Study of Psychology PDF

Study of Psychology - Study of the mind, brain, and behavior → aims to describe what's happening, ask why, predict future behaviour, and limit harm through different levels of analysis - Hierarchy of study (small to large): biological (molecular/neurochemical) →...

Study of Psychology - Study of the mind, brain, and behavior → aims to describe what's happening, ask why, predict future behaviour, and limit harm through different levels of analysis - Hierarchy of study (small to large): biological (molecular/neurochemical) → psychological (mental/neurological) → social/cultural (social/behavioural) The Scientific Method - Observe → hypothesis → predict → test → modify (go back to hypothesis) - The scientific method uses confirmation bias (seeking evidence supporting what you believe) and belief perseverance (ignoring contradictory evidence to support your belief) - Used to prove or disprove our beliefs, rather than saying its right or wrong - Challenged by: - Behaviours are multiply determined (there are many reasons contributing to one's behaviour) - Individual differences (changes person to person and day to day) - Social and cultural influences (contexts affect behaviours) - Theories → established explanations based on completed research (makes hypotheses) - Hypothesis → predicting statement formed before research Pseudoscience - Stuff that looks like science, but is false or misleading w/out scientific evidence - We may believe in it because of: - Sunk cost fallacy → after already coming this far, I might as well keep going - Confirmation bias → we may only look for evidence agreeing with our belief - Dunning-Kruger effect → the less you know about a topic, the more likely you are to believe you’re an expert (or vice versa) - Warning signs: - Exaggerated claims → statements sounding “too good to be true” - Over Reliance on anecdotes → influenced thinking by using stories/testimonials from other individuals, rather than large-scale data - Lack of reliable and external peer review → a lack of credibility of expert verification to confirm findings, there may be a conflict of interest - Proof rather than evidence → stating that studies were done but w/out proof or hiding the data - Psychobabble → using embellishing fancy terms that are actually garbage  - Dangers of pseudoscience: - Opportunity cost → what you’re giving up to get something else (“there’s opportunity now at the cost of”) - Erodes trust in science → if pseudoscience happens to work, it may put you off from actual science - Harm to people → w/out evidence/rigorous testing, it can cause harm - Scientific principles guarding against pseudoscience: - Rule out rival hypotheses → look for alternative explanations for observations - Don’t confuse correlation vs causation → doesn’t always correlate - Falsifiability/Testability → science allows for testing and proving things wrong (can be measured) - Extraordinary evidence for big claims → biggers claims need stronger evidence - Replicability → you need to be able to repeat the study for stability - Parsimony/Occam’s Razor → sometimes the simple answer is best History of Psychology - Structuralism, 1879 (what) → Wilhelm Wundt, the building blocks of thought and consciousness (periodic table of mental experiences) - There were some limitations: - Subjectivity → everyone had their own individual differences contributing to perception - Imageless thought → thinking that occurs w/out visual content - Not enough to just describe our mental experiences → explain, predict, and limit - Wundt’s technique was introspection → wanted to describe basic experiences w/out reflection or being subjective (experience of having it rather than personal thoughts about it) - Functionalism (why) → William James, why do we react or do things the way we do - Psychoanalysis (late 1800-early 1900)→ Sigmund Freud, studying the unconscious/”hidden” impulses and memories - Thought the mind was like an iceberg, as with themes of sexuality and aggression which may be taboo suppressed to the bottom and outwardly shared thoughts/information on the top - Dream analysis → thought dreams were an unconscious wish fulfilment, but the problem was w/ confirmation bias - Freudian slip → when you say one thing, but mean something else, he thought it was a “leak” og unconscious to conscious, but hard to falsify  - Behaviourism (1910) → John Watson and B.F. Skinner, built on watching observable or measurable behaviour, build the theory of learning through conditioning in interactive environments and repetition - The input isn’t as important as the output - Cognitivism (1950s) → Ulric Neisser, thinking affects behaviours, and that input is as equal as output, thinking that the brain is like a computer (but it’s not) - Thought behaviourism made it harder to make predictions - Psychology today → influenced by all of these theories and different subdisciplines Research Methods Toolbox 1. Case study → focus on 1-2 people to give proof that stuff exists - Case studies usually don't apply to the rest of the world making it have low external validity (since it is an experience and every human is different) - Rich information, low generalization - Pros → provides rich information by observing their experiences - Cons → low external validity - Validity → does the study measure what we want it to measure? - External validity → do the observations apply to real life/people? 