Introduction to Psychology Book Notes and Lecture Notes (Unit 1-4)

Mikaela Gabrielle H. Malinis - 1P5

UNIT 1: THE SCIENCE OF DESCRIBE

PSYCHOLOGY
- What is happening?
————————————————— - We observe (the scientific part)
• Psychology is the scientific study of behaviour
and mental process. EXPLAIN

• How people think, feel, and act in their everyday - Why is it happening?
life.
• Why the behaviour is happening
• We do not use assumptions or intuition, we - Your explanation may agree or disagree with
investigate and use theoretical explanation a theory
• You can build more theories if your
• Psychology helps us understand people and study disagrees with the theory you
even animals chose

• How our brain is interconnected with the body PREDICT

• Psychology is a new field in science (140) - When will it happen again?

——————————————————————— - Is it possible for the behaviour to be done in
Enduring Issues in Psychology the future?
- Helps us facilitate the change or modification
1. Nature vs Nurture of the behaviour

- Is a person the product of genetics or the CONTROL

sum of their experiences? Or Both?
- How can the behaviour be changed?
2. Stability vs Change - How can we modify the certain behaviour?

- Are behaviour patterns learned permanent or Modifying and changing the maladaptive behaviour
do people change over time? to an adaptive one.
———————————————————————
3. Diversity vs Universality Growth in Psychology
- How are people alike but at the same time Psychology began as a philosophy where they study
unique or different from each other? the psyche or soul of the person. They believed that
apart from the physical self, there is a spiritual self
4. Mind vs Body where the soul exists apart from the body. However,
though this may be possible, it lack scientific
- What is the relationship between the mind evidence or proof.
and the body?
——————————————————————— There were doctors and philosophers who tried to
Goals of Psychology understand behaviour and mental processes.
Example include:

 • Sir Francis Galton = studied individual

- Philosophers (connection of the human mind to differences; why people behaved differently even
the physical body): in similar situations.
• Aristotle
• Plato 2. Edward Titchener (Structuralism)
• Descartes
• Edward was also one of Wundt’s students and
- Doctors and Physiologists (connection of brain expanded the original ideas through what he
and body): called as “structuralism”.
• Gustav Fechner (Physician and Physicist)
is credited for being one of the first to • Structuralism = structure of the mind
performing the science experiments that
would form a basis for experimentation in • Introspection (research method) - a process / you
psychology with his studies of perception. ask yourself/you allow yourself to reflect actions/
behaviour
• Hermann von Helmholtz performed
groundbreaking experiments in visual and • Basic elements of mental life
auditory perception.
• Margaret F. Washburn = was the only graduate
MAIN PROPONENTS student of Edward in 1894 who was the first
woman to receive a Phd in Psychology
1. Wilhelm Wundt (Father of Psychology)

• Wilhelm was a physiologist that attempted to 3. Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler, & Kurt
apply scientific principles to the study of the Koffka: Gestalt
human mind.
• The whole picture
• He established the first true experimental
laboratory in psychology in the University of • The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
Leipzig, Germany.
• Organization of mental processes
• Wundt believed that consciousness could be
broken down into thoughts, experiences,
emotions, and other basic elements 4. S i g m u n d F r e u d : P s y c h o d y n a m i c /
Psychoanalytic (DevPsych ref)
• Objective introspection = the process of
objectively examining and measuring one’s own • development as primarily unconscious (beyond
thoughts and mental activities awareness) and heavily coloured by emotion.

• Granville Stanley Hall = first American with a • the symbolic meaning of behaviour and the deep
PhD in Psychology who studied with Wundt. He inner workings of the mind.
established the first psychological laboratory in
Johns Hopkins University, USA. • We are driven by different desires

• James McKeen Cattle = was a student of Wundt

and the first psychology professor in the United
States. He proposed the 16 personality traits
(MBTI).

5. William James (Functionalism)

• FUNCTIONalism = why people do what they do.

• Function of mind and behaviour

• James focused on how the mind allows people to

function in the real world

6. John B. Watson (Behaviourism)

• S-R Psychology = stimulus-response psychology

• Para sa kanya ang introspection ay “unscientific”.

