Psych Cheat Sheet (Ciceran) PDF

Unit 1: Research Terms and definitions: Social sciences Definition: A group of disciplines dedicated to examining human behaviour and specifically how people interact with each other, behave, develop as a culture, and influence the world. Why do we study: The social sciences are the key to understa...

Unit 1: Research Terms and definitions: Social sciences Definition: A group of disciplines dedicated to examining human behaviour and specifically how people interact with each other, behave, develop as a culture, and influence the world. Why do we study: The social sciences are the key to understanding and improving the world we live in. Anthropology Subcategories: Physical anthropology (forensic, primatology, biological) and cultural anthropology (sociocultural, linguistic, arachnology, applied) What do they study: The field of study that explores the origins, development, and diversity of human beings and their societies. Psychology What do they study: Psychologists study how people think, feel, and behave. It looks at how our minds work and what influences our actions, emotions, and decisions. Why do we study it: We study psychology to understand why people think, feel, and behave the way they do, which helps us improve mental health, relationships, and decision-making. Sociology What do they study: The study of interactions among people living together in a society and their actions, beliefs and behaviours, to understand society. What does it focus on: Interactions, groups vs. influence, etc Primary source: Obtained from field research that you (the researcher) perform. Secondary source: Items such as journal/newspaper articles that summarize what others have to say about a topic or issue. CRAAP test acronym: Currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, purpose. Research plan SS inquiry process: Identify a problem/research question, develop a hypothesis, gather data, analyze data, and draw conclusions. Research methods (advantages, disadvantages, definitions): Survey: A series of questions sent to sample groups who are fair representatives for the entire group under study. Positives - can question large numbers, data is quantitative. Disadvantages - hard to design, issues of validity. Interviews: 1/1 situation asking someone questions about your topic (usually someone in the field you are studying). Positives - Can be organized into qualitative or quantitative data. Cons - difficult to find a person to interview, difficult to guide. Observations: Observing particular behaviour in a situation including varying factors. Pros - rich, complex, and thorough data. Cons - participants may alter their behaviour in response to the researcher or other participants. Participant observation: Observation but the researcher is in the study with the participants. Pros - multiple perspectives, rich qualitative data. Cons - can be inaccurate/biased data. Experiments: the relationships between variables are examined; you compare the variables after manipulating the situation. Pros - fun and interesting to view results. Cons - prone to bias (selective sampling, subversion, change effects). Content analysis: A researcher examines and classifies content in a sample group of communications such as books, letters, movies, and songs. Pros - allows a closeness to data, directly examines the communications, and uses text to provide historical and cultural insights over time. Cons - time-consuming, subject to increased error. Secondary analysis: Examining data that has already been gathered for another purpose to gain evidence that can apply to his/her own investigation. Pros - cost-effective, time-saving. Cons - can’t collect data yourself, variables may be categorized differently than you would have chosen. Crafting a hypothesis, things to avoid: Do not use close-ended or too open-ended questions (achievable study), is testable, do not be vague. How to create a survey: Ask yourself what you want to get out of the survey, open or closed-ended questions may be formed, go least sensitive to the most sensitive material within questions, and form neutral statements. What to avoid in a survey: Avoid biased questions, double-barrelled questions, confusing and wordy questions, and don’t include info not related to your study. Why is citation important: to avoid copying/taking credit for other people’s work. Proper APA format: Last name, F.N (year, month, day) article title. URL. Names should appear in the same order as the publication describes. Hypothesis: A precise, testable statement of what a researcher predicts the outcome of a study. Behaviour: How someone acts/behaves, and presents themselves. Society: A group of people who form a semi-closed social system in which most interactions are with other individuals belonging with the group. Bias: A tendency to believe some people, ideas, etc are better than others; resulting in unfair treatment of others. Annotate: An annotation is approximately 100-300 words long (one paragraph) and includes a brief summary of the source. Unit 2: Anthropology Archaeology: Archaeologists study the physical remains of a past culture through excavation and reconstruction. Applied Anthropology: Uses research results to solve practical problems for people in different cultures. It could be solutions from one culture shared to another. Linguistics: Linguistic anthropologists study the history and structure of language and the ways humans use language. Three major areas in this area include: historical linguistics, structural linguistics, sociolinguistics