Psych Study Guide PDF

History of Psychology: Psychology: the scientific study of mind and behavior Historical roots of Psychology: - Ancient Egyptian Doctors: linked traumatic brain injuries to behavioral changes - Ancient Greek Philosophers: contemplated the origins of knowledge - Greek Physician Hippocrates: “Father of...

History of Psychology: Psychology: the scientific study of mind and behavior Historical roots of Psychology: - Ancient Egyptian Doctors: linked traumatic brain injuries to behavioral changes - Ancient Greek Philosophers: contemplated the origins of knowledge - Greek Physician Hippocrates: “Father of Medicine”, developed the world's first personality classification - Proposed that thoughts, ideas, and feelings came from the brain, not the heart. Revolutionary for the understanding of mental health. Scientific Origins: - Evolution: Behaviors are shaped by natural selection. Our human behaviors evolved as adaptations to solve problems of survival and reproduction. - Example: Fear stimuli could have developed because it increases chances of survival and reproduction in a bad environment. Influence of Medicine: - Techniques and concepts from medicine have helped localize and understand the functions of each part in the brain. - Phrenology: A theory involving mapping the skull to determine personality, traits, intelligence, and other characteristics. - Scientifically inaccurate, however contributed to the idea that specific parts of the brain have specific functions. Case Studies of Brain Injury: - Changes in behavior following brain injuries → provided insight on the different brain functions. Phineas Gage: Railroad worker who survived a large iron rod through his head, which damaged his frontal lobe. - Changed his personality and behavior - Increased impulsivity and difficulty with social interactions - Pivotal in helping scientists link the frontal lobes with decision making and behavior. Wilhelm Wundt: Father of experimental psychology - Founded first psych lab in germany - He was involved in reaction time studies, aiming at how people perceive and process stimuli. Schools of thought in Psychology: Structuralism: Made by Edward Titchener, a student of Wundt, he attempted to analyze conscious experience by breaking it down into basic elements, such as sensations and feelings. Limitations: Criticized for its focus on internal perception, which is difficult to measure objectively. Functionalism: Influenced by Darwin’s work on evolution, developed as a response to structuralism. Focuses on the purpose and function of mental processes and behaviors. Asking why we think and behave the way we do. - William James liked this approach. Behaviorism: Focussing on observable behaviors since they can be measured. Cognitive Psychology: Focuses back to the internal processes BUT in a scientific measurable way. Studies how we perceive, think, understand, and remember information. Psychoanalytic Theory: Made by Sigmund Freud, explains how unconscious processes explain how behavior and personality are Cross cultural Psychology: Drawing comparisons about individuals and group behaviors across all cultures WEIRD: Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic - A lot of psychological research is done from these societies, the west only makes up 12% of population - Highlights the potential in psychological biases and generalizes the findings across all people across the globe. Psychology Today: - Biological/ Physiological/ Neuroscience - Brain, neurons, neurochemicals - Cognitive - Thinking, memory, attention - Developmental - Change Overtime - Social - How people interact - Clinical - Mental illnesses - Educational - Educational techniques, diagnosis - Forensic - Criminal and legal matters - Industrial - In the workplace Research Methods: Hindsight Basis: the tendency to believe that an event was predictable or obvious after the event has occurred. “I knew it all along”. The Scientific Method: Systematic approach for investigating theories by minimizing biases that influence the outcomes of research. - Components of the Scientific Method: - Theory: Explanation based on observations - Hypothesis: A testable prediction about what you predict/expect to happen in the study. - Research: Testing the hypothesis through experiments and observations. - Outcomes: the results either support the theory, leading to a stronger confidence in it, or go against it. Good theories: - Must be falsifiable, a good theory must be proven false through evidence. - Confidence in a theory grows if findings repeatedly support the hypothesis. - Failing to support a hypothesis might not mean it's wrong, just adjust the theory. Good Hypothesis: - Must be specific and testable. Clearly stating the expected outcome and testable through scientific methods. Correlational Designs: measure how 2 factors vary together. - Positive correlation: both variables move in the same direction - Negative correlation: One variable increases and the other decreases - Zero Correlation: No predictable relationship between the 2 variables. Steps in Correlational Study: 1. Formulate a testable hypothesis 2. Select the Research method and Design the Study: - Choose a correlational study to determined the relationship method - Define each variable in measurable terms, example: internet use could be measured by hours spent online. 