I: UNDERSTANDING THE SCIENCE OF • Structuralism

- focus: study of the mind

PSYCHOLOGY
- every experience could be broken down into its
individual emotions & sensations
Psychology
- dominant force before early 1900s
- scientific study of behavior & mental processes
- structuralists fought over which key elements of
experience were most important
• Behavior
- all of our outward/overt actions & reactions

Margaret F. Washburn
- talking, facial expressions, movements
- first woman to receive PhD in psychology
• Mental processes
- Titchener’s student
- all internal, covert activities
- The Animal Mind
- thinking, feeling, remembering
- book on animal behavior
- important work in that era of psychology
Four Goals: Description, Explanation, Prediction & Control
• Description

William James & Functionalism
- observing a behavior and noting everything about it:
- Harvard University
what, where, to whom & under what circumstances it
 1st school to offer Psychology (late 1870s)
happens
- classes were taught by William James
- GOAL: Provide observations
- book: Principles of Psychology
• Explanation
- study of consciousness is like trying to study the wind
- theory: general explanation of a set of observations
- believed in Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection
or facts
 physical traits help an animal adapt to its
- GOAL: Help build theory
environment & are passed to its offspring,
• Prediction

:)
becoming part of the animal’s traits
- what will happen in the future
• Control
• Functionalism

n
- modification of some behavior
- focused on how the mind allows people to function
- GOAL: Change a behavior from an undesirable on
in the world
to a desirable one
zo  how people work, play & adapt to surroundings
- offered an alternative viewpoint to structuralists
HISTORY
- played a part in the development of evolutionary
• 125 years old
di
psychology (one of the modern perspectives)
• Aristotle
- relationship of soul to body (De Anima)

Mary Whiton Calkin
• Plato (Aristotle’s teacher)
- James’ Harvard student denied of PhD because she
ca

- dualism: soul & body could exist separately

was a woman
• Rene Descartes (French philosopher, mathematician)
- allowed to take classes as a guest only
- agrees with Plato (dualism)
- established a lab at Wellesley College
- pineal gland (organ at brain’s base) = soul’s seat
- work was of the earliest in human memory &
ni

• Philosophers
psychology of the self
- human mind’s connection to body
• Medical Doctors & Physiologists
je

Francis Cecil Summer

- physical connection between body & brain
(Father of African American Psychology)
- 1st African American to earn a PhD at Clark

William Wundt – Father of Psychology
University
- lab in Leizpig, Germany (1879)
- eventually the chair of the psychology department
- attempted to apply scientific principles to the study of
at Howard University
the human mind

Kenneth & Mamie Clark
- mind was made up of thoughts, experiences,
- negative effects of school segregation on African
emotions & other basic elements
American children
• Objective Introspection

Jorge Sanchez
-process of objectively examining & measuring one’s
- intelligence testing: cultural biases
own thoughts & mental activities

Educational Psychology

Edward Titchener & Structuralism
- application of psychological concepts to
- Wundt’s student
education
- Cornell University (Ithaca, New York)
Industrial/Organizational Psychology
- agreed with Wundt:
- application of psychological concepts to business,
the state of being aware of external events, could be
organizations & industry
broken down into its basic elements
- introspection method could also work with physical
sensations
Gestalt Psychology: The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of
Its Parts

Max Wertheimer
-objected to structuralists’ view
 perceiving & sensing could not be broken down
into smaller elements & still be properly understood
- perception can only be understood as a whole,
entire event
-“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
• Gestalt Psychology
- German word: good form/ good figure
- studying whole patters rather than small pieces of
them
- part of Cognitive Psychology
- focuses not only on perception
- learning, memory, thought processes &
problem solving
- basis of Gestalt Therapy
Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud
- neurologist
- culture:
 Victorian Age: intense sexual repression
- almost all patients were women
 a good Victorian husband:
- sought mistress to meet his “worldly” needs
- left pure & saintly wife alone after children are
born
- personality formed in first six years of life
- followers: Alfred Adler, Carl Jung & Anna Freud
di
 Anna: ego movement in psychology
• Unconscious mind
- push or repress all threatening urges & desires
ca
• Psychoanalysis
- theory & therapy base on Freud’s ideas
- basis of Psychotherapy
ni
- process in which a trained psychological
professional helps a person gain insights
je
into & change his/her own behavior
John B. Watson & Behaviorism

John B. Watson
- ignore whole “consciousness issue”
- all behavior is learned
**Freud: phobia – irrational fear
 symptom of an underlying, repressed conflict
 cannot be cured without years of
psychoanalysis to uncover & understand
repressed material
• Behaviorism (science of behavior)
- focus on scientific inquiry  observable behavior
- directly seen &
measured
- influenced cognitive psychology
STUDIES
 Pavlov’s work with dogs
 reflex: involuntary reaction
 conditioning: learned reflexive response
 “Little Albert” (John Watson & Rosalie Rayner)
 taught baby to fear white rat by making a loud,
scary noise
 baby became afraid of anything white & fuzzy
 Stimulus-response relationship
 “Little Peter” (Mary Cover Jones)
 Jones: one of the early pioneers of behavior
therapy
 duplicated Watson & Rayner’s study
 white rabbit instead of white rat
 Counterconditioning
- old conditioning (fear of rabbit) would be
replaced or countered by a new conditioning
- food with rabbit
PSYCHOLOGY NOW: MODERN PERSPECTIVES
- no single perspective to explain all human behavior
& mental processes
- 7 modern perspective
:)
- 2 are holdovers from early days of the field
Psychodynamic
n
- focus:
unconscious mind & its influence over conscious
zo behavior & on early childhood experiences
- less emphasis on sex & sexual motivations
- more emphasis on development o a sense of self &
discovery of other motivations behind a person’s
behavior
Behavioral
- Operant Conditioning (B.F. Skinner)
 theory of how voluntary behavior is learned
 behavioral responses that are followed by
pleasurable consequences are strengthened/
reinforced
Humanistic
- “third force” in psychology
- reaction to both psychodynamic theory &
behaviorism
- “mechanical theory”
 stimulus goes in, response comes out
 whatever happens in the middle is of no interest
- environment determines behavior
- individual has little/no input into their development
- Abraham Maslow & Carl Rogers
 free will: freedom to choose destiny
 human potential: ability to be the best person
- Self-Actualization (Maslow)
 achieving one’s full potential or actual self
 could not be achieved by studying animals in
laboratories (behaviorists) or people with nervous
disorders (psychoanalysts)
Biopsychology
- study biological bases of behavior & mental processes
- human & animal behavior is seen as a direct result of
events in the body
 causes: hormones, brain chemicals, tumors & diseases

Cognitive
- focus: how people think, remember, store & use
information
- Gestalt psychologists supported study of mental
processes of learning
- brought about by birth of computers
- cognitive revolution
- major force through focus on:
 memory, intelligence, perception, thought
processes, problem-solving, language & learning
Sociocultural
- combines:
 Social psychology
- study of groups, social roles & rules of social
actions & relationships
 Cultural psychology
- study of cultural norms, values & expectations
- reminds people that how they & others
behave/think is influenced by whether they are alone,
with friends, in a crowd or part of a group, but also by
the particular culture they live in
- bystander effect
 poverty, overcrowding, stress, drug abuse, etc.
- work out of clinics, hospitals & social service orgs

Psychologist
- no medical training but has a doctorate degree
- with Master’s Degree:
 therapist, counselor, researcher
- undergo intense academic training & learning about
many different areas of psychology before
choosing an area in which to specialize
- work in various vocational settings
 researching, teaching, designing equipment &
workplaces & developing educational methods

Uses of Psychology
- health, sports performance, legal issues, business
concerns & equipment, tools & furniture designs
PSYCHOLOGY: THE SCIENCE
Scientific Method
- system for reducing bias & error in the measurement of
data

:)
 presence of other people lessened chances of
- designed to overcome tendency to look at only the
a person in trouble receiving help
information that confirms people’s biases
- diffusion of responsibility

n
- forces to actively seek out information that might
 tendency to feel that someone else is responsible
contradict biases
for taking action when others are present
zo
- one does not need proof to believe
- scientists need proof to know
Evolutionary
- researchers try to find answers to empirical questions
- focus: biological bases for universal mental
- philosophy & religion = beliefs & values
di
characteristics all humans share
- seeks to explain general mental strategies & traits
 Perceiving the Question
 way we lie
- interesting happenings in surroundings
 how attractiveness influences mate selection
ca

 Forming a Hypothesis
 why fear of snakes is universal
- educated guess about the explanation of
 why people like music & dancing
observation
- mind
 Testing the Hypothesis
 set of information-processing machines
ni

 Drawing Conclusions
 designed by am process of natural selection (Darwin)
- any data that comes from testing procedure will be
- evolutionary psychologists
analyzed with some kind of statistical method that
je

 study evolutionary origins of human behavior

helps to organize & refine data
 bitter-tasting food study
 Report Results
- what, why, & how you did it & what you found
Types of Psychological Professionals
 others can learn

Psychiatrist
- replication of research
- M.D. degree
 gives more support to findings
- diagnosis & treatment of psychological disorders
 allows others to predict, modify &/or control
- can prescribe medicine
behavior based on findings
- can provide therapy & counseling
- typically in private practice/ hospital settings
Descriptive Methods

Naturalistic Observation

Psychoanalyst
- Advantage:
- either a psychiatrist (M.D.) or psychologist (PhD, PsyD,
allows researchers to get a realistic picture of how
EdD)
behavior occurs because they are actually watching
- has special training in theories & method of Sigmund
- Disadvantage:
Freud’s psychoanalysis
 Observer Effect
- animals/people will not behave normally when

Psychiatric Social Worker
they know they are being watched
- trained in area of social work
= Participant Observation
- Master of Social Work (MSW) degree/
- might actually become participants in a group
Licensed Clinical Social Work (LCSW) degree
 Observer Bias
- focus: environmental conditions that can have an
- person observing has a particular opinion/
impact on mental disorders
 expectation of what he/she is going to see
= More than one observer
 compare observations
 Setting cannot be replicated
- each naturalistic setting is unique & unlike any
other
- observations made at one time & setting may
not hold true for another time

Laboratory Observation
- Advantage: degree of control
- Disadvantage: artificial situation = artificial behavior

Case Studies
- one individual is studied in great detail
- Disadvantage:
 researchers can’t apply results to similar people
 results in one case won’t necessarily apply/
generalize to others
- Phineas Gage: railroad spike driven through head
 suffered a major personality change as a result

Surveys
- researchers ask a series of questions about the topic
- through interviews, telephone, Internet or
questionnaire
- Advantage:
ability to get private information
 tremendous amount of data on a very large
group of people
- Disadvantage:
 careful about people they survey
di
 Representative Sample of Population
- randomly selected people from the entire group
researcher is interested in
 people aren’t always going to give accurate
ca
answers
- misremember things, distort truth, lie outright
- Courtesy Bias
- answers that are more socially correct than
ni
their true opinion
je
FINDING RELATIONSHIPS

Correlation
- a measure of the relationship between two or more
variables
- Variable
 anything that can change or vary
- Correlation Coefficient
 direction of the relationship & strength
 value of one variable allows them to predict the
value of the other variable
 +: two variables increase in the same direction
increase & increase, decrease & decrease
 -: inverse relationship
increase & decrease
 strength of relationship between the variables will
be determined by the actual number
 number cannot be greater +1.00 or less than -1.00
- imaginary line on a graph around which data
points gather (scatterplot)
- strong: # is closer to +1.00
- weak: # is closer to 0
biggest error: assume that one variable is the cause
of the other = correlation does not prove causation
 tells:
- if there is a relationship between the variables
- how strong the relationship is
- what direction the relationship goes
 can provide a starting point for examining casual
relationships with experiments

Experiment
- deliberate manipulation of the variable that is
thought of as the cause of a behavior, while holding
other variables that may interfere constant &
unchanging
- allows determination of cause-and-effect
relationships
- Operational Definition
 specifically names operations that the experiment
must use to control or measure the variables in
the experiment
- Independent Variable
 name for the variable that is manipulated in any
experiment
 cannot be chosen/varied by participants
 behavior does not affect variable
 response of participants to the manipulation of
:)
the independent variable is a dependent
relationship
- Dependent Variable
n
 response of the participants that is measured
 always the response of subjects/result of some
zo action that is measured to see just how the
independent variable may have affected it
- Confounding Variable
 variables that interfere w/ each other & their
possible effects on some other variable of
interest
- Experimental Group
 group with independent variable
 experimental manipulation
- Control Group
 control for the possibility that other factors might
be causing the effect being examined
 no treatment/ no effect
- Random Assignment
 best way to assure control over interfering/
extraneous variables
 each participant has an equal chance of being
assigned to each condition
- People are often influenced by their own thoughts
about what’s going on in an experiment
- Placebo Effect
 expectations of the participants in a study can
influence behavior
- Placebo: substitute with no effect
- Experimenter Effect
 tendency of experimenter’s expectations for a
study to unintentionally influence the results of
a study
- Single-Blind Study
 subjects do not know if they are in the
experimental/ control group
- Double-Blind Study
 neither experimenter nor subject knows who is in
the experimental/ control group
- Quasi-Experimental Designs
 alternative designs that are not considered as true
 experiments because of the inability to randomly
assign participants to the experimental & control
group

Case Study: Teresa Amabile & Effect of Extrinsic
Reward on Creativity
- Dr. Teresa Amabile
 study of creativity in both children & adults
- Extrinsic (external) reward
= significantly less creative
- Intrinsic (internal) motivation
= more creative
ETHICS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH

Ethics Committee
- group of psychologists/ other professionals who look
over each proposed research study & judge
according to its safety & consideration for the
participants in the study
- looks at all aspects of the proposal research

Guidelines
1. Rights & well-being of participants must be
weighed against the study’s value to science.

Pseudopsychologies
- systems of explaining human behavior that aren’t
based on or consistent with scientific evidence
- no real value other than entertaining
- Phrenology
 bumps in the skull are indicators of various
personality traits
 Franz Gall (German anatomy teacher)
- skull size was related to intelligence
- deliberately chose skulls of a size to “prove”
assumption
- Palmistry
 reading of the palm
 lines on the palm have absolutely no relationship
to personality & cannot predict the future
- Graphology
 analysis of personality through handwriting
- Astrology
 attempts to predict future & explain personality
by using the positions of the stars & planets at
the moment of birth
 charts are not up-to-date
moment of birth vs. moment of conception
stars’ & planets’ effect vs. gravity

:)
2. Participants must be allowed to make an informed
decision about participation.
3. Deception must be justified.

n
- Debriefing: helps understand need for deception
& importance of response to deception
4. Participants may withdraw from the study any time.
zo
5. Participants must be protected from risks or told
explicitly of the risks.
di
6. Investigator must debrief the participants, telling
the true nature of the study and expectations of
results.
7. Data must remain confidential.
ca

Animals vs. Humans

- Animals live shorter lives
 looking at long-term effects is easier
ni

- Animals are easier to control

 diet, genetics, etc.
je

- Animals engage in simpler behavior than humans do

 easier to see the effects of manipulation
- Animals can be used in ways that researchers could
never use people
- Focus on animals: avoid unnecessary pain/suffering
- Animals are used in 7% of all psychological studies

CRITICAL THINKING
- reasoned judgments
- judgments should be logical and well thought out

Criteria
1. There are very few “truths” that do not need to be
subjected to testing.
2. All evidence is not equal in quality.
3. Just because someone is considered to be an
authority or to have a lot of expertise does not
make everything that person claims automatically
true.
4. Critical thinking requires an open mind.
 requires a delicate balance between skepticism
& willingness to consider possibilities. II: FROM THE BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
 • Dendrites (“branch”)
Nervous System - attached to the cell body
- a network of cells that carries information to and from all • Soma
parts of the body - cell body
- contains the nucleus
NEURONS AND NERVES: BUILDING THE NETWORK - keeps entire cell alive & functioning

Neuroscience • Axon
- branch of life science - fiber attached to the soma
- deals with structure & functioning of the brain & - carry messages out to other cells
neurons, nerves & nervous tissue that form the nervous
system GENERATING THE MESSAGE WITHIN THE NEURON – THE
- focusing on their relationship to behavior and NEURAL IMPULSE
learning
Ions
- Santiago Ramon y Cajal - semiliquid solution inside the cell with charge
 doctor studying brain tissue slides particles
 discovered nervous system = individual cells - INSIDE: - / OUTSIDE: +
- Permeable
STRUCUTRE OF THE NEURON – THE NERVOUS SYSTEM’S  some substances that are outside can enter
BUILDING BLOCK through tiny openings in the membrane, while
- each type of cell has a special purpose, function & other substances can also go outside
structure - Negatively-charged ions
 nucleus, cell body & cell membrane  so big = can’t get out 
 inside = primarily negative when at rest

