Principles of Psychology

Basic Principles of Psychology

• Psychology studies behaviour and mental processes.

Nature vs. Nurture

• This debate explores the influence of genetics (nature) versus environment and experience (nurture) on behaviour and mental processes.
• Modern approaches recognize dynamic interaction between both.

Free Will vs. Determinism

• The debate considers whether actions stem from choice or unavoidable precursors.
• It questions the extent of human control over actions, versus biological, psychological, or environmental determinants.
• Soft determinism proposes a middle ground.

Mind/Body

• This issue focuses on the relationship between mind (cognitive processes) and body (behaviour).
• Dualism sees mind and body as separate, while monism views them as fundamentally connected.
• Monism is often supported by neuroscience.

Mind/Body Relationship

• Emergence suggests the mind controls the body, where attitudes influence behaviours.
• Epiphenomenalism posits that the body controls the mind, as behaviours shapes attitudes.
• Interactionism proposes a bidirectional causal relationship between mind and body: attitudes shape actions, and vice versa.
• Psychophysical parallelism suggests that mind and body are not causally related but function independently and coexist without direct causation.

Theories of Personality

• Personality encompasses unique, enduring internal and external characteristics influencing behaviour across situations; defining "why we are the way we are."

Biological Theories

• Biological theories are often deterministic and grounded in the physical body.

Humourism (4th Century)

• Hippocrates and Galen suggested personality, including criminal tendencies, stems from fluid imbalances or "humours".

Four Humours

• Melancholic: Associated with sadness, depression, introspection, anxiety, pessimism and deep thought, linked to excess black bile.
• Choleric: Associated with crankiness, irritability, short temper, aggression, ambition, and anger, linked to excess yellow bile.
• Phlegmatic: Associated with inactivity, apathy, calmness, easygoing nature, laziness or indifference, linked to excess phlegm.
• Sanguine: Associated with changeability, temperamental nature, sociability, liveliness, enthusiasm, inconsistency, and impulsivity, linked to high blood levels.

Body Types

• Endomorphic (Round, Soft, Fatty Tissue): Traits include comfort-loving, relaxed, affectionate and enjoys food, relaxation, and social interactions.
• Mesomorphic: Traits include being adventurous, energetic, bold, desiring power and dominance, being competitive, seeking leadership roles, loving risk, and being indifferent to others' opinions.
• Ectomorphic: Traits include social anxiety, introversion, mental intensity, deep thinking, emotional restraint, and valuing privacy and independent work.

Modern Biological/Neurological Theories

• Encompass neurological damage, hormonal changes, and biochemical reactions.

Psychoanalytic Perspective (1890-1930): Sigmund Freud

• This perspective gave birth to psychology.
• The foundation is based on the unconscious and psychosexual development.
• A belief in behaviour influenced by unconscious drives, desires, and conflicts.
• Early childhood experiences shape personality, fixations may cause psychological issues later.
• Personality is largely "set" by age five by shaping the development of the unconscious mind
• Altering only happens through intensive therapy with professionals.

Behavioural Perspective

• Ivan Pavlov's science meets psychology.
• Learning occurs in animals through association (classical conditioning).
• B.F. Skinner expanded on Watson, focusing on complex behaviours, punishment, and positive reinforcement.
• Operant conditioning emphasizes consequences instead of classical conditioning.
• Complex behaviours are gradually shaped through reinforcement
• No need for unconditioned responses of complex behaviours is maintained by consequences.
• Reinforcement and punishment are central to controlling behaviour
• Personalities are defined by behaviours shaped by associations with rewards and punishments (Tabula Rasa).
• Personality can be altered through consistent reward and punishment schedules.

Humanistic Perspective

• Carl Rogers on Self-actualization promoting peace, love, and human psychology.
• Personality is based on one's level of self-actualization and growth, affecting behaviour.
• Altering personality assists individuals to deal with challenges blocking self-actualization.
• Achieved through therapists using active listening.
• Growth stems from relationships with individuals who are genuine, accepting, and empathetic.

Cognitive Perspective

• George Kelly, viewing psychology as rooted in thinking,
• Emphasizes thought processes as the foundation for personality
• Humans are motivated to understand their world rationally.
• Personality is the result of behaviours and mental processes.
• Altering is achieved through training/learning via cognitive-behavioural programs.

