PSYCHOLOGY 1301 – Final Review
• The science of behavior and mental processes
• Derived from the words psyche, meaning “mind” and logos, meaning “study”
• Private experiences that constitute our inner lives
• A relatively stable constellation of psychological characteristics and behavioral patterns that account for our individuality and consistency over time
• The Study of Psychology
• What is psychology, how do we study it, whatever.
• Disciplines of Psychology
Don't forget about the age old question of What is the definition of premises?
Clinical Psychology: We also discuss several other topics like What is the most endearing early gesture?
• Research Methods
Scientists almost always take an empirical approach to answering a question. Variable:
• Correlation continued…
• Research Methods: Experimental Method
• Experimental Group: If you want to learn more check out What are the 4 main functions of the kidney?
• Control Group:
• Random Assignment:
• Operationalized Definition:
• SingleBlind Study V. DoubleBlind Study:
• Theory v. Hypothesis:
• Informed Consent: agreement to participate in a study following disclosure of information about the purposes/nature/risks/benefits
• The Dreaded Biology Section
• Yup, it is on the final…
• The Structure of the Neuron
• Neurons cont… If you want to learn more check out Should you restrict calories during intermittent fasting?
• ________________ is the ELECTRICAL signal that travels down the cell • The signal travels from the _______________to the ____________ • ________________ is the CHEMICAL signal that travels from one cell to another
• Glial cells:
• __________________, _______________, and ______________ are the three main types of neurons
• There are some neurons that are trained to fire/respond only to _____________
• The Brain
• The 4 lobes of the brain and their general function
• _____Frontal – decision making and reasoning
• _________Temporal________:___Auditory_____________________ ______________________________
• _______Occipital __________:
• Parietal: Language and math
• The 2 cortexes/hemispheres and their specializations
• _______Left__________: ___________Language,
• _______Right__________:__________________________________ ____________________
• The Important Brain Regions
• HINDBRAIN If you want to learn more check out What usually happens to velocity points?
• Medulla: Regulates heartbeat and respiration
• Pons: Regulates wakefulness and sleep
• Reticular formation: A web formation of neurons
• Thalamus: Relay station for sorting and integrating sensory input. • Hypothalamus: Regulates and keeps the body in homeostasis • Limbic system: Emotional processing motivated behavior and learning and memory functioning.
• Amygdala: The emotional “sweet spot”
• Hippocampus: Involved in memories Don't forget about the age old question of How did the enlightenment influence american political thought?
• Absolute/Difference threshold, the eyes and all that stuff….. • Sensation: The process by which we receive, transform and process stimuli from the outside world to create sensory experiences
• Absolute Threshold: smallest intensity of stimulus that someone can appreciate.
• Difference Threshold: How much change you will actually observe. (smallest amount of change)
• Just Noticeable Difference: The principle that the amount of change within a stimulus needed to detect a difference is given by a constant ratio or fraction, called the constant, of the stimulus.
• Sensory Adaptation: Sensory systems become less sensitive to unchanging stimuli over time
• The Eyes
• Photoreceptor: Parts of the eye that take in light; Rods/cones, receptor for the eye that sits on the retina and takes in information. (
• 2 types of photoreceptors: Rods & Cones
• Cones are responsible for color vision (hue)
• Rods are more sensitive to light/allow us to see in dim light (brightness)
• Rods are responsible for peripheral vision
• Cones allow us to see fine details of objects in bright light • Blind spot: An area within the retina in which the optic nerve leaves the eye and contains no photoreceptor cells.
• Feature detectors: Neurons that are sensitive to certain features of the environment (ex:
• Classical Conditioning: Learning by Association
• Unconditioned stimuli (CS): A stimulus that elicits an unlearned response • Ex: dog’s food
• Unconditioned response (CR): An unlearned response to a stimulus • Ex: Salivation or something such as blinking
• Conditioned stimuli (CS): A previously neutral stimulus that comes to elicit a conditioned response after it has been paired with an unconditioned stimulus (originally neutral stimulus)
• An example would be the tone.
• Conditioned response (CR): An acquired would be the tone. • Salivation to a tone.
• The unconditioned response becomes the conditioned response • Adverse conditioning:
• Some type of bad response that will make it to where you do not want to complete the bad behavior again.
• Operant Conditioning: Learning by Consequences
• Positive Reinforcement
• The strengthening of a response through the introduction of a stimulus after the response occurs.
• Negative Reinforcment
• The strengthening of a response through the removal of a stimulus after the response occurs.
• Schedules of Reinforcement
• Continuous is a system of dispensing a reinforcement each time a response is produced.
• Partial is which only a portion of responses is reinforced. • Interval Schedule: The amount of time that has elapsed
• Ratio Schedule: Fixed number of correct responses it requires for conditioning to occur.
• Fixed Ratio
• Variable Ratio
• Fixed Interval
• Variable Interval: Pop quiz
• Operant Conditioning: Learning by Consequences
• Positive Involved adding an uncomfortable or unfavorable outcome that decreases behavior.
• Negative – taking away a positive event/stimulus which decreased the undesirable response.
