Introduction to General Psychology, Exams of Psychology

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CAS PS 101

General Psychology

Midterm Exam

● Most common disorders: anxiety (ptsd, etc) ○ Disability - prevents one from doing what would be otherwise healthy orbeneficial to him or her (relationships, jobs, etc) ○ Distress- upset ● Research methods ○ Psychological claims should be about facts and thus must be determined empirically using accepted scientific methods ● Definitions - I ○ Psychology - the scientific study of human and animal behavior ○ Behavior - stimulus → respOnse, anything that an organism does involving actionand response to stimulation ■ Understanding behavior: biolOgical → psychOlOgical → basic sOcial interactions (ex: number of neurons is correlated to number of members in social group → larger sOcial grOup → culture) ○ Theory - the analysis of a set of facts in their relation to one another ○ Hypothesis - a testable question with a yes or no answer ■ Null hypothesis - “No” answer to question ■ Research articles and grant proposals should state the hypothesis that they are testing ■ Double blind study - neither the experimenter nor the subject knows the hypothesis being tested (ex: placebo pills for depression) ○ Empirical - based on or characterized by observation and experiment rather than theory ○ Data - factual information (as measurements or statistics) used as a basis for reasoning, discussion, or calculation ○ independent variable - something the researcher decides/chooses ○ dependent variable (/measure) - something you are measuring Definitions Cont. and Statistics ● Terms ○ Data - factual information (as measurements or statistics) used as a basis forreasoning, discussion, or calculation ○ independent variable - something the researcher decides ○ dependent variable - something you are measuring ○ positive reinforcer - presence of stimulus that increases the probability of response

■ ex: paycheck ■ medical community defines positive as presents of a symptom and negative as the absence of a symptom ○ negative reinforcer- absence of a stimulus increases the probability of a behavior

■ ex: parking ticket- put in more money to avoid ticket / car beeps when driver does not wear seatbelt so driver does seatbelt to avoid beeping ■ Stimulus shock termination procedure- absence of shock increases lever pressing ○ Punisher- anything that decreases behavior/any stimulus that decreases the probability of a behavior ■ Ex: spanking a child ○ hypothesis (noun)- most research articles state the hypothesis that they are testing ○ Double blind study - neither the experimenter nor the subject knows the hypothesis being tested ○ UCS - unconditioned stimulus ○ CS - conditioned stimulus ○ SR ○ S D ● Notes ■ reinforcing stimulus ■ Ex: paycheck or parking ticket ■ Discriminative stimulus ■ What allows subject to choose between two stimuli ■ Ex: cocaine vs milkshake for mice, also learn that milkshake is on left and cocaine is on the right ■ Ex: two lights over lever means two drops of milkshake for mice, threelights is three drops, and so on ○ Illustrative example ■ Pavlov’s dog ● Rang dinner bell before serving dogs dinner ● Observation: ○ first day- dogs did not react to bell but reacted to man bringing out dinner (responded to stimulation of dinner- salivating, etc) ○ Later on: as soon as bell was rang dogs would sit up and begin salivating before dinner was served ○ Man came in with treat ■ At first would only salivate at treat, then with dinner bell, then just if man came in room ● UCS: food ● Dependent variable: salivation of dogs ● CS: bell ● UCR (unconditioned response): amount of dog’s salivation to food (dogs do not need to be trained to salivate at food)

