Midterm 1 Flashcards
Sources of Psychology
- many people learn about psychology from popular culture
examples:
- social media platforms (Twitter, Tik Tok, Instagram)
- streaming platforms (YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime)
- TV/Movies, News Channels, Blogs
-popular psychology knowledge is not always true and because of this, we must conduct scientific studies
Definition of Psychology
the scientific study of the mind, brain, and behaviour
Levels of Analysis
-biological to social
-must consider multiple levels of analysis and how they interact with one another
-bi-directional influences (can go either way)
- social culture influences: social or behavioural level: involves relating to others (observable behaviour)
- psychological: mental level: involves thoughts, feelings, and emotions
- biological: molecular or neurochemical level: involves molecules and brain structure
example: depression
1. social: what is going on in this person’s life that triggers their depression
2. psychological: how do their thoughts differ?
3. biological: depressed vs. non-depressed– how do biological neurons differ
-no level of analysis is “better”
Five Main Challenges in Psychology: 1. Actions are multiply determined
-any human behaviour is due to multiple human factors
-occurs at different levels of explanation
-be cautious of single variable explanation
example: effect of environmental factors on children’s IQ (multi-level)
-place of residence
-physical activity
-education of mother and father
-occupation of father
-family income
-IQ level is not determined by a singular factor, rather many factors contribute
Five Main Challenges in Psychology: 2. Psychological influences are rarely independent
-factors may be highly associated with one another
-difficult to pinpoint which cause or causes are operating
example: factors that may contribute to anorexia nervosa
-perfectionism
-excessive concern with body image
-exposure to thin models in the media
-compulsive exercise
-gender
-anxiety
-variables are dependent on one another
-all may contribute to whether or not one develops anorexia
-challenging for experimenter to design study looking only at 1 variable
-difficult to determine what the cause is
Five Main Challenges in Psychology: 3. Individual differences among people
- people are different in terms of: thinking, emotion, personality, and behaviour
- gender, ethnicity, age
- challenging to come up with explanations that apply to everyone
Five Main Challenges in Psychology: 4. People influence one another through reciprocal determinism
-Albert Bandura (1973) said: we mutually influence each other’s behaviour
-involves personal factors, behaviour, environment
example: behaviour of a child at school
1. personal factors: child doesn’t enjoy school
2. behaviour: acts out in class
3. environment: teacher makes child sit alone
-a cyclical relationship
Five Main Challenges in Psychology: 5. Behaviour is shaped by culture
-Takahiko Masuda and colleagues (2008) eye tracking study:
-surrounding people had same or different emotions
-Western participants looked more at the target person
-Japanese participants looked more at surrounding people
-surrounding emotions influenced Japanese participant’s perception more than the target person
-different cultures have different perceptions of behaviour
Scientific Theory
The explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world
example: negative attentional bias in depression
Hypothesis
Testable prediction derived from a scientific theory
example: depressed individuals will focus more on negative words in a memory test compared to non-depressed individuals
Confirmation Bias
Tendency to seek out evidence that supports hypotheses and deny, dismiss, or distort evidence that contradicts them
example: if a person is left handed, they tend to be highly creative
Belief Perseverance
-Tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them
-not budge on opinion even when presented with evidence
example:
-people who believe they are “overweight” and when told they are not, they stick to their belief
Pseudoscience
a set of claims that seems scientific, but isn’t
example: acupuncture treatment
-testable
Metaphysical Claims
assertions about the world that we cannot test
examples:
-astrology
-diet regiments
-pyramid schemes
-nutrition– weight loss products
-Goop
-ESP
Three Dangers of Pseudoscience: 1. Opportunity Cost
people may forgo opportunities to seek effective treatments
-indirect harm
example: buying crystals to solve an issue like solving anxiety instead of seeking professional medical advice
Three Dangers of Pseudoscience: 2. Direct Harm
can cause psychological or physical harm (even death)
example:
-rebirthing therapy for behavioural problems
-conversion therapy
Three Dangers of Pseudoscience: 3. An inability to think scientifically as citizens
need scientific skills to reach education decisions about:
-psychological claims
-global warming
-genetic engineering
-vaccinations
-new medical treatment
-parenting practices
-teaching practices
Three Warning Signs of Pseudoscience: 1. Overreliance on anecdotes
Anecdote: a story about a single person
-second hand evidence: “I know a person who practices yoga daily for three weeks and hasn’t had a day of depression since”
-first hand evidence: “I have been drinking green tea for a week straight and I lost 10lbs”
-don’t provide information on cause and effect (can’t determine cause of behaviour from an anecdote)
-don’t tell us how representative the cases are (would this apply to everyone? does it only work for this person?)
