PSYCH 1010 Notes Date: Thursday, Sept.

10th, 2009

Chapter 2: VARIOUS METHODS OF DOING RESEARCH: 1. Scientific Method: Consists of theory, hypothesis, and actually conducting the study. Assumes that events are governed by some lawful order. - By general observation and facts, a theory can be developed. - A theory is a general/abstract statement based on observations and facts. - A hypothesis is a prediction/educated guess. Operational Definitions A definition that describes the actions or operations that will be made to measure or control a variable. For example, you want to know how to frustrate someone. Cut someone off in traffic. How do they show that they are frustrated? They speed up, drive recklessly, etc Therefore, the variable is frustration. Here, the operational definition is the person speeding up and/or driving recklessly. - If at the end of your study if you observe your theory is not true, you have to ask yourself: Is my study flawed? Date: Thursday, Sept. 17th, 2009 * No one method of research is better than the other. Each method is specific to the research/study being conducted * 2. Survey Method:

 Consists of a set of written questions that are used to determine attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors. You can use telephone, paper/pen, or interview method. Advantages: Time saving, cheap, efficient, fast. Disadvantages: Dishonest in responses, not everybody answers (i.e. you can mail out 2000 questionnaires, but only 50 will respond back) * If not enough people return the survey, you should ask whether or not your question is actually valid * Two reasons why the subjects may not return the questionnaire: Misinterpretation of question Circumstances have changed since the question was answered to maybe a week later. - Before a study is undertaken, a researcher should first conduct a pilot study. Pilot Study: a mini-study to make sure there are no problems in the study. This is done to iron-out any problems before going to the larger subject base. - In order to generalize between the sample and population, the sample must be representative of the population.

The sample has to be a mini-version of the population. If not, the situation is referred to as a biased sample. Random Selection/Sample: Each person in the population has an equal chance at being chosen for the sample. This is non-biased. Response Bias: Occurs when subjects have a bias to always answer yes/no to certain questions. Is unique to everybody. (i.e. not everybody will answer yes/no to the same questions)

3. Naturalistic Observation Method: Used when youre interested in describing or measuring behavior as people behave in a natural setting. Advantages: Subjects behave naturally. Disadvantages: Time consuming, lack of control, observer bias due to certain expectations. (The researcher sees what he/she wants to see, observes what he/she wants to observe) Subject Reactivity: The subject reacts to the fact that he/she is being observed and stops acting naturally. (For example, if you record someone every time they take a bite of food and they notice this, they will stop eating/biting normally). Unobtrusive Measures: The researcher obtains data and the subject does not know its happening. (i.e. using a two-way mirror, hidden camera, audio recorder, etc) Participant Observer: When the researcher is a participant of the study but at the same time, also noting observations. (e.g. if you want to observe how a leader is elected from a group of people, you join that group but at the same time, you are taking mental notes) * With the naturalistic observation method, you cannot infer causality. This means you cannot say: The subject did _______ because of ________. Everything that happens is natural. * Inter-Observer Reliability: Double checking data. A high level of consistency between two observers is the main goal. 4. Experimental Method: - The greatest advantage of this method is that you have control over the variables. - With this research method, you can infer cause + effect. Variable: Anything that can change. (i.e. temperature, weather, health, price, mood, intelligence, etc) Independent Variable (IV): The variable that the researcher modifies/varies in order to see if it has an effect on behavior. Dependant Variable (DV): The behavior thats measured to see if the IV affected it.

- The DV is dependant on the IV. - The IV is the cause (give alcohol to subject) - The DV is the effect (memory loss) For Example: Men aged 20-25 and 30-35 were given 20 words to remember. Men aged 20 remembered the most words. What are the independent and dependant variables? IV = Age DV = Memory Control Group: A group that is used as the standard for comparison and it gets the zero amount of the independent variable. You dont do anything to this group. * In an experiment, the control and experimental groups must be similar to one another in every way possible except for the independent variable * Placebo Control Group: When the researcher tricks the subject that he/she is getting something when in reality, it is not true. The placebo control group is used to control for subjects expectations that may, in turn, affect results. If the control group is given a placebo, then its assumed that all groups are equal in terms of this expectation and the result can be attributed to the independent variable. Placebo Effect: When the subject given the false drug, i.e. placebo, thinks that he is getting better when in reality that drug was an inert substance that shouldnt have an effect on the subject. Its all psychological. - A Placebo-controlled study is a way of testing a medical therapy in which, in addition to a group of subjects that receives the treatment to be evaluated, a separate control group, termed the placebo control group, receives a sham placebo treatment which is specifically designed to have no real effect. Placebos are most commonly used in blinded trials, where subjects do not know whether they are receiving real or placebo treatment. Often, there is also a further "natural history" group that does not receive any treatment at all. - The purpose of the placebo group is to account for the placebo effect, that is, effects from treatment that do not depend on the treatment itself. Such factors include knowing one is receiving a treatment, attention from health care professionals, and the expectations of a treatment's effectiveness by those running the research study. Without a placebo group to compare against, it is not possible to know whether the treatment itself had any effect.

Thursday, Sept. 24th, 2009 Continuation. Confounding of Variables: Occurs when two variables are linked together in a way that makes it difficult to sort out their independent effects. For Example: Study Time (Hours) 0 5 10 Grade 65% 75% 65%

- In the above example, it at first seems obvious that study time is the IV, and the grade is the DV. However, we also have to take into account sleep, and whether or not the subject got enough of it. Therefore, sleep and study time can be considered the confounding variables. Random Assignment to Groups: By doing this, youre assuming that all individual difference variables (personality traits, ethnic background, etc) are being evenly distributed among groups so that they are essentially equal. * It should be noted, however, that in using random assignment, there is no guarantee that individual difference variables will be randomly distributed * - Another important point is that random assignment and random selection are two different things. Extraneous Variable: A variable that interferes with the results. It affects the dependent variable so that you dont know whether the results are caused by the independent variable, the confounding variable, or both. 5. Correlational (Descriptive) Method: Measures the degree of relationship between two variables. Theres no attempt to control and manipulate the variables. Rather, naturally occurring variations on both variables are measured to see if they are indeed related. - Correlations help the researcher make predictions:

* With the correlation method, you cannot infer causality * Correlation Coefficient:

r = (number)
The direction of the relationship How strongly the two variables are related

In regards to the correlation coefficient, r, the number will be between 0 and 1: 1 Perfect correlation between the variables 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 No correlation between the variables Positive Correlation: The values of both variables are changing in the same direction. Negative Correlation: The values of both variables are changing in opposite directions. For Example:

Positive Correlation: High school GPA OR High School GPA Negative Correlation: # of Absences OR # of Absences Test scores Test Scores University GPA University GPA

Experimenter Effects: The experimenter behaves in a certain way towards the subject, which can lead to bias in the results. (e.g. the experimenter is friendly to the subject. As a result, the subject is less anxious, and performs well on the test compared to other subjects.) Double-Blind Study: Neither the subjects nor the experimenter know which subjects are in the control group and which are in the experimental group. Helps to protect against experimenter bias. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: For Example: You dont like someone because you think they are stuck up. You have a certain behavior towards them, which affects that person. That person, as a result of your behavior, acts weirdly towards you. That persons weird behavior then, in turn, confirms your original thinking that he/she is stuck up.

