Introduction to Psychological Theories
What is psychological science?
The study, through research, of mind, brain and behaviour.
What is amiable skepticims?
A combination of openness and wariness, someone who is open to new ideas but wary of new scientific findings when evidence and reasoning do not seem to support them.
How do mental activity and the brain relate?
Mental activity is produced by biochemical processes in the brain.
What is critical thinking?
Systemically questioning and evaluating information using well-supported evidence.
What is confirmation bias?
People are inclined to overweigh evidence that supports their beliefs and tend to downplay evidence that does not match what they believe.
What are common biases that lead to poor judgement?
Ignoring evidence, seeing causal relationships that do not exist, accepting after-the-fact explanations, taking mental shortcuts (heuristics)
What is the availability heuristic?
When things that come most easily to mind guide our thinking. Eg: people tend to think sharks kill more people than horses do simply because shark attacks come to mind first.
What is optimism bias?
The tendency to think we are better than others, or that we are at least better than average.
What is the Dunning-Kruger effect?
People lack the ability to evaluate their own performance in areas where they lack expertise. People are often unaware of their weaknesses because they cannot judge those weaknesses at all.
Eg: people who get lower scores on exams think they scored higher than they actually did while people with higher scores are better at judging what their scores are.
What is the mind/body problem?
Are the mind and body separate and distinct, or is the mind simply the subjective experience of ongoing brain activity?
What is the nature/nurture debate and what is the concensus about it now a days?
Are psychological characteristics biologically innate or are they acquired through education, experience and culture?
We now recognise that nature and nurture dynamically interact in human psychological development.
What is dualism?
A theory proposed by Descartes that refers to the idea that the mind and the body are separate yet intertwined. The body is governed by reflex while the mind controls deliberate actions.
What is structuralism? What is a test used for stucturalism?
this approach states that complex mental processes can be reduced to simpler processes.
The Stroop test is used.
What is functionalism?
The mind is too complex to understand simply as the sum of separate parts. Psychologists have to examine the functions served by the mind. The mind came into existence over the course of human evolution and it helps us adapt to our environment.
What area of psychology deals with understanding basic skills and processes that are the foundation of mental life and behaviour?
Cognitive psychology
What area of psychology deals with how psychological processes influence physical health and vice versa?
Health psychology
Which area of psychology deals with the study of everyday thoughts, feelings and behaviours and the factors that give rise to them?
Social-personality psychology
What school of thought believes that mental processes operate below the level of conscious awareness?
Psychoanalytic approach
What school of thought believes only observable behaviour can be the subject of scientific investigation?
Behaviourism
What is gestalt?
This theory believes that a few basic principles guide visual perception which explain how visual input is grouped into a coherent whole.
What psychological approach focuses on the basic goodness in people, achieving goals and finding fulfilment?
Humanistic psychology
What approach to psychology explores mental processes with brain imaging?
Cognitivism
Why is genetics and epigenetics useful in psychology?
It gives us foundational knowledge for studying how specific genes affect thoughts, actions, feelings and disorders. Also, most aspects of human psychology have some genetic component
What relationships does the gut biome have with brain function, structure and development?
There are deep connections between our mind and other systems in the body. There is a two-way relation between the gut microbiome and our mind and behaviour
What effect has big data had on pyschology?
Using tools from the computer science world we can identify patterns in large data sets and the availability of these very large data sets has increased the diversity of samples
What are cultural norms?
Socially upheld rules regarding how people ought to behave in certain situations
What techniques have been shown to help in learning?
Distributed practice, retreival-based learning (being tested), elaborative interrogation (thinking through why something is true), self-explanation (expalining something in your own terms) and interleaved practice (switiching between topics)
What is learning?
An enduring change in behaviour that results from experience
What type of learning is habituation and sensitization?
Non-associative
Trains going by your house may disturb your sleep but after a while of living there you stop waking up to the sound of trains. What type of learning is this?
Habituation
What is classical conditioning?
A neutral stimulus elicits a response because it has become associated with a stimulus that naturally produced that response. Learning that one event predicts another.
What raises the predictive value of a stimulus?
The contitioned stimulus precedes the unconcitioned stimulus, there are repeated pairings of the stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus, there is no better predictors of this stimulus.
What causes extinction of a conditioned response?
if there is a repeated exposure to the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus
What is prediction error?
There is sometimes a difference between the expected and the actual outcomes. Positive prediction errors happen when the stimulus is presented and there is a reward more valuable than expected and negative prediction errors happen when the reward presented is less valuable.
What is the difference between generalisation and discrimination?
