Psychology Prologue Chapter PDF

Prologue Chapter Psychology: Science behavior/mental processes Positive psychology: Founder Martin Seligman, Positive qualities, happiness, well-being, thriving Counseling psychology: Problems with general living (School, relationship, work) Clinical psychology: Psychological disorders Psychiatr...

Prologue Chapter Psychology: Science behavior/mental processes Positive psychology: Founder Martin Seligman, Positive qualities, happiness, well-being, thriving Counseling psychology: Problems with general living (School, relationship, work) Clinical psychology: Psychological disorders Psychiatrists: Psychological disorders, medical treatments (drug/psychological therapy) Community Psychologist: Social environments (school/neighborhood) effect group/ individuals Cognitive psychology: information processing, attention, memory, problem solving, language Biopsychology/neuropsychology: biological underpinnings of behaviour Developmental psychology: development across lifespan Experimental psychology: basic processes, e.g., learning, senses, perception, motivation Industrial-organizational psychology: behaviour in workplace (satisfaction, productivity, leadership, teamwork) Personality psychology: core personality traits & how influence behaviour Social psychology: thoughts, feelings, & behaviours in relation to social world (groups, attitudes, relationships, prejudice, altruism) Evolutionary psychology: Evolution of behavior using principles of natural selection Empirical approach: Evidence based method that draws an observation and experimentation Critical thinking: Examines assumptions, appraises source, discerns hidden biases, evaluates evidence and assesses conclusions Cognitive neuroscience: Brain activity linked with cognition (perception, thinking, memory) Behavioral genetics: Relative power/limits of general environmental influences of behavior Culture: Behaviors, ideas, traditions transferred from 1 generation to the next Nature-nurture issue: Contribution that genes/experiences impact psychological traits/behaviors Natural selection: Species evolve over time by adapting to their environment or compete with other organisms Testing effect: Enhancing memory after retrieving, retrieval practice SQ3R: Survey, questions, read, retrieve, review Structuralism: Wundt/Titchener, used to reveal structure of human mind. Introspection: the examination or observation of one's own mental and emotional processes. Physiology: Branch of biology that studies the functions & parts of living organisms Functionalism: James/Darwin, how mental/behavioral processes function, how they enable organisms to adapt/survive Biopsychosocial approach: Integrated viewpoint: incorporates various levels of analysis & offers more complete picture of behaviour & mental processes. Helps us understand behaviour. 3 main levels of analysis: Biological Psychological Social-cultural Behaviorism: B.F Skinner/ John Watson/ Rosalie Rayner. Objective science, without reference to mental processes Humanistic psychologist: Reaction to Freud’s focus on the negatives & behaviorists’ emphasis of external influences. Carl Rogers/ Abraham Maslow. Emphasized human growth/potential Robert Lee Williams II: 1st black psychologist at a hospital in the state of Arkansas. One of the founders of the Association of Black Psychologists. Demonstrated there is racial/cultural bias in standardized testing. Dr. Mamie Phipps Clark: Research on negative effects of internalized racism & segregation on Black Children. Her research encouraged creation of the first Black dolls, so children had representation in toys. Dr. Brenda Milner: Founder of neuropsychology. Studied patient H.M. (epileptic seizures, hippocampus removed). Dr. Leda Cosmides: Founder of evolutionary psychology. Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Biological explanation of emotions, TED talk Dr. Elizabeth Loftus: misinformation effect & false memories (eyewitness testimony). Dr. Eleanor H. Rosch: Research on mental representations, concepts, & Prototypes. Current research is on the psychology of religion. Willhelm Wundt: philosopher/psychologist. 1st psychology lab, University of Leipzig Germany. Inner sensations, images, & feelings Edward Bradford Titchener: Introspection to search for the mind's structural elements. inner sensations, images, & feelings William James: Teacher/writer/philosopher, authored principles of psychology text, mentioned Calkins. Stream of consciousness/emotion. Paved way for women psychologists Mary Whiton Calkins: Memory research, 1st female president of APA Margaret Floy Washburn: 1st women to get psychology PhD, animal behavior research Rosalie Rayner, John B. Watson: Studied behavior, “Little Albert” fear could be learned, controversial study. B.F Skinner: How consequences shape behavior Sigmund Freud: physician. Influenced self understanding, unconscious mind Charles Darwin: Natural selection shape behaviors Dr Karen Horney: Developing theories in opposition to male oriented theories Dr. Carol Gilligan: Taught at both Harvard & Cambridge, Developing theories in opposition to male oriented theories Anna Freud: founders of psychoanalytic child psychology, didn't have PHD Melanie Klein: founders of psychoanalytic child psychology, didn't have PHD Lillian Gilbreth: L shaped kitchen, was told women don't belong and should be in kitchen, studied how to help people work efficiently, rest breaks. Founder Industrial Organizational Psychology & Ergonomics Chapter 1- Part 2: Statistical Reasoning Statistics: Describe data and infer information from data. Branch of math used by researchers to organize, summarize and interpret data.  Often presented in a graphic or visual form Give us an accurate picture of our data Help us reach valid conclusions Descriptive statistics: Measure of central tendency- A single number that presents information about the “centre” of a frequency distribution. Useful for putting information about a distribution into a more compact form, summarizing the distribution with a single score that is typical in some way. Mode: Most frequently occurring score in the distribution Median: Score that divides frequency distribution exactly in half. The same number of scores fall above and below the median Mean: Sum of a set of scores in a distribution, divided by total number of scores (average) Describing the mean, median, & mode in isolation can lead to misleading conclusions! Think critically about graphs: A meaningful description of data is important in research. Misrepresentation may lead to incorrect conclusions. Read scale labels & pay attention to their range Measure of variability: Range: Difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution Standard Deviation:Calculation of average distance of scores from the mean Normal curve: Distribution of data, scores fall near middle, fewer at extreme After finding a pattern in our data that shows a difference between one group & another, we ask: 1. Is the observed difference reliable: can we use this result to generalize or to predict the future behaviour of the border population? 