APPENDIX B: Statistical Methods: - Statistics is the use of mathematics to organize, summarize, and interpret numerical data. Histogram A bar graph that presents the data from a frequency distribution. Frequency Polygon A line figure used to present data from a frequency distribution. (Is derived from the histogram) - There are two types of statistics: 1. Descriptive Statistics 2. Inferential Statistics 1. Descriptive Statistics: Allows you to summarize and describe the characteristics of your scores using: (A) Measures of Central Tendency (B) Variability (A) Measures of Central Tendency: Includes values such as the mean, median, and mode. For Example: The distribution of grades in a class: 90%, 80%, 80%, 70%, 60%, 50%, 40%, 30%, 20% Median = 60% (The value thats in the middle of the data) Mean = 58% (The average of all the data) Mode = 80% (The value that occurs most frequently) (B) Variability: Describes how much the scores are spread out from the mean. Two methods: (i) Range (ii) Standard Deviation

(i) Range: - Is a measure of variability. - Subtract the lowest score from the highest score. - Not a very accurate method.

Date: Thursday, Oct. 1st, 2009 (ii) Standard Deviation: - Measures the average spread of scores from the mean. It takes into account all scores in the distribution, and not just the highest and lowest, as with the range. The greater the variability or spread of the scores, the higher the standard deviation. - If d is the deviation of each value from the mean, and N is the total number of values, then the standard deviation is:

Standard Deviation

Normal Distribution: - Is an extremely important in psychology because most psychological variables are normally distributed. - Provides a precise method of determining how subjects compare to one another.

For Example: - Bell Curve -

Positively Skewed Distribution Scores pile up at the low end of the scale. Negatively Skewed Distribution Scores pile up at the high end of the scale.

- When we have a positively or negatively skewed distribution, the mean may be misleading. Therefore, the median usually provides the best index of central tendency. - Raw scores can be mathematically converted into standard scores, which can then be converted into percentile scores. Raw Scores Standard Scores Percentile Scores - Percentile scores are more easily understood than standard scores. Percentile Score Indicates the percentage of subjects who score at or below the score you obtained. For example, if you score in the 60th percentile, 60% of people who took the test scored the same as you or below. Meanwhile the other 40% scored above you.

2. Inferential Statistics: Provide us with a way of determining how much confidence we can have in results obtained from samples by telling us how likely it is that results are just due to chance. - If your results are REAL, it means youd find such results in the real population. REAL results are statistically significant.

- In hypothesis testing, the significance level is the criterion used for rejecting the null hypothesis. The significance level is used in hypothesis testing as follows: First, the difference between the results of the experiment and the null hypothesis is determined. Then, assuming the null hypothesis is true, the probability of a difference that large or larger is computed . Finally, this probability is compared to the significance level. If the probability is less than or equal to the significance level, then the null hypothesis is rejected and the outcome is said to be statistically significant. Traditionally, experimenters have used either 0.05 level (sometimes called the 5% level). The lower the significance level, the more the data must diverge from the null hypothesis to be significant. Therefore, the 0.01 level is more conservative than the 0.05 level. The Greek letter alpha () is sometimes used to indicate the significance level - If p (probability level) is greater than 0.05, we say that the results are due to chance/fluke/non-significant. - However, the lower the value of p, the more statistically significant the data is. 0.05 (or 5%) is considered the cutoff point. Anything higher is considered by chance/fluke, and anything lower is considered statistically significant. - Therefore, statistically significant results are typically findings that support a research hypothesis.

Chapter 12: Personality: Theory, Research, and Assessment. The Five-Factor Model of Personality Traits: 1. Extraversion (Positive Emotionality) People who score high in this category are characterized as outgoing, sociable, upbeat, friendly, assertive, and gregarious. 2. Neuroticism (Negative Emotionality) People who score high in this category are anxious, hostile, self-conscious, insecure, and vulnerable. 3. Openness to Experience This category is associated with curiosity, flexibility, vivid fantasy, imaginativeness, artistic sensitivity, and unconventional attitudes. McRae argues that this trait is the key determinant of peoples political attitudes and ideology. 4. Agreeableness People who score high in this category are sympathetic, trusting, cooperative, modest, and straightforward. People who score low are characterized as suspicious, antagonistic, and aggressive. 5. Conscientiousness (constraint) Conscientious people tend to be diligent disciplined, well-organized, punctual, and dependable. It is also associated with higher productivity in a variety of occupational areas. Sigmund Freuds Psychoanalytic Approach to Analyzing Behavior: Psychoanalytic Theory Freuds original theory/thoughts. He came up with thus theory in analyzing his various patients. Psychodynamic Theory A rip-off of Freuds original psychoanalytic theory. Some concepts are changed from the original, but it is mostly the same. - With his psychoanalytic approach, Sigmund Freud argued that we are governed by unconscious conflicts. We have two types of instincts (base building blocks): Life instincts [Libido = sexual energy] Death instincts. - Sigmund Freud believed that we have 3 structures of personality. The ID, the EGO, and the SUPER-EGO.

1. ID: - Is the only structure present at birth. - Contains the instincts. - Is unconscious and not in touch with reality. - Irrational and immoral. - Seeks self-indulgence. - Strives for immediate gratification. - Is a pleasure principle. Freud argues that the ID can reduce tension through 2 methods: 1. Reflex activity (infant suckling) 2. Primary process thinking (where one imagines and fantasizes about an object that will reduce tension) 2. SUPER-EGO: - Develops ~4 years of age. - Is the opposite of the ID. - Based on moral principles. - Contains the ideals and values of society. - The Conscience. - Allows for self-control. - Seeks perfection. - Tried to block out any type of gratification. - Is irrational (It believes that moralistic goals are more important than realistic goals) Many argue that the SUPER-EGO state is not possible because one cannot be perfect all the time. 3. EGO: - Develops ~13-15 months. - Is based on the reality principle. - Helps the ID obtain real rather than imaginary satisfaction in socially acceptable ways. - Always evaluates the environment. - Strives to delay gratification of the IDs urges until appropriate outlets and situations can be found.. - Uses secondary process thinking (realistic thinking).

 There are, according to Freud, 3 levels of awareness: 1. Conscious 2. Preconscious 3. Unconscious 1. Conscious: Consists of whatever one is aware of at a particular point in time. 2. Preconscious: Contains material just beneath the surface of awareness that can easily be retrieved. 3. Unconscious: Contains thoughts, memories, and desires that are well below the surface of conscious awareness but that nonetheless exert great influence on behavior.

