Lecture 1

Question 1

Psychometrics

Answer 1

we can (and should) objectively measure behavior

Question 2

Behaviorism

Answer 2

everything we do is learned, we are born as “blank slates” and we can be reprogrammed (for example for better mental health)

Question 3

Psychoanalysis

Answer 3

our actions are driven by unconscious desires, if we reveal these they lose their power. Many of these come from suppressed childhood memories.

Question 4

Evolutionary psychology

Answer 4

some of these “unconscious desires” are in fact genetically programmed, because psychological traits are heritable and they were affected by evolution

Question 5

Humanistic psychology

Answer 5

everybody is different, individual approaches to patients are necessary

Question 6

Francis Galton (1822-1911)

Answer 6

polymath, measured everything, invented/discovered meteorological maps, the standard deviation, the heritability of intelligence and the dog whistle!

Question 7

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)

Answer 7

the father of experimental psychology, studied psychological effects in a laboratory for the first time

Question 8

Charles Spearman (1904)

Answer 8

cognitive abilities in different domains are always positively correlated

Question 9

there is a common cause,

Answer 9

“general cognitive ability”, g

Question 10

Measuring g

Answer 10

The best way: matrix reasoning and vocabulary

Question 11

Clinical psychometrics

Answer 11

Assessing symptoms by self-report
Depression
Anxiety
Pain
Miscellaneous symptoms
Self-report is suprisingly reliable and a good predictor of patient outcome!

Question 12

STAI

Answer 12

State-trait Anxiety Inventory

Question 13

Behaviorism

Answer 13

We are born as “blank slates”, we do everything because we learned it (and we can unlearn it too

Question 14

Classical conditioning

Answer 14

Pavlov’s dogs

Question 15

Operant conditioning

Answer 15

Learning through reward and punishment

Question 16

Response generalization

Answer 16

we generalize our response to all similar situations (e.g: we had a bad experience with a doctor so now we are afraid of all doctors

Question 17

Response discrimination

Answer 17

we learn to only show the reponse in a certain setting, not others (we had a bad experience with a doctor, but we are only afraid of him and not others)

Question 18

Shaping

Answer 18

in operant conditioning, if we want a behavior that is never normally shown, we start reinforcing similar behavior in small steps to make it more similar to what we want. Often used in the training of circus animals which normally never jump through flaming hoops.

Question 19

They were wrong about these things:

Answer 19

We are not born as blanks slates, a lot of our behavior is heritable and shaped by evolution
Some behaviors are hard to change, others are almost impossible
We can (and should) learn quite a lot about the causes of behavior with EEG, imaging, genetics etc.

Question 20

They were right about these:

Answer 20

Behavior therapy is VERY effective in psychiatric treatments!
Especially for anxiety & phobias: meeting what we fear in a calm contexts eliminates the fear

Question 21

Classic work by Sigmund Freud: Traumdeutung (1900)

Answer 21

We are driven by a “superego” (rules, conventions) and an “id” (instincts, impulsive desires) which must be counteracted by the “ego” – basically true, instincts vs. executive functions

Question 22

Psychotherapy

Answer 22

Really works!
But it is mostly the intervention itself that works, not the specific method
Some therapists are better than others regardless of their method
Cognitive and behavioral therapies work better than others

Question 23

Evolutionary psychology

Answer 23

If psychological traits were good for reproduction in the past, they became more common

Question 24

Evolutionary psychology on sex differences

Answer 24

Anisogamy: difference in gamete size

The sex which must invest more resources is smaller, weaker and more selective for mates

Question 25

Some of the best findings of psychologists

Answer 25

Mental illness is a continuum with ‘normality’ – no strict definiton
Psychotherapy and medication can help mentally ill people
Psychological characteristics (intelligence, personality) are measurable and predict other things
Most psychological traits are heritable and they were shaped by evolution
Psychological traits predict the occurrence and course of physical illness!