PSYCH1000 61 Pages Study Guide

Western
Psychology 1000
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
find more resources at oneclass.com
Lecture 1: Tuesday September 10, 2013
CHAPTER 1:
Psychology: The Science of Behaviour
Psychology is defined as the scientific study of the behaviour and mind.
• behaviour: actions and responses we can directly observe

• mind: internal states and processes (e.g. thoughts and feelings) that we cannot see directly; must infer from behaviours
Different Kinds of Psychology:
• biopsychology
• evolutionary psychology
• developmental psychology
• cognitive psychology
• experimental psychology
• industrial-organizational psychology
• personality psychology
• social psychology
• clinical psychology
Science of Psychology:
• modern psychology is very scientific

• scientific approach minimizes misconception due to different sources of information
• science involves gathering and evaluations empirical evidence to answer questions and test ideas about the world
• personal observations are empirical data, but they are not systematic (no set of criteria)
• cannot rely on pre-existing beliefs; often make mental shortcuts which are incorrect
The Scientific Approach:
• systematic observation: use of specific test that is scored as objectively as possible

• gather empirical evidence: administer test to individuals of different ages
• use statistics to determine small differences are just random fluctuation or real differences
Questioning Conclusions:
• what is the claim, exactly?

• is the source credible or trustworthy?

• what is the evidence and how good is it?

• are other explanations possible?
The Four Goals of Psychology:
1. describe how people and animals behave

2. explain and understand causes of these behaviours
3. predict how people and animals will behave under certain conditions
4. influence or control behaviour through knowledge and controlling the causes in order to enhance human welfare
Basic Science:
• quest for knowledge purely for its own sake

• lab or real world
Applied Science:
• designed for specific research and application

Lecture 2
Levels of Analysis
• biological level: brain processes, genetic influences, hormone levels, basic needs
(physical)
• psychological level: personal thoughts, feelings, motives (mental)
• environmental level: past and current physical and social environment
Why would someone eat a cookie before class?
• hungry
• smells food
• boredom
• stress
• craving
• likes cookies
• easy to eat
• genetic predisposition
• like cookies
Different levels interact with one another:
• mind-body interactions: mental processes can affect bodily function
o ex. imagine favourite food and you may become hungry (release of digestive
enzymes)
o ex. people with “something to live for: often recover from severe illness faster
than those who don’t
o ex. enriched environment during infancy greater brain development
o psychology covers all levels of analysis and their interaction
o nature AND nurture
Orangutans
• dominant male has facial flanges
• male who beats dominant male grows flanges
Before Psychology:
Philosophy:
Mind-Body Dualism
• mind: immaterial, spiritual entity
• body: physical portion (including brain)
• no research on brain could ever unravel mysteries of non-physical mind
• Rene Descartes (1596-1650) believed mind and body interacted through pineal gland in
the brain

Monism
• mind and body (brain) are one
• mental events correspond to physical events in brain
• scientific observations is how we gain knowledge
• John Locke (1632-1704)
• Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
• if mind and body are one, we can study the brain/behaviour to understand mind
Structuralism and Wilhelm Wundt:
• first psychology lab opened in 1879 by Wilhelm Wundt at University of Leipzig
• structuralism: the mind can be studied by breaking it down into its tiniest components
• wanted to describe basic elements of consciousness & how they relate
• method: introspection (“looking within”); trained his students to reflect on their own
sensations and thoughts
• people could only be sure of what is in their own minds; cannot know what others are
thinking
• Edward Titchener (1867-1927) brought psychology to America
What are the basic pieces of the mind and how do they fit together?
Functionalism :
• wanted to describe the adaptive (evolutionary) of the mind
• William James (1842-1910)
• influenced by Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, which stressed how adaptations helped
organisms survive and reproduce
• method: naturalistic observation; more scientific than introspection
What does that do and how is it useful?
Psychological Perspectives:
1. Psychodynamic
2. Behaviourism
3. Humanistic
4. Cognitive
5. Sociocultural
6. Biological
1. Psychodynamic:
• looks at causes of behaviour at unconscious level
• method: psychoanalysis, individual interviews
• psychoanalysis: analysis of internal, usually unconscious psychological forces

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and Psychodynamics:

• noted that several of his patients had symptoms like blindness, paralysis, or phobias
without any apparent physical ailment; must be psychological
• eventually patients would remember long-forgotten traumatic events in childhood
• symptoms suddenly improved after remembering
Freud’s Psychodynamic Theory:
7. humans have inborn sexual and aggressive drives which are punished in childhood
8. this punishment leads to anxiety when we feel these urges in adulthood
9. to limit anxiety, we repress these unacceptable urges, feelings, and memories into the
unconscious areas of the mind
10. this leads to unconscious conflict: our natural urges versus a desire to represses them
• never-ending conflict “psycho-dynamic”
Freud:
• extremely influential
• faced some criticism for focusing too much on childhood sexuality and aggression
• ideas difficult to test empirically
• some ideas supported through research
• his ideas stimulated research and drove science forward
Modern Psychodynamic Theory:
• looks at interaction of the unconscious & conscious mind
• less emphasis on childhood sexuality and aggression, more on family and caregiver
relationships
2. Behaviourism:
• emphasizes study of overt, observable behaviours
• consciousness of mind is not observable, therefore cannot be studied empirically
• directly opposed “mentalism” of structuralism, functionalism, and psychodynamics
• focuses heavily on the role of the environment in governing behaviour
Philosophical Roots of Behaviourism:
• British empiricists (John Locke): tabula rasa
• Ivan Pavlov: classical conditioning – dogs salivate to sound of bell
• Edward Thorndike: “law of effect” – behaviours that cause satisfying consequences
become more likely (and vice versa)
John B. Watson (1878-1958)
• father of behaviourism (1913)
• “introspection is unscientific”

• only observable behaviour (not unobservable inner consciousness or sub-consciousness)

is acceptable
• humans are products of their learning environments
• people are blank slates and when behaviour are rewarded/punished, they become
more/less likely
• sought to discover laws of learning
• a lot of animal experiments
B.F. Skinner (1904-1990):
• real causes of behaviour are in the outer world, not in our thoughts or feelings
• “No account of what is happening inside the human body, no matter how complete, will
explain the origins of human behaviour.”
• “A person does not act on the world, the world acts upon him.”
• proponent of radical behaviourism
• believed that free will was an illusion
• pigeon experiments
o reward and punishment
Radical Behaviourism:
• don’t need to consider mental events as explanations of behaviour
• ex. food (stimulus) eating (response)
• behaviour modification: manipulate environment to increase positive behaviours and
decrease negatives
• can use social engineering to change behaviour in beneficial ways
• designed culture based on positive reinforcement can encourage positive behaviour
• misguided rewards can encourage problem-behaviour
TRIVIA QUESTION:
Which is more north, Seattle or Montreal?
Which is more west, Reno, Nevada, or San Diego?
Which is more north, Chicago or Rome?
3. Humanist Perspective:
• emphasizes free will, personal growth, and self-actualization
o self-actualization – overcoming obstacles to reach one’s individual potential
• directly opposes “determinism” of psychodynamics and behaviourism
• determinism – behaviour is determined by forces beyond our control
o psychodynamic – behaviour determined unconscious forces
o behaviourism – behaviour determined by environment
• free will in making choices

• Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

o Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
• Carl Rogers (1902-1987)
o founder of psychotherapy research
o development of self-concept and progress from undifferentiated self to being fully
differentiated
• people have an innate tendency to toward self-actualization
• only we defined what our own full potential is happy
Modern Humanistic Theory:
• humanism has had less of an impact than psychodynamics, behaviourism, and others
• still seen in positive psychology – studies human strengths, fulfillment rather than
“what’s wrong with the world”
• contributed to methods used in psychotherapy – also introduced ideas of self-esteem and
self-concept
4. Cognitive Perspective:
• humans are “information processors”
• “The whole is more than the sum of the parts.” —Gestalt psychology
• interest in mind died out with behaviourism but came back in 1940s and 1950s
• WWII
o radar and attention
o fighter plane “crashes” on ground
• children’s language and development
o Noam Chomsky (1928-)
o Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
• interest exploded in 1960s and 1970s (“Cognitive Revolution”)
Cognitive Psychology:
• “higher” level mental processes
• reasoning, decision-making, problem-solving, language, attention, memory
• memory distortions (ex. using word “collided” versus “smashed”)
• mental shortcuts (ex. stereotypes)
• confirmation bias
Cognitive Neuroscience:
• area of study within cognitive psychology
• looks at brain regions involved in various cognitive tasks

• how does the brain go about learning, remembering, and performing other mental tasks
5. Sociocultural Perspective:
• does not use experimentation