Stages of Psychosexual Development: - The term sexual is used to refer to the many urges for physical pleasure. - Psychosexual stages are development periods with a characteristic sexual focus that leave their mark on adult personality. Erogenous Zone Is a zone that needs pleasure-producing stimulation in order to reduce tension. There are 5 stages of the erogenous zone: 1. Oral Stage 2. Anal Stage 3. Phallic Stage 3(a) Oedipal Complex (males) 3(b) Electra Stage (females) 4. Latency Stage 5. Genital Stage 1. Oral Stage: - Occurs from birth ~15 months - Erogenous zone = mouth - The child gets pleasure by sucking. If deprived in infancy, behaviors such as thumbsucking and nail-biting become prevalent later on in life. 2. Anal Stage: - Starts at 18 months of age. - Erogenous zone = anus - The child gets pleasure by pooping. - If the parent potty-trains excessively, the child becomes anal later on in life (really uptight, excessive attention to detail) - If the parent does not potty train enough, the child becomes a slob later on in life. 3. Phallic Stage: - Starts at around 4 years of age. - * Most Crucial * - Erogenous zone = genitals. 3(a): Oedipal Stage (Males): - The young boy is sexually attracted to his mother. - He fears his dad will castrate him - The boy experiences conflicting emotions towards his dad (love, hostility, fear)

- Resolution: Conflicting emotions are repressed. The child no longer resents his father. The father becomes the sex role model. Date: Thursday, Oct. 8th, 2009 3(b) Electra Stage (Females): - The young girl is sexually attracted to her father. - She blames her mom for her lack of a penis. - Has conflicting feelings for mom (love, hostility) - Resolution: Conflicting emotions are repressed. Girl no longer resents mom. Mom acts as a sex role model for girl. The girl suffers from penis envy. 4. Latency Stage: - Begins at 5 years of age puberty. - NO EROGENOUS ZONE - There is little pressure from the ID and little internal conflict. - The main function of this stage is to learn socially acceptable ways of reducing tension. 5. Genital Stage: - Begins at puberty onwards. - Erogenous zone = genitals. - Love object is a member of the opposite sex. Fixation Occurs when a person is stuck at a particular stage. Regression A person at a higher stage goes back to a lower stage. (e.g. an adult having a temper-tantrum)

Defense Mechanisms: - Defense mechanisms are largely unconscious reactions that protect a person from unpleasant emotions such as anxiety and guild Neurotic Anxiety Is produced by fear that the EGO will not have adequate control over the ID and that ID impulses will surface. - Defense mechanisms use up some of the ID energy so that neurotic anxiety is reduced. - They provide an indirect release of ID energy. Mechanism Rationalization Definition Creating false but plausible excuses to explain an even that causes anxiety Example A student watches TV instead of studying, saying that additional studying wont do any good anyways. After a parental scolding, a girl takes her anger out on a little brother.

Displacement

Reaction Formation Denial

Repression

Attachment

Projection

Regression Identification

Directing emotional feelings (usually anger) from their original source to a substitute target. [Scapegoating] Behaving in a way that is A parent who unconsciously totally opposite of ones resents a child spoils the true feelings. child with gifts. Where threatening things in A smoker concludes that the the outside world are kept evidence linking cigarette out of conscious awareness. use to health problems is You act as though it doesnt not true. exist. Keeping distressing You try not to remember thoughts and feelings buried that you have an exam in in the unconscious. one week, and dont study for it. When you do something You buy your wife flowers that makes you feel guilty, after cheating on her. and you try to make up for it by doing a good deed. You perceive personal A woman who dislikes her characteristics in others that boss thinks she likes her you cannot admit to boss but feels that her boss yourself. doesnt like her. A reversion to immature An adult having a temper patterns of behavior. tantrum. Bolstering self-esteem by An insecure man joins a

forming an imaginary or real alliance with some person or group.

fraternity to boost his selfesteem.

Freudian Slip Sometimes, the ego is temporarily off-guard and the ID desires slip out often in symbolic forms. (e.g. instead of saying bad apples, referring to a group of young African-American trouble makers, one says black apples.) Dreams You can gratify your ID impulses through dreams. Repression is relaxed, and the ID impulses emerge through fantasy. Dreamwork Defenses: - There are 3 types of dreamwork defenses: (A) Dramatization (B) Condensation (C) Symbolization (A) Dramatization: Internal conflicts are externalized in physical activity in your dream. (You dream you are punching a guy you really hate in the face). (B) Condensation: Where you dont have a smooth flow of thoughts or events in your dream. Theres missing pieces. (C) Symbolization: The events or people are symbols of something else. Two types: Personal Symbols: Are related to your own personal experiences. (e.g. you have a big test coming up, and you constantly dream that a tiger is chasing you. The tiger symbolizes the test) Universal Symbols: Have some meaning across dreams and are common to a given culture. Date: Thursday, Oct. 22nd, 2009

Chapter 6 Learning Behavioral Approach Involves learning and learning principles. This approach is interested in looking at observable behaviors and determining their causes and consequences. Learning: a relatively durable change in behavior as a result of experience or practice. There are 3 types of learning: (1) Classical Conditioning (2) Operant or Instrumental Conditioning (3) Observational Learning Observational Learning: you learn by observing things happening/people doing things around you. (1) Classical Conditioning Is sometimes referred to as Pavlovian conditioning. (Pavlov was a Russian physiologist who noticed that a dog would salivate when it saw food but also salivated when it heard a bell. Pavlov observed that when the food was initially presented to the dog, a bell was randomly ringing in the background.) Contains 4 elements: Unconditional Response (UR): A response (R) that is automatic or reflexive and requires no prior learning. It is an involuntary response. (e.g.) Someone scaring you and you flinch or your pupils dilating when light enters.

Unconditional Stimulus (US):

 A stimulus is anything that makes you react. An Unconditional Stimulus comes before and causes the UR. (e.g.) The person scaring you would be the US, and you flinching would be the UR. Conditioned Stimulus (CS): Any stimulus (S) that is paired with the US and eventually causes a Conditional Response (CR). (e.g.) In the bell/food example, since the bell was ringing at the time the food (US) was presented to the dog, and the bell made the dog salivate afterwards, the bell would be the CS because it was conditioned to make the dog salivate. Conditioned Response (CR): The response that is caused by the CS and is identical to the UR So the dog salivating upon hearing the bell (CS) would be the conditioned response.

FOR EXAMPLE: Food (US) Salivation (UR) Bell + Food Bell (CS) Salivation (CR) * It takes roughly 12-15 trials for the CS to have an effect *

Other Types of Conditioning:

Delay Conditioning:

In delay conditioning the CS is presented and is overlapped by the presentation of the US Is generally the best type of conditioning. (e.g.) A bell begins to ring and continues to ring until food is presented.

Simultaneous Conditioning:

During simultaneous conditioning, the CS and US are presented and terminated at the same time. Not a very good method. (e.g.) The bell begins to ring at the same time the food is presented. Both begin, continue, and end at the same time.

Trace Conditioning:

Discrete event is presented, and then the US occurs. The shorter the interval the better.

 This approach is not very effective. (e.g.) The bell begins ringing and ends just before the food is presented.

Backward Conditioning:

The US occurs before CS. Not really effective (e.g.) The food is presented, taken away, and then the bell rings.

Higher-Order Conditioning: When a well-established Conditioned Stimulus I (CSI) starts acting as though it were an unconditioned stimulus and is able to bring the Conditioned Response (CR) under the control of a Conditioned Stimulus II (CSII). FOR EXAMPLE: Food (US) Salivation (UR) Bell + Food Bell (CSI) Salivation (CR) Light + Bell Light (CSII) Salivation (CR) * The further you are from the original Stimulus, the weaker the response with each succeeding Conditioned Stimulus *

Stimulus Generalization: Occurs when a CR occurs in response to other stimuli that are similar to the original Conditioned Stimulus. The greater the similarity between the two stimuli, the more likely generalization will occur. This method is used in training.

FOR EXAMPLE: Food (US) Salivation (UR) Bell @ 55,000 Hz + Food Bell @ 55,000 Hz (CS) Salivation (CR) Bell @ 53,000 Hz (CS) Salivation (CR) If the bell @ 53,000 Hz leads to salivation, we say stimulus generalization has occurred.

Stimulus Discrimination: Occurs when a Conditioned Response is caused only in response to a CS that was paired with the US during training. FOR EXAMPLE: Food (US) Salivation (UR) Bell @ 55,000 Hz + Food Bell @ 55,000 Hz (CS) Salivation (CR) Bell @ 45,000 Hz (CS) Nothing If this happens, we say stimulus discrimination has occurred.

