Psych -unit 2

Question 1

what and when was the cognitive revolution? what was dominant before cognitive psychology?

Answer 1

Dissatisfaction with Behaviourism → external influences failed to account for internal processes that influence behaviour.
Increasing use of computers → scientists thought: can we compare the way the human mind works to how a computer stores information on a hard drive?

1950-1970s
Behaviourism

Question 2

What is cognitive often compared to? how?

Answer 2

computers. brain pathways = computer networks; hard drive = memory. Studies the mind as an information processor

Question 3

what are mental functions/processes?

Answer 3

all the things that individuals can do with their minds i.e perception, memory, thinking (such as ideation, imagination, belief, reasoning, etc.), volition, and emotion.

Question 4

Sigmund Freud

Answer 4

founder of modern Psychoanalysis
- children focus on pleasure as they mature
- individuals become fixated on a stage if they have not fully resolved the conflict at that stage

Question 5

Jean Piaget

Answer 5

Cognitive Development
- children move through the stages as they grow
- theory applies to education; still influential today (taken into account when making curriculum to ensure material age appropriate)

Question 6

Erik Erikson

Answer 6

Neo- Freudian/ DEVELopmental psychologist
- believed that humans continued to develop during the lifetime rather then just in childhood.
- individual growth is deepened on society rather then just personal experience
- adolescents sometimes experience “identity crisis” - time where they feel self conscious; has become part of mainstream idea of teens
- dependent on society and time period of teen

Question 7

What is the study of psychology?

Answer 7

The study of the mind and the brain as distinct elements and how they affect human behaviour
The brain is what is physically inside the skull; study focuses on it’s function.
The mind refers to mental processes; study focuses on conscious and unconscious.

Question 8

What are the 4 major Schools of Thought in psychology? Be able to define them.

Answer 8

• Psychoanalysis
• Behavioural
• Humanist
• Cognitive

Question 9

Describe Freuds theory on the human mind and personality (Id, Ego, Superego)

Answer 9

Human mind:
Conscious: information that we are always aware of, performing the thinking when we take in new information.
Unconscious: information processing in our mind that we are not aware of including our unacceptable, thoughts, feelings, and memories.
- The unconscious had great influence on our behaviour.
-To treat patients it was necessary to “unlock” the unconscious thoughts or memories

Personality is comprised of 3 distinct parts:
The Ego- Rational part of the mind, operating on “reality principle”. - normal
The Id- Instinctual part of the mind, operating on pleasure principle. - devil
The Superego- The mind’s conscious, the moral centre of the mind. - angel

Question 10

Define psychoanalysis and its major psychologists

Answer 10

• Unlocking the unconscious mind is the key to understanding human behaviour and relationships.
• This approach to therapy focuses on resolving a patient’s conflicted conscious and unconscious feelings.

Major psychologists: Sigmund Freud, Karen Horney, Carl Jung

Question 11

Define Behavioural pysch and its psychologists

Answer 11

Psychologists need empirical evidence (experimentation) to understand and change human behaviour through scientifically proven intervention.
Applied to mental disorders and groups.

Major psychologists: Ivan Pavlov, B.F Skinner

Question 12

Define Humanist psych and its psychologist

Answer 12

Humanist psychologists believed that the patient should be very involved in recovery
Focus on qualitative studies

Major theorists: Abraham Maslow, Viktor Frankl, Karl Rogers

Question 13

Define cognitive psych and its psychologist

Answer 13

Cognitive psychology studies how the brain learns.
Psychologists believe in and consider mental states, such as beliefs, motivations and desires.
Used to treat people with mental disorders or neurological disorders.

Major theorists: Albert Bandura, Elizabeth Loftus

Question 14

Who is Karen Horney?

Answer 14

Karen Horney: (1885-1953)
Feminine psychologist who argued that women were pushed by society and culture to depend on men for both love and status (Neo-Freudian)

Question 15

What is free association?

Answer 15

Patients were placed in a state of complete relaxation. The therapist would read a list of words and the patient would respond with the first thing that came to mind. Patient’s responses were seen to provide insight into unconscious thoughts.

Question 16

Who is Carl Jung and what is he the founder of?

