Midterm Study Guide Psychology PDF

**UNIT 1** - The "father" of psychology - *True Father of Psychology: Often recognized as a foundational figure in the field.* - *Scientific Focus: Viewed psychology as the scientific study of our conscious experiences.* - *Goals of Psychology: Aimed to identify the basic element...

**UNIT 1** - The "father" of psychology - *True Father of Psychology: Often recognized as a foundational figure in the field.* - *Scientific Focus: Viewed psychology as the scientific study of our conscious experiences.* - *Goals of Psychology: Aimed to identify the basic elements of consciousness and how they combine to form our overall conscious experience.* - *Introspection: A method where individuals examine their own thoughts and feelings as objectively as possible, treating the mind like any other natural phenomenon that can be studied.* Major researchers that shaped the field - - - - - - - - Maslow's hierarchy of needs Maslow\'s Hierarchy of Needs Pyramid Freud's actual contributions - ***Psychoanalysis:** Developed a method to treat mental illness by exploring the unconscious mind.* - ***Unconscious Mind:** Suggested that much of our behavior is influenced by thoughts and feelings we\'re not aware of.* - ***Defense Mechanisms:** Identified ways people cope with anxiety and stress, like repression (pushing thoughts away) and denial (refusing to accept reality).* - ***Stages of Psychosexual Development:** Proposed that children go through stages (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) that shape their personality and behavior.* - ***Id, Ego, and Superego:** Introduced a model of the mind where the id represents basic desires and urges, the ego is the rational part that deals with reality, and the superego is the moral conscience.* - ***Dream Analysis:** Believed dreams reveal hidden desires and thoughts, using techniques to interpret them.* The areas of psychology (specific fields such as social, forensic, I/O,\ etc.) (broad definitions) - *Clinical Psychology: Focuses on diagnosing and treating mental health disorders. Clinical psychologists often provide therapy and develop treatment plans.* - *Counseling Psychology: Similar to clinical psychology but generally deals with less severe psychological issues. It often involves helping individuals with life transitions, relationship issues, and personal development.* - *Social Psychology: Studies how people\'s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the presence of others. This includes topics like group dynamics, social perception, and attitudes.* - *Developmental Psychology: Examines how people grow and change throughout their lives, from infancy to old age. This field looks at cognitive, emotional, and social development.* - *Cognitive Psychology: Focuses on mental processes such as perception, memory, problem-solving, and decision-making. It explores how we think, learn, and remember.* - *Industrial-Organizational Psychology (I/O): Applies psychological principles to workplace issues, including employee behavior, productivity, and organizational culture.* - *Forensic Psychology: Involves the application of psychology to legal issues. Forensic psychologists may assess individuals involved in legal cases or provide expert testimony.* - *Health Psychology: Studies how psychological factors affect health and illness. This field often focuses on promoting healthy behaviors and understanding the psychological impact of chronic illness.* - *Neuropsychology: Explores the relationship between brain function and behavior. Neuropsychologists assess and treat individuals with brain injuries or neurological disorders.* - *Educational Psychology: Focuses on how people learn and the best practices for teaching. It includes studying learning processes, educational interventions, and curriculum development.* Personality surveys Constructs - *Psychology involves measuring and analyzing things we can\'t directly see, called constructs.* - *A construct is a variable that we can\'t observe directly, like \"weather.\"* - *For example, you can measure temperature, humidity, and wind, but you can't directly see \"weather\" itself.* - *In physical sciences, things are often directly observable, like chemical reactions. However, in social sciences, many concepts (like job satisfaction) aren't directly visible, so we explain them using observable parts.* UNIT 2 Qualitative vs quantitative research Quantitative Research - Definition: Focuses on numbers and measurable data. - Purpose: Allows you to quantify information and draw conclusions based on statistics. - Examples: Surveys with multiple-choice questions where you can count responses, experiments with measurable outcomes. Qualitative Research - Definition: Focuses on descriptions and understanding experiences. - Purpose: Aims to provide deeper insights into a situation or phenomenon through detailed narratives. - Examples: Interviews, open-ended survey questions, or observations where you describe feelings, thoughts, and experiences. Key Differences - Quantitative: Uses numbers, can be measured (e.g., \"70% of people prefer tea\"). - Qualitative: Uses words, focuses on meaning (e.g., \"Many people feel tea is comforting\"). Theory vs hypothesis - Theory - Well-developed set of ideas that propose an explanation for observed\ phenomena - Hypothesis - A testable prediction about how the world will behave if our idea is correct,\ and it is often worded as an if-then statement. As specific hypotheses are\ tested, theories are modified and refined to reflect and incorporate the result\ of these tests - Hypothesis wording must be mutually exclusive and mutually exhaustive - Which means both can't happen at once and there are no other possibilities Research approaches (naturalistic observation, archival research, etc.) Case study -- following one or a few participants\ Looking for details and rich information (qualitative) Naturalistic observation -- observing behavior in its natural setting\ while blending in to the setting\ Looking for normal behavior (usually patterns of behavior) when people think they aren't being watched (usually qualitative) Surveys -- lists of questions to be answered by research participants, and can be delivered as paper-and-pencil questionnaires, administered electronically, or conducted verbally\ Usually given to a (usually somewhat large) sample of a population of people and also used to detect patterns (usually quantitative) Archival research -- relies on looking at past records or data sets to\ look for interesting patterns or relationships\ Typically data sets that are public record (available to the public and free to\ use), such as sports statistics Longitudinal research -- data-gathering is administered repeatedly\ over an extended period of time\ Typically looking to measure how things change over time or track a process\ Attrition can be a problem through time Correlation Correlation coefficients can span between -1.00 and +1.00\ The closer to 0.00, the weaker the correlation\ Perfect correlations (-1.00 and +1.00) are impossible in the real world\ So if you ever find a study claiming they found a perfect correlation, the\ researchers faked the data (extremely unethical)\ And possibly the most important thing is that CORRELATION IS NOT\ THE SAME AS CAUSATION\ Just because two things are correlated, doesn't necessarily mean one causes\ the other\ Here are some (hilarious) examples\... Positive and negative relationships CORRELATION DOES NOT EQUAL CAUSATION!!!!!!!! Conditions to determine causation There are 3 conditions (and a secret 4th condition)\ 1. Temporal precedence\ One variable happens before another (cause precedes effect)\ 2. Establish a relationship\ The two (or more) variables are related (usually correlation) (cause is related to effect)\ 3. Rule out alternatives\ You can conclude that there aren't any other reasons it may seem like the variables are\ related\ 4. Why\ You can logically explain why one variable causes another Experimental vs control group In a standard experiment, there are typically two groups\ Experimental group -- the group that receives the treatment\ Control group -- the group that doesn't receive the treatment (but doesn't\ know)\ It's important to define your variables\ An operational definition is a description of how you will measure your\ variables, and it is important in allowing others understand exactly how and\ what a researcher measures in a particular experimen\ Single vs double-blind study In a single-blind study, participants don't know if they're in the\ control group or the experimental groups but the researchers know\ In a double-blind study, neither the participants nor the researchers\ know who is in the control group or the experimental group\ Either way, it's best if the participants don't know which group\ they're in because of a placebo effect\ Placebo effect is when people\'s expectations or beliefs influence or determine\ their experience in a given situation\ This isn't necessarily intentional lying Reliability & Validity These concepts can be pretty complex, but the distinction can be\ boiled down to this:\ Reliability refers to the ability to do the same study more than once\ and arrive at the same (or incredibly similar) findings\ For job satisfaction, if a person took the same survey twice (provided their\ amount of job satisfaction is similar at both times), do they get the same\ result?\... If yes, there is high reliability, if no, there is low reliability\ Validity is the accuracy of a given result in measuring what it is\ designed to measure\ For job satisfaction, will a person get the a similar result if they took another\ job satisfaction survey?\... If yes, there is high validity, if no, there is low\ validity Ethics Most important things:\ Don't make up data\ Don't fake results\ Don't lie. Just don't.\ Every study that's published in a peer-reviewed journal has to be\ approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB)\ Pretty much every college has it's own IRB\ MSU's IRB has a reputation for being way more strict than the usual\ But that's a good thing UNIT 3 Peripheral nervous system & Central nervous system The peripheral nervous system is made up of thick bundles of axons,\ called nerves, carrying messages back and forth between the CNS and\ the muscles, organs, and senses in the periphery of the body (i.e.,\ everything outside the CNS)\ The PNS has two major subdivisions: the somatic nervous system and\ the autonomic nervous system Somatic nervous system & Autonomic nervous system The PNS has two major subdivisions: the somatic nervous system and\ the autonomic nervous system\ Somatic nervous system -- relays sensory and motor information to\ and from the CNS\ Autonomic nervous system -- controls our internal organs and glands Lobes of the brain and their