General Psychology Exam #1 – Flashcards
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Ethics
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psychology when we study why people agree or disagree with certain moral beliefs by studying when children develop morally. What is good and desirable, what makes an action praiseworthy.
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Easterlin Paradox
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Money doesn't mean happier. There's a peak
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Focusing Illusion
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a cognitive bias that occurs when people place too much importance on one aspect of an event, causing an error in accurately predicting the utility of a future outcome.
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Thalese of Miletus
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He was Greek. Didn't explain things through the gods. He explained the world in naturalistic principles. He said everything is water. It is the ultimate substance
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Aesthetics
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A set of principles concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty, especially in art. What makes up a good film? Is beauty objective? What is going on when someone looks at something they find beautiful.
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Epistemology
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The theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope. The investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion. Study knowledge. What does it mean to know something? What does it mean to be knowledgeable? How do people learn things? How is it that a baby can learn a complex language?
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Ontology
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The study of being. Are minds real? Is consciousness real? Metaphysics is related to this. How do humans naturally divide the world? How do people think of consciousness.
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Physiology
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The branch of biology that deals with the normal functions of living organisms and their parts. Study of normal mechanisms. Focuses on how organs and organ systems carry out chemical and physical functions. Psychologists want to know what's going on in the brain.
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Wilhelm Wundt
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Trained as a physiologist. Germans were the 1st psychologists. Created 1st lab devoted to psychology and founded the 1st psychological journal. He studied basic things because he believed that's the only way to be truely objective.
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Sigmund Freud
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Published The Interpretation of Dreams. Heralds the start of psychoanalysis. He made it ok to study mental disorders and sexuality in humans.
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Behaviorism
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A psychological development mostly a result of learning through classical or operant conditioning. Blank slate idea. Not concerned with consciousness Started in the 20's-50's. Study things in labs that you can observe. Free will is an illusion; everything is stimulus-response. Watson did studies on children. Skinner thought you could condition people toward certain behavior.
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Cognitive Psychology
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Type of Psychology that wants to study what's going on in the brain. Sees the mind as an information processor or computer. We could eventually make A.I.
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Muller-Lyer Illusion
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Your brain has a specific process that you have no control over.
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Biological Psychology
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Psychology that studies the functions of humans and animals in terms of bodily structures. The goal is to describe the physiological basis of behavior.
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Evolutionary Psychology
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Psychology that believes that programs in the brain aren't arbitrary and the mind evolved to survived.
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Presuppositions Required for Science
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1. Rationality 2. Truth 3. Objectivity 4. Realism
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Rationality
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Inquiry using reason. Gain objective knowledge. Epistemic Rationality-Updating your beliefs to correspond with reality.
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Objectivity
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Things that are true regardless of individual biases, feelings, etc.
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Realism
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Philosophical realism. External world is the world we see. Ontology. ex. The Matrix
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What is Science?
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Systematic observations and the construction and testing of hypotheses.
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Inductive Reasoning
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Moving from specific observation to general. "You watch couples in a mall and notice that the man is taller, therefore all men are tall"
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Deductive Reasoning
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Moving from general to specific. "All men are mortal. Socrates is a man, therefore he is mortal." True beginning=true end. False beginning=false end
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Abductive Reasoning
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Making a guess when given incomplete data. Jurors do this a lot. Clinical psychologists will use this a lot.
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Falsifability
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A statement that could be potentially be proven false. "All cats are gray." Science is falsifiable.
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Demarcation
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A separation between things.
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Characteristics of Pseudoscience
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Conclusions go beyond supporting evidence. Fails to consider plausibility or lacks a plausible mechanism. Tries to prove rather than falsify. Not self-correcting. Cherry picking evidence. Dismisses valid criticism as if personal or part of a conspiracy.
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Theory
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Explains with principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events. In psychology we have mini-theories.
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Halo Effect
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Humans assume that because people are good at doing A they will also be good at B, C, and D. Or reverse, you are bad at A and are therefore bad at B, C, and D
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Hypothesis
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Testable predictions based on our theory. Followed by "if-then" statements.
