Psychology Exam 1 Notes for Jacobs (Rutgers University) PDF

lOMoARcPSD|37592777 Copy of Psychology Exam 1 Notes For Jacobs General Psychology (Rutgers University) Scan to open on Studocu Studocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university Downloaded by Joshua Allen ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|37592777 Chapter 1: What is Psychology? What is Psychology? ❖ Psychology is a word deriving from Greek ❖ Psychology is practical (understand, explain, and predict behavior) Behavior → It is is everything we do that can be directly observed Mental Process Science ❖ Observable behavior and internal emotions and thoughts 4 goals of Psychology 1. Describe what happened → who, what, where, when, why, how 2. Explain what happened → relationship + behavior 3. Prediction → what will happen? 4. Control → what have you learned from this? ❖ Your past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior Dualism vs. Monism ❖ Aristotle → Soul and body are not separate and that knowledge grows from experience ❖ Dualism (separate): belief that the mind is separate from the brain but somehow controls the brain. ❖ Monism (connected): conscious experience is generated by and therefore is inseparate from the brain. Free will vs. Determinism ❖ The scientiﬁc approach → we live with is cause and e ect Free will: behavior is caused by an individual’s independent decision making Determinism: every event has a cause (a determinant) that one could observe or measure. ❖ Free will: WILLIAM JAMES is known for this. Nature vs. Nurture conﬂict ❖ Do inherited genes or the environment a ect who we are? How do di erences in behavior relate to di erences in hereditary and environment? Nature: Hereditary, genetics (what you’re born with) Nature is half your personality: 45-50% of your personality is nature Peers and chance shape the other half. The other 50-55% of your personality is shaped by peers and chance. Who you Downloaded by Joshua Allen ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|37592777 spend time with matters. Your younger years shape your older years from a personality standpoint. Specialization is nature’s strategy for winning. Nurture: Environment Victor of Aveyron(1788 – 1828): The Wolf boy (late 1700s-early 1800) in France. A feral prepubescent boy was found in the woods → abandoned by an alcoholic family in his childhood. Walked on all fours, hairy, deaf, close to the state of a wild animal. Responding to familiar sounds and food. What Psychologist Do ❖ Psychology is a diverse discipline. It can lead to employment in academic, clinical, industrial, or research. Di erent types of psychologists ❖ Developmental Psychologist ❖ Learning and motivation Psychologist request rewards for desired behaviors produce better learning than less frequent rewards ❖ Cognitive Psychologist experts in a ﬁeld know or do that sets them apart from other people ❖ Cross-cultural Psychologist culture a ecting taste preferences ❖ Psychotherapists ❖ Psychiatrists ❖ Industrial/Organizational Psychologists Productivity in a workplace ❖ School Psychologist Evaluate a student for placement in a school’s program for gifted children ❖ Counseling Psychologist ❖ Biological Psychology brain damage from drug abuse changing nervous system functioning ❖ Evolutionary Psychology selection for human language abilities ❖ Social Psychology Psychological Science is Born ❖ William Wundt Father of Psychology Founder of the ﬁrst Psychology Lab in Leipzig, Germany Founded Introspection: to observe and report to look within yourselves(to introspect) Downloaded by Joshua Allen ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|37592777 ❖ Edward Titchener Founder of Structuralism Student of Wundt Uses Wundt’s Introspection to observe and report mental processes: attempt to describe a structure that composes the mind and its sensations. feelings and images Structure of the mind Focus on basic research in labs What’s it made out of? Why do we think this way? ❖ William James Founder of Functionalism Was keenly interested in how the mind produces behavior, not the composition of the mind. Reject structuralism. The function of the mind How the mind produces behavior, not the composition of the mind Focus on application What does it do? What is the result of thinking this way? ❖ Charles Darwin Forced scientists to consider that humans and other species have basic features in common Comparative psychologists- specialists who compare behaviors amongst species ❖ Francis Galton Measurements of human characteristics and the role of heredity in achievement. Famous people breed famous babies ❖ Alfred Binet Devised the IQ test Special services to children in public schools ❖ John B. Watson Founder of Behaviorism Concentrates on observable, measurable behaviors and not mental processes Famous little Albert experiment ❖ Sigmund Freud Founder of psychoanalysis Your feelings, thoughts, behavior are all determined by your unconscious (parts of your mind that you cannot see or control). Focused on “abnormal” functions