Answer 16

Carl Jung: (1875-1961)
Once a student of Freud
Founded analytical psychology - a way to understand motivation based on the conscious and unconscious, which together formed the psyche (Neo-Freudian)

Question 17

What are archetypes?

Answer 17

Archetypes are parts of the unconscious - universal symbols that reappear over time (from ancestors)

• Include models of behaviors, people, and personalities
• Become natural in thought because multiple generations see them
• Emotional connection to these images
• Archaic forms of innate human knowledge passed o

Question 18

What is psychometric testing? what was it influenced by?

Answer 18

Psychometrics: An area of study that uses questionnaires to test and measure personality, ability, and knowledge
The Canadian Personality Dimensions was influenced by Jung’s personality theory and was developed to help understand human behaviour, motivation, and communication
Still used today to understand and intervene with anxiety disorders and addictions

Question 18

Explain the process regarding the study of dreams in the early 20th century

Answer 18

During the first half of the 20th century, theories of why we dream were mainly of interest to Freud and Jung, who used dreams to make diagnoses
The discovery of REM during sleep and dreams cause the scientific community to question previous findings
During this stage, the activity of the brain’s neurons is quite similar to that during waking hours
Most of the vividly recalled dreams occur during REM sleep
It is the lightest form of sleep, and people awakened during REM usually feel alert and refreshed

Question 19

What was Freud’s Interpretation of dreams?

Answer 19

Freud and Jung believe that dreams are a way to understand the unconscious, but had different beliefs about what dreams represent
Freud believed that the images, situations, and people in dreams represented a suppressed sexual desire (strongly critiqued)
When we are asleep, the id becomes more powerful than the Ego, accessing unconscious information through dreaming
As a defense mechanism, the Ego makes these dreams difficult to understand so that we cannot understand the experience

Question 20

What was Jung’s interpretation of dreams?

Answer 20

Believed that dreams and their symbols were a result of the unconscious mind communicating with the conscious mind
Interpreted the dreams and symbols only in terms of that particular dream; do not generalise

Question 21

What is behaviourism?

Answer 21

Behaviourism: an approach to psychology focusing on behavior, denying any independent significance for the mind and assuming that behavior is determined by the environment
Based off the belief that to understand and change behavior, empirical evidence through observation and experimentation is needed

Question 22

What are defense mechanisms? Know specifically the 12 defense mechanisms and be able to define them

Answer 22

People need safe outlets to deal with unacceptable feelings of sexuality or aggression
Ego uses defense mechanisms to distort reality in order to cope with anxiety

12 Defence Mechanisms:
Compensation: strengthen one to hide another
Denial: refuse to face a negative behavior
Displacement: take it out on something else
Identification: attach to something positive
Introjection: conform feelings for approval
Projection: see your faults in others
Rationalisation: excuse and justify mistakes
Reaction formation: pretend you are different
Regression: act much younger to feel better
Repression: putting things into darkness
Ritual and undoing: override negative with habit
Sublimation: divert negative into acceptable

Question 23

What is learning?

Answer 23

Learning is a relatively permanent change in behaviour or knowledge due to experience.
^ heart of modern psychology

“Experience” - excludes changes due to genetic inheritance, maturation, permanent injury, etc.

Question 24

What is conditioned learning? And what are the 2 types of conditioned learning?

Answer 24

Most human behavior is the result of conditioned learning
We learn to respond to a particular stimulus in a particular way

Stimulus: in psychology, any object or event that elicits a sensory or behavioral response
2 types of conditioned learning: Classical and Operant

Question 25

Who is Ivan Pavlov? Explain Classical Conditioning

Answer 25

Ivan Pavlov (1949-1946):
- A Russian physiologist who founded the Institute of
- Experimental Medicine in 1890, received a Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1904
- From 1901, studied that way laboratory dogs would learn (be conditioned) to salivate without food
- Focused on the relationship between a stimulus and a response → Classical conditioning

What is Classical Conditioning:
Learning through association
A learning process that occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired: a response which is at first elicited by by the second stimulus, is eventually elicited by the first stimulus alone

Key example: Pavlov’s Dog Experiment
A sound was made when food was given and the amount of salivation was measured
After several pairings (trials), the sound was made without the food but the dog still salivated

Question 26

Who is BF Skinner?