Neuron - Positively-charged sodium ions

:)
- specialized cell in the nervous system  too big to enter cell when cell is at rest
- receives & sends messages within the system - opposite charges attract
- make up 10% of cells in the brain = sodium ions cluster around the membrane

n
- 90% = Glial Cells = difference in charges
 getting nutrients to neurons = electrical potential
 cleaning up remains of dead neurons
zo- Resting potential  cell is at rest
 providing insulation for neurons - Action potential  electrical charge reversal
 Schwann Cell - R.P. :K (-) ions  stimulation/neural impulse  A.P. 
di
 generates a layer of fatty substances called gates open  Na(+) enter  gates close  Na-K
Myelin Pump  R.P.
 wraps around shaft of axons - Action potential sequence: 1000th of a second
 protective sheath 2 – 270 mph
ca

 offers a little protection from damage - Neuron fires at all-or-none fashion

 speeds up neural message traveling
down the axon SENDING THE MESSAGE TO OTHER CELLS: THE SYNAPSE
 Multiple Sclerosis
Axon Terminals
ni

 damages myelin sheath - branches at the end of axon

 loss of function in damaged cells
je

Nodes
Synaptic Knob/ Terminal Button

- places where myelin seems to bump
- small spaces in the axon without myelin
- electrical impulse (neural message)  axon w/
myelin  jumps between myelin sheath sections 
accessible places of axon = nodes
 message travels faster down the coated axon
than it would down an uncoated neuron of the
brain
Neurilemma (Schwann’s membrane)
- thin membrane coating axons of neurons
- surrounds axons and myelin sheath
- serves as a tunnel through which damaged nerve
fibers can repair themselves
Nerves
 cables in which bundles of myelin-coated axons
travel
- if neurons touch one another in the wrong area =
short
PARTS OF THE NEURON
- rounded areas on the end of axon terminals

Synaptic Vesicles
- Vesicle: Latin: fluid-filled sac/ blister
- sac-like structures found inside the synaptic knob
containing chemicals

Neurotransmitters
- chemical found in synaptic vesicles
- when released, has an effect on next cell
- transmits a message

Synapse/ Synaptic Gap
- microscopic fluid-filled space
- between synaptic knob of once cell & dendrites or
surface of the next cell

Receptor Sites
- holes in the surface of the dendrites/ certain cells of
the muscles & glands
- shaped to fit only certain neurotransmitters

Presynaptic Membrane
- end of axon containing neurotransmitters

Postsynaptic Membrane
- surface of the receiving neuron

Excitatory Neurotransmitter - turn cells on

Inhibitory Neurotransmitter - turn cells off

Agonists
- chemical substances that can mimic/enhance the
effects of a neurotransmitter on the receptor sites of the
next cell
- result: increase/decrease in activity of receiving cell
 depends on effect of original neurotransmitter
(Ex/In)

Antagonists
- chemical substances that bloc/reduce a cell’s
response to the action of other
chemicals/neurotransmitters
- if neurotransmitter affected is inhibitory
= increase in activity of cell (normally inhibited)

Beta Blockers
- drugs used to control high blood pressure
- serve as antagonists by blocking neurotransmitter
effects that stimulate heart’s contraction
= slower heart contractions & lowered blood pressure
NEUROTRANSMITTERS, MESSENGERS OF THE NETWORK
di

Acetylcholine
- excitatory transmitter
- found at the synapses between neurons & muscle
cells
ca
- also found in hippocampus
 brain area responsible for new memory
- serves to stimulate muscle to contract
- if receptor sites are blocked
ni
= muscle can’t contract  paralysis
- Curare
je
 drug used by S.A. Indians in blow darts
- if too much is released
= convulsions  death (Black widow spider venom)

GABA/Y-Aminobutyric Acid (Gamma-aminobutyric)
- most common inhibitory neurotransmitter in brain
- helps calm anxiety
 e.g. blinding receptor sites affected by tranquilizing
drugs/alcohol (agonist for GABA)
 stimulate excess release of GABA
= drunk

Serotonin
- found in lower part of brain
- either excitatory/inhibitory chemical
 depending on location in brain area
- associated with: sleep, mood & appetite
- low levels = depression
- helps regulate & adjust people’s moods

Dopamine
- different effects depending on exact location of
activity
- too little = Parkinson’s (Muhammad Ali/Michael J. Fox)
- too much = Schizophrenia

Neural Regulators/ Neural Peptides
- special neurotransmitters
- control release of neurotransmitters

Endorphin
- pain-controlling chemicals of the body
- *OUCH!*  Neurotransmitter signals pains  Brain
gets message  Triggers endorphin release 
Endorphins bind receptors that open gates on axon
 Cell is unable to fire pain signal  Pain subsides
- Endogenous morphine
 Endogenous: native to area (native to body)
 morphine fit exactly in receptor sites
 there might be natural morphine substance
- reason why heroin & other drugs from opium are
addictive
 taken: neglect to produce endorphins = no pain
 wear off: everything hurts = more heroin

Glutamate
- memory formation
:)

Norepinephrine
- arousal & mood
n
CLEANING UP THE SYNAPSE: REUPTAKE & ENZYMES

Neurotransmitters have to get out of receptor sites
zobefore next stimulation occurs

Reuptake
- process by which neurotransmitters are taken back
into the synaptic vessels

Acetylcholine  muscle activity
- muscle activity needs to happen rapidly and be
continuous
- special enzyme  break apart acetylcholine
 clears synaptic gap quickly

Serotonin  helps regulate & adjust people’s moods
- reuptake process occurs too quickly
= takes serotonin out of synapse before it can fully
activate next receptors on the next neuron
= depression
- SSRI (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors)
 blocks reuptake of serotonin
 leaves more serotonin available in synapse to
bond w/ receptor sites
 eventually elevates mood & lifts depression
- new research: keeping a person on a maintenance
dose of drug helps prevent depression
THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM – THE “CENTRAL
PROCESSING UNIT”

Central Nervous System
- brain & spinal cord
 neurons & glial cells that control:
 life-sustaining functions
 thought, emotion & behavior

Brain
- true core of nervous system
- takes information received from senses
 makes sense out of it
 makes decisions
 sends commands to muscles & rest of body
- w/o spinal cord = useless

Spinal Cord
- long bundle of neurons that serves two vital functions
for nervous system
- carries messages to & from the brain
- responsible for very fast lifesaving reflexes
- outer section:
 whiter
 composed mainly of axons & nerves
 carry messages from the body up to the brain &
from the brain down to the body
 message “pipeline”
- inner section:
 gray
 composed of cell bodies of neurons
The Reflex Arc: Three Types of Neurons

Inside section  primitive soft of “brain”
Responsible for very fast lifesaving reflexes

Reflex Arc
- connection of sensory neurons to interneurons to the
motor neurons, resulting in reflex action

Sensory (Afferent)
- carry messages from senses to spinal cord
di

Motor (Efferent)
- carry messages from spinal cord to muscles & glands
ca

Interneurons
- connect sensory neurons to the motor neurons
- make up the inside of spinal cord & brain
ni

Example
*OUCH!*  Sensory neuron: pain  Spinal column 
je
Central area of cord  Interneuron receive & send
response along motor neuron  Avoid *OUCH*
- if pain message went to brain = longer time
= more damage

Plasticity
- characteristic of brain
- ability to constantly change both the structure &
function of many cells in brain in response to
experience & even trauma

Recovery from Damage
• Implantation of nerve fibers from outside the spinal
cord  damaged area  “coax” damaged spinal
nerves to grow through “tunnels” of implanted
fibers
• Brain can change itself
 Adapting neurons to serve new functions when
old neurons die or are damaged
 Dendrites grow
 New synapses are formed in some areas of the
brain
• Stem cells
- special cells found in all tissues of the body
- capable of manufacturing other cell types when
those cells need to be replaced due to damage/
wear and tear
- ongoing controversy:
 obtained human embryos either from
terminated pregnancies or fertilization clinics
= possibility of obtaining from adult bone marrow
(Dr. Alexander Storch – American Academy of
Neurology, San Francisco)
 also eliminates any immune system problems
in transplanting tissues
 small amount of bone marrow stem cells can
be made to grow & produce large amount
of cells that can be converted into type of
cell needed
THE PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEM – NERVES ON THE EDGE

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
- made up of all nerves & neurons that are not
contained in the brain & spinal cord
- system that allows brain & spinal cord to
communicate with sensory systems of eyes, ears, skin &
:)
mouth
- allows brain & spinal cord to control muscles & glands
- divided into: somatic & autonomic nervous system
n
Somatic Nervous System
zo
- made up of all nerves carrying messages from senses to
central nervous system to the skeletal muscles of the
body

Soma  body

Voluntary Muscles
- only muscle controlled by somatic nervous system
- can be moved sat will but are not limited to only that
kind of movement
- can move involuntarily when a reflex response occurs

Sensory Pathway
- nerves coming from the senses
- Sensory Neurons
 neurons that make up nerves
 carry messages from various sensory organs to the
spinal cord
 messages may form part of spinal cord reflex
arc or be sent all the way to the brain

Motor Pathway
- nerves that carry messages from voluntary muscles
- Motor Neurons
 neurons in nerves
 carry messages from spinal cord and/or brain to
muscles & glands
 voluntary skeletal muscles only
Autonomic Nervous System
- large group of neurons near the spinal column
- neurons inside are part of central nervous system
- controls involuntary muscles, organs & glands
 heart, stomach, intestines, glands (adrenal &
pancreas)
- functions are more or less automatic
- divided into: sympathetic & parasympathetic division
 at any given moment may determine
whether people are aroused/relaxed

Sympathetic Division
- primarily located on the middle of the spinal column
 running from near top of ribcage to waist area
- “in sympathy” w/ one’s emotions
- fight-or-flight system
- allows people & animals to deal w/ all kinds of stressful
events
 anger = fight/ fear = flight
- specific ways:
 pupils seem to get bigger
= let in more light = more information
 heart pumps faster & harder
= draws away blood from nonessential organs
 skin = paleness
 brain = faint
= blood needs lots of O2 before it goes to muscles
= lungs work overtime = faster breathing
- Adrenal glands
 receive special instructions
 stimulated to release certain stress-related
chemicals (hormones) into blood stream
 travels into all parts of body
 will only affect certain target organs
 molecules fit into receptor sites at various target
organs (heart, muscles & lungs)
 further stimulates organs to work harder
- not every organ will be stimulated upon activation
- digestion of food & excretion of waste
 not necessary functions when dealing w/ stressful
di
situations = “shut down” or inhibited
 saliva dries up
 urge to go to the bathroom will be suppressed
 really scared = bladder/bowels empty
ca
- demands body to burn a tremendous amount of fuel
or blood sugar
- stress ends = parasympathetic division
- too much stress = collapse (parasympathetic division)
ni

Parasympathetic Division
je
- para: “beyond” or “next to”
-eat-drink-and-rest system
- neurons are located at top & bottom of spinal
column, on either side of sympathetic division neurons
- restore body to normal functioning after stressful
situation ends
 slows heart & breathing
 constricts pupils
 reactivates digestion & excretion
- signals to adrenal glands stop
 parasympathetic division is not connected
- allows body to put back all energy burned
- does more than just react to activity of sympathetic
division
- responsible for most of ordinary, day-to-day bodily
functioning
 heart beats regularly
 breathe normal
 digestion
- normally active
 people spend > part of their 24-hour day eating,
sleeping, digesting & excreting
PEEKING INSIDE THE BRAIN

Clinical Studies
- study animals/humans with damage to various parts
of the brain
 animals: may deliberately damage part of brain
 researchers test abilities
electrically stimulate = what happened?
• Deep Lesioning
- insertion of a thin, insulated wire into the brain
- electrical current is sent that destroys the brain cells
at the tip of the wire
• ESB (Electrical Stimulation of the Brain)
- stimulation of brain tissue with a milder electrical
current
- causes neurons to react as if they received a
message

EEG (Electroencephalograph)
- fairly harmless
- recording of the electrical activity of the neurons just
below the skull
- small metal discs (microelectrodes) are placed
directly on the skin covering the skull, using a jelly-like
substance to help conduct electrical messages from
:)
neurons below
 microelectrodes
- attached to wires, wires attached to pens on
n
graphing paper
- can detect electrical activity
zo- may indicate stages of sleep, seizures, presence of
tumors, etc.
- can also be used to determine which areas of brain
are active during tasks such as reading, writing,
speaking, etc
- only allows researchers to look at activity of brain
surface
• Beta waves
- very fast, irregular waves
- indicate waking activity
• Alpha waves
- slightly more regular & slower waves
- sign of relaxation
• Delta waves
- indicate a deep stage of sleep
• ICA (Independent Component Analysis)
- allows identification of individual signals coming
from different areas of brain
- allows a more detailed & precise interpretation
• ERP (Event-related potential)
- results of multiple presentations of a stimulus are
measured on an EEG & then averaged to remove
variations in random brain activity that occur in the
background of any single EEG recording
- result: measurement of electrical potential of the
brain related to stimulus event/ event-related
potential
- being investigated for several different uses
 follow progression of Alzheimer’s disease
 method of lie detection

CT (Computer Tomography)
- series of x-rays of the brain, aided by a computer
- can show stroke damage, tumors, injuries & abnormal
brain structure

MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)
- provides more details of the brain
- allows doctors to see effects of very small strokes
- person is placed in a magnetic field
 allows computer to create a
3D image of brain & slices
- traditional MRI = structure only
- functional MRI = sort of “movie” of changes in activity
of brain using images from different
time periods

PET (Positronic Emission Tomography)
- brain in action
- injected with a radioactive glucose
- computer detects activity of brain cells by looking at
which cells are using up radioactive glucose
- active = white/very light || inactive = dark blue
- researchers can have the person perform different
tasks while the computer shows what the brain is doing
during task
FROM THE BOTTOM UP: THE STRUCTURES OF THE BRAIN
The Brain Stem

Medulla (“marrow”/ “inner substance”)
- top of spinal column
- first “swelling” at the top of spinal cord, at the bottom
of the brain
- controls life-sustaining functions:
heartbeat, breathing, swallowing
- where nerves coming from & going to the left side of
the body cross over
 left side of body controls right side, vice versa
di

Pons (bridge)
- larger “swelling” above the medulla
- bridge between lower and upper part of brain
ca
- influence: sleep, dreaming, coordination of
movement of R & L side of body & arousal

Reticular Formation
ni
- area of neurons running through the middle of the
medulla, pons & slightly beyond
je
- responsible for people’s ability to selectively attend to
certain kinds of info in their surroundings
- allows people to ignore constant unchanging
information (aircon) & become alert to changes in
information (aircon stops)
- helps keep people alert and aroused
- Reticular Activiating System
 stimulates upper part of brain
 keeps people awake & alert
 suggested by brain-scanning studies as a possible
area involved in attention-deficit hyperactivity
disorder (difficulty maintaining attention to a single
task)
- when electrically stimulated in rats = AWAKE
- when destroyed through deep lesioning = COMA

Cerebellum (“little brain”)
- at the base of skull behind pons
- controls involuntary, rapid & fine motor movement
- coordinates voluntary movements that involve rapid
succession (walking, dancing, diving, playing a musical
instrument, speech, etc.)
- stores learned reflexes, skills & habits
- people don’t have to consciously think about posture,
muscle tone & balance
- Spinocerebellar Degeneration
 tremors – first symptoms
 unsteady walk, slurred speech, dizziness & muscle
weakness
 eventually: unable to walk, stand, etc.
 symptoms similar to alcohol intoxication
Structures Under the Cortex

Cortex
- outer wrinkled covering of the brain
- each of the structures play a part in behavior