3. Collect the Data 4. Analyze the Data and draw conclusions - Interpret the results and see if they support the hypothesis Limitations: - Correlation does not imply causation, it just shows that the 2 variables studied are related in some way. - It can be unclear whether one variable or the other causes the other. - Could have a third variable that affects both (confounding variable) Benefits: - Does not require manipulating the variables, so it is more ethical. - Useful for seeing patterns, which can inform for further research - Results from correlational studies can lead to experimental research. Steps in Experimental Study: 1. Formulate a testable hypothesis 2. Select research method and design the study - Experimental Methodology: Manipulating a variable (IV) under controlled conditions to see changes in another variable (DV). - Independent Variable (IV): what is manipulated - Dependent variable (DV): what is being measured and observed. 3. Collect the Data - Random Assignment: participants being randomly assigned to different experimental conditions sp it does not bias the results. Age, gender, IQ will be distributed among the groups evenly. - Random sampling: every person in the population having an equal chance of being selected - Convenience sample: consists of people who are conveniently available for the study. 4. Analyze the Data and draw conclusions 5. Report the findings Benefits: - Can infer causation since you are directly manipulating the independent variable and observing the dependent variable. - By having precise control over the variables you can get rid of any other explanations for the effects. Limitations: - Some experiments may be unethical because some experiments require harming participants. - Highly controlled lab settings might not be equivalent to what might happen in the real world. Other considerations for Study Design: - Placebo effect: when participants experience changes in their behavior or health due to their own expectations from receiving a treatment. - Experimenter Bias: when the experimenter's expectations influences the outcome. - Demand characteristics: when the participants guesses the purpose of the experiment and tries to fit in their behavior for that interpretation. ^^These things do not compromise research because many studies make sure and take steps to mitigate them. Replication: repeating studies to verify the results are not due to chance or because of specific conditions. Converging operations: Best method. - A research strategy using a variety of research techniques to investigate an experiment and research result. Operational Definition: carefully defining terms and variables so they can be studied. Biological Psychology: The Mind/Body Problem: How is your mind (internal life/feelings/thoughts) related to your body/brain? - Descartes: He proposed that the mind and body are 2 completely different things. He implies that the mind can exist independently of the body. “Mind and body are separate” Modern Approach: Mental processes are seen as the result of neurological activities in the brain. “Mind is what the brain does” The structure of the brain: - Hindbrain: Bottom part of the brain (yellow) - Cerebellum: Responsible for fine motor skills. - Medulla: Coordinates heart rate, circulation, and respiration. - Pons: Acts as a bridge between the cerebellum and other various parts of the brain. - Reticular Formation: Regulates Sleep, wakefulness and arousal. - Midbrain: Right above the hindbrain, below the forebrain (green) - Orienting in response to stimuli. - Tectum: Controls visual processing, and eye movement. Auditory reflexes and localization of sounds. - Tegmentum: Involved in the regulation of motor movements, pain management, and alertness. - Forebrain: Main part of the brain, above midbrain (orange) - Limbic System: It is involved with emotion, motivation and memory - Amygdala: Role in emotional processes Hypothalamus: 4 F’s: Feeding, fighting, feeling, and mating (fucking). Hippocampus: Creates and integrates new memories. Basal Ganglia: Regulates intentional movement. Cerebral Cortex: Outermost layer of the brain. It is highly folded to increase its surface area in the limited volume of the skull. - Frontal Lobe: decision making, problem solving, and consciousness. - Parietal Lobe: Sensory information regarding location of parts of the body, interprets visual info, languages, and mathematics. - Temporal: Encoding memory, and processing sound. - Occipital Lobe: Visual processing Somatosensory Cortex: It is part of the cerebral cortex and it processes sensory information. It is important for temperature, touch, pressure and pain. - Areas like the lips and the tongue have a large amount of cortical space in the brain because of the high density of sensory receptors. Language in the Brain: - Broca’s Area: Left frontal lobe, language production and processing of speech. - Broca’s Aphasia: Damage to the area causes this. Halting speech, difficulty in forming sentences, or little grammar. Comprehension is intact. - Wernicke’s Area: Left temporal lobe, speech comprehension. - Wernicke’s Aphasia: fluent but nonsensical speech. May speak long sentences with no meaning, adding unnecessary words. Comprehension