Answer 26

B.F. Skinner (1904-1990):
An animal psychologist, regarded as the Father of Operant Conditioning
His work was based on Thorndike’s (1898) law of Effect: behavior that is followed by pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated, and behavior followed by unpleasant consequences is less likely to be repeated
Skinner conducted experiments on stimulus and response, and believed this could be applied to human behavior

** Central idea: rewards and punishment influence behavior → Operant Conditioning **

Question 27

Define Extinction

Answer 27

Extinction: occurs when a response is no longer reinforced following a discriminative stimulus

Question 28

Define Spontaneous Recovery

Answer 28

Spontaneous recovery: the reapperance of certain conditioned behavior following a break period after the extinction has taken place

Question 29

Define Generalization

Answer 29

Stimulus generalization: when stimuli elicit similar responses to previously conditioned stimuli that share certain qualities.
Eg. imagine that parents punish their son for not cleaning his room. He eventually learns to clean up his messes to avoid punishment

Question 30

Define Discrimination*

Answer 30

Stimulus discrimination: refers to responding only to the discriminative stimulus and not to similar stimuli

Question 31

What is Positive Reinforcement?

Answer 31

Positive reinforcement: pleasant stimulus added to increase/ maintain behavior (eg. you study for a test and get an A+)

Question 32

What is Negative Reinforcement?

Answer 32

Negative reinforcement: aversive or unpleasant stimulus removed to increase/ maintain behavior (eg. you study for your test and your parents reward you by not making you do chores for a week)

Question 33

What is Positive Punishment?

Answer 33

Positive (+) punishment: aversive or unpleasant stimulus added to decrease behavior (eg. you do not study for your test, and your parents give you additional chores for a week)

Question 34

What is Negative Punishment?

Answer 34

Negative (-) punishment: plesant stimulus removed to decrease behavior (eg. you do not study for your test so your parents don’t let you go to a party)

Question 35

What are the positive impacts of Behavioural Psychology?

Answer 35

Used today to treat anxiety, phobias, and panic disorders by slowly introducing a patient (under controlled conditions) to the object or situation that causes distress until the reactions stop (extinction)
Operant conditioning can be used to manage behavior of the general public (eg. playing classical music in the subway discourages people from loitering)
Negative impacts of Behaviorism: you begin to expect rewards for doing everything; you only want to do the task for rewards, not voluntarily

Question 36

What is Cognitive Psychology?

Answer 36

The scientific study of the mind as an information processor

Cognition: the processes and complexes of knowledge itself
Try to understand the human thought process and how we acquire, process, and store information (Why we think the way we think)
Try to build up cognitive models of the information processing that goes on inside people’s minds, including perception, attention, language, memory, thinking, and consciousness
Mental process or mental function are terms often used interchangeably for all the things that individuals can do with their minds ie. perception, memory, thinking (such as ideation, imagination, belief, reasoning etc.), volition and emotion

Cognitive psychologists believe that mental processes can and should be studied scientifically → use of experiments to create theories → reach conclusions - rigorous scientific methods

Question 37

List the 5 areas that psychologists study.

Answer 37

• Information processing
• Units of knowledge
• Attention
• Human intelligence
  + Memory

Question 38

What is memory?

Answer 38

Memory: the mechanism we use to create, maintain, and retrieve information about the past

Question 39

What are the 3 processes in memory?

Answer 39

Encoding: processes used to store information in memory
Storage: processes used to maintain information in memory
Retrieval: processes used to get information back out of memory

Question 40

What is a false memory?

Answer 40

False memory: A memory which is a distortion of an actual experience
Many false memories involve confusing or mixing fragments of memory events, some of which may have happened at different times but are remembered as occurring together

Question 41

What are the 4 different types of memory?

Answer 41

Types of memory: *Sensory, *short-term (less than a minute) (things are rehearsed in your brain until you either remember it long term or forget/ discard it), *working, and *long-term

Question 42

What took place with Albert Bandura and the Bobo Doll experiment?

