Psychology

• Psychology: The study of human minds, their behavior and mind processes
• What are the subfields of psychology?


  Psychoanalysis, behaviorism, cognitive, humanism
• Psychoanalysis: Unconscious and conscious mental processes. How do early childhood experiences affect human development

  • The id: Instinctual aspect "pleasure principle"
  • The ego: Rational aspect "reality principle"
  • The superego: Moral center
• What are Erik Erikson's 8 stages of psychological development?

  • Trust vs mistrust: birth - year
  • Autonomy vs shame and doubt: 2-3 years
  • Initiative vs guilt: 3-5 years
  • Industry vs inferiority: 6- onset of puberty
  • Identity vs role confusion: teens-20s
  • Intimacy vs isolation: 20s - early 40s
  • Generativity vs stagnation: 40s - 60s
  • Integrity vs despair: 60s onward
• Ivan Pavlov: Operant conditioning --> Turning a previously neural stimulus to a conditioned stimulus

  • Dogs naturally salivated at food. Used the neutral stimulus the bells sound and associated it with giving of food.
• B.F. Skinner: strengthening or weakening voluntary behaviors through reinforcement or punishment.

  • Operant conditioning Quadrant --> Positive -adding stimulus, negative -removing stimulus
• Behaviorism: Theory that behavior can be measured, trained, and changed.
• Cognitive psychology : Study and application of how the brain works
• Albert Bandura: Social cognitive theory --> peoples motivations are influenced by their social environment. People learn behaviors by observing and mimicking
• Humanism: Individual behavior is related to internal feeling and self concept.
• Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalytic theory --> Unconscious mind controls our thoughts and actions. Id (pleasure seeking), Ego (reality based), Superego (moral values).
• Abraham Maslow: The hierarchy of needs. People are motivated to achieve their needs. One MUST accomplish one step to move on to the next.
• Types of parental influence:

  • Direct interaction: Direct communication and transfer of knowledge
  • Emotional identification: Identify with parents emotional status
  • Family stories: Telling stories of family members
• What are the 4 parenting styles?

  Permissive, Authoritative (Ideal style), Authoritarian, Neglectful
• Three issues related to family environment:

  1. Eating disorders: Parental views on weight, family history, high expectations
  2. Criminal behavior: Parent violent behavior, Weak verbal communication and family bond, neglectful families
  3. Runaway teens: Escaping unhealthy family environment, poor family relationship
• Conformity: Changing one's behavior/attitude in order to follow what other beliefs or guidelines of other people in a group
• Factors affecting conformity:

  • Group attractiveness: How much do I want to fit in with these people? Lower the social position more likely to conform
  • Group unanimity: The pressure to conform due to group agreement (lot's of people are agreeing)
  • Public vs private response: In front of other who can hear your opinions or privately where no one knows.
  • Nature of task: Something you are an expert in you may not conform vs something you are unsure of and not too educated in
• Deindividuation: People who disassociate from their own identity when immersed in group environments
• What is Bystander Apathy?


  A witness to an event who does not intervene and has lack of interest/emotional response
• Why does bystander apathy occur?

  • Assume someone else will help the issue
  • Scared for personal safety
  • Don't have time to weigh the alternative
  • No "practiced" response
  • They might get in trouble
• Factors which influence bystander apathy:

  • Notice of incident
  • Are you in a group or alone?
  • Are other people already helping?
  • Does the attacker have a weapon or could over power you?
  • Am I going to be embarrassed of I help?
• Instinct Theory: Unlearned and involuntary processes direct our behavior
• Drive-reduction Theory: Physiological needs creates drives which motivate us to satisfy them
• Intrinsic Motivation: Desire to perform a task due to internal factors (To better ourselves) which motivate us to perform a task (Do it for the sake of doing it)
• Extrinsic Motivation: Desire to preform a tasks due to external factors such as a reward or punishment
• Negativity Bias: The tendency to remember negative events more vividly than positive events.
• Striving for perfection: The desire to achieve the highest possible level of performance
• Theories on changing behavior:

  1. Consistency: Correlation between attitudes and behavior
  2. Learning: Study the effect of stimuli and no stimuli on emotional response
  3. Social judgment: How the perception of persuasive messages influence that persuasion
  4. Functional: Change an attitude by explaining its function
• Aspects of social thinking:

  • Attribution theory: Linking behaviors based in what you observe in personalities or external situation (judging a book by its cover)
  • Fundamental attribution error: Tendency to overestimate the impacts of personality and underestimate social influence when analyzing behaviors (Quiet person being loud at a party)
  • Stereotypes: Preconceived beliefs about people
  • Facial expression: Non-verbal communicate of peoples feelings and thoughts
• Introvert: Find it draining to be around other people, direct interests inwards to themselves
• Extrovert: People person, direct their interest outwards
• Highly sensitive people: Need minimal auditory stimuli and are sensitive to other peoples moods
• Overcoming shyness: Anxious and nervous around people

  • Environmental influences help
  • Encouragement from parents
• Mental illness: A disorder of the mind that affects a person's thinking, feeling, and behavior.
• Stigma: Belief which leads to social disgrace of a person or quality
• Behavioral change model:

  1. Pre-contemplation(Don't see the issue) and contemplation (recognize I have an issue)
  2. Preparation
  3. Action
  4. Maintenance
• Nature vs Nurture: The conflict between the genes and the environment.
• Nurture: The environment you grow up in has an effect on you.
• Nature: Passing down of trait/genes from generation to generation
• Feral children: Unwanted by their parents, deserted at a young age, and are raised by animals