2. Naturalistic Observation → observing w/out interfering with others and simply just watching them in their natural context - High generalizability but lacks control - Reactivity → when people know they are being watched they will most likely change how they act (eg. when u slow down when u see a cop, you’re more likely to slow down) - Pros → high external validity than case studies because they’re more relatable from personal observations - Cons → possible low internal validity (do the study procedures measure what we want them to?) 3. Archival research (“big data”) → doing research on existing databases/records (patient records, etc) - Less invasive, could have quality issues - Pro → non invasive/doesn’t interfere w/ your life - Cons → there’s a lack of quality control and internal validity because you’re not actively collecting the data on your own - Lack Internal validity → eg. when u wanna measure hand washing after toilet however as u leave bathroom u notice the door handle sticky so now u dont know whether people washing hands due to sticky door or after toilet use  4. Surveys → self-report measures usually used because they voluntarily report thoughts and feelings (very common method) - Convenient, but prone to bias and errors - Pros → easy to administer (quick to set up, print, etc), you can also use random selection to control generalizations - Cons → response error/bias Response error and bias - Anonymity helps provide more truthful answers - When conducting surveys, there may be errors in judgment from responders - Malingering → faking answers (ie. faking/overstating at the doctors) - Social desirability bias → acting in a certain way to please others - Operational definition → define variable that can be measured/quantified to avoid ambiguity/vagueness in measurement (eg. How many times do you smile/laugh a day? Reliability and validity - Reliability → when test results are consistent over time - How consistent a test is over time - Internal consistency → do survey responses agree? - Test-retest reliability → are test results stable? - Inter-rater reliability → do two people agree w/ the results? - Validity → when tests measure what it’s supposed to - A test measures what i suppose to be measured - Face validity → does it appear to measure what it says it measures? - Convergent validity → does it agree with others measuring the same thing? - Divergent validity → does it diverge from others measuring different things? Correlational Studies - Show the relationship b/w two variables - Pros → helps show a trend for predictions - Cons → can’t infer or make claims for why - Strength and direction is defined w/ the correlation coefficient (r value) - Strength and direction → -1.0 to +1.0  - -1.0 perfect negative correlation - +1.0 positive correlation - Illusory correlations → correlation isn’t there - Correlation doesn’t equal causation!! Experimental Designs - Confounds → rival hypotheses/variables that could explain your effects - Random assignment → distributes unknown confounding variables evenly b/w groups (cancels out differences) - Placebo effect → when you feel real effects from ineffective manipulation - Participant demands → behaving the way you think the researcher wants you to - Experimenter effects → when researchers bias the study - Manipulation → independent variables are designed by the researchers as the variable of interest - Quasi-experimental designs → no random assignments are allowed, but you can still manipulate variables because of existing group memberships - Ie. marital status, ethnicity, childhood experience, ability/disability, difficulty w/ causal inferences Neurons - Afferent (sensory) → take signals from body/environment to brain - Interneurons (most common) → the neurons b/w neurons that integrate info - Efferent (motor) → take signals from the brain to the rest of the body - Communication: - Electrical → within the neuron, immediate - Chemical → between neurons, takes longer but more precise - At rest, neurons are polarized (neg. Inside, pos. outside) - During action potential, neurons become depolarized because positive particles quickly flow into the axon - Neurons are made up of: - Axon → sends messages to other neurons  - Dendrites → receives messages from other neurons - Soma/cell body → processes incoming messages - Myelin sheath → determines the speed of action potential - Axon terminal → converts electrical signals to chemical ones - Synapses → meeting point b/w two neurons Synaptic Neurotransmission - Synapses → have a pre- and post-synaptic sides - Post-synaptic receptors follow a “lock and key principle” - Special chemical shapes fit into specific receptor type - When the neurotransmitter “binds” to its receptor, the receptor is activated - Excitation (gas pedal) → more likely for postsynaptic neurons to fire - Inhibition (brake pedal) → less likely for postsynaptic neurons to fire - Reuptake → unused neurotransmitters are reabsorbed by presynaptic neurons - Common neurotransmitters: - Glutamate and gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) → learning and memory (accelerator and brake) - Dopamine → influences emotion, attention, feeling good (excitatory and inhibitory, determined by receptor) - Endorphins → pain signals - Serotonin → reg. mood, appetite, circadian rhythm, sleep (mainly inhibitory) The Nervous System/ The Brain - Peripheral nervous system → controls everything else - Somatic nervous system → voluntary, touch and pain info - Autonomic → involuntary - Sympathetic → fight or flight - Parasympathetic → rest and digest - Central nervous system (command center): - Cerebral cortex (outer layer of brain ) → essential functions (memory, etc) - Grooves → sulci (one is sulcus)  - Ridges → gyri (one is gyrus) - Corpus callosum → bundle of nerves connective both hemispheres for communication b/w them - Cerebellum (“little brain”) → movement, language, timing - Brain stem: - Pons → sleep/wake cycle, relay station - Medulla → controls autonomic functions - Midbrain → sends sensory info to cortex - Lobes of the brain: - Frontal lobe → planning, language, motor skills - Parietal lobe → integrates sensory info, attention in space - Occipital lobe → vision - Temporal lobe → hearing, vision, language Studying the Brain - Phineas Gage → study by brain damage/lesion - Survived a traumatic brain injury from an iron pole that damaged his skull, eye, and frontal lobe - Established potential issues: - Reliability → damage differs person to person - Global damage → damage isn’t specific to one area - Dr. Wilder Penfield → study by activation/stimulation - Expanded brain surgery methods and mapping functions of the regions of the brain - Modern technology → study w/ imagine/monitoring - Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) → relies on a blood oxygen level dependant (BOLD) signal to track blood flow in different parts of the brain (good where signals come from, bad time resolution) - Electroencephalography (EEG) → measures electrical activity in the brain by attaching metal electrodes to the scalp to communicate w/ brain cells Neurons - Afferent (sensory) → take signals from body/environment to brain - Interneurons (most common) → the neurons b/w neurons that integrate info - Efferent (motor) → take signals from the brain to the rest of the body - Communication:  - Electrical → within the neuron, immediate - Chemical → between neurons, takes longer but more precise - At rest, neurons are polarized (neg. Inside, pos. outside) - During action potential, neurons become depolarized because positive particles quickly flow into the axon - Neurons are made up of: - Axon → sends messages to other neurons - Dendrites → receives messages from other neurons - Soma/cell body → processes incoming messages - Myelin sheath → determines the speed of action potential - Axon terminal → converts electrical signals to chemical ones - Synapses → meeting point b/w two neurons Synaptic Neurotransmission - Synapses → have a pre- and post-synaptic sides - Post-synaptic receptors follow a “lock and key principle” - Special chemical shapes fit into specific receptor type - When the neurotransmitter “binds” to its receptor, the receptor is activated - Excitation (gas pedal) → more likely for postsynaptic neurons to fire - Inhibition (brake pedal) → less likely for postsynaptic neurons to fire - Reuptake → unused neurotransmitters are reabsorbed by presynaptic neurons - Common neurotransmitters: - Glutamate and gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) → learning and memory (accelerator and brake)  - Dopamine → influences emotion, attention, feeling good (excitatory and inhibitory, determined by receptor) - Endorphins → pain signals - Serotonin → reg. mood, appetite, circadian rhythm, sleep (mainly inhibitory) The Nervous System/ The Brain - Peripheral nervous system → controls everything else - Somatic nervous system → voluntary, touch and pain info - Autonomic → involuntary - Sympathetic → fight or flight - Parasympathetic → rest and digest - Central nervous system (command center): - Cerebral cortex (outer layer of brain ) → essential functions (memory, etc) - Grooves → sulci (one is sulcus) - Ridges → gyri (one is gyrus) - Corpus callosum → bundle of nerves connective both hemispheres for communication b/w them - Cerebellum (“little brain”) → movement, language, timing - Brain stem: - Pons → sleep/wake cycle, relay station - Medulla → controls autonomic functions - Midbrain → sends sensory info to cortex - Lobes of the brain: - Frontal lobe → planning, language, motor skills - Parietal lobe → integrates sensory info, attention in space - Occipital lobe → vision - Temporal lobe → hearing, vision, language Studying the Brain - Phineas Gage → study by brain damage/lesion - Survived a traumatic brain injury from an iron pole that damaged his skull, eye, and frontal lobe - Established potential issues: - Reliability → damage differs person to person - Global damage → damage isn’t specific to one area - Dr. Wilder Penfield → study by activation/stimulation  - Expanded brain surgery methods and mapping functions of the regions of the brain - Modern technology → study w/ imagine/monitoring - Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) → relies on a blood oxygen level dependant (BOLD) signal to track blood flow in different parts of the brain (good where signals come from, bad time resolution) - Electroencephalography (EEG) → measures electrical activity in the brain by attaching metal electrodes to the scalp to communicate w/ brain cells Consciousness and Substances - Consciousness → subjective awareness of internal/external states - Began with: - Introspection → basic units of consciousness - Behaviourism → rejection of consciousness since only