Answer 42

Social/ observational learning: learning that occurs as a function of observing, retaining, and replicating behavior observed in others
Species can learn associations that help them thrive or survive
What we learn influences both out behavior and attitudes
Sometimes we can think our way out of intended associations (placebo affect)
When other people get rewarded, our reward sensors light up (mirror neurons)
What we learn as children is not easily replaced
Bobo Doll study: 1963
66 nursery children were divided into 3 groups
All 3 watched a video of an adult kicking a “bobo” doll
1 group watched the adult get rewarded
Adopted the agressive behaviors
Invented new ways to attack the doll
Increased agttraction to guns, even though the model didn’t use guns
2nd group watched the adult get punished for being agressive
Never hit the bobo doll
Less agressive
3rd group saw the adult neither rewarded or punished
Original thought was that exposure to aggression would be cathartic
Violence has 4 major affects:
Teaches aggressive styles of behavior
Weakens restraints over aggression
Desensitizes and habituates viewers to cruelty
Shapes viewers images of reality

Question 43

What were Elizabeth Loftus’ findings with her Lost at the Mall experiment?

Answer 43

People could “remember” things that never happened to them, if they were convinced that the false memory occured
People who didn’t actually get lost in a mall when they were children still believed it happened because they were convinced it did

Question 44

Explain what happened in Gerald Echterhoff’s Memory in the Visual Age experiment

Answer 44

People could remember false memories of things that they saw often through television (ie. patients “remembered” things they saw on TV)
He believed that people who watched things on tv could be convinced that they were memories
He made people watch videos and than select what things in life they had experienced and people believed some things they watched were memories, but things they read weren’t

Question 45

What is Humanist Psychology?

Answer 45

Main idea: the way to understand people is to sit down and talk to them, share their experiences, and be open to their feelings (the patient plays a role in their own recovery)

Question 46

What is motivation?

Answer 46

** Motivation is an internal state that arouses, directs and maintains behavior **
Humanistic theories of motivation are based on the idea that people have strong cognitive reasons to perform various actions

Question 47

Who is Abraham Maslow and describe his Hierarchy of Needs?*

Answer 47

Self-actualization: reaching one’s full potential. A knowledge of one’s purpose in life, completion of what one feels one’s life is for
Basis of Maslow’s theory of motivation: the hierarchy of needs → basic needs must be fulfilled before higher order needs can be met
Must go through each complete step to be a “complete person”
Drawbacks: this theory does not have any scientific research or experimentation
Maslow agreed that there are other forms of motivation (ie. values and condtioning)
Hierarchy of needs: basic → self-fulfillment needs

Question 48

Who is Viktor Frankl and what did he base his findings on?

Answer 48

Viktor Frankl (1905-1997): (diff. Than Maslow bc. People in Auschwitz didn’t have comfort or safety)
Theory developed out of experience in Auschwitz
Suffering meaningless → difficult to bear. Those who survived held onto meaning
Logotherapy: form of psychotherapy that tries to help the patient find aim and meaning in life without accessing the medical aspect of mental health
Everyone has an innate inclination to seek the meaning in their existance - or risk depression
Humans motivated by the need of meaning
When human priorities are not balanced, this causes an imbalance in the way humans act

Question 48

Explain Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual Stages of Development

Answer 48

Based on how children focus on pleasure as they age
Could cause people to over indulge in adulthood
Oral (birth-18m) focuses on oral pleasure like sucking, chewing, biting
Can lead to nail biting, smoking, and overeating
Anal (18m-3y) learning to control anus (toilet training)
Can lead to concern with perfection (anal retentive) or overly messy (anal expulsive)
Phallic (3-6y) Oedipus complex: boys unconsiously desire their moms and compete with their dads
Can lead to over indulgence or avoidance of sexual activity and weak sexual behavior
Latency (6y-puberty) sexual feelings dormant (plays mainly with same-gender friends)
Genital (puberty->) directs sexual urges to opposite gender