function\ Occipital lobe Occipital lobe -- part of the cerebral cortex associated with visual processing;\ contains the primary visual cortex Temporal lobe Temporal lobe -- part of cerebral cortex associated with hearing, memory,\ emotion, and some aspects of language; contains primary auditory cortex Parietal lobe Parietal lobe -- part of the cerebral cortex involved in processing various\ sensory and perceptual information; contains the primary somatosensory\ cortex Frontal lobe Frontal lobe -- part of the cerebral cortex involved in reasoning, motor control,\ emotion, and language; contains motor cortex UNIT 4 Internal and external stimuli\ What melatonin is and what it does (big picture)\ Sleep debt People with less sleep than they're supposed to get will accrue sleep\ debt Result of insufficient sleep on a chronic basis\ REM and stages of sleep Manifest content -- the actual content, or storyline, of a dream\ Freud's idea\ Latent content -- the hidden meaning of a dream\ Also Freud's idea\ Collective unconscious -- the shared information that every human is\ born with\ Jung believed dreams tap into this pool of information we don't have\ voluntary access to\ Researchers are unable to support these ideas Lucid dreams Lucid dreams - dreams in which certain aspects of wakefulness are\ maintained during a dream state Sleep disorders **Insomnia**: - **What It Is**: Trouble falling or staying asleep. - **Symptoms**: Feeling tired during the day, irritability, trouble focusing. **Sleep Apnea**: - **What It Is**: Breathing stops and starts during sleep. - **Symptoms**: Loud snoring, gasping for air, feeling very sleepy during the day. **Narcolepsy**: - **What It Is**: Sudden sleep attacks during the day. - **Symptoms**: Falling asleep unexpectedly, muscle weakness. - SIDS -- an infant stops breathing during sleep and dies\ Physical risk factors:\ Premature birth Brain function Substance use disorders A person who has a substance use disorder often uses more of the\ substance than they originally intended to and they continue to use\ that substance despite experiencing significant adverse consequences\ This is evident by aspects of physical and psychological dependence Physical dependence -- involves changes in bodily functions\ Psychological dependence -- emotional need for the drug\ Tolerance -- when a person requires more and more of a drug to\ receive the desired effect\ Withdrawal -- negative symptoms experienced when a drug is\ discontinued UNIT 5 How many senses we experience (5 vs more) The "five senses" refer to hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, and\ touch/feeling\ True, those are 5 senses, but those aren't the only 5 senses we\ experience\ What about other senses, like balance, pain, temperature?\ Absolute Threshold -- the minimum amount of stimulus energy that\ must be present for the stimulus to be detected 50% of the time Subliminal messages Subliminal messages are messages we receive but aren't consciously\ aware that they're being delivered\ There is speculation about whether or not subliminal messages are real and if\ they really have an effect on our behavior\ Research show that, yes subliminal messages exist, but they don't do too\ much to our behavior Just Noticeable Difference Threshold JND - difference in stimuli required to detect a difference between the\ stimuli\ Let's use light as an example\...\ Imagine you're in your room trying to go to sleep and your phone is on the\ desk about two feet away. You get a text and the phone screen lights up. You\ notice it right away because it's dark. But during the day either with sunlight\ or the light on in your room, you're less likely to notice the screen of your\ phone light up because there is already a lot of light in the room. Pain Perception Inflammatory pain -- signal that some type of tissue damage has\ occurred\ Most common kind of pain, and usually what we think of when we heard the\ word "pain"\ Neuropathic pain -- pain from damage to neurons of either the\ peripheral or central nervous system\ Congenital insensitivity to pain -- a rare genetic disorder where a\ person is born without the ability to feel pain\ As unpleasant as it can be, pain serves a purpose. It teaches us what actions\ and situations have the potential to cause us harm Gestalt Principles Gestalt psychology -- field of psychology based on the idea that the\ whole is different from the sum of its parts\ Figure-ground relationship -- we tend to segment our visual world into\ figure and ground\ Figure is the object or person that is the focus of the visual field\ Ground is the background\ But what's supposed to be figure and what's supposed to be ground\ aren't always clear UNIT 6 Learned vs unlearned behaviors **learned Behaviors** - **Definition**: Actions or responses acquired through experience or practice. - **Examples**: - **Skills**: Riding a bike, playing a musical instrument. - **Social Behaviors**: How to greet people, using polite language. - **Conditioned Responses**: Developing a fear of dogs after a bad experience. **Unlearned Behaviors** - **Definition**: Natural, instinctive actions that don't require prior experience or training. - **Examples**: - **Reflexes**: Pulling your hand away from something hot. - **Basic Needs**: Crying when hungry, seeking shelter when cold. - **Instincts**: Birds migrating or animals hibernating. Pavlov's classical conditioning experiment results