is not intact. Hemispheric Specialization: - Corpus Callosum: the 2 cerebral hemispheres are connected by the corpus callosum. It is a broad band of nerve fibers that provides communication between the 2. - Split Brain: when the corpus callosum is taken out during surgery. - The 2 hemispheres can nop longer communicate together. Something shown on the right, the person might not be able to verbalize what they see since their speech is controlled by the left. There is no connection now. - Laterization: Brain is largely symmetric in terms of structure. But there is functional lateralization → ex: the left hemisphere is dominant for language functions. - Contralateral organization: left hemisphere controls the right side of the body, right hemisphere controls the left side of the body. Neurons: - Santiago Ramón y Cajal established the neuron, or nerve cell as the basic unit of nervous structure. - Neuron: a cell that specializes in receiving and transmitting information. - Cell Body (Soma): coordinates information-processing tasks and maintains the cells health. Contains the nucleus and organelles. Dendrites: Branches extensions that receive signals from other neurons. They transmit the signals toward the cell body. Axon: A long slender projection that conducts electrical impulses away from the cell body. Synapse: the region between the axon of one neuron and the dendrite (or cell body) of another Myelin sheath: a fatty layer that envelops the axon of many neurons. It is formed by glial cells. - Increases the speed of electrical transmission along the axon. “Electrical cables of the body” - How do neurons send or receive messages: - 2 parts - Action potential - Transmission across the synapse Action Potentials: an electrical impulse that travels along the length of a neuron's axon. A temporary change in the membrane potential of the neuron. - When a neuron is at rest - Outside is positively charged (Na+, Cl-) - Inside is negatively charged (K+, A-) - Resting potential = -70mV - Depolarization: When stimulated, sodium channels open and positive ions rush in. This causes the inside channel to become more positive. - Repolarization: After the sodium gates close, Potassium channels open K+ moves out. This helps restore the negative charge inside the neuron. All or None: Either the neuron fires completely or none at all. Once the membrane potential reaches -55mV, an action potential will be generated along the axon without decreasing in size. Transmission across the synapse: - Synaptic Cleft: When the action potential reaches the terminal buttons, it causes the release of neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft. - It prompts the opening of voltage gated calcium channels. - Neurotransmitters: - Excitatory: increase the chances of an action potential, causes the membrane potential to be more positive (depolarizing) - Inhibitory: less chance of an action potential, causes the membrane potential to be more negative (repolarizing) - Lock and Key model: binding of neurotransmitters is specific Acetylcholine (Ach): transmitter between motor neurons and voluntary muscles - Botox is an example Dopamine: regulates motor behavior, motivation, pleasure and emotional arousal Serotonin: regulates sleep and wakefulness and eating behavior Agonist: enhances or mimics the action of a neurotransmitter Antagonist: chemical that blocks the action of a neurotransmitter Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): strong magnetic fields that produces high quality images of the brain and its structure Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): measures the brain's activity by detecting changes in blood oxygen levels associated with neural activity. Good spatial, bad temporal resolution. Electroencephalography (EEG): records electrical activity from large populations of active neurons at the scalp. It is a direct measure of neural activity. Good temporal, bad spatial resolution. - - Sensation and Perception: Sensation: processing stimuli through sensory organs Perception: the psychological processing of interpreting sensory info Psychophysics: methods that measure the strength of a stimulus and the observers sensitivity to that stimulus Gustav Fechner: father of psychophysics Absolute threshold: the minimum intensity of a stimulus required to produce a response by a sense 50% of the time. - The absolute threshold for hearing might be the lowest volume level at which a person can detect the tone Just Noticeable Difference (JND): the smallest difference in stimulation required to distinguish whether 2 stimuli are different. Detectable 50% of the time. - The more intense the original stimulus the larger the amount that needs to be added before you detect the difference. Top-Down Processing: a type of perceptual processing that involves using preexisting knowledge, or past experiences. Bottom-Up Processing: a type of perceptual processing where the brain constructs a whole perception from individual bits of sensory information. Signal Detection Theory (SDT): a response to stimulus that depends on a person's sensitivity and on a person’s decision criteria. Hit: the stimulus was present and the observer detected it. Miss: the stimulus was present, but the observer did not detect it. False alarm: observer