Question 49

Describe Carl Rogers and explain his theory on Client-Centered Model of Therapy

Answer 49

Carl Rogers (1902-1987):
Client centred model of therapy: client plays an active role in their recovery/ self-discovery
Provided a warm environment to express feelings and thoughts without judgement
Clients explore their attitudes and emotions → understand the triggers to their issues
Focus on present and future (not past)
Value on conscious thought (unlike Freud)
Basis of modern psychotherapy
Psychotherapy: treatments that can help with mental health problems, emotional challenges, and some psychiatric disorders
Aims to enable patients, or clients, to understand their feelings, and what makes tham feel positive, anxious, or depressed

Question 50

WHat did Leta Stetter Hollingoworth find in her study with Gifted Children

Answer 50

IQ partially based on genetics but needs proper environment
Gifted children are interested in everyday things around them
Started the enrichment curriculum called “Evolution of Common Things”
Learning about food, clothing, transportation, etc helped them academically
Gifted children still need attention/ help from adults

Question 51

Explain Harry Harlow’s attachment theory

Answer 51

Surrogate mother experiment with rhesus monkeys
The monkeys preferred the cloth monkeys for warmth over the wire mother for food
Need for affection > need for physical needs (eg. food)
No affection early in life causes psychological issues later

Question 52

What did Mary Ainsworth find with Infant-Mother Attachment?

Answer 52

Mother leave baby in a room with stranger
Stranger tries helping baby
Mother comes back in
Repeat

Secure attachment:
Baby was upset when mother left but relieved when she came back
Forms when caregiver is emotionally available and responsive

Avoidant attachment:
Upset when mother left, and refused to play when she returned
Caregiver who is rejecting

Resistant attachment:
Did not explore room a lot
Little emotion when mother left and returned
Forms when caregiver is sometimes responsive and sometimes rejecting

Question 53

Know the definition of heredity

Answer 53

Extreme Nature Position: Nativism (Heredity)
Fact: It has long been demonstrated that certain physical characteristics (ie colour of eyes, straight or curly hair, pigmentation of skin etc) are determined by genetic inheritance = heredity
This led many to speculate whether psychological characteristics (behavioural tendencies, personality, mental abilities) are ‘wired in’ before we are born

Question 54

What are the differences between, “nature and nurture”?

Answer 54

The extent to which particular aspects of behaviour are a product of either inherited (ie genetic) or acquired (ie learned) influence
The debate is concerned with the relative contribution that both influences make to human behaviour (ie personality, cognitive traits, temperament, psychopathology)

Question 55

Who is John Locke?

Answer 55

Extreme Nurture Position: Empiricism (Environment)
Basic Assumptions:
John Locke: At birth, the human mind is a tabula rasa (Latin for “a blank slate”)
The slate is gradually filled as a result of experience
Psychological characteristics and behavioural differences are the results of learning
It is how one is brought up (nurtured) that governs child development
Importance of family, peers, socio-economic factors, school, religion, and the media

Question 56

Why was it so important and eye opening to study twins?

Answer 56

Twins: 2 people who are born in the same pregnancy (can be identical or fraternal)
Psychologists study both identical and fraternal twins to understand the influence of environment and heredity
The theory for identical twins was that any difference could be explained by environmental factors
However, genetically, female twins are more likely than male twins → in female twins, each has two X chromosomes, and in females one chromosome is more dominant that the other = would not be genetically similar
** Still, twins raised apart appear to have astonishing similarities **
Conclusions and criticisms: Jim Twin Studies
Dr. Bouchard concluded that there is a genetic component between personality and behavior
As the twins were raised in different environments, similarities could only be from genetics
Psychologists argue that these similarities are not entirely the result of genetics
There are still limitations to twin studies:
Polygenic inheritance: multiple genes (often thousands) collectively contribute to specific behaviors
Eg. depression is a polygenic trait (thought to be influenced by about 1000 genes)
Difficult to determine which behaviors are genetic tendencies
In spite of this, studies demonstrate that identical twins who were raised in different households have similar IQs

Question 57

Why was it so important and eye opening to study twins?

