Lecture Notes

• Validity


  What test whether the experiment is measuring what it's supposed to
• An invalid test can be reliable
• An unreliable test cannot be valid because it isn't measuring anything
• SAT


  Standardized - compared to a representative sample to understand what your score means
• Standard deviation


  100, telling if it's a tight distribution or spread out
• Empirical Rule: 68-95-99.7 rule for normal distribution, if you know the SD you can say 68% of data is within 1 standard deviation of the mean
• If you get 200 (3 SD below the mean) only 0.15% are worse
• Reliability of SAT


  r = .9, pretty good
• Effects of coaching on SAT validity: it's testing knowledge or ability to access resources
• Validity of SAT


  r = .5 with 1st year GPA in college
• The .5 correlation doesn't apply here because of range restriction = no correlation
• The problem is restricted range shows little correlation, e.g. Penn limits to high SAT scores so they can't compare grades because it makes no impact, no variety
• Typical evidence for genes and intelligence

  • Compare MZ (identical) vs DZ (fraternal) twins, focus on raised apart twins vs raised apart because environment can play a factor
  • Adoption studies - they take on more traits from biological parents
• Heritability


  How people differ in intelligence, proportion of population variation due to genes, genes effect / (effect of genes + environment)
• As environmental variation goes up, heritability goes down
• Heritability of finger number is low, genes play a role but most variation is due to accidents, not genetic determination
• Identical twins look alike because the environment treats them alike because they look alike, not because of genetics
• IQs are going up (Flynn Effect) by about 3 points per decade, more on nonverbal tests
• Expectancy (Rosenthal)


  Fixed mindset vs growth mindset, performance vs mastery, kids got smarter when expected to by teachers (expectations made them rise up), mindset is important, self-fulfilling prophecy as kids get tracked
• If expectancy can change performance it is clearly not due to genes
• IQ tests often test motivation, not intelligence
• Within group differences in intelligence are greater than between group differences, even if intelligence were 100% genetic it does not explain between group differences, which could be due to environment
• Genetic does not mean unchangeable, e.g. PKU can be avoided by avoiding certain amino acids
• Race


  Hard to define because it's versatile
• Stereotype Threat


  Negative stereotypes = self-fulfilling prophecy, when facing challenging tests, stereotypes against one's culture can be stigmatizing and affect performance, but this effect disappears when the test is not framed as diagnostic
• Asking for race can potentially cause priming and affect academic performance
• Experiments show the difference in scores between men and women, or Asian women and math, disappears when the stereotype is not made salient
• Practical intelligence is covered in Lecture 18
• Freud's theory of personality

  • Unconscious - things we aren't aware of affecting our personality
  • Childhood events - experiences at a young age that affect how we think/who we are
  • Basic Drives - idea that we are pressured by drives like sex, aggression, death instinct and try to let off steam
• Freud's therapy technique


  Glove anesthesia - lost sensation in hand but nowhere else, suggesting a psychological condition is affecting something physical
• Unconscious Drives


  Sex, pleasure, aggression - civilized society doesn't allow acting on these so we repress them, leading to constant battle and illnesses
• Freudian techniques to show unconscious drives

  • Dream Analysis - manifest vs latent content, shows hidden unacceptable desires
  • Free Association - person talks freely to reveal unconscious conflicts
  • Slips of the Tongue - revealing unconscious feelings
• Freud's Personality System


  • ID - unconscious, pleasure principle
  • Ego - reality principle
  • Superego - conscience handed through society/parents
• Ego gets Anxiety From

  ID, Real World, Superego
• Defense Mechanisms


  • Repression - unconscious repression to keep out of mind
  • Displacement - safer target
  • Sublimation - socially acceptable
  • Reaction Formation - do the opposite
  • Projection - put onto somebody else
  • Rationalization - reason away
• Psychosexual Stages


  • Oral (0-18 months) - mouth, sucking
  • Anal (18-36 months) - bowels, elimination
  • Phallic (3-6) - genitals, Oedipus/Electra complex
  • Latency (6-puberty) -
  • Genital (puberty on) -
• Fixation in Psychosexual Stages

  Makes up for deficit of pleasure in one stage so go back to it, e.g. lack of oral stage leads to smoking
• Oedipus Complex


  Believed every man subconsciously wants to sleep with mother and kill father, resolved through identification with father and development of superego
• Electra Complex


  Girl's desire for father and jealousy of mother, resolved through identification with mother
• Evidence for Freud's claims includes "kinder/gentler" defense mechanisms, projection study showing false consensus effect, and terror management theory