Three Warning Signs of Pseudoscience: 2. Meaningless “psychobabble”
uses scientific sounding words that don’t really mean anything
examples: “sine-wave filtered auditory stimulation is carefully designed to encourage maximally orbitofrontal dendritic development”
-hard to understand
-need to avoid psychobabble and be clear about what they mean
Three Warning Signs of Pseudoscience: 3. talk of “proof” instead of “evidence”
-science provides evidence that supports/contradicts ideas
-can use language that instead says “results provide evidence that…”
example: “our new program is proven to reduce social anxiety by at least 50%
-need to ask: does the language imply 100% certainty?
Scientific Skepticism
approach of evaluating all claims with an open mind, but insisting on persuasive evidence before accepting them
Cynicism
dismissal of claims, without evaluation
Scientific Thinking Principle 1: Ruling out rival hypotheses
-have the important alternative explanations for findings been excluded?
-many psychological findings may fit multiple explanations
-does X cause Y or does Z cause Y
Scientific Thinking Principle 2: Correlation Isn’t Causation
correlation-causation fallacy: error of assuming that because one thing is associated with another, it must cause the other
-variable is anything that can vary
examples: height, weight, age, intelligence quotient (IQ), extroversion, anxiety ratings, memory scores, brain activity
-the taller you are, the more you weigh
-increased study time, less errors on a test
Scientific Thinking Principle 3: Falsifiability
capable of being disproven
-theory can be proven wrong if there were certain types of evidence against it
what makes a good theory:
-a theory that explains everything, in reality explains nothing
-theories must predict certain outcomes, but not others
risky prediction: forecast that stands a good chance of being wrong
Scientific Thinking Principle 4: Replicability
when a study’s findings are able to be duplicated, ideally by independent investigators
-important to know study’s methods and participants
-if it can’t be duplicated, it increases the odds it was due to chance
-psychologists have become aware of difficulties in replicating certain findings
Scientific Thinking Principle 5: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence
David Hume (18th century Scottish Philosopher): the more a claim contradicts what we already know, the more persuasive the evidence must be to accept it
example of extreme claim: “this medication/program is guaranteed to help everyone”
-need enough data to back this up
Scientific Thinking Principle 6: Occam’s Razor/ Principle of Parsimony
14th century British philosopher and monk, Sir William of Occam: if two explanations account equally well for a phenomenon, we should generally select the more parsimonious (simpler) one
example: crop circles, aliens, pranksters
-the simple explanation
-guideline, not a rule
What did the ancient Greeks think about?
Ancient Greek philosophers: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle debated:
-mind vs. body
-nativism vs. empiricism
-psychology’s roots in Greek philosophy
psychology= psyche + logos
Mind Body Problem
Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
-Some human behaviour is mechanistic
-Other behaviour appears to be based on reason
-Proposed idea of dualism
-Mind and body interacted at pineal gland
example: modern day mind vs. body research
-Lorina Naci, Adrian Owen, and colleagues (2014) study:
-Healthy participants and brain
injured patient
-Sam- vegetative state for 16 years
-Watched a suspenseful 8 minute clip
of Hitchcock’s Bang! You’re Dead
-Moment to moment activity in
relation to movie content was highly
similar
Donder’s Reaction Time Experiment
Reaction Time (RT): how long it takes to respond to stimulus
Choice RT - Simpler RT = Decision Time
-interested in determining how long it takes for a person to make a decision
-choice reaction time took one tenth of a second longer than simple reaction time, Donder concluded that it took one tenth of a second to decide which button to push
Wilhelm Wundt
developed the first psychological lab in Leipzig, Germany
-wanted to scientifically examine consciousness
research questions:
-how different must two colours be to tell them apart?