● CR (conditioned response): amount of salivation to the bell ○ Types of studies ■ Observational/Naturalistic ● Ex: Jane goodall studying animals in the wild without interfering ■ Case - when only one subject is studied ● Ex: neurologist studied patient who suffered stroke in insula (part of brain) to understand exactly what the insula cortex does- patient quit smoking voluntarily and neurologist inferred that insula cortexis associated with nicotine addiction and published it which was agreed with by 4 other doctors worldwide ■ Experimental - set up an experiment with independent and dependent variables ■ Double-blind - experimenter interacting with the subject does not know what is being tested (placebo or real drug) ■ Correlational / statistical - use a statistical technique to determine the relationship between two variables ○ Types of subjects ■ Experimental ■ Control ■ Double blind study: experimental subjects receive real drug, control receive placebo pills ○ Statistical terms ■ Mean - average, add up values and divide by number of subjects ■ Standard deviation, Standard error - measure of how large a range of values there are in a group ● larger deviation/error correlates to larger range of values ● how much variance there is in a group ● the more variance there is in one group the less reliable the significance becomes ● To increase reliability of data, researcher must increase the sample being studied ● Ex: researcher published paper correlating immunization to increased infant mortality, WHO then studied this and found no correlation ■ Correlation coefficient- statistics used to describe the degree of relationship between two or more variables in which positive correlations indicate that variables vary together in the same direction and negative correlations indicate the opposite ● Discussion 1 ○ Quiz

■ Empirical - can be quantified through observation ■ Independent v - what is manipulated ■ Dependent v - what is measured ○ Going over lecture ■ Pavlovian conditioning ● UCS (food) - UCR (salivation) ● CS (bell) - CR (salivation) ■ Operant conditioning - learning process through which the strength of a behavior is modified through reinforcement or punishment ● Reinforcement - serving to increase a behavior ● Punishment - serving to decrease a behavior ● Positive - adding a stimulus ○ Ex of positive reinforcer: feeding a mouse every time it presses a lever ○ Ex of positive punisher: shock a mouse’s foot every time it presses a lever ● Negative - removing a stimulus ○ Ex of negative reinforcer: loud noise causes the mouse to press a lever to stop the noise ○ Ex of negative punisher: sending a child to their room for misbehaving Origins of Psychology ● History of psychology ○ Plato (424 BCE) ■ Mentored by socrates ■ Mentor to aristotle ■ Founder of the academy (first western style university- professional academics) ■ Founder of western philosophy and science ○ Aristotle (384 BCE) ■ Mentor to Plato ■ Alexander the Great (aristotle convinced him a higher standard of learning could be valuable- gained funding for the academy) ■ Morality and aesthetics ■ Logic and science, empirical research ■ Classification of living organisms, development ○ Rene Descartes (1596) ■ Cogito ergo sum (“I think therefore I am”) ■ Dualism - the mind and the body are separable, humans have a soul that is not part of their physical bodies

■ Seat of the soul- pineal gland is where the soul is (actually secretes melatonin) ■ Vivisection- cut animals without giving them pain relievers or anaesthetic(descartes says animals have no souls so their pain does not matter) ○ John Locke (1632) ■ Thomas sydenham was his teacher ■ Empiricism ■ Physician-philosopher ■ Knowledge not innate- acquired via sensory perception (consciousness, experience) ○ Hermann von Helmholtz (1821) ■ Physiology and psychology ■ Scientific method ■ Hypothesis testing ■ Nerve impulses and neural communication ○ Wilhelm Wundt ■ Father of experimental psychology ■ structuralism : using introspection ○ William James ■ Principles of psychology (1890) ■ Harvard experimental psychology ■ Functionalism ● Based on natural selection ● Mental processes i.e. behavior is part of our functional adaptation to environment ● Humans have evolved in response to stimuli in the environment (too little food, too new of a problem, too much rain)- adapting to changes in stimuli that are too little, too much, or too new ● Function of behavior is to adapt to our environment ○ Sigmund Freud (early 20 th^ century) ■ Die Traumdeutung (1900) (manual of clinical psychology, translates to “meaning of dreams”) ■ Introduction to psychoanalysis (1917) ■ Neuroses, hypnosis, the unconscious ■ Early childhood experiences ■ sex ■ Psychoanalysis ● Unconscious mind ● Catharsis ● Treat emotionally disturbed patients