Extinction: Occurs when the CS is no longer paired with the US over a period of time, the CS will cause a CR that gradually weakens and eventually disappears. FOR EXAMPLE: Food (US) Salivation (UR) Bell + Food Bell (CS) Salivation (CR) Bell + A Little Food Bell (CS) A Little Salivation (CR) Bell + No Food Bell (CS) No Salivation

ANOTHER EXAMPLE: Bell (US) Fear (UR) Mouse + Bell Mouse (CS) Fear (CR) Remove the bell, and the mouse alone will bring extinction to the fear.

Spontaneous Recovery: is a reappearance of an extinguished CR when exposed to the CS, following a period of non-exposure to the CS.

Date: Thursday, Nov. 5th, 2009 Contiguity: Occurs when two or more stimuli/events occur close together in time. They will both, then, become associated. Pavlov believed that contiguity was essential for classical conditioning to occur. Garcias 1st Experiment: X-Ray (US) Nausea (UR) Food, 7 Hour Delay, X-Ray Food (CS) Nausea (CR) This posed a challenge to Pavlovs theory of classical conditioning due to the 7 Hour delay between presentation of the food and X-Ray

2nd Experiment: X-Ray (US) Nausea (UR) Water/Light/Noise [Each were paired] + X-Ray Water (CS) Nausea (CR) Light (CS) Nothing Noise (CS) Nothing

3rd Experiment: Shock (US) Fear (UR) Water/Light/Noise [Each were paired] + Shock Water (CS) Nothing Light (CS) Fear (CR) Noise (CS) Fear (CR)

- Garcia concluded that certain combinations tend to lead to certain Unconditioned Responses. He termed it preparedness. - Garcia Effect: when you eat something that makes you sick.

B.F. Skinner was a pioneer in the field of psychology who came up with something called Operant or Instrumental Conditioning. (2) Operant Conditioning: Learning through consequence. Contains 3 elements: (1) Stimulus (2) Response This response is voluntary, whereas in classical conditioning, it was involuntary. That is the main difference between classical conditioning and operant conditioning. (3) Consequence (A) Positive Reinforcer (B) Negative Reinforcer (C) Positive Punishment (D) Negative Punishment (A) Positive Reinforcer (Sr+): When something is pleasant and is added to the situation and this increases the probability of the response re-occuring. Several factors influence the effectiveness of a Sr+: (1) The magnitude of the Sr+ (i.e. $10 reward compared to $15) (2) The immediacy of the Sr+ (i.e. how soon you give the reward) (3) The scheduling of the Sr+:

Continuous Reinforcement: A given response is reinforced every single time it occurs. (e.g.) Every time you study, you get an A. Every time the mouse pushes down the lever, a food pellet comes out. Partial Reinforcement: A given response is reinforced only some of the time. (e.g.) Even though you study every time, you dont always get an A Produces more consistent behavior. (e.g.) Jack gets paid $5 every day for cleaning his room. Brian gets paid $5 every week, even though he cleans his room every day. If the money were to stop, Brian would be more likely to continue cleaning his room on a daily basis.

Ratio Schedule: The positive reinforcer depends on the # of times a response occurs. Fixed Ratio Schedule: The # of responses required for a positive reinforcer is fixed. (e.g.) The rat is given a food pellet every 10 times the lever is pushed down. Therefore, we would label this situation FR10, or Fixed Ratio 10. The rat must push the lever 10 times in order to get rewarded. In a fixed ratio schedule, there is a certain pattern of behavior: A high rate of activity is observed.

 Responding is consistent. There is a post-reinforcement pause.

Interval Schedule: Reinforcement depends on time. Fixed Interval Schedule: The positive reinforcer is given for the first response that occurs @ the end of a fixed interval. (e.g.) A rat is reinforced (gets food) for the first lever press after a 2-minute interval has elapsed and then must wait 2 minutes before being able to earn the next reinforcement. In a fixed interval schedule, there is a certain pattern of behaviors: The rate of responding increases as the Sr+ time approaches. Activity stops after the Sr+ occurs, and then gradually increases again as the Sr+ time draws near. (i.e.) The rat presses the lever, gets the food, and doesnt do anything for 1:30. As the next time for Sr+ approaches, the rat presses the lever again and gets the food. Variable Ratio Schedule: The Sr+ is given after a variable amount of non-reinforced responses. The number of non-reinforced responses varies around a predetermined average. (e.g.) A rat is reinforced for every 10th lever press on average. The exact number of responses required for reinforcement varies from one time to the next. So the rat can press a lever 20 times and get rewarded, 5 times and get rewarded, 2 times and get rewarded, 9 times and get rewarded, and 14 times and get rewarded. However, the rat got the food on an AVERAGE of pressing the lever 10 times. We say in this situation that we have a VR10.

Variable Interval Schedule: The reinforcement is given for the first response after an average time interval has elapsed. This interval length varies around a predetermined average.

 (e.g.) A rat is reinforced for the first lever press after a 1-minute interval has elapsed, but the following intervals are 3 minutes, 2 minutes, 4 minutes, etc - with an average length of 2 minutes. Stimulus Generalization: is when a response that occurs in the presence of a particular stimulus is reinforced, it will likely also occur in the presence of another similar stimulus. (e.g.) Stimulus Father Stranger (Looks similar to father) Response Baby smiles Baby smiles Consequence Father pays attention to baby.

Stimulus generalization has occurred

Discriminative Stimulus (Sd): A special stimulus that acts as a signal that the Sr+ will occur if a given response occurs. (e.g.)

If the rat constantly pushes the green button, we say stimulus generalization has occurred. Spontaneous Recovery: When a previously extinguished response spontaneously occurs in the presence of a given stimulus (after rest period).

(B) Negative Reinforcer (Sr-): Negative does not necessarily mean bad.

 Occurs when something unpleasant is removed from the situation and this increases the probability of the response re-occuring. (e.g.) Stimulus Shock Child screams (because he doesnt want to attend music classes) Response Press lever No more music classes Consequence Shock stops Child stops screaming

- Prison could be considered either positive or negative punishment, depending on how you look at it. The punishment should be immediate and consistent. Alternatives: Ignore the unconditioned behavior. If you are going to punish the subject, provide as alternative, acceptable behavior.

Date: Thursday, Nov. 12th, 2009 Chapter 16: Social Behaviors There are two general areas in social psychology. (1) Social Cognition: Cognition = thinking process. Social Cognition: The study of the way we perceive and evaluate others. (2) Social Influence: The study of the ways in which people influence each others judgments, actions, and behaviors.

Obedience: Agreeing to someone elses direct request. Conformity: Going along with others beliefs or behaviors because of real or imagined pressure. - Milgram was a social psychologist in the 1960s who conducted experiments on obedience and conformity.

- He had subjects administer a false shock to a decoy. (The subjects thought it was a real shock.) Remote Condition (The subject could hear banging on walls): 65% of the subjects were obedient when they were told to continue administering the shock. Voice Feedback (The decoy would scream): 62.5% of the subjects were obedient. Touch Proximity (The subjects hand was physically placed on the decoy): 30% of subjects were obedient. No contact between subject and decoy: 100% of subjects were obedient. Factors Influencing Willingness to Obey: (1) Social Norms Things accepted in society. Unwritten rules. (2) Surveillance If the experimenter is actually present or not. (3) Buffers A buffer is something that causes contact between two people. The fewer the buffers between the subject and decoy, the less likely the subject will obey. (4) Responsibility (5) Ideological Justification: Refers to a belief that legitimizes the authority of the person in charge and justifies following the given directions. (e.g. If a scientist, in a white lab coat, from Yale University, is telling you to do something. Justified?) - Debrief: Letting the participant of the study know what the study was about.

