Lecture 1: Introduction to Psychology Flashcards
(21 cards)
Introduction to psychology
What is psychology
Psychology = ____ ____ of ____
psyche = ____
logos = ____
The mind generates ____and ____
____ = ____
____ = ____
science requires:
____
____
____ = ____
scientific, study, the mind
mind
study
thoughts, behaviours
internal mental processes
overt actions
open to any ideas
criticize and test every idea
meta-analysis = basing positions on the majority of evidence from tests
Introduction to psychology
Scientific method in psychology: research
research cycle: ____ → ____ → ____
____
→ ____
→ ____
theory, test, data
test thought/behaviour under different conditions (controlled experiments)
→ collect data on thought/behaviour
→ develop theories on thought/behaviour that help us understand, predict, manage (cause/change) thought/behaviour
Introduction to psychology
branches of psychology
Pure psychology tends to…
deal with ____
concerned with ____
done in ____
Applied psychology tends to…
deal with ____
concerned with ____
done in ____
both are ____
abstract concepts
mechanisms
labs
concrete (therapeutic) outcomes
what predicts and manages (causes and changes) thoughts/behaviour
real-world settings
inter-related
Introduction to psychology
Applications of psychology
1. ____
2. ____
3. ____
- Identify, predict and treat (change) maladaptive behaviour
- facilitates behaviour
- predict population behaviour
Causes of thoughts or behaviour
behaviour is multifactorial
- ____
- ____
- ____
Stimulus → response
stimuli = ____
response = ____
meaning of stimuli
meaningful stimuli = ____
meaningless stimuli = ____
many stimuli are meaningful/meaningless
meaning of the same stimuli varies
individual differences = ____
context differences = ____
cultural differences = ____
- influenced by many stimuli, each stimulus has a small effect
- some stimuli have greater effects than others
- all stimuli interact
the objects and events we are exposed to
thoughts/behaviours
may cause change to thoughts/behaviour
don’t cause change to thoughts/behaviour
meaning of the same stimulus varies between people
meaning of the same stimulus varies with context
meaning between stimulus varies with culture
causes of thoughts and behaviours
level of analysis of stimulus
(strong → weak)
____ level = ____
____ level = ____
____ level = ____
Biological level = Molecular/Neurochemical & Brain structure
Psychological level = Mental/Neurological (thoughts, feelings and emotions)
Social Culture Influences level = relations with other people
Example for levels of analysis of stimulus: why do we eat
Biological level
Molecular/Neurochemical
1. ____ (to ____)
Short-term signal: ____, ____
Long-term signal: ____
- ____ (to trigger ____ to ____)
Brain structure
1. ____ (to regulate ____ and ____)
Satiety center: ____ – ____ ____ ____
e.g. obese/skinny rats have ____ ____ lesion
- ____
eating disorders (e.g. ____) are ____.
Biological level
Molecular/Neurochemical
1. Signalling compounds (to correct energy deficits)
Short-term signal:
Blood sugar levels (↑ when eat);
Insulin levels (↑ when eat);
Long-term signal:
Leptin levels (↑ when adipose accumulates)
- The sight, smell or thought of food (to trigger cephalic phase to prepare us for digesting)
Brain structure
1. Brain areas (to regulate eating and energy metabolism)
Satiety center: Hypothalamus – ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus
e.g. Obese rat has a ventromedial hypothalamic lesion (damage)
- Genes
Eating disorders (e.g. obesity) are heritable
Psychological level
1. ____ (e.g. ____)
- _____ = ____
e.g. ____ - _____ = ____
- _____
e.g. ____
Psychological level
1. Emotional/affective state (e.g. bored, anxious)
- Incentive value: the value of a goal beyond its ability to fill a need
e.g. don’t eat to reduce hunger (a biological need) but eat because it’s fun - Self-control: the ability to delay gratification
- Perceptions of the food
e.g. same food with different names will elicit different “hunger hormone response”
Social culture influence level
1. ____ = ____
- ____ = ____
- ____ = ____
Social culture influence level
1. Learned Routines: time being a conditioned cue that increases hungry
e.g. Canadians usually eat dinner around 6pm → Canadians get hungry at 6pm
- Marketing: people gravitate to food marketed to their group
e.g. Light foods (veggies, fruits) marketed to women
Heartier foods (meats + potatoes) marketed to men
→ Across many cultures, women eat more ‘light’ foods - Social facilitation: we eat more with others than we do alone due to the social pressure put on the people who don’t do something (depends upon the familiarity we have with the other people)
Bias, fallacies and paranormal beliefs
Bias, fallacies and irrational beliefs are applied consciously/unconsciously
bias = ____
fallacies = ____
irrational beliefs = ____
Bias = Preferences in judgment
Fallacies = Errors in logical reasoning
Irrational beliefs = Beliefs not based on evidence and direct experience
Bias, fallacies and irrational beliefs
Biases
1. Confirmation bias = ____
- Illusion of causality = ____
- The clustering illusion = ____
- Apophenia = ____
Confirmation Bias: Overvaluing information that agrees with our beliefs
and undervaluing information that does not.