• Watson believed that all behaviour is learned

• Ivan Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning: dog and bell

establishment, response happened because
there’s an established relationship (ex. Even if
food isn’t present)

• B.F. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning: Providing

reinforcement/awards/punishments

 THE 5 STEPS OF SCIENTIFIC APPROACH • However, the info from the case may not be
applied to other case. This is because
1. Perceiving the question
• Case observation, psychological tests,
2. Forming a testable hypothesis validating results
• Hypothesis = a TENTATIVE explanation of a
phenomenon based on your observation • COMPREHENSIVE BUT RESTRICTIVE

3. Testing of the Hypothesis (experiment) 4. Surveys

• Surveys involve asking standardised
4. Draw your conclusion questions of large groups of people, but
respondents may not always tell the truth
5. Report your results (Findings), based on or remember information correctly.
statistical data.
• To conduct a survey, researchers use a
——————————————————————— representative sample, a randomly selected
SCIENTIFIC METHODOLOGY sample of participants
———————————————————————
5. Standardized tests (more scientific)
DESCRIPTIVE METHODS • Respondents answer a series of questions

1. Naturalistic observation • Respondent’s score compared with others

• Observers watch animals or people in their (yung norm)
natural environment.
6. Archival Research (luma = archive)
• Although, observers should take into account • In lieu of actual behaviour
the tendency of people or animals to
behave differently when they KNOW they • Literature, diaries, paintings, movies, etc.
are being observed.
CORRELATION METHODS
• Researchers can use the “participant
observation” where the observers becomes 1. A correlation is a measure of the relationship
part of the group — parang spy yung between two or more variables.
researcher.
2. A correlation coefficient is a number that
• Prone to observer bias since there is a represents the strength and direction of a
tendency for observers to see what they relationship existing between two variables;
expect to see. it is a number derived from the formula for
measuring a correlation.
2. Laboratory observation
• The researchers watch the animals or people • Positive correlations = exist when
in an artificial but controlled situation. increase in one variable

• Disadvantage of this is that the people or • Negative correlations = exist when

animals may display artificial behaviour. increases in one variable are matched by
decreases in the other variable.
3. Case Studies
• The study of one individual in great detail.

 3. Correlations cannot be used to prove cause-and- b. Randomization is the best way to ensure
effect relationships control over other extraneous variables.

EXPERIMENT METHODS

1. An experiment is a deliberate manipulation of a

variable to see if corresponding changes in
behaviour results, allowing the determination
of cause-and-effect relationships.
Guidelines for Research with humans
2. Selection ● rights and well-being of participants must
be weighed against the study's value to
3. The variables science

a. Operationalization involves specific ● participants must be allowed to make an

description of a variable of interest that informed decision about participating
allows it to be measured. (informed consent)

b. An independent variable = manipulatable by ● deception must be justified

the researcher
● participants may withdraw from the study
at any time
c. Dependent variable = yung maapektohan ng
independent (response to the independent
● participants must be protected from risks
variable)
or told explicitly of risks

d. T h e e x p e r i m e n t a l g r o u p i n c l u d e s ● investigator must debrief participants,

participants in an environment who are telling the true nature of the study and
subjected to the independent variable, expectations of results

e. whereas the control group includes ● data must remain confidential

participants in an experiment who are not
subjected to the independent variable and
who may receive a placebo treatment. Ethics of Psychological Research
• Eto yang kala nila na may effect pero - (psychological scientists have a primary
wala goal of protecting the health and welfare of
their animal or human participants)

PLACEBO EFFECT → THE EXPECTATION of a ● Research with animals

person in any experimental study can affect the a. any animal research is also covered
outcome of the study. by ethical considerations; primary
focus is on avoiding any unnecessary
4. The importance of randomization pain or suffering

b. why use animals?

a. Random assignment is the process of
➔ some research questions are
assigning participants to the experimental or
important but can be difficult
control groups randomly, so that each
or dangerous to answer with
participant has an equal chance of being in
human participants
either group.

 ➔ animals are easier to control

➔ animals have shorter lives;

easier to study long-term
effects

—————————————————

———————————————————————

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————————————————— the information it is detecting from the
environment.
UNIT 2: SENSATION
—————————————————
• Sensation = getting info from the outside world

• Sensation talks about how our brain process the

sensory signals we receive through our senses

• Sensation is the process that occurs when special

receptors in the sense organs are activated,
allowing various forms of outside stimuli to
become neural signals in the brain.