Limbic System (“marginal”)
- structure found in inner margin of upper brain
- includes thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus &
amygdale
- involved in emotions, motivation & learning
• Thalamus (“inner chamber”)
- triage nurse (sorts injured people for treatment)
- round structure in center of brain
- acts as relay station for incoming sensory info
:)
- might perform processing of info before sending it to
the part of the cortex that deals with a specific
sensation (haring, sight, touch/taste)
n
- damage: loss/partial loss to sensation
zo• Hypothalamus (“below the inner chamber”)
- small but extremely powerful
- regulates: body temperature, thirst, hunger,
sleeping, waking, sexual activity & emotions
- sits above pituitary gland (master gland – controls
functions of all other endocrine glands)
- controls pituitary
- ultimate regulation of hormones
• Hippocampus (“seahorse”)
- instrumental in forming long-term/permanent
memories that are stored elsewhere in the brain
- within temporal lobes on each side of the brain
- electrical stimulation of temporal lobe may produce
memory-like/dream-like experiences
- Acetylcholine (neurotransmitter involved in muscle
control) is involved in memory function
 Alzheimer’s = lower acetylcholine levels
- may be very close to the area of brain where
memories for locations of objects are stored
- right parahippocampal gyrus (right hippocampus) is
more active when a person is planning a travel route
- deterioration may spread to or affect other nearby
areas
• Amygdala (“almond”)
- near hippocampus
- seem to be responsible for fear experiences &
memory of fear
- info from senses go to amygdale before upper part
of brain is involved = response to danger quickly
- Kluver-Bucy Syndrome
 monkeys w/ large amounts of their temporal
lobes removed = no fear of snakes & humans
 rats w/ damaged amygdale = no fear of cats
The Cortex (“rind”/ “outer covering”)
- outermost part of brain
- part of brain most people picture
- made up of tightly packed neurons
- 1/10 of an inch thick
- tissue appears grayish pink because of tightly packed
neural bodies (gray) & small blood vessels (pink)
- very recognizable because of wrinkles
- wrinkling allows a much larger area of cortical cells to
exist in a small space inside skull
- 2-3 square feet if ironed flat
- Corticalization
 more wrinkled as brain increases in size & complexity
 real measure of human intelligence
- divided into 2 sections: cerebral hemispheres
 connected by corpus callosum (“hard bodies”)
- thick, tough band of neural bodies
 each hemisphere can be roughly divided into four
sections by looking at the deeper wrinkles (fissures)
The Lobes & Their Specialties

Occipital Lobe
- base of cortex, toward the back of brain
- processes visual information from eyes in the primary
visual cortex
- visual association cortex
helps identify & make sense of visual information
from the eyes
* Oliver Sacks with tumor in right occipital lobe
 cannot identify objects by sight alone
 has perfect vision though
di

Parietal (“wall”) Lobe
- at top & back of brain, under parietal bone in skull
- contains somatosensory cotex
ca
 area of neurons running down front of
parietal lobes on either side of brain
 cells at top of brain receive info from
bottom of body, as one moves down
ni
area, signals come from higher & higher
in the body
je
 little upside down person
- processes information from skin & internal body
receptors for touch, temperature & body position
- sense of taste

Temporal (“of/near the temples”) Lobe
- contain primary auditory cortex & auditory
association area
- blow = “ringing”
- most particularly involved with language

Frontal Lobe
- at the front of brain
- higher mental functions
 planning, personality, memory storage, complex
decision making, abstract reasoning & language
- helps in controlling emotions by means of connection
to limbic system
- damage: problems performing mental tasks, step-by-
step process, etc.
- contain motor cortex
 band of neurons located at back of each
label
 control movements of the body’s voluntary
muscles by sending commands out to the
somatic division of the peripheral nervous
system
The Association Areas of the Cortex
- made up of neurons in the cortex
- devoted to making connections between sensory info
coming into brain & stored memories, images &
knowledge
- help people make sense of the incoming sensory input

Broca’s Area
- left frontal lobe (small population - right)
- speech
- allows a person to speak smoothly & fluently
- 19th century Paul Broca
- damage: Broca’s Aphasia
 unable to get words out in a smooth, connected
fashion
 people know what they want to say * understand
what they hear other’s say, but cannot control
actual word production
 speech is halting
 words are often mispronounced
:)
- Aphasia: inability to use/ understand either
written/spoken language
n

Wernicke’s Area
- left temporal lobe
zo- Carl Wernicke (Broca’s contemporary)
- understand meaning of words
- damage: Wernicke’s Aphasia
 able to speak fluently & pronounce words correctly,
but the words would be the wrong ones entirely

Spatial Neglect
- damage to association areas of right hemisphere
- person fails to recognize the left side of the visual field
- left body part doesn’t belong to him/her
The Cerebral Hemispheres: Are You in Your Right Mind?
Cerebrum
- upper part of brain consisting of two hemispheres &
structures that connect them

Split Brain Research (Roger Sperry)
- Nobel Prize winner for work in demonstrating that L & R
hemispheres of brain specialize in different activities &
functions
- cut through corpus callosum
 no side effects in animals
 people = relief from severe epileptic symptoms but
now have 2 brains in the body
- testing involves sending messages to only one side of
brain through connecting tissue
- Left Hemisphere (Analysis)
 language, speech, handwriting, calculation, time,
rhythm
 processes info in a sequence
 good at breaking things down into smaller parts
 Structuralist = break into parts
- Right Hemisphere (Emotion)
 perception, visualization, spatial perception,
recognition of patterns, faces, emotions, melodies,
 expression of emotions  adrenal medulla & adrenal cortex
 comprehension of simple language but not
production of speech - Adrenal Medulla
 processes information all at once  releases ephinephrine & norepinephrine when
 more global & holistic people are under stress & that aids in sympathetic
 Gestaltist = whole arousal

- Adrenal Cortex
The Chemical Connection: The Endocrine Glands
 produces over 30 different hormones called

Glands
corticoids (steroids)
- organs in the body that secrete chemicals
 regulate salt intake, help initiate & control stress

Endocrine Glands
reactions & also provide a source of sex hormones
- have no ducts
in addition to those provided by the gonads
- secrete chemicals directly into bloodstream
 cortisol – released when body experiences stress

Hormones
- both physical stress (illness, surgery, or extreme
- chemicals secretes by endocrine glands
heat/cold) & psychological stress (emotional
- affect behavior & emotions by controlling muscles &
upset)
organs such as the heart, pancreas & sex organs
- important in release of glucose into the
- some theorize that surge in certain hormones actually
bloodstream during stress, providing energy for
triggers the emotional reaction
the brain itself, and the release of fatty acids from
- some also influence activity of brain, producing
the fat cells that provide the muscles w/ energy
excitatory/ inhibitory effects
Applying Psychology to Everyday Life: Differences

Pituitary Gland
Between Male and Female Brains
- in brain below hypothalamus

:)

Women use an area on the right side of the brain in
- hypothalamus controls glandular system by
language tasks, besides Broca’s area
influencing pituitary
 may explain why women recover from strokes to

n
- master gland
Broca’s area faster & more completely than men
- controls/influences all other endocrine glands

Women can compensate faster for loss of left-side
- controls things associated w/ pregnancy: production
of milk, levels of salt & water in body, etc.
zofunctions with right side.

Women seem to use both sides of their brains for most
- secretes several hormones that influence activity of
tasks, processing information not only analytically but
other glands (growth hormone, etc.)
di
globally as well.

Women’s intuition

Men seem to use left side of the brain for problem

Pineal Gland
solving, perhaps giving rise to the feeling that men are
ca

- located in brain nearer to the back

more logical than women.
- Melatonin: sleep-wake cycle

Environmental training and experience in development
of different processing styles.

Thyroid Gland

There are physical differences in male & female brains
ni

- located inside the neck

upon birth.
- Thyroxin: metabolism (how fast body burns energy)
 Male: larger hypothalamus
je

 Female: larger corpus callosum

Pancreas
- controls level of blood sugar in body by secreting
insulin & glucagons
- diabetes = too little insulin
- hypoglycemia = too much insulin/ low blood sugar
 hungry all the time = overweight

Gonads
- sex glands
- Ovaries = F || Testes = M
- secrete hormones that regulate sexual behavior &
reproduction
- do not control all sexual behavior
- brain = master of sexual system
 sexual behavior is controlled totally by instincts,
actions of glands in animal world, psychological
factors such as attractiveness

Adrenal Glands
- two adrenal glands – one on top of each kidney
- renal = “kidney” / ad = “to” (Latin)
- each gland is divided into two sections:
 V: A LOOK AT LEARNING -if paired to UCS = CS
- NS  CS

Learning
- process that allows adaptation to the changing • Conditioned Response (CR)/ Conditioned Reflex
conditions of the word around us - learned reflex response to a conditioned stimulus

DEFINITION OF LEARNING
Process of Learning

Learning
- any relatively permanent change in behavior brought
about by experience or practice
- relatively permanent
 fact that when people learn anything, some part of
their brain is physically changed to record what is
learned (process of memory = remember)
- not all change is accomplished through learning
- any kind of change in the way an organism behaves
IT MAKES YOUR MOUTH WATER: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Ivan Pavlov (Russian physiologist – workings of body)
- stumbled across basic principles of a particular kind of
learning
• Acquisition
- link between stimulus & response (association)
• Generalization
- new stimulus elicits same response from old stimulus
- tendency to respond to a stimulus similar to original
CS
• Discrimination
- learning uniqueness of stimulus, responding only to
some but not all
- tendency to stop making a generalized response
similar to original stimulus because it is never paired
with UCS

Reflex - involuntary response • Extinction

 food in mouth = salivation - when CS is presented w/o US, CR is dies out

:)
- CS (bell) w/o US (food) no more CR (salivation)

Stimulus – any object, event/experience that causes a - UCS = Reinforcer of CS-CR association
response

n
 food = stimulus • Spontaneous Recovery
- reappearance of a learned response after

Response – reaction of an organism
zo extinction has occurred
 salivation = response

High-Order Conditioning
di

Classical Conditioning - occurs when a strong conditioned stimulus is paired
- learning to make a reflex response to a stimulus w/ a neutrals stimulus, causing the neutral stimulus to
another than the original, natural stimulus that normally become a second CS
produces the reflex  snap-bell-salivation (NS-CS-CR)
ca

Elements of Classical Conditioning CONDITIONED EMOTIONAL RESPONSES: RATS!

 CS & UCS must come close together in time
Watson & “Little Albert”
 NS & UCS must be paired several times before - white rat + loud scary noise = Albert 
ni

conditioning can take place - white rat (NS), noise (UCS), Albert  (UCR)
 CS is usually distinctive (stands out from other - fear/phobia of rat = CR
je

competing stimuli)

Conditioned Emotional Response (CER)
• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) - emotional response that has become classically
- original, naturally occurring stimulus conditioned to occur to learned stimuli, such as fear of
- ordinarily leads to reflex, involuntary response dogs/ emotional reaction that occurs when seeing an
 food attractive person

• Unconditioned Response (UCR)
Vicarious Conditioning

- reflex response to UCS - classical conditioning of a reflex response/emotion by
- unlearned because of “genetic wiring” in the watching reaction of another person
nervous system  vaccination
 food (UCS) = salivation (UCR)
OTHER CONDITIONED RESPONSES IN HUMANS
• Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
Conditioned Taste Aversion
- stimulus that becomes able to produce a learned - development of nausea/aversive response to
reflex response by being paired with the original particular taste because taste was followed by nausea
unconditioned stimulus reaction, occurring after only one association
- must come before UCS
 CS  CR
Biological Preparedness
- tendency of animals to learn certain associations,
• Neutral Stimulus (NS) such as taste & nausea, w/ only one/few pairings due
- no effect on desired response to survival value of learning
 survival mechanism
WHY DOES CLASSICATL CONDITIONING WORK?

Stimulus Substitution (Pavlov)
- classical conditioning occurred because CS became
a substitute for the UCS by being paired closely
together

Cognitive Perspective
- explanation of classical conditioning involving mental
activity of consciously expecting something to occur

Rescorla
- CS must predict/ come before UCS
WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME? OPERANT CONDITIONING

Operant Conditioning
- learning of voluntary behavior through the effects of
pleasant & unpleasant consequences to responses
- heart = effect of behavior
- learning depends on what happens after response

Edward Thorndike’s Puzzle Box
- cat is placed inside & can only get out by pushing on
the little platform to one side of the door
- accidentally, cat manages to escape
- through trial & error = cat learns to push platform to
open door
 escape = pleasurable consequence
 pushing lever = repeated response

B.F. Skinner
- greatest influence
- Operant – any voluntary behavior
di

Reinforcement (Strengthen)
- anything that, when following a response, causes that
response to be more likely to happen again
ca
- consequence that is pleasurable to organism
• Primary Reinforcer
- any reinforcer that is naturally reinforcing by
ni
meeting a basic biological need (hunger, thirst,
touch, etc.)
je
• Secondary Reinforcer
- any reinforce that becomes reinforcing after being
paired w/ a primary reinforce such as praise, tokens
or gold stars
• Positive Reinforcement
- add something ☺/ pleasant to environment
- desired reinforce is presented after
- increasing likelihood of recurrence of behavior
• Negative Reinforcement
- remove something / unpleasant to environment

Punishment (Weaken)
- unpleasant event that occurs as a consequence of a
behavior
- decreases probability of recurrence of behavior
• Positive Punishment (Punishment by Application)
- add something / unpleasant to environment
- desired reinforce is presented after
• Negative Punishment (Punishment by Removal)
- remove something ☺/ pleasant to environment

Effective Punishment
-should immediately follow behavior it is meant to
punish
- should be consistent
- punishment of wrong behavior should be paired with
reinforcement of right behavior
OTHER OPERANT CONCERNS

Shaping
- reinforcement of simple steps in behavior that lead to
a desired, more complex behavior
- goal is achieved by reinforcing each
successive approximation
 small steps that lead to a particular goal behavior

Extinction
- involves removal of reinforcement

Generalization
- w/o reinforcement = discrimination
:)

Discriminative Stimulus
- provides organism w/ cue for making certain response
in order to obtain reinforcement
n

Spontaneous Recovery
zo- recurrence of a conditioned response after extinction
THE SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT: WHY THE ONE-ARMED
BANDIT IS SO SEDUCTIVE?
- timing of reinforcement can make a tremendous
difference in speed at which learning occurs/ strength of
learned response

Partial Reinforcement Effect
- tendency of response that is reinforced after some,
but not all, correct responses to be very resistant to
extinction
 Alicia and hamper (dollar/week, quarter/night)
- can be accomplished according to different
patterns/schedules
 Ratio schedule = number of responses is important
 Interval schedule = timing of response is important
 Fixed = same number/interval
 Variable = different number/interval
= unpredictability makes responses more or less
continuous

Continuous Reinforcement
- reinforcement of each & every correct response
APPLYING OPERANT CONIDTIONING: BEHAVIOR
MODIFICATION

Behavior Modification
- use of operant condition techniques to bring about
desired changes in behavior

Token Economy
- type of behavior modification in which desired
behavior is rewarded with tokens

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)
Elements of Observational Learning
- modern term for a formal behavior modification that • Attention
uses shaping techniques to mold a desired - pay attention to model
behavior/response
• Memory

Biofeedback - learner must be able to retain memory of what was
- use of feedback about biological conditions to bring done
involuntary response such as blood pressure &
relaxation under voluntary control • Imitation
- learner must be capable of reproducing or imitating

Neurofeedback actions of model
- newer version of biofeedback
- involves trying to change brain wave activity in an • Motivation
effort to modify behavior learner must have desire to perform action
- electroencephalograph

COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORY

Edward Tolman’s rat maze
- rat is placed in start box
- trial is over when rat gets to the end of box

Latent Learning
- learning remains hidden until its application becomes
useful

:)
 rats awarded on 10th day after wandering in maze

SELIGMAN’S DEPRESSED DOGS: LEAGNED HELPLESNESS

n

Martin Seligman – Positive Psychology
 new way of looking at entire concept of mental
health and therapy
zo

Seligman’s Apparatus
di
- dogs were placed in 2-sided box
- dogs that had no prior experience w/ being unable to
escape should would quickly jump hurdle to land on
safe side
ca

- dogs that previously learned that escape was

impossible would not try to go over hurdle

Learned Helplessness
ni

- tendency to fail to act to escape from a situation

because of a history of repeated failures (depression)
je

KOHLER’S SMART CHIMP: INSIGHT LEARNING

Wolfgang Kohler
- Sultan the chimp
- sticks & banana

Insight
- sudden perception of relationships among various
parts of a problem, allowing a solution to come quickly

OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING

Observational Learning
- learning new behavior by watching a model perform
behavior

Learning/Performance Distinction
- referring to observation that learning can take place
without actual performance of learned behavior

Albert Bandura’s Bobo Doll

- adult model’s aggressive & non-aggressive interaction
with doll in two groups were repeated
 VI: EXAMINING MEMORY

Memory
- an active system that receives information from the
senses, organizes, & alters it as it stores away, & then
retrieves the information from storage
MEMORY SYSTEM STEPS

Encoding
- set of mental operations that people perform on
sensory info to convert it into a form usable in brain’s
storage systems
- not limited to turning sensory info into signals for brain
- can take a different form in each of three different
storage systems/stages of memory

Storage
- hold on to the info for some period of time
- differ in lengths, depending on stage of memory used

Retrieval
- getting the information out of storage
MODELS OF MEMORY

Information-Processing Model
- approach that focuses on way info is processed, or
handled through three different stages of memory
- process of encoding, storage & retrieval are part
- assumes that how long a memory will be remembered
depends on the stage of memory it is stored

Levels-of-Processing Model
di
- how long a memory will be remembered depends on
the depth to which the info is processed
- deeper = e.g. definition vs. visual characteristics of ball
ca

Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP) Model
- memory is a simultaneous process, with the creation
& storage of memories taking place across a series of
mental networks “stretched” across the brain
ni
- based on the way neural processing actually takes
place in the brain:
je
 neural connections appear to be organized in a
parallel manner as well as in sequential pathways
in the brain
- instead of info for a memory being processed in a
series of steps, brain performs several different
processes simultaneous, or parallel to each other, while
at the same time spreading that info across the entire
network of neural connections
 allows people to retrieve many different aspects of
a memory at the same time
= faster reactions & decisions
THE INFORMATION PROCESSING MODEL: THREE STAGES OF
MEMORY

Sensory Memory: Why do People do Double Takes?
 Sensory Memory
- first stage of memory
- point at which info enters the nervous system
through the sensory system (eyes, ears, etc.)
- info is encoded as neural messages in the nervous
system
- where initial sensory impressions are held for brief
periods of time
 as long as neural messages are travelling through
the system, there is a “memory” of the info that
can be accessed if needed
- two kinds: iconic (visual) & echoic (hearing)
 Double take
- looking back on a memory for a “second check”
 Iconic Sensory Memory
- Icon = Greek for “image”
- Capacity: everything that can be seen at one time
- Duration: .3 – 1 sec
 Masking
- info that has just entered iconic memory will be
pushed out very quickly by new info
- new info after ¼ second
 Eidetic Imagery (Photographic Memory)
- ability to access visual memory over a long
period of time (30 seconds or more)
- Function:
 Saccades
- tiny little movements of the eyes that keep
vision from adapting to constant visual stimulus,
:)
so that what is stared at steadily doesn’t slowly
disappear
 helps the visual system view surroundings as
n
continuous & stable in spite of saccadic
movements
zo  allows enough time for brain stem to decide if the
info is important enough to be brought into
consciousness
 Echoic Sensory Memory
- brief memory of something a person has heard
- “What?” Phenomenon
 what is heard wasn’t fully processed
 brain did not interpret info immediately
 took several seconds to realize that:
1. Something was said
2. It may have been important
3. Try to remember what it was
 if this is realized all w/ in 4 secs, one will be
more likely to “hear” an echo of the
statement (“instant reply”)
- Capacity:
 limited to what can be heard at any one
moment
 smaller than capacity of iconic memory
- Duration:
 lasts longer than iconic memory: 2-4 seconds
- Function:
 useful when a person wants to have a
meaningful conversation w/ others
 allows person to remember what someone said
just enough to recognize its definition
allows people to hold on to incoming auditory
info long enough for lower brain centers to
decide if it is important enough to become
conscious
 allow a musician to tune a musical instrument
SHORT-TERM (WORKING) MEMORY - Maintenance Rehearsal

Short-Term Memory  person is simply continuing to pay attention to info
- information moves from sensory memory to the next held in memory (repetition)
stage of memory or STM through the process of  stop = decay/ interference = lost
selective attention  interference may also happen if STM exceeds
 ability to focus on only one stimulus from among all capacity of 5-9 bits
sensory input
- memory system in which info is held for brief periods of LONG-TERM MEMORY
time while being used
Long-Term Memory
- mental workbench where we actively process info - system into which all the info is placed to be kept
transferred from sensory registers/retrieved from LTM more or less permanently
- reason out, solve problems, on-the-spot thinking, - info rehearsed long enough may find its way to LTM
conscious, mental perform cognitive tasks - info that is more “deeply processed” or processed
according to its definition rather than just

“Cocktail Party” Effect sound/physical characteristic of the word or words will
- amongst all noise & conversations in a party, one is be remembered more efficiently & for a longer period
able to notice when someone says their name of time
- areas of brain that are involved in selective attention
were working even though you weren’t consciously - Rote Learning
aware of it, & when important info appears, your are  “rotating” the info in one’s head, saying it over &
brought to conscious awareness over again
- not working at its peak in stage four of sleep, however
Capacity
still functioning even - unlimited

:)

Tends to be encoded in auditory (sound) form
Duration
- people talk inside their own heads, although some - long-term
images are in a kind of “visual sketchpad”  physical change in brain itself when LTM is formed

n
- sounds like vs. looks like  relatively permanent
- childhood memories

Working Memory
zo  may be available but not accessible
- emphasizes that STM is not merely a “box” into which
info is placed, but is a working, active system that
Encoding
di
processes the info it contains at any given moment - many are encoded as images, sounds, smells & tastes
- w/ CEO that controls &coordinates visual “sketchpad” - generally encoded in meaningful form
& auditory “recorder”  mental storehouse of definitions, concepts and
 CEO = interpreter for visual & auditory info in STM events a person keeps in mind
ca

- desk - huge series of filing cabinets in which files are stored in

 pull out files in storage(permanent memory)/ be an organized fashion (according to meaning)
handed the files (sensory input)
 put files on desk = read, see, work w/ them - Elaborative Rehearsal
ni

 files = conscious material  best way to encode info in a meaningful &

= stays as long as they’re on the desk organized fashion
je

= if not necessary = thrown out (forgotten)  way of transferring info from STM to LTM by making
= important = filing system (permanent) info meaningful in some way
 easiest: connect new info w/ something already

Capacity known
- 7 items/ pieces of information
- plus/minus 2 items
Types
- from 5-9 bits of information - LTM includes general facts & knowledge, personal
- “magical number seven”, plus or minus two (Miller) facts & even skills
- George Miller
 developed digit-span test  Procedural (Non-declarative) LTM
- memories for skills that people know how to do that

Duration usually involves a series of steps/procedures
- lasts from about 12-30 seconds without rehearsal  riding a bike, tying shoelace, etc.
- include emotional associations, habits, & simple

Encoding conditioned reflexes that may or may not be
- Chunking conscious awareness
 “fools” STM into holding more info - amygdala is most probable location for emotional
 “stacking” on the desk associations such as fear/ cerebellum in the hindbrain
 if bits are combined into meaningful units, more is responsible for storage of memories of conditional
info can be held responses, skills & habits
 process of recording or reorganizing the info - often called implicit memory
 memories for these skills, habits & learned reflexes
are not easily retrieved into conscious awareness
 - such knowledge is in people’s memories because
they use this info, but are not often consciously aware
of it
- separate areas of brain control procedural memory
 anterograde amnesia
- LTM cannot be formed
- people w/ damage to hippocampus area
- cannot remember that they knew how to solve
puzzle, but their procedural memories for how
to solve the puzzle were formed and stored
separate from part controlling memories they
could no longer form
- people w/ Alzheimer’s diseases
 affects hippocampus & frontal cortex, eventually
affects other areas of brain after progression
 still retain procedural memory (talk, walk, etc.)
 Declarative LTM
- about all the things people can know, facts & info
- two types: semantic & episodic (autobiographical)
- explicit memory
 memories easily made conscious & brought from
LTM into STM (placed from cabinets to desk)
- can be forgotten but always have the potential to
be made conscious
- Semantic
 semantic = meaning
 awareness of meanings of words, concepts &
terms, also names of objects, math skills, etc.
 relatively permanent
- Episodic (Autobiographical)
di
 personal knowledge each person has of his/her
daily life & personal history
 represent episodes of lives
 tend to be revised more or less constantly
ca
 should be “meaningful”
 updating process = survival mechanism
 no one really needs to know every single detail
of everyday
ni

Organization
je
- in terms of related meanings & concepts
- information exists in a kind of network w/ nodes (focal
points) of related info linked to each other in a
hierarchy
- semantic network model
 assumes info is stored in the brain in a connected
fashion
 concepts that are related to each other stored
physically closer
- parallel-distributed processing model can be used to
explain how rapidly the different points on the network
can be processed
- although access of nodes w/in a particular category
may take place in a serial fashion, explaining the
different response times across the network may take
place in a parallel fashion = several different concepts
to be targeted at the same time
- Internet
 website = link to many other related site
 each site has specific info but is also linked to many
another related sites
 can have more than one site open

Retrieval
- Retrieval cue – stimulus for remembering
 Encoding Specificity & State-Dependent Learning
- Encoding Specificity
 tendency for memory of any kind of info to be
improved if the physical surroundings available
when the memory is first formed are also
available when the memory is being retrieved
- State-Dependent Learning
 memories formed during a particular
physiological/ psychological state will be easier
to recall while in a similar state
 Recall
- memories are retrieved w/ few or no external cues
- searching & retrieving stored LTM w/c must then be
reassembled & reconstructed
- Tip of the Tongue (TOT) Phenomenon
- Serial Position Effect
 info at the beginning & end of list tend to be
remembered more easily and accurately
:)
- Primacy Effect
tendency to b remember info at the beginning of
n
a body of info better than what follows
zo - Recency Effect
 tendency to remember info at the end of a body
of info better than what is ahead
 attributed to the fact that the last info just heard
and is still in STM for easy retrieval w/ no other
info to push the most recent out of memory
 Recognition
- matching a new stimulus to a stored information
- usually much easier because the cue is the actual
object, word, sound, etc. that one is simply trying
to detect as familiar and known
- multiple-choice, matching, true/false tests
 answer is there = match info in memory
- tend to be very accurate for images, especially
human faces
- False Positive
 enough similarity between a stimulus that is in
and not in a memory
 occurs when a person thinks he/she recognized
something or someone but in fact does not
have that something/someone in a memory
AUTOMATIC ENCODING: FLASHBULB MEMORIES

Automatic Encoding
- people unconsciously notice a lot of things such as
passage of time, knowledge of physical space, &
frequency of events

Flashbulb Memories
- kind of automatic encoding
- takes place when an unexpected event/episode in a
person’s life has strong emotional associations such as
fear, horror, or joy
- can often seem vivid and detailed, as if the person’s
mind took a “flash picture” of the moment
 - emotional reactions stimulate the release of hormones
that have been shown to enhance formation of LTM
- no memories are completely accurate after the
passage of time
REOCNSTRUCTIVE NTURE OF LTM RETREIVAL: HOW RELIABLE
ARE MEMORIES?

Constructive Process of Memories
- as new memories are created in LTM, old memories
can get “lost,” but they are more likely to be changed
or altered in some way
- every memory is a blend of knowledge & interference
- “remembering is more like making up a story than it is
like reading one in a printed book.”
- Constructive Processing
 retrieval of memories in which those memories are
altered, revised or influenced by newer
information
- Hindsight Bias
 tendency to falsely believe, through revision of
older memories to include newer info, that one
could have correctly predicted the outcome of
an event

Memory Retrieval Problems
 Misinformation Effect
- misleading info that is presented after an event has
taken place can affect the accuracy of the
memory for that even
 Reliability of Memory Retrieval
- False Memory Syndrome
 creation of inaccurate/ false memories through
di
suggestion of others, often while a person is
under hypnosis
- Pseudomemories (false memories)
- hypnosis has been found to increase confidence
ca
people have in their memories regardless of
whether if such memories are true or false
WHAT WERE WE TALKING ABOUT? FORGETTING
ni

Mnemonist – memory expert/ exceptional memory
ability
je

Ebbinghaus & the Forgetting Curve
 Curve of Forgetting (Hermann Ebbinghaus)
 nonsense syllable word list
- forgetting happens quickly w/in the first hour after
learning then tapers of gradually
 Encoding Failure
- failure to process information into memory
- info is not attended to & fails to be encoded

Memory Trace Decay Theory
- Memory Trace
 some physical change in the brain, perhaps in a
neuron or in the activity between neurons, which
occurs when a memory is formed
 over time, may decay, fading into nothing
- STM: info that is not brought to attention in sensory
memory/ continually rehearsed will fade
- LTM: disuse – use it or lose it
 many times when people can recall memories
assumed to be forgotten

Interference Theory
- LTM memories may not always be accessible but they
are available
 Proactive Interference
- tendency for older/ previously learned material to
interfere w/ the retrieval of newer, more recently
learned material
 Retroactive Interference
- memory retrieval problem that occurs when newer
information prevents/ interferes w/ retrieval of older
information
MEMORY & THE BRAIN: THE PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF
MEMORY

Engram
- physical change that takes place in the brain when a
memory is formed
- specific areas of the brain may be the places in which
engrams are formed & that these areas are different for
different types of memory
 Cerebellum: Procedural memories
 Prefrontal cortex & Temporal Lobe: STM
 Frontal & Temporal Lobe: Semantic & Episodic
:)

Neural Activity & Structure in Memory Formation
 Engram is not simply one physical change but many
n
because of:
- changes in number of receptor sites
zo - long-term potentiation
 changes in sensitivity of synapse through
repeated stimulation
- changes in dendrites & in proteins w/in neurons
 all of changes increase neural connections &
make connections that already exist more
sensitive to stimulation
 Consolidation
- changes that take place in the structure &
functioning of neurons when an engram is formed
 Although people may learn quickly, memory of what
has been learned takes some time to form
completely

Hippocampus & Memory
 Hippocampus (part of limbic system)
- part of brain responsible for formation of new LTM

When Memory Fails: Organic Amnesia
- caused by problems in the functioning of the memory
areas of the brain
 Retrograde Amnesia
- loss of memory from point of injury backwards
- consolidation process gets disrupted & loses
everything that was not already nearly “finished”
 Anterograde Amnesia
- loss of memory from point of injury/illness forward
- difficulty remembering anything new
- Senile Dementia
 mental disorder in which sever forgetfulness,
mental confusion & mood swings are primary
symptoms
 Infantile Amnesia
- inability to retrieve memories from before age 3
- early memories are often implicit and unconscious
 VII: OUR DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE LIFESPAN

Human Development
- scientific study of the changes that occur in people as
they age, from conception until death

Amines/ Bases
- link two strands of DNA together
- Amines
 organic structures that contain genetic codes for
building proteins that make up organic life
 control the life of each cell

ISSUES STUDYING HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Genes

Problem in developmental research:
- age of people in the study should always be an
independent variable
- but people cannot be randomly assigned to different
age groups

Designs used in researching age-related changes
 Longitudinal Design
- one group of people is followed & assessed at
different times as the group ages
- advantage: looking at real age-related changes as
those changes occur in the same individuals
- disadvantage: lengthy amount of time, money &
effort in following participants over years; loss of
participants/’s interest
 Cross-sectional Design
- each section of DNA containing a certain sequence
(ordering) of amines
- located on rod-shaped structures called
chromosomes

Chromosomes
- rod-shapes structures containing genes
- human total = 46
- 23 from mother’s egg/ovum & 23 from father’s sperm
- most characteristics are determined by 22 pairs called
autosomes
- last pair determines gender = sex chromosomes
DOMINANT & RECESSIVE GENES

Dominant
- genes that are more active in influencing the trait

:)
- several different age groups are studied at one time
- advantage: quick, relatively inexpensive & easier to
Recessive
accomplish than the longitudinal design - genes that are less active in influencing the trait

n
- disadvantage: no longer comparing an individual - only be expressed in actual trait if paired together w/
to the same individual as he/she ages another less active gene
 Cross-sequential Design
zo- tend to recede/fade into background when paired
- combination of longitudinal & cross-sectional w/ a more dominant gene
designs
di

Polygenic Inheritance
NATURE VERSUS NURTURE - process that controls almost all traits by more than