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Scope Conditions
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Qualifying statements which serve to constrain the universal applicability of theoretical or hypothetical propositions. Example: Does the halo effect work with men and women equally? No, it only applies to women.
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Independent Variable
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Name of the variable that is manipulated in an experiment. It is independent of anything the participants do.
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Dependent Variable
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The measured response of the participants to the manipulation of the independent variable
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Descriptive
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Type of Something fill in later....Describe behaviors or events, relying on naturalistic observations.
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Correlation
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associating two or more variables to see if they are related. Not causation
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Experimental
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Method for gaining knowledge where you manipulate factors to see what happens when you do that.
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Weakness of Descriptive
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Lack of generalizability Impossible to determine cause and effect Danger of over-interpretation Publication Bias Retrospective design, not making any predictions An over-focus on the unusual
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Causality
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refers to the relationship between events, where one set of events caused another set of events
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Necessary Cause
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If X is a necessary cause of Y, the presence of Y implies the presence of X. Does not mean if you have X you have Y. Example: If you have HPV you were exposed to the Human Papilloma Virus, however, if you have been exposed to HPV it does not mean you have HPV.
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Sufficient Cause
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X is a sufficient cause of Y, the presence of X implies the presence of Y, but not Y therefore X. Example: If you consume alcohol, then you will get intoxicated. However, you can become intoxicated without the use of alcohol.
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Contributary
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X causes Y. If X then greater likelihood of Y, but not always. Example: Smoking causes lung cancer. However, you can smoke and not get lung cancer.
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How to Determine Causality
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1. Strength of association 2. Temporality association 3. Does-Response-the more of the independent variable I see the more I see the results 4. Consistency of association 5. Experimental evidence 6. Specificity of association-It should have specific effect Random Control Trial is the best way to get Causal results
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Stages of Human Development
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Infancy Stage (birth-2) Early Childhood (2-7) Middle Childhood (7-12) Adolescence (12-18) Emerging Adulthood (18-25) Young Adulthood (25-40) Middle Adulthood (40-65) Older Adulthood (>65)
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Physical and Psychomotor Development
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Study changes in sensory systems, the control over our bodies, body proportions, and the development of the brain
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Cognitive Development
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Study changes in all processes involved with thinking or knowing, such as perception, attention, consciousness, memory, intelligence, etc. Focused on intelligence. How can we boost IQ scores.
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Socioemotional Development
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Study processes related to our affective emotional world, such as self-esteem, love, temperament, personality. Understanding how self-esteem influences the success of children.
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Self-Esteem
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Sense of well being and worth
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Baseline Self-Esteem
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A person's stable enduring sense of worth and well-being
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Barometric Self-Esteem
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The fluctuating sense of well-being people have as they respond to different thoughts, experiences, and interactions.
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Self-Efficacy Theory
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Self-esteem is related to how independent you are. 50 year old is peak for baseline self-esteem
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Why is there an incline in baseline self-esteem
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Attitude is changing. Hazing is gone. Bullying is frowned on. Participation awards. Social Media, immediate positive feedback
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Evolutionary Developmental Psychology
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Type of psychology that questions why we see what we see? Why are men most attracted to women between the ages of 16-30?
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Normative
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nomographic, looking at averages. When do people learn a language on average?
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Idiographic
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Looking at variations among individuals to gain insights. Look at extremely gifted individuals. What sets this person a part from others?
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Debates
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Blank Slate Debate-Humans have no nature, humans have minimal instincts vs. Humans have a biological predisposition. Evolved nature. Nature based on parents and DNA Nature vs Nurture Debate-How important are genes in shaping human traits. Are sex difference innate or are they caused by socialization? How important are parents? Do humans posses Free Will? Metaphysical debate, cant' be studied. Self-Control, can be studied Does Human development grow in stages or is it continuous?
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Classical Conditioning
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Ivan Pavlov Takes a neutral stimulus and by conditioning create a desired response.