Ethnology: the study of origins and cultures of different races and peoples. Studied through participant observation. Ethnography: In-depth description of a particular culture, primary research is done through participant observation where the anthropologist lives among the culture for a period conducting observations and in-depth interviews with individuals or groups. Physical Anthropology: Studies human evolution, human biology and other primates, have extensive training in human skeletal anatomy. Biological Anthropology: Study diseases and illness, environmental and social conditions, and human evolution. Primatologist: Study primates, a primate is “any member of the group of animals that include human beings, apes, and monkeys. Forensic Anthropology: The examination of human skeletal remains for law enforcement to determine the identity of unidentified bones. Ethnocentrism: The belief that one's own culture or ethnic group is superior to others. It involves judging other cultures based on the standards and values of one's own culture, leading to misinterpretations of different ways of life. Cultural Materialism: Cultural materialism is the idea that people's beliefs, behaviours, and cultures are mostly shaped by their physical environment and the resources they need to survive. It focuses on how things like technology, economy, and geography influence culture. The Leakey Family: The Leakey family is famous for their work in human evolution. Louis and Mary made key fossil discoveries in Africa, including the Laetoli footprints, while their son Richard found important fossils and worked on wildlife conservation. Richard’s wife, Meave, also made significant contributions to understanding human evolution. Unit 3: Sociology Macrosociology: Analyzes social systems on a large scale, the big picture (eg: Religion) Microsociology: The study of small groups within a society (eg: how individuals are shaped by group interactions). Social perspective: Almost every aspect of a person’s thoughts and behaviours is strongly influenced by other people. Values: Shared ideas and standards that a society or a specific group consider acceptable or binding. Norms: Expectations about how people should behave in particular situations/contexts. Role: The expected behaviour of a person in a particular position. Socialization: Describes the process where an individual learns basic skills, socially acceptable goals, and roles and behaviour. Primary socialization: Learning basic skills needed to survive in society such as hygiene, eating with utensils, and dressing appropriately. Secondary Socialization: Learning how to behave appropriately in group situations (eg: how to behave in a church). Hidden Curriculum: Present at schools and models a certain set of beliefs and attitudes/endorses specific behaviours in situations, uses praise and positive reinforcement. Social Network: A set of social actors such as individuals or organizations, connected by social interactions and ties. Collective Behaviour: When a group/crowd/society as a whole does certain things that do not make sense. Altruism: The principle of unselfish regard for the needs and interests of others. Prosocial Behaviour: A form of altruism in which individuals or groups demonstrate empathy towards and care for the welfare of others without benefit to themselves. Rational Decision Theory: Assumes that people make rational decisions whether or not to participate in collective behaviour. Threshold: A level point at which something would or would not happen; a tipping point. Smart Mob: A large group of strangers who use electronic media to organize and stage a surprise public gathering (flash mob). Mass Hysteria: When everyone does something out of fear that is not needed. Conformity: The act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours, to group norms. This occurs when a person adjusts his/her thoughts, feelings, and behaviours to match the standards of a group. Vanier Institute definition of family: Any combination of 2+ people who are bound over time by ties of mutual consent, birth, and/or placement, and who, together, assume responsibilities for the following: physical maintenance, addition of new members through procreation/adoption, socialization of children, production and consumption of goods/services, and affective nurturance (love). Agents of socialization - describe their impacts on people Family: Primary agent, meets the individual’s most basic needs and provides beliefs needed to support them into this world, learns about proper social behaviour from them. Peers: Teach people about sexual relationships, gender, and culture, cling to beliefs in the media, new skills learned (eg: compromise), and influential during adolescence. Social media (neg and pos): Shapes out identity and self-esteem, personal appearances may be influenced and can spark new goals. Workplace: Learning new environments, and collaboration, help you set and achieve new goals, and give importance to making a living and a supportive family. Religion: Moral codes, sets standards of behaviour, teaches responsibility, and encourages charity. School: Standard knowledge and skills needed for daily life. Vanier Institute Functions of the Family 1. Nuclear family: consists of spouses and their dependant children. 2. Extended family: several generations live in the same household. 3. Lone-parent family: 1 parent and 1+ dependant children. 4. Blended family: divorced partners with children from a previous union marry. 5. Same-sex family: 2 individuals of the same gender with children. 