Psychology Lectures PDF

# Foundation of Human Behavior, Psychology Overview ## Psychology - The study of behavior and mental processes. - Behavior: Includes all person actions that can be directly observed. - Mental process: Includes private thought, emotions, feelings and motives that other people cannot directly observ...

# Foundation of Human Behavior, Psychology Overview ## Psychology - The study of behavior and mental processes. - Behavior: Includes all person actions that can be directly observed. - Mental process: Includes private thought, emotions, feelings and motives that other people cannot directly observe. ## Goals of Psychology 1. Describe 2. Explain 3. Predict 4. Control ## Medical Subfields of Psychology 1. Health Psychology 2. Clinical 3. Social 4. Cross-cultural 5. Behavioral Genetics 6. Clinical-neuro Psychology 7. Evolutionary Psychology ### Cross-cultural Psychology - Investigates the similarities and differences in psychological functioning across various cultures around the world. ### Evolutionary Psychology - Considers how behavior is influenced by our genetic inheritance from our ancestors. - Behavioral Genetics focuses on the biological mechanism such as genes and chromosomes. ## New Perspectives of Psychology 1. Neuroscience 2. Behavioral 3. Cognitive 4. Psycho-dynamic: Behavior is motivated by inner forces and conflicts about which we have little awareness or control. 5. Humanistic Perspective ## Structural Theory of the Mind - Contains instinctive sexual and aggressive drives. - Controlled by primary process thinking, not external reality (Ego, superego, id). ## Defense Mechanisms - Unconscious mental techniques used by ego to keep conflict out of the conscious mind, decreasing anxiety and maintain a person’s sense of safety in equilibrium. ### Classification 1. **Repression**: Basic defense mechanism. Unaccepted emotions are pushed into the unconscious. 2. **Mature Defense Mechanisms**: (Altruism, humor, sublimation, support) 3. **Immature Defense Mechanisms**: Manifestations of childlike disturbed behavior. ## Transference Reactions - Transference and countertransference are unconscious mental attitudes based on important past personal relationships. 1. **Positive**: Confident to doctor, may over idealize sex or develop healthy. 2. **Negative**: Patient maybe angry, poor adherence to medical advice. 3. **Countertransference**: Feelings of a doctor about a patient remind him of a significant person or relative can interfere with the doctor’s medical judgment. ## Operant Conditioning - Behavior is determined by its consequences for the individual. - The consequence occurs immediately following a behavior. - In operant conditioning a behavior can be learned through reinforcement. ### Feature of Operant Conditioning 1. **Reinforcement**: - **Positive**: Introduction of a positive stimulus, result to increase in the rate of behavior. - **Negative**: Removal of an aversive stimulus, increase. 2. **Punishment** 3. **Extinction**: Gradual disappearance when withheld. Ignore. ### Shaping - Reinforcing small steps on the way to desired behavior. ### Modeling - Type of observational learning. Individual behaves in a manner similar to that of some one she admires. ## Topographic Theory of the Mind - Psychoanalytic Defense Mechanism - Mind contains three levels. 1. **The unconscious**: Not available, primary process thoughts. 2. **Preconscious**: Memories immediately available, easy. 3. **Conscious**: Person is aware, secondary process thinking. ## Selective Attention - The ability to attend one main event whilst being remotely conscious of others. - It is the restriction of mental processing to one event at a time. ### Divided Attention - Ability to divide our attention between two or more events. ### Sustained Attention - Ability to detect a signal over long periods. ## Learning theory Learning is the acquisition of new behavior patterns. - **Habituation (Desensitization)**: Repeated stimulation result in a decreased response. - **Sensitization**: Repeated stimulation results in an increased response. ## Classical Conditioning - Behavior is caused by a learned stimulus is called associative learning. - Elements: 1. **Unconditioned stimulus** 2. **Unconditioned response** 3. **Conditioned stimulus** 4. **Conditioned response** ## Stimulus generalisation - A new stimulus that resembles a conditioned stimulus cause a conditioned response. ## Aversive Conditioning - An unwanted behavior is paired with a painful stimulus. ## Characteristics of Learned Helplessness in Children 1. **Low self-esteem** 2. **Low motivation** 3. **Law expectation in success** 4. **Not asking for help** 5. **Link a lack of success to lack of ability** 6. **Link successful to luck** ## Pitfalls of Perception 1. **Impression of others**: (Attractive) Halo, an evil effect (unattractive) 2. **Selective perception**: Unfairly punish or reward others due to one dominant trait. 