behavior mattered - Cognitive psychology → return to mental states and consciousness - Chemical messages - Post-synaptic receptors follow the lock and key principle - Reuptake → unused NT is reabsorbed by presynaptic neurons - Psychoactive substances → cause altered consciousness when interfering w/ NTs - Agonists → increase activity and mimic natural NTs (ie. heroin increasing endorphins) - Antagonists → decrease activity of NTs (ie. antipsychotics inhibit dopamine) - Tolerance: - Physical dependance → body/cells need drug to function or else withdrawals happen - Psychological dependance → take drugs bc of cravings - Depressants → alcohol (2nd most used) - CNS depressant → inhibitory, GABA antagonist by deactivating glutamate, activate opioid receptors to release endorphins - Low dose → relaxation, elevated mood, dampens inhibition (liquid courage) - High dose → sedation, death - Stimulants → like cocaine, caffeine and meth excite CNS  - Cocaine → releases dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin reuptake inhibitor - Popularizes in 1880s as pain med and in coca cola - Hallucinogenic effects → cannabis, THC - The body naturally has anandamides and an endocannabinoid system that regulates sleep, mood, memory, and appetite → discovered with the use of THC because of similar properties - Narcotics → opioids - Opiates → natural (morphin, heroin, codeine) - Opioids → natural + synthetic (w/ fentanyl, math) - Impact brain stem (slow/stop breathing) and spinal cord (inhibit pain signals) Sleep - Circadian rhythm → physical, mental, and behavioral changes all experienced in a 24-hour cycle (like a clock) - Triggered by light → suprachiasmatic nucleus releases melatonin - Daytime → more light = less melatonin release - Nighttime → less light = more melatonin release - Disruptions: - Night shifts → low natural light - Jet lag and daylight savings time → shifts time we see light - Daylight saving time → stated in Canada after WWI to save light, but increased car and work accidents and the risk of heart attacks and strokes - EEG rhythm → neural activity fluctuates, how fast it changes - Sleep stages: - Awake → beta waves (14-30 Hz) - Calm wakefulness → alpha waves (8-12 Hz) - Stage 1 → theta waves (4-7 Hz), 5-10 mins - May feel hypnic myoclonia → falling feeling, jerky movements - Stage 2 → 65% of sleep - K complex → brain inhibition, info processing  - Sleep spindles → stabilize memory - Stage 3 and 4 → delta waves (2-4 Hz), deep sleep, physical healing and growth - Rapid eye movement (REM) → beta waves (13-30 Hz), fast brain activity, 10-30 mins, dreaming stage, not really important - Dreams - Activation-synthesis theory → states dreams are just impulses the body’s trying to make sense of, but don’t actually mean anything - Pons → spontaneous activations throughout the brain - Cerebral cortex → interprets activity to try and make sense of it Learning - Refers to the change in thoughts/behaviors from experience, study, and practice - Nervous system plasticity → forming/changing connections b/w neurons - Habituation → “getting used to” a stimulus - Latent learning (by Edward Tolman) - Learning that isn’t directly observable (you don’t need reinforcement) - Competence → what we know - Performance → we show what we know - Observational learning (Bandura’s Social Learning Theory) - Learn by watching people (role models) - Four factors: - Attention (conditioning) - Retention (remembering) - Reproduction (capacity for imitation) - Motivation (to imitate) Classical conditioning - Associate an involuntary response w/ a stimulus - Unconditional stimulus (US) → produces a reflexive response - Unconditional response (UR) → natural reaction  - Conditioned stimulus (CS) → an already neural habit - Conditioned response (CR) → natural reaction to CS - Stages of classical conditioning: - Acquisition → initial learning phase thats dependant on - Frequency → how often CS is paired w/ UCS - Timing → duration b/w both - Extinction → elimination of the CR (CS unpaired w/ US) - Spontaneously recovery → sudden emergence of CR after extinction - Stimulus generalization → stimuli similar to CS will elicit a CR (quick learning) - Eg. dog salivating to a bell and door bell - Stimulus discrimination → CR specific to one stimulus, not others (effective learning) - Eg. dog salivation to bell but not clock chimes Operant Conditioning - Associate a voluntary behavior w/ a consequence - Response: - Reinforcement → increases behavior - Punishment → decreases behavior - Stimulus: - Positive → add’s stimulus - Negative → removes stimulus Law of Effect - E.L. Thorndike proposed learning is controlled by consequences - Behavior → good result → increased probability of behavior - Behavior → bad result → decreased probability of behavior Memory - Retention of info over time → actively constructed - Brain regions: - Hippocampus → explicit and new memories - Cerebellum → implicit memories - prefrontal cortex → semantic and short-term memory - Entire cortex → explicit memory  - Types: - Amnesia → loss of memories - Misinformation effect → creating fictitious memories after giving misleading info after the event takes place - Dr. Elizabeth Loftus made people watch video of car crash, gave them questions, then changed verbs to describe what happened (contacted, smashed) which affected the recall of events and made some think it was a real memory - Flashbulb