Unconditioned stimulus -- stimulus that elicits a reflexive response\ Conditioned stimulus -- stimulus that elicits a response due to its\ being paired with an unconditioned stimulus\ Unconditioned response -- natural (unlearned) behavior to a given\ stimulus\ Conditioned response -- response caused by the conditioned stimulus Stimulus generalization vs stimulus discrimination Stimulus Discrimination -- ability to respond differently to similar\ stimuli\ In terms of sound, animals (and people) are able to respond differently for\ similar sounds\ Again, for Pavlov's dogs, the sound of the feeding bell was different from a\ doorbell, so the dog was able to distinguish between the feeding bell and\ doorbell and respond differently Stimulus Generalization -- demonstrating the conditioned response to\ stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus\ Essentially the opposite of stimulus discrimination\ However, it usually only takes a few errors to differentiate between sounds\ So for Pavlov's dogs, it'd be if they would expect to be fed when they heard\ both the feeding bell and the doorbell when only the feeding bell signified\ food Behaviorism Behaviorism -- the idea that all behavior can be studied as a simple\ stimulus-response reaction, without regard for internal processes\ Inspired by Pavlov's work with his dogs\ John B Watson thought we were no different from Pavlov's dogs\... our\ behaviors are largely the result of conditioned responses\ His experiments involved work with human participants\ And his most common line of research centered around this baby he called\ Little Albert Operant conditioning Operant conditioning -- form of learning in which the\ stimulus/experience happens after the behavior is demonstrated\ So essentially, behavior comes first, then it's rewarded\ But how is it different from classical conditioning?\ Let's use the example of a dog. For classical conditioning, hearing a bell is a\ signal for food. The dog expects the food after hearing something. In this\ case the dog has done nothing. For operant conditioning, you tell the dog to\ sit. He sits and then is given a treat. He's completed an action to be\ rewarded with a treat B. F. Skinner understood that classical conditioning is limited leaving\ out new behaviors\ Skinner believed that behavior is motivated by the consequences we\ receive for the behavior: the reinforcements and punishments\ The law of effect -- behavior that is followed by consequences\ satisfying to the organism will be repeated and behaviors that are\ followed by unpleasant consequences will be discouraged Positive and negative reinforcement and punishment - Positive reinforcement- something is added to increase the likelihood of a behavior - Punishment something added to decrease the likelihood of behavior - Negative reinforcement- something is removed to increase the likelihood of a behavior - negative punishment- something is removed to decrease the likelihood of behavior Vicarious learning, reinforcement, and punishment, UNIT 7 Examples of concepts A psychology course\ You learn about more than vocabulary for mental illnesses\ There is a lot more information, like research methods, measurement\ tools, and mental processes\ Your brain analyzes these details and develops an overall\ understanding of psychology\ And during that time, your brain gathers details that inform and refine\ your understanding of related concepts like tolerance or personal\ compatibility Components of cognition **1. Perception** - **Description**: The process of interpreting sensory information from the environment. - **Example**: Recognizing a friend\'s face in a crowd. **2. Attention** - **Description**: The ability to focus on specific stimuli while ignoring others. - **Example**: Listening to a lecture while filtering out background noise. **3. Memory** - **Description**: The capacity to store, retain, and retrieve information. - **Example**: Remembering a phone number or recalling past experiences. **4. Language** - **Description**: The ability to understand and produce spoken or written communication. - **Example**: Formulating sentences to express thoughts. **5. Problem-Solving** - **Description**: The process of finding solutions to difficult or complex issues. - **Example**: Figuring out how to fix a broken appliance. **6. Reasoning** - **Description**: The ability to think logically and make inferences. - **Example**: Drawing conclusions based on evidence or prior knowledge. **7. Decision-Making** - **Description**: The process of choosing between options based on preferences and values. - **Example**: Deciding what to eat for dinner based on hunger and dietary choices. **8. Learning** - **Description**: The process of acquiring new knowledge or skills through experience, practice, or education. - **Example**: Learning to ride a bike or mastering a new subject in school. Natural concepts Natural concept -- created "naturally" through your experiences and\ can be developed from either direct or indirect experiences\ If you live on Long Beach Island NJ, you probably have a lot of experience with\ summer seasonal tourists\ You've watched the local businesses become packed with vacationers\ You've dealt with driving in tourist traffic\ But if you've lived in Montclair NJ your whole life, you may never have seen a\ tourist takeover first hand\ You might know seasonality from pictures at beach during and after