3. **Self-serving Bias** ## Psychophysics of Perception 1. **Accuracy of perception** 2. **Perception of number** 3. **Variable error of perception**: Both side difficult to correct. 4. **Constant error of perception**: One side easily curved. 5. **Absolute Threshold of perception** 6. **Difference Threshold of perception** 7. **Perceptual constancy** ### Extrasensory Perception 1. **Telepathy** 2. **Clairvoyance** 3. **Precognition** 4. **Psychokinesis**: Color detection. ## Faulty Perception 1. **Camuflage** 2. **Illusions** 3. **Hallucinations** 4. **Depersonalization** ## Attention The perceptual focusing of selected inputs for inclusion in our conscious experience or awareness at any given time. - **Concentration**: The ability to sustain attention for a specific period, on a particular object or subject. ### Factors Facilitating Attention **External Factors** 1. **Higher intensity** 2. **Large size** 3. **Contrast and novelty** 4. **Repetition and movement of stimuli** **Internal Factors** 1. **Individual's attend to one instead of other.** 2. **Motivation or need** 3. **Preparation set** 4. **Interest** ## Elder Persons - Life is being longer, interest in study of and care of aging. - Psychological changes: 1. Feel satisfaction and pride or worthlessness about past accomplishments. 2. Depression 3. Sleep (poor sleep quality) 4. Anxiety and fearfulness 5. Addiction ## Stages of Dying - Elisabeth Kubler-Ross 1. Denial 2. Anger 3. Depression 4. Bargaining 5. Acceptance ## Normal vs Abnormal Grief Reactions - **Normal**: May experience that dead person is present (Minor weight loose). - **Abnormal**: Significant weight loss, reduce few in work or social activities, persist for 7-12 month. - Anniversary reaction (1-2 years) - Guilty feelings resolve within 2 months. - Return to work. ## Perception - Giving meaning to a stimulus (sensation) - Our gabe to know a world around and knowledge of perception. ## Perceptual Organizations - Process of grouping stimuli together (organization) so that we can more readily determine the meaning of these stimuli as a whole (perception). ### Stimulus Factor 1. **Figure-Ground Relationship**: Similarity, proximity, good form, continuity, symmetry, closure, approximation. 2. **Building up a figure**. ### Personal Factors 1. **Attitudes** 2. **Emotions** 3. **Motives** 4. **Self-confidence** 5. **Interest** 6. **Exceptions** ## Preschool - 3-6 years old. 1. Child should be able to spend a few hours away from the mother. 2. Death is a punishment, temporary, will come back to life. 3. Regression: A defense mechanism (baby-like), although he’s toilet trained, he starts wetting the bed again (Age of 3). 4. After 6, children empathy and caring during school age. ## School Child - 7-11 years old. 1. Interact with children of the same gender. - Cognitive - Organized - Critical - Thinking - Understand 2. Identifies with parents of the same gender. 3. Has relationships with adults other than parents (teacher). 4. Death is universal and inevitable (After 11). 5. Has a moral sense (Right and wrong, Fair). ## Puberty - Early adolescence. 1. Development of early adolescence: Increased skeletal growth. 2. First Menstruation: 11-14 for girls 3. First Ejaculation: 12-15 for boys 4. Cognition maturation: Formation of the personality, six drives. ## Early Adulthood - 20-40 Years - 30 Years: There are a reappraisal of one’s life, become independent. 1. Adult role in society is defined. 