reported a signal, but there was none present. Correct rejection: stimulus was absent and the observer did not report it. Sensory Adaptation: decrease in sensitivity to a constant stimulus overtime - When you first put on a watch you feel it, overtime you do not recognize it and become less responsive to it. Selective Attention: focusing on a particular stimulus while ignoring others. Focusing on a task or event. - At a party focusing on a conversation with someone, and ignoring the loud music and lights Inattentional blindness: to not notice a fully visible object because attention was engaged with another object or event. Change blindness: a change in visual stimuli and the observer doesnt notice it. The 5 senses: - Vision - Smell - Hearing - Touch - Taste The Eye: - Retina: responsible for converting light into neural signals - Phototransduction: the process of converting light into neural signals - Photoreceptors: they undergo a chemical change when they absorb light - Rods: specialized for low light and peripheral vision. Sensitive to light and does not detect color (better for low light conditions) - Cones: functions best in bright light and enables the perception of color and fine detail. (better for bright light conditions) - Ganglion Cells: the cells that gather information for photoreceptors - They send this message via the optic nerve. Fovea: the center of the retina 2 Complementary theories of how we see color: - Trichromatic color theory: 3 different cones each sensitive to different wavelengths of light (short, medium, and long). The cones' responses to different wavelengths combine to allow us to see a wide spectrum of colors. - Opponent process theory: our perception is controlled by 2 opposing systems: red/green and yellow/blue, and black/white - Cells that are stimulated by red are inhibited by green. This is why we cannot see (reddish green) or (bluish yellow). The cells cannot send conflicting signals. Visual Pathway: 1. Retina to brain: - After transduction in the retina, the signals are sent via the optic nerve. - Signal is received at thalamus - Then sent to primary visual cortex Primary visual cortex: in the occipital lobe Dorsal Stream: “where pathway” processing the objects spatial location - Primary visual cortex → parietal lobe Ventral Stream: “what pathway” identifying and recognizing objects - Primary visual cortex → temporal lobe Colors Trichromatic theory: the three colors our rods and cons pick up (red, blue, and green) Opponent process theory: registering one color at a time as opposing pairs cancel each other out (yellow/blue, white/black, red/green Feature detectors; certain neurons that respond to specific features of lines and angles Hubel and Wiesel: studied visual processing in cats → found detection cells that responded to primarily lines and angles Visual Agnosia: failing to recognize familiar objects Prosopagnosia: failing to recognize familiar faces Monocular depth cues: what our single eye picks up such as shadowing, distance, height, and linear perspective Binocular depth cues: what both of our eyes pick up Retinal disparity: differing retinal images each eye picks up Convergence: when viewing nearby objects your eyes go inward Auditory Conductive hearing loss: when something is not loud enough Sensory neural loss: when the receptors of the cochlea are damaged audio cannot be transduced to the brain Multimodal perception: multiple sensory organs picking up stimuli Mcgurk effect: the idea that speech perception is multimodal visual organs influence how our auditory organs pick up stimuli Synesthesia: when the brain routes stimuli through multiple sensory organs Learning Conditional learning: paring of neutral stimulus to conditional stimulus causing an involuntary response Unconditional stimulus: a normal stimulus that causes a response ○ Ex: dog food Unconditional response: normal response to unconditional stimulus ○ Ex: dog salivating Neutral stimulus: does not cause any response Conditional stimulus: a neutral stimulus that is paired with the unconditional stimulus that causes a response ○ Ex: Bell paired with dog food. Over time bell (neutral) becomes a conditional stimulus that causes the response (salivating) Second-order stimulus: another neutral stimulus that is paired with the conditional stimulus that causes a response Extinction: When the conditional stimulus no longer causes a response Spontaneous recovery: results when the ‘extinct’ conditional stimulus causes a response again Generalization: grouping several stimuli together to cause one response Discrimination: when each stimulus has a specific response Preparedness: an organism's evolutionary response to stimuli without the need to condition the organism to form a response Operant conditioning: voluntary behavior based on a reward/punishment system. Thranedikes law ○ Behaviors followed by positive responses will increase ○ Behaviors followed by negative responses will decrease Shaping: modifying behavior Reinforcement: increases a behavior Punishment: decreases a behavior Positive: adding a favorable consequence Negative: taking away a unfavorable consequence Ratio: amount of behaviors Interval: amount of time Fixed: set number of behaviors or amount of time Variable: average number of behaviors or amount of time