○ Ivan Pavlov (early 20 th^ century) ■ Won nobel prize for behaviorism, conditioning ■ Conditioned stimulus/reflex ■ Classical conditioning ■ Behavioral modification ○ John Watson (20th^ century) ■ Behaviorism- scientific approach to study of behavior that emphasizes the relationship between environmental events and an organism’s behavior ■ S→R ■ Behaviorist manifesto 1913 ■ Life and the behavior of living organisms could be explained entirely by chemistry and physics without recourse to a supposed "vital force” ■ scientific approach: study the relationship between environmental events and the behavior of the organism ○ B. F. Skinner (20th^ century) ■ 1904 - 1990 ■ harvard behaviorist ■ Operant conditioning chamber (skinner box) ■ Experimental analysis of behavior: ● Using operant conditioning, he studied the effects of reinforcement of behavior ● 3 parts of operant conditioning ○ 1 - positive reinforcers ○ 2 - negative reinforcers ○ 3 - punishers ○ Wolfgang Kohler (Gestalt Psychology, 20 th^ century) ■ Gestalt psychology: the sum is different than the parts ■ Perceptual processes, learning ○ Abraham Maslow (Humanistic Psychology – free will - 20 th^ century) ■ Humanistic psychology- human behavior should not be studied scientifically, it is free will ● Definitions ● Statistical terms ○ P value - represents probability that your result was random and not meaningful, not necessarily repeatable ■ Less than .05 then result is reliable and repeatable (chance that your results are wrong is 5% or less) ■ Shows amount of confidence in results (Must have 95% confidence in results) ○ correlation coefficient

○ descriptive ○ Inferentia l Introduction to Neuroscience ● Brain scans ○ CAT - computerized tomography (same as CT scan) ■ Low resolution ■ similar to x-ray (see bones and hard objects) ■ The denser the object is the clearer it shows up (brain does not show up well) ■ Useful for: broken bones ■ Inject a dye that can show up on the CAT scan to see if sinuses and other small bones are intact ■ Cheapest and lowest resolution ○ MRI ■ Can be very high resolution ■ more expensive ■ Can see brain tissue and blood flow ■ Use to see edema ■ FMRI ● Research tool ● Take a high resolution picture of brain and add something that shows the different amounts of energies in each part of the brain(where blood is flowing) ● Ex: people with cocaine addiction watch a movie of people smoking crack and movie of nature to see activity of brain in response ○ PET ■ Measure a single chemical in the brain ■ Trace the chemical related to a particular disease ■ Attach benign radioactive label to chemical ● Brain Subdivisions ○ Midbrain (mesencephalon) ■ Halfway between top of brain and spine ■ Primitive brain ■ 4 F’s: ● Fight ● Flight ● Feeding ● Fornicating ○ Forebrain (telencephalon, diencephalon)

■ More advanced functions (decision making, evaluation, etc ○ Hindbrain (metencephalon, myelencephalon) ■ More primitive: life support functions (digestion, perspiration, etc) ● Basic features of a neuron ○ cell soma (body)- contains the nucleus ○ dendrites - (often concentrated on the cell soma) receive information ○ axon - transports materials and conducts impulse to nerve terminal where transmitter is released ● Definitions ○ Consciousness - Stimulus → RespOnse ■ Thalamus → COrtex (visuals from optic nerve/sound vibrations/nerve impulses goes to thalamus and then cortex processes the information) ■ Two jobs of thalamus

1. Send sensory information to cortex (retina, coclia, skin)
2. Send to the correct area of the cortex (visual/auditory/somatosensory) ● Notes ● 3 regions of brain ○ Forebrain ■ Most human brain ■ Cortex : for sensory information processing ■ Prefrontal cortex (in front) ■ Thalamus (towards bottom) ■ hypothalamus (smaller and beneath thalamus) ● 3 H’s : ○ Hypothalamus ○ Hormones (controls glandular secretions in body) ○ Homeostasis (releases hormones to create physical responses- horniness, thirst, sweat, etc) ○ Midbrain ■ Center of brain ■ 4 F’s : ● Sends nerve impulses to other parts of brain ○ Fight or Flight ○ Feeding ○ Fornicating ■ Reticular formation- arousal system ● crown of this houses largest part of brain cells- dopamine, epinephrine, serotonin - monoamines

