Psychology In The Real World

Question 1

Aim of psychology

Answer 1

• Psychology aims to understand behaviour and mental processes of ourselves and others, to solve problems that arise on a human scale

Question 2

Subfields of psychology

Answer 2

• Different subfields of psychology include: brain science + cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, experimental psychology, quantitative psychology, social psychology, clinical psychology, forensic, human factors and engineering, teaching and learning, sport and performance

Question 3

Biological analysis in psychology

Answer 3

-biological (brain systems, neurochemistry, genetics) -> neuroanatomy, animal research, brain imaging, neurotransmitters and hormones, drug studies, gene mechanisms, heritability, twin and adoption studies

Question 4

individual analysis in psychology

Answer 4

-individual (individual differences, perception and cognition, behaviour) -> studies personality, gender, developmental age groups, self-concept, thinking, decision making, language, memory, seeing, hearing, observable actions, responses, physical movements

Question 5

social analysis of psychology

Answer 5

-social (interpersonal behaviour, social cognition) -> studies groups, relationships, persuasion, influence, workplace, attitudes, stereotypes, perceptions

Question 6

cultural analysis of psychology

Answer 6

-cultural (thoughts, actions, behaviours – in different societies and cultural groups) -> studies norms, beliefs, values, symbols, ethnicities

Question 7

Why is free will important:

Answer 7

Free will is important because;
-Psychology studies people’s biases; what they will do and why
-Punishment, blame, what should we blame people for?
-Self-construction is important and understudies -> how can you become the person you want to become?
-Narratives influence economics, self-control, self-fulfilling prophecies
-Cognitive science

Question 8

Determinism (past predicts future) - no free will vs free will

Answer 8

-Determinism - no free will = hard determinists
-Determinism - free will = compatibilists (free will and determinism is compatible)

Question 9

Indeterminism (past doesn’t predict future) - free will vs no free will

Answer 9

-Indeterminism - no free will = hard indeterminists
-Indeterminism - free will = libertarians

Question 10

What is the paradox of free will?

Answer 10

-Free will can be defined as the ability to be free from one’s past and yet to simultaneously act in accordance with one’s will - but to have will is to have an historical identity and to be free is to somehow be ahistorical

Question 11

Design features of neurocognitive free will - the free will you have

Answer 11

1 → the capacity to do otherwise (Hobbes, 1839)
2 → wanting what you want (Frankfurt, 1971)
3 → rational deliberation (Locke, 1768)
4 → Self-awareness — “the real self view” (Wolf, 1993)
5 → Consciousness, effortful (executive processing) - the worry is that the casual change leading up to our actions bypass the self (Knobe and Nichols 2011)

Question 12

Free Will - Rational Deliberation

Answer 12

Rational deliberation: the consideration of alternatives and their consequences
-Vicarious trial and error learning

Question 13

Rational Deliberation - Wolf, 1973

Answer 13

”One wants to be able to choose in light of the knowledge of one’s options and in light of the comparative reasons for and against these options (Wolf, 1973, Freedoms within reason)

Question 14

Areas of the brain associated with rational deliberation/episodic future thinking self projection

Answer 14

-Hippocampus = hippocampal place cell, associated with a physical place
-VS (ventral striatum) = associated with reward
-Allows us to think about thing it has not done, is doing, or will do, without doing them

Question 15

Result of hippocampal damage

Answer 15

Hippocampal damage;
-Eg HM and DB
-Difficulty recalling events
-But they also have difficulty imagining future events

Question 16

The sense of self and reality monitoring

Answer 16

-Becomes a problem; imagining something unreal/not happened
-Patients with hippocampal damage also report having a degraded sense of self (eg Corkin 2002)

Question 17

Homunculus?

Answer 17

Homunculus = assuming there is a decision maker in your brain (the little self)

Question 18

Decision field theory

Answer 18

Decision field theory = a model of decision making based on evidence accumulation
->The decision maker is the process of information sampling and deciding
->Outcomes are drawn from memory which evaluate (striatal) information

Question 19

What is generative self-construction?

Answer 19

Generative self-construction = whether determinism is true or not, you can create alternatives that did not exist before you searched for them and that no one could predict
→ We sample from memory and construct alternative futures. This is generative self-construction.

Question 20

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) - free will

Answer 20

-Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) defined bad faith as a form of self-deception where people avoid their freedom and deny their potential as human beings

Question 21

Defining will

Answer 21

The will: our capacity for coherent and robust self-representation -> part of our cognitive map

Question 22

Consequence of information proliferation

Answer 22

Consequence of information proliferation;
-Creates a poverty of attention
-Information placed under the influence of an attention economy -> how info is distributed and allocated

Question 23

What is cognitive selection?

Answer 23

Cognitive selection is the process for selecting information based on features valued by cognition -> dependant on what information is searched for, attended to, etc

Question 24

What are the four forces for cognitive selection?

Answer 24

Four forces for cognitive selection;
-Selection for belief consistent information
-Selection for negative information
-Selection for social information
-Selection for predictive information

Question 25

Selection for belief-consistent information

Answer 25

Belief-consistent information;
-Looking for evidence to support what we already know - thus amplifying biases
-Confidence of belief increases

Question 26

Negativity Bias/Selection for negative information

Answer 26

Negativity Bias/Selection for negative information;
-Loss aversion: we fear losses more than we value equivelant gains
-Evolutionary selection for survival
-Social risk amplification/Dread risks

Question 27

Social Bias/selection for social information

Answer 27

Social Bias/selection for social information;
-social learning theory (imitation of others)
-rejecting what we know when confronted with differing views
-Executive functioning turned off when given advice/varying views

Question 28

Pattern Bias/Selection for predictive information

Answer 28

-Replication crisis = difficulty reproducing results of studies
-Increase of errors (type 1/false positive) when researching multiple hypotheses
-Selection bias in publishing amplifies errors

Question 29

Four forces of cognitive selection and consequences

Answer 29

1. Selection for belief consistent information → extremism
2. Selection for negative information → fear/anxiety
3. Selection for social information → Herding
4. Selection for predictive information → replication crisis, risk seeking