Psychology Flashcards
Definition of Psychology
The scientific study of behaviour and mental process and the factors that influence these processes (what motivates an individual to act a certain way)
What is perception
Our brain selects, organizes and interprets the information provided by your senses
What affects perception
The object itself - movement size
Background/surroundings
the Perceiver
What affects Perceiver
Previous experience Personal feelings Angle, distance from the object Familiarity with the sensation Therefore: everybody has their own point of view or bias
Classical conditioning
Where you learn to transfer a natural response from one stimulus to another
Before conditioning: Unconditioned stimulus ( US) -> unconditioned response (UR)
=US(food) -> UR (salivation)
The bell was the conditioned stimulus (CS )
= Us (food) + CS (bell) -> Ur (salivation)
The bell became the conditioned response (CR)
CS(bell) -> Cr ( salivation)
Operant conditioning
Using positive or negative stimuli to change behaviour
made by B.F Skinner
Put rats in cages rigged with a bar
When the rat pushed the bar, it got a food pellet
At first, the rat hit the bar accidentally and got food
The rat was pushing the bar constantly
Positive Reinforcement
Adding a stimulus to increases behaviour
Ex: the child gets dessert for eating all veggies, the child eats all veggies more often
Negative Reinforcement
Taking away a stimulus to increase behaviour
Ex: owner holds the dog’s mouth when the dog is quiet owner lets go, the dog is quiet more often
Positive punishment
Add a stimulus to decrease undesired behaviour
Ex: An employee gets yelled at for taking a long lunch, the employee takes long lunch less often
Negative punishment
Remove a stimulus to decrease undesired behaviour
Ex: The owner doesn’t pay attention to the barking dog at the table, dog barks less often
Definition of Learning
A change in knowledge or behaviour as a result of experience
4 steps of Observational learning
- Paying attention to what others do and how they do it
- Retention; storing a mental image and remembering what you observed
- Reproduction: converting memory into action; returning to attention/retention stages until you get it right
- Motivation; believing that the skill you have observed and remembered is important enough to reproduce and get right
Kenneth Clark
The Doll Test (the 1950’s)
Black children 3-7 asked questions about plastic dolls
Control: dolls identical in every way except colour
10 out of 16 black kids preferred the white dolls to the black ones
Referred to black dolls as “bad”
White dolls were “good” or “nice”
Bobo doll experiment
by: Albert Bandura
A team of researchers who physically and verbally abused an inflatable doll in front of preschool-age children, which led the children to later mimic the behaviour of the adults by attacking the doll in the same fashion.
Deductive reasoning
Applying a general idea to a specific information Ex: All poodles are dogs All dogs have four legs Therefore: all poodles have four legs
Inductive reasoning
Applying a specific idea to a general situation Ex: I enjoyed Stephen King’s last book I have a new book by Stephen King Therefore: I will enjoy the new book
Definition of Memory
The capacity to acquire, retain and recall knowledge and skills
Memory is controlled by Hippocampus
Short term memory:
In the frontal cortex and parietal lobe
Holds information for 15-20 seconds
7 separate items can be stored
Long-Term Memory:
Items that are important and have meaning are stored in long-term memory
Recall becomes difficult over time
Freud’s the Id
Seeks pleasure, avoids pain. It's a selfish childish, pleasure oriented part of the personality with no ability to delay gratification. Operates the pleasure principle. Impulsive wants instant satisfaction. Operates subconsciously ( NOT RATIONAL )
DIrects basic drive instincts
Knows of no judgements of value, no morality, does not understand the difference between good and evil
Impulsive desires
Exists from birth - a newborn child is completely Id-ridden, it is only concerned with having its immediate needs met