Sensation and Perception

• In bottom-up processing, perception is data-driven, starting with sensory input to form a complete picture.
• Analyzing an object's shape, colour, and texture before recognizing it uses bottom-up processing.
• Top-down processing is influenced by prior knowledge, expectations, and starting with a mental framework.
• Predicting words from obscured text uses top-down processing.

Top-Down Processing (Overview)

• Stimulus: External energy activates sensory systems (light, sound, touch).
• Accessory Structure: Structures gather, focus, and filter stimuli for sensory processing (e.g., lens focusing light).
• Receptors: Specialized cells detect physical energy, converting it into neural signals through transduction.
• Sensory Nerves: Nerves carry electrical signals from receptors to the CNS.
• Thalamus: The brain's relay station processes and directs sensory signals to appropriate cortex areas.
• Cortex: Sensory regions process signals, enabling perception and potential action.

Key Terms and Concepts to Understand

• Sensation: Conversion of physical stimuli into neural signals, involving physical and psychological components.
• Physical aspects refer to the stimulus, psychological refers to the subjective experience.
• Levels of description include low-level stimulus detection and high-level interpretation.
• Sensory Adaptation: Sensory receptors become less sensitive to constant stimuli whereas Change Blindness the failure to detect changes in a dark/light environment.
• Common Features include receptors detecting energy types, sensory pathways using the same system and Perceptual Constancy recognizing objects stay constant if appearance changes.

Receptors in the Eye

• Rods: Photoreceptors for low-light, peripheral vision.
• Cones: Photoreceptors for colour vision, concentrated in the fovea for detail.
• The Fovea provides detailed vision via a cone concentration.
• Rhodopsin as a Light-sensitive chemical,
• The blind spot is An area without receptors where the optic nerve leaves the eye.

Sensation vs. Perception

• Sensation: Organs detect and convert raw sensory data into neural signals.
• Perception: Brain organizes and interprets raw data, uses experiences influenced by expectations to make experiences.

Key Elements of a Sensory System

• Stimulus: External energy impacting the environment.
• Accessory Structures: Modifies incoming Stimuli
• Sensory Receptors: Specialized cells convert stimuli into electrical signals.
• Transduction: Converts sensory stimuli into neural signals.
• Encoding: Brain interprets intensity and characteristics of the stimulus.
• Transmission: Sends neural signals to the brain.

Transduction and Encoding

• Transduction: Sensory receptors convert physical energy into neural impulses, with light in the retina becoming interpretable visual images.
• Encoding: Neural representation of sensory information influenced by neural firing rates; High rates mean more intense stimuli.
• Sensory Adaptation: Sensitivity of constant stimulus lessens over time so focuses on new/important stimuli.

Vision: From Light to Sight

• Retinal cells are a Network of specialized cells process visual information
• Rods are photoreceptors that function in low-light conditions and responsbile for motion detection and peripheral vision.
• Cones: photoreceptors concentrated inside the fovea are responsible for detail and colour vision.
• Ganglion Cells: Recieve information from photoreceptors and transport to the brain via the axons that make up the optic nerve.
• Neural Firing and Receptive Fields: Are areas of sensory space a neuron will respond to.

Psychophysics and Perception

• Psychophysics quantifies the connection between physical stimuli and perception in the world.
• Opponent-Process Theory: Pairs visuals to the 3 opposing pairs -Red/ green, yellow/blue, and black/white. Oppose each other, one activates while the other is not stimulated.
• Colours based on wavelengths of light and how much white light is mixed into the colour
• Brightness refers to the intensity based on levels emitted and or are reflected by an objet
• Signal Detection Theory: Emphasizes that perception is influenced by internal things such as motivations and expectations. (doctors look fopr cancer)

Weber’s Law

• The just noticeable difference (JND) for two stimuli is constant to the original intensity.
• Fechner’s law means The impact a subjective experience has becomes slow when actual intesnity builds up.
• • Stevens' dictates Intensity Subjective builds linearly as intensity exponentially.