Compliance Without Pressure: (1) Foot-in-the-Door Technique: People are more likely to comply with a larger request when they first agree to a smaller one. (e.g.) You tell your friend to drop you off to the subway station, but when youre almost there, you ask for a ride home.

(2) Door-in-the-Face Technique: People are more likely to comply with a smaller request after theyve turned down a larger one. (e.g.) Can I have $100? NO WAY! Well, can I at least have $50? Okay (3) Low-Balling: Based on the idea that once somebody has agreed to carry out an act, they will still comply even if the new act is made more costly. (e.g.) You want to buy a car, but your limit is $19,000. The salesman says its for $21,000, but hell talk to his manager and see what he can do. He comes back, and tells you that $21,000 is the lowest he can go. You will be more likely to buy that car for $21,000 even though your original budget was $19,000. Helping Behavior: Altruism: Refers to helping behavior that is completely unselfish and motivated solely by the other persons need. Sociobiological Viewpoint of Helping Behavior: The primary motive for helping is because in the long run it helps to ensure the future survival and propagation of our genes. We are genetically programmed to help. - Latanae and Darley were two social psychologists who did a study by observing if someone were hurt nearby, would a person help them? 75% of subjects, if they were alone, offered to help. 40% of subjects offered to help (2 or more people present at the time of injury) 7% of subjects offered to help (Random people around + passive person {acts as though nothing happened}) Bystander Effect: The victim is less likely to get help if there is a group of bystanders than if there was only one person around.

Factors that Influence Helping Behavior: (1) Diffusion of Responsibility: If something happens to someone in a crowd, nobody will do anything because they expect the person next to them to do something to help. (2) Defining the Situation: When you have an ambiguous situation, pluralistic ignorance tends to happen. (e.g.) A fight is happening, and nobody is reacting and everybody is looking at each other to do something, but no one does anything. Pluralistic Ignorance: In social psychology, pluralistic ignorance, a term coined by Daniel Katz and Floyd H. Allport in 1931[1], describes "a situation where a majority of group members privately reject a norm, but assume (incorrectly) that most others accept it...It is, in Krech and Crutchfields (1948, pp. 38889) words, the situation where 'no one believes, but everyone thinks that everyone believes. This, in turn, provides support for a norm that may be, in fact, disliked by most people. Pluralistic ignorance can be contrasted with the false consensus effect. In pluralistic ignorance, people privately disdain but publicly support a norm (or a belief), while the false consensus effect causes people to wrongly assume that most people think like them, while in reality most people do not think like them (and express the disagreement openly). For instance, pluralistic ignorance may lead a student to drink alcohol excessively because she believes that everyone else does that, while in reality everyone else also wishes they could avoid binge drinking, but no one expresses that due to the fear of being ostracized. A false consensus for the same situation would mean that a student believes that most other people enjoy excessive drinking, while most other people do not enjoy that and openly express their opinion about it. Pluralistic ignorance may partially explain the bystander effect: the observation that people are more likely to intervene in an emergency situation when alone than when other persons are present. If people monitor the reactions of others in such a situation, they may conclude from the inaction of others that other people think that it is not necessary to intervene. Thus no one may take any action, even though some people privately think that they should do something. On the other hand, if one person intervenes, others are more likely to follow and give assistance.

Date: Thursday, Nov. 19th, 2009 (3) Arousal and Cost/Reward Analysis: Arousal: Physiological arousal, i.e. heart rate elevation, palms sweating, etc Cost/Reward Analysis: What will be in it for me if I help? (4) Latanae/Darleys System:

Chapter 5: Variations in Consciousness - EEG: electroencephalogram Measures electrical activity occurring in the brain. EEG Measuring Sleep Pattern: Stage 1: Sleep theta waves are prominent (half awake, half asleep) - Hypnogogic State - Hypno-jerks (twitching) - Low amplitude, high frequency waves

Stage 2: Sleep spindles, mixed EEG activity - High frequency, low amplitude waves. - 10-25 minutes Stage 3+4: Slow Wave Sleep (SWS) - Deep sleep - Lasts about 30 minutes - Low frequency, high amplitude waves. Stage 5: REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep - Dreaming occurs here - Difficult to wake person up - Breathing becomes choppy - Heart rate is irregular - Low amplitude, high frequency waves - Motor activity is practically eliminated and the person is almost paralyzed. * It should be noted that sleep walking occurs in Stage 4, NOT in REM sleep. * NREM = Non-REM sleep. Any stage of sleep other than REM - REM sleep is also called paradoxical sleep. - When dreaming in REM sleep, dream is real, life-like, laden with emotion. - When dreaming in NREM sleep, dream is choppy, sketchy, not memorable. Lucid Dreaming: Occurs when you are dreaming, and you are consciously aware that you are dreaming. - Sleepwalking occurs in Stage 2. - Each succeeding REM period is longer than the first. Stages and Allocation of Sleep: Stage 1 2 3 4 5 Theories of why we Sleep: % of Overall Sleep 5% 50 % 6% 14 % 25 %

(1) Sleep serves as a restorative function, allowing us to recover from physical and mental exertion during the day. (2) Sleep is viewed as part of a circadian rhythm that developed through evolution. Feeling sleepy at night is programmed into organisms because it promotes inactivity at night, thus promoting survival. Circadian Rhythm: Our biological clock. Ultradian Rhythm: A natural 90 min. rest/activity schedule. We feel active for 90 minutes, then feel tired. Sleep Deprivation: (A) Complete sleep deprivation. (B) Partial sleep deprivation (sleep restriction) You go to sleep every night, but not as much as you need. (C) Selective Deprivation Would only occur in a lab. - If someone is deprived from REM sleep one night, then they would get more REM sleep the next night. This is called REM rebound.

Date: Thursday, Nov. 27th, 2009 Chapter 3: Biological Basis of Behavior Biological Approach: To understand behavior, we must examine the brain and nervous system. The assumption is that for every thought/behavior, there is a corresponding physical event taking place in the brain. Cortex: Outer portion of the brain (gray matter). All our thinking processes occur here.

Corpus Callosum: Connects both halves of the brain. - The left hemisphere of the brain is termed the dominant hemisphere. If you are right-handed, language is processed in the left hemisphere.