Nature one pair of genes
- heredity, influence of inherited characteristics on
ca

personality, physical growth, intellectual growth & GENETIC & CHROMOSOME PROBLEMS
social interactions
Diseases carried by recessive genes
- inherited when child inherits 2 recessive genes, one

Nurture from each parent
ni

- influence of environment on all of those same things

- includes parenting styles, physical surroundings,  Cystic Fibrosis
je

economic factors & anything that can have a - disease of respiratory & digestive tracts
influence on development that doesn’t come from the
person  Sickle Cell Anemia
- blood disorder

Behavioral Genetics
- relatively new field in the investigation of the origins of  Tay-Sachs Disorder
behavior - fatal neurological disorder
- researchers try to determine how much of the
behavior is the result of genetic inheritance & how  PKU
much is due to a person’s experiences - problem w/ digesting a particular protein

PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT
Chromosome disorders

Genes - chromosome can end up in wrong cell, leaving one
- science of heredity cell with 22 & the other 24
- missing/extra chromosome can cause mild to severe

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) problems in development
- special kind of molecule
- smallest particle of a substance that still has all
properties of that substance  Down Syndrome
- two strands that wind around each other in a spiral - disorder where an extra chromosome in what would
- each molecule is linked end to end w/ others, forming normally be the 21st pair
a long strand
- sections are linked by amines (A, T, G & C)
 - symptoms: almond-shaped, wide-set eyes & mental
retardation
 Klinefelter’s Sydrome
- extra sex chromosome in 23rd pair
- 23rd = XXY, extra X producing a male w/ reduced
masculine characteristics, enlarged breasts, obesity &
excessive height
GERMINAL PERIOD
- first 2 weeks after fertilization
- zygote moves down to uterus & beings to implant in
lining

Placenta begins to form
- specialized organ that provides nourishment & filters
away waste products from developing baby

 Turner’s Syndrome
Umbilical cord

- 23rd pair is mixing an X = lone X chromosome - forms during this time
- females tend to be very short, infertile & sexually - connects organism to placenta
underdeveloped
- cells begin to differentiate/develop into specialized cells
FROM CONCEPTION TO BIRTH in preparation for becoming all the various kinds of cells

Conception that make up the human body
- moment at which a female becomes pregnant
- conception to birth = approx 9 months
Stem cells
 single cell becomes complete infant - most important of cells
 time at which many things can have a +/- influence - stay in somewhat immature state until needed to
on developing infant produce more cells

ZYGOTE & TWINNING EMBRYONIC PERIOD

Fertilization - period from 2-8 weeks after fertilization during which

:)
- when egg/ovum & sperm unite major organs & structures of organism develop

Zygote
Embryo

n
- cell resulting from fertilization w/ total of 46 - name for developing organism from 2-8 weeks after
chromosomes fertilization
- will begin to divide into 2, 4, 8, etc. w/ each new cell
zo- by the end of 8 weeks, 1 inch long & has primitive
also having 46 chromosomes because DNA molecules nose, eyes, lips, teeth, arms, legs & beating heart
produce duplicates of themselves before each division - no organ is fully developed or completely functional
di
- eventually, mass of cells become baby at this time

Monozygotic Twins (Identical Twins)
Critical Period

- two twins come from one fertilized egg - times during which certain environmental influences
ca

- early in division, mass of cells split completely into 2
separate masses, each of which develop into a
separate infant
- infants will have same sex & identical features
ni
can have an impact on the development of infant

Teratogen
- any factor (drug, chemical, virus, etc.) that can cause

because they each possess same set of 46 a birth defect

chromosomes
Rubella Blindness, deafness, heart defects, brain
je

damage

Dizygotic Twins (Fraternal Twins)
- more on accident of timing Marijuana Irritability, nervousness, tremors; infant is
- happens more to older women/ women from ethnic easily disturbed, startles
groups/ taking fertility drugs
- woman’s body is supposed to ovulate only once but
Cocaine Decreased height, low birth weight,
ovary releases more than one egg or
respiratory problems, seizures, learning
- woman’s body release an egg in next monthly cycle
difficulties; infant is difficult to soothe
even if woman is already pregnant because signal to
brain is too weak
Alcohol Fetal alcohol syndrome (mental
 one twin may be larger than the other because
retardation, delayed growth, facial
he/she is older
malformation), learning difficulties,
- if two eggs are fertilized, woman gives birth to multiple
smaller than normal heads
number of babies
Nicotine Miscarriage, low birth weight, stillbirth,

Siamese Twins (Conjoined Twins) short stature, mental retardation,
- identical twins physically joined together at some learning disabilities
point in bodies
- mass of cells begin to separate into 2 masses but
Mercury Mental retardation, blindness
remains linked at some particular point
- original Siamese twins: Chang & Eng joined at hip
Syphilis Mental retardation, deafness, meningitis
 SENSORY DEVELOPMENT (1st 6 Weeks)
Radiation Higher incidence of cancers, physical

Touch = fully developed
deformities
- skin-to-womb contact
High Water Increased chance of neural tube
Smell = highly developed
Temp defects - breastfed babies can tell difference between
mother’s milk scent from other w/in, few days after birth
- prefer lactating than non-lactating
FETAL PERIOD: GROW BABY GROW

Fetal Period
- time from about 8 weeks of conception until birth of
Taste = nearly fully developed
child (fetus) is a period of tremendous growth - preference for sweets (human breast milk is sweet)
- length increases 20x - by 4 months: developed preference for salty tastes
- weight increases from about 1 ounce at 2 months to a  from exposure to mother’s skin
little of over 7 lbs - sour & bitter: spitting up/ horrible faces
- organs continue to develop & become functional
- muscles begin to contract in 3rd month
Hearing = functional, may take a while to reach full
 felt by mother as tiny “flutter”/”quickening”, by 5th potential
month = “kick” - fluids of womb must clear out completely
- birth-newborns: most responsive to high pitches

Last few months (woman’s voice) & low pitches (man’s voice)
- development of fat & growth continues until about
end of 38th week
Vision = least functional sense
- fetus is pushed out of mother’s body in process of - eye is a complex organ
labor & childbirth - rods (w/c see black & white) have little visual acuity

:)
are fairly well developed at birth

Preterm - cones w/c see color & provide sharpness will take

- babies born before 38 weeks
- may need life support to survive
 especially true if baby weighs than about 5.5 lbs at
birth
di

Miscarriage/ Spontaneous Abortion
- most likely to happen in first 3 months as organs as
forming & first becoming functional
- most likely caused by genetic defect in the way
ca
n
another 6 months to fully develop
zo- newborn has relatively poor color perception when
compared to sharply contrasting lights & darks until
about 2 months of age
- fuzzy vision like near-sighted person
- lens stay fixed until muscles hold it in place mature
- newborn is unable to shift what little focus it has from
close to far
- clear vision of 7-10 inches

embryo/fetus is developing that will not allow infant to  distance of baby’s to mother’s face when nursing
survive  focal distance = instinct of adults to hold baby at
- nothing wrong was done by mother/ cannot prevent about this distance from their face
- have visual preferences
ni

 prefer to look at complex patterns

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
 3D than 2D

Birth
 most preferred = human face
je

- respiratory system begins to function

- easier to form relationships w/ caretakers & form
- blood circulates only w/in infant’s system because
language
umbilical cord has been cut
- temperature is regulated by infant’s own activity &
body fat (insulation) rather than amniotic fluid MOTOR DEVELOPMENT
- digestive system probably takes longer to adjust to life - normal development is related to many factors such as
outside womb nutrition, care & health
 another reason for excess body fat - one important way to protect infant’s health is make
- fat provides fuel until infant is able to take in enough immunizations
nourishment on its own
 why most babies lose a little weight after birth
Motor Milestones
- develop as infant gains greater voluntary control over

Reflexes muscles in its body
- set of innate involuntary behavior patterns - typically from top to downward
- help infant to survive until he/she is capable of  early control in neck muscles, later development of
learning more complex means of interaction legs & feet
- used by pediatrician to determine whether/not - raising head - crawling
nervous system is working properly - rolling over - walking
- Instant Reflexes - propped up - sitting up
 Grasping  Swimming  Stepping
 Moro (startle)  Plantar/Binski  Sucking
 Rooting  Tonic Neck  Palmargrasp
TRENDS IN BODY GROWTH & MOTOR CONTROL  knowledge that an object exists even when not in

Cephalo-caudal trend sight
- physiological growth from head to tail  peek-a-boo

Proximo-distal trend  Preoperational Stage (2 – 7 yrs)

- physiological growth from center of body outward - develop language & concepts
- can mentally represent & refer to objects & evens
TEMPERAMENT (6-9 Months) w/ words/pictures

6-9 Months - pretend & make-believe
- baby enjoys learning about his/her surroundings - not capable of logical thought
- learns to sit alone - tend to be overwhelmed with what they see
- cooing runts to babbling - can’t conserve, logically reason/ simultaneously
- turn head when name is called consider many characteristics of an object
- picks up mother’s feelings by tone - egocentrism
- depth perception (distance judgment)  inability to see world through anyone else’s eyes
- centration

1-2 Years  tendency of a child to focus on one feature
- walk - conservation
- talk  ability to understand that simply changing
appearance of an object doesn’t change

2-3 Years (Toddler) object’s nature
- high energy level - irreverseiblity
- want to do things for self  inability to mentally reverse an action
- jump on both feet - animistic thinking

:)
 give life to inanimate objects

5-7 Years (School)
- more interest on other children  Concrete Operational (7 – 12 yrs)

n
- learn how to write - capable of conversation & reversible thinking
- follow step-by-step directions - centration no longer occurs
- central issue: develop self-esteem
zo - begin to think more logically
- wonderful mimic - not capable of abstract thinking
- concrete vs. abstract concepts
di
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT - can manipulate mental representations
- development of thinking, problem solving & memory
 Formal Operational (12 – adulthood)
PIAGET’S THEORY: 4 STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT - abstract thinking is possible
ca

- developed from observations of infants & children, esp. - formulate & test theories
own 3 children - hypothetical thinking
- made significant contributions to the understanding of - Piaget didn’t believe that everyone would
how children think about the world around them necessarily reach this stage
ni

- shifted view of children’s thinking from that of “little

adults” to something different from adult thinking  Criticisms of Piaget’s theory
je

- stresses importance of child’s interaction w/ objects as a
primary factor in cognitive development

Schemes (schemas)
- mental concept formed through experiences w/
objects & events

Assimilation
- process in which children first try to understand new
things in terms of schemes they already possess

Accommodation
- process of altering/adjusting old schemes to fit new
information & experiences
 Sensorimotor Stage (Birth – 2 yrs)
- infants use sense & motor abilities to learn about
world around them
- at first only have involuntary reflexes
- progress = begin to interact deliberately w/ objects
(grasping, pushing, tasting, etc.)
- object permanence
 towards end developed
- changes in thought are more continuous & not
through distinct stages
- preschoolers are not as egocentric
- object permanence exists earlier
VYGOTSKY’S THEORY: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING THERE
- children did not like prevailing political ideas in Russia
- ideas were suppressed by gov’t after death from
tuberculosis (kept alive by students = republished)
- stressed importance of social interactions w/ other
people typically more highly skilled children & adults
- applied to developing child’s autobiographical memory
 evidence that children learn the culturally
determined structures & purposes of personal stories
from early conversations w/ parents
 begins: parent telling story to very young child,
followed by child’s repetition of story
 final stage (5/6): child creates personal story entirely
- used in cooperative learning
 children work together in groups to achieve a
common goal
- used in reciprocal teaching
  teachers lead students through basic strategies of
reading until children are capable of teaching others

Scaffolding
- process in which a more skilled learning gives help to
a less skilled learner, reducing the amount of help as
the less skilled learner becomes more capable
- children develop cognitively by asking them leading
questions & providing examples to concepts

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
- concept of the difference between what a child can
do alone & what the child can do w/ help of a teacher
INFORMATION-PROCESSING THEORY
- theory that looks at the way people deal with
information
- memory is one main focus
 important part of infant development

Infants have memory abilities because they can be
operantly conditioned right after birth

Infants habituate just as adults do
- stop responding to stimulus that is repeated &
unchanging
- able to recognize certain stimulus that is familiar from
one time to the next
- allowed researchers to determine when infants can
perceive color, changes in sounds, etc

Infant memory is typically nonverbal
- preschool child is capable of using language to form
di
memories
- short-term memory in preschool years has a smaller
capacity than it will in adulthood
 limited to about 3 items
ca
- typical 3-year-old can only remember things for about
3 secs
- preschoolers do not yet know how to use strategies
such as rehearsal to extend STM, nor know how to
ni
elaborate on info to be stored in LTM
-LTM consist mostly of:
je
 episodic (personal)
 procedural (skill)
 semantic (general knowledge)
- limited to basic concepts & word meanings

Metamemory
- understanding of children as to how their memories
work

Control Strategies
- learned by children such as rehearsal & organization
that STM becomes that of an adult’s

Can be taught w/ effort same kind of strategies that
aid adults in storing & retrieving memories as their
command of language grows
STAGES OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
- important milestone in cognitive development
- language allows children to think in words rather than
just images, ask questions, communicate needs and
wants & to form concepts
- early views based on Skinnerian principles of
reinforcement
- Noam Chomsky argued
 proposed LAD (language acquisition device)

LAD (language acquisition device)
- innate “program” that contained schema for human
language
- children matched language they heard against
schema and thus, language developed in a well-
researched sequence
 Cooing ( 2months)
- vowel-like sounds
 Babbling (6 months)
- addition of consonant sounds
- can almost sound like real speech
 One-word speech (before/around age 1)
- begin to say actual words
- typically nouns
- may represent entire phrase of meaning
(holophrases)
:)
 Telegraphic Speech (1 year & a half)
- string of words to form short simple sentences using
nouns, verbs & adjectives
n
- only words that carry meaning are used in sentence
zo Whole Sentence (through preschool years/ 6 yrs old)
- learn grammatical terms & increase number of
words in sentence through preschool years
- by age 6, nearly as fluent as adult
PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
- development of personality, relationships & sense of sex
- begins during infancy, continue into adulthood
TEMPERAMENT
- behavioral & emotional characteristics that are fairly
well established at birth

Easy
- regular in schedules of waking, sleeping, eating &
adaptable to change

Difficult
- irregular schedules, negative about change
- loud, active, crabby than happy

Slow to warm up
- less negative, quieter, more regular than difficult
children
- slow to adapt to change
- if change is introduced gradually = “warm up” to new
people & situations
ATTACHMENT
- emotional bond between infant & primary caregiver
- usual formed w/in first 6 months
- shows in another 6 months as:
 wariness of strangers
 fear of being separated from caregiver
(separation anxiety)
- Strange Situation Experiment (Mary Ainsworth)
  exposing infant to series of leave-takings & returns of - each stage is an emotional crisis, or kind of turning point
mother & stranger in personality
- not necessarily result of mother alone
Trust vs. Mistrust (18 mos)
- infant’s temperament plays importance part in  caregivers/ mother (quality of caregiving)
determining mother’s reactions - hold infant while feeding/ patient until baby had
enough milk

Secure - trusting infant believes world sis safe & good,
- parent as secure base confident about future, ventures out
- actively seek contact - drive & hope
- easily consoled - needs not met
- explored happily w/ mothers as touching base  worthlessness, mistrust, withdrawn, protects self
- upset when mother left
- mother
Autonomy vs. Doubt (3 yrs)
 loving, warm, sensitive, responsive to - decide/ do for themselves
communication - resolve when parents provide suitable guidance &
reasonable choices

Avoidant - assertions to independence are met w/ tolerance &
- willing to explore understanding
- did not “touch base” - no criticism
- did not look at arranger/ mother - goal: self-control, courage & will (autonomy)
- react very little to return/ absence - failure: shame & doubt
- having no interest/concern
- unresponsive
Initiative vs. Guilt (5 yrs)
- slow to greet parent completely  basic family & school

:)
- mother - new sense of purposefulness
 unresponsive, insensitive, coldly rejecting - experimenting & creating
- play is important

n

Ambivalent (Resistance) - mastering new skills
- seek closeness - fail: guilt
- fail to explore
zo  approach world w/ timidity & fear because of
- angry (hitting & pushing) criticism & punishment
- not easily comforted
di
- clinging
Industry vs. Inferiority (6-12 school)
- upset by stranger regardless of mother’s presence  adult expectations & one’s drive towards mastery
- protesting - developing competency & self-esteem
- return of mother - fail: inferiority
ca

demand to be picked up, at the same time kick  believe that they will never be good at anything
- mother
 tried to be responsive but inconsistent & insensitive
Identity vs. Role Confusion (12-18 peers)
to babies actions - finding oneself; what we do
ni

 talking to infant about something unrelated to - discover who we are separate from family
what infant was doing - questioning of values & ideals
je