Generalisation is when stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus produce the conditioned response and discrimination is when an animal learns to distinguish between two similar stimuli, one of which predicts the unconditioned stimulus and the other does not.
Will any stimulus pair lead to conditioning equally easily?
No, conditioning occurs more easily for stimulus pairs that are relevant for survival. Such as conditioned taste aversion
What do we mean by biological preparedness?
Animals are genetically programmed to fear certain objects
What are some conditioned drug effects?
The act of taking drugs becomes associated with the drug's effects.
Environmental cues associated with taking the drug lead to a tolerance increase becayse the body prepares to for drug intake
How is operant conditioning different to classical conditioning?
In operant conditioning we are responding for a stimulus instead of responding to a stimulus. In operant conditioning we have to operate something in our environment to produce an effect.
What is the Law of effect?
Behaviours followed by a satisfying consequence are more likely to be repeated in the future. Behaviours followed by a discomforting consequence are less likely to be repeated in the future.
What do we call a consequence that increases the chance of a behaviour occurring again in the future?
Reinforcement
What do we call a consequence that decreases the chance of a behaviour occurring again in the future?
Punishment
True or false: punishment is more effective than reinforcement.
False
Which one is more sensitive to timing issues, punishment or reinforcement?
Punishment
What is shaping?
The reinforcement of behaviours that are increasingly similar to the desired behaviour
What is temporal discounting?
When the value of a reward diminishes over time; a reward in the future is perceived as less valuable than an immediate reward.
Why does partical reinforcement lead to greater persistence of behaviour when the reinforcement is not provided anymore?
Because the learner needs to repeat the behaviour more times to detect the absence of a reinforcement so the behaviour resists extinction.
What is the difference between modelling and vicarious learning?
Modelling is when we imitate a behaviour someone else does and vicarious learning is when we observe the consequences of a certain behaviour in someone else to see if it is punished or reinforced.
What do we describe as thinking?
the mental manipulation of representations
What is automatic thinking?
It is thinking that is fast, intuitive and low effort and relies on heuristics.
What is categorisation in thinking?
It is categorising objects into groups with shared properties. It makes the world orderly and predictable.
What are the two leading models that describe the way people make concepts?
The prototype model = the best example of a concept to which we compare other objects to see if they fit into this concept.
The exemplar model = all examples we have encountered make up the concept together.
What is a schema and what is it useful for?
Schemas are cognitive frameworks that help us perceive, organise and understand information. They help us organise our world, they are very functional and are a form of shared social knowledge. Activating one concept makes related concepts more accessible automatically.
What are some of the different ways people experience thinking?
Inner speech, inner seeing, feeling, sensory awareness, unsymbolised thinking.
What role do heuristics play in making decisions?
They are simple decision rules so they do not take much effort but this can lead to mistakes.
How do emotions inform decision making?
They inform the choice of value, we weigh how different choices make us feel.
What is affective forecasting? What are some drawback of it?
Choosing to do things because they will make us happy in the future. However, we are very bad at predicting our future feelings and we tend to overestimate the positive effects of positive experiences on our happiness and the negative effects of negative experiences on our happiness. Usually happy things do not make us as happy as we expected and we cope better with negative situations than we think we do.
How do unrelated affective states influence decision making?
The mood we are in when taking a decision can affect our decision, especially when we do not know why we are in a certain mood.
What is functional fixedness?
Having fixed ideas about the typical functions of objects, which can create difficulties in problem solving.
What are the main ways of approaching problem solving?
Identifying subgoals, finding conscious trategies, restructuring the problem, working backwards
Intelligence is considered as a single factor which is composed of crystallised and fluid intelligence. What is this factor called?
Generalised intelligence, g
What is fluid intelligence?
The capacity to reason and the ability to learn new things and solve problems. It decreases with age
What is crystallised intelligence?
Knowledge gained through experience and the ability to use the stored knowledge. It increases with age
What factors determine intelligence?
Genetic factors: these explain about 50% of variance in intelligence.
Environmental factors: Breastfeeding, socioeconomic status, intellectual opportunities, schooling,
What life outcomes can an IQ test predict?
academic performance, job performance, income, health, longevity, ...
What factors have the greatest correlation to general intelligence?
Quick reaction times and working memory capacity, especially in tasks that require secondary processing (components of a test that are distracting you from the task at hand)
What are morphemes?
Smallest units of language that have meaning, including prefixes and suffixes.
What are phonemes?
The basic sounds of speech. Each morpheme consists of one or more phonemes.
What is aphasia?
Language disorder that results in deficits in language comprehension and production.
What is the left frontal areas of the brain that is responsible for speech production called?
