General Psychology Exam 1

• What is psychology?

  • The study of scientific behavior and thought
  • Mind: thoughts, memories, beliefs
  • Brain: physical organ of body
• Invivo Exposure:

  • Means in real life
  • in real life therapy for phobias (most effective), virtual reality works too
• Psychology's roots:

  • Philosophy:
  • Aristotle: sleep, memory, diversity of personality
  • Philosophers have studied things that are psychological
  • Psychology and Philosphy share same topics of study
  • Uses logical thinking; psychologists use logic and research
  • Physiology:
  • is the science of the functions and mechanics of living organisms
  • Herman Von Helmholtz
• History of Psychology:

  • Roots in Greek Philosophy
  • Roots in Physiology
  • Herman Von Helmholtz: physiologist, studied sensory system, found the speed of neural impulse (88ft/sec)
  • Influences some to use same methods to measure thought
  • Modern psychology begins late 1800s:
  • Father of Psychology: Wilhelm Wundt
  • Established lab in 1879
  • Titchner
  • Structuralism: pieces that make up conscious mind
  • Father of American Psychology: William James
  • Functionalism: conscious mind in relation to everyday function
  • Sigmund Freud
  • Most well known
  • Psychoanalysis
• School of thought

  • rigid belief of what psychologists should study and how
• Wilhelm Wundt

  • Father of Psychology
  • Considered that because he founded the first psychology lab in 1879
  • Purposed:
  • that he could use introspection and exposure to stimuli to identify the elements of consciousness
  • Introspection: analyze own thoughts, beginning to measure the mind, stimulus exposure, and see what the subject says
  • Could be a sensation, memory, emotion, thoughts, ect.
• Edward Titchner

  • Student of Wundt's
  • Came up with the first school of thought
  • Structuralism:
  • use introspecton to measure conscious mind
  • Explored the elements or pieces of thought that make up the conscious mind
• William James

  • Father of American Psychology
  • Lab established in 1883
  • Functionalism:
  • how conscious mind is related to functional, or adaptive behavior
  • How it helps you function day to day, how is mind impacting behavior?
  • Wrote first psychology textbook
• How is Wundt's and James' approach to psychology different

  • Wundt focused on introspection of consciousness
  • focused on elements of thought
  • James focused on behavior in environment
  • focused on how the conscious mind helps function
• Sigmund Freud:

  • Most well known
  • Contributions:
  • talkotherapy, psychoanalysis, variation of the conscious mind, cause a revolution in psychology, listened to "hysterical" women
  • Criticisms:
  • pseudoscientific, misrepresented case studies, forced his ideas on patients, prehistoric trauma, not ethical, didn't believe in what he was doing, gay glitch, claims were not falsifiable
  • Psychoanalysis
  • school of thought, unconscious mind and unconscious thought,
  • societal pressures causes certain thoughts to be pushed back to unconscious mind
• Falsifiable: a claim that can be tested which means that it is scientific

  1. chocolate tastes better than pasta - not falsifiable
  2. we live in the most violent time in history - not falsifiable
  3. time can run backward as well as forward - not falsifiable
  4. there are planets other than earth that have water - falsifiable
• Psychological Perspectives

  • particular ways of explaining behavior and or thought
• Behavioral Perspective: behavior determined by environment 1920 s

  • J.B. Watson (founder) and B.F. Skinner
  • learned behavior patterns
  • S -> R model
  • Stimulus -> Response
  • Something in environment -> learned behavior pattern
  • Ex: eat a whole bunch of popcorn -> barf
  • J.B. Watson: we learn to associate stimuli and respond to both in the same way
  • Ex: eat something -> barf -> now don't like
  • B.F. Skinner: we learn to associate our voluntary behaviors with rewards or punishment that follows
  • Ex: new experience -> good consequence -> do it more
• Biological/Neuroscience: thought and behaviors are due to the physical activity in the nervous system

  • 1950 s
  • Brain and spinal cord: central nervous system
  • Nerves elsewhere: peripheral system
• Cognitive:

  • 1960 s
  • Neisser, Chonsky, Piaget, Vygotsky
• Cognitive <-thoughts:

  • how we process information determines our behavior
  • 1960 s
  • Neisser, Chonsky, Piaget, Vygotsky
  • Stimulus -> Cognition -> Response
  • Input -> process -> output
  • Read violent lyrics -> believe from rap song -> think it is highly offensive and is concerned
  • Read violent lyrics -> believe from folk song -> less likely to think of it as offensive
  • It is thoughts, knowledge, beliefs, expectations, decision making
• Cross Cultural or Sociocultural:

  • 1980s
  • Thoughts and behaviors are shaped by our culture
  • Muller Lyer Illusion
• Evolutionary:

  • inherit tendencies to think and believe in certain ways b/c they were adaptive and helpful in the past
  • Ex: taste preferences

  Intraspecies competition:

  • within a species, there is competition for scarce resources
  • Ex: mates, food

  Heritable variations:

  • members of a species differ due to the genes they inherit
  • Ex: moths were different colors

  Natural selection:

  • individuals who inherit genes that give them a survival advantage will more likely pass on their genes to the next generation
  • Ex: moths who were darker were able to blend in with the newly darkened trees
• Evolutionary:

  • Our hunter and gatherer ancestors who had a taste for fats and sugars survived and passed their genes to the next generation
  • This is why we like fats and sugars

  Naturalistic Fallacy:

  • If it worked for our ancestors, then it must work for us
• "Biopsychosocial" approach:

  • approach for levels of analysis of multiple perspectives to explain behaviors

  Mental health perspectives:

  • Humanistic
  • Psychoanalysis
• Quantitative Research Designs:

  • survey when a researcher asks participants a series of questions via internet or paper questionaire.
  • Longitudinal:
  • researcher studies the same group of individuals over an extended period
  • Quasi Experimental:
  • researcher measures & compares the behaviors or thoughts of 2+ pre existing groups of people
  • Naturalistic Observation:
  • researcher secretly observes & record the behavior of people in public settings
  • Correlational:
  • how closely two variables are related
  • Experimental:
  • Researcher controls one variable that is hypothesized to cause the second variable
• Longitudinal:

  • researcher studies the same group of individuals over an extended period of time
  • Ex: 14,376 typically middle aged participants, who either had or hadn't had head injuries, were asked the same questions over 25 years. Found that people who did have head injuries were more likely to develop dementia.
• Quasi Experimental:

  • researcher measures & compares the behaviors or thoughts of 2+ pre existing groups of people
  • Ex: researchers research the benefits of being imaginative, found that people that could imagine a situation were more likely to have more of a response than people that cannot.
• Naturalistic Observation:

  • researcher secretly observes & record the behavior of people in public settings
  • Ex: observe at an intersection or crosswalk and see what kind of car obeys the law and common courtesy
• Correlational:

  • how closely two variables are related
  • Correlation coefficient: a number signifying the relationship between two variable
  • symbolized as "r" ranges from +1.00 to -1.00
  • Positive: score high on variable 1 tend to score high on variable 2.
  • Negative: score high on variable 1 tend to score low on variable 2
  • Strength: of a relationship, how reliable is the relationship between the variables
  • Limitations: even if correlation is strong, it cannot be said if one coefficient causes another
• Correlational studies limitations:

  Reason 1: Unknown cause and effect direction

  • don't know which one is causing the other
  • Does V1 cause V2, or
  • Does V2 cause V1?
  • Relationship satisfaction->self care
  • self care->relationship satisfaction

  Reason 2: The third variable problem:

  • there could be a third variable that is the real cause of variables one and two
  • V1 <- V3 -> V2
  • relationship satisfaction<- self esteem ->self care
• Tell each correlation.

  A) Positive

  B) Negative

  C) No

  
• The correlation coefficeint between alcohol consumption and coordination is r=-.73. The strength of this correlation coefficient is:

  • strong

  The correlation coefficient between the number of cigarettes students smoke each day and students' GPA is r=+.09. The strength of this coefficient is:

  • no relation

  The correlation coefficient between the number of years people have been alive and their birth year is r=-1.00. The strength of this coefficient is :

  • perfect
• Experimental:

  • Researcher controls one variable that is hypothesized to cause the second variable
  • People with PTSD are given a random assignment. One random group will get MDMA and therapy, the other will get therapy and placebo.
  • It is the only research where cause and effect is found
  • Independent Variable: variable that is controlled by the experimenter (the cause)
  • Ex: the type of therapy/drug
  • Experimental group: gets the "treatment" (MDMA)
  • Control group: gets false "treatment" (placebo)
  • Dependent Variable: variable that is not controlled by experimenter (effect)
  • Ex: symptoms of PTSD
• Experimental research:

  • Random Assignment:
  • participants have an equal chance of being in either group
  • Controls "3rd variables" by equalizing groups
  • Isolates the Independent Variable
  • Confounds:
  • factors that decrease ability to establish the cause and effect
  • placebo effect: change in participants' reaction due to their expectations about the treatment, not treatment itself
  • Experimenter bias: a change in participant's behavior due to the experimenter
  • How to control:
  • double blind procedures: both participants and experimenter know participants' group
• Conclusions of research designs:

  Quantitative Research- how many people have certain characteristics

  Correlational- how closely variables are related

  Experimental- what variable causes which

  study does not equal experiment
• Why are experimental research designs the gold standard

  • Provides the most convincing evidence of the relationship between exposure and outcome
• Ethics:

  • Informed consent
  • participants are given basic information about a study so they can decide if they want to participate
  • Confidentiallity
  • researcher hides identity of participants from public
  • Anonymity
  • researcher does not collect identifying information
  • Deception:
  • when a researcher intentionally decieves or witholds information form participants
  • Debriefing:
  • at the end of the study, researchers answer the questions participants have, and fully explain the nature of the study, especially if deception was involved
• Stress

  • a person's physical and psychological reaction to an event that is perceived as overwhelming or threatening
  • Physical: heart pounding, shaky, shallow breath, body temperature, sweat, muscle tension
  • Psychological: emotion, cognitions
• Stress and Health:

  • Medical model of health (outdated & incomplete) due solely to biology
  • presence vs absence of disease
  • Biopsychosocial model of health (replaced Medical model of health)
  • Biological, psychological & social factors impact a person's health status (mind body connection: stress)
  • Body release stress hormones (adrenaline and cortisol)
  • Body is physically aroused and works harder than normal (metabolic uncoupling: body activity is out of sync)
  • Supresses immune system
  • Headaches, colds, heart disease, stroke, digestive, weight
  • Sleep & memory issues
  • Anxiety & depression
• Stressor: (trigger) something that makes a person feel stress (physical and psychological reaction)

  • Life event: a major change that requires adjustment (divorce, marriage)
  • Daily hassle: minor irritations that occur often daily (homework)
  • Chronic stress: stressor that is omnipresent (racism)
  • Accultration stress: adjusting to new unfamiliar culture
  • Performance stress: being evaluated by others on specific task (job performance)
  • Trauma: events that are physically/potentially deadly (car accident)
• Resilience: the ability to continue functioning well in the presence of a stressor

  Factors of resilience:

  1. Coping strategies: how it is handled
  2. Control and self efficacy: belief that you have control over situation, which lowers stress
  3. social relationship: connections in life
  4. Dispositions: personality characteristics
  5. Stress management: doing something to take stress off mind
• Coping Strategies

  1. Problem focused coping: responding to stressor by intentionally trying to change or fix stressor
  2. Identify problem (bad temper)
  3. Consider possible solutions (relax, think abt consequences)
  4. Weigh pros & cons of possible solutions
  5. Select solution
  6. Emotion focused coping: responding to stressor by trying to deceive negative emotions associated with the stressor
  7. Avoiding, distancing, distraction
  8. Minimizing & denial (no acknowledge problem)
  9. Seeking fun/humor/comfort (listen to music)
  10. Comparisons with others
  11. Find silver linings (what doesn't kill you makes you stronger)
• Resillience:

  1. Coping strategies
  2. Problem focused coping: intentionally trying to change stressor
  3. Emotion focused coping: decrease negative emotions associated with stressor
  4. Sense of control and self efficacy
  5. belief that you have control
  6. belief that you can perform in situation
  7. Social relationships and Social support
  8. anyone that can be of help
  9. Dispositions
  10. Type A: turbulent
  11. Type B: relaxed
  12. Stress management
  13. interventions implemented to decreased negative emotional and physical responses
• Sense of control and self efficacy

  • sense of control: believing that you have the ability to change your situation if and when you need to
  • One group of seniors got choices, were happy
  • One group of seniors got no choices, died early
  • Self efficacy: believing that you hav the abiltiy to perform well in a specific situation