- period of exploration

Disorganized (Disoriented)
- unable to decide how to react upon mother’s return
Intimacy & Solidarity vs. Isolation (18-35)
- approach w/ eyes turned away  partners & friends
- fearful - seeking companions & love
- show dazed & depressed look - experiencing intimacy on a deep level
- contradictory behaviors - affiliation & love
- cries out suddenly
- most insecure attachment

Generativity vs. Self-Absoprtion & Stagnation (35-65)
- abusive/neglectful in interactions w/ infants
 workplace, community & family
- occupied w/ creative & meaningful work

Criticism of Experiment
- transmit values of culture through family
- artificial nature of design
- fear of inactivity & meaninglessness
- wonder if infants & mothers would behave different if
- production & care
at home
- mid-life crisis: finding new meanings & purposes
- supported by some home-based assessments

PSYCHOCOSIAL STAGAES OF ERIKSON
Integrity vs. Despair (55/65 – death)

- Erikson  trained as Freudian psychologist  mankind
- social interactions are more important in development - looking back on contribution to life
than Freud’s emphasis on sexual development - wisdom
- development occurred in 8 stages, fist 4 during infancy
& childhood
GENDER ROLE DEVELOPMENT
- most children begin to realize difference between girls &
boys at age 2
- behavior that goes along w/ being male/female is
heavily influenced by cultural expectations as well as
biology (gender identity)
- knowing one’s sex (physical characteristics) is different
from gender (king what is expected of a M/F)
ADOLESENCE
- period of life from about age 13 to early 20s
- young person is no longer physically a child but is not
yet an independent, self-supporting adult
- isn’t necessarily determined by chronological age
- how a person deals w/ life issues such as work, family
and relationships
 please others; need to be perceived as nice
- social system orientation
 sense of duty to maintain law & order
 focus: rules

Post Conventional
- morality of social contact & democracy
 improvement of social system orientation
 sense of responsibility
- morality of individual principles & conscience
 principles of human life
 not afraid of what people say
 concerned w/ good of humanity
ADULTHOOD
- period of life from early 20s until old age & death

Cognitive Development
Young Adulthood

Introspection (turning inward) - time of peak physical health
- not yet completely free of egocentric thought - sharp senses
- egocentrism shows in preoccupation - mature cognitive abilities
- own thoughts are better than other’s - signs of aging begins
 oil glands in neck & eyes malfunction = wrinkles

Personal Fable - 30s

:)
- young people believe themselves to be unique &  may not bring noticeable changes
protected from harm  vision & hearing begin to decline
-“You just don’t understand me. I’m different from you.”
Middle Age

n
- 40s

Imaginary Audience  bifocal lenses may become necessary as lens of
- extreme self-consciousness
zo eye hardens
- other people are just as concerned about the  more wrinkles
adolescent’s thoughts & characteristics as they  hair turns gray/ falls out
di
themselves are  vision & hearing decline further
- center of everyone’s world  physical strength may decline
- weight may increase as the rate at which body
PUBERTY functions slows down (eating increases, exercise
ca

- clearest sign of beginning adolescence decreases)

- physical changes in both primary sex (growth of actual - height decreases
organs) & secondary sex characteristics (breasts, body  half inch for every 10 years past 40
hair, etc) - sexual functioning does not usually decline; less time
ni

- occurs as the result of a complex series of glandular though

activities, simulated by master gland (pituitary gland)
je

when proper genetically determined age is reached
Late Adulthood

- stress, exercise & nutrition may have impact on timing of - 50’s more middle age changes
puberty - hearing loss becomes evident in 60s/70s
- thyroid gland increases rate of growth, adrenal & sex
glands stimulate growth characteristics such as body hair,
Menopause
muscle tissue in M, menstrual cycle in F - cessation of ovulation & menstrual cycles
- begins about 2 years after growth spurt (rapid period of - end of woman’s reproductive capability
growth 10 – F/ 12- M) - 40s
- levels of female hormone estrogen decline
MORAL DEVELOPMENT - uterus get smaller
- ability to tell from right/wrong - hot flashes
- Lawrence Kohlberg = moral dilemmas  sudden sensation of heat & sweating
- men tend to judge as moral the actions that lead to a  prevention: lot’s of soy
fair/just end - climacteric changes
- women judge as moral the actions that are nonviolent - perimenopause
& hurt fewest people  period of 5-10 years over which these changes will
occur

Preconventional Morality
- obedience & punishment
Andropause
- reward orientation - gradual changes in sexual hormones & reproductive
system of males

Conventional Morality - begin in mid-20s
- good boy/girl - decline in testosterone
 - fatigue, irritability, possible problems in sexual
functioning, reduced sperm count
- rarely loose all reproductive capability

EFFECTS OF AGING ON HEATLH

- middle ages
- high blood pressure, skin cancer, heart problems, arthritis
& obesity
- sleep problems
- most common causes of death: heart disease, cancer,
stroke

CHANGES IN MEMORY
- speed of processing slows down
- more experience & knowledge to bring to bear on a
problem
- difficulty in retrieval

THEORIES OF AGING

Cellular Clock Theory
- cells are limited in the number of times they can
reproduce to repair damage
- evidence is existence of telomeres (structures on ends
of chromosomes that shorten each time a cell

:)
reproduces)
- when telomeres are too short, cells cannot reproduce
& damage accumulates

n

Wear & Tear Theory
- outside influences such as stress, physical exertion &
zo
bodily damage
- body’s organs & cell tissues simply wear out w/
di
repeated use & abused
- damage tissues accumulate & produce aging effects
- Collagen wears out (flexibility)
ca

Free Radical Theory

- latest version of wear & tear theory
- free radicals
 oxygen molecules that have unstable electron (-)
ni

 bounce around cell, stealing electrons from other

molecules, increasing cell damage
je

Activity Theory
- elderly person adjusts more positively to aging when
remaining active in some way

STAGES OF DEATH & DYING

Denial
- refusal to believe that diagnosis of death is real

Anger
- at death itself
- feeling of helplessness

Bargaining
- make a deal w/ doctor or God

Depression
- sadness from losses already experiences & those yet
to come

Acceptance
- accept inevitable, quietly wait
 XII: THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

Personality
- unique way in which each individual thinks, acts &
feels throughout life
- area if relatively young field of psychology in which
there are several ways in which characteristic behavior
of human beings can be explained
 not yet one single explanation that all can agree
 difficult to measure precisely & scientifically

Character
- value judgments made about a person’s
morals/ethical behavior

Temperament
- enduring characteristics w/ which each person is born
- irritability, adaptability, etc.

Four Main Perspectives
• Psychoanalytic
- had its beginnings in the work of Freud
- focus: role of unconscious mind in development of
personality
- biological causes of personality differences
• Behaviorist
- theories of learning
- focus: effect of environment on behavior
• Humanistic
- reaction against psychoanalytic & behaviorist
di
perspectives
- focus: role of each person’s conscious life
experiences & choices in personality development
ca
• Trait
- differs from three because of goal
- more concerned w/ end result (characteristics)
ni
- some assume that traits are biologically determined,
others make no such assumption
je
THE MAN & THE COUCH: SIGMUND FRUED &
PSYCHOANALYSIS

Freud’s Cultural Background
- born in Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1856
- moved to Vienna at 4 yrs old
- lived there until 1838 when Germany occupied Austria
- of Jewish background  England to escape
- Victorian Age in Europe  intense sexual repression
- enjoying intercourse = sin
- obsession w/ sexual explanations for abnormal
behavior is understandable in light of cultural
background
- came to believe that there were layers of
consciousness in the mind
 The Psychopathology of Everyday Life
-shocked Victorian world

Divisions of the Mind
• Preconscious
- where all of information, events, concerns &
thoughts that a person is not aware of the moment
are kept
- these can be easily brought into social awareness
when the need arises
- sound like LTM: explicit long-term memory
 relatively permanent & accessible storage of
experiences
• Conscious
- all of the things of which a person is aware at any
given moment
- whatever is uppermost in one’s mind is in the
conscious mind
- STM
- where information is held while it is being used
• Unconscious
- real departure for professionals of Freud’s day
- there is a part of the mind that remains hidden at all
times
- surfacing only in symbolic form in dreams & in some
of the behavior people engage in w/o knowing why
they have done so
- when a person makes a determined effort to bring
:)
a memory out of the UM it will not appear directly
- most important determining factor in human
behavior & personality
n
- influences conscious behavior through (e.g.):
zo  everyday speech
- saying one thing & meaning the other
- Freudian slip
- slip of the tongue appears accidental but may
provide a clue to unconscious wishes/urges

Divisions of Personality
• ID: If It Feels Good, Do It
- first & most primitive part of the personality present
in the infant
- Latin = “it”
- completely unconscious, amoral part of the
personality that exists at birth
- contains all basic biological drives:
 hunger, thirst, self-preservation, sex, etc.
- when active, person feels increase in physical
tension & psychological tension (libido)
- libido
 instinctual energy that may come into conflict w/
demands of a society’s standards for behavior
 when high, it’s unpleasant for the person
 goal = reduce libido by fulfilling the drive
- hungry = eat, thirsty = eat, pleasure = sex drive
- Freud emphasized sexual aspect of libido more than
later followers did
- babies have sex drives (Freud) = OMG :)) o.O
 meant “pleasure drive”
 need to seek out pleasurable sensations
 provides good picture of id because they are:
- demanding, irrational, illogical & impulsive
- want needs satisfied immediately
- don’t care about anyone else’s needs/ desires
- pleasure principle (“if it feels good, do it”)
 need for satisfaction
 desire for immediate gratification of needs w/ no
regard for consequences
 • Ego: Executive Director as if the thoughts belonged to them & not to oneself
- help in dealing w/ reality  believe something else/ opposite of truth
- Latin = “I”
- mostly conscious • Reaction formation
- more rational, logical & cunning than id - forming an emotional reaction/ attitude that is
- reality principle opposite of one’s threatening/ unacceptable actual
 need to satisfy demands of id & reduce libido thoughts
only in ways that will not lead to (-) consequences  outward = opposite of inward feelings
- sometimes decides to deny id because
consequences would be unpleasant & painful • Displacement
- “if it feels good, do it, but only if you can get away - expressing feelings that would be threatening if
with it” directed as real target onto a less threatening
substitute target
• Superego: Moral Watchdog  fight someone lower
- moral center of personality
- Latin = “over the self” • Regression
- develops as a preschooler learns rules, customs & - falling back on childlike patterns as a way of coping
expectations of society w/ stressful situations
- 2 parts: ego ideal & conscience  wet bed
- Ego Ideal
 measuring device • Identification
 sum of all the ideal/correct & acceptable - trying to become like someone else to deal w/
behavior that the child has learned about from one’s anxiety
parents & others in society  copy

:)
- Conscience
 judges & holds standards for all behaviors • Compensation (substitution)
 makes people feel pride (right), guilt/moral - when a person tries to make up for areas in w/c a

n
anxiety (wrong) lack is perceived by becoming superior in some other
 once developed = sense of right & wrong area
 different from conscious
zo  do something good at

The Angel, the Devil & Me; How the 3 Parts of the • Sublimation
di
Personality Work Together - turning socially unacceptable urges into socially
- Angel (superego), Id (devil), Person (Ego) acceptable behavior
- Id – demands  aggression = sports
- Superego – puts restrictions on meeting demands
ca

- Ego – comes up with plan that will quiet id & STAGES OF PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT (PSYCHOSEXUAL)
satisfy superego - determined by developing sexuality of child since focus
- Freud’s view of how personality works: was on “sex drive”
constant state of conflict - each stage = different erogenous zone or area of body
ni

 only when anxiety created by conflict gets out of that produces pleasurable feelings
hand that disordered behavior arises  can become source of conflicts
je

- conflicts unsolved = “fixation” or getting stuck to some

Psychological Defense Mechanisms degree in an earlier stage of development
- ways of dealing w/ stress through unconsciously - personality or psyche develops as a result of sexual
distorting one’s perception of reality development = psychosexual stages of personality
- mainly outlined & studied by Anna Freud (daughter) development
- one of the most important tools for dealing w/ anxiety
caused by conflict
Oral Stage: Oral Fixation (infant to 1/1½ years)
- EZ: mouth
• Denial - dominated by id
- refusal to recognize/ acknowledge threatening - conflict: weaning
situation  when occurs too early/ late can result to too little/
too much satisfaction of child’s oral needs
• Repression - result: orally fixated adult personality
- “pushing” threatening/ conflicting events/ situations  overeating, drinking, chain smoking, talking too
out of conscious memory much, nail biting, gum chewing
 cannot remember  tendency to be either too dependent & optimistic
(over indulgement of needs)
• Rationalization  tendency to be too aggressive & pessimistic
- making up acceptable excuses for unacceptable (under indulgement of needs)
behavior
 if…
Anal Stage: Odd Couple & Anal Fixation (toddler: 1/ 1½
• Projection to 3 years)
- placing one’s unacceptable thoughts onto others, - EZ: anus
 - great deal of pleasure from w/holding & releasing
feces at will
- allows children to develop self-control & please
parents
- conflict: toilet training
 invasion of reality is part of process that stimulates
development of ego during this stage
- result: messiness as statement of personal control,
destructive & hostile
 anal expulsive personality = “slobs”
 anal retentive personality = terrified to make a mess
- rebels passively
- refusing to go at all/ retaining feces

Phallic Stage (3 to 6 years)
- EZ: genitals
- children have discovered differences between sexes
- engages in masturbation or in perfectly normal self-
stimulation of genitals or
- awakening of sexual curiosity & interest in genitals
- Latin = “phallos”  penis
- Freud believed focus of boys and girls is penis
 “I’ll show you mind if you show me yours” (o.O)
- castration anxiety
 upon boys’ seeing that girls have no penis, will
develop a fear of losing the penis
- penis envy
 girls would feel they are missing something vital
& could not be complete w/o it
 abandoned concept
- conflict: awakening sexual feelings of child
di
 Oedipus complex
(Greek tragedy king who killed father to marry
mother)
ca
- boys develop both sexual attraction to mothers &
jealousy of fathers
- sexual curiosity is mixed up w/ feelings of love &
affection for mother
ni
- jealousy of father leads to feelings of anxiety &
fears he will do something  castration
je
 Electra complex (female counterpart)
- Identification
 repress feelings for mother
 identify with father
 defense mechanism to combat anxiety
- superego develops as a result of identifying w/ same-
sex parent
- conflict:
 child doesn’t have same-sex parent to identify w/
 opposite-sex parent encourages attraction
- result: fixation
 immature sexual attitudes as an adult
 exhibit promiscuous behavior & be very vain
 vanity: cover-up feeling for low self-worth from not
being able to resolve the complex
lack of moral sexual behavior from failure to
identify & inadequacy of superego formation
 mama’s boys (boy) & father figure husbands (girl)
- by end of stage: push feelings for opposite sex to
unconscious (repression)

Latency (6 to puberty)
- stage of hidden (latent) sexual feelings
- children grow & develop intellectually , physically &
socially but not sexually
- conflict: same sex friendships
- opposite sex = awful
- result: ability to get along w/ others

Genital Stage
- sexual feelings once repressed are no longer ignored
- focus of sexual curiosity & attraction will become
other adolescents or rock stars, movie stars & other
objects of adoration
- represents final process of Freud’s personality theory
as well as entry into adult social & sexual behavior
- conflict: sexual relationship w/ partner
- result: immature love/ indiscriminate hate
uncontrollable working/ inability to work
THE NEO-FREUDIANS (“New” Freudian psychoanalysts)
- altered focus of psychoanalysis to impact of social
environment

Carl Gustav Jung
:)
- disagree w/: nature of unconscious mind
- belief: unconscious held more than personal fears,
urges & memories
n
- there was not only a personal unconscious but a
collective unconscious as well
zo kind of “species” or “racial memory
 memories of ancient fears & themes that seem to
occur in many folktales & cultures
 archetypes
- animalanimus (F side of man/ M side of woman)
- shadow (dark side of personality, Devil in the west)
- persona (shown side of personality)

