L1: Introduction to Psych Flashcards
what is psychology (explain psyche and logos)
psyche = life, spirit, soul or mind
logos = study or explanation
scientific study (logos) of the psyche
what are the two main features of the mind?
thoughts = internal mental processes
behaviours = overt actions (easier to study)
what is the chain of research in psyche?
initial theory ->
create different conditions (controlled and test) ->
collect data on a behaviour by observing that behaviour under the conditions ->
interpret data ->
refine theory to help us understand, predict, and change behaviour
what is individual difference?
when someone experiences a condition differently than how someone equal to them experiences it.
what is the common goal of research?
to determine the cause of something. stimulus (thing that triggers) causes a response (thought or behaviour)
what causes behaviour?
STIMULI
- there are a lot of stimuli in an environment that could cause a behaviour or trigger a response
- some stimuli are more meaningful and some aren’t based on an environment (depends on context)
- effective stimuli varies between people (individual difference)
Must test the importance of stimulus to learn more about it
what can we do with psychology (3 things and give examples of each)?
- Identify, predict and treat maladaptive behaviors
- e.g. cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression
- Facilitate behaviors
- e.g. sports psychology for boosting
athletic performance
-Predict population events
* e.g. behavioral economics to predict consumer behavior in different cases
what is pure psychology?
Causations!!
- Involve exploring mechanism, often through experiments
- Deal with abstract concepts
- lab settings
what is applied psychology?
Treatments!!
- find out what predicts, changes or manages behavior (often in a therapeutic context)
- Deal with more concrete outcomes (often therapeutic outcomes) that impact our day-to-day lives
- real world settings
- direct implications for the real world
what does the biological level of analysis deal with? (3 things)
molecules
neurochemical levels
brain structure
Evaluate ‘why humans eat?’ through the biological perspective
- effect in the body (3 changes in levels)
- stimuli effect
- brain areas (and example w obese rat)
- genes
- Hunger causes physiological changes
- such as changes in blood sugar levels, leptin levels and insulin levels (first two increase, insulin decreases)
- When we eat or store adipose (fat) the levels of these signaling compounds change
- The sight, smell or thought of food can trigger a biological cascade which prepares us for eating (cephalic phase) and increases hunger
- Specific brain areas (e.g. hypothalamus) are involved in eating and energy metabolism
- if a brain lesion is made, will power cannot override ones inability to do something.
- ex. Obese rat has a ventromedial hypothalamic lesion (damage), causing excessive eating even if they arent hungry.
- Genes are also involved
- Eating disorders (e.g. obesity) are heritable + run in families
explain environment and biology connection
both are meangful depending on the situation
what is positive incentive value
do things because it is fun, not because you need to
what does the psychological level of analysis deal with?
Mental or neurological level
- deals with thoughts, feelings, and emotions
explain the psychological level of analysis milkshake example with kids (hunger ex.)
ex. crum et al. 2011: two shakes had similar contents but diff names. the more appetizing sounding name had more hunger hormone responses.
thus the perceptions, emotions, and thoughts of food might matter in creating a psychological response
what does the social culture level of analysis deal with?
social or behavioural level
involves relating to others and personal relationships
explain social culture level of analysis with food (planned routines, marketing, and environment)
Planned routines:
If we always eat dinner at 6 pm, our hunger levels may be conditioned to rise and we get hungry
Influences of marketing:
social cultural influences of marketing may make us more attracted to certain foods causing us to eat it.
* Light foods (veggies, fruits) often marketed to women
* Heartier foods (meats + potatoes) marketed to men
* Across many cultures, women eat more ‘light’ foods
* Does marketing create this behavior or reinforce it?
