Pearson & lecture content Flashcards
What is an ad hoc immunising hypothesis?
An escape catch that defenders of a theory use to protect their theory from being contradicted by evidence.
What are the two points by Carl Sagan on to be a scientific sceptic?
- Willingness to keep an open mind to all claims.
2. Willingness to accept these claims only after researchers have subjected them to careful scientific tests.
What are the six principles of scientific thinking?
- Extraordinary claims
- Testability
- Occam’s razor
- Replicability
- Ruling out rival hypotheses
- Correlation vs causation
What is the id?
- Operates by the Pleasure Principle- selfish and immediate gratification.
- unconscious, instinctual, irrational drives.
What is the ego?
- Operates by The Reality Principle- realistic and plan for future to maintain survival.
- conscious, rational mind, ensures id & superego manifest appropriately.
What is the superego?
- The “conscience”that stops us from doing wrong.
- Preconscious awareness.
What are the five stages of psychosexual development?
- Oral (0-2 yrs)
- Anal (2-3 yrs)
- Phallic (3-6 yrs)
- Latent (6-11 yrs)
- Genital (11+ yrs)
What are the Defence Mechanisms?
Fixation Identification Repression Regression Displacement Sublimation
What is learning?
A relatively permanent change in behaviour due to experience.
Who was the key figure in the learning theory classical conditioning?
Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
What was the significance of the Ancient Greeks for Western Psychology?
- Establishment of rigour
- Open discussion and debate
What happened in the Dark Ages?
- dominated by mysticism, superstition and anti-intellectualism.
- preservation of Greek learning carried out by Islamic scholarship.
What were the principles of Newtonian science?
- God created the world but didn’t micromanage it.
- Material world governed by natural laws.
- Rejected Aristotle final cause concept.
- Accepted Occam’s Razor.
- Knowledge is imperfect.
- Classification is not explanation!
What did Francis Bacon believe?
– Stressed observation
– desired no theories but only induction
What were the four themes of Renaissance humanism?
- individualism
- personal religion
- interest in past Greek and Roman writers enter
- anti-Aristotelianism
What were the four rules of method of Descartes?
- Avoid prejudgement.
- Reductionism.
- Analysis in orderly fashion.
- Leave no aspect unexamined.
What did Locke believe?
– Dualism
– Opposed innate ideas; that all knowledge comes from experience (includes both external observations and internal operations of the mind).
What is behaviourism?
– A psychological approach which emphasises scientific and objective methods of investigation.
– Observable stimulus-response behaviours.
– All behaviours are learned learned through interaction with the environment.
– “Blank slate” (opposed Descartes)- role of experience.
What is motivation?
– The drives and urges to relieve unpleasant state of mind.
– Driver of directed behaviours to satisfy our wants and needs.
What is the Opponent-Process Theory?
every process that has an affective balance (i.e. is pleasant or unpleasant) is followed by a secondary, “opponent process”
What is the A-process of the opponent-process theory?
initial, usually fast and immediate emotional reaction to a stimulus
What is the B process of the opponent-process theory?
after the initial shock, or emotion- the “after-reaction”
What is the function of dopamine?
Helps regulate movement and emotional responses.
What are the roles of the hippocampus?
Part of the limbic system,
- the region that regulates emotions
- associated mainly with long-term memory
- spatial navigation
What is the function of learning?
To adapt to changing conditions in the world.
What are the four types of learning?
- Noticing and ignoring (sensitisation and habituation)
- Learning what events signal (classical conditioning close back bracket).
- Learning about the consequences of our behaviour (operant conditioning)
- Learning from others (observational and learning).
What is NOT learning?
Instincts, reflexes and changes in behaviour due to fatigue.
What is an unconditioned response in classical conditioning?
an unlearned response that occurs naturally in reaction to the unconditioned stimulus.
What is a conditioned response in classical conditioning?
an automatic learned response established by training to an ordinarily neutral stimulus.
What is a conditioned stimulus in classical conditioning?
a previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated with the unconditioned stimulus, eventually comes to trigger a conditioned response.
What is an unconditioned stimulus in classical conditioning?
A stimulus that occurs naturally, and automatically to trigger a response
What is contingency?
- The predictability of occurrence of one stimulus from the presence of another.
- Will depend on reliability and uniqueness.
- CS must be able to predict US.