Perceptual Organization

• Gestalt Principles:
• Proximity: Group close things.
• Similarity: Group things that are similar.
• Closure: Complete an image.
• Continuity: Perceive smooth patterns more than disconnected.
• Depth Perception: Uses binocular and monocular.

Anatomy of Sensory Systems

• Physical Stimulus: Vision based on light waves, hearing based on sound waves, touch based on physical pressure and body sense based on kinesthetic awareness.
• Anatomy: vision - eye (retina/rods/cones), hearing ear (cochlea and cell hairs), Body sense (muscles,joints) and touch includes skin.
• Psychological: vision includes color,brightness and depth, hearing includes pitch / loudness etc the body sense is always balance and the touch includes texture.

Color-Vision Theories

• Trichromatic Theory: Proposes colour vision done with the combination of types of cones from short medium and long. (red/blue/green)
• Opponent-Process Theory: 2 visual colours work by means of couples of colour (3 opposing paries).

Auditory System

• Frequency detection = auditory employs the basilar membrane also cells from hairs in the cochlea in order to understand the frequency of sounds.
• Theory of place means frequency are signed at place on the basilar membrane.
• Frequency dictates the rate cells with hairs encode over a lower frequency sound.

Perceptual Organization

• Grouping principles are Proximity, Similarity and the Continuity and Closure to an image.
• Distance Percepetion has is influenced by monocular as Interposition - and liner perspective or the gradient. It also contains shading and relative size.
• Binocular means using two for to see

Perceptual Constancy

• Color is recognized in the same way dispite light. The same concept goes for size. shape and brightness dispite the lights.

Psychology's Biology

• Theoretical has Phrenelogy (skull shape to determin personality), humour body related issues and is now used in sociobiology.
• It explores how brain/nerves and all biological things play a influence to thinking, feeling and all the processes.

The Brain

• Frontel Lobe: Problem / Decision making as well as aspects to the personality.
• Perietal Lobe: Information with senses
• Occipitial: Visual
• Temporal Lobe: Auditory/memory/language

Neural Communication

• Nucleus is the center cell with its own genome, Soma carries material, Axxon does signalling, Myelin insulates signalling, and the gap where nurotransmitors go out through,
• Signalling process: input happens, reach axon releasing the transmitters to synapse - binding and membrane can be affected.
• The nervous system - Central/periphernal. The brain is in charge of thoughts and awareness - and the spinal cord is the messenger. - voluntary
• System -somatic / the bodily actions
• and antonomic for auto actions. System also carries hormones,

Hormones

Are released by glands that stim other glands like - Thyroid(controls metabolic rate) Pancreas- secretes homrones adrenal the stress ones and Gonads (sex)

Emotions :

• Emotions are mental reactions (like feeling fear) subjectified with behaviour and feelings.
• Specicif is temporary and can change positively can affect vice verca.

Mind/Body Relationship

• Emergence = mind control body(attitudes/behaviour)
• Epiphenomenalism the body controls the attitudes
• Interactionism - they both impact each other but not
• Paralleism (They don't affect with each other)

Theories of Emotion

• James-Lange = Feeling that are biological you explain how you behave.
• Cannon- Bard - Emotions happen one at the same time (Fear)
• Schacter-Singer - how an idea is made

Schacter-Singer Theory

• framework to understanding :Physiolical/cognitive Arouasal. meaning an experience triggers by the awareness/arousal (heart increases) or evaluation happens.

Attributions

• Attbution - the process used. The decision is the cause and is subjective. (bad things happen out of my control but not for you).

Non-Verbal Communication

• Paralingual: (tone)

Expressions - Ekman

• Facial :Humans across cultures
• Gestures specific signs/communications
• emblems stand for phases while displays mean feelings

Proximics :

Imapcts

• Emotional Distances
• Intimate = trust
• Personal is medium connection
• Social or public is work related.

Emotions

Regulation / Regulation is accepting and having the controls on the experience - which can be done by knowing what is not a solution and recognizing

Emotions Continous

• Physiological means to re regulate mindfulness and regulate/counter by excersisng.
• Cognative restructuring - downward comparison ( it happens) or remind on importance.
• There is a difference in the intelligence with offenders - the actions the offender is facing makes it hard to regulate so therapy is needed.