6. Interracial family: a family that consists of parents from different racial or ethnic backgrounds with children. Theories Structural functionalism summary: All of society’s institutions and elements must work together to find a balance that creates the stability and well-being of its members. Institutions must meet the needs of its citizens for stability. Macro/micro/both: Macro Theory. Symbolic interactionism summary: Believes that social values are formed by individual interpretation. An individual creates a sense of self by considering the reaction of others. Social life depends on our ability to imagine ourselves in our social roles. Does not focus on social systems, but on the way that individuals, through their interpretations of social situations and behavioural negotiation with others, give meaning to social interactions. Macro/micro/both: Micro Theory Conflict theory summary: There is often competition between various groups for power. Competition for power is caused by the struggle between those who have economic and political power and those who do not. Macro/micro/both: Macro Theory Feminist theory summary: Feminist Theorists focus on sex and gender issues, believing that women have traditionally been disadvantaged in society and men have had more advantages. They believe that men have made most of the decisions in society and that these tend to favour men (known as patriarchy). Macro/micro/both: Classified as both a micro and macro theory. Theorists Emile Durkheim: Believed that humans are social and are defined by their social actions, institutions must meet the needs of its citizens, contributed to the foundation of structural functionalism. Talcott Parsons: A structural functionalist (who gave the theory roots in the US), “everything in society exists for good reason”, our actions reflect our values or the values of the people around us. Max Weber: Famous thesis of the “protestant ethic” (values of hard work, thrift, efficiency, and orderliness), theory of bureaucracy. George Herbert Mead: Symbols are the key to understanding the world, symbols identify people, places, and relationships. Karl Marx: A philosopher interested in economic history, modelled conflict theory in his work, focused on class conflict, social evolution, and social issues. Auguste Comte: First to use the term sociology, believed society is constantly changing and observed that individuals and groups struggle to adapt, introduced positivism, application of the scientific method, and stated that data must be testable and measurable. Unit 4: Psychology Psychoanalysis/psychodynamic: the theory that all human behaviour is influenced by early childhood and that childhood experiences influence the unconscious mind throughout life. Theories that fit into the category of psychoanalysis are called psychodynamic theories. These are based on the belief that unlocking the unconscious mind is the key to understanding human behaviour and relationships. ID: The instinctual part of the mind, which operates on the pleasure principle. Ego: The rational part of the mind, operates on the reality principle. Often suppressed the urges of the ID. Superego: The moral centre of the mind, the mind’s conscience. Defence Mechanism: An unconscious psychological strategy used by individuals to cope with anxiety, stress, or uncomfortable emotions. These mechanisms help protect the person from feelings of pain or threat by distorting reality or avoiding uncomfortable situations. Repression: Repression is when a person unconsciously forgets or pushes away upsetting thoughts or memories to avoid feeling bad or anxious. Denial: Denial is a defence mechanism where a person refuses to accept reality or facts, even when they are clear. It’s like pretending something isn’t happening or isn’t true to avoid feeling upset. Displacement: Displacement is a defence mechanism where a person directs their feelings or anger from one situation or person onto someone or something else, usually less threatening. For example, someone upset with their boss might take out their frustration by snapping at a family member instead. Regression: Regression is a defence mechanism where a person reverts to an earlier, more childlike behaviour when faced with stress or anxiety. Projection: Projection is a defence mechanism where a person blames others for their own feelings, thoughts, or behaviours. Freudian slip: A Freudian slip is when someone accidentally says something that reveals a hidden thought or feeling, usually a mistake in speech. It’s believed to be a sign of unconscious thoughts or desires slipping out. Iceberg model: Our conscious mind is above the water; the unconscious mind is below the surface. The id is completely unconscious and the ego and superego straddle both sides of the iceberg, operating consciously and unconsciously. Free association: Free association is a technique in psychology where a person says whatever comes to mind, without filtering or censoring their thoughts. This is used to uncover unconscious thoughts or feelings that might be hidden or repressed. Collective unconscious: The collective unconscious is a concept by Carl Jung, which refers to the part of the unconscious mind shared by all people. It contains memories and experiences inherited from our ancestors, like universal symbols or archetypes (e.g., the hero, the mother) that are common across cultures and time. Archetypes: Archetypes are universal, recurring symbols or patterns in the collective unconscious, according to Carl Jung. They represent