Illusion of causality: perceiving a causal relationship between two events linked in space and time, even when none exists.
The clustering illusion: erroneously infer patterns from small, non-representative amounts of data that are actually random
Apophenia: unidirectional bias to detect faces in our environment
Bias, fallacies and irrational beliefs
Fallacies
Argument from antiquity Fallacy =
Appeal to authority fallacy =
Appeal to Ignorance fallacy =
Bandwagon fallacy =
Either/or fallacy (Dichotomous/Binary thinking) =
Not me fallacy =
Argument from antiquity fallacy: believe something because it has been believed in the past regardless of whether they are still valid in the present.
Appeal to authority fallacy: believe something because of the endorsement of a celebrity or other authority figure even though the authority is not an expert in the relevant field.
Appeal to Ignorance fallacy: believe something because it hasn’t been proven false, incorrectly shifting the burden of proof to the person opposing the claim.
Bandwagon fallacy: believe something because many people believe it.
Either/or fallacy (Dichotomous/Binary thinking): believing there are only two options to everything, when in reality, there are gradients, degrees or complexity.
Not me fallacy: believing oneself is morally or psychologically superior to others and therefore exempted from the rules or standards that apply to everyone else.
Bias, fallacies and irrational beliefs
Irrational beliefs
Why do we have irrational beliefs? : ____
1. ____ =
2. ____
Why? Belief partly contributes to a psychological state which we want to maintain
1. Terror management theory = that humans cope with the awareness of their own mortality by looking for meaning and clinging to cultural worldviews (shared beliefs about reality) that provide meaning (and seek self-esteem by living up to these cultural standards)
- Changing our mind (admitting ourselves wrong) is costly (we want to fulfill the meaning we find)
Perspectives in Psychology
Perspective = ____ and ____
- ____
- ____
- ____
Contents of behavior: ____, ____
Purpose of behavior: ____
What drives behavior: ____, ____, ____, ____.
Perspective = making particular assumptions about behavior + using particular techniques.
Different Perspectives are not necessarily in conflict;
Several perspectives are applied at once to understand an issue.
Contents of behavior: Structuralism, gestalt psychology
Purpose of behavior: Functionalism
What drives behavior: Psychoanalysis, behaviorism, cognitivism, social psychology
Perspectives in Psychology
1 Structuralism
Contributors: ____ and ____
Assumptions:
1. ____
2. ____
Ask: ____
Techniques
____ = ____
→
____ = ____
→
Summary
Benefits
1. ____ (psychology)
2. ____ (suggestion)
Limitations
1. ____ (method - technique)
2. ____(method - theory - object scope)
3. ____ (method - theory -subject scope)
Contributors: Wundt and Tichener
Assumptions
1. Elements compose experience
2. Individual’s volition, creativity and attention merge elements into experience
Ask: What are the elements of experiences?
Techniques
Introspection = verbal reports on participant’s experience in response to stimuli
→ Consistent themes in reports might suggest parts
Mental chronometry = The measurement of time taken for mental processes
→ The measurement of decision-making time infer mental processing
Summary
Benefits
1. Gave credibility to psychology as an experimental science
- Suggested unconscious processes underlying behavior
Limitations
1. Introspection is subjective (hard to verify and replicate), and only assessed conscious processing.
- Too focused on breaking down mental processes into elements, but ignored practical application, therefore many key processes (e.g. memory and language) were not studied.
- little animal research
Perspectives in Psychology
2 Gestalt Psychology
Contributors: ____, ____ and ____
Assumptions:
____
Compared to structuralism: ____
Focus: ____
Ask: ____
Techniques
____
Summary
Benefits
1. ____ (psychology)
2. ____ (outcome)
Limitations
1. ____ (object scope)
2. ____ (object scope)
3. ____ (application - prediction)
Contributor: Wertheimer, Kohler and Koffka
Assumptions
“the whole is greater than the sum of the parts”
Compared to structuralism: behavior should be understood as a whole rather than breaking it into parts
Focus: visual perception
Ask: How do we organize information into meaningful wholes?
Summary
Benefits
1. Led us to reconsider the reductionist (e.g. structuralism) approach
2. Identified key perceptual principles
Limitations
1. Did not address mechanism in any way
2. Only exhaustive focus was visual perception
3. Explanatory rather than predictive
Perspectives in Psychology
3 Functionalism
Contributors: ____
Assumptions:
____
Ask: ____
Techniques
____
Summary
Benefits
1. ____ (psychology)
2. ____ (psychology)
3. ____ (public)
Limitations
1. ____ (technique)
2. ____ (application - prediction)
3. ____(application?)
