Chapters 1-5 Flashcards
Psychology
The scientific study of behaviour and the factors that influence it
Functionalism
Focus on the function and significance of behaviour. How does behaviour help us adapt?
Primarily biological
Pyschodyanmic
Focus on the unconscious experience. Look for unresolved conflict. Important of personality.
Behaviourism
Opposite to psychodynamic. Impossible to measure the mind, focus on what we can see - behaviour.
Primarily environmental.
Eg) Tabula rasa - john locke
Gestalt Tradition
Cognitive - how people think and remember
Environmental and biological.
Humanistic Tradition
Against psychodynamic and behavioural. Focus on values, choices, free will, potential/personal growth.
Environmental and biological
Eg) Carl Rogers
Rene Descartes
Philosopher and mathematician.
Dualist - mind and body separate
Studied the reflex arc
Gustav Fechner
Physicist and mathematician.
Father of psychophysics
Believed sensations can be measured.
Wilhelm Wundt
Founder of modern psychology
First psych lab in leipzig
Structuralist
William James
Psychologist at Harvard
Published first psych textbook
Helped women in the field
Mary Calkins
Allowed to go to Harvard but no degree
First women president of APA
Sigmund Frued
Father of psychoanalysis
Medical doctor that believed physical disorders could have a psychological base
“The Unconsciousness” - still parts that we don’t know about ourselves
Carl Jung
Studied under Frued
Thought he was far fetched on his sexual thoughts of personality
Responsible for the “Collective Unconsciousness” - there is an unconscious that carries on from time to time
Carl Rogers
Humanist
The “self” and unconditional positive regard
Calls his patients “clients”
Ivan Pavlov
Won a nobel prize for salivation
Classical conditioning - associations drive learning
BF Skinner
Behaviourist
Operant conditioning - association between stimulus and response
Learning controlled by consequences
Behaviour modification through rewards and punishment
Jean Piaget
Cognitive studies
Children do not think like adults - stages
Karl Lashley
Biology of learning and memory
Searched for the “engram” - single location of memory but then decided it was throughout the cortex
Used lesioning
Wilder Penfield
Montreal neurosurgeon
Mapped entire cortex in humans through electrical stimulation
Wolfgang Kohler
Gestalt psychologist
Believes that learning can occur though insight (don’t have to watch someone, can just figure it out)
Kurt Levin
Social psychologist who followed gestalt tradition
Behaviour occurs in context
Different types of psychology
Clinical Social Cognitive Educational Personality School Organizational Experimental Counselling Development
Confirmation Bias
Once our beliefs are established, we may fail to test them further
False Start
When one researcher discovers something but then no other researchers can duplicate the findings
4 Goals of Psychology
To describe behaviour
To explain/understand behaviour
To predict behaviour
To control/influence behaviour
Dualism
The belief that the mind is a spiritual entity not subject to physical laws of the body
Proposed by Descartes - he thought the connection b/w mind and body was the pineal gland
Mind is in the brain but it is not material
Monosim
The mind and body are one with no separate entities
Followers: Thomas Hobbes and John Locke
Thomas Hobbes
Believed you could study the mind through physical processes
John Locke
Believed observation is more valid than reason - AKA empiricism
Cognitive Perspective
The nature of the mind and how mental processes influence behaviour
Sociocultural Perspective
Humans behaviours are affected by their culture
Socialization
The process by which culture is transmitted to new members and internalized
Individualism vs. Collectivism
Individualism - emphasis on personal goals
Collectivism - individual goals are less important than those of the group
Biological Perspective
How the brain processes and other bodily functions regulate behaviour
Evolutionary Psychology
How evolution shaped modern human behaviour
Through Darwin’s Natural Selection
2 Examples of sociobiology
Complex social behaviours passed through evolution
1) moms more invested in reproduction because of offspring
2) Genetic survival is more important than physical - altruism
Structuralism vs Functionalism
Structuralism - focused on the basic components of consciousness
Functionalism - focused on the purpose of consciousness
Depression
When a feeling of sadness persists and affects daily life. More common in females.
1) Biological - related to biochemical factors
2) Psychological - More common in people who have a negative way to look at things
3) Environmental - environment with less rewards can make people depressed
4 Steps of the Scientific Method
1) Identify the problem and formulate hypothesis
2) Design and execute the experiement
3) Determine the “truth”
4) Communicate the results
Hypothesis
Tentative statement about the relation between 2 or more events
Observational Methods
Collecting information about behaviour without trying to change it
Survey Methods
Collecting information about behaviour through surveys and questionnaires
Case Study Methods
In depth study of an individual, group or event
Pros: able to study closely
Con: cannot determine causal relationship, may not generalize to other situations
Correlational Methods
Determining the degree of relationship between two or more variables
Correlation does NOT mean causation
Experimental Methods
Manipulating one or more variables to determine the effect on some behaviour
Between groups vs within group
Between groups: each group is assigned a protocol
Within groups: each group performs each protocol
Four ways to measure aggression
1) Self report
2) Verbal attack
3) Physical attack (shocks)
4) “Safe” attack
Bystander Effect
The more bystanders, the less likely anyone is do anything because of diffusion of responsibility
Theory
A set of formal statements that explain how and why certain events are related to one another. Broader than a hypothesis
Characteristics of a good theory
Incorporates existing facts
It is testable
Predictions supported by new research
Law of parsimony
Operational Definition
A researcher defines his variables and the context of them so that they cannot be misinterpreted.
Overt Behaviour
How any errors a person makes
Unobstrusive Measurement
Made so that the humans don’t behave differently when they know they are being observed
Dorsal vs Ventral Stream of Brain
Dorsal - runs along the upper surfaces of the cortex
Ventral - runs along the bottom surface
Naturalistic Observation
Researcher observes behaviour as it occurs in a natural setting and attempts to avoid influence sit
Habituation
The researcher may delay their data collection until participants have habituated to the observers presence.
Representative Sampling
Reflects the important characteristics of the population
Better with larger samples
Bi-Directionality Problem
Eg) ice cream causes smiles or smiles cause ice cream
Internal Validity
The degree to which an experiment supports clear causal conclusions
Confounding Variables
Two variables are intertwined and we cannot determine which one has influenced the dependent variable
Placebo Effect
The patient’s symptoms will improve solely because they belief the drug will help them
Lowers internal validity
Experimenter Expectancy
Lowers the internal validity, minimize with double blind study
External Validity
The degree to which the results of a study can be generalized to other populations, settings, conditions - found through multiple experiements
ESP
Extrasensory Perception - mental telepathy
What groups make up the tri council policy for ethical conduct in Canada?
CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC
ERBs
Ethical review boards - at university
CPA said that psychologists must do:
1) Protect and promote the welfare of participants
2) Avoid doing harm
3) Not carry out any studies unless probable benefit is greater than risk
4) Provide informed consent
5) Take all reasonable steps to ensure that consent is not given under coercion
6) Ensure privacy and confidentiality
3 Types of Neuron Shapes
Bipolar - cell body in middle with axons on either side
Unipolar - only one pole coming off the cell body
Multipolar - cell body has multiple branches coming off it
Sensory neurons are (afferent/efferent) and are (dorsal/ventral)
Sensory - afferent and dorsal
Resting Membrane Potential
Threshold Potential
Depolarization
RMP: -70mV
Treshold: -55
Depolarization: +30
Norepinephrine
Inhib + excit
Arousal and eatin
Acetylcholine
Inhib + excit
Memory, motor movement
Dopamine (DA)
Inhib + excit
Voluntary movement and arousal
Serotonin (5-HT)
Inhib + excit
Sleep and thermoregulation
GABA
Inhibitory
Motor behaviour
Cocaine
Drug
Stimulates release and prevents reuptake of DA
Curare
Drug
Blocks Ach receptors
Black Widow Venom
Stimulates release of Ach - heart explodes
Botulism Toxin
Blocks release of Ach
Nictotine
Drug
Duplicates effects of Ach
Caffeine
Blocks adenosine receptors - important for sleep
Corpus Callosum
Connects the two hemispheres
Pineal Gland
Master gland; controls hormonal excretions
Angiogram
Shows the vessels - use a dye to enhance
CAT Scan
Computerized axial topography
Xrays from 360 pieced together
PET Scan
Positron emission tomography
Inject brain with glucose and it takes it up in the areas being activated
MRI
Magnetic resonance imaging
Expose the brain to a strong magnetic field and reconstruct what it looks like
Apraxia
Inability to perform smooth actions
Agnosia
Inability to interpret sensory information
Aphasia
Problems with speech - Broca’s or Wernicke’s
Characteristics of the left hemisphere
Language, reading, logical thought, happiness
Characteristics of the right hemisphere
Nonverbal
Space, form synthesis, emotion
Alcohol (agonist/antagonist)
Agonist of GABA and antagonist of glutamate
Caffeine (agonist/antagonist)
Antagonist for adenosine
Nicotine (agonist/antagonist)
Agonist for Ach
Amphetamines
Agonist of DA and norepinephrine - stimulant
Glutamate
Excitatory
Important for learning and memory
GABA
Inhibitory
Control anxiety and motor control
Huntington’s Disease
Loss of GABA causes tremors and loss of motor control as well as personality changes
Ach
Excitatory at muscular and memory synapses
Undersupply - Alzheimer’s
Oversupply - muscle contractions
Norepinephrine
Undersupply - depression
Oversupply - stress and panic disorders
Serotonin
Involved in mood
Linked to depression, sleeping, eating disorders
Dopamine
Undersupply - Parkinson’s
Oversupply - Schizophrenia
Endorphin
Undersupply - hypersensitive to pain
Oversupply - insensitivity to pain
Somatic NS
Voluntary
2 Parts of Autonomic NS
PNS and SNS
Brain can be tested via:
1) Neuropsychological tests: verbal and nonverbal behaviour affected by damage
2) Destruction and stimulation
3) Electrical recording (EEG)
4) Brain imaging (CAT, PET, MRI)
ERP
Event related potential - changes in an EEG that accompany abnormal events
Brain’s Gatekeeper
Reticular Formation
Alerts the higher centers that messages are coming and then either blocks them or allows them to go through
Important for consciousness - without it sensory messages do not register in conscious awareness
Problems with mirror neurons are thought to cause
Autism spectrum disorders
Prefrontal Cortex
Responsible for executive functions: goal setting, judgement, planning, etc
Lateralization
Relatively greater localization of a function in one hemisphere or the other
Amygdala
Involved in fear and discrimination of objects, emotions (limbic)
Medulla
Important in vital body functions and reflexes
Hippocampus
Involved in memory
Pituitary Gland
Regulates homeostasis and stimulates other endocrine glands
Pons
Bridge carries nerve impulses between higher and lower centres; regulates sleep and dreams
Cerebellum
AKA little brain Muscular movement (timing) coordination and learning and memory
Thalamus
Important for sensory processing and relay station (only sense that doenst go through is smell)
Hypothalamus
Controls drives: sexual behaviour, aggression, eating, stress
What is the gene for intelligence?
Reaction time - AKA genes that code for myelinated axons
Critical Period
The time interval in which environmental exposure is critical
Can you infer the genotype from the phenotype?
NO
List some dominate traits
Brown eye color Dark hair Dimples Curly hair Unattached ear lobes Farsightedness
Polygenetics
When multiple genes effect a phenotype
Equation for heritability
H^2 = variance due to genes/total variance
0 - environment, 1 - genetics
Galton
Noticed that relatives of intelligent people were also intelligent
Thought of intelligence as unitary - mental quickness
Developed the correlation coefficient -
h (correlation between twins)
Sir Cyril Burt
Worked with twins reared apart
Reported it was approaching 1 but he made up the data
Bouchard
Also performed twin studies and found identical twins, reared apart were 0.72
IQ can be 72% attributed to genetic factors
How many genes are there?
25,000
PKU
Recessive Chromosome 12 1 in 10,000 Lack of enzyme that converts phenylalanine to tyrosine Builds up and we get mental retardation Can be controlled with diet
Tay Sachs Disease
Recessive Chromosome 15 1 in 3,600 Lack enzyme that breaks down FA Normal development then blind, deaf, unable to swallow Fatal by age 4 1 in 30 French Canadians have it
Huntington’s Disease
Dominent
Chromosome 4
1 in 16,000
Onset at 35-45
Initially clumsy and forgetful then deteriorate into brain atrophy and lack of muscle control
Terminal in 10 to 20 years
Because it is dominant, the offspring have 50% chance of getting it
List some sex linked disorders
Red-green colour blind
Baldness
Hemophilia
Possibilities of sex chromosome disorders
XXX, X, XXy, Xyy (last two are viable)
Down Syndrome
Chromosome disorder
Trisomy 21
Marked by: NS abnormality, mild to moderate retardation, shorter life, physical appearance
Due to accumulation of amyloid
It is not hereditary - faulty meiotic division
Based on mothers age (over 40)
Adaptation
Changing to meet environmental needs
Proximal vs distal (evolutionary)
Genetic Drift
Allele frequency in a population changes over time due to chance
i.e. Founder effect
Correlate Structure
If a certain trait is beneficial, other traits might adapt to make that trait possible
i.e. opposing thumb is positive, so hand size decreased in order for thumb to touch finger
Freuds Theory of Aggression
Eros (life force) vs thanatos (death force)
Eventually thanatos over powers and you kill yourself
So you redirect it as aggression
Lorenz’s Hydraulic Model
Aggressive instincts build up over time until triggered by external stimulus (releasers/sign stimuli)
Your reaction is called a Fixed Action Pattern
Allele
Alternate forms of genes
Epigenetics
Mechanisms that involve activating or silencing specific genes
i.e. methylation = muting
Two types of genetic engineering
Recombinant DNA Procedures: take out a gene and replace with another
Knockout Procedure: gene made nonfunctional
Heritability Coefficient
The degree to which variation of a characteristic can be attributed to genetic factors (0-1)
Concordance
The likelihood that two people share a particular characteristic
Reaction Range
Genetically influenced limits that environmental forces can effect an organism
Five Factor Model of Personality
Openness Conscientiousness Extraversion-intraversion Agreeableness Neuroticism
Domain Specific Adaptations
Adaptations designed to solve a particular problem
Evolutionary Personality Theory
Attempts to account for personality traits in terms of evolutionary history
Parental Investment
Based on evolutionary theory
The gender with greater investment in producing offspring will be more selective in choosing a mate
Polygyny
Male mates with multiple females
Polyandry
Female mates with multiple males
Monogamy
Parents stay together, at least until young are self-sufficient
Polygynandry
A mating system in which all members of a group mate with all other members
Women prefer men who:
Are 3.5 years older
Who have symmetrical faces (signs of health)
Who show interest in helping raise offpsring
Men prefer women who:
Are young and full of energy
Cooperation
One individual helps another but in doing so gains some advantage
Altruism
One individual helps another but in doing so accrues some cost
Kin Selection Theory
Organisms are most likely to help others with whom they share the most genes - AKA offspring and genetic relatives
Theory of Reciprocal Altrusim
AKA long term cooperation
One individual helps another but the helps will be reciprocated at some point in the future
Why does aggression occur?
Animals are competing for resources
2 ways NOT to think about behaviour genetics and evolutionary psychology?
Genetic determinism - genes have invariant and unavoidable effects
Social darwinism - distortion that become the more fit are more successful, that those at the top of the social ladder must be most fit of all
Psychophysics
Relation between physical stimulus and psychological response
Threshold
Value of a stimulus characteristic that produces a response
Absolute threshold
Lower limit
The lowest intensity that a stimulus can be detected correctly 50% of the time
Difference threshold
Amount of change for JND
The lowest difference between stimuli that can be detected correctly 50% of the time
Weber’s Law
Size of difference threshold relative to physical intensity of test is constant
Equation for weber’s law
C = delta I/I
The smaller the fraction, the greater the sensitivity
Fechner’s Law
Sensation increases with the logarithm of intensity
Steven’s Power Law
Similar to Fechners but to the power of intensity
More predictive across a variety of sensations
Subliminal stimulus
Stimulus is received by senses but not perceived consciously
How long does a stimuli have to be for a human to perceive it?
200ms
4 components of a sensory system
Accessory structures (eyeball)
Transduction
Coding
Interaction (physiological and psychological)
The axons of what retina cell form the optic nerve?
The ganglion cells
Horizontal cell is between
Amacrine cell is between
Horizontal between receptor and bipolar
Amacrine between bipolar and ganglion
Both inhibitory and serve to enhance the image
Duplex Theory of Vision
More than one receptor to help transduce energy into neural signal
AKA rods and cones
Cones are sensitive to red, green and blue and opponent process occur at the ganglion cells and beyond
Rods
Operate at low intensity
Sensitive to brightness
Monochrome
If you want to see a dim object you can’t look directly at it because then light focuses on the fovea where there are no rods
Cones
Operature at higher intensities
Full colour
Insensitive for brightness
How do rods and cones transduce?
Visual photopigments break down in the presence of light and generate an AP
Photopigment of rods
rhodopsin (red)
Photopigments of cones
Chlorolabe (green)
Cyanolabe (blue
Erythrolabe (red)
Dark adaptation
bring a person into a dark room, bleach the retina with a large light and measure how long it takes to become sensitive to light again
If you just want to test the cones then look directly at the light when you bleach
Rod-cone break
When rods become more sensitive than the cones during dark adaptation (10 minutes in)
Spectral sensitivity
Tests how different cones react to different coloured lights
Lateral Inhibition
Maximum response - Occurs when you project light on the “on center” of a ganglion cell
Minimum response - Occurs when you project light on the “off surround” of a ganglion cell
How does this occur?
Horizontal cells
Max Wertheimer
One of the fathers of gestalt approach
Principles of Grouping
Gestalt psychology: Similarity Proximity Closure Connectedness Continuity
Subjective Contour
When you combine the principles of grouping
Retinal or binocular desparity
Brain combine an image from each eye to make 2D into 3D
Monocular cues for depth perception
1) Relative size
2) Linear perspective
3) Overlap/interposition
4) Texture gradient
5) Clarity
6) Motion parallax
Size Constancy
Develop after monocular cues in first couple months
Rescale the size of objects so that they remain constant at any distance
(cars from an airplane look like ants but we know their true size)
Feature/constructionist Analysis
Bottom up approach
Synaesthesia
Mixing of senses
Thought to occur because the connections from infancy are never pruned and so there is spilling over of the senses
Stages of Sensory Perception
1) stimulus received by receptors
2) transduction
3) feature detectors analyze features
4) features reconstructed into neural representation
5) neural representation is compared with brain info
6) matching and then recognition
Sensation
sense organs translate environmental stimuli into nerve impulses
Perception
Giving a stimulus meaning or making sense of it
Signal Detection Theory
Theory that stimulus detection is not based on a fixed absolute threshold but is influenced by rewards, punishments, expectations and motivations
Range of uncertainty instead of a fixed point on a scale
Everyone sets their own decision criterion (how certain they must be before they say they detect it)
Increasing the rewards for hits or the costs for misses does what to sitmulus detection?
Makes it more sensitive
AKA lower detection threshold
Sensory Adaptation
Diminishing sensitivity to an unchanging stimulus with passing time because sensory neurons habituate
Good: frees our senses to pick up alternative info
What does the lens do in the eye?
Reverses the image from right to left and top to bottom
Myopia
Nearsightedness
Eyeball is too long and the image focuses before the retina
Hyperopia
Farsightedness
The lens can’t thicken enough so the image falls behind the retina
Aging causes the eyeball to…
shorten
Many rods per
Bipolar cell
Visual Acuity
Ability to see fine detail
Greatest when image falls on fovea because each cone has its own bipolar cell
3 Theories of Vision
Trichromatic Theory
Opponent Process Theory
Dual Process Theory
Trichromatic Theory
Three types of colour receptors in the retina
Combination of activation results in any colour in the visible spectrum
If all three cones are equally activated = white
Problem: doesn’t explain why people with red-green colour blindness can perceive yellow
Opponent Process Theory
Retina contains 3 sets of colour receptors: red/green, blue/yellow, black/white
The opponent processes that result can produce any colour
2 Types of Colour Blindness
Dichromat: colour blind in only one system (red/green or yellow/blue)
Monochromat: sensitive to only white and black
(Normal is trichromat)
Feature Detectors
Sensory neurons that respond to particular features of a stimulus (shape, angle, color)
Visual Association Cortex
Cortical areas in the occipital, temporal and parietal lobes that analyze visual stimuli and compare it to stored knowledge to determine a meaning
2 Characteristics of Sound Waves
Frequency (Hz) - pitch
Amplitude (decibels) - loudness
Cochlea
Coil shaped structure in the inner ear that contains the cilia receptors for sound on it’s basilar and tectorial membranes in the organ of corti
Coding for loudness
1) Rate of firing
2) Specific hair cells
Coding for pitch
One below 4000Hz and one above
1) Frequency theory: frequency determines pitch at low frequencies
2) Place theory: which portion of the basilar membrane where the fluid wave peaks
Sound Localization
Occurs through differences in time and intensity of sound between the two ears
Conduction Deafness
Hearing loss caused by damage to the mechnical system that codncuts sound waves to the cochlea
Nerve Deafness
Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlear receptors or the auditory nerve
(ie loud music)
Tastes
Sweet, salty, sour, bitter
Enhanced by umami (found in protein)
Can each taste bud respond to all the tastes?
No only to one or two
Tactile senses
Pressure (touch)
Pain
Hot
Cold
Pain receptors are not found in:
brain, hair, nails, non-living parts of teeth, bones
Gate Control Theory
Theory that the experience of pain results from opening and closing of gating mechanisms in the NS
ie) rubbing a bruise
Kinesthesis
Body sense that provides feedback about position in space and movement of body parts
Vestibular Sense
Gives us orientation
Movement of fluid in the semicircular canals stimulates hair cells and sends signals to the brain
Bottom Up Processing
Perceptual processing that begins with the analysis of individual parts of a stimulus and works up to a unified perception
Top Down Processing
Perceptual processing in which existing knowledge is applied to make sense of incoming stimulation
Attention
Process of selection
Focusing on certain stimuli and filtering out other stimuli
Shadowing
An experimental procedure used in attention research
Person receives two or more messages and is asked to focus on one of them and then cannot remember the other one when asked
Humans are able to shift attention back and forth rapidly between two messages and fill in the gaps
Inattentional Blindness
Failure of unattended stimuli to register in consciousness
Perceptual Schema
Each person has a schema based on experience and it affects the way we perceive things
Perceptual Set
A readiness to perceive stimuli in a particular way
Shape Constancy
Allows us to recognize people/objects from different angles
Brightness Constancy
The relative brightness of objects remains the same under different conditions of illumination (flashlight in dark vs day time)
Stroboscopic Movement
Illusory movement produced when light is briefly flashed in darkness and then a few ms later another light is flashed nearby
Illusions
Incorrect perceptions based on constancies that do not apply to the stimuli in question