the\ season\ Regardless, you can construct an understanding of it through your\ experiences Role schema Role schema -- makes assumptions about how individuals in certain\ roles will behave\ Ex: Meeting a doctor Overgeneralization (in the context of learning a language) Overgeneralization -- an extension of a language rule to an exception\ to the rule\ Adding s at the end of everything plural\ Plural of goose may be assumed to be gooses or geeses\ "i before e, except after c"\ Height, beige, foreign, neighbor, protein, science Functional fixedness Functional fixedness -- type of mental set where you cannot perceive\ an object being used for something other than what it was designed\ for\ Ex: Not understanding that your credit card can help you break into your own\ room after accidentally locking your keys inside Emotional intelligence Emotional Intelligence -- encompasses the ability to understand the\ emotions of yourself and others, show empathy, understand social\ relationships and cues, and regulate your own emotions and respond\ in culturally appropriate ways Dyslexia and dysgraphia Dysgraphia -- learning disability that results in a struggle to write\ legibly\ Dyslexia -- inability to correctly process letters\ What a dyslexia test might look like\ UNIT 8 Self-referencing effect **What It Is** - **Definition**: The tendency to recall information more easily when it is associated with personal experiences or self-concept. **Why It Happens** - **Personal Relevance**: Information that connects to our own lives feels more meaningful, making it easier to remember. - **Enhanced Encoding**: Relating new information to existing knowledge or personal experiences improves memory retention. **Examples** - **Personal Connection**: Remembering a friend\'s birthday because it's the same day as your own. - **Self-Descriptive Words**: People are more likely to remember adjectives (like \"funny\" or \"kind\") when they describe themselves compared to when they describe others. Sensory vs short term vs long-term memory **1. Sensory Memory** - **Definition**: The initial stage of memory that captures brief sensory impressions. - **Duration**: Very short (milliseconds to a few seconds). - **Capacity**: Large, but only for a very brief moment. - **Example**: The fleeting image of a flash of lightning or the echo of a sound just heard. **2. Short-Term Memory** - **Definition**: The part of memory that temporarily holds and processes information. - **Duration**: Short (about 15-30 seconds without rehearsal). - **Capacity**: Limited (typically 7±2 items). - **Example**: Remembering a phone number long enough to dial it or recalling a list of items for a brief moment. **3. Long-Term Memory** - **Definition**: The more permanent storage of information that can last for days, years, or even a lifetime. - **Duration**: Potentially unlimited. - **Capacity**: Vast; can store a wealth of information. - **Example**: Remembering your childhood experiences, facts you learned in school, or how to ride a bike. The three ways to retrieve information from our long term memory Recall -- it means you can access information without cues\ Most commonly thought of regarding memory\ Ex: Taking (and doing well on) an exam\ Recognition -- when you identify information that you have previously\ learned after encountering it again\ Ex: When you take a multiple-choice test, you are relying on recognition to help you\ choose the correct answer\... if you don't recognize a response option, it probably\ isn't right\ Relearning -- involves learning information that you previously learned\ Ex: If you took Russian language classes in high school but didn't get a chance to\ speak Russian until 10 years later when your company offers you a promotion (and\ raise) if you transfer to their Russian office Anterograde vs retrograde amnesia Anterograde amnesia -- you cannot remember new information, although you\ can remember information and events that happened prior to your injury\ People sometimes think of this as being frozen in time\ Retrograde amnesia -- loss of memory for events that occurred prior to the\ trauma\ Almost as though a person is born after the accident or illness and anything before that\ never actually happened Memory errors -- (bias, transience, absentmindedness, etc.) Transience -- memories can fade over time\ Ex: Remembering that you like a movie (that you haven't seen in years), but\ not being able to remember the plot or what exactly you liked about the\ movie\ Absentmindedness -- lapses in memory that are caused by breaks in\ attention or our focus being somewhere else\ Ex: Locking your car, walking to class, forgetting you locked your car, and\ running back to the car to lock it only to find you originally locked it Blocking - can't access stored information\ Ex: "It's on the tip of my tongue."\ Misattribution -- when you confuse the source of your information\ Ex: A mother with multiple kids confusing experiences among kids\... so your\ mother asking if you remember the time you broke your arm, but that was\ actually your younger brother\ Bias -- how feelings and view of the world distort memory of past\ events Persistence -- failure of the memory system that involves the\ involuntary recall of unwanted memories, particularly unpleasant\ ones\ Ex: You witness a car accident on the way to school and you can't concentrate\ on your classes because you keep remembering the scen