• Transduction = the process of converting

outside stimuli, such as light, into neural
activity.

• Synesthesia = a condition in which the signals

from the various sensory organs are
processed differently, resulting in the sense
information being interpreted as more than
one sensation. ———————————————————————
SENSORY THRESHOLDS
- “Joined sensation”
W E B E R ’ S L AW O F J U S T N O T I C E A B L E
- Some research indicates that it is not DIFFERENCE (JND) →
purely a sensory phenomenon.
• Ernst Weber did studies trying to determine the
• Sensations are the mind’s window to the world that smallest difference between two weights that
exists around us. could be detected

——————————————————————— • JND is the smallest difference between two

SENSORY RECEPTORS stimuli that is detectable 50 percent of the time.

• Sensory receptors are specialised form of • An absolute threshold is the lowest level of
neurons, the cells that make up the nervous stimulation that a person can consciously detect
system. 50 percent of the time the stimulation is present
- This was proposed by Gustav Fechner
• These receptors are stimulated by different
kinds of energy like light, vibrations, pressure, • Signal detection theory provides a method for
temperature, and chemical substance. assessing the accuracy of judgements or
decisions under uncertain conditions
• Each receptor type transduces the physical
information into electrical information in • Weber’s law simply means that whatever the
different ways, which then either depolarises or difference between
hyperpolarizes the cell, causing it to fire more or
to fire less based in the timing and intensity of

 • Our senses vary in their sensitivity to changes in
stimulation
———————————————————————
WHY ARE SOME SENSORY INFO IGNORED?
1. Habituation = tendency of the brain to stop
attending to constant, unchanging information.
- You are still responding to the
stimulus, however the lower
centres of the brain are not
sending those signals to the
cortex.
2. Sensory adaptation = tendency of sensory
receptor cells to become less responsive to a
stimulus that is unchanging. Therefore,
unchanging information from the sensory
receptors is effectively ignored.
- Adapting
———————————————————————
ADDITIONAL INFO (BOOK)
• Subliminal Stimuli = activated yung iyong
sensory receptors, but Hindi ka conciously
aware.
• Microsaccades = constant movement of the
eye
• Tiny little vibrations
—————————————————————
———————————————————————
THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF SENSATION
1. VISUAL (EYES): The Visible Spectrum
• Albert Einstein who first proposed that light is
actually tiny “packets” of waves. These “wave
packets” are called photons and have specific
wavelengths associated with them
• When people experience the physical properties
of light, they are not really aware of its dual,
wavelike and particle-like, nature.
• With regard to its psychological properties, there
are three aspects to our perception of light:
brightness, color, and saturation.
- BRIGHTNESS = amplitude of the wave
—how high or how low the wave
actually is. The higher the wave, the
brighter the light
- COLOR = is largely determined by the
length of the wave. Short wavelengths

 (measured in nanometers) are found at

the blue end of the visible spectrum

- SATURATION = refers to the purity of

the color people perceive:

- A highly saturated red, for

example, would contain only red
wavelengths, whereas a less-
saturated red might contain a
mixture of wavelengths.

• STRUCTURE OF THE EYE:

• Blind spot = is the area in the retina where

the axons of the retinal ganglion cells exit
the eye to form the optic nerve; it is
insensitive to light.
• Light enters the eye through the cornea
and pupil
• Rods = visual sensory receptors found at the
back of the retina, responsible for non- color
• The iris controls the size of the pupil sensitivity to low levels of light.

• From the pupil, light passes through the • Cones = visual sensory receptors found at the
lens to the retina, where it is transformed back of the retina, responsible for color vision
into nerve impulses. and sharpness of vision.