-how long does it take to react to a sound?
-what thoughts occur when we solve a math problem?
methods:
1. RT experiments
2. Introspection: method by which trained observers carefully reflect and report their mental experiences
-auditory tones or visual stimuli
Structuralism: Edward Titchner (1867-1927)
-structuralism aimed to identify basic elements of psychological experience
-used introspection
-wanted comprehensive mad of elements of consciousness
problems:
1. reports were subjective
2. imageless thought
-brought up by Oswald Kulpe, German psychologist
-thinking that occurs without images or sensory content
lasting scientific influences:
-correctly emphasized importance of systemic observation
-methods used qualitative and quantitative data
Memory and Forgetting: Ebbinghaus (1885)
-read lists of nonsense syllables aloud
example: DAX, QEH, LUH, ZIZ
-repeated this until he had no errors
-1000 seconds to learn list for the first time
-after a break, he relearned the list
Savings= (original time to learn the list) - (time to relearn list after delay)
Functionalism: William James
-influential American psychologist
-Principles of Psychology (1890)
-observations based on functions of his own mind, not experiments
-“Millions of items… are present to my senses which never properly enter my experience. My experience is what I agree to attend to… It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others”
-Structuralists asked “what” questions
-Functionalists asked “why” questions
Behaviourism: John B. Watson (1913) & B.F. Skinner (1938)
behaviourism: the laws of learning
-founded by Watson in 1913
-criticized study of consciousness
-psychological science must be objective, not subjective
-focuses on uncovering general principles of learning and underlying animal and human behaviour
-understand human behaviour in relation to external/environmental factors
-Skinner examined operant conditioning (rewards + punishments)
-Watson focused on classical conditioning (associations)
lasting influence: influential in models of human and animal learning
Cognitive Maps: Tolman (1948)
-trained rats to find food in four-armed race
-when rate was placed in different arm of maze, it went to specific arm where it previously found food
-believed that rat created a cognitive map, a representation of the maze in its mind
Cognitivism/ Cognitive Psychology
-1950s and 1960s, in response to behaviourists
-first computer available to general public in 1954
information processing approach
-insights from digital computer
Input → Input Processor → Memory Unit → Arithmetic Unit → Output
Cognitive Psychology: Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
-the study of mental processes
-thinking affects our behaviour in powerful ways
-interpretation in rewards and
punishments
-Piaget: children think in different ways
than adults
-cognitive behavioural therapy
Cognitive Neuroscience
examines the relationship between brain activity and thinking
Psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
psychoanalysis: focuses on internal psychological processes of which we are unaware
-unconscious: contains thoughts, memories, and desires below the surface of conscious awareness
psychological life is filled with symbols:
-Concept of the unconscious based on observations
-“Freudian Slips” : “I’m mad you’re here”
-Dream analysis
-Strong role of childhood experiences
lasting influences: psychoanalysis
-criticism: difficult to falsify
-importance of childhood development
-ideas that some processing is unconscious (ex. biases, priming)
Humanism: Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
-1950s in opposition to behaviourism and psychoanalysis
-emphasizes unique qualities of humans
-psychological disorders result from hindering human needs
Modern Psychology
-Women now outnumber men in psychology graduate programs
-Need to increase ethnic diversity
-Clinical Psychologist: Mental Disorders
-Psychiatrists: Medicine and mental health
-Counselling Psychologist: Temporary Problems
-School Psychologist: Help children and youth
-Developmental Psychologist: Study how and why people change over time
-Experimental Psychologist: Use research methods to study: perception, attention, and memory, language, thinking, social behaviour
-Biological Psychologist: Examine the physiological bases of behaviour in animals and humans
-Forensic Psychologist: Assess and diagnose inmates, Conducts research
-Industrial-Organizational Psychologist: Work with companies to select/evaluate employees, Research working environmental conditions
Evolutionary Psychology:
-Applied Darwin’s theory of natural selection to human and animal behaviour (Ex. anxiety)
Controversial– hypotheses go against traditional psychological theories, empirical findings have disturbing implications, misunderstanding about the logic of evolutionary psychology, reasonable scientific concerns about underlying framework
-Ex. male baldness, adaptive or not?