Appetitive means
Pleasant
What is contiguity?
-The connectedness in time and space of two stimuli.
Eg when two stimuli are presented together in time
Aversive means
Unpleasant
What are two main schedules of reinforcement?
- Ratio (reinforcement depends on number of responses made): Fixed or Variable
- Interval (amount of time between reinforcements): Fixed or Variable
What are the four processes of observational learning?
- attention
- retention
- reproduction
- motivation (from reinforcement)
What is the definition of personality according to Burton et al. (2011)?
‘The enduring patterns of thought, feeling, motivation and behaviour that are expressed in different circumstances.’
What is the idiographic approach?
- Based on uniqueness of individual.
- Uses subjective experiences.
What is the nomothetic approach?
- Attempts to generalise people.
- Uses objective knowledge.
What are the three super traits by Hand Eysenck (1953)?
- Extroversion – introversion
- Neuroticism (lots of emotion)
- Psychoticism (able to lose track touch with reality)
What is the five factor model of personality?
Hint: OCEAN
Openness to experience Consciousness Extraversion Agreeableness Neuroticism
Positive reinforcement in operant conditioning?
the process of encouraging or establishing a pattern of behaviour by offering reward when the behaviour is exhibited.
What is positive punishment in operant conditioning?
involves presenting an unfavorable outcome or event following an undesirable behaviour.
What is negative reinforcement?
When a response or behaviour is strengthened by stopping, removing, or avoiding a negative outcome or aversive stimulus.
What is negative punishment in operant conditioning?
taking away a certain desired item after the undesired (reinforcing) behaviour happens in order to decrease future responses.
Hume believed…
Careful observations was the first step in the scientific approach.
What would most likely result in an inhibitory postsynaptic potential (IPSP)?
Chloride ions entering the cell.
Parkinson’s Disease is a neurological disorder associated with
Motor impairment and a reduction in the neurotransmitter dopamine.
The consumption of alcohol, as well as the ingestion of anti-anxiety drugs, both work to increase the activity of inhibitory neurotransmitter…
GABA
The neurological disease associated with the destruction of the myelin sheath of neurons is
Multiple sclerosis
What is a fixed radio schedule?
These deliver reinforcement after a set number of responses.
(Eg rewarding real estate agent with a bonus for every five houses sold)
*extinction will occur when reward is stopped.
What is a variable ratio schedule?
Reinforcement occurs after a variable number of responses.
(Eg the probability of hitting the jackpot is constant, number of lever presses needed to hit jackpot is variable.)
*most resistant to extinction
What is a fixed interval schedule?
Where there is a fixed amount of time between each reinforcer.
(Eg being paid by the hour)
*extinction will occur quickly if reinforcer is stopped.
What is a variable interval schedule?
Reinforced on an average amount of time that varies from trial to trial.
(Eg fishing)
*resistant to extinction in that behaviour will continue for quite a while after reinforcement stops.
What are the two main systems under the Peripheral Nervous System?
Somatic and Autonomic systems
What are the two types of autonomic systems?
- Sympathetic: short pre-ganglionic + long post-ganglionjc nerves
- Parasympathetic: long pre-ganglionic + short post-ganglionjc nerves
What is the function of the frontal lobe?
- planning of movements
- recent memory
What is the function of the temporal lobe?
- hearing
- advanced visual processing
What is the role of the hippocampus?
Memory processing.
What is the function of the occipital lobe?
Vision
What is the function of the parietal lobe?
- mediating attention
- mapping 3D spaces
What is contralateral neglect?
- attention not low level perception
- objects in neglected field still activate visual cortex.
What are the three basic needs of of humans in the Self-Determination Theory?
Competence
Autonomy
Relatedness
List the order in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
- Self-Actualisation
- Esteem
- Belongingness and love
- Safety
- Physiological
Experimental designs generally allow us to
impute causality
What are the four types of validity?
Internal
External
Construct
Statistical
Cross-sectional designs are also known as
Passive designs
Associational studies
Correlational studies
What is the function of the amygdala?
Fear, arousal, excitement
What is the function of the mammillary body?
Episodic and spatial memory
What is the function of the thalamus?
Sensori-motor relay
What does the peptide hormone ghrelin do?
It increases appetite.
Leptin is a hormone made by fat cells. What does it do?
It decreases appetite.