• examines how social environment and culture influence behaviour, thoughts, and feelings
• other perspectives generally assume that we are looking at behaviour that is universal;
sociocultural acknowledges that there are differences in cultural norms and social
environments can affect behaviour
• how does the presences of other people affect our behaviour, thoughts, and feelings?
• physical, implied, or imagined presence
Culture:
• enduring values, beliefs, behaviours, and traditions shared by a group of people, and
passed on from generation to generation
• cultural norms – rules (usually unwritten) for acceptable and expected behaviour for
members of that group
• socialization – process by which culture is transmitted to an internalized state
• past psychological research often ignored non-Western cultures; heavy emphasis on
middle- to upper-class groups (esp. white males)
• Kenneth Clark (1914-2005) and Mamie Clark (1917-1983) examined how
discrimination and prejudice influenced the personal development of African-American
children
Cross-Cultural Psychology:
• examines how culture is passed on, and looks at the similarities and differences between
people from different cultural backgrounds
• individualism – promotes personal goals; identity is based on one’s own attributes and
achievements
• collectivism – promotes goals of group; identity defined more by ties to family and social
groups

Lecture 3
6. Biological Perspective:
Behavioural Genetics:
• ex. breeding tame foxes with tame foxes for many generations after seven generations,
foxes will be very tame
Evolutionary Psychology:
• adapted traits will change over time according to environment
• less selective pressure in modern day
• sociobiology: certain social behaviours are product of evolution; criticized that
sociobiology overemphasizes biology and ignoring sociocultural factors in complex
behaviours
Levels of Analysis:
• Biological: Biological
• Psychological: Cognitive, Humanistic, Psychodynamic
• Environmental: Behaviourism, Sociocultural
• largest percentage psychologists working in private practice
• biggest research area in 2000 was developmental because it basically covers all areas of
psychology
CHAPTER 2:
Studying Behaviour Scientifically:
Approaches to Understanding:
Hindsight Understanding:
• past events can be explained in many ways
Scientific Method:
• relies on prediction, control, theory building
• satisfies curiosity, builds knowledge, generates principles that can be applied to new
situations
• prediction does not mean understanding
• need empirical evidence; observations gathered systematically
• difficult to measure concepts in psychology (ex. intelligence)
• three attitudes:
o curiosity
o skepticism
o open-mindedness
• steps in scientific process:

o identify question of interest

o gather information and form hypothesis
o test hypothesis through research
o analyze data, draw tentative conclusions, and report findings
o build body of knowledge
Building Theories:
• hypothesis – a specific prediction; usually takes an If-Then statement
• theory – set of formal statements that explains how and why certain events are related to
one another; broader than hypotheses; an integrated network of predictions
• use theories to up with new hypotheses which are then tested
• if research supports the prediction of theory, we gain confidence in theory
• if predictions are falsified, we modify or discard the theory (self-correcting)
Good Theories:
• incorporate existing facts and observations into single, broad framework; organizes
information meaningfully
• it is testable; generates new hypotheses and predictions; accuracy can be evaluated
• conforms to law of parsimony
• theories never regarded as absolute
• discarding old theories for newer, better ones is essence of scientific progress
Defining and Measuring Variables:

Variables:
• any characteristic or factor that can vary over time or groups
Operational Definition:
• defines variable in terms of specific procedures used to measure (or produce) it
• translates abstract concepts into something observable and measurable
Ex. How to measure exam stress:
• biological: heart rate, blood sugar, sweating
• psychological: questionnaire, memory, catch questions, number of nervous tics
• environmental: difficulty of exam, proctor’s behaviour, seeing other people struggling,
where you studied, temperature, noise levels, expectations
Measuring Variables: SOPP

1. Self-Report:
• ask people to report their own knowledge, beliefs, feelings, experiences, behaviour etc.
• interviews, questionnaires
• PROBLEM: social desirability bias – tendency to respond in a socially acceptable
manner rather than how one truly feels or behaves
2. Overt Behaviours:
• record directly-observable behaviour
• ex. errors in learning a list of words; reaction time to brake while drinking and driving
• unobtrusive measures – test isn’t obvious as to what is being measured
• archival methods – use records or documents that already exist
3. Psychological Measures:
• specialized tests that measure different types of variables
• ex. personality test, ink-blot tests
4. Physiological Measures:
• includes heart rate, blood pressure, respiration rate, hormones, brain functions etc.
• not always sure what they mean
Descriptive Research:
• describes how people or animals behave (esp. in natural settings)
• case studies, naturalistic observation, survey
1. Case Studies:
• in-depth analysis of individual, small group, or event
2. Naturalistic Observation:
• researcher observes behaviour in natural setting
• habituation – process by which organisms eventually ignore researcher presence
Which creature is considered to have tool-making skills most similar to that of humans?
• New Caledonian Crow

Lecture 4
3. Survey Research:
• information obtained by administered questionnaires, surveys, interviews
• most common – political poll
• ex. personality researchers gave people 2 questionnaires:
o one measured why they thought the stereotypical “national character” was
o other measured own personality
o results: stereotypes don’t equal reality
• have to have a representative sample that reflects characteristics of entire population
Obtaining a Representative Sample:

• random sampling – every member of population has an equal chance of being selected
• stratified random sampling – variation of regular random sampling
o divide population into known sub-groups (e.g. male/female, ethnicity)
o make certain that sample has the same proportions as the population
o then use random sampling to select people in sample sub-groups
• if we get an representative sample, we can be (reasonably) confident that findings are
similar to the whole population
• unrepresentative samples can lead to very wrong results
• ex. 1936 election poll by magazine
o used property listings and random phone numbers
o basically polling especially rich people who could afford property and phones
o predicted Republican victory based on this sample, but Democrats actually won
because majority of Americans favoured Democrats
• ex. Internet surveys
o not everyone uses Internet
o some people lie because surveys are anonymous
Advantages:
• efficient way of collecting lots of data
• can reveal changes in beliefs/habits over time
Disadvantages:
• cannot determine cause and effect
• based on self-reports
o social desirability bias
o interview bias (how the questions is asked)

o inaccurate self-perceptions
o misinterpretation of questions
o unrepresentative samples (can happen even with random sample)
Descriptive Statistics:
Frequency Distribution:
• shows how many people got what score
Histogram:
• graph of frequency distribution
• frequency usually on Y-axis (vertical)
• gives a general idea about distribution of scores
Measures of Central Tendency:
• mean – average score
o can be affected by extreme scores
• mode – most common score
o can be affected by extreme scores
• median – half the scores are above and half are below
o not affected by extreme scores
o can miss some important data
Measures of Variability:
• describe “spread” of scores – are they clustered together or all over
• range – highest minus lower score
• variance – calculate deviation score (how far each individual score is from the mean)
o sum of all deviation scores will always equal 0
o square all deviation squares
o calculate average of square values
• standard deviation – take the square root of variance
The Normal Curve:
• symmetrical, bell-shaped curve
• represents theoretical distribution of scores in a population
• similar to frequency histogram, but histogram is for sample and normal curve is for
population
• many variables follow an approximate “normal distribution”
• farther we go away from the mean, the less common the score is
Key Properties:

• 68% population within 1 standard deviation

• 95% within 2 standard deviations
• IQ questions on exam; SEE LECTURE SLIDES!
Correlations:
Correlation:
• a research technique in which two (or more) variables are measured to determine if they
are related in a systematic way
• we don’t manipulate anything!
• allow us to answer a specific type of research question
• goal to determine the degree to which two variables are related to one other
• correlation does not imply causation; confounding variables
Method:
• researcher measures one variable
• researcher measures second variable
• researcher statistically determines whether the two variables are related
1. collect data
2. make scatterplot
3. draw a straight “line of best fit”
4. calculate a “correlation coefficient”, which tells us how related two variables are
Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient:
• “r”
• number ranging from -1.00 to +1.00 that summarizes direction and strength of a
relationship between two variables
• positive correlation – a relationship between variables where an increase in one is
associated with an increase in the other
• negative correlation – a relationship between variables, where an increase in one is
associated with a decrease in the other
Positive or Negative Correlations:

• Learning words in louder environments results in worse memory. Negative. (Louder
environments, better memory.)
• Learning words in loud environments leads to greater forgetting. Positive. (Louder
environment, greater forgetting)

• People who have worse memory tend to be happier. Negative. (Become happier when
memory gets worst.)
• People who have fewer dates in high school tend to have lower self-esteem. Positive.
Correlation Coefficient: Zero

• when correlation is zero, we say there is no correlation between the variables; they are
unrelated
Correlation Strength:
• absolute number value tells us how strongly variables are related
• numbers near zero have little to no correlation
• numbers approaching plus or minus one signifies a strong correlation
• strong correlation – correlations where knowing the value of one variable allows us to
make very accurate predictions about the other
• weak correlation – correlations where knowing the value of one variable allows us to
make only somewhat accurate predictions about the other
Correlation Versus Causation:

Directionality Problem:
• it is uncertain which variable causes changes in the other
• ex. the amount of TV watched correlates with the number playground fights in a year
o does watching violence on TV cause kids to fight?
o or do children who are violent watch TV to pick up pointers?
Third Variable Problem:

• two correlated variables may be both caused by another, third variable
• leads to spurious (artificial) correlations
• ex. the amount of TV watched correlates with the number playground fights in a year
o perhaps children who fight a lot have a naturally violent temperament
o this might cause them to fight a lot and cause them to be drawn to violent TV
shows
• we cannot for certain what causes the relationship

Ex. Different researchers have repeatedly found that there is a strong correlation between
the stork population in certain areas and the number of human babies born in that area.
What is the third variable?
• storks have adapted to living in human dwellings
• more people moving in more houses and babies more places for storks to nest
Ex. Number of Nobel prizes per country is related to the chocolate consumption of that
country. (Population is controlled for; Nobel prizes and chocolate consumption are per
capita).
• unclear as to what the real cause is
• better-off countries tend to have more people who can afford chocolate and people who
are well-educated that win Nobel prizes
Why Are Correlations Useful?

