily
processes over a 24-hour period. It’s located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus in the
hypothalamus.
- There are five stages of sleep:
- Stage 1: drowsy feeling; transition to stage two.
- Stage 2: brainwaves and heart rate slow, body temp. decreases and muscles
relax.
- Stages 3&4: Deep sleep occurs; large amplitude delta waves become more
frequent.
- Stage 5: REM sleep; brain is activated as much as it is during waking life.
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
Psychology is the scientific study of the mind, brain and behaviours. To fully understand psychology, we must consider multiple levels of analysis. Ranging from molecules to brain structures to thoughts, feelings and emotions as well as social and cultural influences. Human behaviour can be hard to predict because the majority of our actions are multiply determined. Culture also places limitations on the generalizations that psychologists can draw. A psychologist who studies culture from the perspective of an outside is using an etic approach. Psychology"s past and present: what a long, strange trip it"s been. Five major theoretical orientations have played key roles in shaping the field: Structuralism: amined to identify the basic elements of experience through the method of introspection. Functionalism: hoped to understand the adaptive purposes of behaviour. Behaviouralism: grew out of the belief that psychological science must be completely objective and derived from laws of learning.