Continue to type in the rest of the notes from this chapter

Thursday, Jan. 7th, 2010 Chapter 7: Cognitive Approach (Human Memory) Encoding involves forming a memory code. It requires attention. Storage involves maintaining encoded information in memory over time. Retrieval involves recovering information from memory stores. Attention involves focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events. Behavioral Approach: Stresses the importance of overt (observable) behavior. Relies of stimulusresponse relationships. Cognitive Approach:

 Stresses and [Stimulus Organism Response] relationship. The organism evaluates, predicts, and weighs options before responding. Stimulus Evaluate Predict Expectations Interpret Response

-- Memory can be considered as any one of the values in the box. Insight: The sudden understanding of how to solve a problem. Information Processing Approach to Memory: States that the memory of made up of different memory stores. 1. Sensory Storage: Sensory Input Echoic Store Auditory Iconic Store Visual

The sensory storage lasts for about seconds. Sensory memory preserves information in its original sensory form for an extremely short period of time. The sensations of the stimulus lingers briefly after the stimulus has ended. Two things are needed for information to pass on to the short term memory store from the sensory store: 1. Attention: Salient: seems important, is attention grabbing. E.g. a girl comes to class in a wedding gown. 2. Pattern Recognition: When information does not enter the short term memory, it exits the sensory memory through decaying. 2. Short Term Memory:

 Working Memory Can hold information for 16-20 seconds. Has a limited capacity. Can hold 72 items of information at any single point in time. Works on a buffer system. Say you are given 7 words to remember. If an 8th word is introduced, it would randomly bump out one of the original 7 words. When we no longer remember information in out short term memory, we say displacement has occurred. The conception of working memory consists of 4 components: 1. Phonological Rehearsal Loop Is at work when you use recitation to temporarily hold on to a phone number. 2. Visuospatial Sketchpad Permits people to temporarily hold onto and manipulate visual images. Is at work when you try to mentally rearrange furniture in your bedroom. 3. Executive Control System Controls the deployment of attention, switching the focus of attention and driving the attention as needed. 4. Episodic Buffer A temporary, limited capacity store that allows the various components of working memory to integrate information and that serves as an interface between working memory and long-term memory. - The last storehouse is the long-term memory (LTM). To ensure that information is transferred successfully from the STM to the LTM, we use rehearsal. - High-Low imagery words: High Imagery (concrete) : cat, dog, laptop, etc Low Imagery (abstract) : and, if, but. High imagery words have a dual-code (Symantec code (meaning) and visual code) 3. Long Term Memory: Has unlimited capacity. Information is stored indefinitely or permanently.

Flashbulb Memories: vivid and detailed recollections of momentous events.

Thursday, Jan.14th, 2010 Storage in the Long Term Memory 1. Procedural memory o Memory for how to do things o Memory for actions and skills o Ex: riding a bike or swimming; once u learn it u don't need to think about it every time u execute it

2. Declarative memory o Memory for info and facts o Its further sub-divided into two categories (a) Symantic memory o General info about rules and things that we have over learned o Ex: we grew up knowing the colour of a $5 bill (b) Episodic memory o Memory for specific events or episodes o These are usually unique events rather then repeated ones o Ex: stopping for a red light or ur B-day

3. Implicit memory o Incidental - You didnt put effort into learning it, but you just know it. o Ex: the Pizza Pizza #, because it rhymes with the song

4. Explicit memory o Intentional u put effort and worked to learn it o Ex: studying for a test or exam **implicit and procedural memoryare known as unconscious memory** 5. Why cant we recall info? o The information never entered the memory system (pseudo forgetting) o Pseudo = false [Pseudoforgetting is usually due to lack of attention) o Decay or displacement

o The information is available but not accessible tip-of the-tongue phenomenon

6. Why is info not accessible? o o o o Encoding specificity principle or (context-dependent forgetting) Not being able to recall because items used for retrieval do not match those used for encoding An inappropriate search strategy is used Ex: at a party u meet a girl named Jen, who is a teacher and u encode her into your memory by the dress shes wearing (the dress being a red strapless one, that goes up a little above her knees). Days later when asked by a bud if u remember Jen u say, No. when asked if you remember the teacher, you reply again with No. but when asked if u remember the girl in the red strapless dress that's really short, the girl jumps quickly into your memories and you remember her. This is because you encoded the person into your memory by not the name of that person or the occupation but by what she was wearing.

State-dependent forgetting Ones physical or mental state or moods are different at encoding and retrieval Ex: studying for a test while listening to music so when retrieving it, it is that theoretically youll do better then if you dont listen. This is because you will be in the same environment as when u learned it.

Interference (competition from other material) - Retroactive interference: new information interferes with the recall of older info info Proactive interference: old information interferes with the recall newer

**Retention interval: the point between encoding and retrieval, where the greatest degree of interference occurs

**Mnemonics: particular techniques / tricks you use to help yourself remember things.

** GOOD QUESTION FOR SHORT ANSWER

Depth (or levels) of processing approach to memory Processes approach Tree car bear Level 2 Level 1 appearance structural encoding Ex: are the letters uppercase or lowercase sound phonemic encoding Ex: do the words rhyme with car? Level 3 Top Pen book meaning Symantic encoding Ex: is each word a noun or a verb - book is used for reading

* more likely to remember a word by its meaning, then its appearance or sound

Memory in the natural context

Forgetting involves an inability to recall information.

Construction adding information to our stored memory - not only do we encode the info we observed but we also encode the implications through the process of interference.

- Ex: 1) a cigarette was discovered and it was lit 2) 200 hectares of land is destroyed * we have the problem of putting the two together

Distortion - we produce change and inaccuracies to the material - Ex: what is she wearing, u say a yellow dress? Where in fact shes wearing a red one, you got the dress part correct but the colour was wrong.

People tend to recall things that fit into their already established schemes. - Ex: going to a restaurant, knowing what to expect: the lame jokes the waiter makes or the awful food

Schema knowledge about an object on events based on previous experience. Ex: when showed an office people tend to remember the normal things that one sees in an office, like desk, garbage can, computer etc. but they dont tend to remember stuff that are not normal unless it is outrageously not normal, like an elephant on a desk.

Chapter 10 Motivation and Emotion

Motivation has two components:

1. Drive / Arousal - Drive: pushing force to get you to do something - Arousal: activation or energizing of the physical or mental body

2. Goal directed behavior - Your behavior towards an end goal that is going to fulfill your drive or arousal - Ex: if hungry, you are going to eat

Theories of motivation: - Frauds idea of life and death instincts - Sociological view - Instincts Thursday, Jan.21st, 2010 Hulls Drive Reduction Theory: E=DxH E = Probability of a given response occurring D = Drive H = Habit Strength (how often one carries out a particular activity) - According to Hull, biological needs increase arousal level. - All behaviour is geared towards satisfying the biological need, thus reducing drive or arousal to a 0 level. Incentive: Anticipation of reward. Is something that is learned over time. e.g. If you are full, and say I cant eat anymore, but then someone brings some chocolate cake and all of a sudden you want some. WHY? Because chocolate cake is an incentive you have learned over time that it tastes good and you desire it. Drive: How internal biological states push you to do something.

 e.g. I have a drive to play hockey Incentive: How external stimuli pull you in. e.g. That chocolate cake looks SOOOO GOOD! Hebbs Optimal Level of Arousal Theory: - Hebb argues that if arousal is too high or low, we are motivated to engage in activities that will bring arousal to an optimal level. e.g. Caffeine (helps you be more aware in the morning)

Intraverts: - People who keep to themselves, are very quiet and dont like to be bothered. - Have a naturally high level of arousal. Extraverts: - People who are outgoing and do crazy stuff. - Have a naturally low level of arousal.