(see slides/TB) ● Pay attention to danger, mates, food, etc

○ Hindbrain ■ Beneath midbrain ■ Controls autonomic functions (automatic functions) ■ Life support functions: breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, etc ● Cracks in brain ( fissures ) ○ Central fissure (goes across head from ear to ear)- can pull parts of brain apart without tearing brain ■ Separates two of four lobes of brain ○ Lateral fissure - separates other lobes of brain ● 4 lobes of brain ○ Frontal lobe ■ In front of central and above lateral fissures ■ M1 cortex (primary motor cortex) ● motor strip ● Choose action/selecting action with most likely favorable outcome ● Map of body (mirror image in frontal and parietal lobes, in frontal it makes you move a body part/in parietal it makes you feel something on that body part) ○ Parietal lobe ■ Behind central and above lateral fissures ■ Processes somatosensory (touch or pressure on skin) ■ S1 cortex (primary sensory/somatosensory cortex) ○ Temporal lobes ■ Below lateral fissure behind ears ■ Process sounds ■ A1 cortex (primary auditory cortex) ● First place sound waves on coclia are processed ○ Occipital lobe ■ Back of brain ■ Processes visual information ■ V1 cortex (primary visual cortex) ● Information moves forward in brain as it begins to be evaluated and identified ● Cortexes ○ Large amount of cortex for thumb ■ Opposable ○ Large amount of cortex for mouth ■ Ability to speak various languages ○ Dr Wilder Penfield

■ Drew road map of human brain (particularly for motion and sense) ■ Opened woman’s skull while she was awake and stimulated different parts of her brain until she smelled burnt toast which was associated with her seizures ● Neurotransmitters ○ Most abundant neurotransmitters: ■ GABA ● Major inhibitory chemical ● Keeps brain cells quiet ● Alcohol increases amount of gaba released to calm brain cells down and even put them to sleep ● Sleeping pills boost gaba severely ● General anesthetics release the most gaba ● Increases chloride (negatively charged) ■ Glutamate ● Helps cells to get excited ● Cause neurotransmitter release to go after food/mates/etc ● Not enough glutamate makes it difficult to learn ● Involved in memory formation ● Block glutamate to stop sensory perception ● Associated with seizures (lightning bolt across brain) ● Increases sodium (positively charged) ○ Less abundant neurotransmitters: ■ Dopamine ● Adderall boost dopamine and increases attention ● Boosts wakefulness and attention ■ Serotonin ● Treats mood/anxiety/compulsive disorders ● Boosting serotonin gives you greater impulse control ● 15% of depressed people commit suicide (impulse control serves as a safety net) ■ Norepinephrine ● Released during fight or flight ● selective attention ● signal to noise ratio ● arousal; closely tied to adrenaline, cardio, BP ● BOOst → early antidepressants (still wOrk) ● “Beta blockers” treat cardiac and hypertension issues, also“stage fright” ■ Acetylcholine

● cognition and memory ● major regulator of autonomic functions ● Discussion 2 ○ Going over quiz ● BOOst → attempted treatment fOr Alzheimer’s Disease, nicOtine; BlOck: curare ■ P value less than 5% means results most likely not random ■ Descartes- Dualism, “I think therefore I am,” seat of soul is separate frombody (in pituitary gland), vivisection of animals ■ Hermann von Helmholtz- created scientific method , theories of mind tied to psychology, 1820s ■ William James- functionalism (behavior is not random, came from natural selection), around Darwin’s time, behavior is functional adaptation to environment ■ Vilhelm Vunt- functionalism (mental experience) ■ Sigmund Freud- psychoanalysis, unconscious (mental processes aware of deeper aspects of the self), impact of childhood, dream interpretation ■ Ian Pavlov- classical conditioning, CS/US ■ John Watson- behaviorism, behaviorist manifesto (S/R relationship, environmental events cause an animal's behavior) ■ B.F. Skinner- operant conditioning (placed rat in box to control its behavior), theory of learning ● Operant conditioning ○ Reinforcers (increase behavior) (generally pleasant) ■ Positive (adding stimulus)- reward (give cocaine) ■ Negative (removing stimulus)- escape (make loudnoise stop) ○ Punishers (decrease behavior) (generally unpleasant) ■ Positive- shock animal