Lecture 1 Flashcards
Psychometrics
we can (and should) objectively measure behavior
Behaviorism
everything we do is learned, we are born as “blank slates” and we can be reprogrammed (for example for better mental health)
Psychoanalysis
our actions are driven by unconscious desires, if we reveal these they lose their power. Many of these come from suppressed childhood memories.
Evolutionary psychology
some of these “unconscious desires” are in fact genetically programmed, because psychological traits are heritable and they were affected by evolution
Humanistic psychology
everybody is different, individual approaches to patients are necessary
Francis Galton (1822-1911)
polymath, measured everything, invented/discovered meteorological maps, the standard deviation, the heritability of intelligence and the dog whistle!
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
the father of experimental psychology, studied psychological effects in a laboratory for the first time
Charles Spearman (1904)
cognitive abilities in different domains are always positively correlated
there is a common cause,
“general cognitive ability”, g
Measuring g
The best way: matrix reasoning and vocabulary
Clinical psychometrics
Assessing symptoms by self-report Depression Anxiety Pain Miscellaneous symptoms Self-report is suprisingly reliable and a good predictor of patient outcome!
STAI
State-trait Anxiety Inventory
Behaviorism
We are born as “blank slates”, we do everything because we learned it (and we can unlearn it too
Classical conditioning
Pavlov’s dogs
Operant conditioning
Learning through reward and punishment
Response generalization
we generalize our response to all similar situations (e.g: we had a bad experience with a doctor so now we are afraid of all doctors
Response discrimination
we learn to only show the reponse in a certain setting, not others (we had a bad experience with a doctor, but we are only afraid of him and not others)
Shaping
in operant conditioning, if we want a behavior that is never normally shown, we start reinforcing similar behavior in small steps to make it more similar to what we want. Often used in the training of circus animals which normally never jump through flaming hoops.
They were wrong about these things:
We are not born as blanks slates, a lot of our behavior is heritable and shaped by evolution Some behaviors are hard to change, others are almost impossible We can (and should) learn quite a lot about the causes of behavior with EEG, imaging, genetics etc.
They were right about these:
Behavior therapy is VERY effective in psychiatric treatments!
Especially for anxiety & phobias: meeting what we fear in a calm contexts eliminates the fear
Classic work by Sigmund Freud: Traumdeutung (1900)
We are driven by a “superego” (rules, conventions) and an “id” (instincts, impulsive desires) which must be counteracted by the “ego” – basically true, instincts vs. executive functions
Psychotherapy
Really works!
But it is mostly the intervention itself that works, not the specific method
Some therapists are better than others regardless of their method
Cognitive and behavioral therapies work better than others
Evolutionary psychology
If psychological traits were good for reproduction in the past, they became more common
Evolutionary psychology on sex differences
Anisogamy: difference in gamete size
The sex which must invest more resources is smaller, weaker and more selective for mates
Some of the best findings of psychologists
Mental illness is a continuum with ‘normality’ – no strict definiton
Psychotherapy and medication can help mentally ill people
Psychological characteristics (intelligence, personality) are measurable and predict other things
Most psychological traits are heritable and they were shaped by evolution
Psychological traits predict the occurrence and course of physical illness!