common human experiences, like the hero, the villain, the caregiver, or the wise old man, and appear in myths, stories, and dreams across different cultures. Classical conditioning: A type of learning where a once-neutral stimulus comes to produce a particular response after pairing with a conditioned stimulus. Unconditioned stimulus (US): naturally or automatically triggers a response. Unconditioned response (UR): unlearned response that occurs naturally in response to the unconditioned stimulus. Neutral stimulus (NS): initially produces no specific response other than focusing attention e.g. ringing a bell. Conditioned stimulus (CS): a previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated with the unconditioned stimulus, eventually triggering a response. Conditioned response (CR) learned response to the previously neutral stimulus. Operant conditioning: A type of learning that uses rewards and punishments to achieve a desired behaviour. Extinction: Extinction in psychology is when a learned behaviour fades away because it is no longer rewarded or reinforced. Logotherapy: Logotherapy is a type of therapy that helps people find meaning in life, especially during difficult times. It was created by Viktor Frankl and focuses on the idea that having a sense of purpose is key to mental well-being. Human Genome Project: A study that identified all humans share 99.9% of DNA, despite this psychologists do not believe personality and behaviour are 100% dependent on our genes. Nature: The physical characteristics and aspects of personality and behaviour that are passed on genetically from relatives. Nurture: Your environment, the people, experiences, and conditions one is exposed to. Personality: An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting. Four Goals of Psychology: To describe, explain, predict, and change/control the mind and behaviour of others. Extroverts: Prefer group activities and are energized by social interaction, more comfortable with external stimuli. Introverts: Prefers solitary activities and gets exhausted by social interaction, sensitive to external stimuli. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (listed bottom to top): Physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Dreaming Dream: A word used to describe the subconscious experience of a sequence of images, sounds, ideas, emotions, or other sensations, usually during sleep, especially REM sleep. We dream to fulfill wishes: dreams are a collection of images from our daily lives, and dreams are symbolic, unconscious elements revealed to our conscious mind. We dream to remember: Certain memory processes occur only when we sleep. We dream to forget: During the REM phase, your neo-cortex reviews the neural connections made during the day and dumps the unnecessary ones. The “unlearning process’ results in dreams. We dream to keep our brains working: The continual activation theory emphasizes that our dreams result from the brain’s need to consolidate and create long-term memories. Your dreams are like a random screen saver that prevents your brain from shutting down. We dream to rehearse: The primitive instinct of rehearsal theory emphasizes that dreams allow us to practice our fight-or-flight instincts. We dream to heal: Dreaming takes the edge off painful experiences to allow for psychological healing. We dream to solve problems: Dreaming helps us grasp problems and formulate solutions. Sleeping Sleep: a periodic, natural, reversible, and near-total loss of consciousness. Importance of sleep: recuperation, growth, improved mental function. Sleep Stages: REM (where dreams commonly occur), NREM-1 (light sleep, just fell asleep), NREM-2 (rapid brain activity called sleep spindles, can still be easily awakened), NREM-3 (full sleep stage) REM: Rapid eye movement, a sleep state where brain activity is at its most like wakefulness, 90-120 mins or a quarter of your sleep is spent in REM, 4-5 periods of REM sleep a night. Psychologists Sigmund Freud: Founder of psychoanalysis, ID, Ego, Superego, psychosexual phases, gratification, Freudian slips. Ivan Pavlov: Classical conditioning, unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus, conditioned response. B.F. Skinner: Operant conditioning, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment. Abraham Maslow: Hierarchy of needs, physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging needs, esteem needs, self-actualization Viktor Frankl: Developed logotherapy, will to meaning, existential vacuum, freedom of choice, and self-transcendence. Carl Rogers: Developed client-centred therapy, self-actualization, congruence, and “the self”. Albert Bandura: Developed the social-cognitive theory, A perspective on personality that takes a person’s motivation, environment, and behaviour into account. People learn behaviours by watching and then imitating others. Jean Piaget: Famous for his theory of cognitive development, which explains how children’s thinking changes as they grow. He identified four stages: Sensorimotor (0-2 years), Preoperational (2-7 years), Concrete Operational (7-11 years), Formal Operational (12+ years). Erik Erikson: Psychosocial development; identity crisis, trust versus mistrust, autonomy versus shame and doubt, initiative versus guilt, industry versus inferiority, Identity versus role confusion, Intimacy versus isolation, generativity versus stagnation, Integrity versus despair Carl Jung: Psyche, archetypes, collective unconscious, consciousness, personal unconsciousness, subliminal, complex, collective unconsciousness.