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Extinction
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the eventual decay of conditioned stimulus over time
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Spotaneous Recovery
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The re-emergence of a previously extinguished conditioned response after a delay
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Stimulus Generalization
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The tendency to have a learned reflex elicited by a greater range of phenomena than original stimulus
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Discrimination
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The proclivity to differentiate stimuli over time
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John Watson
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Established the Psychological School of Behaviorism. He believed that modern psychology was BS and filled with confusion and anarchy. We need to make it objective and experimental. We don't need to worry about consciences.
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Watson's 3 Unlearned Emotions
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1. Fear 2. Rage 3. Love Watson is wrong on this. Surprise is unconditioned, disgust is unconditioned.
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BF Skinner
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Most famous psychologist of the 20th century. Professor at Harvard. Coined the term operant conditioning.
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Operant Conditioning
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to roughly change behavior using positive and negative reinforcements
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Neutral Operants
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Doesn't increase or decrease the probability of response.
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Punishers
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Decreases the likelihood of behavior
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Reinforcements
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Can be positive or negative
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How to Weaken Behavior
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Use Punisher by using either Addition Punishment-Add Chores, grounding, physical punishment, etc. to stop the unwanted behavior or Subtractive Punishment-Take away toys, video games, car, approval, freedoms, etc. to stop unwanted behavior
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To Strengthen the Likelihood of behavior
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Use Reinforcer by either; Adding Reinforcement-Give Approval, gold star, money, candy, etc. to increase the likelihood of behavior. Or Subtracting Reinforcement-Stop nagging, use sunscreen doesn't get burned, etc. to increase the likelihood of behavior.
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Albert Bandura
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Best known for Bobo Doll Experiment. Came up with social learning theory.
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Social Learning Theory
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People learn through observing others. Example: Students initiating a teacher. Humans learn through cognition, not just classical conditioning or operant conditioning. We can imitate, we don't need to be punished to know that.
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Bobo Doll Experiment
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Children watched adults with Bobo doll, some adults treated it nicely while others beat the crap out of it. Saw that the children who saw the adults beat up the doll did the same. Evidence that exposure to violence is negative. Problem is that the dolls don't feel pain so we can't say that a child would actually hurt someone. Ideas that video games with violence increases the chance of violence in real life is not true.
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Sensorimotor Stage
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Piaget's Stage of development from ages 0-2. Knowledge of world is limited. Behavior is direct response to immediate stimuli. Utilizes skills born with. At the end of this stage discover object permanence.
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Preoperational Stage
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Piaget's Stage of development from ages 2-7. Language development. Do not yet understand logic, cannot mentally manipulate info, cannot take another point of view, use symbols, like broom as horse. Egocentrists, center cognition on 1 thing.
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Concrete operational stage
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Piaget's Stage of Development between the ages of 7-11 Understand conservation, reversability, classification, seriation-sort objects using different methods. Transivity- A>B, B>C, therefore A>C. Decentering-Ability to consider multiple aspects of a situation.
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Formal Operational Stage
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Piaget's Stage of Development that is from ages 12-adulthood. People develop the ability to think about abstract concepts. Logical thought, deductive reasoning.
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Emerging Adulthood
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(18-25) 1. Is an age of identity explorations 2. Age of instability 3. Self-Focused age 4. Age of feeling in between 5. Age of possibilities Don't really feel like adults. Due to a lot of wealth in Western societies. Earlier beginning of puberty due to better nutrition. Increases the gap between the physiological components.
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John Piaget
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A swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher. Known for epistomological studies with children. Theory of Cognitive Development and Epistomology view are together called genetic epistomology. 1st to study cognitive development
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Sigmun Freud
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The father of psychoanalysis. Unpacks unconscious conflicts based on free associations, dreams, and fantasies. He had theories on child sexuality, libido, and ego. Published the Interpretation of Dreams. Believed that dreams begin with repression. Repression is not complete and so they come out in dreams. Repressed thoughts and desires come out in 1. dreams 2. jokes 3. slips of tongue 4. symptoms which are individual 5. cultures and cultural symbols Religion is a way to deal with death. The job of therapists is to get at the latent content of the dream and discover the wishes that are being repressed. One good thing was psycho therapy.