• The three stages, memory techniques and more.
• Converting information into a form usable in memory
• Retaining information
• Bringing to mind information that has been stored.
• Memory: the system that allows us to retain information and bring it to mind • Encoding, storage, and retireval are the three processes of memory • Sensory holds memory for the shortest amount of time (about a fraction of second to three seconds. )
• STM holds memory for a moderate amount of time (30 seconds) • Capacity: 7 +/ 2
• Longterm memory holds memory for the longest amount of time (ideally, a life time)
• Capacity: unlimited
• Episodic v. Semantic memory:
• Episodic – Also known as autobiographical memory
• Recall of personal facts
• Semantic – Memory of facts
• Facts themselves that are separate from you.
• Procedural – how to do things
• Mnemonics: Memory techniques
• Chunking: The process of enhancing retention of a large amount of information by breaking it down into smaller, more easily recalled chunks. • Rehearsal: The process of extending retention of information held in STM by consciously repeating information.
• Serial Position Effect: the tendency to recall the first and last items in a list, better than those in the middle.
• Primacy effect: things you remember first are better remembered. • Recency effect: Tendency to recall items better when they are learned last.
• Human Development
• Attachment: the enduring emotional bond that infants and older children form with their caregivers
• Mary Ainsworth and the Strange Situation Experiment
• Secure type, Insecureavoidant type, insecureresistant type, disorganized/disoriented are the four main attachment styles • Harry Harlow and the monkey experiments
• Newborn monkeys were separated from their mothers within hours of birth and raised in cages in which various objects served as substitute mothers
• Monkeys chose the mother covered in a soft, terrycloth , versus the wire mother that gave them food/water
• Comfort was a clear factor in determining attachment
• Authoritative style: Set reasonable limits but are not overly controlling – explain reasons behind decisions (most positive outcomes)
• Authoritarian style: Rigid and overly controlling – demand uncharacteristic obedience – tend to produce children who are distrustful, moody and inhibited.
• Permissive style: “Anything goes” attitude – children tend to be impulsive and lack impulse control.
• Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development
• Believed that our personality is shaped by how we deal with different psychosocial crises
• Stage 1 (Birth to 1): Trust v. Mistrust – when they learn they can trust their caregivers and their environment.
• Stage 2 (13): Autonomy v. shame/doubt
• If initial needs are met, then it will build a sense of independence and selfcontrol. Or they will feel shame/doubt when they don’t choose the thing their parent will choose.
• Stage 3 (36): Initiative v. Guilt
• The baby will learn to initiate actions and carry them out. Either learn that they will respond the way they want to, or they wil be guilted into feeling the way their parents feel.
• Stage 4 (612): Industry v. Inferiority
• Begin to learn to make changes to the world around or that they are incapable to make changes and begin to feel inferior.
• Stage 5 (1321): Identity versus Role Diffusion
• Stage 6 (2139): Intimacy versus Isolation
• Stage 7 (4065): Generativity versus stagnation
• Stage 8 (65+): Integrity versus Despair
• Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
• Birth – 2 years: Sensorimotor Stage
• Object permanence: The recognition that objects continue to exist even if they have disappeared from sight.
27 years: Preoperational Stage
• Egocentrism: The tendency to see the world only from one’s own perspective.
• Irreversibility: Inability to reverse the direction of a sequence of events to their starting point.
o 711 years: Concrete Operational Stage
o 12+ years: Formal Operational Stage
• Formal operations: The level of full cognitive maturity in Piaget’s theory, characterized by the ability to think in abstract terms.
• More things Piaget said that we should know…
• Schemas: A mental framework for understanding or acting on the environment.
• Assimilation: To Piaget, the process of incorporating new objects or situations into existing schemas.
• Accommodation: The process of altering existing schemas or creating new ones to deal with objects or experiences that don’t fit readily intoexisting schemas.
• How we measure it, what Freud thinks, and other important things… • Measuring personality
• Projective tests:
• Ie: Rorschach test and Thematic Apperception Test
• Inaccuracy/Subjectivity is a negative of projective tests
• Objective tests:
• Ie: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Disorder
• Biased Answers – could skew own answers to make it socially acceptable. is a negative of objective tests
• Projective involves more subjective scoring
• Objective involves more objective scoring
• Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development
• Oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital.
• More things Freud taught us
• Fixation: When you are stuck at one of the phases.
• Oral – sucking, biting and mouthing.
• Anal – Retention and release of bodily waste
• Phallic – Masturbation
• Latency – Unknown
• Genital – Sexual interests expressed in mature sexual relationships. • Defense Mechanism: A strategy that an individual creates to avoid something traumatic.
• Repression: pushing down traumatic memories
• Displacement: A worker slams a door after his boss chews him out; has the idea of shifting the blame onto someone else.
• Projection: sexually driven person misinterprets other people’s friendly approaches as sexual advances; Pushing one’s unacceptable ideas or feelings about themselves onto someone else.
• Sublimation: person channels aggressive impulses into competitive sports.
• Id, Ego, and Superego are the three parts of personality
• Social Psychology
• How to persuade people and more…
• Impression Formation: The process by which we are able to form an opinion or impression of another person. | Way that we form impressions/opinions about others.
