Final Exam (left to learn) Flashcards
research validity
- internal: “can we rule out alternative explanations?”
- external: can the sample generalize the population of interest?
- construct: accurately measures what its supposed to
measuring correlation
r: higher |r|= higher correlation
- can use r to predict a future score
p-value: probability we would get a difference between the two groups (lower p-value = higher statistical significance of different observations)
*low is good
if p < .05 reject null hypothesis
if p > .05 fail to reject null hypothesis
ethical principles of experimental groups
- autonomy: informed consent (not coercion/ $, especially for vulnerable populations)
- beneficence: evaluation on risks/ benefits to participants and potential benefits to society
- justice: participants who bear the burden of research should most benefit from the outcome of research
evolutionary explanations of behavior
proximate explanations: immediate cause of behavior (within lifetime of individual)
- (ex. culture teaches men and women different attitudes towards casual sex)
ultimate explanations: long-term causes of behavior
(ex. women have greater reproductive burden so are more selective)
naturalistic fallacy
logical fallacy that something must be good if its “natural”
action potential voltage
resting membrane potential: -70 mV
voltage threshold: -55 mV
altering neurotransmitters with drugs
- antagonist: decreases natural neurotransmitters
- agonist: boost to increase the impact of neurotransmitters
invasive techniques to study the brain
- lesions (accidental or intentional): damage part of brain
- single-cell electrophysiology: hear neurons firing
- electrical stimulation: (for epilepsy, can temporarily deactivate parts of the brain)
non-invasive techniques to study the brain
- electroencephalogram (EEG): electrodes outside the scalp
- functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): to find where things are happening in the brain (ex. oxygenated blood, different magnetic processes)
- transcranial magnetic stimulation: magnetic coils outside skull to stimulate parts of brain
brain orientation
(in a side view with the brain stem on the right)
left: anterior rostral
top: superior dorsal
right: posterior caudal
bottom: inferior ventral
side view: lateral view
back view: medial view
brain slicing techniques
horizontal: axial
vertical, width: coronal
vertical, height: saggital
brain stem
- midbrain: nerve pathway of cerebral hemispheres, auditory and visual reflex center
- pons: “bridge” where fibers horizontally across brain, connects the cerebellum to the brain
- medulla: connects spinal cord and brain, controls blood pressure and major reflexes
cerebellum
coordinates voluntary muscle movements (balance and posture)
limbic system
- thalamus: receives sensory information (except taste and smell) sends information to appropriate area
- hypothalamus: motivated behavior (fight, flee, feed, romance)
- amygdala: motivation and emotion, aggression, and emotional memories (controls response to these stimuli)
- hippocampus: center of emotion, memory, and autonomic nervous system
cerebral cortex
(huge surface area, crinkled up)
- frontal lobe: motor control, higher order cognition, self-control, personality, language
- parietal lobe: body sensation (touch, pressure, temperature, pain)
- temporal lobe: smell, hearing (auditory cortex), memory (hippocampus), language (wernicke’s area)
- occipital lobe: vision
- insular lobe: taste (primary taste cortex), internal awareness of organs
broca’s area
frontal lobe (left)
- disrupts speech (speak in pieces)
wernicke’s area
temporal lobe
- disrupts comprehension of speech (speak incoherently)
split-brain surgery
corpus callosum has been severed in two
- assuming this person has language localized in their left hemisphere, they will be unable to verbally describe information presented in their left visual field
selectivity of attention and perception
- inattentional blindness (“moonwalking bear demonstration”)
- change blindness (“color changing card trick” demonstration)
face identity aftereffects
wil see the image minus the image you’ve been staring at (ex. staring at a picture of Harry Styles and it switches to a mix between Harry Styles and Chris Pine, will just see Chris Pine)
perceptual set
what we perceive based on previous experiences (such as seeing a glass half empty or half full)
afterimage (color aftereffect)
will see opposite colors when you blink after staring at something for a long time
(ex. red –> green, blue –> yellow)
motion aftereffect
see opposite of motion after staring at it for a long time (ex. waterfall illusion)
sight
rods: dark
cones: light
reinforcement types
- fixed-interval: reinforcement after a set amount of time
- variable-interval: response reinforced based on average amount of time elapsed
- fixed-ratio: set number of behaviors before reward
- **variable-ratio: reinforces average number of behavior
reinforcement schedules
- continuous: behavior rewarded every time an action is performed
- *partial: behavior rewarded only sometimes
evaluating reinforcement schedule
partial ratio schedule most effective
types of learning
- superstitious learning: behaviors that developed after coincidental reinforcement began and more during intervals between reinforcement (brain trying to create a meaningful pattern)
- latent learning: can occur when no behavior is reinforced without incentive stimulus/ need to learn. (mindlessly create a map of surroundings)
- insight learning: sometimes learn by developing mental concept of how things work (w/o trial and error)
- observational learning: imitation
- vicarious learning: learn from the experiences of others
learned taste aversion (garcia effect)
not all associations are easily learnable
anterograde amnesia & retrograde amnesia
- anterograde: impairs forming new/ explicit declarative memories (HM case study, stuck in his 10 y/o mind)
- retrograde: can’t retrieve old memories, but can form new long-term memories
types of memory
- procedural: “muscle memory”
- episodic: recall past events.