Reasons why we need research methods
-provides framework and guidelines for researchers to clearly define research questions, hypotheses, and objectives
-helps researchers identify most appropriate research design, sampling technique, data collection, analysis methods
Research Methodology
way to systematically solve or answer a research problem
-selection of research method is crucial for what conclusions you can make
Guiding Principle 1: Generalizability
a measure of how useful the results of a study are for a broader group of people or situations
-external validity
-need representative sample of the population
-population depends on research question
WEIRD samples: Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic societies represented about 80% of the study participants
Random Selection
procedure that ensures every person in population has an equal chance of being chosen to participate
examples:
-list of Canadian population census data
-randomly scrambled names
-non random selection reduces generalizability of studies
-must ask what samples to take
Guiding Principle 2: Reliabiloty
consisting of measurement
-reliable questionnaire should yield similar scores over time= test retest reliablity
interrater reliability:
-extent to which different people agree on the characteristics they are measuring
ex: two psychologists giving separate diagnoses, job interview panel
Guiding Principle 3: Validity (Construct Validity)
extent to which a measure assesses what it claims to measure
ex: giving a math test to measure numeracy (high validity)
Reliability vs. Validity
test must be reliable to be valid, but a reliable test can still be completely invalid
example: polygraph, “distance index middle width intelligence test”
-high test-retest reliability
-higher interrater reliability
-invalid measure of intelligence
Naturalistic Observation
watching behaviour in real world settings without trying to manipulate the situation
-conduct in real time or video recordings
-social media
-wearable technologies
examples:
1. Robert Provine’s (1996,2000) investigation of laughter
-licensed to 1200 instances of laughter in social situations
-recorded: gender, preceding remarks, reactions
outcome: laughter is predominantly social behaviour, often occurring in conversation and social interactions
- Wansink and van Ittersum’s (2013) buffet study
-diners could choose between two plate sizes
-large plate vs. small plate
-chose, consumed, and
wasted more food
pros and cons:
-high in external validity
-good starting point
-can be used to study animal behaviour
-low internal validity
-can’t draw cause and
effect inferences
Case Studies
Examine one person or a small number of people
-Used to study rare brain damage and/or unusual conditions
-Can inspire new hypotheses about the brain and behaviour
Henry Molaison (H.M.):
-Experimental operation to remove portions of the hippocampus
-Observed by Dr. Brenda Milner from McGill
-Inability to form new memories
Face recognition
-Prosopagnosia: extreme impairment of the ability to recognize faces
-Fusiform Face Area (FFA) responds specifically to faces
Pros and Cons:
-High level of detail of rare psychological phenomenon
what about internal and external validity?: to enhance external validity, researchers use combination of research methods, such as experimental designs with larger sample sizes, to confirm and extend insights gained from case studies
Self Report Measures and Surveys
assess participant characteristics
-Demographics, personality traits, mental illnesses
Surveys: measure opinions and attitudes
-Market research, political polls
Survey challenges: people’s responses can vary depending on how the question is presented
-Open-ended vs. multiple choice format
-agree/disagree format (one statement) vs. multiple choice format
Pros and Cons of Self-Report Measures:
-Easy to administer
-Get direct information about emotions, personality, opinions
-Potential for dishonesty
Correlational Designs
Strength of association between two variables
-Correlations can be negative, zero, or positive
-What direction do the variables
move in relation to one another for
each type?