Alfred Adler
- disagree w/: importance of sexuality in personality
development
- developed theory that as young, helpless children
people all develop feelings of inferiority when
comparing themselves the more powerful, superior
adults in their world
- seeking of superiority
 driving force behind all human endeavors,
emotions & thoughts
 not seeking of pleasure
- compensation (defense mechanism)
people try to overcome feelings of inferiority in one
area of life by striving to be superior in another area
 figures prominently in Adler’s theory
- birth order of child affects personality
 1st: - feel inferior once younger siblings get all
attention
- compensate by being overachievers
 Mid: - getting to feel superior over dethroned older
children while dominating younger sibs
- tend to be very competitive
 Young: - supposedly pampered & protected
- feels inferior because they’re deprived of
freedom & responsibility older sibs have

Karen Horney
- didn’t study directly w/ Freud
- studied work & taught psychoanalysis at
Psychoanalytic Institutes of Berlin & New York
- disagree w/: - differences between males & females
- concept of penis envy
- “womb envy”
 men felt need to compensate for lack of ability to
bear children by striving for success in other areas
- focus: basic anxiety
- anxiety created in a child born into a world that is so
much bigger & more powerful than the child
- resolve: parents; love, affection & security
- conflict: neurotic personality & maladaptive ways of
dealing w/ relationships
 dependent, clingy
 aggressive, demanding & cruel
 withdrawal from personal relationships

Erik Erikson
- art teacher who became a psychoanalyst by studying
w/ Anna Freud
- disagree: emphasis on sex
- focus: social relationships that are important at every
stage of life
CURRENT THOUGHTS ON FREUD & PSYCHOANALYSTS
- theories seem less relevant in today’s sexually saturated
world, many have remained useful
- research support for:
di
 defense mechanisms
 unconscious mind
- hypnosis & subliminal perception
- implicit memory & implicit learning
ca

Study on people undergoing surgery w/ anesthesia
- exposed to pairs of associated words (bread-butter)
- recovery:
ni
 tested recall & recognition of individual items = 
 supplication of first word = ☺
je

Freud’s theories
- based on observations & case studies
- interpreted patients’ behavior to develop theory
- felt free to interpret patients’ childhood memories as
fantasy/ fact depending upon how these fit w/ his
theories
- unable to accept parents’ abuse = fantasy
 basis of Oedipal conflict
- based interpretations of patient’s problems on
interpretations of dreams & results of patient’s free
association (talking w/o fear of – feedback)
- ambiguity gave to Freud’s preferred interpretation
- suggestions may alter memories of patients
- clients were almost all wealthy Austrian women in
Victorian era w/ intense sexual repression
 promoted emphasis on sexuality
- had an impact on literature, movies & cartoons
- many people are familiar with basic concepts
- one of the 1st to theorize importance of childhood
experiences on personality development (in spite of
never studying them)
BEHAVIROST’S VIEW OF PERSONALITY
- use principles of conditioning to explain actions &
reactions of both animals & humans
- personality
 nothing more than a set of learned responses/ habits
- classical & operant conditioning
SOCIAL COGNITIVE VIEW OF PERSONALITY
- Albert Bandura
- Social cognitive learning theorists
 emphasize importance of both influences of other
people’s behavior & person’s own expectancies on
learning
- Learning techniques = formation of personality patterns
 hold that observational learning
 modeling
 other cognitive learning techniques
- behavior is not only governed by influence of external
stimuli & response patterns but also by cognitive
processes such as anticipating, judging, memory &
learning through imitation of models
BANDURA’S RECIPROCAL DETERMINISM & SELF-EFFICACY
- three factors that influence one another in determining
:)
behavior:
 environment
 behavior itself
n
 personal/cognitive factors that the person brings in to
the situation from earlier experiences
zo
- factors affect each other in a reciprocal, or give-and-
take relationship

Reciprocal Determinism
- how factors of environment, personal characteristics
& behavior can interact to determine future behavior
• Environment
- actual physical surroundings
- other people who may/ may not be present
- potential reinforcement in surroundings
- affects intensity & frequency of behavior
 has as impact on environment as well
- person brings into situation previously reinforced
responses (personality) & mental processes such as
thinking & anticipating

Self-efficacy
- important person variables
- person’s perception of how effective a behavior will
be in any particular circumstance
- different from self-esteem
- can be high/ low depending on
 what has happened in similar circumstances in the
past (success/ failure)
 what other people say about their competence
 own assessment of abilities
- H self-efficacy = more persistent & expect to succeed
- L self-efficacy = expect to fail & avoid challenges
CURRENT THOUGHTS ON SOCIAL COGNITIVE VIEW
- unlike traditional behaviorism, includes mental processes
& its influence on behavior
- unlike psychoanalysis, concepts can have & have been
tested under scientific conditions (“Bobo doll”, etc.)
- viewpoint has enabled development of therapies
based on learning theory that have become effective in
changing undesirable behavior
THIRD FORCE: HUMANISM & PERSONALITY
- focuses on aspects of personality that make people
uniquely human, such as subjective feelings & freedom of
choice

Carl Rogers & Self-Concept
- believed that human beings are always striving to:
 fulfill their innate capacities & capabilities
 to become everything that their genetic potential
will allow them to become
- self-actualizing tendency – striving for fulfillment
 self-concept – important tool
- development of one’s image
- based on what people are told by others
- how sense of self is reflected in words & actions of
important people in one’s life

Real & Ideal Self
- Real self
 actual perception of characteristics, traits & abilities
that form basis of striving for self-actualization
- Ideal Self
 perception of what one should/like to be
 primarily comes from important & significant people
- when real & ideal self are similar: competent &
capable
 realistic view of real self
 attainable ideal self
di
- mismatch: anxiety & neurotic behavior
 distorted view of ideal self
 impossible ideal self
ca
- primarily how important people (bad/good influence)
in a person’s life react that determines degree of
agreement between real & ideal self
ni

Conditional & Unconditional Positive Regard
- Positive regard
 warmth, affection, love & respect that comes from
je
significant others
 vital to people’s ability to cope w/ stress & to strive
to achieve self-actualization
- Unconditional positive regard
 love, affection & respect w/ no strings attached
 necessary for people to be able to fully explore all
that they can achieve and become
- Conditional positive regard
 love, affection, respect & warmth that (seem) to
depend on what people want
- Fully-functioning person
 person who is in the process of self-actualizing
 actively exploring potentials & abilities
 exploring a match between real & ideal selves
 necessary in S-A
- Self-actualized people
 Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Eleanor
Roosevelt, etc.
CURRENT THOUGHTS ON HUMANISTIC VIEW
- paint a very rosy picture
- ignores more negative aspects of human nature
- very difficult to test scientifically
- more of a philosophical rather than psychological:
- greatest impact: development of therapies to promote
self-growth & help people understand themselves &
others
TRAIT THEORIES: WHO ARE YOU?
- less concerned w/ explanation of personality
development & changing personality
- describing personality & predicting behavior based on
description
- attempt to describe personality in terms of traits
- trait
 consistent, enduring way of thinking, feeling/
behaving

Allport
- Gordon Allport – earliest attempts
- w/ H.S. Odbert scanned the dictionary for words that
could be traits = 18,000, paired & (-) synonyms = 200
:)
- believed that traits are wired into nervous system to
guide one’s behavior across many different situations
- each person’s “constellation” of traits was unique
n
- no scientific background
- behavioral geneticists have found support for
zoheritability of personality traits

Catell & 16PF
- defined two types of traits
- Surface traits
 aspects of personality that can easily seen outward
 shyness, being quiet, disliking crowds =
- Source traits
 more basic underlying traits
 core of surface traits
 introversion
- tendency to draw from excessive stimulation
 total of 23 source traits
- Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire
 16 source traits seen as trait dimensions/ continuums
 there are 2 opposite traits w/ many possible
degrees along the dimension
1. Reserved vs. Outgoing
2. Concrete thinking vs. Abstract thinking
3. Easily upset vs. Emotionally stable; calm
4. Submissive vs. Dominant
5. Serious; sober vs. Happy-go-lucky; enthusiastic
6. Rule-defying vs. Conscientious
7. Shy vs. Bold
8. Tough-minded vs. Sensitive; tender-minded
9. Trusting cs. Suspicious
10. Practical vs. Imaginative
11. Forthright vs. Shrewd; world
12. Self-assured vs. Apprehensive; insecure
13. Conservative vs. Experimenting
14. Group-dependent vs. Self-sufficient
15. Undisciplined vs. Self-controlled
16. Relaxed cs. Tensed

THE BIG FIVE: OCEAN, OR THE FIVE-FACTOR MODEL OF
PERSONALITY
- model of personality traits that describes 5 basic trait
dimensions
- represent core description of human personality
- only dimensions necessary to understand what makes us
tick
- Costa & McCrae: traits are not interdependent

Openness
- willingness to try new things & be open to new
experiences
- ☺ = creative, artistic, curious, imaginative & non-
conforming
-  = maintain status quo, anti-change, conventional,
uncreative, down-to-earth

Conscientiousness
- organization & motivation
- ☺ = careful about being on time & belongings
= organized, reliable, neat & ambitious
-  = late, borrow, fail to return stuff, etc.
= unreliable, lazy, careless, negligent & spontaneous

Extraversion (Carl Jung)
- extra = outgoing & sociable
- intra = solitary & anti-center of attention

Agreeableness
- basic emotional style of a person
- ☺ = easygoing, friendly, pleasant, good-natured,
di
trusting & helpful
-  = grumpy, crabby & hard to get along w/
= rude, uncooperative, irritable, aggressive &
competitive
ca

Neuroticism
- emotional instability/ stability
- H  = excessive worriers, overanxious & moody
ni
- L ☺ = even-tempered, relaxed, secure & stable
je
CURRENT THOUGHTS ON TRAIT PERSPECTIVE
- personality traits will not always be expressed in same
way across different situations
- Walter Mischel (social cognitive theorist):
trait-situation interaction
particular circumstances of any given situation are
assumed to influence way in which a trait is
expressed
- cross-studies have found evidence of OCEAN in 11
different cultures
- cultural commonality rises question of origins of OCEAN
BIOLOGY OF PERSONALITY: BEHAVIORAL GENETICS
- how much an individual’s personality is due to heredity

Twin Studies
- comparison of identical to fraternal twins, especially
when twins can be found who were not raised in the
same environment
- find evidence of possible genetic influences on
various traits, including personality
- Minnesota Twin Study
 identical twins are more similar than fraternal twins
or unrelated people in intelligence, leadership
abilities, tendency to follow rules & uphold
traditional cultural expectations
 nurturance, empathy, assertiveness &
aggressiveness

Adoption Studies
- studying unrelated people raised in the same
environment help discover influence of environment
- by comparing A children to A parents, sibs & B parents
= shared & non-shared genetic influences on
personality
- genetic influences account for a great deal of
personality development, regardless of shared/ non-
shared environments
- genetic basis for shyness and aggressiveness

Current Findings
- OCEAN has a 50% heritability across several cultures
- variations in personality traits are about 25-50%
inherited
- environmental influences apparently account for
about half of variation
:)
GEERT HOFSTEDE’S 4 DIMENSIONS OF CULTURAL
PERSONALITY
- massive study into work-related values of IBM employees
n
- surveyed workers in 64 countries
zo

Individualism/ collectivisim
- Individualistic cultures
 loose ties between individuals
 look after self & family
 friends based on shared activities & interests
 values: youth, security & equality
 US & Great Britain
- Collectivistic culture
 deeply tied into very strong in-groups, typically
extended families
 highly stressed loyalty to family
 family first before individual
 group membership is limited to only few permanent
groups that have tremendous influence over
individual
 values: duty, order, tradition, respect for elderly,
group security, respect for group status &
hierarchy
 Japan, China, Korea, Mexico & Central America

Power distance
- dimension refers to degree to which less powerful
members accept & expect power w/in culture is
held in a select few/ evenly distributed
 H: Philippines, Mexico, Arab countries
 L: Austria, Sweden, Australia, Great Britain & US

Masculinity/ femininity
- how a culture distributes roles played by men &
women
- Masculine culture: assertive & competitive
 women aren’t as assertive & competitive as men
 greater difference between sexes
 Japan, Austria, Venezuela, Italy, Switzerland,
Mexico, Ireland, Jamaica, US, GB & Germany
 - Feminine culture: modest & caring
 men & women have similar caring values
 Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Denmark, Costa
Rica, Yugoslavia, Finland, Chile, Portugal, Thailand,
& Guatemala

Uncertainty avoidance
- some cultures are more tolerant of uncertainty,
ambiguity & unstructured situations
 fewer rules
 tolerant of more different options
 tend to allow many different religious beliefs
 less anxious & emotional
 Singapore, Jamaica, Denmark, Sweden HK,
Ireland, GB, Malaysia, India, Philippines, US,
Canada & Indonesia
- cultures that don’t tolerate have:
 strict rules & laws
 lots of security & safety measures
 tend toward a philosophical belief of One Truth
 Greece, Portugal, Guatemala, Uruguay, Belgium,
El Salvador, Japan, Yugoslavia & Peru
ASSESSMENT OF PERSONALITY
 low reliability & validity

Rorshach Inkblots (Herman Rorshach - Swiss psychiatrist)
- tested thousands & narrowed them into
- 10 inkblots (5 b on white bg & 5 colored on white bg)
- client interprets inkblot
- psychologists score responses on key factors
 color, shape, figures seen, response to whole/details)
- frequently used to describe personality, diagnose
mental disorders & predict behavior

TAT (Thematic Apperception Test)
- Henry Murray and colleagues
- 20 ambiguous pictures, B&W are shown to client
- client tells story in picture
- psychoanalyst looks for revealing statements &
projection of client’s own problems into people in the
pictures

Other:
- sentence completion
- draw-a-person
- house-tree-person

:)
- methods vary according to theory of personality used to BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENTS
develop
Direct observation
- eclectic view - observe client engaging in ordinary, everyday

n
 way of choosing parts of different theories that best fit behavior preferably in a natural setting (home, school/
a particular situation, rather than using one to workplace)
explain
zo
- may also differ in purpose of conducting
Rating scales
 sort participants in a study - numerical rating is assigned either by assessor/client
di
 learn more about personality for specific behaviors
 clinical, counseling, etc. = diagnosis of disorders

Frequency count

Interviews - assessor literally counts frequency of certain behaviors
ca

- questions & note down answers in survey process
- likely to be unstructured & flow naturally
- Problems
lying, misremember, socially-acceptable answers
ni
w/in a specified time limit
- diagnose behavioral problems such as ADD & aspects
of personality (social skill level, etc.)

bias, interpretations according to own beliefs
Problems

- observer effect
je

 halo effect - observer bias

- tendency of interviewer to form a favorable/ - no control over external environment
unfavorable impression of someone at 1st
meeting PERSONALITY INVENTORIES
- all of person’s comments & behavior at 1st - questionnaire that has a standard list of questions & only
impression will be interpreted to agree w/ requires “yes”, “no”/ “can’t decide” answers
impression (+)ly/ (-)ly - lack of open-ended answers make assessments more
- can happen in social situation, interviews objective & reliable
between psychological professional & client

Cattell’s 16 PF

Projective Tests
- assessment methods to “get at” unconscious &
Neuroticisim/Extraversion/Openness Personality
hidden emotions, desires, conflicts & events Inventory (NEO-PI)
- presentation of ambiguous visual stimuli to client & ask - based on OCEAN
client to respond w/ whatever comes to mind
= unconscious concerns * fears
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
- most commonly used as diagnostic tool to uncover - based on Carl Jung
personality problems - 4 personality dimensions
- Problems  sensing/intuition (S/I)
 subjective - S: detail oriented, work w/ known facts,
 interpretation of answers is almost an art  thinking/feeling (T/F)
 not a science  introversion/extroversion (I/E)
 inaccurate
  perceiving/judging (P/J)
- results in 16 (4x4) personality types
 ISTJ, ISTP, ISFP, ISF, etc.