Broca’s area
The left hemisphere of the brain has an area that controls speech comprehension. What is this area called?
Wernicke's area
What is the linguistic relativity theory?
A theory that believes language determines thought and that we can only think through language. This is not true because people without language are capable of thought; rather, language influences rather than determines thought
Up to what age can babies discriminate between all phonemes in all languages?
Up to 6 months
What is telegraphic speech?
This is when babies use rudimentary sentences that are missing words and grammatical markers but follow logical syntax and convey meaning.
What is Chomsky's universal grammar theory?
A theory of language development suggests that people are born with a specialised language acquisition device in their brains that allows us to learn any language. This theory also says that all languages include similar elements (verbs, nouns) but they are arranged differently.
what are the differences between phonics approaches and whole language approaches in teaching reading?
Phonics method = teaches the association between letters and the phonemes they represent. Better for reading proficiency.
Whole language approaches = learning the meanings of words and understanding how these are connected in sentences. Learning to read in the way they learn to talk. Better to motivate students to read.
What is an emotion?
An immediate, specific negative or positive response to environmental events or internal thoughts that prompt changes to thoughts or behaviours.
What is a mood?
A subtle, diffuse, long-lasting emotional states with no specific trigger.
What is the difference between primary and secondary emotions?
Primary emotions are innate, instinctual and evolutionariy, they are universal emotions. Secondary emotions are more complex combinations of primary emotions and are more culture-specific.
How are emotions plotted in the circumplex model? What are some shortcomings of this model?
They are plotted on the dimensions of valence (positive - negative) and arousal (how activating they are). Moree complex emotions cannot be plotted because they can be both positive and negative at the same time.
How are the amygdala and the insula involved in understanding emotions?
The insula is specifically active when we experience disgust and the amygdala is very important for emotional learning and fear responses.
Are emotional events more likely to be stored in memory?
Yes, so we remember harmful situations and can avoid them.
What theory says that every emotion has a distinct physical pattern and this pattern is what causes us to recognise the emotion?
James-Lange theory
What is the facial feedback hypothesis and what theory does it support?
This hypothesis says that changing one’s facial expression changes their emotional state. This is used as support for the James-Lange theory
What theory that arousal and emotion occur simultaneously, and separately, in response to a stimulus?
Cannon-Bard theory
What support is there for the Cannon-Bard theory?
Cognitive processes can affect emotions so emotions do not only come from arousal.
We cannot quickly determine which emotion we are experiencing from bodily responses.
Some emotions have very similar physical patterns of arousal.
What theory says that the physical reaction is essentially the same for every emotion but we interpret them differently depending on the situation and then we give them a label?
Schachter-Singer two-factor theory
What proof is there for the Schachter-Singer two-factor theory?
The misattibution of arousal, which is when the physical state caused by a situation are attributed to the wrong emotion. This has also been shown for the epinephrine study.
What are some ways we use to try to control our emotions?
Suppression, reappraising, self-distancing, finding humour, refocusing your attention, distracting yourself
Why are emotions important?
They are highly adaptive, hey prepare us for action and communicate dangers and signal waht we need. They are also important for managing relationships, showing we care and avoiding embarassment.
Why are polygraphs not very reliable as lie detectors?
They determine a person’s level of autonomic arousal in order to detect lying, but this arousal is not specific for lying so people may be telling the truth and they are just nervous or scared.
What varies more between cultures, emotional expressions or emotional experiences?
Emotional expressions vary more than experiences, we all experience similar emotions but we may show them differently.
What are display rules?
Social rules dictating which emotions are suitable in situations
What is ideal affect?
The emotions that are most appreciated in a culture.
Eg: Westerners appreciate high arousal emotions (excitement) while asian cultures tend to appreciate low arousal emotions more (calm)
What is the difference between a need and a drive?
A need is a state of biological, social or psychological deficiency, while a drive is a psychological state that creates arousal to motivate an organism to satisfy a need.
What is motivation?
A process that energises, guides, and maintains behaviour towards a goal.
What is the difference between motivation and drive?
A drive is when we are in a state of arousal due to a need and we do something to reduce the arousal. But motivation is not all about reducing arousal caused by drives, we also have motivation to pursue long-term goals, rewards and outcomes.
What things motivate us?
Basic survival needs, social and psychological needs, incentives and goals
Why is the need to belong so important?
It is highly adaptive and has many positive outcomes. We get social support, both instumental and emotional, we are dependant on each other for survival therefore belonging to a group and not being isolated was very important.
What are self-enhancement motives?
We are motivated to view ourselves positively, we focus on positive information about ourselves, often leading to bias.