• The nerve impulses travel to the brain • CROSSING OF THE OPTIC NERVE:
along the optic nerve. - Light entering the eye separates
into left and right visual fields.
• VISUAL ACCOMODATION Information from the visual fields
goes to the CONTRALATERAL
• The lens changer its shape from thick to visual cortex.
thin, enabling it to focus on objects that are • Kunware, if light enters the
close or far away. right visual field, it will be
received by your left.
- Dark adaptation occurs as the eye
recovers its ability to see when
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 going from a brightly lit state to a

dark state

- Light adaptation is the recovery of

the eye’s sensitivity to visual
stimuli in light after exposure to
darkness; it occurs more rapidly
than dark adaptation

• TRICHROMATIC THEORY
- Red, Blue, Green are the three types ———————————————————————
of cones 2. AUDITORY (EARS): Sound Waves and
Decibels
• OPPONENT—PROCESS THEORY
- Theory of color vision that proposes
• The higher the wave = the louder the sound
visual neurons (or groups of neurons)
are stimulated by light of one color and
• The lower the wave = the softer the sound
inhibited by light of another color.
• Close = high frequency and high pitched
- Afterimages = occur when a visual
sensation persists for a brief time even
• Farther apart = low frequency and low pitched
after the original stimulus is removed.
• Decibel = a unit of measure for loudness
• TYPES OF COLOR-DEFICIENT VISION
- Color Blindness: caused by defective
• Pitch = frequency
cones in the retina of the eye and, as a
more general term, color-deficient vision
• Amplitude = volume
is more accurate, as most people with
“color blindness” have two types of
• Timbre = richness of tone
cones working and can see many
colors.
• Frequency is measured in cycles or waves per
sound (hertz = Hz)
- Dichromats = red-green or blue-yellow
• PERCEIVING PITCH:
- Monochromats = see no color, only - Pitch is the psychological experience of
shades of light and dark sound that corresponds to the frequency of
——————————————————————— the sound waves; higher = higher pitches.

- Place theory = different pitches are

experienced by the stimulation of hair cells
in different locations of the cochlea in the
basilar membrane

- Frequency theory = a sound heard is

replicated and matched by the same

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 amount of nerve impulses that are then
transmitted to the brain.
- Volley Principle = frequencies from about
400 Hz to 4000 Hz cause the hair cells to
fire in a volley pattern, or take turns in
firing. SIMULTANEOUS YUNG PAG FIRE
• STRUCTURE OF THE EAR
- Pinna = the visible part of the ear
- Auditory Canal = short tunnel from the pinna to
the eardrum (tympanic membrane)
- Hammer, anvil, and stirrup = the three tiny
bones in the middle ear. They are referred to as
the ossicles; the vibration of these bones
amplifies the vibrations from the eardrum.
- Oval window = membrane covering the opening
of the inner ear.
• STRUCTURE OF THE EAR
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- Conduction hearing impairment = problems
with the mechanics of the outer or middle ear
mean that sound vibrations cannot be passed
from the eardrum to the cochlea
- Nerve hearing impairment (most common) =
damage to the inner ear or the auditory pathways
of the brain.
———————————————————————
———————————————————————
3. GUSTATORY (MOUTH): The Tounge and
Taste Buds
• Taste buds (taste receptor cells) = special
kinds of neurons found in the mouth that are
responsible for gustation, the sense of
taste.
• Taste buds are located inside the papillae
of the tounge
• FIVE BASIC TASTE: Sweet, Salty, Sour,
Bitter, and Umami
• GUSTATORY CORTEX
- Found in the anterior insula and frontal
operculum.

 - The insula is an area of cortex covered by
folds of overlying cortex and each fold is
an operculum
• OLFACTORY RECEPTORS
- Olfactory Receptor Cells = ability to smell
odors is called olfaction, or the olfactory
sense.
- Olfactory Bulbs = two bulb-like
projections of the brain located just
above the sinus cavity and just below the
frontal lobes that receive info from the
olfactory receptor cells
*SA BULB AGAD ANG PUNTA
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Detecting common odors = Odorant binding
protein is released and attached to incoming
molecules. These molecules then activate
receptors in the olfactory epithelium. Axons from
those receptors project directly to the olfactory bulb.
*Women have a better sense of smell than men.
*Anosmia - complete loss of the ability to smell.
———————————————————————
———————————————————————
4. TACTILE / SOMESTHESTIC (HANDS): The
Sense of Touch
• Somesthetic Senses are the body senses
consisting of the skin sense, the
kinaesthetic sense, and the vestibular
senses
• Congenital Analgesia and Congenital
insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis = inability
to feel pain
• Gate-Control Theory = when receptors
sensitive to pain are stimulated, a
neurotransmitter called substance P is
released into the spinal cord, activating
other pain receptors by opening “gates”
in the spinal column and sending the
messages to the brain.