Reticular Activating System (RAS): The part of the brain responsible for arousal. Why do we engage in risky/dangerous behavior? 1. Solomons Opponent (opposite) Process Theory: - A strong negative emotion will be followed by a strong positive emotion in order to balance it out. - The nervous system has tendencies to counteract any deviations from normality. - The net effect is that the emotional state will be attenuated. - A negative emotion will tend to trigger a positive emotion, and vice versa. 2. Zuckermans Sensation-Seeking Theory: - There is a strong biological pre-disposition to high/low sensation seeking. People who have a low resting level of arousal will likely be high sensation seekers. Characteristics of High Sensation Seekers: - Thrill or adventure seeking (bungee jumping, skydiving, etc) - Experience seeking - Dishibitions (wild partying, drinking, drug use, etc) - Susceptibility to boredom. Conflict and Motivation:

- Conflict exists when you have 2 or more competing motives. - 2 incompatible responses exist simultaneously, but both cannot be satisfied. - There are 2 types of motives: 1. Approach Motive: There is a reward for approaching the goal. 2. Avoidance Motive: The end goal is unpleasant and you want to avoid it. - There are 3 types of conflicts: 1. Approach-Approach Conflict: (+) ----- (+) [Both end goals are pleasant. You are motivated to carry out with the acts] 2. Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict: (-) ------ (-) [Both end goals are unpleasant. You dont want to do either] 3. Approach-Avoidance Conflict: (+) ----- (-) [You have one end goal. There are positive aspects but also negative aspects to fulfilling that goal]

Cognitive Dissonance: When there is a mismatch in behavior and attitude, people like to do something to reconcile the two. Usually, people just change their attitudes/beliefs rather than behavior.

Thursday, Jan.28th, 2010 Maslows Hierarchy of Needs: Deficiency Motive: we are motivated to remove a deficiency from ourselves. Growth Motive: Even when there is no deficiency, people are motivated to develop beyond their present condition.

Physiological Needs: food, water, sex. If not fulfilled, there will be negative consequences. Safety Needs Love and Belongingness Esteem Needs: sense of confidence, respected by others. Aesthetic Need (growth motive): Have a need for beauty and order. Cognitive Need (growth motive): Acquiring knowledge Self-Actualization (growth motive): Be the best you can be. Emotions: There are 3 components of emotion. What happens to let you know that you are experiencing an emotion? 1. Physiological Change: Increased heart rate, sweating, pupil dilation. 2. Overt (observable) Expressions: Facial expressions, body language, voice changes, etc 3. Subjective Experience: What are YOU feeling? Emotions are divided into 2 categories: 1. Pure/Primary Emotions (very readily identifiable) Mad, happy, sad, 2. Mixed Emotions (not readily identifiable, mixtures of primary emotions) Desire, jealousy, pride, love, disappointment, relief Theories of Emotions: Common-Sense: Dog Bark Fear Trembling I tremble because I feel afraid

James-Lange: Dog Bark Trembling Fear I feel afraid because I tremble Cannon-Bard: Dog Bark Subcortical Brain Activity (Thalamus) (a) Fear + (b) Trembling The dog barking makes me tremble and feel afraid Schachter: Dog Bark Trembling Appraisal Fear I label my trembling as fear because I appraise the dog bark as dangerous

Facial Feedback Theory: Feedback from ones own facial expressions contribute to ones own experience of emotion.

Chapter 9: Intelligence and Testing Psychological Test: A standardized measure of a sample of a persons behavior. There are 2 general types of Psychological Tests: 1. Personality Tests (motives, traits, attributes) 2. Mental Ability Tests Intelligence Tests (IQ test) Aptitude Tests (assess potential, but assess specific types of mental abilities.) Achievement Tests (tests in high school bilogy, math, physics) IQ = (Mental Age / Chronological Age) x 100

Thursday, Feb. 4th, 2010 Continue talking about Chapter 9 Last week we ended up talking about the history of IQ tests and the assigning of IQ scores. (Weckslers method) In the past, scientists assumed that the greater the intelligence, the greater the ability to perform certain tasks. Cognitive Perspective of Intelligence: Focuses on the PROCESS of intelligence rather than on the AMOUNT of intelligence. In other words, how do people USE their intelligence? Experiential Subtheory of Intelligence Focuses on how our past experiences contribute to our intelligence. Emotional Intelligence (Goleman 1995) Consists of the ability to perceive and express emotion, to assimilate emotion in thought, to understand and reason with emotion and regulate or control your emotions.

Test Construction There are 3 main criteria for making a test: 1. Standardization a standardized or uniform procedure whereby original test questions are given to a large group of people in order to: (a) Produce questions that can distinguish people (b) In order to provide a set of norms or standards by which to judge what individual scores mean. Norm: Provides information about where your score falls in the normal distribution. 2. Reliability When there is a consistency in scores. (a) Test-Retest reliability: The same test is given to the same people at different times. If the test is reliable, the score that the person gets at time of administration and at a period of time later is generally the same. (b) Test-Retest with alternate forms:

 To prevent order effects and practice effects. (c) Split Test reliability: Test items are randomized and then the test is split in half. The score for the 1st half should be equal to the score for the 2nd half. 3. Validity Whether the test is really measuring what its designed to measure. Establishing whether a test is valid is more difficult then to establish whether a test is reliable. (a) Content Validity: Whether the test is testing the right thing. i.e. you wouldnt give a word to spell on a math test. (b) Criterion Validity: Psychology tests are often used to try and make predictions about someones behavior based on their test score. If the test scores are correlated with another independent measure (criterion), then the test has criterion validity. (c) Construct Validity: Refers to the extent to which there is evidence that the test is measuring the construct. The reliability of IQ tests is really high a correlation coefficient of 0.9 Short Answer topics on the next Test: - Information processing vs. depth of processing approach to memory - Opponent Process theory

Structure of Intelligence: There are two major views: 1. Intelligence reflects general capacity for reasoning and problem solving.

 If you are good at math, you are also good at spelling, science, French, etc Whenever you need to solve a certain problem, you dip into a pool of your general knowledge and use that information accordingly. 2. Intelligence is a set of individual abilities/skills, and not a general trait. Intelligence is not a general trait. So if you are good at math, you are not necessarily good at French or spelling or science. When solving a certain problem, you dip into that certain/specific pool that holds that information that you need. Factor Analysis: Determines whether questions on a test or across tests are related to one another. Spearman g-factor (g=general capacity) Nature-Nurture Controversy Family Studies: Assess the influence of heredity on intelligence by examining blood relatives and seeing how similar they are on IQ scores. The whole idea for doing this is that the more closely people are related, the higher the correlation in IQ scores. Parents/Child: Share 50% of genetic material Nephew/Niece: Share 25% of genetic material Cousins: Share 12% of genetic material Strangers: Share 0% of genetic material.

Thursday, March 04, 2010 - April 5th is the absolute deadline to resolve any discrepancies with points assigned in the URPP

Neurotic Disorders: a) Anxiety b) Somatoform c) Dissociative Phobia: Unrealistic fear of specific stimuli. Simple (dogs, spiders, grass) or Social (people afraid of how people judge them, i.e. public speaking) (a) Anxieties: 3. Panic Disorders & Agoraphobia: Agoraphobia: A sudden fear of something out of the blue. 4. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): Obsession: Recurrent thoughts/images Compulsion: Ritualistic behaviors that one feels obligated or compelled to carry out. - The compulsions are not always observable. They may also be thoughts. - Some examples of OCD are excessive nail biting, always pulling hair, talking to oneself, etc - Research has suggested that OCD is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain.

(b) Somatoform Disorders *Good topic for Test #4 short answer question* - Somatoform disorders fall somewhere between psychological and medical disorders. They refer to physical symptoms that have no physiological basis. (people think that they are sick and that something is wrong with them, but when they go to the doctor, nothing is really wrong.) 1. Conversion Disorder (hysteria): - Anxiety can cause disorders such as temporary blindness or impaired hearing.