• correlations cannot tell us anything about causation BUT
5. can establish real-world associations between variables:
• see whether associations found in lab generalize to the world
• can also use real-world correlations to come up with hypotheses to test in the lab
6. some variables cannot be manipulated (for practical and ethical reasons)
• cannot experimentally manipulate how religious someone is, or how tall they are, their
intelligence, their personality, their popularity etc.
• but we can measure each of these and see how they relate to other variables
7. can use correlations to make predictions about behaviour
o if we know that two variables are correlated, then knowing someone’s score on
either one allows us to predict their scores on the other; don’t need to know cause
o ex. high school GPA and SAT scores for university admission
• cannot do correlations with certain types of variables, like sex or ethnicity because there
is no gray zone and no meaningful order in category

Lecture 5
Correlations and Factor Analysis:
Factor Analysis:
• allows researchers to see “clusters” of related abilities, traits, or behaviours within
number of correlations
• clusters – groups of variables that are highly correlated with one another
• factors – underlying characteristic that is assumed to account for link between these
variables
• used often in personality and cognitive research
• factor analysis only identifies clusters; psychologist must look at each cluster and decide
what underlying factor is (assumed)
Correlation Matrix:
• a table that shows correlations between all variables (or questions)
Experimental Method:
• research technique in which one (or more) variables is manipulated to determine if it
influences other variables
• only method that allows for conclusions about causes
Three Characteristics of an Experiment:

1. Manipulated one (or more) variable(s):
• independent variable – any variable that is manipulated by experimenter
• varies between people or across time
2. Measure effect on other variable(s):
• dependent variable – variable that is measured to see if IV influences it
• outcome variable; depends on IV
3. Control extraneous factors:
• other things that can affect DV other than the IV
• avoid confounding variables
Darley and Latané Experiment: Diffusion of Responsibility (Kitty Genovese)

• IV: % of people who came to aid; how many other people were in the room
• DV: how long it took for people to respond; if people responded
• EV: recording, level of emergency, only one true participant
Does talking on a cellphone while driving cause people to be worse drivers?

• IV: cell phone use, hands-free device
• DV: safety of driving (operational variable: reaction time, how straight they’re driving,
number of traffic law violations)
• EV: traffic, road conditions, driving ability, route, type of cell phone, conversation, type
of car, radio, other people in car, drugs involved
Experimental Versus Control Groups:

• any experiment needs at least two levels
• experiment doesn’t always have control group
Control Group:
• receives no treatment, drugs, etc.
• zero-level of independent variable
Experimental Group:
• receives some treatment, drugs etc.
• are exposed to activity of IV
• can have multiple levels of experimental condition
Between-Subjects Versus Within-Subjects Design:

Between-Subjects Design:
• different groups of participants are assigned to each level of IV
• PROBLEM: need to make sure groups are equivalent at outset of study
• SOLUTION: random assignment of participants
o random assignment does not eliminate differences between people, but it balances
these differences between groups
• alternative to random assignment is matching
o trying to control every variable
o match on gender, age, driving ability and assign one of each participant in each
group

• random assignment is better than matching because it tends to equate all variables rather
than just those that the researcher thought of to match
Within-Subjects Design (Repeated Measures Design):

• each participant is exposed to all levels of IV
• EV held constant across all conditions
• PROBLEM: sometimes order of conditions can make a difference
• SOLUTION: counterbalancing; order of conditions is varied between people; randomly
assign people to different orders
o some experiments might not work with counterbalancing
o ex. studies with hormones that last a long time
EXAMPLE: Does the instructor of Psychology 1000 affect student exam scores?
• IV: instructor
• DV: exam scores
• EV: instructor ability, student ethics, class attendance, course material covered, how
many students used course resources, length of class, test conditions (time, temperature,
proctor), environment of lecture hall, teaching style (ex. small group discussions over just
lecture style)
Variable: Course Time
• maybe all students with biology labs are in Holden’s section (due to schedule conflicts
with other sections)
• maybe all students with part-time jobs are in evening class taught by Dr. FD
• maybe all keeners signed up early for Dr. Mike’s class
To offset these problems:

• concurrent class sections
• all students randomly assigned to section
• ratio of women:men will be approximately same in each section
• ratio of smart students:stoners will be approximately the same in each section
Instructors teach section in particular order:
• first 4 chapters harder than later ones
• people stop paying attention after 2 months
• people stop paying attention after getting a bad teacher
To offset these problems:

• counterbalance order in all sections so that all instructors get equal chance of teaching
each chapter and section
Interaction:
• the way one IV affects DV differs depending on conditions of second IV
• ex. traffic density influences effect of cell phone use while driving
Inferential Statistics:
• allow us to make conclusions about populations from which sample was drawn
• also allows us to determine whether differences between groups of levels of IV are real
differences
• tells us how confident we can be in our conclusion that there is “real” difference
(calculate probability value)
Statistical Significance:
• likelihood of chance alone is small enough
• ~5% i.e. 19 out of 20 times, the event did not occur by chance
Hypothesis Testing:
Experimental Hypothesis:
• states that there is a real difference between groups
• can never prove experimental hypothesis
Null Hypothesis:
• states that there is no difference between groups
• assume that this is true
• test null hypothesis; if probability of chance alone accounting for our results is low, we
“reject” null hypothesis
Logic of Statistics:
• if we did study over and over again, using different samples, we’d get slightly different
means for two groups
• if we can figure out mean and standard deviation of normal distribution, we’d be able to
determine probably of our result being due to chance
• if any difference we see is due to chance alone, then what do we expect the mean
difference score to be
o can estimate this difference based on standard deviations of groups we measure

o if standard deviation of each group is small, standard deviation of difference will

also be small
• small standard deviation difference supports experimental hypothesis, but does not prove
it; there is a (small) possibility that it was a random chance
Threats to the Validity of Research:

Validity of Research:
• how well an experiment actually tests what it is supposed to test
Internal Validity:
• degree to which experiment supports clear causal conclusions
• high internal validity – experiment is designed carefully
External Validity:
• degree to which results can be generalized to other populations, settings, conditions
Threats to Internal Validity

1. Confounding Variables:
• variables intertwined with independent variable
• prevents us from knowing whether it was IV or confounding variable that actually caused
the effect
• ex. the Mozart effect – cannot know for certain whether it was truly Mozart or whether
the difference in test scores was due to one (or both) of confounding variables
2. Placebo Effect:
• placebo – substance that has no pharmacological effect
• e.g. in drug study, experimental group gets the drug, and the control group gets a placebo
(either an injection of saline, or a “fake” pill)
• participants don’t know which group they are in
• people’s health can sometimes improve simply because they expect it
• was improvement caused by IV or placebo effect?
3. Experimenter Expectancy:
• measurement (observer) bias
• researchers who interact with participants are “blind” to either hypothesis or condition
that participants are in
5

• double-blind – neither participant not experimenter knows what condition participant is

in; helps minimize effects of expectancy of both researcher and participant
4. Extraneous Variables:
• demand characteristics – participants form an interpretation of experiment’s purpose
and unconsciously change their behaviour to fit that interpretation
Replication and Generalization:
• to do with external validity i.e. how applicable study is to real world
Replication:
• repeating an experiment to see if original results are replicated
• replications high external validity because a certain study generalizes well
Meta-Analysis:
• an analysis of all studies (i.e. analysis of the analyses)
Cross-Cultural Replication:
• repeating experiment to see if original results are replicated
IF YOU CANNOT REPLICATE THE ORIGINAL RESULTS, THIS SUGGESTS LOW

INTERNAL VALIDITY:
• can lead new hypotheses
• might mean original finding was a statistical fluke or original research was somehow
flawed

Lecture 6
Research Ethics:
• need ethical guidelines
“Monster” Study (1939)
• belittled children; even though they spoke normally before, they developed a permanent
stutter
Little Albert (1920)
• premise – people learn through classical conditioning, like dogs
• John B. Watson (behaviourism) gives LA lots of fluffy, white things (rabbits, rats)
• every time they bring out the rat, an assistant hammers on an iron bar
• LA generalizes this fear to anything white and fluffy
• Watson intended to extinguish the response, but parents got freaked out and pulled him
out of the study
• LA retained this fear for a long time in his life
Milgram Obedience Study (1974)
• QUESTION: would people continue to administer higher and higher level shocks just
because someone in a white lab coat told them to (?)
• brings people into lab and assigns participants to role of teacher or student
o participants are always teachers; assistant is always student
• participants were to administer an electrical shock to the “student” if he got answer
wrong
o participants couldn’t see the “student” but could hear them
o told to increase voltage every time student got answered incorrectly
o “student” began to scream louder and louder and then became silent (presumably
from passing out or death)
• only 14 out 40 people opted out before 450 volt (fatal) shock
• none reported this to ERB
• highly traumatic experience for participants to think that they severely harmed or killed
someone
• after a few years, Milgram contacted participants and 84% said they were glad to have
participated in event
o taught participants to think about what they were actually doing instead of just
following others blindly
In Canada:

• research is funded by:

o Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR)
o Natural Sciences and Engineering Research (NSERC)
o Social Sciences and Humanities Research (SSHRC)
• federal agencies; have outlined a “tri-council policy for ethical conduct for research
involving humans”
• under tri-council policy, all universities have own “Ethics Review Board”
• ERBs review every research proposal to make sure that ethical principles are followed
Canadian Psychological Agency published Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists:

1. protect & promote welfare of participants
2. avoid doing harm to participants
3. not carry out any studies unless the probable benefit is greater than the risk
4. ensure privacy and confidentiality
5. provide informed consent
• must explain all aspects of procedure and make sure that it is understood
• people can withdraw without penalty
• parent or guardian consent required for children
• consent given freely (not under coercion)
Controversy in Ethics:
Incomplete Disclosure:
• mislead participants about what study is about
• sometimes this is the only way to obtain natural, spontaneous behaviours
• ethical guidelines allow for deception or incomplete disclosure only if
o no other feasible alternative is available
o scientific, applied, educational benefits clearly outweigh ethical costs
o researchers must debrief participants afterwards
CPA and Federal Government Code of Ethics:

• “Animals should not be subjected to pain, stress, or privation unless no alternative
procedure is available, and the research is justified by prospective scientific or
educational benefits.”
CHAPTER 3:
Biological Foundations of Behaviour: Neurons

Human Brain:
• weigh only 3 lbs
Neurons:
• “nerve cells” arranged in a network
• send/receive electrical signals
• 100 billion neurons in brain; trillions interconnections
• have greatest number of neurons (200 billion) at around four months of fetal development
in the womb
• maximal rate of neuron development: 50,000-100,000 neurons grown a second at four
months of fetal development
1. Sensory Neurons:
• detect stimuli and send signals to brain (or spinal cord)
• rods and cones in eye
• pain receptors
2. Association or Interneurons:
• receive messages from other neurons, interpret, and passes along response
• most common neuron in brain and body
3. Motor Neurons:
• carry signals from brain (or spinal cord) to muscles and organs
Three Main Components of Neurons:

Dendrites:
• receives messages from other neurons; up to 1000+ other neurons
• passes message on to cell body
Cell Body (Soma):

• combines and processes all incoming signals
Axon:
• sends out signals (electrical impulses) to other neurons or muscles
• sends signals to up to 50,000 other neurons
Glial Cells:

• “nurse” cells; “take care” of neurons

• most common cell in brain: 10x as many glial cells as neurons
• surround neurons, keeping them in place
• manufacture needed nutrients
• absorb toxins and waste
• during development, they help convey neurons to right place
• also help form myelin sheath around axon of some neurons
o fatty layer of insulation around a neuron’s axon
o makes sending signals much faster
o sheath is similar to beads of string of sausage links
o gaps between blobs are known as nodes of Ranvier
o not all neurons have myelin sheath
• also help protect entire brain from toxins – blood-brain barrier –
o specialized barrier that prevents many toxins from entering brain
▪ blood vessels are tightly packed and covered by glial cells
Electrical Activity of Neurons:
• neurons have cell membrane separating inside from outside
• cell membrane has channels that can be opened or closed for specific ions
• contains sodium-potassium pump
Potentials:
Resting Potential:
• refers to when a cell is polarized i.e. inside of neuron is relatively more negative
compared to outside of neuron
• difference is about -70 mV
• 10x Na+ and Cl outside, and K+ inside
• sodium-potassium pump actively transports Na+ and K+ ions across cell membrane
o pushes 3 Na+ ions out, but only pulls 2 K+ in
Action Potential:
• sudden wave-like depolarization of membrane
• difference suddenly reverses to +40mV
• discovered by Hodgkin & Huxley (Nobel Prize 1963)
• SEE LECTURE SLIDES AND TEXTBOOK FOR ACTION POTENTIAL GRAPH
• sodium channels open
o sodium rushes into cell; attracted to relatively negative interior
o neuron becomes depolarized
o causes next Na+ channel to open

o first Na+ channel slams shut

• potassium channels begin to open
o K+ rushes out of the cell
• this causes repolarization of cell (-70mV)
• sodium-potassium pump pumps 3Na+ out of cell and brings 2 K+ in, causing hyper-
polarization
o eventually all K+ are brought in
o neuron cannot fire again during hyper-polarization
o refractory period – period of time after neuron has fired during which it cannot
fire again (~2 milliseconds)
o maximum firing rate in humans ~300/sec
All or Nothing:
• action potentials always occur at the same, maximal intensity or they do not occur at all
Threshold Potential:
• to trigger an action potential, the amount of sodium entering must be enough to raise the
difference to -50mV
• if threshold is met, we get a full (maximum intensity) action potential
• graded potential is a sub-threshold change in voltage; several graded potentials can add
up to reach threshold
Myelin Sheath Helps Speed up Conduction:
• next sodium channel in myelinated axon is at next node of Ranvier (300km/hr)
• myelin not completed formed until well after birth development
• multiple sclerosis – immune system attacks myelin
How Neurons Communicate:

Synapse:
• tiny space between axon terminals of one neuron and dendrites of next neuron
Neurotransmitters:
• chemical substances that help neurons “communicate” with other neurons
• over 100 different types of known or suspected neurotransmitters
• different areas of brain have more or less of certain types of receptor
Five Steps of Chemical Communication:
6. synthesis:
• neurons make neurotransmitter

7. storage:
• store neurotransmitters in synaptic vesicles
8. release:
• when action potential reaches axon terminals of pre-synaptic neuron, it causes vesicles to
go to ends and “pop”
• neurotransmitter is released into synaptic cleft
9. binding:
• molecules of neurotransmitter attach to special receptors on post-synaptic neuron
10. deactivation:
• receptors and neurotransmitters are pulled apart to stop signal
Excitation and Inhibition:

Excitation:
• some neurotransmitters make post-synaptic neurons more likely to fire “excitatory
neurotrans”
• binding with receptor site causes some sodium to enter post-synaptic neuron
• if enough enters to reach threshold, neuron will fire
• seizures caused by excitation and lack of inhibition
Inhibition:
• some neurotransmitter make post-synaptic neuron less likely to fire “inhibitory
neurotrans”
• binding with receptor site causes either potassium to leave, or chloride to enter, the post-
synaptic neuron
• makes the inside even more negative (hyperpolarized); more difficult to reach -50mV
threshold
• helps fine-tune brain activity and behaviour; impulse control
• some neurotransmitters can be either excitatory or inhibitory, depending on specific

receptors of post-synaptic neuron
• neurons can have thousands of connections
• every neuron receives a combination of excitatory and inhibitory inputs
• whether a neuron fires simply depends on additive effect of inputs
Deactivation:
11. enzymes break down neurotransmitter while it is bound to the receptor site OR

12. reuptake – pre-synaptic neuron re-absorbs neurotransmitter that is left in synaptic cleft
• once receptor site is free again, the signal has ended and awaits the next chemical
message
Drugs:
Agonist:
• increases activity of neurotransmitter
a. can enhance neuron’s ability to synthesize, store, or release more
neurotransmitters
b. can directly mimic neurotransmitter and bind with receptor site
c. can stop or slow deactivation (e.g. make it harder for reuptake to occur)
Antagonist:
• decreases activity of neurotransmitter
o can reduce neuron’s ability to synthesize, store, or release more neurotransmitter
o can prevent neurotransmitter from binding with receptor site by blocking it
Neuromodulators:
• increases or decreases sensitivity of neurons to whatever neurotransmitters they receive
• broader, more general influence on brain
• some neurotransmitters themselves are neuromodulators
• glial cells modulate amount of neurotransmitter released
Major Neurotransmitters: SNAGGED:
AGE: Acetylcholine – Glutamate – Excitatory
NBD: Norepinephrine – BOTH – Dopamine
SIEG: Serotonin – Inhibitory – Endorphin - GABA
Alcohol:
• agonist and antagonist effects
• agonist for GABA i.e. lowers neural activity:
o GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter found throughout brain
• antagonist for glutamate i.e. diminishes clear thinking:
o glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter involved in thinking and coordination
Caffeine:

• antagonist for adenosine

o adenosine inhibits other neurotransmitters
o inhibits inhibitor causes increased activity
Nicotine:
• agonist for acetylcholine (ACh); can fit into same receptor site
• agonist for dopamine (which is involved in pleasure)
Amphetamines:
• agonist for dopamine and norepinephrine; causes greater release; prevents uptake
Cocaine:
• same as amphetamines, but does not increase release, only blocks reuptake
Date-Rape Drugs: Rohypnol and GHB:

• agonist for GABA
• 10x more potent than valium
• can lead to coma or death if mixed with alcohol