 • SOMESTHETIC
- Type if sensory receptors in the skin
- Pacinian corpuscles are just beneath the
skin and respond to the changes in
pressure.
- Visceral pain is pain in the organs
- Somatic pain is pain sensation in the skin,
muscle, tendons, and joints.
• KINESTHETIC
- Provide info about speed and direction
- Stretch receptors sense muscle stretch
and contraction
- Golgi tendon organs sense movement of
tendons
- Proprioception is the awareness of where
the body and body parts are located in
relation to each other in space and to the
ground.
• VESTIBULAR
- Sensory conflict theory = motion sickness in
which the info from the eyes conflicts with
the info from the vestibular senses
- Biofeedback training = involuntary responses
under voluntary control
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—————————————————
UNIT 3: PERCEPTION
—————————————————
• Perception = making sense of the sensations,
interpreting them and organising them.
• CONSTANCIES
- Size = the tendency to interpret an object as
always being the same actual size
regardless of the distance
- Shape = the shape of the object is constant
even when its shape changes on the retina
- Brightness = the brightness of an object is
the same gene when the light conditions
change.
• GESTALT PRINCIPLE
- Totality
- Bigger picture > details
- Figure-ground relationship = the tendency
to perceive objects or figures as existing on a
background.
- Reversible Figures = visual illusions
in which the figure and ground can be
reversed
- Proximity = distance; perceiving objects that
are close to each other as part of the same
grouping
- Similarity = to organise in terms of similarity

 - Closure = to complete figures that are
incomplete
- Continuity = perceiving things as simply as
possible with a continuous pattern rather
than a complex broken up pattern
- Contiguity = two things that happen close
together in time being related; making sense
of two events
• BINOCULAR CUES TO DEPTH
• PERCEPTUAL ILLUSION
• COMMON REGION AND ELEMENT
CONNECTEDNESS
- COMMON REGION = objects that are in a
common area or region as being in a group
- ELEMENT CONNECTEDNESS = Perceive
objects that are connected overrides both
elements of similarity and proximity
• Combination of similarity and proximity
• Every spoon is paired with a fork
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• PICTORIAL DEPTH CLUES
- Linear perspective = lines appear to come
together
- Texture gradient = details are very evident
(kapag malapit sayo)
- Aerial / atmospheric perspective = the
place looks far but is actually hazy
- Relative size = closeness appears large
- Interposition = objects blocking each other
- Motion parallax = pag mas malapit - mas
quick; pag mas malayo - mas mabagal
PERCEPTION
- Convergence = duling; muscles of the eyes
meet when things are closer too the eye
- Binocular disparity = eyes seperate by
several cm; each will see different images
- Illusion = does not correspond to reality;
visual stimuli that fools the eye
- Hermann Grid = this illusion is attributed to
the responses of neurons in the primary
visual cortex that respond best to bars of
light of a specific orientation
- Such neurons are called “sim- ple
cells” and were first discovered by
David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel

 - M Ü L L E R - LY E R I L L U S I O N = T h e perceptual set (perceptual expectancy)

explanation is that most people live in a
world with lots of buildings. Buildings have
corners. illusion of line length that is distorted
by inward-turning or outward-turning corners
on the ends of the lines, causing lines of
equal length to appear to be different.
the tendency to perceive things a certain way because
previous experiences or expectations in uence those
perceptions.
top-down processing
the use of preexisting knowledge to organize individual
features into a uni ed whole.

bottom-up processing

the analysis of the smaller features to build up to a

complete perception.

———————————————————————
- EBBINGHAUS ILLUSION = The visual
context effects of the surrounding circles
influence our perception.

- MOON ILLUSION = it is perceived to be

much larger when on the horizon.

- MOTION ILLUSION = nagalaw ang pic

- AUTOKINETIC EFFECT = Perceived motion

of a single object
—————————————————————
- STROBOSCOPIC MOTION = Created by a
rapid series of still pictures

- PHI PHENOMENON = Apparent motion

created by lights flashing in sequence

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