Environment:
Social facilitation: of eating is well known – eat more with others than alone. depends on the familiarity we have with other people. thus the social environment can cause us to eat!
what does multifactorial mean
many factors effect, each generally has a small effect
- some factors are stronger than others
- all factors interact
why is understanding behaviour tough (4)
multifactorial, individual differences, cultural differences, different interactions with people.
what does it mean to be an effective scientist
Being an effective scientist may sometimes require acting against human nature
what are biases and fallacies
what are some bias and errors of thinking
We are all subject to biases (preferences in judgment) and fallacies (errors in logical reasoning)
- these factors are applied unconsciously
bias and erros:
- confirmation bias
- illusion of casuality
- + others
what is confirmation bias and what is science’s view on it. (1st bias and error of thinking)
ex. macbeth effect
- Overvaluing information that agrees with our beliefs and undervaluing information that does not
- Common and very difficult to avoid
- ex. thoughts on climate change, vaccination and drug use
- science = consider all facts
- what matters is what the majority says (majority of opinions)
- meta-analysis = study of a bunch of studies
- we should consider all sources, using an approach such as a meta-analysis
- ex. macbeth effect: 3 studies support the idea but 11 do not. confirmation bias would decline the idea of the macbeth effect
explain the illusion of causality and science’s view (2nd bias and error of thinking)
we are hardwired to link relationships between items.
- ie. dark clouds and rain or happiness is associated with a certain restaurant
- this is the illusion of causality
Science views this to be an illusion as there are many spurious relationships.
ie. margarine and divorce in maine are heavily correlated, but butter doesn’t cause divorce.
correlation does not equal causation!!!!!!!
- humans also erroneously infer patterns from small, non-repersentatives amounts of data that are actually random
- ie. the marketing going up and depleting
explain apophenia (3rd bias)
its when we see faces in random objects
we make mistakes because we have a pre-existing bias that we needed historically
- humans need each other for survival so thats why we see these faces everywhere
since we have this need we make some errors in thinking
explain Argument from Antiquity fallacy
This idea has been around forever, so it must be true
explain Appeal to Authority fallacy
Someone important said this, so it must be true
explain Appeal to Ignorance fallacy
This idea has not been refuted yet, so it must be true
explain Bandwagon fallacy
everyone else is doing something so it must be right. Everyone else cannot be wrong!
explain Either/or fallacy (Dichotomous/Binary thinking)
No appreciation of gradients, degrees or complexity
explain ‘not me’ fallacy
i dont make mistakes, others do
why do we cling to certain beliefs? (4)
- Beliefs are not necessarily rational and are not always based on evidence or direct experience
- Belief in some way contributes to a psychological state which we want to maintain
- Terror management theory: proposes that we manage the fear of death by looking for systems with meaning
- Changing our mind is costly
- Embarrassment, exile or other punishments are possible
what are the 7 main perspectives (schools of thought) in psychology
- PS. BC SFG P
- Philosophy (not discussed much here)
- Psychophysics (predates Psychology)
- Structuralism (regarded as the first field)
- Functionalism
- Gestalt Psychology
- Psychoanalysis
- Behaviorism
- Cognitivism
- Social Psychology
what is structuralism?