Answer 57

Twins: 2 people who are born in the same pregnancy (can be identical or fraternal)
Psychologists study both identical and fraternal twins to understand the influence of environment and heredity
The theory for identical twins was that any difference could be explained by environmental factors
However, genetically, female twins are more likely than male twins → in female twins, each has two X chromosomes, and in females one chromosome is more dominant that the other = would not be genetically similar
** Still, twins raised apart appear to have astonishing similarities **
Conclusions and criticisms: Jim Twin Studies
Dr. Bouchard concluded that there is a genetic component between personality and behavior
As the twins were raised in different environments, similarities could only be from genetics
Psychologists argue that these similarities are not entirely the result of genetics
There are still limitations to twin studies:
Polygenic inheritance: multiple genes (often thousands) collectively contribute to specific behaviors
Eg. depression is a polygenic trait (thought to be influenced by about 1000 genes)
Difficult to determine which behaviors are genetic tendencies
In spite of this, studies demonstrate that identical twins who were raised in different households have similar IQs

Question 58

WHat is the story of Genie Wiley?

Answer 58

Stayed in a room locked to a chair for 13 years
Could not chew solid food or walk properly
Not toilet trained
Beaten when she made noise - couldn’t speak
Smaller brain because of neglect
Scientists wanted to study if she could learn language but her mother stopped experimenting because they didn’t take proper care of her

Question 59

What is the story of Oxana Malaya?

Answer 59

Left outside at age 3 by alcoholics and slept in dog kennels for warmth
Sometimes went indoors but maily lived with dogs for 5 years
Could hardly speak and walked on 4 legs
Brute strength
Likes attention
Mental capacity of 6 year old and low boredom tolerance
Learning difficulties (cannot read or spell)

Question 60

What took place in the Edith Experiment?

Answer 60

Aaron Stern raised his daughter to be a genius by exposing her to classical music and daily studying - he wanted to prove that a genius could be created through nurture, but she could have inherited intelligence
Aaron Stern raised his daughter Edith on classical music and flashcards
Wanted to see if geniuses were born or raised
Read encyclopedia at age 5
PhD at 18

Question 61

What took place in Romanian Orphanages and what discovery was made?

Answer 61

Children in the institutions had smaller heads and less brain activity than kids randomly placed in foster homes
Therefore, environment does make a difference. But so do genes. The issue of nature versus nurture in the role of intelligence does not have a clear winner: both are important factors. What psychologists are still trying to determine is just how much influence each exerts.

Question 62

What is the Flynn Effect with regards to IQ Testing?

Answer 62

The Flynn Effect: phenomenon where, on average, IQ test scores worldwide have been increasing over time; younger generations perform better than older generations (Per generation, the average IQ test scores increase by 10 points)
Environmental Influences on IQ
Improved education
Improved nutrition
Higher quality of home environment
More informative and engaging environment
Smaller family sizes

Question 63

Know the difference between being an introvert and an extrovert

Answer 63

Introversion directing ones interests inwards (need downtime for energy)
Extraversion directing ones interests outwards, especially in social contexts (gain energy from energy of others)

Question 64

Define Cognitive Dissonance

Answer 64

Cognitive dissonance: we feel a level of discomfort when we realise that our behaviours don’t match our attitudes
To relieve the discomfort we change our attitude

Question 65

What are implicit and explicit attitudes?

Answer 65

What are implicit and explicit attitudes?
Implicit: Unconscious attitudes expressed automatically and unconsciously
Unaware that we have them or that we are expressing them
Explicit: Based on our conscious thoughts and beliefs

Question 66

Describe what took place during the marshmallow experiment and what did this show?

Answer 66

Can attitude predict behavior?
The marshmallow experiment
Conducted by psychologist David Walsh
4/ 5yos were placed in a room with a marshmallow for 15 minutes to see their self-regulation
Promised a second one if they waited
Followed children over 18 years
Conducted in order to gauge self-discipline
In the future, kids who had self-control (only 30%) were more successful later in life

Question 67

What are the four ways in which attitudes can be changed?

Answer 67

• Consistency theories: individuals need consistency between attitude and behavior (cognitive dissonance theory)
• Learning theory: view attitude as being learned and suggests that attitudes can be changed by using classical and operant conditioning techniques
• Social judgement theory: believe that attitudes shape the perception of interaction and that attitude can be changed by learning how to be fair and unbiased
• Functional theories: questions purpose of attitudes and changes attitude by creating inconsistency between an attitude and it’s function

Question 68

Be able to define ethics and explain whether an experiment is ethical

Answer 68

Ethics: moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity.