of the mind ❖ Psychophysics Early research on sensory systems Analyzed senses and how they function Downloaded by Joshua Allen ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|37592777 Mathematical descriptions of relationships between real physical and perceived properties of sensory stimuli The Role of Women in Psychology ❖ Mary Whitton Calkins (1863- 1930) Denied Ph.D. from Harvard Established her lab at Wesley college First female president of APA ❖ Margaret Floy Washburn (1871- 1939) First female Ph.D. in psychology ❖ Mamie Phipps Clark (1917- 1983) First black female with PhD Denied faculty position because of gender Impact of race relations and self-esteem Chapter 2: Scientific Methods in Psychology ❖ The scientiﬁc method is a way of answering questions that helps remove bias from the study 1. Identify a research 2. Design study to investigate the problem 3. Test hypothesis’ collect and analyze data 4. Draw conclusions 5. Publish or communicate ﬁndings Theory ❖ Set of ideas that help to explain data and make predictions ❖ A theory is an explanation that predicts behavior/ events Hypothesis ❖ A hypothesis is a testable prediction, often prompted by a theory, to enable us to accept, reject or revise a theory. People with low self-esteem are apt to feel more depressed Terms you should know ❖ Parsimony: Reference to the quality of relying on the fewest and consistent, simplest assumptions Quick & easy, may not be accurate Sticking with ideas that work and trying hard to avoid new assumptions ❖ ESP: Controversial in psy, is acquire without using 5 senses or other forms of energy “hunch” is not evidence 6th sense and no evidence ❖ Anecdotal Evidence: People’s reports on isolated events Downloaded by Joshua Allen ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|37592777 Not considered to be acceptable as good evidence Example: dream come true and amazing coincidences ❖ Replication: Testing of hypotheses must be repeated. Repetition of a research stud. ❖ Replicable results: Results that anyone can obtain by following the same procedures. ❖ Meta-analysis: Combines and analyzes the results of many studies as if they were all on one very large study Conducting Psy Research ❖ Descriptive Research Population sample: large subset or sample. We can generalize about the whole population from this study. Convenience sample: is a group chosen because of easy availability and study Representative sample: closely resembles the entire population where we generalize our results in percentages Random sample: everyone has a chance of being selected Cross-cultural: sample is comprised of people from two or more distinct cultures Experimenter Bias: erroneous funding or misinterpretations. Humans do research. Researchers can distort or misperceive the results of an experiment based on expected outcomes. Blind observer: recording data not knowing what the data is representing Placebo observer: telling the recorder a di erent expected outcome 5 Methods of Research ❖ Description Method: A case study (or Case History) One person is studied in depth to reveal underlying behavioral principles. Thorough observation and in-depth description of a single individual studied in great depth. ❖ Research sample Population: the entire group about which the psychologist wants to conclude from Random sample: a sample that gives every member of the population an equal chance of being selected Survey: a study of certain beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors based on people’s responses to speciﬁc questions ❖ Naturalistic observation: observing and recording the self-seating pattern in a multiracial school Careful monitoring and examination of what people and animals do under natural circumstances, without inﬂuencing it Downloaded by Joshua Allen ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|37592777 ❖ Correlational studies: The research method used to establish the degree of relationship correlation between 2 events or variables The goal of correlation: to describe the strength of relations between 2 or more events The more strongly the events are correlated the more we can predict one from the other ❖ Correlation coe cient: A statistical measure of the relationship between 2 variables Positive correlation: one variable increases as the other variable increases Negative correlation: one variable increases as the other variable decreases ❖ Experimental Method A study in which the investigator manipulates one variable (inde[emdmet) while measuring the other variable (dependent). This is the only method that can identify cause-e ect Independent variable: a variable that an experimenter can manipulate This is the cause of something Dependent variable: a dependent variable is a factor that may change in response to an independent variable Experimental group: exposed to independent variable or receive the treatment being given The individuals receiving the treatment Control group: treated in the same way as the experimental group excerpt for exposure to the treatment The