Psychology Concise Notes PDF

Motivation asks the question why?           5 schools of thought: \-      **Evolutionary** -- role instincts play in motivation. Think about baby, cries, sleep, eats. Basic instincts all humans have. \-      **Drive Reduction Theory** -- drives vs. needs. Need is lack or deprivation that will ene...

Motivation asks the question why?           5 schools of thought: \-      **Evolutionary** -- role instincts play in motivation. Think about baby, cries, sleep, eats. Basic instincts all humans have. \-      **Drive Reduction Theory** -- drives vs. needs. Need is lack or deprivation that will energize the drive, or aroused state. That drive is what will reduce the need. Maintains homeostasis. Ex. need for water, driven by thirst, doing pushups is means to fulfill drive for water. Or sleeping.  \-      **Optimum Arousal Theory** -- people want to reach full arousal/alertness. Why people go to amusement parks. Drive to get full arousal, and natural high. \-      **Cognitive** -- thought processes drive behavior.   \-      **Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs** -- we want to satisfy needs in particular order. Why we use a pyramid.           In reality, all schools are related.           **[Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs]**          A pyramid. Needs must be fulfilled from bottom to top.          1. **Physiological** -- food, water, breathing, sleep. Essential to survive.          2. **Safety** -- safety of employment, health, resources, property. Can only be fulfilled after physiological needs are met.           3. **Love --** need to belong, intimacy, love. Social needs.          4. **Self-esteem --** feel confident and sense of achievement, recognition. Respect.          5. **Self-actualization** -- one reaching their maximal potential, achieving the most one can be. Differs from person to person.           **[Incentive Theory]** \-      Reward, intangible or tangible is presented after an action. Associating positive meaning to a behavior. ·       Ex. doing well at work is getting promotion. Or intangible, job satisfaction. ·       Incentive for team is winning a game and recognition. ·       Studies have shown is if reward is given immediately, chance of it happening again is higher. ·       If person isn't rewarded, less likely to do again.  \-      **Positive reinforcement** is done through continuous positive stimulation.  \-      Removal of a punishment would be **negative reinforcement**, not what incentive theory is focussed on. \-      Skinner, most distinguished incentive theory psychologist said person will more likely do action that's positively received, and less likely to do action that is negatively received.  **         Biological and Sociocultural Factors -- Food, Sex, and Drugs**          Many factors that regulate our intake of food, sex, and drugs.           2 categories: **biological and socio-culture**.          Food \-      Biological: Hypothalamus sends positive signal to stomach, when full sends leptin to tell us we're full. Another one is insulin. Brain can detect level of insulin to see amount of sugar and fat store in blood. Metabolism rate. Genetic predisposition to our weight, influenced by parents.  \-      Socio-culturally: Eat for different occasions, time, desire, appeal, availability          Sex --Investigated by Master & Johnson. \-      Biological: Sexual response cycle. First part of cycle is excitement phase, marked by increased heart rate, BP, etc. Second is plateau. Then orgasm. 4^th^ is resolution. They noticed activity was related to testosterone for women and men. Also have genetic predisposition to sexuality, found by looking at homosexuality. \-      Socio-culturally: age, culture, stimulus, emotions, and desires to procreate or not.           Drugs \-      Biological: family history/genetic predisposition, withdrawal and cravings, biochemical factors, dopamine -- affects our limbic system and leads to feelings of euphoria \-      Socio-culturally: curiosity, rebel, poor control, cope with stress, low self-esteem, relief from fatigue, feel good, and more prevalent in areas of higher poverty **         Components of Attitude** \-      What is **attitude**? A learned tendency to evaluate things in a certain way -- people, events, objects.  \-      3 components -- **affective** (emotional), **behavioural** (how we act or behave towards object/subject), **cognitive** component (form thoughts/beliefs, and our knowledge) \-      Called the **ABC model of attitude** ·       "I love yoga because I get to meditate and I believe it helps me relax so I will go to class each week." -- 'I love yoga' is emotional,' I believe it helps me relax' is cognitive, and behavioural is 'I will go to class each week' ·       "I am frightful of rollercoasters and believe they are stupid so I will be on the carousel." Affective -- 'I am frightful', behavioural is 'I will be on the carousel', and cognitive is 'I believe they are stupid'           **[Attitudes Influence Behavior]**          4 theories that answer question how do our attitudes influence behavior.          1. **Theory of planned behavior** \-      We consider the **implications** of our **intensions** before we behave.  \-      Intensions are based on 3 things -- our attitudes towards a certain behavior (ex. I like studying), subjective norms (what we think others think about our behavior), and perceived behavioural control (how easy/hard we think it is to control our behavior)          2. **Attitude to behavior process model** \-      An event triggers our attitude (something that will influence our perception of an object) \-      Then attitude + outside knowledge together determines behavior.  \-      Ex. Tommy has attitude that junk food is unhealthy, because many of his relatives have diseases. So, he does not eat chips/soda/candy.           3. **Prototype Willingness Model ** \-      Behavior is a function of 6 things: past behavior, attitudes, subjective norms, our intentions, our willingness to engage in a specific type of behavior, prototypes/models -- a lot of our behavior is carried out from prototyping/modelling.           4. **Elaboration Likelihood Model for Persuasion** \-      More [cognitive approach] -- focuses on the why/how of ***persuasion***.  \-      2 ways info is processed:  ·       **Central** - depends on quality of arguments by persuader ·       **Peripheral** - superficial/non-verbal persuasion cues, such as attractiveness/status of persuader          People are more likely to be honest when social influences are reduced (ex. secret ballot), when general patterns of behavior are observed versus a single one (**principle of aggregation**), when specific actions are considered, and when attitudes are made more powerful through self-reflection.  **         Behavior Influences Attitude**          Is it possible for our behaviours to shape our attitudes? Yes.          Strong social attitudes can cause our attitudes to follow our behavior.           1. **Foot in the door phenomenon ** \-      We have a tendency to agree to small actions first. Eventually over time comply with much larger actions.  \-      Basic concept of how people are brainwashed too. Door is eventually pushed completely open.          2. **Role-playing** \-      Everyone plays roles in life. Picture yourself in a new role. First few days are a bit fake -- we're trying to follow social quota in that role. Trying to sound professional. But over time, what feels like acting starts to feel like you.  \-      Changed attitude as a result of our behavior and carrying out that role.  \-      Ex. Zimbardo's prison experiment           Also **public declarations** (more likely to follow through if you've told everyone), and **justification of effort** (people do something they don't want to justify effort they put into it, such as going to med school after working so hard)          **[Cognitive Dissonance Theory]**          2 or more conflicting cognitions -- ideas, beliefs, values, or emotional reactions.          Feelings of discomfort can lead to alterations in our beliefs/behaviours.           4 things we do to reduce that discomfort. \-      1. **Modify our cognitions** -- ex. smoker might say, I really don't smoke that much.  \-      2. **Trivialize** -- make less important, ex. evidence is weak that smoking causes cancer.  \-      3. **Add** -- adding more cognitions, ex. I exercise so much it doesn't matter \-      4. **Deny --** denying the facts, ex. smoking and cancer are not linked.           People strive for harmony in our thoughts, actions, words. As soon as our cognitions, attitudes and behaviours don't align, we have cognitive dissonance.  **         Situational Approach**          **Social psychology** -- emphasizes influence of changing environmental circumstances over stable personality traits. Situational approach of behavior is under this branch of psychology.  \-      Focuses on interactions between individual and their environment. \-      People behave differently depending on their situation -- **externa**l instead of internal.  \-      Hard to predict behavior based off 1 situation. Have to acknowledge we sometimes behave differently.          **Attribution** is the process of inferring causes of events/behaviours. \-      Can be internal or external, our focus will be on external. \-      Everyday, we make tons of attributions on environment/etc.  \-      Inference a person is behaving a certain way based on situation they're in. \-      3 parts: **consistency** (does person usually behave this way), **distinctiveness** (does person behave differently in different situations), and **consensus** (do others behave similarly in situation?).  \-      If yes to last 2, then we know situation is influencing their behaviour. \-      If person is consistent in all situations, then maybe not environment, and more internal.           **Theories of Personality**          **[Psychoanalytic Theory]** \-      **Sigmund Freud** was a neurologist and went to study hypnosis, but this turned him to medical psychopathology. Psychology as we knew it was unknown before his work. \-      **Psychoanalytic theory** says personality is shaped by a person's unconscious thoughts, feelings, and past memories (particularly in childhood).  ·       2 instinctual drives motivate human behavior: **libido** (motivation for survival, growth, pleasure, etc.) and **death instinct** (drives aggressive behaviours fuelled by unconscious wish to die or hurt oneself/others).   [Individual influences on behaviour]: **projection** (projecting own feelings of inadequacy on another), **reaction formation** (defence mechanism where someone says or does exact opposite of what they actually want/feel), **regression** (defence mechanism where one regresses to position of child in problematic situations), **sublimation** (defence mechanism where unwanted impulses are transformed into something less harmful).  \-      Central to his theory is **libido**. Libido is natural energy source that fuels the mechanisms of the mind.  ·       When this energy is stuck/fixated at various stages of **psychosexual development**, conflicts can occur that have lifelong effects. ·       **Fixation** at a particular stage is what predicts adult personality.  ·       Ex. someone fixated at oral stage (first stage) might have oral personality characteristics - smoking habits/overly talkative when older. 3 parts (like an iceberg):           Top of iceberg is the conscious part of mind, and unconscious. 1\) **Id** at the bottom, it's the unconscious part. It develops after birth and demands *immediate* gratification. 2\) **Ego** -- part of conscious & uncons. Inv. in our perceptions, thoughts,  judgements, & seeks *long-term* gratification.  3\) **Superego** -- develops around 4, and it's our moral conscience. Also part of conscious and unconscious. ·       Our libido impulses are what want to be gratified -- when overgratified or partially/not gratified at all, fixation occurs at a certain stage. Face conflict/anxiety. It's a conflict between these 3 mental structures -- ego, id, and superego. They're all competing for demand, so in conflict.  ¨     Ex. Id is on one shoulder and it's not getting immediate gratification, then we have superego on other shoulder, preaching to id about what's moral, and ego is in middle.  ¨     Id wants gratification, and is going back and forth with superego, so ego here is trying to gratify the id but it also has to take into account what the superego is saying. It's moral oversight.  ¨     The ego is part of the conscious and unconscious mind, so it acts as mediator between the unconscious desires of the id and the moral demands of the superego.  ¨     Ex. a **Freudian slip** is example of mental conflict. Ex. financially stressed patient, please don't give me any bills -- meant any pills.           Especially problematic when there's a problem with development at a particular psychosocial stage.           **[Humanistic Theory]**          The **humanistic theory** (developed by **Carl Rogers)** focuses on healthy personality development, and humans are seen as inherently good. The most basic motive of all people is the **actualizing tendency** (**[self-actualization]**), innate drive to maintain and enhance oneself. Person will grow towards self-actualization as long as there are no obstacles.  \-      Primary difference between Freud's psychoanalytical theory is *Freud's theory was deterministic -- behaviour is determined by [unconscious desires].* \-      Humanistic Theory focuses on the **conscious**, and says people are **inherently good**, and we are **self-motivated to improve** (so we can reach self-actualization).          First theorist of this theory was **Maslow**, who formed **hierarchy of needs**.  \-      Must first fulfill physiological needs of pyramid and work our way up, then safety, then love, self-esteem, and finally self-actualization.  \-      Self-actualization is rarely achieved, only 1% of people ever reach it.           **Carl Rogers** says qualities Maslow described are nurtured early in life, self-actualization is a constant growth process nurtured in a growth-promoting process.  \-      In order for this climate to help someone reach self-actualization, 2 conditions that need to be met:  ·       Growth is nurtured by when individual is **genuine,** one has to be open and revealing about themselves without fear of being wrong.  ·       Second is growth is nurtured through **acceptance** from others -- allows us to live up to our ideal selves.  \-      Central feature of our personality is **self-concept**, achieved when we bring genuineness and acceptance together to achieve growth-promoting climate.  ·       When there's discrepancy between conscious values and unconscious true values leads to tension, must be resolved.  ·       **Genuine + acceptance = self-concept ** ·       Importance of **congruency** between self-concept and our actions to feel fulfilled.           **[Biological Theory]**          Many variations to this theory, some relate to the **brain** and some to **behaviour** instead of traits \-      Ex. Evolutionary psychology theorizes that males + females have dif mating strategies that influence cost of passing on genes. Males can have many mates, females more selective due to cost of pregnancy.          The biologic theory suggests important components of personality are **inherited**, or determined in part by our **genes**.  \-      **Hans Eysenck** proposed **extroversion level** is based on differences in the reticular formation -- introverts are more easily aroused and therefore require less.  \-      **Jeffrey Alan Gray** proposed personality is governed by **3 brain systems**, such as the fight-or-flight system.  \-      **C. Robert Cloninger** linked personality to brain systems in **reward/motivation/punishment**, such as low dopamine correlating with higher impulsivity.  \-      Researchers always try to look at identical twins, because used to tease out environmental vs. genetic characteristics -- same genetic makeup.  ·       Results show even if twins reared separately, still had similar personalities.  ·       **Social potency** trait -- the degree to which a person assumes leadership roles in social situations. Common in twins reared separately. ·       **Traditionalism** -- tendency to follow authority also shown to be common in twins.  ·       Weaker genetic traits -- achievement, closeness  ·       Specific genes that relate to personality, people with longer **dopamine-4 receptor** gene are more likely to be thrill seekers.  ·       But of course, just because you have gene doesn't mean you'll express it -- depends on environment. ·       **Temperament** -- innate disposition, our mood/activity level, and is consistent throughout our life.  \-      Important takeaway -- our inherited genes to some degree leads to our traits, which leads to our behaviour/personality.