2. Hypochondriasis: - Where people take very minor physical symptoms and interpret them as something MAJOR. (e.g. someone has a headache and says: OMG, I HAVE A BRAIN TUMOR!!!)

(c) Dissociative Disorders: 1. Dissociative Fugue: - People forget everything about their personal identity. (Who they are, where they work, who their family members are, etc) 2. Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple personality disorder): - Where an individual literally develops 2 or more personalities. (One personality is all goody goody, and the other personality is more on the wild side). - The person doesnt know that he/she has multiple personalities. For example, a person may have an alter-ego that smokes. When the person is normal, he may see a burning cigarette in the ash tray, and will say: where did that cigarette come from? - It is argued that people with multiple identities are simply role playing, and that there is no real psychological disorder.

Mood Disorders 1. Major Depressive Disorder 2. Bipolar Disorder (Manic depressive disorder) 1. Individuals have a feeling of hoplessness, cry often, speak slowly, walk slowly, low self-esteem, decrease in appetite + sex drive, substance abuse. With time, the depression will go away. The median number of episodes of depression that a person will experience in their lifetime is 4 times. The median number of time it takes for the depression to go away is 4 months. The suicide rate in depressed people is 25 times higher than in normal people. The month of May seems to be the most common month for suicide. Men succeed at suicide more often, but females attempt suicide more often. There is a gradual rise in suicide attempt during adolescence, sharp increase in 30-34, and keeps gradually increasing as a person ages. In students, suicide rate is higher during the beginning of the semester. Suicide is most common in divorced people widowed single married.

Clinical psychologists and dentists are the most common occupations in which suicide occurs. - SAD: Seasonal Affective Disorder People get depressed in the winter time due to a chemical in the brain which is stimulated by the sun. People feel sluggish and tired. 2. People are extremely happy, very optimistic, high-self-esteem. Feel like they are on top of the world, are very hyper and constantly on the go. Their judgment is usually impaired, go on shopping sprees (go into debt), display pressure of speech (keep talking). They will try almost anything thinking they will succeed (try writing a book out of the blue), but usually fail. Display flight of ideas (keep changing topics while talking). Bipolar disorder is less common than 1. Equally common in men and women. Occurs during the ages of 20-30.

Schizophrenia: - Multiple personality disorder and schizophrenia are not the same thing. -Disturbed thought. - Schizophrenia is a type of psychosis (not always in touch with reality. Not aware of what is and isnt real). Symptoms: 1. Impaired Attention cant narrow in and focus in on one thing. Everything seems to be coming in at once. The patient is constantly distracted. 2. Affective Disturbance refers to emotions. Blunted or flat affect (person shows no emotions). 3. Hallucinations sensory perceptions that occur in the absence of real stimuli. Individuals start experiencing stimuli that arent really there. The most common hallucination is auditory, or hearing things that arent really there.

Thursday, March 11, 2010 Chapter 15 Treatment of Psychological Disorders

Most commonly people with anxiety and depression use therapy, OR those that have no direct mental issue but may be going through a hard time in life Women are more likely than men to seek therapy Many therapists have an eclectic approach (use a variety of therapy techniques and strategies) There is no therapy that will help if the individual is not willing to seek help and do some of the work required

3 General Categories of Therapies: 1. Insight Therapies (talk therapies): a lot of dialogue going on with the patient and the doctor 2. Behaviour Therapy: Any therapy based on LEARNING PRINCIPLES (operant and classical conditioning); interested in the overt, problematic behaviour 3. Biomedical Therapies: Alter a persons biology Behaviour Therapy Assumptions: 1) Maladaptive behaviours are acquired through faulty learning - if you can learn a behaviour, you can unlearn it and thats what behaviour therapy tries to do 2) Its not necessary to uncover the underlying cause, just eliminate the symptom For Treating Phobias Systematic Desensitization: (SHORT ANSWER QUESTION?) o Developed by Wolpe in 1958 o Therapy to help desensitize a patient to a phobia with a systematic method o Preferred method o Procedure:

1) Set up an anxiety hierarchy: low anxieties at the bottom and build up to the higher anxieties; tailor-made for each individual 2) Train the patient to relax 3) To imagine the images in the hierarchy while relaxed (go from the bottom of the hierarchy to the top) 4) In Vivo (real life) situation: not always used; can be used a test to see if the desensitization has worked o Learning principles that make systematic desensitization effective: 1) Counterconditioning: substituting the fear response with an incompatible response relaxation; cannot feel fear and relaxation at the same time 2) Extinction: Present the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus to slowly weaken and eliminate the fear Implosion Therapy (phobic stimulus us imagined) OR Flooding (In Vivo) o Is an anxiety-induction therapy designed to eliminate avoidance and the anxiety that elicits it through extinction o Not used very often Behaviour Modification Is based on OPERANT CONDITIONING Punishment is usually not used Techniques: 1) Contingency Management: Involves the presentation and withdrawal of positive stimulus reinforcer (Sr+) contingent (meaning dependent) upon a particular behaviourProcedure: 1. Collect baseline data 2. Set a realistic goal 3. Choose effective stimulus response 4. Contingency contracting

5. Stimulus control 6. Compare before and after frequencies of behaviour 2) Token Economy System: Designed to treat in some type of institutional setting such as school, prisons, mental hospitals; whenever a person completes a desired task they he/she will receive a token which can be traded in to get a reward that he/she wants

Cognitive-Type Therapies They attempt to alter a persons feelings and behaviours by first changing their maladaptive thoughts or beliefs (cognitions) Originally devised by Aaron Beck for the treatment of depression Types: Rational-Emotive Therapy (Albert Ellis) o People have faulty, unrealistic beliefs that affect their behaviour o For example: everybody has to like me; tries to make you realize how silly some of the thought processes we have actually are o Very direct therapy therapist-oriented o Lasts from 4-20 sessions o Based on the A-B-C model of emotional reactions A: activating event, B: belief system, C: consequences; looks at what happens in between A and C if you change your belief system, your attitudes and behaviours will automatically change Psychoanalysis (Freud) Very long therapy; fall under talk therapies; therapist sits behind the patient Assumptions:

o Anxiety is related to feelings that were a source of conflict in the past and these feelings were repressed to eliminate the anxiety the patient must gain insight and re-experience conflicting emotions o You can only eliminate symptoms if you uncover the underlying cause Techniques/Parts: o Free-Association: the patient usually lies on the couch and they are told to talk about anything at all that comes to their mind believed this will get to whats in the persons unconscious o Dream Analysis: used a lot in free association; believed that dreams have two layers: 1) Manifest Content: what the dream seemed to be about 2) Latent: trying to discover what is going on the patients unconscious from their dreams; discovering the true meaning; VERY SUBJECTIVE o Transference: The patient expresses his feelings towards the analyst in the way that the patient actually feels towards a significant other; gives the analyst a chance to see how the patient deals with significant others o Interpretation: the analyst is always making interpretations as to what is going on in the patients unconscious; eventually will express this to the patient and if this clicks with the patient it can be said the analyst is right; again VERY SUBJECTIVE Brief Psychodynamic Therapy A newer version of psychoanalysis Usually 25 sessions or so Still believes in discovering the unconscious Focus on a particular issues that a patient has, instead of trying to figure out the issue like psychoanalysis does More emphasize on current social problems than what happened in the patients childhood

Work through going a step beyond to help the person better adaptive to his/her current situation