individuals not exposed to the treatment Variable: any condition or characteristics of behavior or factors that can be manipulated, controlled, measured Random assignment: a selection method in which the experimenter assigns subjects to either the experimental or control group using a procedure based on chance Experimentation ❖ Two di erences between Cause and e ect The researcher changes one thing and sees what e ect this change has on the other thing. The thing the researcher changes is called the Independent variable. The thing that is inﬂuenced by the independent variable is called the dependent variable. Downloaded by Joshua Allen ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|37592777 Chapter 4: Sensation and Perception Sensation and Perception ❖ Sensation (active): is the conversion of energy from the environment into your nervous system. How our sense gather info and send it to the bain It converts physical stimuli into patterns of nervous system responses. Perception interprets those responses. Stimulation of sensory organs- eyes, ears, skin and the transmission of sensory information to the brain. ❖ Perception (passive): is the interpretation of the information The process of organizing, integration, interpretation of that information, by which we understand sensory information. Interpretation of what we take into our senses to the way we perceive our environment makes us di erent from one another. Illusions are examples of how we perceive information incorrectly The Structure of the Eye ❖ Cornea: rigid transparent structure on the very outer surface of the eyeball. It directs light through the pupil. ❖ Lens: a ﬂexible structure that can vary in thickness, enabling the eye to accommodate, adjusting its focus for objects at di erent distances. ❖ Eyeball: lens direct light through a clear jelly-like substance called the “vitreous humor” ❖ Retina: the back of the eye, visual receptors (photoreceptors) are found here. Light enters the eyes through the cornea. Behind the pupil is a lens that focuses incoming light rays into an image onto the retina in a process called accommodation. Does not see the whole image, millions of receptor cells. Common Disorders of Vision ❖ Presbyopia: develops as humans age because the lens decreases in ﬂexibility, resulting in a reduced ability to focus on nearby objects ❖ Elongated eyeballs (nearsightedness): cause myopia, so that the person can focus well on nearby objects, but not distant ones. ❖ Flattened eyeballs (farsightedness): cause hyperopia, so that the person can focus well on distant objects, but not nearby ones. ❖ Glaucoma: a condition caused by increased pressure within the eyeball, causing damage to the optic nerve and loss of peripheral vision. ❖ Cataract: a disorder in which the lens of the eye becomes cloudy. Downloaded by Joshua Allen ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|37592777 The Visual Receptors ❖ Cones: visual receptors in color vision ❖ Rods: visual receptors that respond to dim light ❖ Fovea: center of the human retina, the highest amount of cones → greatest perception, sharpness, and keenness Hearing ❖ The ear is designed to detect and transmit sound waves to the brain Sound Waves are vibrations in the air/ another medium Sound Waves vary according to frequency and amplitude Frequency: measured by the number of vibration of cycles of the sound wave per second (hertz, Hz) The perception of frequency is pitch Amplitude: intensity of sound waves (loudness) Pitch and loudness are psychological experiences ❖ Cochlea: location of hearing receptors ❖ Eardrum: sounds wave strike the tympanic membrane ❖ Hammer: malleus ❖ Anvil: incus ❖ Stirrup: stapes → causes the cochlea to vibrate Hair Cells are connected to neurons of the auditory nerve The auditory nerve transmits the impulses from the cochlea to the cerebral cortex Hearing loss ❖ Conduction deafness: 3 special bones in the ear don’t transmit sound waves properly to the cochlea ❖ Nerve deafness: damage to the structure that receives/ transmit impulses→ cochlea, hair cells, or auditory nerve The Chemical Sense ❖ Taste and smell are chemical senses ❖ Taste The sense of taste: tongue Control and motivates eating/drinking Taste buds are located in the folds of the tongue. ❖ Taste Receptors Four primary tastes sweet sour salty bitter Umami- ﬁfth sense, Asian cooking, monosodium glutamate (MSG) ❖ Olfaction Downloaded by Joshua Allen ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|37592777 Another term for the sense of smell Mucous membranes in the rear air passages of the nose Converts physical energy to a complex pattern of brain activity. The smell is vital for food selection Neurons receive both taste and olfactory input and combine them to produce the perception of ﬂavor Gestalt Psychology ❖ The human ability to perceive patterns German word roughly translates to “whole” or “form” You see objects as a whole, not in parts of the whole Perceives wholes and patterns, not bits and parts of them. Perception of movement and depth ❖ Visually