Other common personality tests

- Eysenck Personality Questionnaire
- Keirsey Temperament Sorter II
- California Psychological Inventory
- Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire

MMPI 2
- Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Version II
- tests for abnormal behavior patterns in personality
- has 10 clinical scales, 8 validity scales & more
- each scale tests for a specific kind of behavior
 include relatively mild personality problems
(excessive worrying & shyness) to more serious ones
such as schizophrenia & depression

Validity Scales
- built into any well-designed psychological inventory
- intended to indicate whether/not a person taking the
inventory is responding honestly

:)

Advantages of Personality Inventories
- standardized
- often scored on a computer

n
- observer & perception bias are not possible
 objective than subjective assessment
- generally recognized as being greatly superior to that
zo
of projective tests
di

Disadvantages of Personality Inventories
- validity scales are good for check against cheating
but aren’t always perfect
ca

- some are still able to fake & answer what they feel is
socially appropriate
- human nature
 some develop habit of picking a particular answer
rather than considering carefully the statement
ni

 others may grow tired of responding to statements

and start picking answers randomly
je
 XIII: A LOOK AT SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY - Groupthink
 people feel it is more important to maintain group’s
cohesiveness than to consider facts more realistically

Social Psychology
- scientific study of how a person’s behavior, thoughts &
- Causes (Irving Janis)
feelings are influenced by the real, imagined/ implied
• Invulnerability
presence of others
- feel they cannot fail

Social Influence
• Rationalization
- ways in which a person’s behavior can be affected
- explain away warning signs & help each other
by other people
rationalize their decision

Social Cognition
• Lack of introspection
- ways in which people think about other people
- do not examine the ethical implications of
decision because they believe that they can’t

Social Interaction
make immoral choices
- positive & negative aspects of people relating to
others
• Stereotyping
- enemies = weak, stupid/ unreasonable
SOCIAL INFLUENCE: CONFORMITY, COMPLIANCE &
OBEDIENCE
• Pressure
- pressure each other not to question prevailing

Forms of social influence
opinion
- w/ own actions/ thoughts
- to agree to do things even when the person might

:)
• Lack of disagreement
prefer to do otherwise
- do not express opinions that differ from group
- be obedient to authorities
consensus

n
- mere presence = successful/unsuccessful tasks
• Self-deception

Conformity
- changing one’s own behavior to more closely match
zo - share in illusion that they all agree
the actions of others
• Insularity
- 1936 social psychologist Muzafer Sharif’s light
di
- prevent group from hearing disruptive but
experiment
potentially useful info from people outside

Solomon Asch’s Classic Study on Conformity - Minimize possibility of groupthink by:
ca

- determine w/c line on 1st card was most similar to line
on 2nd card
- only last person in group was a real participant
- confederates picked same incorrect line
ni
 Leaders should remain impartial
 Entire group should seek outsider’s opinions
 Voting (secret ballots rather than show of hands)

- participants conformed a little over 1/3 of the time
Compliance

- conformity increased w/ each new confederate until - Consumer psychology
4 confederates, more than that didn’t increase
je

 devoted to figuring out how to get people to buy

participants’ tendency to conform things
- later experiment: conformity decreased if there was  infomercials
just one confederate who gave the correct answer
 if participants knew there was at least one other - Compliance
person whose answer agreed w/ their own,  people change their behavior as a result of
evidence of their own eyes won out over the another person/group asking or directing them to
pressure to conform to the group change (obedience)
- recent research: less conformity
- people in collectivist cultures are not as concerned w/
 more conforming nature of people in the 50s
being consistent w/ previous behavior because they
- gender differences are practically non-existent unless
are less focused on their inner motivations
situation involves behavior that is not private
 public: women conform more than men (small diff)
- Ways to get compliance
- may be due to socialization women receive in
• Foot-in-the-Door Technique
being agreeable & supportive
- first small request acts as an opener to a bigger
request

Hazards of Groupthink
- 1961 Bay of Pigs disaster, Challenger space shuttle • Door-in-the-Face Technique
crash, Titanic sinking - large commitment  refusal = smaller
 pressure to conform to the group norm outweighs commitment
any evidence that the group norm is wrong - relies on norm of reciprocity
 utang na loob
 • Lowball Technique
- commitment made  increase in cost (time,
effort, money, etc.)
• That’s-Not-All Technique
- addition of extra to make offer look better

Obedience
- changing one’s behavior at the command of an
authority figure
• Milgram’s Shocking Research
- recruited people through newspaper ads:
participation for an experiment to test effects of
punishment on learning behavior
- participants were randomly assigned to
“teacher”/ “learner” role
- for each mistake in the word paring = + 15 volts
- “learner” = acting to be electrically shocked
- as “teachers” became reluctant to administer
shocks, experimenter would instruct the teacher to
go on & say that he would take full responsibility of
the safety
- 65% of “teachers” went all the way to 450 volts
- none stopped before reaching 300 volts
• Evaluation of Milgram’s Research
- researchers looked for particular personality traits
that might be associated w/ high levels of
obedience = 
- people who went “all the way” weren’t
necessarily more dependent/ susceptible to being
di
controlled by other people
- some suggest his research = “foot-in-the-door”
technique
- ethical question: How far should researchers be
ca
willing to go to answer a question of interest?
 “teachers” = damaged self-esteem
= psychological stress
- follow-up experiment:
ni
 84% = ☺ to be part of experiment
 1.3% =  to be part of experiment
je
- follow-up experiment = no harm/trauma

Social Facilitation & Social Loafing
- presence of other people acts to increase arousal
- Social facilitation – (+) influence
 easy task = arousal to improve performance
- Social Impairment– (-) influence
 difficult task = too much arousal
= impaired performance
- Social Loafing
 tendency for people to put less effort into a simple
task when working w/ others
 depends on assumption that personal responsibility
for a task is lessened when working w/ a group
ATTITUDES
- tendency to respond positively/ negatively toward a
certain person, object, idea/ situation
- developed through people’s experiences as they live &
work w/ others
- can affect behavior toward ideas, people, objects &
situations
- can include opinions, beliefs & biases
- influence way people view things even before actual
exposure
- poor predictors of actual behavior (controlled research
studies)
 what people say vs. do
- predict behavior only under certain conditions
- another factor: how specific the attitude is
 people may hold a general attitude about
something w/o reflecting that attitude in their actual
behavior
- some are stronger than others
 stronger attitudes are more likely to predict behavior
- Salience
 importance/having the quality of being obvious/
easily seen
 has an impact on behavior

ABC Model of Attitudes
• Affective Component (Emotional)
- feelings toward object, person/ situation
- Affect - “emotions”/ “feelings”
:)
• Behavior Component
- actions taken in regard to the person, object/
n
situation
zo• Cognitive Component
- way a person thinks about person, object/ situation
- include beliefs & ideas about focus of attitude

Attitude Formation
- result of number of different influences w/ only one
thing in common: all forms of learning
- not only influenced by other people in a person’s
immediate world by also by larger world of education
system & mass media
• Direct Contact
- through direct contact w/ person, idea, situation/
object
• Direct Instruction
- through direct instruction either by parents/
individual
• Interaction W/ Others
- person is around other people w/ the same attitude
• Vicarious Conditioning (Observational Learning)
- through observation of other people’s actions &
reactions to various objects, people/ situations
- emotional components can be learned by
observing emotional reactions of others
- behavioral components can be observed &
imitated

Attitude Change: Art of Persuasion
- Persuasion
 process by w/c a person tries to change the belief,
opinion, position/ course of action of another
person through argument, pleading/ explanation
 - Factors that predict how successful any persuasion:
• Source (Communicator)
- person delivering the message
- strong tendency to give more weight to people
who are perceived as experts, trustworthy,
attractive & similar to person receiving message
• Message
- should be clear & organized
- more effective to present both sides
- messages that are directed at producing fear are
more effective if they produce only a moderate
amount of fear & also provide info about how to
avoid fear-provoking consequences
• Target-Audience
- people who are in the young adult stage of the
late teens to mid-20s are more susceptible to
persuasion that older people
• Way people tend to process information
- Elaboration likelihood model of persuasion
 assumed that people either elaborate on what
they hear/ don’t elaborate at all, preferring to
pay attention to surface characteristics of
message (length, deliverer, etc.)
- Two Types of Processing
 Central-route processing
- people attend to content of message
 Peripheral-route processing
- peripheral cues
di
- expertise, attractiveness of deliverer, etc.
- do not have anything to do about content
- causes people not to pay attention to
ca
message itself

Cognitive Dissonance: When Attitude & Behavior Clash
- sense of discomfort/ distress that occurs when a
person’s behavior doesn’t correspond to that person’s
ni
attitudes
- may refer to inconsistency/ lack of agreement
je
- e.g. “smart view of self” vs. “stupid action”
- 3 Basic Things that People Do to Reduce CD
 Change conflicting behavior to make it match
attitude
 Change current conflicting cognition to justify
behavior
 Form new cognitions to justify behavior
- Leo Festinger & James Carlsmith (Stanford University)
Study
$1 vs. $20 to convince women into doing a boring
task
 $20 = cognitive dissonance, paid to lie 
IMPRESSION FORMATION & ATTRIBUTION
- Impression formation
 forming of the 1st knowledge of a person
 assigning other person to a # of categories & drawing
conclusions about what the other person is likely to do
 kind of social cognition
- mental process used to make sense of social world
- Primacy Effect
 1st impression persists even though they may have
contradictory info about that person

Social Categorization
- assignment of a person on has just met to a category
based on characteristics the new person has in
common w/ other people w/ whom one has had
experience in the past
- mostly automatic
- occurs w/o conscious awareness
- may result in a stereotype
 set of characteristics people believe is shared by all
members of a particular social category
 limiting
 may cause people to misjudge what others are like
& often treat them differently
- primacy effect + stereotyping = first impression

Implicit Personality Theories
- set of assumptions about how different types of
people, personality traits, & actions are related to each
:)
other
- not necessarily true
- serve as a function to organize schemas
n
 mental patterns that represent what a person
believes about certain “types” of people
zo- may differ in cultures

Attribution
- process of explaining behavior

Causes of Behavior
- Attribution Theory (Fritz Heider)
 way of not only explaining why things happens but
also why people choose the particular
explanations of behavior that they do
 2 Kinds of Explanation
- Situational Cause
 caused by whatever situation exists for the
person at that time
- Dispositional Cause
 caused by person’s internal characteristics

Fundamental Attribution Error
- tendency for people to overestimate the influence of
another person’s internal characteristics on behavior &
underestimate influence of situation
- Strategies to Reduce Error
 Notice how many other people are doing the
same thing
 Think about what you would do in the same
situation
- error is not existent in all cultures
- Self-Serving Bias (internal attribution)
PREJUCIDE & DISCRIMINATION
- Prejudice
 negative attitude held by a person about the
members of a particular social group
- Discrimination
  treating people different because of prejudice
toward the social group to which they belong

Types of Prejudice & Discrimination
- Ageism – prejudice towards elderly,
- Sexism – towards gender,
- Racism – towards different ethnic groups, etc.
- In-groups
- Out-groups
 usually stereotyped according to superficial
characteristics
- Realistic Conflict Theory of Prejudice
 describes formation of prejudice & onset of
discriminatory treatment that are closely tied to
degree of conflict between in- & out-group
- Scapegoat
 person/ group, typically a member/ members of an
out-group who serve as the target for frustrations &
negative emotions of members of the in-group
 from Jewish tradition
 group of people w/ the least power
 e.g. riots in Asian American communities (minority)
because of Rodney King’ (African American) beating

How People Learn Prejudice
- Social Cognitive Theory
 prejudice is an attitude formed as other attitudes
are formed through direct instruction, modeling, &
other social influences
di
• Social Identity Theory
- 3 processes are responsible for the formation of a
persons’ identity w/in a particular social group
ca
- attitudes, concepts & behavior go along w/
identification w/ that group
1. Social Categorization
ni
- Reference group
 group of people to whom people compare
je
themselves
 social category determines reference group
2. Identification/ formation of Social Identity
- part of one’s self-concept that includes view of
oneself as a member of a particular social group
- includes idea of in-group
3. Social Comparison
- comparison of oneself to others to raise self-
esteem
• Stereotype Vulnerability
- effect that a person’s knowledge of another’s
stereotyped opinions can have on the person’s
behavior
- research shows that people are aware of
stereotypes normally applied to their own group
= anxiety & self-conscious
- self-fulfilling prophecy
 tendency of one’s expectations to affect one’s
behavior in such a way as to make the
expectation more likely to occur
- highly related to stereotype threat
 members of a stereotyped group are made
anxious & wary of any situation in w/c their
behavior might confirm a stereotype

Overcoming Prejudice
- education: best-weapon
- Intergroup contact
• Equal Status Contact
- contact between two groups in which groups have
equal status, w/ neither group having power over the
other
- personal involvement w/ people from another
group must be cooperative
- “Robber’s Cave” Study
 11-12 year olds – intergroup conflict:
- name-calling, fights, hostility, etc.
• “Jigsaw” Classroom
- educational technique
- each individual is given only part of the information
needed to solve a problem, causing separate
:)
individuals to be forced to work together to find
solution
n
LIKING & LOVING: INTERPERSONAL ATTRACTION

Rules of Attraction
zo- involves superficial characteristics and elements of
personality
• Physical Attractiveness
- some research suggests that physical beauty is one
of the main factors that influence people’s choices
for selecting people they want to know better
• Proximity – Close to You
- the closer together people are, the more likely they
are to form a relationship
- Proximity – being physically near to someone
- involves repeated exposure to new stimuli
- the more people experience something, the more
they tend to like it
- “it grew on me”
• Birds of a Feather – Similarity
- people tend to like being around others who are
similar to them in some way
- attitudes, beliefs, interests, etc.
-validation of person’s beliefs & attitudes
• When Opposites Attract
- Complementary
 fill the need of each other
• Reciprocity of Liking
- tendency f people to like other people who like
them in return

Love is A Triangle – Robert Sternberg’s Triangular Theory
of Love
• Three Components
 - Intimacy
- feelings of closeness that one has for another
person
- Passion
- physical aspect of love
- emotional & sexual arousal a person feels
- Commitment
- decisions one makes about a relationship
• Love Triangles
- combination of components = different forms of
love
- Romantic Love = Intimacy + Passion
 often basis for a more lasting relationship
- Companionate Love = Intimacy + Commitment
 people who like each other, feel emotionally
close to each other, & understand one another’s
motives have a commitment to live together,
usually in a marriage relationship
 binding tie through years of parenting, etc.
- Fatuous Love = Passion + Commitment
- Consummate Love = All three components
 ideal form of love
 when passion lessens = companionate
• Styles
zo
- Storge
 prefers slowly developing attachments that lead
di
to lasting commitment
- Eros
 eager for intense relationship & strong physical
ca
attraction
- Ludus
 playful love
ni
- Mania
je
 demanding & possessive, “out of control” love
- Agape
 altruistic
 loving w/o concern for receiving anything in
return (spiritual)
- Pragma
 Mr./Ms. Right = proper vital stats, etc.
AGGRESSION & PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR
- Aggression
 behavior intended to hurt/destroy another person
 common cause: frustration
 Freud believed it to be human instinct

Aggression & Biology
- has at least partially a genetic basis
- chemical influences: testosterone (male sex
hormone), low levels of serotonin (brain chemical)

Power of Social Roles
- aggression is influenced by learning
- Social Learning Theory for Aggression
 aggressive behavior is learned by watching
aggressive models get reinforced for their
aggressive behavior
- Social Role
 pattern of behavior that is expected of a person
who is in a particular social position
 guard and prisoner experiment

Violence in the Media & Aggression
- meta-analysis of research into connection between
violent media & aggressive behavior in children show
clear & consistent evidence that even short-term
exposure to violent media significantly increases the
likelihood that children will engage in both physical &
verbal aggressive thoughts & emotions

Prosocial Behavior
- socially desirable behavior that benefits others
• Altruism
- no expectation of reward & may involve risk to
oneself
:)
• Why People Won’t Help
- Bystander Effect
n
 likelihood of a bystander to help someone in
trouble decreases as the number of bystanders
increases
- Diffusion of Responsibility
 form of attribution in w/c people explain why
they acted (or failed to act) as they did because
of others

Five Decision Points in Helping Behavior
• Noticing
- realizing that there is a situation that might be an
emergency
• Defining an emergency
- interpreting the cues as signaling an emergency
• Taking responsibility
- personally assuming responsibility to act
• Planning a course of action
- deciding how to help & what skills might be needed
• Taking action
- actually helping
• Factors
-ambiguity in situation
- mood of bystanders
- gender of victim
- physical attractiveness of victim