Lecture 7:
The Nervous System
Peripheral Nervous System:
Somatic Nervous System:
• involved in voluntary movements
• sensory neurons sensory nerves
• motor neurons motor nerves
Autonomic Nervous System: Sympathetic and Parasympathetic
• controls glands & smooth (involuntary) muscles (e.g. heart, intestines, etc.)
• involuntary body functions (breathing, digestion, etc.)
• also involved in the body’s response to stress, motivation, emotion (e.g. increased heart
rate)
• sympathetic and parasympathetic systems work together to maintain homeostasis
Sympathetic Nervous System:
• prepares the body for stress (activation)
o increases heart rate
o increases breathing rate
o more blood to muscles
o pupil dilation
o slows digestion
• tends to act as one big unit i.e. heart rate & breathing rate tend to both increase
Parasympathetic :
• slows it all down, back to normal levels
• tends to act more specifically, slowing one or two organs down at a time
Central Nervous System: Spinal Cord and Brain
Spinal Cord:
• connects most neurons in PNS with CNS
• housed within vertebrae
• grey (H-shaped) area are neuron cell bodies and their connections
• white surrounding area are myelinated axons connecting to other levels of spinal cord an
brain
• spinal reflexes:
o reflexes that are triggered at the spinal cord without involving the brain at all
o ex. sensory receptors detect that you are about to burn your finger
▪ spinal cord interneurons handle reaction (activating motor neurons)

▪ motor neurons pull hand away

▪ other neurons carry message to brain via “white portion” of spinal cord
▪ spinal reflexes save time (less distance to travel)
Brain:
• 1.4 kg (~3 lbs)
• consumes more energy than any other part of body
Four Methods of Studying Brain:
1. neuropsychological tests:
• measures verbal and non-verbal behaviours that are known to be affected by specific
types of brain damage
• typically used in clinical evaluations
• ex. Stroop test
2. destruction and stimulation:
• destruction:
o can used in experimental method in animals
o produce brain damage in specific area (lesions) in one group but not another
o uses tiny electrodes (focused damage)
o damage produced by heat/cold/electricity/chemicals
o can also remove portion of brain (ablation)
o can use in case studies (in humans)
• stimulation:
o can give mild electric current or specific chemicals to stimulate specific brain
areas
o some electrodes so small that we can stimulate single neuron
o Wilder Penfield: stimulation and actions
▪ stimulated brain of an awake patient during brain surgery (no pain
receptors in CNS so local anesthetic was okay)
▪ patients would describe sensations; doctors would note any movements
produced
▪ discovered motor cortex and sensory cortex
3. electrical recording:
• used electrodes to simply measure electrical activity in brain
• no information about structure or damage; just tells us where there is activity within the
brain
• electroencephalogram (EEG):
o “hair net” allows us to measure activity of whole groups of neurons
o watch for changes in pattern of activity when person sees one thing versus
another
o changes are called event-related potentials (ERPS)

o not very precise measure, but specific patterns are linked to certain states of
consciousness (e.g. sleep)
o some brain disorders can be detected with EEG
4. brain imaging:
• computerized axial tomography (CAT scans):
o takes pictures of narrow “slices” of the brain
o puts these slices back together to give 3D picture of brain; not very accurate
• positron emission tomography (PET scan):
o if an area of the brain is more active, it will consume more glucose
o inject harmless form of radioactive glucose into person
o scanner measures radioactive energy emitted and produces picture of which areas
are using more of radioactive glucose
o allows us to see which areas are being used during specific tasks, behaviours, and
even certain mental disorders
• functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI):
o better resolution than CT scans; more accurate timing than PET scans
o better resolution; can differentiate different types of brain tissue
o people placed in giant magnetic field; magnet turned on and off very quickly
o molecules in body emit small electric pulses which are measured by the scanner
o fMRI measures blood flow in brain multiple times per second
o allows us to see what area “lights up” in brain while person performs some psych.
task
The Hierarchical Brain:

• hindbrain – innermost potion, evolutionary oldest, most basic functions
• midbrain –
• forebrain – outermost portion, evolutionary newest, most complex functions
1. The Hindbrain:
A. Brain Stem:
• like a stalk at end of spinal cord
o medulla: heart rate and respiration
▪ involved in heart rate and respiration
▪ well-developed at (normal) birth
▪ extreme alcohol levels can suppress medulla, leading to death (by heart
respiratory failure)
▪ also point where motor and sensory nerve tracts cross to opposite side
▪ left side of brain senses/controls movement on right side of body and v.v.
▪ NB: nerve is PNS; tract is CNS
▪ medic kit; cross – things cross over;
o pons: bridge

▪ bridge between higher and lower levels of brain

▪ involved in sleeping/wakefulness
▪ somewhat involved in respiration
▪ damage to this area is often fatal
B. Cerebellum: Coordinates Movement

• “little brain” attached to brain stem
• involved in balance, coordination, fine motor movements, walking AND certain types of
learning and memory
• DOES NOT INITIATE MOVEMENTS, but helps to coordinate timing of muscles
involved
• alcohol intoxication affect cerebellum
• dancerebellum
2. The Midbrain:
• connects higher and lower portions of the nervous system
• contains both sensory and motor pathways
• relay center and auditory information
o collects nerve impulses from visual and auditory systems and passes them on to
forebrain (thalamus)
• involved in eye movements
o motion in peripheral vision; midbrain directs gaze there
• also coordinates body movements and eye movement
• Mike from Monster Inc. has one eye; midbrain Mike
A. Reticular Formation:
• actually extends from hindbrain all the way up
• involved in sleep/wake cycles
• acts gate-keeper to focus attention on important things
• sends messages up to forebrain that there is some input (ascending portion), then receives
orders to “let it through” or to “block it” (descending portion)
• allows us to consciously register other signals; without RF input, we don’t consciously
register sensory messages (even pain)
• reTICKular formation; gatekeeper, particular reticular
3. The Forebrain:

• also called cerebrum

• consists of two halves (cerebral hemispheres)
• complexity of forebrain distinguishes humans from other animals
• includes cerebral cortex – distinguishes humans from animals
• with most forebrain structures, there are really two of them, one on each side
A. Thalamus: Switchboard
• relay station for sensory input
• visual, auditory, and body sense (e.g. balance)
• specific areas of thalamus deal with each sense and send signals on to specific sensory
areas
• like a switchboard
• abnormal thalamus garbled sensory information schizophrenia
• thalaMUSsed up senses schizophrenia
B. Basal Ganglia: Initiates Movement
• group of structures involved in initiating voluntary movements
• malfunctioning basal ganglia Parkinson’s disease begin with tremors, then slower and
jerky movements, until then they cannot initiate movement
• gangly deer needs a push to walk
C. Hypothalamus: Gives Urges
• connects to pituitary gland (master gland), controlling many hormones
• these hormones regulate stress, metabolism, and sexual development/activity
• controls basic biological urges: eating, drinking, sex, temperature regulation, aggression,
emotion
• not the pleasure center of brain; connected to nucleus accumbens, which is
• electrical stimulation of this area pleasure
o mice press lever or button to exhaustion
o humans – orgasm
• hypothalaMUST Have
D. Limbic System: Satisfies Urges

• hypothalamus gives us urges; limbic system helps us satisfy them
• damage to limbic system can make you unable to carry out sequence of behaviours
needed to satisfy urges
• organizes 4 Fs of biology: feeding, fleeing, fighting, fucking
• nucleus accumbens: reward and motivation
o connections from hypothalamus
o sex, drugs, favourite foods activate this area, and cause dopamine release here

o also cues that predict these can cause dopamine release

o suCCUMB to temptation
• amygdala: emotional response
o especially aggression and fear
▪ different responses depends on area stimulated
o can produce emotions without higher brain areas “knowing”
▪ may be basis for “unconscious” fears of other emotional responses
• hippocampus: forming and retrieving memories
o damage prevents people from forming long-term memories
▪ responsible for transferring short-term memories into long-term “storage”
o also critical to processing spatial information
▪ getting bearings after coming out from subway
▪ navigating
▪ remembering where places are
▪ taking someone’s perspective
o hippoCOMPASS; hippos never forget

Lecture 8:
Shit that might be on the exam:
• glial cells are neuromodulators
• split brain patients
• random sampling versus matching
Cerebral Cortex: (PART OF FOREBRAIN)

• thin wrinkly layer on the very outside of the brain
• made up of grey (unmyelinated) neurons
• humans have more cortex (80% of neurons in entire brain) more intelligent
• all brains have same basic folds
o longitudinal fissure – divides our brain into right and left hemispheres
o central sulcus – divides brain into front and rear portions
o lateral fissure – divides upper portion from lower portion
FUNCTIONAL AREAS DON’T USUALLY MATCH ANATOMICAL AREAS

• some functions only take up a small portion of an anatomical area
• some functions involve several different anatomical areas
Anatomical Areas:
Occipital Lobe: VISUAL
• contains primary visual cortex
• where visual signals first go
• each eye sends signals to both sides of brain
• neurons here are specific to certain types of input; some respond only fire in response to
vertical line
• visual information spreads to parietal and temporal lobe
• dorsal – visually guided action (ex. picking up a coffee cup)
• ventral – perception; recognizing objects, knowing what they are, being able to describe
them
• ACTion dorsal; PERception ventral; ACTD like a PERV
Case Study: Mel Goodale

• patient DF suffered from brain damage caused by carbon monoxide poisoning
• object recognition vs. object grasping