Contributors: Many; including William James
Assumptions
Behaviors serve adaptive functions that increase fitness (related to evolutionary theory proposed by Darwin)
Ask: What is the purpose of mental processes?
Summary
Benefits
1. Led to the development of many new theories (to explain the purpose of behavior)
- Basis for evolutionary psychology
- Transformed public perspective on behaviors
Limitations
1. Theoretical and not experimental (difficult to test ideas)
- Explanatory and not predictive
- Application unclear
Perspectives in Psychology
4 Psychoanalysis
Contributors: ____ and ____
Assumptions:
____
Ask: ____
Techniques
____ = ____
→
____ = ____
→
____ = ____
→
Summary
Benefits
1. ____ (psychology)
2. ____ (health care industry)
3. ____ (psychology)
Limitations
1. ____ (techniques on how results are statistically interpreted)
2. ____ (result)
3. ____ (theory)
4. ____ (theory)
Contributors: Freud and Jung
Assumptions
Behavior is driven by unconscious thoughts, feelings and memories (early childhood experiences)
Asks: How do unconsciousness and childhood experiences shape our behavior?
Techniques
Free association = Client speaks without filtering
→ These associations reveal unconsciousness
Dream analysis = Analyze symbols and content of dreams
→ Reveal unconscious desires (challenged by modern research, which suggests that instead dreams reflect recent experiences and emotional concerns)
Talk therapy = Ongoing deep conversation (might include free association)
→ Bring unconscious material to light
Summary
Benefits
1. Popularized psychology
2. Revolutionized mental health care (beginning of psychotherapies)
3. Highlighted the importance of unconscious processing
Limitations
1. Fixation on case studies (generalization concerns)
2. Many theories untestable, others not supported
3. Overvalued environmental influences
4. Overemphasized sexual function and development
Perspectives in Psychology
5 Behaviourism
Contributors: ____ and ____
Assumptions:
____
Ask: ____
(No Techniques)
Summary
Benefits
1. ____ (technique)
2. ____ (outcome/result)
3. ____ (application)
4. ____ (healthcare industry)
Limitations
1. ____ (theory)
2. ____ (object scope)
3. ____ (subject scope)
Contributor: Watson and Skinner
Assumptions
Behaviors are learned through interactions with environmental stimuli
Internal thoughts don’t matter (the mind is a “black box”—we can’t observe thoughts or feelings, so we shouldn’t study them)
Asks: How does the environment shape and control observable behavior?
Summary
Benefits
1. Experimental rigor
2. Identified key learning principles
3. Strong predictive power in certain contexts
4. Informed mental health care (behavioral therapies)
Limitations
1. Overvalued environmental influences, undervalued the importance of interpretation and mental processes.
2. Could not explain certain behaviors adequately (e.g. language)
3. Lack of consideration for species differences
Perspectives in Psychology
6 Cognitivism
Contributors: ____ and ____
Assumptions:
____
Compared to Behaviorism: ____
Ask: ____
Techniques
____, ____, ____ (____)
____ = ____
Summary
Benefits
1. ____ (psychology)
2. ____ (outcome/result)
3. ____ (outcome/result)
Limitations
1. ____ (result)
2. ____ (techniques)
Contributors: Piaget and Neisser
Assumption
Behavior is influenced by internal mental processes (perception, thinking, memory, and judgment)
Compared to Behaviorism: Human is an active information processor not passive responder to environmental stimuli.
Asks: How do internal mental processes—like thinking, memory, and perception—shape behavior?
Techniques
Innovative models, experimental designs and approaches (such as neuroimaging)
Neuroimaging = create visual images of the brain to study its structure or activity, often while a person is thinking, feeling, or performing tasks.
Summary
Benefits
1. Explored the nature and value of mental processes (rather than just focusing on behavior)
2. Developed models of information processing\
3. When paired with neuroscience, identified key neural networks underlying behavior
Limitation
1. Many models difficult to falsify
2. Neuroimaging data and its interpretation can sometimes be misleading or over-interpreted.
Perspectives in psychology
7 Social/cultural psychology
Contributor: ____, ____ and ____
Assumptions:
____
Ask: ____
e.g. bystander effect =
Summary
Benefits
1. ____ (psychology)
2. ____ (public)
Limitations
1. ____ (techniques on how results are statistically interpreted)
2. ____ (result)
3. ____ (techniques on the experiment set up)
Contributor: Lewin, Festinger and Schachter
Assumption
Behavior is influenced by social situations and cultural influence.
Asks: How does the social environment influence individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors?
e.g. bystander effect
the phenomenon where individuals are less likely to help in an emergency when other people are present, because they assume someone else will take action.
Summary
Benefits
1. Characterized influences of social context on behavior
- Helped us break down barriers between groups
Limitation
1. Low effect sizes are common, poor predictive power
2. Some effects are difficult to replicate
3. Environments criticized as being artificial