2. Relationships ## Mid Life Crisis - Middle 40s and early 50s. - Associated with awareness of one’s own aging and unexpected lifestyle lead to: 1. Change in profession 2. Divorce 3. Depression 4. Muscle strength, sexual performance, menopause. ## Factors that Affect Reactions of Stress - Previous experience of stress. - Development factors (predctablity and control). - Social support. - Cognition. ## Aspects of Social Support 1. Just being there, hearing the opportunity just to get it off your chest. 2. Being good listener. 3. Avoidance criticism. 4. Simply asking how things are going. 5. Avoiding direct advice. ## Coping - Attempts by the individual to deal with the source of stress and control their reactions to it. ## Effective Coping with Stress 1. Removing or reducing stress. 2. Cognitive coping strategies. 3. Managing stress reactions. 4. Hobbies: Spending time with friends, relaxation activities. ## Ineffective Coping with Stress 1. Withdrawal 2. Aggression & anger 3. Self-medicated addiction (alcohol, drugs). ## Development Issues - Depressed Infant: 1. Poor health and slowed physical growth. 2. Become withdrawn and unresponsive. 3. Attach indiscriminately to stranger, as though the strangers were familiar to them. ## Problem Solving - Cognitive process through which information is used to reach a goal that’s blocked with some obstacle. - Steps of solvng problem: 1. **Formulating the problem**: Define it in clear and specific terms. 2. **Understanding and organize the elemb of the problem**: Flexibility of elements. 3. **Generating (possible solutions) and evaluation each one of alternative solutions**: Choose best solution and effective way. ## Personal Biases in Decision Making 1. Selective search for evidence. 2. Premature termination of search. 3. Refusal to share a view. 4. Selective perception. 5. Influences of initial information. 6. Wishful thinking or optimism. 7. Choice-supportive bias. 8. Tendency to place more attention on recent information. 9. More verbose information. 10. Faulty generalization. ## Convergent Thinking - (Understanding creativity) - Logical, factual, conventional and focused on a problem until a solution is found. ## Divergent Thinking - (Understanding creativity) - Loosely organized, only partially directed and unconvinced (out of the box). ## Stress and Coping - Any event that strains or exceeds an individual's ability to cope. ### Sources of Stress 1. Natural disasters, terrorism. 2. Positive life events. 3. Daily hassles, pressure, at work, pressure at work. 4. Violence, warp, loss of a family member. ### Types of Conflict 1. **Approach-Approach**: Positive two alternatives. 2. **Avoidance-Avoidance**: Two negatives. 3. **Approach-Avoidance**: One negative, both approach avoid (both negative and positive). 4. **Pressure**: Describe the stress that arise from threats of negative events. ### Psychological Reactions to Stress 1. **Cognitive changes**: Changes in our psychological state. 2. **Combination of emotions** 3. **Changes in our energy** 4. **Physical reactions**: General adaption syndrome. Stages: - Alarm reaction: Sympathetic. - Resistance: - Exhaustion: 5. **Psychiatry** ## Cognition - Intellectual processes such as perception, memory, thinking and language through which information is obtained, transformed-stored, used, retrieved. ### Aspects of Cognition - Cognition processes information: Stuff. - Cognition active: Transform, obtain, store, retrieve. - Cognition useful: Used. ### Concept - The basic unit of thinking, are general categories of things, events, qualities linked by common features of despite them being different. ### Concept Category **Basic:** Nature, hence easier, inclusive, super ordinates, vehicle, medium ordinates, cars, sub ordinates sport cars. **Simple:** **Complex:** **Conjunctive:** Two common characteristics, or more. **Basic:** **Disconjunctive**: One are one or both (depressive). ## Intelligence - The global capacity of an individual to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with the environment. ### Types of Intelligence 1. Linguistic (verbal) 2. Musical 3. Athletic (kinesthetic) 4. Personal adjustment, natural. 5. Logical mathematical. 6. Artistic spatial. 7. Social skills. 8. Naturalistic. ## Emotional Intelligence - The ability to handle each other or ourselves in the right way. ### Five Domains 1. Knowing one’s emotions. 2. Managing emotions. 3. Motivating oneself. 4. Recognize. 5. Handling relation. ## Intelligence Quotient (IQ) - Ratio of mental age to the chronological age. - IQ = MA / CA