psych Flashcards
psychology
The scientific study of behaviour and the mental process
science
using systematic methods to observe human and animal behaviour and draw conclusions
behaviour
everything that we do that can be directly observed
mental process
The thoughts, feelings, and motives humans experience privately but cannot be observed directly
9 levels of analysis
Macro
Meso
molar
molecular
micro
sociology
social psychology
psychology
neuropsychology
10 things that make psychology challenging
Behaviour is hard to predict
Behaviour is multiply determined
psychological influences are rarely independent of one another
phsycological influences are unknown
people affect eachother
many psychological concepts are difficult to define
the brain didn’t evolve to understand itself
ppl in psych experiments usually know their being studied
people are different from eachother
culture influences behaviour
the search for what is real
ontology
materialism (Marx)
only material things exist
idealism (hegel)
some of reality exists separately from the sensible world
epistemology
the study of knowledge and how individuals gain knowledge
belief that all knowledge is derived from sensory experience (bottom-up theorizing)
empiricism
Belief that at least some knowledge can be known independent of the senses top-down theorizing.
rationalism
Sees theories as soft mental images involving values and beliefs while facts are hard, settled and observable
realist view
functionalism
aimed to understand the
adaptive purposes of psychological
characteristics (thoughts, feelings,
behaviours)Using
evolutionary theory in
modern psychology
psychoanalysis / psychodynamic theory
Focuses on internal psychological processes
(impulses, thoughts, memories) of which we’re
unaware
freud
behaviourism
focuses on uncovering the general laws of learning by looking outside the organism to rewards, punishment and behaviour delivered by or present in the environment
founded by John b Watson and bf skinner
cognitivism
proposes that our thinking (cognition) effects our behaviour in powerful ways
approach of using many different methods in concert (surveys, lab experiments, real world observation)
critical multiplism
Types of psychologists - assessment, diagnosis, causes and
treatment of mental disorders
clinical
Types of psychologists - work with normal people
experiencing temporary or self-contained
(situational) problems (e.g., marital or occupational
difficulties)
counselors
Types of psychologists - assess schoolchildren’s
psychological problems and develop
intervention programs
school
Types of psychologists - study why and how people change overtime
developmental
naive realism
The belief that we see the world precisely as it is –
seeing is believing
willingness to
share our findings with others
communalism
attempt to be
objective when evaluating
evidence
disinterestedness
confirmation bias
tendency to seek out evidence that
supports our hypothesis and neglect or distort
contradicting evidence
belief perseverance
tendency to stick to our initial
beliefs even when evidence contradicts them
scientific theory
not just an educated guess
Explanation for a large number of findings in
the natural world
hypothesis
testable prediction – your
research question derived from a theory
pseudoscience
set of claims that seems
scientific but isn’t - lacks safeguards against
confirmation bias and belief perseverance
metaphysical claims
unfalsifiable (e.g., God,
the soul, or the afterlife: not necessarily wrong,
but untestable; Karl Popper)
tendency to perceive meaningful images (but
not just faces in meaningless visual stimuli
peradoila
tendency to perceive meaningful connections
among unrelated phenomena (coincidence)
apophenia
common logical fallacies:
error of
using our emotions to evaluate the validity
of the claim – affect heuristic
emotional reasoning fallacy
common logical fallacies:
assuming a claim is
correct because many people believe it
bandwagon fallacy
common logical fallacies:
framing a question as
though we can answer it one of two
extreme ways
either or fallacy
common logical fallacies:
believing we’re immune
from thinking errors that afflict others
not me fallacy
Blind to our own
perspective, but not to others’ (like accents,
other cultures, etc.)
bias blind spots
dangers of pseudoscience
opportunity costs
animal deaths
direct harm
slippery slope
pathological skepticism
tendency to dismiss any
claims that contradict one’s beliefs
tendency to seek out evidence inconsistent with a hypothesis we don’t believe, and neglect information consistent with it
disconfirmation bias
premise that we should keep our
minds open, but not so open that we believe virtually
everything
bergs dictum
critical thinking
set of skills for
evaluating all claims in an open-
minded and careful fashion
Methods: Common Features
- All are empirical.
- All are systematic.
- All are theoretical.
- All are public.
- All are self-reflective.
- All are open-ended
hindsight bias
tendency to
overestimate how well we could have successfully
forecasted known outcomes
overconfidence
tendency to overestimate our
ability to make correct predictions
* These errors can lead to confidence in false conclusions
Scientific method
comprises five steps:
- Observing a phenomenon
- Formulating hypotheses
and predictions - Testing through empirical
research - Drawing conclusions
- Evaluating the theory
watching behaviour
in real-world settings
naturalistic observation
high degree of external validity
extent to which we can generalize our findings to the
real world
low degree of internal validity
extent to which we
can draw cause-and-effect inferences
key to
generalizability; ensures every person in
a population has an equal chance of
being chosen to participate
random selection
halo effect
endency of ratings of one positive
characteristic to spill over to influence the ratings of
other positive characteristics
avoids cons of self reports
leniency effect
tendency of raters to provide
ratings that are overly generous
avoids cons of self reports
what makes a study an experiment ?