- sensory: mental representation of how environments look/ feel
- semantic: to remember meanings of words/ facts
boosting memory
- deep elaboration: connecting new things to things already known.
- organizational encoding: organize in mind
- maintenance rehearsal: repeating of information to memorize it
memory processes
sensory memory –
- echoic memory: sensory memory from hearing
- iconic memory: sensory memory from vision
heuristics
- representative heuristic: shortcut for judging the likelihood of things with how well they represent some category.
- availability heuristic: a strategy for deciding how frequent/ probable something is based on how easily it comes to mind.
- affect heuristic: tendency to use the effect we associate with various objects and events to make judgments and decisions (gut feeling).
Worfian hypothesis (linguistic determinism hypothesis)
different languages show different ways of understanding the world and shapes our thinking
- only partly true, language doesn’t define how we think but guides thinking that are suited to the cultures we live in
theories of intelligence
(-) Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences: theorized there are 8 types of intelligences (E, savant syndrome – presence of unusual talents in people with low levels of general intelligence) —- factor analysis test shows they’re all related to each other
(+) general intelligence (g-factor) general mental ability required for any mental test
theories of emotion
- common-sense view
stimulus–>emotional experience–>physiological response–>report - james-lange theory
stimulus–>physiological response–>emotional experience–>report - cannon-bard theory
stimulus–>physiological response & emotional experience –> report - **schacter-singer theory (two-factor theory of emotion)
stimulus–>physiological response–>cognitive interpretation–>emotional experience–>report
situation emotional regulation
(control emotions before they happen)
1. situation selection - choose situation based on whether they generate desirable/ undesirable change (ex. change route to avoid them)
2. situation modification - once in a situation, modify it in a way to change its emotional impact (ex. if at party, hang out with best friend)
attention emotional regulation
attentional deployment - can’t change situation, but can change the attentional focus to change the emotional impact (ex. focus on bad music not the ex)
appraisal emotional regulation
cognitive change - already attending emotion-causing situation but can change how you think about the situation (ex. they’re talking to you, you think “he doesn’t look that good today”)
response emotional regulation
(dealing with emotions in the moment)
response modulation - directly impact behavior and bodily response (ex. smile through it)
cognitive reappraisal
form of cognitive change that involves changing the meaning of a situation (changing the view of a stimulus can change the physiological response)
(Glee karaoke study) said “I’m anxious,” performed worse than saying “I’m excited”
performance in groups
- social facilitation: the mere presence of others can boost arousal to facilitate the dominant response (most likely behavior response to a task)
- social loafing: the tendency for people to expend less effort on a task when doing it with others vs. alone
moebius syndrome study
showed that the ability to mimic others’ faces isn’t necessary to recognize others’ emotions
tendency to help
- immediate benefits
- prosociality in cooperation/ collaboration can bring immediate benefits - kin selection
- prosociality preserves genes - direct reciprocity
- prosociality earns us future favors from the recipient - indirect reciprocity
- prosociality earns us future factors from the group
- obligate collaborative foraging (collab to get food, people who help get to eat, people who don’t starve)
conformity
*think of elevator ex.
- informational social influence: conformity to others’ actions/ beliefs helps us behave correctly and gain accurate understanding of the world in an ambiguous situation
- normative social influence: conform to gain approval/ avoid disapproval.
norms
- injunctive norms: (observation of other’s behavior) behaviors one is expected to follow and expect others to follow in a given situation.