Question 69

What is the attribution theory? Who coined it?

Answer 69

Coined by psychologist Fritz Heider who studied the way that people explain the behavior of others
Attribution theory: suggests that we link the behaviors of others to an external situation

Question 70

What is the Social Learning Theory?

Answer 70

Social/ observational learning (Bandura): learning that occurs as a function of observing, retaining, and replicating behavior observed in others

Question 71

What is the Gender Schema Theory?
*

Answer 71

According to GENDER SCHEMA THEORY children view themselves through gender lens based on their cultural learning of what it means to be male or female

Question 72

Define: Gender, Sex, Sexual Dimorphism, Masculinity, Femininity, Sexual Orientation

Answer 72

Gender: refers to the way members of the two sexes are perceived, evaluated, and expected to behave.

Sexual Dimorphism: the physiological differences between men and women.

U.S. culture recognizes only two genders, male and female, but other cultures recognize a combined male/female gender

Masculinity: The social definition of maleness, which varies from society to society.

Femininity: The social definition of femaleness, which varies from culture to culture.

Sex: the distinguishing biological or anatomical characteristics

Sexual Orientation: One’s sexual attraction to others (Heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual

Question 73

Mental Illnesses covered in peer presentations

Question 74

Why were Pavlovs experiments Important:

Answer 74

Classical conditioning explains virtually all learning that comes from REFLEXES - heart rate, perspiration, muscle-tensions, etc.
As the above group of reflexes are signs of excitement (including FEAR), they may explain unusual or undesirable behavior (eg. Phobias)
Classical conditioning is the basis of BEHAVIORAL THERAPY (ie. adversion therapy)
Pavlov’s work demonstrated the value of using experiments within psychology to study internal processes objectively

Question 75

Explain Operant Conditioning

Answer 75

Operant conditioning: a type of learning that uses rewards and punishments to achieve a desired behavior

Skinner argued that most human behvior occurs voluntarily before conditioning, and that Classical conditioning does not explain certain kinds of voluntary behavior
Eg. slowing down at a red light to avoid an accident

Skinner argued that voluntary behavior is strengthened or weakened by things that precede it (antecedent) or follow (consequence)
Operant conditioning is more deliberate than classical
Learn to behave in certain ways

The Experiment - The Skinner Box:
Skinners operant conditioning box attempted to teach rats that when a lever was pushed, they would receive food
This behavior (pushing a lever) was not natural to rats, so operant conditioning with positive and negative reinforcement were performed in order to teach the behavior
A rat was rewarded with food when it pushed the lever (Positive reinforcement)
A rat was able to turn off electric shocks produced by the floor by pushing the lever (Negative reinforcement)

Key Terms:
- Neutral operants: responses from the environment that neither increase nor decrease the probability of a behavior being repeated
- Reinforcers: responses fron the environment that increase the probability of a behavior being repeated. Reinforcers can be positive or negative
- Punishers: responses from the environment that decrease the likelihood of a behavior being repeated. Punishment weakens behavior

Question 76

Explain this area that Cognitive Psychologists Study - HUMAN INTELLIGENCE

Answer 76

Debated and controversial → how do we measure intelligence? Can it be measured? How do we even define intelligence?
Most experts agree that at least two important themes must be present: the ability to learn and the capacity to adapt as a result of experience
Researchers have found that people who are more intelligent tend to perform better on tasks that require working memory, problem solving, selective attention, concept formation, and decision making

Question 77

Explain this area that Cognitive Psychologists Study - INFORMATION PROCESSING

Answer 77

Different models to represent how thinking works → most popular = Information processing approach
** the mind is like a computer with thoughts and memories broken down into smaller units of knowledge **
As information enters the mind through the senses, it is manipulated by the brain which determines what to do with the information
Some info triggers an immediate response
Other units of info transferred into long-term memory for future use

Question 78

Explain this area that Cognitive Psychologists Study - UNITS OF KNOWLEDGE

Answer 78

3 different types:
Concept: a large category of knowledge
A broad category - similar items grouped together (eg. concrete concepts: dog or cat; abstract concepts: love, beauty, democracy)

Prototype: the most recognisable example of a particular concept (eg. what do you picture when you hear the word chair?)