random selection
experimental group
control group
selection factor
independent and dependent variable
cofounds
cause and effect
cofounds
any difference
between the experimental and
control groups, other than the
independent variable; makes
independent variable effects
uninterpretable
cause and effect
possible to
infer, with random assignment and
manipulation of independent variable
placebo effect
improvement resulting from the mere expectation of
improvement
*Subjects must be blind - unaware of
whether they are in the experimental or
control group
- Placebos show many of the same
characteristics as real drugs
pitfall of expiremental design
nocebo effect
harm resulting from
the mere expectation of harm (e.g.,
voodoo doll phenomenon)
pitfall of expiremntal design
phenomenon
in which researchers’ hypotheses lead them to
unintentionally bias a study outcome
experimenter expectancy effect
pitfall of expiremental design
double blind design
neither researchers nor
subjects know who is in the experimental or control
group
pitfall of experimental design
hawthorne effect
phenomenon in which
participants’ knowledge that they’re being studied can
affect their behaviour
pitfall of e.d
demand characteristics
cues that participants
pick up from a study that allow them to generate
guesses regarding the researcher’s hypotheses
pitfall of e d
modern ethical guidelines
institutional Review Board (IRB): examine proposals in
light of ethical guidelines
informed consent
justification of deception
consiousness
our subjective experience of the world, our bodies, and our mental perspectives
-awareness of thoughts, feelings, etc..
Occurs in a global brain workspace
* Is thoughts about one’s experiences (you see a beautiful flower
awareness
State determined by the reticular activating system
* The physiological state of being engaged with the environment
arousal
qualia
The way it feels to experience mental states such as feeling
pain
is as a natural state of rest for the body and mind
* Involves the reversible loss of consciousness
* Comprises a third of our life
sleep
biological rhythms
periodic physiological fluctuations in the body
Cardigan rhythms
cyclical changes that occur on a roughly 24-hr basis
in many biological processes (e.g., hormone release, body temperature
biological clock
the SCN (suprachiasmatic nucleus) of the
hypothalamus, triggers our sense of fatigue
why do we needs sleep?
Adaptive Evolutionary Function
* Safety
* Energy conservation/ efficiency
* Restorative Function
* Body rejuvenation & growth
* Brain Plasticity
* Enhances synaptic connections
* Memory consolidation
* Chronic sleep deprivation
* Fatal Familial Insomnia (FFI)
Chronic sleep deprivation results in..
Decreased activity in thalamus and prefrontal
cortex
* Inability to sustain attention
* Poor decision making and problem solving
sleep
N1 STAGE
5-10 minutes, theta waves, light sleep, may contain
hypnagogic imagery, hypnic myoclonia
SLEEP
N2 STAGE
20-30 minutes, theta waves, sleep spindles, K-complexes
SLEEP
N3 STAGE
10-30 minutes, delta waves, deeper sleep, crucial for
rest, suppressed by alcohol
SLEEP
REM
(paradoxical sleep) – stage R, 10-20+ minutes, eye
movements, vivid dreaming
REM DREAMS
– More dreams occur during REM
than non-REM
– Emotional, illogical
– Prone to plot shifts
– Biologically crucial
non rem dreams
Shorter dreams
– More thought-like
– Repetitive
– Concerned with daily tasks
Experience of becoming aware
that one is dreaming
* Sleep and wake may not be as distinct as once thought
* Some report being able to control dreams
* May help with nightmares, but not other problems 15
lucid dream
difficulty falling and
staying asleep
– Higher rates in those with depression, pain, medical
conditions
– Restless leg syndrome - urge to move one’s legs or other body
parts while attempting to sleep
– Sleeping pills and rebound insomnia
insomnia
apid and unexpected onset of sleep
– Cataplexy
– Lack of orexin production
narcolepsy
blockage of airway during sleep
– Fatigue next day
sleep apnea
during Stages 3 and 4, sudden waking
episodes characterized by screaming, perspiring, and confusion
followed by a return to a deep sleep
– Most common in children
night terrors
(15-30% of children and
3-5% of adults) usually occurs during deepest (N1-N2) non-REM
sleep (not dreaming)
– May include complex behaviours (e.g., climbing out windows, driving)
– Most common in children
sleepwalking
Freud’s wish fulfillment and dream protection theory
Freud’s wish fulfillment and dream protection theory -
dreams transform our sexual and aggressive instincts into symbols that
represent wish fulfillment and require interpretation
realistic perceptual experiences in the
absence of external stimuli
hallucinations
sociocognitive theory
approach to explaining hypnosis
based on people’s beliefs and social expectations
Sense of consciousness
leaving one’s body
– No scientific evidence to support
– May be related to ability to fantasize and to become
extraordinarily absorbed in experiences
out of body experience
disassociation model
approach to explaining hypnosis based on separation of the
parts of the personality responsible for planning from the part
that controls memories
disorientation,
confusion, visual hallucinations, memory problems
resulting from alcohol withdrawal, may be fatal without
proper medical care
delirium tremens