• blindside – can’t SEE or judge orientation, but can pick things up

• ventral areas of brain damaged, but dorsal are of brain perfectly fine
Temporal Lobe: AUDITORY

• contains primary auditory cortex
• where auditory signals first go
• each ear sends signals to both sides of brains
• basic neurons here are specific to certain types of input; some respond only to certain
frequencies
• also some memory functions
• Wernicke’s area
Parietal Lobe: SENSORY

• contains somatosensory cortex; located just behind central sulcus; part of parietal lobe
• sense of touch, temperature, pain
• specific body regions activate by specific areas of SENSORY cortex:
o RS brain – LS body
o LS brain – RS body
o cortex arranged like homunculus (“little man”); areas of human body can almost
be mapped out in brain; certain areas of body more sensitive
• electrical stimulation “feel” touch at specific areas
• sensitivity of given area is proportional to the amount of cortex devoted to that body
region
Frontal Lobe: MOTOR

• contains motor cortex; located in front of central sulcus
• controls all voluntary muscle movement
• involved in planning, emotion, self-awareness, responsibility, taking initiative
• specific body regions activate by specific areas of MOTOR cortex:
o RS brain – LS body
o LS brain – RS body
o cortex arranged like homunculus (“little man”); areas of human body can almost
be mapped out in brain; certain areas of body more sensitive
• electrical stimulation move specific muscle groups
• complexity of given body region’s movements is proportional to amount of cortex
devoted to that area
• damage:
o lose ability to plan ahead

▪ can’t carry out sequences of actions

▪ can’t judge order of events
▪ can’t predict what will happen
▪ problems with impulse control
o lose emotional ability
▪ become apathetic
Sensory vs. Motor Cortex:

• motor and somatosensory cortices basically mirror one another
• motor in front of central sulcus; sensory is behind
• strong connections between sensations and movement s for given body region
Prefrontal Cortex:
• area at very front of frontal lobe
• responsible for “executive function”
o planning ahead
o setting goals
o making goals
o judging situation
Functional Areas:
Association Cortex:
• involved in “higher” level mental processes
• areas of cortex not directly involved in receiving specific types of sensory information or
in voluntary movement
• found in all 4 lobes; ~75% human cortex
• doesn’t do anything when stimulated; “silent” area of brain; INCORRECT statement:
“We only use 10% of our brain.”
• combines multiple types of sensory information or sensory with motor information
Broca’s Area: Speech Production

• located in frontal lobe, near facial motor area
• speech production – articulating words, grammar, finding right word (ex. musical
grammar)
• damage – great difficulty speaking and articulating, but DOESN’T AFFECT
COMPREHENSION
• stammering generally caused by overly critical parents

Wernicke’s Area: Speech Comprehension

• located in temporal lobe (area that processes auditory and some visual information)
• language comprehension – necessary for understanding spoken or written words, others
and your own
• damage – babbling: words pronounced correctly but there is no meaning
Example: “What do you do with a cigarette?”
• damage to Broca’s area: “uh… uh…. cig… uh… cigarette… uh… smoke…. it..”
• damage to Wernicke’s area: “This is a segment of a pigment. Soap a cigarette.”
Association Cortex and Language:

• other areas of association cortex are involved in other aspects of language
• verb impairment – have difficulty with verbs, not nouns
o ex. difficulty saying “I watched TV.”, but no difficulty saying “My watch is fast.”
• foreign accent syndrome – suggests there is as specific area of brain for “sound” of
language
o ex. people speak with accent after stroke
• music used to treat Broca’s aphasia

Lecture 9:
Right Brain vs. Left Brain:
• halves connected by corpus callosum
• somatosensory and motor signals for one side of body are linked to opposite side of brain
Lateralization:
• some mental activities use one side of brain more than other side
• LS – language, math
• RS – arts, spatial relations
o face recognition
o mental imagery
o navigating
o drawing
o musical melodies
Split Brain Patients:
• epileptic seizures sever corpus callosum
• each eye sends signals to both side of brain, but whatever is to the right is “seen” by LS
of brain v.v.
• if corpus callosum is severed, then whatever is seen the left is “stuck” on right side of
brain v.v. and cannot cross over
KNOW WHICH SIDE OF THE BRAIN CONTROLS WHAT.
Example:
• picture of object shown on RS of body; patient could name and describe object
o visual info – LS controls language capabilities
• picture of object shown on LS of body; patient could NOT describe object
o visual info – RS less language capabilities
• LS brain no idea what right side was seeing.
• picture of similar faces shown on RS body; patient could NOT distinguish faces
o visual info - LS poor spatial relations
• pictures of similar faces shown on LS of body; patient could distinguish faces
o visual info – RS good spatial relations
• common misconception: LS = consciousness and RS = subconscious
• not entirely true; both sides of brain contribute to most (if not all ) functions
Brain Plasticity:
• ability of neurons and brain to change in structure and function
• occurs as result of experience and recovery from brain damage

• brain development partially genetic; environment also plays huge role:

o fetal alcohol syndrome
o massaging and holding premature babies faster neurological development
o Chinese language speakers – less lateralization in brain b/c pictorial words
better spatial relations
o violin players – more motor cortex devoted to left hand (for fingering)
Injury Recovery:
• neurons need connections to live
• after brain damage, surviving neurons try to form new connections to stay alive
• leads to cortical reorganization
• younger people – more unused connections – can recover from brain damage better
• some cases – return to pre-injury functioning (esp. in young people)
• more connections, less affected by brain damage
Blindness:
• visual areas of brain not stimulated (no visual signals coming in) cortical
reorganization of nerves
o visual areas creep into parietal or temporal lobe increased sensitivity to touch
or sounds (echolocation)
• these changes can happen within days of losing sight
BRAIN PLASTICITY – VIOLIN PLAYERS – INJURY RECOVERY – BLNDNESS – ON
EXAM!
CHAPTER 4:
Genes, Evolution, and Behaviour:
• many psychological traits have a genetic component: personality, cognitive abilities,
psychological disorders etc.
Genes:
• sections of DNA instructions for building proteins which are critical to mental and
physical functioning
o structural proteins branching of dendrites and axons
o ion channels action potential
o certain neurotransmitters are proteins
DNA:
• found in every cell in human body
• organized into 46 chromosomes

o 23 pairs in almost all cells – diploid

▪ 23 from each parent
▪ sex cells – haploid
• ~1000 genes per chromosome
• all cells contain all instructions to build all proteins, but only use some cells differ in
terms of structure and function
• whether certain genes are expressed depends on environmental factors, including
cellular environment and organism’s environment
o ex. dominant male orangutan grows facial flaps
Genetic Inheritance:
KNOW DIFFERENCE GENOTYPE AND PHENOTYPE.
Mendel:
• pea experiment blah blah blah
Basic Principles of Genetic Inheritance:
1. inheritance of trait is determined by factors (alleles) that are passed on unchanged from
parents to offspring
2. offspring inherit one allele from each parent for each trait
3. alleles are passed on independently of another (law of independent assortment)
Polygenic Transmission:
• many genes combine to influence single phenotypic trait
Mapping and Engineering Genes:

Human Genome:
• early 1990s: “mapping” human genome i.e. identify location of all genes on each
chromosome
• completed in 2001
• found that humans have ~25,000 genes
• only 2% of DNA is actually genes; the rest does something else
1. Recombinant DNA Procedures:
• use enzymes to cut out piece of DNA from one organism and insert it into DNA of
another organism
• recombine DNA from different organisms
• place human genes into bacteria:

o bacterial cells reproduce very quickly
2. Gene Knockout Procedure:

• way of altering genetic structure that ultimately prevents specific gene from carrying out
its function
o ex. knocked out gene that codes for proteins involved in serotonin reuptake and
mouse becomes depressed
• PROBLEM: very few behaviours controlled by just one gene
Ethical and Moral Concerns About Genetic Engineering:

• Should we even use techniques in humans?
o How and under what circumstances?
o To prevent genetic disorders?
o To propagate “desirable” characteristics?
o To clone important people?
Genetic Counselling:
• provides people with info about susceptibility to certain genetic diseases
• provide support programs for people and families dealing with genetic illness
• help people understand and interpret results of genetic tests
• pre-screening/pre-conception blood tests
o decide whether or not to have children based on probabilities of having certain
issues or not
o amniocentesis –
▪ @ 15-20 weeks fetal development
o some genetic counsellors try to anticipate desires of parents; my accidentally
impart own views; fail to account for environmental factors

Lecture 10:
Behavioural Genetics:
• want to know how much influence genes have, how much influence environment has on
psychological characteristics
Heritability Coefficient:
• extent to which variation within a group of people (in some trait) is due to variation in
their genes
• higher values – larger role
• only applies to differences within specific group; cannot compare between groups
EXAMPLE: Comparing IQ of children from different SES

• children from high SES families typically have higher heritability coefficient
• heritability coefficient can differ depending on people within group
Techniques in Behavioural Genetics:

Breeding Studies:
• animals can be selectively bred for certain characteristics
• can also be selectively bred for certain psychological characteristics too
o experiences are not passed on genetically to children; if parent was tame, doesn’t
mean offspring will be tame too
o ex. D. Belyaev bred foxes for psychological characteristics
▪ tameness vs. fearfulness vs. aggressiveness
▪ most aggressive foxes bred with one another v.v.
▪ separated foxes from parents at young age
▪ minimal contact with humans
▪ results – really tame foxes
▪ also found that other traits were more common in tame foxes:
• floppy ears, short & curly tails, less seasonal change in fur colour,
loss of musky smell
▪ certain psychological characteristics have genetic component
▪ only selected for one trait but led to changes in other traits
Adoption Studies:
• genetic influence – adopted person is more like biological parents
• environmental influence – adopted person is more like adoptive parents

• ex. people who were adopted and later diagnosed with schizophrenia
o examined family history of schizophrenia in adopted and biological family
o found that rate was much higher in biological family suggests genetic
component to schizophrenia
• ex. looked at criminal record people who were adopted and criminal records of both
biological and adoptive fathers
o biological father, no record child, no record
o biological father, record child, often had record, even when adoptive father did
not
o both fathers, record child most likely to have record
• genes and environment can interact to produce behaviours
Twin Studies:
• ID twins 100% DNA; fraternal twins 50% DNA
• twins typically raised in similar environment
• so if ID twins are more similar on some trait than fraternal twins, then it likely has
genetic component
• but sometimes ID twins treated more similarly
• some studies combine twin and adoption study ideas
o examine ID twins adopted by separate families at birth and compare them to
fraternal twins raise together
o ID twins still more similar genetic basis
Genes and Environment:
• adoption and twin studies genetics may provide us with a predisposition towards some
traits, but the environment influences degree to which this predisposition is expressed or
not
• all behaviours reflect interaction and environment
• everyone gets exactly 50% DNA from each parent

o 23 pairs chromosomes
o each parent contributes one half of each pair
• so siblings share about 50% of DNA (on average)
o fraternal twins:
▪ dizygotic – come from two different eggs and 2 different sperm
o ID twins:
▪ monozygotic – come from same egg and sperm
• for any one pair of chromosomes, there is a ¼ chance of you being identical to your
sibling

• there are 23 pairs of chromosomes, so chances of monozygotic siblings being perfectly

identical is 423 or 1 in 70 trillion (v. unlikely)
Intelligence:
• if intelligence was purely genetic:
o monozygotic (ID) twins would have ID intelligence scores
o dizygotic twins would have less similar intelligence scores than monozygotic
twins and be no more similar than other siblings
• high correlations between ID twins b/c they are more similar than fraternal twins BUT:
o ID twins raised together more similar than ID twins raised apart
o siblings raised together more similar than siblings raised apart
o adopted children equally similar to biological parents as to adoptive parents
Reaction Range:
• how genes and environment interact
• genes determine upper and lower limits of trait in person, while environment determines
where they fall within this range
• ex. genes may predispose height, but things like diet, sleep, nutrition etc. will determine
actual height
• things that help individual meet maximum potential:
o early learning experiences brain development
o cultural influences learning opportunities
o quality of education
o interests, motivation, application
Personality:
• some aspects of personality can be linked to specific patterns of brain pattern
• factor analysis – certain personality characteristics are strongly correlated
Five Factor Model of Personality: OCEAN

1. extraversion/introversion – sociable, outgoing, adventurous
2. agreeableness – cooperative, helpful, good-natured
3. conscientiousness – responsible, dependable
4. neuroticism – worrying, anxious, emotionally unstable
5. openness to experience – imaginative, curious

Heritability Coefficient:
• heritability coefficient for each of the 5 personality dimensions ranges from ~0.4 to ~0.6
• roughly half the variability in personality that we see among people is due to differences
in their genes
• by comparison, the heritability coefficient of IQ is ~0.65
• personality might not be related to genetics (like IQ), but genes still account for
significant amount of variance
Minnesota Twin Study:
• examined personality of 400+ pairs of twins
o ID and fraternal
o raised together or apart
▪ 2.5 months median age of separation
• compared twins on 14 measures of different personality traits
o ID twins more similar than fraternal twins
o in both types, level of similarity about the same for twins raised together OR apart
▪ family environment had surprisingly little effect on personality
▪ environmental influences of school experiences and social interactions
had higher effect on personality than family environment
o differences in genes account for ~50% variability in personality
o differences in family environment account for ~3% variability in personality
o differences in unique experiences (social environment) account for about 46%
variability in personality
o genetic component to beliefs and attitudes – high heritability coefficient (>0.5)
for: reading, abortion, playing organized sports, death penalty, riding roller coasters
▪ likely due to genetic predisposition towards certain types of activities
• ex. muscle coordination sports
• ex. vestibular system easy nausea
• ex. lack of empathy more likely to be a criminal?

Lecture 11
Evolution:
• many traits have genetic basis
• organisms vary with respect to these traits
Evolution by Natural Selection:

• evolution – change over time in frequency of traits/alleles within population
Natural Selection:
• natural selection – differential survival and reproduction as a function of heritable trait
• certain characteristics make an organism more/less likely to survive and reproduce
• those traits that increase survival/reproduction are more likely to be passed on to
offspring increased frequency in next generation
• Darwin – not the first to come up with idea of natural selection, that people change over
time
• Alfred Wallace – came up with same idea at around the same time
Fitness:
• how successful an organism with particular genes (or traits) is at passing on their genes
into subsequent generations relative to others
• fitness is how we quantify natural selection
• three tasks related to fitness:
1. survival to reproductive age
2. find a mate
3. reproduce
Evolution occurs through natural selection, which acts as a filter for certain traits:
• adaptation – traits that increase fitness are more likely to be passed on to offspring
• traits that are maladaptive are less likely to be passed on to offspring
• neutral traits also pass through filter
o these traits are neutral, but this may change over time as the environment changes,
and these traits may become adaptive
• if environment changes, different traits can become adaptive
o e.g. peppered moth

▪ some moths are black, white, and peppered

▪ white moths less visible against white birch trees
▪ as Industrialization occurred in Britain, more soot and grime was
produced, coating trees and making them black
▪ more black moths survived; white moths were eaten
▪ frequency of particular trait for black moths increases
Common Misconceptions About Evolution:

• natural selection can only choose between traits that already exist in a population
• not “survival of the fittest” b/c survival means very little without reproduction
o term coined by Herbert Spencer
o need to pass genes on
o many species die just after mating; genes are still passed on
Evolutionary Psychology:
• looks at psychological traits and behaviours as adaptations
• an approach to psychology, based on principles of evolutionary theory
• goal is to still understand the mind
• interested in function or adaptive value of behaviours
Assumptions:
2. certain traits/behaviours are biologically (genetically) inherited
3. in evolutionary past, some traits were adaptive
4. those traits/behaviour that we currently see in people are products of past selection
pressures
• if these traits/behaviour are more or less universal, then EP assumes they were products
of evolution
Assumed Human Adaptations:

• tool use
• social organization
• language
• inferring emotions of others (universal facial expressions)
• discriminate family members from non-members
o Westermarck Effect (1891)
▪ took kids from an orphanage

▪ kids from same orphanage did not want to get romantically involved with
each other
• food preferences
• perception of beauty
Parental Investment:
• fitness also includes whether our children survive and reproduce
• two basic reproductive strategies:
o quantity – have lots of kids and hope that some survive OR
o quality – have small number of kids that you heavily invest in
• parental investment – time, effort, energy, risk associated with caring successfully for
offspring; includes everything from conception onwards
Trivers’ Parental Investment Theory:

5. sex differences in reproductive potential lead to different PI strategies being selected
for
• low RP – higher parental investment
• high RP – lower parental investment
• in many species, females have lower “reproductive potential” i.e. how many offspring an
individual can theoretically produce per unit of time
• in mammals, female reproductive potential is limited by physiological investment
• in contrast, male reproductive potential is limited only by access to fertile women
6. sex differences in reproductive potential/parental investment lead to differences in
“choosiness”
• differences in reproductive potential results in imbalance of fertile members of each sex
• fertile males abundant while fertile females are in demand females get to be “choosy”
about who they mate with
7. sex differences in “choosiness” lead to sexual dimorphism
o female wants to choose mate with good genes to ensure that children have every
chance to survive and reproduce competition between males
Intra-Sexual Competition: Action

• direct competition between members of same sex for limited mating opportunities
• male-male competition, involving force, threat, or “sneakiness”
• results in larger, stronger males
Inter-Sexual Competition: Decoration

• indirect competition between members of same sex for limited mating opportunities
• i.e. competition for attention;
o develop elaborate ornamentation and bright colours
o may also present “gifts” to female to show hunting prowess
o may also show willingness to share resources
• results in brighter colors, more elaborate ornamentation and mating rituals

Lecture 12
Reproductive Potential Parental Investment Strategies Choosiness Competition
Sexual Dimorphism
Mating Systems in Wild:
• parental investment – different mating systems among animals
• polygyny – many females mate with one male
o high female investment; low male investment
o females are choosy; males are larger and more elaborate (because they have to
compete)
• polyandry – many males mates with one female
o low female investment; high male investment
o male chooses; females are larger and elaborate
• monogamy – one female mates with one male
o female investment high; male investment high
o both will be choosy; neither larger or more elaborate
• polygynandry – many females mate with many males; promiscuity; giant orgy
o everyone pitches in; parental investment are low
o choosy, but not too choosy
o no dimorphism
Universal Laws of Attraction:

• attracted to certain features because it increases fitness
• universal preferences for:
o symmetrical faces:
▪ people with symmetrical faces – have good immune system to withstand
infections
▪ Brad Pitt – super symmetrical face
▪ asymmetric face – caused by poor nutrition, genetics, infection
o clear skin:
▪ blemishes also related to immune functioning
▪ indicates good genes
o sex-typical faces:
▪ female faces: estrogen:
• increases lip size; upper cheek size; inhibits jaw growth; associated
with skin drying, thinning, wrinkling, other signs of aging
• also related to fecundity – low estrogen is associated with scant
uterine lining during ovulation pregnancy unlikely
• also related to fertility – low estrogen may also result in
anovulatory cycles (no egg released) pregnancy impossible
▪ male faces: testosterone:

• larger jaw, facial hair

• also associated with immunocompetence – reduces ability to ward
off infection
• bacterial infection, acne are related to testosterone
• handicap hypothesis
o testosterone – handicaps ability to fight off sickness, but
that means that someone who has clear skin and is healthy
means that their genes are v. good
• also associated with lower parental investment & cheating
Universal Female Preference For:

• males donate 50% genetic material – suggests that good genes are something to look for
• men can only invest economically – suggests that economic resources/economic potential
(and willingness to share resources) are also good traits
• slightly older males
• males who deal well with children
• cues about good genes:
o testosterone-linked features:
▪ facial features
▪ V-shaped torso
• cues about resources:
o overt displays
o age:
▪ wealth tends to be accumulated over time
▪ salaries and status increase with “seniority”
o social status
o education/intelligence:
▪ subsequent earning potential
▪ long-term stability
Universal Male Preference For:
• females donate 50% genetic material, so good genes are something that men look forward
o i.e. so female can pass good immune genes on to child increase its chances of
surviving
• feminine features are correlated with:
o increase likelihood of conception
o increased fertility
o greater number of reproductive years ahead
o health of child (loosely)
▪ aging ova hypothesis
• born with all eggs that they will ever released
2

• genetic abnormalities accumulate over time and cause mutations

• so older eggs have reduced genetic quality
• physical attractiveness (WHR, breasts, etc.)
o most attractive features relate to estrogen fertility and fecundity
o facial symmetry
o clear skin
o breast size and waist-to-hip ratio
▪ estrogen gynoid fat distribution; fertility
Human Mate Choice:

• according to parental investment theory, the sex that invests a lot will be “choosy”
• both parents provide genetic material, but only women invest physiology (gestation and
lactation)
• men (and women) invest economically; only way men can invest
Female Attractiveness:
Multiple Motives Hypothesis:

• men and women both have trade-offs when choosing a mate
Men:
• men have high reproductive potential, yet investment is also very important; trade-off
between settling down and playing the field
• solution – mixed reproductive strategy – invest heavily in one mate, but still attempt to
access others
Women:
• women seek men who have good genes and are caring providers; trade-off between genes
and investment
• traits associated with good genes typically linked to testosterone
• testosterone also linked to lower investment and fidelity
• solution – female mixed reproductive strategy – secure long-term mate to provide
genetic resources AND mate briefly with male of high genetic quality
Evidence: DURING OVULATION

• women find masculine features more attractive

• women more likely to fantasize about extra-pair copulations
• women tend to expose more skin and dance more flamboyantly
• women most likely to have extra-marital affair
Cooperation Versus Altruism:

Cooperation:
• both individuals gain some advantage
• cooperative hunting, protection
• generally seen as an adaptive behaviour
Altruism:
• the person helping incurs cost
• ex. ground squirrels:
o sentinels raises alarm when predators are near
o but sentinels are at higher risk of getting eaten
1. Kin Selection Theory

• altruism (toward relatives) increases their chances of surviving and reproducing
o increases altruistic person’s indirect fitness
• natural selection will favor those who behave altruistically toward their kin (relatives) as
long as the cost isn’t too high
• Hamilton Law:
o rB > C where:
▪ r = relatedness (proportion of genes shared)
▪ B = benefit
▪ C = cost
o altruism more likely:
▪ between relatives
▪ when cost is low or benefit is really high
▪ also works the other way; applies to spiteful behaviour
2. Theory of Reciprocal Altruism:

• altruism as long-term cooperation

Direct and Indirect Fitness:

Direct Fitness:
• survive long enough to produce offspring
• produce offspring who will also survive and produce offspring of their own
Indirect Fitness:
• AND/OR help relatives who will pass on some of your genes
Aggression:
• competition for mates and food leads to aggression
• developed as a way of protecting access to important resources (which increases fitness)
• can hinder fitness
ONLY NEED TO KNOW THIS STUFF ABOUT AGRESSION, NOT STUFF IN
TEXTBOOK.
Dominance Hierarchies:
• direct competition may leads to injury/death in both parties
• through evolutionary time, many animals developed better memory remember past
fights
o rather than fight same fight, give up
• beneficial to both:
o loser survives; still gets some food
o winner doesn’t sustain debilitating injury
Personality:
Evolutionary Personality Theory:
• views dimensions of personality as adaptations
o certain traits evolved because they increased chances of survival and/or
reproduction
• “Big 5” personality dimensions (OCEAN)
o heritable and universal
Why aren’t all people extraverted stable, agreeable etc.?

• normal variation around optimal mean values
• some traits might be advantageous in some cases v.v.
o maybe personality partially develops in tandem w/ certain physical or mental
traits

o depending on personality of other people in group in group, some traits could be

advantageous/disadvantageous
▪ ex. everyone is gullible; liars benefit
• considers a different aspect of personality as an adaptation to some sort of environmental
pressure
Caveats and Fallacies:

• impossible to prove
• not every behaviour is necessarily the result of natural selection
o some may be adaptively neutral
o some may have evolved for very different purposes
▪ e.g. perception of lines and angles reading
o others are transmitted socially/culturally
1. Genetic Determinism:
• idea that genes have invariant and unavoidable effects that cannot be altered
• NOT CORRECT:
o environmental influences in adoption studies
o treatments for genetically-inherited diseases
2. Social Darwinism:
• Darwin didn’t advocate this
• “Spencerism” – “survival of the fittest”
• idea that certain people’s genes are “better”
• upper class people are in the upper classes because of genetic superiority
o reduces lower classes to animals
o used to justify slavery, racism, genocide, eugenics etc.
• CLEARLY INCORRECT
3. Nature’s Plan:
• idea that something is found in nature (or has a genetic basis) that it is somehow moral or
right
• typically used as defense of some sort of atrocious act
o men can’t help cheating
o rape in animal kingdom makes it okay in humans
• CLEARLY INCORRECT:
o genes aren’t sole determinant of behaviour

o humans make their own moral decisions

PSYCH1000 61 Pages Study Guide

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

PSYCH1000 61 Pages Study Guide

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Western

Lecture 1: Tuesday September 10, 2013

Psychology is defined as the scientific study of the behaviour and mind.

• behaviour: actions and responses we can directly observe

Different Kinds of Psychology:

• modern psychology is very scientific

The Scientific Approach:

• systematic observation: use of specific test that is scored as objectively as possible

• what is the claim, exactly?

find more resources at oneclass.com

• what is the evidence and how good is it?

The Four Goals of Psychology:

1. describe how people and animals behave

• quest for knowledge purely for its own sake

• designed for specific research and application

find more resources at oneclass.com

find more resources at oneclass.com

find more resources at oneclass.com

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and Psychodynamics:

find more resources at oneclass.com

• only observable behaviour (not unobservable inner consciousness or sub-consciousness)

find more resources at oneclass.com

• Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

find more resources at oneclass.com

• does not use experimentation

find more resources at oneclass.com

find more resources at oneclass.com

o identify question of interest

Defining and Measuring Variables:

find more resources at oneclass.com

find more resources at oneclass.com

Obtaining a Representative Sample:

find more resources at oneclass.com

find more resources at oneclass.com

• 68% population within 1 standard deviation

Positive or Negative Correlations:

find more resources at oneclass.com

Correlation Coefficient: Zero

Correlation Versus Causation:

Third Variable Problem:

find more resources at oneclass.com

Why Are Correlations Useful?

find more resources at oneclass.com

Three Characteristics of an Experiment:

Darley and Latané Experiment: Diffusion of Responsibility (Kitty Genovese)

find more resources at oneclass.com

Does talking on a cellphone while driving cause people to be worse drivers?

Experimental Versus Control Groups:

Between-Subjects Versus Within-Subjects Design:

find more resources at oneclass.com

Within-Subjects Design (Repeated Measures Design):

To offset these problems:

To offset these problems:

find more resources at oneclass.com

find more resources at oneclass.com

o if standard deviation of each group is small, standard deviation of difference will

Threats to the Validity of Research:

Threats to Internal Validity

find more resources at oneclass.com

• double-blind – neither participant not experimenter knows what condition participant is

IF YOU CANNOT REPLICATE THE ORIGINAL RESULTS, THIS SUGGESTS LOW

find more resources at oneclass.com