- the study of elements in psychological experiences (ex. color, smell, reading)
- if you study the experiences, you could identify its part
how do you study structualism? and key contributors
uses analytic introspection to identify elements
- verbal report on the same experience by many subjects
- consist themes in verbal reports = identification of elements
- example studying the color red and its associated emotions
- key contributors: wundt and titchener
pros and cons of structuralism
pros
- Gave credibility to psychology as a science
- Identified key differences between sensation + perception
-Suggested unconscious processes underlying behavior
cons
-Introspection highly variable, hard to interpret
-Examined memory of experiences rather than the experiences themselves
-Behaviors connected to unconscious processes could not be examined (e.g. arithmetic)
what is functionalism? and key contributors
idea that behaviors serve adaptive functions that increase fitness (ie Darwin’s evolutionary theory–focus on the purpose of mental processes, rather than their contents)
- key contributor: william james
pros and cons of functionalism
pros
- Led to the development of many new theories
- Basis for evolutionary psychology
- Transformed public perspective on behaviors; ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are a matter of context
cons
- Theoretical and not experimental
- Difficult to test empirically, hard to falsify
- Mostly descriptive and not predictive (true of most fields, especially true here)
explain gestalt psychology and key contributor
- Emphasized that ‘the whole is greater than the sum of the parts’ (contrasts with structuralism which focuses on the parts)
- Primarily focused on visual perception
- must considers parts as a whole
- ie a spoon of sugar tastes different alone than in a cake
- key contributor = Wertheimer
pros and cons of gestalt psych
pros
- Led us to reconsider the reductionist approach
(the ‘whole’ always matters)
- Identified key perceptual principles
cons
- Did not address mechanism in any way
- Focused exhaustively on visual perception only
- Descriptive rather than predictive
explain psychoanalysis and key contributors
- Study unconscious thoughts, feelings and memories
- Emphasis on the importance of childhood experiences
- Utilized talk therapy and dream analysis; many subjects were psychiatric patients
- Key contributors: Freud and Jung
pros and cons of psychoanalysis
pros
- Popularized psychology
- Revolutionized mental health care (psychotherapy, particularly insight therapies)
- Highlighted the importance of unconscious processing
cons
- Fixation on case studies (generalization concerns)
- Many theories unfalsifiable, many theories ultimately not supported by data
- Overvalued environmental influences in certain cases
what is behavioursim and the key contributors
- Focused on behavior as it was believed that the mind could not be easily examined (it was a ‘black box’)
- stimulus -> black box (mental processes - not needed to measure) -> response (activity)
- key contributors = Watson and Skinner
explain reinforcement and punishment
for behaviourism
positive reinforcement: add pleasant stimulus to increase behaviour
negative reinforcement: remove aversive stimulus to increase behaviour
positive punishment: add aversive stimulus to decrease behaviour
negative punishment: remove pleasant stimulus to decrease behavior
positive = add
negative = remove
reinforcement = increase behaviour
punishment = decrease behaviour
pros and cons of behaviourism
pros
- High level of experimental rigor
- Identified key learning principles still in use today
- Strong predictive power in certain contexts
cons
- Overvalued environmental influences
- Undervalued the importance of interpretation and mental processes
- Could not explain certain behaviors adequately (e.g. language)
explain cognitivism and key contributors
- Study mental processes (such as perception, thinking, memory, and judgment)
- Innovative experimental designs and approaches (such as neuroimaging)
- Key contributors: Piaget and Neisser
explain pros and cons of congnitivsm
pros
- Deconstructed thought processes for the first time
- When paired with neuroscience, identified key neural networks underlying behavior
cons
- Field cohesion sometimes lacking; researchers can disagree
- Neuroimaging data and its interpretation increasingly scrutinized
explain social and cultural psychology and key contributors
- Study how social situations and culture influence decision making
- Key contributors: Heider, Schachter and Festinger
explain the index of individualism and collectivism (social and cultural psychology)
- This index reflects the degree to which people in a society are integrated into groups
- High index of individualism = individualistic society
- Low index of individualism = collectivist society
- I:
○ Take care of immediate family and self
○ Right to privacy
○ Say what’s on your mind is healthy
○ Classified as individuals
○ Democracy - C:
○ Take care of clan
○ Belong in the group
○ Say what will maintain group harmony
○ Classified as in and out groups- Communism
- I:
- Western societies tend towards individualism whereas Eastern societies tend towards collectivism
- Individualism and collectivism may influence many behaviors (family attitudes, facial expressions, prosocial behaviors + even creativity)
- Again, we must avoid stereotypes and focus on what is scientifically proven
- Findings are often controversial
explain pros and cons of social and cultural psychology
pros
- Characterized influences of social context on behavior
- Helped us break down barriers between groups
cons
- Low effect sizes are common, poor predictive power
- Some effects difficult to replicate