memories → vivid and emotional memories, may fluctuate overtime - Three systems: - Sensory memory → holds sensory info, allows elaborate perceptual processing, short duration but large capacity - Each sense has its own system - Iconic (vision, ½ a sec) - Echoic (hearing, 2-4 secs) - Short-term memory → working memory, temporary info, 20-30 secs w/out rehearsal, limited to 5-9 items - Long-term memory → info acquired overtime, unlimited duration and capacity - Explicit (declarative) → consciously recalled - Episodic → events in our lives - Semantic → facts of the world - Implicit (non-declarative) → doesn’t require conscious thought - Procedural → habits and how to do things (skills and actions) - Priming → exposure to a stimulus influences future response (seeing red on the board then thinking of a red fruit) - Primacy → remembering things better at the start of a list - Recency → remembering things better at the end of a list Memory Processes - Stages: 1. Encoding → getting info into memory (pay attention, use mnemonics) 2. Storage → maintaining it overtime - Engrams → physical basis of memory, structural and functional changes in our CNS as a result of experience - Consolidation → affixes engrams into long-term memory  - Schemas → mental models 3. Retrieval → accessing it when you need it - Recall → generating remembered info on your own - Recognition → selecting previously remembered info from options - Retrieval cues → hints making it easier to remember - Encoding to retrieval: - Context dependant memory → best when physical or external contexts b/w encoding and retrieval are similar - State dependant memory → match in mental context b/w both - Mood dependant memory → match in mood Biological Basis of Memory - Engram → physical changes in our brain as a result of experience (memory traces) - Karl Lashley → tried to find where engrams are stored - Trained rats to run in mazes - Created lesions in brain → found no memory problems arose - Showed engrams are distributed throughout the brain - Donald Hebb → neurons activated at the same time become associated - Long-term potentiation → strengthening connections b/w two neurons after activated - Long-term depression → weakening connections b/w neurons after low or no activation Language - Communication system relying on patterns and rules of symbols - Language is arbitrary → symbols don’t always reflect the object - Language levels: - Phonemes → smallest units of sounds we can make (th, s, ure) - Related to sound and pronunciation - Morphemes → smallest units of meaning combining phonemes (re-, -ing) - Related to meaning and structure - Syntax → sentence and grammar rules (subject-verb-object) - Extralinguistic information → non-verbal and context cues adding meaning to language (I am refusing this date needs context for meaning) - Dialect → language variation within geographical context Language development - Opposing views: - B.F. Skinner → language learned through operant conditioning - Noam Chomsky → language is biologically determined, and that we’re already wired in the brain to learn languages from birth - Stages: - Prenatal → preference of mother’s voice - Babbling state (6 months) → producing and repeating single syllabi - Comprehension vs production → children comprehend basic language rules before being able to actually produce them - First words (1 year-15 months) → can produce and repeat single syllable words w/ meaning (up, cookie) - Telegraphic speech (2 years) → simple sentences and overgeneralization of sentence rules (want up, goed there) - Conversations (4-6 years) → complex understanding of sentences and vocab Judgement - Cognitive Economy → resources allocated to thinking and decision making (after exhausting decision-making throughout the day, your brain would be tired for a later exam) - Heuristics → mental shortcuts to simplify decisions - Issues are oversimplification (climbing a mountain straight up vs finding a better route) - Representativeness heuristic → judgement based on how representative something is of base rates or our prior stereotypes - Availability heuristic → estimating the likelihood of something happening based on how available the info is (thinking sharks are more dangerous than cows) - Hindsight bias → overestimating how well we could’ve predicted something after it happened (thinking you knew the killer before the movie ended) - Modes of Thinking (Tversky and Kahneman): - System 1 → fast, automatic, like our brains autopilot (tying your shoe, making a face of disgust when someone’s a bitch) - System 2 → slow, analytical, slow and controlled (looking for someone, forcing yourself to be calm and collected) Problem Solving - Framing → how presentation of information affects decisions (marketing) - Obstacles: - Distraction by irrelevant information → leads to failure to focus - Mental sets → getting caught up in a particular problem solving strategy - Functional fixedness → difficulting perceiving an object being used for something other than what it’s used for - Strategies: - Trial and error - Algorithm → step-by-step problem solving (more systematic than above) - Heuristic → general solution, rule of thumb - Divide and conquer - Insight → sudden recognition of solution, the “A-ha!” moment - Means and analysis → choosing and modifying actions to a series of smaller steps to meet final goal (more planning than divide and conquer)