- descriptive norms: (inference of other’s approval) typical patterns of behavior and an expectation to adhere to those patterns.
long-term study designs
- longitudinal design: tracks participants at different times and sees the difference between
- cross-sectional design: compares participants of different ages to each other at one point in time
- sequential design: tracks multiple age groups across multiple time points
Piaget’s stages of development
- sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)
- sensory & motor schemas (physical interactions with objects)
- still developing: symbolic representation (ex. language, object permanence - understanding objects continue to exist even if they are out of sight [hide & seek video ex.]) - preoperational stage (2-6 years)
- symbolic schemas (language, imagination)
- still developing: the ability to manage multiple schemas simultaneously (conservation - certain physical properties [volume, mass, number, etc.] stay consistent despite physical transformations) - concrete operational (6-11 years)
- ability to flexibly manage and manipulate schema
- ability to categorize in many different ways using rules, logic
- still developing: abstract, hypothetical, system reasoning - formal operational (12+ years)
- use of abstract, hypothetical, systematic thought (complex play, ex. D&D)
Erikson’s theory of lifespan development
- trust vs. mistrust (infancy, birth to age 2)
- can I trust the world? - autonomy vs. shame and doubt (early childhood, 2-4 years)
- can I have control over myself? (ex. potty trained) - initiative vs. guilt (early school, 4-6 years)
- can I make things happen effectively? - industry vs. inferiority (school age, 6-12 years)
- do I measure up? (social comparison, ex. am I a good artist?) - identity vs. role confusion (adolescence, 12-early 20s)
- do I know who I am? (ex. clothing, friends, political identity, etc.) - intimacy vs. isolation (young adulthood, early 20s-40s)
- can I look and be loved in return? - generativity vs. stagnation (maturity, 40s-60s)
- am I creating something that will outlast me? (mid-life crisis: not done things in life wished would have done) - integrity vs. despair (old age, 60s-beyond)
- did I have the life I really wanted? (look back and feel satisfied –> integrity)
remembering Eriksons 8 stages
- is my sister safe?
- can I tie my shoe?
- can I read The Tale of Desperaux?
- Am I as good in volleyball as everyone else?
- Do I try to be friends with Katie and all them?
- Sister: do I feel loved by him?
- Papa: do my kids have the resources to succeed without me?
- Dadi: do I wish I saw the stars when I still could?
key ideas of Erikson’s theory
- social world very influential on stages
- each stages involves a psychological crisis, when someone emerges stronger or weaker
- failure to resolve crisis can set up for failure later in life
theories of self-esteem
- sociometer theory: judgment of self-worth to assess the degree to we’ll be accepted by society (ex. self-esteem would be low if felt excluded by friends)
- terror management theory: self-esteem helps people cope with the terror of mortality and death
personality changes
- agreeableness – increases with age (more emotionally stable)
- open-mindedness – increases in adulthood, decreases as older adults (less cognitive flexibility with age)
- extraversion – social vitality (how socially active) stays the same, social dominance (assertive/ dominant) increases till middle age then stays the same after
therapy measures
- clinical interview: asks the client to describe their problems, open-ended or structured clinical interview (questions pertinent to diagnostic criteria)
- self-report measures: fixed set of questions for patients to answer
- projective tests: client is asked to respond to ambiguous stimuli and the psychologist gathers meaning (ex. responding to photos, interpreting ink blots, etc.)
autism spectrum disorder
- persistent deficits in social communication
- restricted/ repetitive patterns of interest/ behavior
action-oriented treatments
Cognitive approach (thinking processes)
- challenges beliefs and errors
- (Gloria’s ex. with Ellis, targeting her belief of confronting someone rejecting her)
Behavioral approach (faulty learning)
1. exposure therapy (classical conditioning)
2. token economies (operant conditioning – reward and punishes to modify behavior)
3. modeling (observational learning)
insight-oriented treatment
- psychodynamic approach
- originally from Freud
- talking cure
- techniques (free association, dream analysis, resistance, transference, interpretation) - humanistic approach
- Carl Rogers (client-centered therapy)
- genuineness, unconditional (+) regard, accurate empathetic understanding
biological treatment
- pharmacotherapy (drug therapy)
- electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
- transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
- can be used with depression to stimulate parts of the frontal lobe & rewire the brain - deep brain stimulation
- implanting electrodes deep in brain (last resort) severe depression
third-wave therapies
the same thing as before except doesn’t try to modify thoughts, but tries to change the hold thoughts have on us
- acceptance and commitment therapy: less psychological rigidity and more psychological flexibility (clients can pursue goal despite unwanted feelings)
- mindfulness-based stress reduction: be present, unsubstantiated/ fleeting nature of painful feelings (clients can pursue goals despite irrational thought feelings of anxiety)
what psychodynamic and humanistic approaches have in common
focus on self-awareness and insight as critical to healing
the eudaemonic perspective
happiness is meaning (happiness is an overall sense of one’s life as satisfying and meaningful)
1. self-acceptance
- liking who you are
2. personal growth
- growing new experiences
3. purpose in life
- having goals
4. autonomy
- self-determination
5. environmental mastery
- competently manage life (ex. pay bills)
6. positive relationship with others
- close relationship with other people
nucleus accumbens
part of brain region associated with processing reward