2. Is the difference significant: could the result have been caused by random/chance variation between the groups? Achieve Reliability: Unbiased sampling: Make sure sample is a a good representation of the population- random assignment Consistency: Check data (responses, observations) are not too widely varied to show a clear pattern Many data points: Don't try generalize from just a few cases Statistical significance: How likely the obtained result occurred by chance. When data is reliable & the difference between groups is large enough (e.g., the data’s distribution curves do not overlap too much):- you are likely to have found statistical significance. Psychologists look for the odds of its occurring by chance = less than 5% (p < 0.05) Chapter 9: Thinking Thinking (Cognition): Mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering and communicating (e.g. Use mental images, create concepts, solve problems, make decisions, form judgments) Concepts: Mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas, or people How we form/learn concepts: Develop prototypes- mental image or best example that incorporates the features we associate with a category/concept. Prototypes fail when: Contradict definitions (Is a stool a chair? Is a whale a mammal?) Boundary between concepts is fuzzy (categorizing a colour when it is between blue and green) Consequences (slow to perceive an illness when symptoms don't fit one of our disease prototypes) Problem solving strategies: Trial/Error, Algorithm, Heuristics, Insight Algorithm: Strategy that involves following a specific rule, procedure or method that produces the correct solution (may not be the best if limited time). (e.g. Looking for guava juice, going up & down every aisle in order until you find it) Heuristics: Strategy that involves using a mental shortcut to reduce the number of solutions, allow snap judgements (Speedier but more error prone). (e.g. Looking for guava juice, narrow down search to beverage or produce aisles) Insight: Sudden, often novel realization of solution- an “Aha” moment (not really a strategy). (e.g. Looking for guava juice, Suddenly realize you are in a type of store that wouldn’t sell guava juice-you need to head to a specialty store) Intuition: Effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought What interferes with our problem-solving abilities? Confirmation bias, Fixation, Mental set, Impose constraints Confirmation bias: Tendency to search for information that supports our beliefs and ignore/distort contradictory evidence. Once we form a belief, we prefer belief-confirming information (look for confirming evidence). Fixation: Inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective Mental set: Tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often successful in the past. Example of fixation Impose constraints: Tendency to assume there are extra constraints in a task Representative heuristic: The representativeness heuristic works by comparing an event to a prototype or stereotype that we already have in mind. (e.g. if we see a person who is dressed in eccentric clothes and reading a poetry book, we might be more likely to think that they are a poet than an accountant.) Availability heuristic: Cognitive bias where individuals assess the likelihood of an event based on how easily instances of that event come to mind, often leading to overestimation of probabilities when vivid or easily recalled examples are present. (e.g. how likely to get in plane crash, after hearing about one) Conjunction fallacy: Someone mistakenly believes that two events occurring together are more likely than either alone. Framing: How an issue is presented to us (framed) can significantly affect decisions & judgments. Framing draws our attention to some aspects of the available information over others. Nudge: Framing in a way that encourages people to make beneficial decisions Creativity: Ability to produce new/valuable information Convergent thinking: Narrowing the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution Divergent thinking: Expanding number of possible problem solutions to determine the single best solution Overconfidence: Tendency to be more confident than correct. Overestimate accuracy of beliefs/judgment. Belief perseverance: clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited Language: Spoken/written/signed word/ways we combine as we think/communicate. Phonemes: Smallest distinctive sound units in language. (e.g. that has 3 th, a, t) Morphemes: Smallest language units that carry meaning. (e.g. bat, gentle or pre- in preview, -ed in adapted) Grammar: System of rules that enables us to communicate with one another Semantics: Deriving meaning from sounds (e.g. cool) Syntax: Ordering words into sentences (e.g. Bananas have sale for I) Linguistic determinism: Whorf, suggested language determines way we think (e.g. Hopi people do not have past tense, therefore they cannot think readily about the past) Language determines thought=too strong a statement Language influences thought Linguistic relativism Bicultural self-descriptions: China-born bilingual students in Canada described themselves either in English or Chinese Describing self in English: self-descriptions more similar to mainstream Canadian descriptions –positive self-statements & moods Describing self in Chinese: self-description more similar to descriptions common in a Chinese context– roughly equal positive & negative self-statements and mood statements Metaphor: Using language from one domain to talk about another Chomsky: All languages share basic elements, universal grammar. Theorized humans are born with predisposition to learn grammar rules; not a built-in specific language. Receptive language: Infants ability to understand what is said to them begins around 4 months (babbling speech sounds, “ah-goo”) Productive language: Infants ability to produce words begin around 10 months (babbling household language “ma-ma”) One-word stage: Around 12 months (“Kitty”) Two-word stage: Around 24 months (“Get ball”) Telegraphic speech: Around 24+ months, Early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram using mostly nouns & verbs. Talking to children matters: Infants who experienced more child directed speech had larger vocabularies by 24 months Critical periods: Suggest childhood represents crucial for mastering certain aspects of language People who learn second language as adults usually speak it with an accent from their native language and struggle to master new grammar if born non-hearing to non-seeing parents and don't learn sign language until after age 9 have difficulty mastering it Brain and language: Damage to anyone of several areas of the brain's cortex can impair language. Neuroscience confirms brain activity in Broca's and Wernicke's areas during language processing. damage to either area can result in aphasia (language impairment). Broca's area: speech production Wernicke's area: speech comprehension