-Correlation coefficients range from -1.0 to +1.0
-Higher absolute value means
stronger relationship
Illusory Correlations
Perception of a statistical association where none exists
-Strange behaviour and full moon
-Superstitious behaviour in athletes
why we fall prey to illusory correlations:
-Humans tend to overemphasise condition A and ignore all other conditions (B-D)
-Bad at remembering non-events
Experimental Designs
Permit cause and effect inferences
Internal validity
-Random assignment of participants to conditions
-Manipulation of an independent variable
Random Assignment
-Randomly sort participants into one of two groups
Between-subjects Design
-Experimental Group
-Receives manipulations
-Ex. music
-Control Group
-Does not receive manipulation
-Ex. no music
Within-subject Design
-Participants are their own control group
-Baseline
-Measuring typing performance
Experimental Manipulation
-Measure typing performance
Independent vs. Dependent Variable
IV: variable that is manipulated
DV: Variable the experimenter measures to see if the manipulation has an effect
Confounds
Experiments have high internal validity if the IV is the only difference between groups
Confounding Variables
Any variable (not the IV) that differs between the experimental and control groups
Experimental Group
-Receives manipulation
-Ex. room temperature very hot
Control Group
-Does not receive manipulation
-Ex. normal room temperature
Placebo Effect
Improved improvement because you expect improvement
Experimenter Expectancy Effect
Researchers’ hypotheses lead them to unintentionally bias the outcome
Double blind designs: experimenter and participants unaware of treatment prevents this
Demand Characteristics
-Cues that participants pick up allowing them to guess the researcher’s hypothesis
-“The effects of horror movies on
mood”
-“An investigation of caffeine and
memory”
-Vs. “Study on University Student’s Film Preferences”
Reactivity
refers to the tendency of participants to change their behaviour when they know that they are being observed
Social Desirability Bias/Positive Impression Management
-Our tendency to respond in ways that we feel are more appropriate or socially acceptable to others
-Response sets: tendency of participants to distort their self report responses in a positive way
-Try to impress researcher
Descriptive Statistics
Organize data into meaningful patterns and summaries
Central Tendency
Where the group data tends to cluster, three main measures: mean, median, and mode
-Mean is affected by outliers, but the median and mode are not
Variance
How loosely or closely scores are clustered
Range: difference between the highest and lowest scores
Standard Deviation: how far each data point is from the mean
Calculation Range Example:
IQ Scores Sample 1: 80,85,85,90,95
Mean= 87; Range: 95-80=15
IQ Scores Sample 2: 35,65,70,125,150
mean= 87; Range: 150-25=125
Ethical Issues in Research Design
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study (1932 to 1972)
-Participants, primarily black men, were diagnosed with syphilis, but not informed
-Not given treatments, even though treatments were available
Standley Milgram’s Obedience Experiments (1960s)
-Measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure
-Administered “shocks” to a “learner”
Ethical Guidelines for Research:
-Research Ethics Boards (REBs) that oversee research on humans and animals
Informed consent: participants must know what is involved in the study prior to participation
-Purpose duration
-Any potential risk or adverse effects
-Right to withdraw
Debriefing
-At the end of the study, participants should be fully debriefed about the true nature of the research
-Should be informed by any deception that was used
Biological Psychology
studies relationship between nervous system and behaviour
The Brain-Behaviour Network
-Vast communication networks
-Central nervous system (CNS)
Vs. Peripheral nervous system (PNS)
difference:
-CNS consists of brain and spinal cord– central structures responsible for processing and integrating information, coordinating body functions, and generating responses
-PNS includes all nerves and ganglia outside brain and spinal cord, extends throughout body and connects CNS to various organs, muscles, and sensory receptors, serving as communication network between central structures and rest of body
Three general functions:
1. Sensory
2. Integrative
3. Motor
Peripheral Nervous System
Divided into two branches:
-Somatic nervous system controlling and coordination voluntary movement
-Autonomic nervous system controls involuntary actions of our internal organs and glands; has two divisions
-Sympathetic division
-Parasympathetic division
Phrenology
one of earliest methods of brain mapping
-Popular in 1800s
-Franz Joseph Gall
-Skull → brain → psychology traits
-Use anecdotal observations
-Is falsifiable
-Major contribution: spatial organization
Localization of Function:
specific functions are served by specific areas of the brain