• Dispositional causes: You blame things on yourself or internal causes. / Who they are as a person or their disposition.
• Situational causes: You blame things on those that are external causes. • Fundamental Attribution Error: People tend to attribute behavior of other people to their personality or internal causes and not with situational factors. • Stereotyping: The assumption that all members of a group has the same characteristics. (ingroup/outgroup)
• Prejudice v. Discrimination
• Prejudice is a preconceived attitude, usually unfavorable, that is formed without critical thought or evaluation of the facts.
• Discrimination is unfair or biased treatment of people based on group membership.
• Persuasion techniques rely on people’s need for conformity to themselves (how they previously felt) as well as to society at large.
• Lowball: A compliance technique based on obtaining a person’s initial agreement to purchase an item at a lower price before revealing hidden costs that raise the ultimate price
• BaitandSwitch: Based on baiting a person by making an unrealistically attractive offer and then replacing it with a less attractive offer.
• FootintheDoor: Based on securing compliance with a smaller request as a prelude to making a larger request.
• DoorintheFace: Refusal of a large, unreasonable request is followed by a smaller more reasonable offer.
• OCD, ASPD, Bipolar, Anxiety, BPD, Dissociative disorders and Schizophrenia
• OCD – obsessive compulsive disorder characterized by repeated occurrence of obsessions and/or compulsions.
• AntiSocial Personality Disorder – A pattern of antisocial and irresponsible behavior; callous treatment of others, and lack of remorse for wrong doing.
• Borderline Personality Disorder – unstable moods and stormy relationships with others; unstable selfimage; lack of impulse control. • Bipolar Disorder – formerly known as manic depression, this is a type of mood disorder characterized by mood swings from extreme elation (mania) to severe depression.
• Anxiety – An emotional state of uneasiness or distress associated often with worry or apprehension about the future. These are the most common psychological disorders affecting about 1 in 5 US adults.
• Dissociative Disorders – These are a class of disorders involving changes in consciousness, memory, or selfidentity. Involve problems with memory or changes in consciousness or selfidentity that can fracture the continuity or wholeness of the individual’s personality.
• Schizophrenia – This is a disorder that most closely corresponds to popular concepts of insanity, madness or lunacy. Schizophrenia is a
puzzling and disabling disorder that fills the mind with distorted perceptions, false ideas, and loosely connected thoughts.
• KNOW THIS MODEL! LOVE THIS MODEL!
• DiathesisStress Model – Proposes that psychological disorders arise through a combination of biological/genetic predispositions and environmental precursors.
• Diathesis (vulnerability) + Stress = Psychological
• What are the three Ds of mental illness?
• Deviance, disturbance, dysfunction
• Anxiety: an emotional state of uneasiness or distress associated with worry or apprehension about the future
• Disorders in this section are characterized by excessive or inappropriate worry
Phobias: Irrational or excessive fear of something.
• 3 types:
• Social Anxiety Disorder: A type of anxiety that involves the excessive fear of social situations.
• Specific Phobia: Have phobic reactions involving specific situations or objects
• Agoraphobia: Have an excessive, irrational fear of being in public places.
Panic Disorder: You get panic attacks.
Panic Attack: Repeated episodes of sheer terror.
• ObsessiveCompulsive Disorder
• No longer in the anxiety related section
• Now in the Compulsions section
• Obsession: nagging, intrusive thoughts that the individual feels unable to control.
• Compulsion: Repetitive behaviors or rituals that the individuals feel compelled to perform again and again.
• Dissociative Disorders
• These individuals that suffer from dissociative disorders may show multiple personalities, have amnesia that cannot be explained by any other physical causes, or even assume a completely new self-identity. •
• Dissociative Identity Disorder
• The personality is often split into two or more distinct alternate personalities residing within the same individual.
• This is a type of dissociative disorder characterized by the appearance of multiple personalities in the same individual.
• Dissociative Fugue
• One or more episodes of amnesia in which an individual cannot recall some or all of his or her past. Either the loss of one’s identity or the formation of a new identity may occur with sudden, unexpected, purposeful travel away from.
• Personality Disorder: People with personality disorders show excessively rigid and maladaptive patterns of behavior that make it difficult for them to adjust to the demands they face in their daily lives and to form long-term, satisfying relationships.
• Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)
• Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
• Splitting: considered a symptom of BPD – considered a defense mechanism where in the world is viewed in blackandwhite • Bipolar Disorder:
• formerly known as manic depression, this is a type of mood disorder characterized by mood swings from extreme elation (mania) to severe depression.
• Depressive Episode: Periods of low feelings
• Manic Episode: Extreme elation
a Schizophrenia: The mind is stripped of the intimate connections among thoughts, perceptions, and feelings.
i Individuals with this disorder may giggle in the face of disaster, hear or see things that are not physically there, or maintain beliefs that are firmly held but patently false.
• Positive symptoms – add to it.
• Hallucinations: perceptions that occur in the absence of external stimuli
• Delusions: represent many different themes but the most common are persecution.
• Negative symptoms: