EXAM #1 - CHAPTER 1, 2, 4 Flashcards
how do we describe psych?
through content and frameworks
it is the study of mental processes and behaviours
how is psychological research organized?
disciplines and methods
structuralism?
There is a structure to the mind
a philosophical approach that studies the structure of conscious experience.
functionalism?
the way things function, why do we have these capacities?
a philosophical approach that considers how mental processes function to adapt to changing environments.
psychoanalysis
Offered different techniques to engage clientele
* Psychodynamic
o Focuses in quantifying emotions
Using our understanding of assessment
Emotion is a consideration of all scientists.
* It is cognitive, biological, psychanalytic, etc.
Behaviourism
A framework of what do we look at in an experiment
o Its about action and output
Action means motor output
disciplines in psychology?
basic –> applied –> disorder
o Biopsychology health clinical/ counselling
o Cognitive forensic clinical/ counselling
o Social industrial clinical/ counselling
o Development educational clinical/ counselling
o Personality sports clinical/ counselling
process of deriving information?
anecdotal
- describe
- measure
–> catalogue
basic
- empirical
- theoretical
–> understand and predict
applied
- normative
–> apply and control
how is psychological research carried out?
ethical considerations
- humans
- animals
the scientific method is used to do the research
how do we measure behaviour?
statistics
- descriptive
- inferential
ethical considerations?
informed consent
protect from harm & discomfort
confidentiality
debriefing
inducements
informed consent?
procedure?
freedoms?
asking a question
form a hypothesis
o Understandable & Voluntary
Procedure
- Purpose
- Foreseeable consequences (risk, discomfort, adverse effects)
- Benefits to research
- Limits to confidentiality
o Freedoms
- Right to withdraw
- Incentives
- Contact information
protect from harm and discomfort
design study
o Professional & scientific responsibilities
o Risk
- Physical
- Discomfort, pain, injury, illness
- Psychological
- Negative affective states, loss of self-esteem, and altered behavior
- Social
- Embarrassment, loss of respect, labeling, diminishing opportunities for powers
- Economic
- Payments, financial loss, damages to employability.
- Legal
- Criminal or civil liability
confidentiality
collect data
o Privacy
- Data
* Anonymity: results are disassociated from p’s identity
o Identifiers for withdrawal
* Legal exceptions
o Mandatory reporting laws
Abuse, neglect, crime
* Aggregate (averaged)
* Encryption
o Dep variable
* Destruction/ deletion of records
o Dep variable
inducements
report findings
o Compensations
- Benefits
* Reimbursements
o Costs, “out of pocket” expenses
Travel/ parking, child-care
* Renumeration
o Time
Appropriateness of population
* Honorariums
o Appreciation
Non-controversial
- Participation, not procedure or level of risk!
* Avoid undue influence
debriefing
analyze data from conclusions
o Education
- Disclosure
* Purpose in lay-language
* How/ why the measures were chosen
* How/ why the deception was needed/ used
- Transparency
* Contact information
* An opportunity to withdraw their data
* Offer further/ follow-up information
o Resources for distress
- Medical, counselling
* Assess state of mind
what are animal considerations in animal research?
who oversees them?
Canadian council for animal care (CCAC)
- Replacement
- Reduction of number of animals used
- Refinement of procedures
what is replacement?
- Finding alternatives to using animals
o Information already gained (reviews and meta-analysis)
o Physical and chemical analysis techniques
o Mathematical and computer models
o In vitro systems
o Human volunteers and human-oriented epidemiological approaches
o Invertebrates with less neuro-physiological development
reduction of number of animals used?
- Minimizing impact
o Obtain sufficient data to answer a research question
o Maximizing the information obtained per animal
Sharing animals, tissue, or data, possibly across different studies
o Limiting the number of experiments conducted
refinement of procedures
- Minimize pain/ discomfort
o Modifications to husbandry or experimental procedures
o Welfare-enhancing changes made to the animals living area
Environmental enrichment
o Providing extra care during complex studies
Vets, and animal care staff
scientific method?
a process of inquiry
Ask a question form hypothesis design a study collect data analyze data form conclusions report findings
form a hypothesis?
inquiry
- Predictive
- Deductive
o Based on previous research - Specific and defined
o Operationalization: describing a concept as a measurable construct (observable behaviour) - Testable
o Occam’s razor: parsimony
Falsifiability – simple theories are more easily disproven
design a study
inquiry
- Paradigm
- Design
o Generalizability
o Controlled
Quan (measure)
* Laboratory – describe behaviour in terms of parameters
Qual (categorize)
* Survey – explain behaviour in terms of motivations
o Natural
Quan (measure)
* Field study – describe situation in terms of actions
Qual (categorize)
* Case study – explain patterns of behaviour as tendencies
collect data?
inquiry
- Paradigm
- Design
- Generalizability
- Behaviour
- Operationalization
o Indep variable
Factor that is manipulated
o Dep varia
Outcome that is measured
o 2 DV descriptive (relationship) correlations
o IV/ DV predictive (cause & effect) inferential
analyze data from conclusions
o Measurement
- Paradigm
* Descriptive research
o Correlations: nature of the relationship
Describe how factors vary together
Predictive
Direction
* Positive: go together
* Negative: go opposite
Strength
* (-1) <r< (+1)
variability
a number that represents the most common difference around CT (i.e. “give or take”)
range
o Difference between max and min scores
standard deviation
o Average difference from the CT
measuring thoughts, feelings, and beliefs
Behaviour
o Thoughts, feelings, beliefs
Self-report:
* Interview, questionnaire, dairies
Limitation
* Subjective (bias)
measuring action/ ability?
o Action/ ability
Behavioral observation:
* Objective coding of movement
Limitation
* Reductionist
measuring event, situation, phenomenon?
o Event, situation, phenomenon
Documentation:
* Medical, school, lab records
Limitation:
* Interpretation
between groups
Expose each groups to one condition (e.g. different participants in control and treatment groups)
* Easiest to perform
within groups (repeated measures)
Expose a single group to two different conditions
(e.g. same participants in control and treatment groups)
* Reduces extraneous variables
factorial design
Manipulate more than one IV (e.g. several conditions)
* Allows for study of interactions
multivariate design
Measure more than one DV (e.g. several measures)
* More detailed understanding of IV
pros and cons of experimental research
- Advantage
- Can imply causation
- allows researchers precise control over variables and to identify cause and effect
- Disadvantage
o Low generalizability
High levels of control
Artificial situations
Ethical or practical issues - confounding variables
pros and cons of descriptive research?
Advantage
* Exploratory: describe or discover relationships between variables
* Can be used when manipulation is not possible
- easier to collect data
- good for developing early ideas
Disadvantage
* little or no control over variables
- researcher and participant biases
- Cannot imply causation
experimental research?
Correlation does not prove causation
* Experimental research
o Cause1-and-effect2
1why it happens
2what happens
Vary one condition between 2 groups
* Control group: no manipulation
* Experimental group: undergoes a “treatment”
Two similar groups (e.g. random assignment) –> manipulate IV for 1 group (e.g. experimental)
–> resulting differences between the groups due to change in IV
how do we measure behaviour?
statistics
- normal distribution
rules of probability
representative
homogenous (less variable)
sample size
multifaceted?
operationalization of abilities and boundaries
- domain specificity (modularity)
* Cognitions follow their own trajectory
- Quan vs. qual. Difference
- Continuous (“improvement”) discrete (“insight”) change
o Limitation: describing process or timing
neonatal abilities
maturation
motor
neurogenesis
the process by which new neutrons are developed in the brain
motor abilities
reflex
actions
reflex motor ability
Innate abilities (movement)
* Evolutionary perspective: facilitate survival
o Sucking – feeding
o Moro – startle/ defense response
o Tonic neck – prepare reaching/ grasping, crawling, or avoiding mobility
actions motor ability
Organized (intentional) sequences of actions
* Rely on cerebellum (physiology)
o Occur sequentially, increasing in complexity
o Conditioning
cognitive development
Piagets theory
o Development went through a series of “hard stages”
Age-related, one way
* Related more to experimental constraint
* Development happened one way, as opposed to a series of stages in development
* Explained cognitive development using the screaming crying baby example
cognitive development process
Schema
* Template to organize information
Assimilation
* Apply template to new information
Accommodation
* Change template in light of new information
sensory motor
ages?
0-2yoa
Object performance, symbolic thought
* Objects exist although they are not in immediate sensory perception
pre-operational
ages?
2-7yoa
Lack of conservation and reversibility,
* Video of that little girl who counted the 5 coins in two different rows, but later also believed one row was longer when infact a coin was removed, but the row was only stretched out.
Centration (focus on one salient aspect)
Egocentrism
concrete operational
ages?
7-11yoa
Thinking logically about concrete events (categorization), mathematical transformations (achieve conservation and reversibility)
* Video of child distinguishing the amount of juice in a glass.
o One glass was tall and skinny, and the other was short and stubby. Although they both had the same amount of juice, the tall, skinny glass appeared to have more juice
formal operational
ages?
12+ yoa
Abstract reasoning
* Using a premise to guide a conclusion.
o Ex. a feather can break a glass
Can a feather break a glass?
* Yes.
criticisms of the theory of mind?
- An individual’s beliefs about their own and other’s mental states
o False belief test – “social conservation/ reversibility”
Develops by 5y, before Concrete Operational
Ex. show a child a box of candles, and take out the candles inside it. - What did you think was inside?
o 4yoa: I thought there would be crayons inside.
o 5yoa: I already knew there were candles inside
“social child” Vygotsky
o Focuses on how children learn socially
Scaffolding: environmental support
* Relies on mimicry and instruction
o Hints, tutoring/ mentoring, examples
Zone of proximal development: the intellectual level at which a child would be challenged, but also complete a task
Artifact: an object that has a cultural meaning
* We learn to think by internalizing meaning
o Language
bi-directional influences alter development
connectionism
nature vs nurture
connectionism?
cognitions affect each other
nature vs nurture
limitation?
intrinsic vs extrinsic, genes vs. experience
reductionism and dualism
prenatal development - epigenetics?
nature vs nurture
- interactions affect boundary
sensory (experience)
- learning is the strenghening of neural connections
- activation of receptors in-utero lead to behavioural preferences
prenatal development - nurture?
chemical
- rely on availability of chemical
- omega-3 promotes coordination, increase IQ, weight
- hormones related to sex and gender identity
- teratogens : toxic substances that disrupt chemical processes resulting in developmental deficiencies
- Virus: zika, rubella
- Bacteria: toxoplasmosis
- Drugs: alcohol
- Neurotransmi-tters: cortisol
neonatal abilities - maturation?
onset or inhibition of (motor) abilities that do not require experience (i.e. learning)
maturation experiments methods
habituation (detection)
- decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation
preference
- increase in time engaged with stimulus
- objective (quantifiable) output
- proxy for perception
discrimination - sensory neonatal ability
the ability to perceive differences
Visual: face like stimuli, high contrast patterns
- Visual Cliff
- decreased heart rate at 2 months when placed on “deep side”
- 6 months will not crawl “over edge”.
Auditory: phonemes (i.e. “ ba and pa)
- Parentese (motherese): higher pitched slower speech
- mother’s voice, music & stories presented in utero
- Auditory more developed than visual because of experience!
social development - attachment
harlow experiments
- contact comfort disproves mother cupboard theory
emotional needs (not physical needs) facilitate attachment
- human evidence points to cognition/intelligence as well
“strange situation”
secure - high proximity, and low anxiety
anxious - high proximity, high anxiety
avoidant - low proximity, low anxiety
disorganized - high anxiety, low proximity
attachment and interpersonal relations
childhood –> adulthood
secure –> secure
resistant –> preoccupied
disorganized –> dismissing
attachment
1)Correlated with object permanence
- Cognition affecting interpersonal abilities
2) Attachment is variable across people/caregivers
3) Critical period (1 2y)
- Debate: cultural relativism and perception are not generally
measured as outcomes
4) Synchrony and Attachment do not always correlate
(e.g. overlearned schemas)
- Synchrony is the tone/quality of a (moment of) social exchange
5) Experience (culture) greatly affect child’s
interpretation/reaction to situation
neuro-plasticity: refinement of connections?
synaptogenesis vs. synaptic pruning
parenting styles
authoritarian
authoritative
neglectful
permissive
authoritarian
anxious
unhappy
low self-esteem
authoritative
upbeat
confident
high self-esteem
neglectful
impulsive
antisocial
delayed
permissive
impulsive
disobedient
rebellious
reciprocal relationships
temperament
situational (environmental factors)
age/ cognition of child
moral reasoning - hard stage theory
social cognitive perspective
- problem: no explanation of timing or process, and does not coincide with other stages
egoism (blind, and instrumental) –> social (relationships, and systems ) –> principle (contractual, and universal)
moral reasoning:
pre-conventional
preconventional (0-9yoa)
stage 1: punishment and obedience - avoid pain and no POV
stage 2: cost/ benefit - get reward and understands other’s goals/ preferences
moral reasoning: conventional
adolescence and adults
stage 3: good boy, nice girl - gain acceptance, avoid disapproval (persons), and recognizes intentions
stage 4: law and order - follow rules, avoid censure (authority), and recognizes abstract normative systems.