Example 1: Language (Broca’s Aphasia)
Production is impaired by frontal lobe damage
Tan; “walk dog”, “book book two table”
Able to understand speech
Example 2: Language (Wernicke’s Aphasia)
-Damage to temporal lobe
-Long, complete sentences with no meaning, adding unnecessary words and creating made up words
-“You know that smoodie pinkered and
that I want to get him round and take
care of him like you want before”
-“It even stepped by horn. They make
my favourite nine to severed and now
I’m a been haped by the uh stam of
forment of my annulment which is
now forever”
-Spared production, impaired
comprehension
Double Dissociation
If damage to one area causes function A to be absent while function B is present, and damage to another area causes function B to be absent while Function A is present
Electrical Stimulation: Early Work
-Wilder Penfield (1891-1976), neurosurgeon
-Stimulate brian with electrical probes → assess function
-Ex. motor complex, temporal lobes
-Brain cells use electrical activity to
send information
Recording Electrical Activity from the Brain
Electroencephalograph (EEG)
-Hans Berger (1929)
-Measures electrical activity via electrodes on skull
-Detects electrical change in range of milliseconds (ms)
-Better at when vs. where information
Structural Techniques
Computed tomography (CT)
-X-rays to construct three-dimensional images
Magnetic resonance imaging (MR)
-Magnetic fields to indirectly visualize brain structure
-Measures release of energy from water molecules in biological tissues in relation to magnetic field and application of radiofrequency current
Functional Techniques
Positron emission tomography (PET)
-Measures consumption of a radioactive glucose-like molecules to give you a picture of neural activity
Functional MRI (fMRI)
-Use magnetic fields to visualize brain activity using changes in blood oxygen level
-Blood oxygen level dependent
(BOLD) signal
-Visual memory = green
-Auditory memory = red
-Both = yellow
-PET and fMRI measures activity on scale of seconds
Magnetoencephalography (MEG)
-Detects brain activity by measuring tiny magnetic fields generated by brain
-Spatial distributions of magnetic fields that can be superimposed onto MRI scan
-Temporal (ms scale) and spatial information
Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS)
-Modify brain function through implanted electrodes
-Potential treatment for disorders (ex. Parkinson’s Disease, obsessive compulsive disorder, or depression)
-Invasive
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
-Applies strong and quickly changing magnetic fields to surface of skull that can either enhance or interrupt brain function
-Only non-invasive tool where we can infer causation
Nerve Net
1870s, Camillo Golgi developed a new staining technique
-Solution of silver nitrate, <1% of cells become stained
Ramon y Cajal used Golgi stain, which led to neuron doctrine
-Individual nerve cells transmit signals and are not continuously linked with other cells
Neuron
nerve cell specialized for communication
-About 86 billion neurons, with 160 trillion synaptic connections between them
-Electrified membrane gives it special properties
Parts of the Neuron
Cell body (soma)
-Contains mechanisms to keep cell alive
-Where information assembles
Dendrites
-Branchlike extensions that receive information
-Increases surface area
Axons and Axon Terminals
-Transmits signals to other neurons
-Synaptic vesicles: spherical sacs containing neurotransmitters
Synaptic Transmission
Neurons communicate via a combination of electrical and chemical signals
-Synapse= space between two connecting neurons through which messages are transmitted chemically
-Synaptic cleft= gap
Glial Cells
Astrocytes
-Regulate blood flow
-Supply building blocks of neurotransmitters
-Promote synapse formation
-Clear debris
Oligodendrocytes
-Promote new connections and releases chemicals to aid in healing
-Produce myelin sheath around axons
Electrochemical Gradient of the Neuron
-Neuronal membrane has an electric potential difference
-Outside cell is high concentration of Na+ ions
-Inside cell is lower concentration of K+ ions
-Resting Potential -70 mV
Initiating an Action Potential
Action Potential: rapid sequence of changes in voltage across membrane
-Neurotransmitters open ion channels
-When a high enough level is reached an action potential is triggered
-Threshold of Excitation: -55mV to -65mV
Action Potential
-All or none response
-Followed by a brief absolute refractory period, then a relative refractory period
-imits of maximal firing rate
Neurotransmission
-Receptor sites are specialized to receive only certain types of neurotransmitters
-Reuptake: when neurotransmitters go back into axon terminal
Key Neurotransmitters
Glutamate: Excitatory
-Associated with enhanced learning and memory
-Abnormal levels may contribute to mental disorders
GABA: Inhibitory
-Critical role in sleep, and also learning and memory
-Targeted with anti-anxiety drugs