Schema: mental framework that you use to make sense of the world around you
Pattern of thought or behavior that organises categories of information
Concepts are the building blocks to create schemas (eg. stereotypes, worldviews)
Like folders in the brain (eg. math, childhood memories)
If you don’t use it you lose it
You either assimilate or accommodate the information when you come across info that doesn’t fit with existing schemas

Assimilate: broadening current schema
Accommodate: changing your previously held schemas altogether

Question 79

Explain this area that Cognitive Psychologists Study - ATTENTION

Answer 79

A state of focused awareness on some aspect of the environment
The ability to focus your attention allows you to take in knowledge of relevant stimuli, and filter out unimportant
Focus on the things essential for survival
At any given time, taking in an intense amount of info from all of your senses
As the human brain has a limited capacity for handling this information
Attention is both limited and selective

Question 80

Describe SENSORY MEMORY

Answer 80

** the first level of memory **
Retains the brief impression of a sensory stimulus after the stimulus itself has ended
High capacity form of memory registration of visual data (you remember visual things)
Not interpretive - just what you see
Sensory memory short → visual information faded away in less than a second
Eg. you see an object. When it disappears it will not be vivid in your memory

Question 81

Describe SHORT TERM MEMORY

Answer 81

Limited and brief
We can hold about 5-9 items in short-term memory for approx. 20-30 seconds
The info in short-term memory has been encoded and does not fade away as quickly as in the sesnory memory.
If actively rehearsed moves to long term memory
Individual items of information can be grouped using the Chunking mnemonics method
Eg. the word t-a-b-l-e contains five letters but this word constitutes as one chunk
Short term memory can hold 7 chunks of information
Easier to remember 4 words than 10 letters, because the letters are chunked in a word

Question 82

Describe WORKING MEMORY

Answer 82

Working memory: Retain AND use information
The information we are focusing on at any given moment
Duration short (5-20 seconds) unless it is activated through:
Maintenance rehearsal: repeating the information
Elaborative rehearsal: associating the information with something you already know
Can enhance space in memory through:
Chunking: grouping individual bits of info into larger meaningful units (eg. phone numbers)
Automaticity: learning something so thoroughly that it becomes second nature. Does not require conscious effort (eg. driving after 10 years)

Question 83

Describe LONG TERM MEMORY

Answer 83

Long-term memory:
Everything that you have ever learned or experienced might be stored and available for retrieval if you can find a way to access it
Much more durable, but still susceptible to forgetting
Information can last days to decades
When new information is added to the long-term memory, it is associated with a lot of existing information that bares a relationship with it → elaboration
Organisation: it is easier to understand organised info
Context: the context in which we are learning is learned along with the info
Emotion to retrieve memory (i.e songs and scent)

Question 84

What and how might we remember?

Answer 84

Primacy refers to recalling information from the beginning of a sequence
Recency refers to recalling information from the end of a sequence
Spacing info spaced over time more likely to be remembered
Distinctiveness how distinctive is the item compared to the rest?
Clustering the grouping of related concepts

Question 85

Describe Jean Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Answer 85

1. Sensorimotor stage: birth - 2
   When babies experience the world through their senses
   **Lack object permanence -> should gain it by the end of the stage
   Some language and symbols understood
2. Preoperational stage: 2 - 6 or 7
   Egocentrism
   Have a hard time imagining someone else’s point of view
   Develops language and use of symbols, memory and imagination
   Non-logical thinking
3. Concrete operational stage: 7 - 11
   Starting to think logically about concrete events they experienced
4. Formal operational stage: 12 - death
   Sophisticated moral reasoning
   Not all adults reach this stage

Question 86

What did Erik Erikson determine in his stages of psychosocial development?

Answer 86

Trust develops (birth-1)
Supportive environment fosters autonomy (2-3)
Initiative increases with sense of responsibility (3-5)
Interest in knowledge develops; want to be productive (6-puberty)
Concern for how others see them (teens-20s)
Well formed identity allows for ability to form close relationships (20s-40s)
Feel a need to guide another generation (40s-60s)
Re-examining life (65+)