constancy Objects are perceived as maintaining constant size, shape, and color through the image striking our retina changes from moment to moment. Shape constancy: we perceive all 3 doors as rectangles Size constancy: we perceive all 3 hands as the same size ❖ Optical illusions Misinterpretation of a visual stimulus Explained by considering the relationship between size perception and depth perception Misjudge distance = misjudge the size Chapter 5: Human Development Conception ❖ A single sperm cell (male) penetrates the outer coating of the egg (female) and fuses to form one fertilized cell. Prenatal Development ❖ A zygote is a fertilized egg with 100 cells that become diverse. ❖ In 14 days, the zygote turns into an embryo ❖ At 9 weeks, an embryo turns into a fetus Teratogens are chemicals or viruses that can enter the placenta and harm the developing fetus ❖ Three stages Germinal stage: ﬁrst 2 weeks, beginning when a sperm fertilizes a female egg Embryonic stage: 2 weeks - 8 weeks, the cell mass which is now called an embryo Fetal stage: 9 weeks- birth, the fetus develops ❖ Female egg cells and male egg cells each have 23 chromosomes Downloaded by Joshua Allen ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|37592777 The Fetus and the Newborn ❖ Prenatal development refers to growth and changes occurring before birth ❖ A series of distinct stages based on the type of growth and changes in each Zygote: fertilized egg cell Blastula: the hollow sphere of stem cells GastrulaL Stem cells fold in to form layers Embryo: 2-8weeks after conception Fetus: 8 weeks after conception until birth Behavioral Capacities of the Newborn ❖ Newborns have little muscle control, development process from the head down and from the midline out, and so gradually babies can move their trunks, limbs, and ﬁngers. ❖ Newborns’ Vision At ﬁrst, vision is limited but newborns see far better than previously believed. Fear of height is developed when babies start crawling (improved depth perception) ❖ Newborns’ Hearing In general, infants suck more vigorously when they hear sounds that they ﬁnd stimulating, such as human voice Infants become habituated and response decreases Playing new sounds for an infant will increase responding ❖ Newborns’ learning and memory Infants as young as one month old can discriminate. Infants show a marked preference for their mother’s voice over another woman’s voice. ❖ Physical Development: Senses Newborns’ facial responses tell us they have a reasonably well-developed sense of taste Touch and distinguish di erent odors ❖ Physical Development: Vision By the end of their ﬁrst year, infants can see clearly ❖ Maturation The development of the brain unfolds based on genetic instructions, causing various bodily and mental functions to occur in sequence- standing before walking, etc. Maturation sets the basic course of development, while experience adjusts it Fetal alcohol syndrome ❖ If the mother drinks alcohol during pregnancy, the baby is likely to be born with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) Downloaded by Joshua Allen ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|37592777 The more alcohol a woman drinks during pregnancy, the more likely her baby is to have anomalies of the head, face, and organs. Stunted growth to the head and body Facial, cranial, and ear malformations Neurological damage Learning disabilities Mental retardation Research Design for Studying Development ❖ There are two types of research design used in studying human development Cross-sectional: study compares groups of individuals of di erent ages simultaneously Longitudinal: study follows a single group of individuals as they develop Sequential: combines cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, studying groups of people of di erent ages at multiple points in each group’s lifespan. Jean Piaget vs. Views of Development ❖ Jean Piaget: founder of cognitive developmental theory He studied how children learn to think and reason. He believes that children think di erently from adults, both quantitatively and qualitatively. They are active little scientists. Piaget believed that a child constructs new mental processes as he or she interacts with the environment Behaviors are based on the schema. Schema: an organized way of interacting with objects in the world. It is an action pattern or mental structure that acquires, organizes knowledge Assimilation and Accommodation ❖ Life is a series of assimilation and accommodation. Children either ﬁt new information into their current schemes or make room for entirely new ones. (children minds = pioneer) ❖ Adaptation: old schemata take place through two processes. ❖ Assimilation: a child applies a new object to an old schema. Children use assimilation to acquire new knowledge within a stage ❖ Accommodation: A child applies his old schema to ﬁt a new object. When one can no longer assimilate new information, accommodation forces change between stages. The Four Stages Intellectual Development ❖ Sensorimotor Stage (Born - 2 years) Downloaded by Joshua Allen ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|37592777 Babies take in the world by looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping. Thoughts and behavior are the same. Piaget believed that infants respond only to what they see and hear, not what they remember or imagine. As infants progress through the stage, they develop a sense of self. At 1 year of age, they show signs of self-recognition. A child has to grasp and sucking reﬂexes but cannot remember where an object is that has been covered. Children younger than 6 months of age do not grasp object permanence. ❖ Preoperational Stage (2 years - 6-7 years) Children are too young to perform mental operations. The child does not yet think in terms of logical operations “Egocentric stage”: this is an age of self-centeredness. The term “operations” refers to reversible mental processes. It's the inability to take the perspective of another person or imagine another’s point of view. Operations are reversible mental processes. Lack of these leads to errors such as egocentric thinking. ❖ The Concrete Operational Stage (8 years - 11 years) From about age 7 children exhibit reversible operations. They understand the conversation of physical properties. Children now carry out mental operations on concrete objects. They may struggle with abstract or hypothetical ideas. Children use concepts of time, space, volume, number. Regarding problem-solving, children take things literally. They don’t understand the concept of inﬁnity. Conservation: children lack this, which is the awareness that appearance can be deceiving. It is a concept that certain objects remain the same regardless of changes in other properties. ❖ Formal Operations Stage (12 years+) Formal is Piaget’s term for operations used for abstract, hypothetical problems These require logical, deductive reasoning and systematic planning This stage is reached just before adolescence (about age 11) This is the stage where children can think about concepts such s inﬁnity and time and has no di culty with conservation and reversible operations. Vygotsky ❖ Lev Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist Education is needed to meet children at their level. A child’s development is a direct result of their culture “If you want to learn something, teach it to someone.” Downloaded by Joshua Allen ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|37592777 “Talk it out” or “Think out loud” ❖ ZPD → Zone of Proximal Development The child performs with the assistance of others who are more skilled Children thinking develops through dialogues with adults Children rely on adults to see how things work ❖ Sca olding → Teachers or parents provide children with problem-solving methods to help them gain the ability to function independently. Changing the level of support to induce independence Erik Erikson ❖ Founder of Theory of Psychosocial Development ❖ Erickson divided the human life span into eight stages, each with its own social and emotional conﬂict. ❖ Each life stage confronts a person with new developmental tasks. These are called Psychosocial dilemmas or crises’ that we go through ❖ Every life is marked by developmental milestones, with notable events or turning points in personal development. ❖ Erikson Ages of Human Development Each life stage confronts a person with new developmental tasks. These are called Psychosocial Dilemmas or crises that we all go through When the conﬂict is resolved positively and constructively, the person moves into the next stage in a psychologically healthy state If the conﬂict is not resolved, the negative e ects will most likely carry over into the future stage. Detrimental e ects can carry onto forthcoming challenges. Erikson’s 8 Stages of Human Development ❖ Infant → basic trust vs. Mistrust ❖ Toddler (1-3) → Autonomy vs. Shame and doubt ❖ Preschool (3-6) → Initiative vs. Guilt ❖ Preadolescent (6-12) → Industry vs. Inferiority ❖ Adolescent (early teens) → Identity vs. Role confusion ❖ Young adult (late teens- early 20s) → Intimacy vs. Isolation ❖ Middle adult (late 20s - retirement) → Generality vs. Stagnation ❖ Older adult (retirement) → Ego integrity vs. Despair Parenting styles ❖ Permissive → lenient, discipline, a ectionate Children: frequently social impulsive ❖ Authoritarian → very strict, punishing, little a ectionate Children: Obedient yet distrustful, not independent ❖ Authoritative → supportive but set ﬁrm limits Children: self-reliant, co-operative Downloaded by Joshua Allen ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|37592777 ❖ Uninvolved → neglectful and ignoring Children: impulsive, hard to discipline ❖ Parental Conﬂict and Divorce Should parents stay together for the children's sake? Depends on the level of conﬂict The younger the children are when the divorce occurs- the milder the e ects tend to be. Downloaded by Joshua Allen ([email protected])

Psychology Exam 1 Notes for Jacobs (Rutgers University) PDF

Document Details

Tags

Related

Summary

Full Transcript