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Jean Charcot
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Influenced Freud. Used hypnosis on patients to make them feel better. Lived in Paris. Temporary fix.
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Josef Breuer
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From Vienna, influenced Freud. Invented the talking cure. The idea that symptoms are caused by traumatic experiences. Temporary fix.
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Common Dream Symbols
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1. Circular Objects; Jewelry-Female genitals 2. Oblong Objects;#3-Male genitals 3. An action that seperates a part from a whole-Castration 4. An action that resembles sexual behavior-Sexual behavior 5.Anything yellow-Urine 6. Anything brown-Feces
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Freud's Stages of Development
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Oral-(birth-1) Anal-(1-3) Phallic-(3-6) Latency-(6-puberty) Genital-(puberty-death)
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Oral
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Freud's Stage of Development for the ages of birth-1 where you're focused on the mouth. If stuck in this stage you will become orally aggressive or orally passive
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Anal
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Freud's Stage of Development that occurs between the ages of 1-3 where you're focused on bowel and bladder and if stuck in this you will develop an Anal personality, OCD
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Phallic
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Freud's Stage of Development for the ages 3-6 where you're focused on Genitalia and you have the Oedipus complex
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Latency
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Freud's Stage of Development associated with the ages from 6 to puberty and Dormant Sexual Feelings If stuck in this you will experience Sexual unfulfillment
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Genital
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Freud's Stage of Development that happens at the age of puberty until death where sexual interest matures. If you don't get to this you will be frigid, impotent, and have unsatisfactory relationships
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Age of Identity Explorations
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This age of Emerging adulthood comes about because of occupational exercises. Personal philosophy and political view can be explored.
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Age of Instability
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This age of Emerging Adulthood comes about because you don't know where you're going to live or what you're going to do or who you will be with.
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Age of Self-Focus
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This Age of Emerging Adulthood comes about because you don't have parental supervision, you have an increased disposable income, there's a gap of time between finding occupation and finding partner, and an attempt to gain personal philosophy.
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Age of Possibilities
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96% of people are optimistic that they will have a good life.
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Consciousness
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The state of being aware: Sentience, awarness, wakefulness
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Materialism
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The ultimate substance is matter and energy and matter creates consciousness. When you die you're dead. Believe we'll understand consciousness as we learn more about the brain. Hard problem will go away.
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Idealism
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This group looks at consciousness as everything is spirit. Physical things are temporary. Body is just an illusion.
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Monism
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This group thinks of consciousness this way. There's only one substance in the universe, either material, immaterial, or otherwise that holds mind and matter together. Opposite of Radical Dualism
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Radical Dualism
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This group views consciousness as two fundamental things in the universe-Physical properties, which are public, and mental properties, which are private. The problem with this is how do they connect?
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Rene Descartes
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Famous philosopher was one of the first to deal with consciousness. He said that the mind and body are two distinct things. Came up with the Mind-Body Problem
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Mysterium
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Individuals who say that no matter how much we learn about the brain we will never understand consciousness.
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Qualia
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To refer to the introspectivily accessible, phenomenal aspect of our mental lives, feeling.
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Ava
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Character in Ex Machina that is a robot that shows signs of consciousness.
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David Chalmers
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Divided consciousness into so-called easy problems and hard problems
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Easy Problem
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Problem that asks questions like; How does the brain integrate information? Which regions of the brain are responsible for particular functions? How does the brain represent visual images? etc.
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David Chalmer's Mind-Body Hard Problem
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Explain why a physical state is conscious rather than unconscious. Why do we have subjective experiences? Do other organisms have these? What about AI?
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Random Control Trial
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Where people are randomly put into the group receiving treatment or the group receiving the placebo. These trails are designed to help reduce selection biases.
